Page 29 of Shadow Blind

Day 3

Washington, D.C.

Clark raked tense fingers through his hair and scowled down at his iPhone. What the hell was going on? His crew captain should have checked in by now. He was over an hour late. Unacceptable.

It was utterly unbelievable how everything had suddenly gone to hell.

He had contingency after contingency in place to make sure his specimen retrieval went smoothly. For Christ’s sake, he’d booked three Chinook helicopters with three complete crews. All three choppers had been inspected and tested yesterday. All three had been mechanically sound and took to the sky without delay.

But today? Not one of them had left their pad on time. And now the captain in charge of retrieving the SEALs, both dead and alive, was MIA. If Clark was the type to believe in superstitious nonsense, he’d think lady luck had turned against him.

A couple of deep, slow breaths slowed the urgent thump of his heart.

Calm down. There’s still time to get this done. Hurley’s evac crew and the CDC scientists haven’t even left their base yet. Yes, it’s annoying, even frustrating as hell, but this doesn’t impact your plans.

Another slow, deep breath and he relaxed into the elephant chair. This wasn’t the end…it was barely the beginning. Worst-case scenario—he’d send his deep cleaning team, which was currently at work in Karaveht, to the SEALs evacuation site. They’d get there in minutes, well before Hurley’s Blackhawk set down. He glanced at his Patek Philippe watch, barely noticing the rose gold dial and blue diamond hands. He still had some time. Best not pull the cleaning crew off their Karaveht duty just yet.

Ten minutes later, the call finally hit his burner phone.

“We have a problem,” a laconic voice informed him.

No shit. The bastard would have contacted him before now if the body extractions had gone smoothly. Still, it couldn’t be that much of a problem. According to his spy among Hurley’s men, the WARCOM chopper hadn’t even left base yet.

“What’s the problem?” Clark asked, surprised to find his voice was even when he felt like a pressure valve about to erupt.

“There were no bodies at the coordinates you gave us,” the voice said flatly.

Clark’s mouth fell open. “What the hell are you talking about?”

The SEALs had to be there. Hurley’s team hadn’t arrived yet.

“There was nobody at those coordinates. Living or dead.”

“Then you went to the wrong site,” Clark snapped. “Dead men don’t walk away.”

Although the living, which apparently included Aiden Winchester, could certainly walk away. Had Winchester hidden the bodies? Why the hell would he do that?

“We dropped at the correct location.” The guy’s voice sharpened. “We found lots of frozen blood, but no bodies.”

Clark shook his head numbly. This news made no sense.

“We searched the area. No tracks leading out of the clearing. Although there were multiple boot prints on-site, more than would account for six soldiers.” The speaker’s voice turned terse once again. “My guess is someone grabbed them before we got there.”

Clark pinched the bridge of his nose. Had his spy lied to him? Had Hurley’s team already swept in and grabbed Winchester and the dead SEALs? “Where are you now?”

“Back in our hidey hole, awaiting your orders.”

“Hold tight for now.” Clark disconnected the call and leaned back in the elephant chair. For the first time, the prestigious armchair felt painful beneath him, a claustrophobic prison.

Five hours later, he had more questions than answers. According to his contact in the admiral’s office, Winchester and the dead SEALs had been missing from the evac site when Hurley’s crew had arrived. USSOCOM was as much in the dark about their whereabouts as Clark.

Previous testing indicated NNB26 prototype had a one hundred percent infection rate, which had led to a one hundred percent fatality rate. Until now. According to his eyes and ears on Hurley’s team, Winchester was still alive. Fuck, Hurley had spoken with the SEAL multiple times after his teammates’ deaths, until six hours ago when he’d abruptly gone radio silent.

Clark would have assumed he’d stop talking to his superiors because he’d finally succumbed to the bots, except…his body had not been at the evacuation site. That didn’t mean he wasn’t dead. His body could have been taken along with the other SEALs.

Or he could be responsible for the missing bodies.

This uncertainty left Clark in a hell of a conundrum. If Winchester hadn’t been infected by NNB26, Clark needed to know why. An immune host carried incalculable risks. Someone could use Winchester to create a cure. A cure to his prototype would render his new weapon worthless.

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