Free Carlie Simmons (Book 2): In Too Deep by JT Sawyer

another look
at the slide, the upstairs door of the building opened and the two operators,
Jack and Martin, entered, with one being held up by the other as they staggered
down the steps.
    Pavel and Viktor bounded up the stairs. Martin’s
skin was jaundiced and he had bags under his eyes.
    “What happened?” said Viktor.
    “I’m not sure. He came down with a high
fever an hour ago and then started declining from there,” said the guard. “Seven
of the smugglers are also afflicted plus there are radio alerts from mainland
Cuba of people going on rampages, mauling each other after coming down with
similar symptoms.”
    “Where are Alonso and the rest of his
men?” said Viktor.
    “They sealed themselves into their other
storage facility across the airfield,” said the bald operator.
    Pavel stepped forward and examined the
man’s face and eyes. He turned back to Viktor. Pavel helped Martin down onto
the floor. He doused a rag with water from a bottle on the table and wet the
man’s forehead.
    “If this virus should get off the
island, there will be no way of containing this. There isn’t even an antidote,”
said Viktor.
    “Those freighters that are making their
way back to their home countries…you don’t think that they are carrying any
infected on board, do you?”
    “We don’t even know what the incubation
time is yet, plus the virus appears to be constantly mutating.”
    “God—we need to get a message out to the
rest of the world,” said Pavel, grabbing the mic for the ham radio on the desk.
    “No, it’s against protocols to broadcast
what we’re doing here on an open channel. I will send word to my agency contact
back in the States,” said Viktor, reaching into his pack and pulling out a SAT
phone. “The U.S. can’t have any connection to this.”

 
    Chapter 15
     
    Carlie watched a few video feeds that
General Adams’ staff had recorded of the initial outbreak near the French
Quarter. A 700-foot U.S. freighter had lost control of its steering and
collided into a riverside park full of afternoon picnickers. The impact caused
half of the riverfront to collapse and sent thousands of terrified people into
the streets. The multi-agency response wiped out a large portion of the city’s emergency
responders and law-enforcement agencies who were the first to be exposed to the
deadly contagion.
    Carlie kept reviewing one video in
particular that featured live interview footage of a survivor thirty minutes
after the event. A thin black woman was talking to the camera.
    “People were jumping into the
Mississippi when the freighter struck. Others were scrambling to grab injured
friends. I got out and went back around the side to help others when I saw the
boat captain staggering around. His face was baked yellow and all wrinkly. I
was moving up to help him but then he rushed towards a young woman and her
baby. He lost his footing on the battered dock and fell into the Mississippi.”
    Shane and Matias were leaning over
either shoulder watching the footage. “Sounds like this unfolded quickly just
like it did in Arizona,” said Matias.
    “How can you react to something that
moves so fast? All you can do is get out of the way. No wonder there are so few
survivors in most of the large cities,” said Shane.
    “Where was the freighter coming from?”
said Amy.
    “Cuba, actually, if you can believe
that,” said Carlie.
    “Was this another one of those refugee
boats like you hear about coming out of Haiti?” said Jared.
    “No—humanitarian. Our government and
many others, for the second time since 1963, was sending 22,000 tons of corn
there to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitchel that ripped through Cuba
last month.”
    Carlie heard the pilot’s voice shouting
back. “Five minutes to the LZ.”
    “Copy that,” she said, giving everyone a
thumbs-up while closing the ruggedized mobile laptop. She looked over at Shane.
“As we discussed earlier, once we reach the freighter, I’d like you