Page 75 of Always Been Mine

“Okay, now that you two stubborn mules are in the same room, maybe it’s time to kiss and make up?”

Scowl from Travis; Porter had a blank expression.

“Seriously, guys? I’ve been carved up like a pumpkin and you two won’t finally put all the bullshit behind you?”

Gabe tried to smother a grin; he was thrilled to see Beatrice so feisty.

“That bullshit nearly got my wife killed,” Travis snarled.

“You think Crowe wouldn’t have gone after her some other way?” Porter challenged.

“You brought that piece of shit into our lives, Admiral.”

“Only a matter of time, Lieutenant, just like all other things.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nate asked, frowning.

Porter glanced briefly at Gabe before briefing those present on Red Bridge and the ST-Vyl virus.

“Are you telling us the same person responsible for shutting down Project Infinity is planning to sell bioweapons to the Russians?”

“This is the perfect smart virus. It’s modified to have a suicide gene so it’ll become dormant after five days. A controlled epidemic.”

“That’s extremely dangerous,” Caitlin said. “If it is indeed a smart virus, what if it learns to defeat its suicide gene and decides to mutate?”

“I don’t have the technical data on the ST-Vyl virus,” Porter said. “I do know communications with buyers are being done on the Black Plane.”

“That’ll be hard to trace,” Caitlin said.

“Not for you,” Porter said.

“No,” Travis growled, standing up and facing the admiral. “No fucking way.”

“You said the virus has reached the United States?” Gabe interjected.

“What?” Beatrice exclaimed.

The admiral eyed Travis intently. “I’ve been on the trail of several individuals I felt were involved with Red Bridge from the beginning. One of them is the medical examiner (ME) who faked the DNA results on Sarah and Cooper’s death.”

“And?” Travis prodded anxiously.

“He has resurfaced in DC.” This time Porter looked at Gabe. “When you told me about how those five people were killed in the Cloverleaf District, I didn’t give it much thought at that time. However, when Ryker came into the picture, I decided to investigate further. The same ME did all five autopsies, but covered up the real findings on the official report.”

Gabe was having a bad feeling about this. Everyone was waiting with bated breath.

“The wounds were given post-mortem. They didn’t die from a bullet or the garrote, they died from hemorrhagic fever. Their internals looked like an IED blew up inside them,” Porter said. “Needless to say, the ME is in custody.”

“Holy fuck,” Nate whispered.

“That was how we were able to get a tissue sample to trace the genome of the virus.”

“How are they transporting it?” Travis asked.

“Cocaine shipments, that’s our suspicion,” Porter said. “We also think it’s in powder form.”

“Wouldn’t that be too unstable?”

“We know Ryker performed experiments. The problem is, we couldn’t find the location or the data.”

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