Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Draden. What the hell happened? Joe’s voice slipped into his mind. It was faded, as if the distance was already too far. He heard the helicopter circling back so Joe would be able to reach him. He pictured Joe holding a weapon on the crew. He could get that intense.
By the time he reached the trees, the MSS members had faded away, leaving him to die however the villagers had. He’d seen the reports the Indonesian government had shared with the WHO. It was one of the reasons his team had been in the region. Two team members were two of the leading scientists developing treatments, therapies and pharmaceuticals in the field of viruses.
Infected with the virus.
Draden had taken the time to finish both his doctorate and MD, to be an asset to others on his team. He’d dabbled in biochemistry but finished his undergrad degree, a BS in genetics. Stanford offered a dual MD and PhD program and he’d taken advantage of that. He’d gotten his MD as an infectious disease doctor and his PhD in microbiology and immunology. He found it ironic that he would be dying of a weaponized virus after all that work to earn his degrees. Determined to be of some use, he decided to record everything he could about his symptoms, along with any suppositions he might have before he put a bullet in his head. He’d leave final conclusions for them.
Tell Trap and Wyatt I’ll leave behind a recording. Don’t know if they can use whatever I find, but they should be able to remotely access my recorder without touching the device.
I’m sorry, man. Trap and Wyatt may have ideas.
Draden knew, just from the earlier reports, that their ideas would be too late. The virus acted too fast. He would be dead before Joe had time to make it back to the States.
I’ll torch the village. He hoped he’d get that done fast so he could hunt the terrorists who were infecting people and then using them as bait to kill more. He wanted to kill as many of the bastards as possible before the virus took hold and left him too sick to go after them.
He could hear the chopper circling back around a second time. Hope you didn’t put a gun to their heads. He injected humor he wasn’t really feeling into his voice.
Maybe if we get you back we can find the treatment before it’s too late, Malichai said.
Too fast acting. Can’t chance infecting all of you. We all signed up for a one-way ticket when we joined the GhostWalkers. It’s just my turn.
Fuck! Gino hissed.
I’ll take out as many of the cell as I can before I go down, Draden said, meaning it. He was going to make sure as many of them were dead as possible. Not because they’d infected him, but because they’d infected an entire village to use as a trap. Joe, someone has to find out where this is coming from.
I will, Joe promised.
Get the wounded out of here, there’s not much you can do for me. Some of those injuries were severe.
Damn it, Draden. That was Gino.
He didn’t feel as bad as they did. He didn’t have much of a future anyway. Just pissed I wasted all that time going to school instead of partying.
Yeah, cuz you’re such a party animal, Malichai said with an attempt at sarcastic humor. His voice was tight. The feeling in his mind—sorrow.
Tell Nonny she’s the best. He should have told the old woman that himself. Wyatt Fontenot’s grandmother had taken the entire team into her home. She’d cared for them as she would her own. He hadn’t had that kind of affection from anyone since his foster mother had died when he was so young. He hadn’t known anyone else was capable of loving others the way the woman he called mother had until he met Nonny. He should have told her, and he hadn’t, not once. He was surprised at the emotion welling up. Yeah, he should have told her. She’d mourn for him, and it shouldn’t have shocked him that his teammates would as well, but it did.
We can pick you up, take you back and try one of the treatments. I know they’re not sanctioned yet, but some have worked when a virus is detected early enough, Gino said.
We don’t know anything about this one yet and we can’t take the chance, you all know that, he objected, because he could infect every one of them and when they landed, every doctor and nurse waiting to help the wounded. He wasn’t having that on his conscience.
You have anywhere from a few days to twenty.
Joe, don’t make this worse. Get the hell out of here and make certain every single one of the wounded survives.
There was the briefest of hesitations, but Joe was the commanding officer for a reason. He had to make the tough decisions. You have my word. Damn honor serving with you, Draden.