Free The Hungry (Book 2): The Wrath of God by Steven Booth, Harry Shannon Page A

watch."
    The men traded places. Lovell and Sheppard found a tool kit and some diagrams. Miller was impressed. What Lovell could do was quite a lot, actually. He had the first three generators up and running in about fifteen minutes. Number four wouldn't start, but five and six were purring like tiger kittens in maybe half an hour. The air conditioning kicked in as well, and Lovell set it on high exhaust. Still, the situation was dire and slowly pressing in on their options. Thinking of the time made Miller nervous. The base was going to blow sky high in a nuclear fireball and the clock was ticking. She resisted the urge to hurry everyone up. They all felt it.
    Miller just watched them work.
    While Lovell was happily engaged with the generators, Ripper and Brubeck fiddled around with the large crate. Miller stood in the background, trying to get a look at the center of their attention.
    Ripper and Brubeck took the lid and one side off the crate. The metal siding screamed. That's when Miller saw something she hadn't expected. The design made her short hairs wriggle. A radiation symbol, and a nuclear hazard warning. Mass death in a neat, clean package.
    The device lay prone on what looked like a pair of long skis. It was a gigantic dildo of a thing with a shiny metal surface and a bunch of numbers along the side. As Miller watched, the two soldiers efficiently armed it and set the clock, then locked the panel up again. The live nuke squatted there on the concrete floor—soundless, mindless, and deadly.
    Miller felt her blood pressure drop and her anger rise. A nuclear weapon? They brought a goddamned nuke with them and didn't mention it…
    Miller sucked in a deep breath. She focused her mind in preparation for reading Hanratty the riot act. Before Miller could open her mouth, Sheppard pulled her aside. He put a finger up to his lips and took her into a small alcove.
    "Did you see that fucking thing?" Miller said.
    "Keep your voice down," Sheppard whispered. "Yes, I knew about the nuke. They told me earlier. But we can't do anything about that. They'll shoot you if you try."
    "Karl, this is insane! There may be survivors all over this area."
    Sheppard sighed. He looked around to make sure no one could overhear their conversation. "This is important, Penny. I couldn't talk to you earlier because we were with the General, and then the mercenaries were around. This is what I've been wanting to tell you. Trust me it's a damned good thing that you decided to come along on this mission."
    Miller frowned. "Why would it be a good idea to go where they are arming a nuclear weapon?"
    Sheppard came in closer to her ear. "I overheard some things when Major Hanratty and General Gifford were chatting. They didn't say it in so many words, but from what I was able to pick up, any one of us who didn't volunteer to go were going to find themselves in a world of hurt soon enough."
    "Meaning what? Prison?" asked Miller.
    "If you were lucky. I heard the term 'Enemy Combatant' tossed around. Do I really have to tell you what could happen if you were arrested under that label? No charges, no trial, indefinite detention. They could hold you forever."
    Miller stiffened. She wasn't scared in that moment so much as monumentally pissed off. What was it about these men in positions of power that fucked them up so badly?
    "They wouldn't dare pull a stunt like that."
    " Shh! Yes, they would. Someone has to answer for the epidemic, right? And I mean in a very big way. And I guarantee you it's not going to be the men who gave the order for a secret base researching biological weapons. Someone else is going to take the fall. It's never those guys, right?"
    "So it would have been us, at least unless we cooperated. They would have made up a story about how we broke in and caused it all. That was Plan B. This way is even better because they can destroy the evidence, protect the research, and keep their secrets from the rest of the world."
    Sheppard said, "There it