Page 68 of Jacob

He knew, because Nick had told him, that he was no use to Alex in an emotional state. Combat was psychology, gymnastics, geometry all together. Requiring a calm mind and steel nerves and detachment. And he would go back to that… just as soon as Alex was safe.

He and Nick and their men cleared the rooms on the ground floor and were regrouping in the lobby when they heard the elevator start up. It was coming up from sub level 4, which was probably the BSL-4 lab. They were mainly underground, as a precaution.

He didn’t need to give orders. Nick and his men quickly formed a semi-circle around the doors, weapons up and shouldered.

It felt like it took the elevator forever to come up, but finally, aping!and the doors opened, onto horror.

The Queens had sent them photographs of Colonel Ilya Topolev. There he was, together with another soldier. And… there was Alex. Bone white, looking terrified. She had two burn marks on her neck which he recognized as either a taser or an electric prod. And one side of her face was turning red and was slightly swollen. She’d been punched.

Jacob’s eyes slid to Topolev, who was a dead man walking.

Alex’s eyes lit up when she saw him. She made an instinctive move toward him, but Topolev just tightened his hold around her neck. Jacob kept his eyes on Topolev and the other man. Topolev clenched his hand around Alex’s neck. The hand around her neck was holding a vial. Jacob stared at the vial. Inside that small glass receptacle were a hundred thousand horrific deaths, maybe more. The stuff of absolute horror, held against Alex’s cheek. The other hand held a Makarov pistol against her temple.

The two men took a couple of steps forward, outside the elevator, dragging Alex with them. She was moving awkwardly. She’d been drugged, it was a miracle she was upright at all.

Topolev spoke, voice low and hard. His English was excellent with only a slight accent. “You will all leave now or I shoot her in the head and throw this vial on the floor. You know what is in it, yes? A modified version of variola, the smallpox virus. It has been modified to be almost 100% lethal, much more contagious. I and all my men have been vaccinated against this particular virus so it makes no difference to me, but you will all die a horrible death, yes? Oh, and Dr. Hethering, too, has been inoculated because we need her to put the finishing touches on my little beast.”

His fingers tapped on the vial.

Alex drew in a breath, tried to talk, and the hand gripping her neck shook her, like shaking a dog. “Shut up,” he growled.

Alex gulped.

“So this is clear,” Topolev said. “You will all leave and not come back. I will put sensors further out and if I catch anyone trying to get in, you can assume that I will hurt Dr. Hethering. Maybe not shooting her knee out, not right away. But I am well versed in inflicting pain that is not incapacitating and I will not hesitate. Youwillleave us alone.”

Jacob’s muscles were locked, warring with himself. He wanted nothing more than to leap on this man, who was holding Alex,hurtingAlex. He didn’t deserve to live a moment more. But a movement of Topolev’s finger, four pounds of pressure, like lifting a beer tab, and Alex would fall to the ground, a pink mist at head level the only sign that something living had once been there.

Jacob had seen a lot of heads explode. It was not going to happen to Alex.

He didn’t know yet how—wait. Something was happening. Alex was staring at him, then dropping her gaze. Lifting her gaze to his, dropping it.

What was she trying?—?

Oh, God, no.

Nick rubbed his head, hiding him opening comms. They had in-ear buds, almost completely invisible. And the hidden mic could pick up the smallest whisper.

“Now, we will retire to the lab,” the Colonel said. He looked over at Jacob and at the rest of the team. “I trust you will all behave, otherwise I will shoot the beautiful doctor. But I won’t kill her right away. I will shoot her in one knee, then the other. And if you persist in bothering me, I will shoot her in the hip. She will keep the function in her hands but will never walk again and will be in great pain.

“We are going to lock ourselves in the BSL-4 lab, closing the air lock door. Nothing short of an atomic bomb could make it through that door.”

He took a step backwards, dragging Alex with him. She stumbled over her own feet.

“Get ready,” Nick subvocalized, and before Jacob could object—God no, it’s too dangerous, we can’t let her do this—Alex wrenched the vial from the Colonel’s fingers and instantly dropped to the ground. She curled around the vial, cradling it.

Ten rifles sounded, the shots so close together it almost sounded like one loud shot. The Colonel and the guard crumbled lifeless to the ground. Before the sound of the shots finished echoing around the room, Jacob was gently picking Alex up, angling her head away from the dead bodies. It looked like a slaughterhouse, blood everywhere. She held the vial out carefully, and Nick, just as carefully took it.

“Careful, Nick,” Alex whispered.

“Better believe it,” he answered. “We’re susceptible even if you aren’t.”

“He inoculated me, yes.” She shuddered. “But immunity doesn’t set in for a few weeks. I’d be as dead as you.”

Jacob felt like his mind was about to explode. “You don’t have immunity?” he asked, careful to keep his voice even. She grabbed that vial though she, too, could have died?

She leaned into him and he held her tightly. She shook her head.

“Then why the fuck did you pull that stunt?” he asked, his voice becoming louder with every word. He had to stop himself from shouting. One second’s miscalculation and he’d be holding a beautiful corpse, her head blown off. And then infected with a monster virus. They’d both be corpses, actually.

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