immediately pass me this psychopath; the killer must be in my isolation ward, before we send him to be court-martialed!”
“Sorry, Colonel, but I can’t authorize it. For the safety of you and your men, Vitelli will remain under my supervision.”
“What the fuck? The driver obeys me, not you!”
“This is true, but he’s sick, dangerously sick. This temporary insanity and the flash of aggression had been caused by an infectious disease, and we suspect rabies. He isn’t a criminal, and it’s wrong to judge him as such – the driver wasn’t aware of what he was doing. You can’t interrogate him in any case; after the attack, he fell into a coma, and I can’t guarantee that we will be able to wake him up. In the meantime, we have put the hospital under strict quarantine, and can’t remove the driver; otherwise we’ll risk infecting the entire staff with this deadly disease. For the same reason we can’t transfer the wounded nurse toyou . First, we need to carry out a full range of laboratory tests; it’s necessary to eliminate any risk of further infection spreading. The hospital will be closed until I say so, and I recommend that you provide a plausible explanation for your men, without disclosing all the information – we don’t need panic here.”
Richardson felt a keen desire to snatch his favorite Colt Python from the holster and shoot it into the brazen fox-like face sitting in front of him, but he stilled this impulse, and left without saying goodbye. As much as he wanted to shoot Palmer, he couldn’t forget that she was still the boss, and he had to submit to her.
“Where did you come from, sons of bitches?”
Submission didn’t mean that it was forbidden to think. Those damn mercenaries were very strong, they didn’t only command here but also controlled the generals at the headquarters. They clearly didn’t want get out of here, and it seemed to confirm his worst suspicions.
“Sir, here is what you requested – the driver’s personal data.”
He quickly pulled out a folder, opening it to the last page. The medical card, yeah, that was what he needed. Mike Vitelli had undergone a routine medical examination twelve days ago and was deemed completely healthy. Less than two weeks ago, the driver was healthy, and now he’d suddenly picked up rabies and killed his doctor and nurses? The same driver that was in the warehouse next to the damn ball just when it had all started, the only one who managed to get out alive. And Palmer wanted to catch him on that old trick?
“Send the unit commanders to me!”
31. At the first glimpse of dawn
An hour before sunrise, the tops of the mountains in the east showed the first rays of the dawn, and she had already raised Butterfly in the air. Sarah did a couple of laps over the base, focusing on the scientists’ campus that had grown like mushrooms after rain. Since the rain had poured all night, and the wind was very strong, the order to raise the Bumblebee to monitor what was happening in the city had to be canceled . The co-pilot, thus freed from the watch, had gone to get some sleep. He had a few hours to rest, and then he and his drone would replace her at noon. Until then, she would cut circles in the sky, looking at what was going on in the city over which the Butterfly had flown so many times. It was said that there had been shooting all night, as the drug lords struggled for power, and now it was necessary to view them from the air.
Sarah took a few sips of the hated grapefruit juice, and then bit off a big chunk of a tuna sandwich, with her left hand holding the drone on course. Butterfly was a little skittish today; the ultra-light reconnaissance drone was sensitive to the wind, which was stronger than usual, and after the rain the increased humidity required some adjustments in piloting. But it was bearable; she liked to fly in wet weather, almost clinging to the bottom edge of the gray clouds.
The city below had changed
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley