"Yeah, and it's the best cover story in the world. And that whole 'Taser' thing was a setup. Cute, huh? Once you and the others went to explore the crab plant I slipped into the hidden pa.s.sage. Oh, don't look surprised. They downloaded the whole floor plan to me before we ever set out. We planned the whole thing via text messages-it went off like clockwork. I told them to take out one of the other guys with a liquid Taser and then I faked my own abduction. I had to fake my own burn with a lighter, but we all make sacrifices. The rest was window dressing to confuse things. I pop caps in a bunch of walkers, rub dust in my eyes to get the tears flowing, and then wait to be rescued. I should get a frickin' Academy Award. That Courtland b.i.t.c.h bought it hook, line, and sinker. And if you're wondering about the fight in the laboratory, I'd have made it out of there, too. There was an exit door behind the last meds chest, right near where I was standing. I'm sure Jerry Spencer will probably find it eventually, not that it'll matter now. If that a.s.swipe Dietrich had been another ten seconds slower I'd have ducked out as soon as you guys started getting chomped."

"You're a real piece of work."

"Just doing my job. Funny thing is, I wasn't even supposed to be the point man for this gig. Lieutenant Colonel Hanley was supposed to step up and lead Echo Team, with me as his backup, but then you come along and go all Jackie Chan on him. Ah well. More cash for me."

"And Room Twelve "

He shrugged. "Couldn't let you interrogate the tech from the Delaware lab. That hit hadn't been part of the plan and they weren't ready for you. I never even got a chance to send a warning 'cause we were wheels up so fast. So I opened Room Twelve, popped a cap in the prisoner, and let the walkers out to play. If you guys hadn't cleaned it up so fast I would have gotten there and played hero but it worked out okay."

"Don't you realize the people you're working with are trying to start a plague that will wipe out-"

He cut me off with a laugh. "Oh come on, Captain you don't buy any of that s.h.i.t, do you. We fed you the clues. This was even timed to happen right before the Fourth so that there would be some concerns about this event. I was tickled pink when I heard that we were coming down here 'cause it meant that absolutely everything was falling into place. We gave you everything you need to stop the plague before it goes anywhere. All you have to do is spend a s.h.i.tload of money on research and inoculation. That c.h.i.n.k doctor from the DMS is already working on a treatment. There are enough agents and cops here in Philly to keep the infection contained. None of this was ever going to get out of the center. You'll be happy to know that was the last planned release of the plague. Nah this isn't about the end of the world, it's just about the moolah. Always has been, always will be."

"Ten million dollars sounds like a cheap price tag for your soul, Skip."

"It'll do. Especially where I'm going. I can live well and stay off the radar for the rest of my life."

"What about all the people who've died? All the DMS agents, the people they turned into walkers at the crab plant "

I looked for a flicker of conscience in his eyes but there was nothing. He was as dead inside as one of the walkers. "The f.u.c.k do I care? I'm only a player. You want to lay a guilt trip on someone, boss, blame the a.s.shole you just shot. Yeah, that really is El Mujahid. Made up to look like a Secret Service agent. I worked on getting his papers and ID ready before my boss transferred me to the DMS. Everything worked fine, too."

"Your boss. You mean Robert Howell Lee?"

Skip blinked but recovered quickly. "Good call. Maybe you're better than I thought, not that it matters. You can have Lee. I don't give a s.h.i.t. He's a weasel. Me I'm outta here."

"At least tell me something, Skip," I said. "Who started all of this? I'm betting on some pharmaceutical company, with the terrorists as hired help."

He blinked again. "Okay, points for that. Yeah, this is all big-business s.h.i.t."

"Care to share which companies?"

"As if," he said, then half shrugged. He kept one gun on me but lowered the other and moved forward a couple of paces and put the barrel of his second piece against the back of Top's head. "Actually, I don't know much more than you do. All I was told is that some big pharmacy company is footing the bill." Again he nodded past me to where El Mujahid lay in a pool of blood. "Somebody's going to make a lot of money."

"Maybe, but they won't be able to spend much of it. We'll catch them."

He snorted. "The DMS might, Captain, but you won't. And even if they do, what's it to me? I'm a contract player here. I got no personal stake in this no matter how it turns out, and when the s.h.i.t really hits the fan I'll be far, far away in Happily Ever After Land. I'll bet it won't even make the papers where I'll be."

"I get out of this, kid," said Top softly, "you'd better keep looking over your shoulder 'cause one of these days I'll be right there."

"Wow. I'm really scared." He jabbed Top again with the gun. "You take a run at me, old man, and I'll cut off your b.a.l.l.s and make you eat them."

There was a renewed rattle of gunfire from down the hall. Out in the Bell Chamber.

Grace.

Skip smiled. "I'll bet we can all guess what's happening out there. Zombie madness, and on national TV. That's gonna be some real s.h.i.t. But that's also my cue to get the h.e.l.l out of Dodge. A little hysteria is very useful, don't you think, Captain?"

"For someone who's supposed to be a cold-blooded killer you're doing a lot of talking. What's the problem, Skip? You getting cold feet about capping your teammates?"

He laughed. "Man, that's precious. You're right out of Psychology 101. Try to manipulate the emotions of the hostage taker by establishing a bond between him and his captives. Please. No, Captain, I wanted to make sure that I got the chance to get a little payback for you kicking my a.s.s the other day. I'm not huge on the whole forgive-and-forget thing."

"You want to go another round? Sure. You want to do it hand to hand or are you looking for a knife fight? According to your file you're quite a hotshot with a blade "

"Get real. You think I'm an idiot? I know you can take me in a fair fight. Why do you think I'm not fighting fair, a.s.shole?"

"Okay then you have me confused here, kid. What do you have in mind?"

"I want to see you get your a.s.s kicked by someone you can't take."

"Oh? And who would that be?"

"Me " hissed a guttural voice behind me.

I whirled.

El Mujahid stood hulking in the doorway. And, yes, he was dead. Not that it much mattered at the moment. He smiled at me and bared his teeth.

From behind me, in a mocking voice, Skip said, "Now ain't that a b.i.t.c.h."

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One.

Gault and Amirah / The Bunker GAULT HAD TO crawl through two access tunnels and climb down four cold metal ladders to reach the very heart of the facility, far below the Bunker. He was making for a set of controls that he'd had built into the Bunker from the beginning, just in case all other options failed. He was careful not to make a sound in case Amirah or some of her creatures-alive or dead-had followed him. It was nearly black down here, with security lights s.p.a.ced out only every hundred feet, so he had to pick his way. It was also terribly hot down here.

Below the Bunker was a deep drill hole that had punched into a lava stream buried far beneath the desert. The geothermal energy that powered the Bunker was virtually limitless, and a series of six vents-each a half-mile-long segment of reinforced piping-kept the heat converters from building up too much of a charge. If even half of them collapsed the venting would still keep the station safe from a critical overload. But there was a single point where they all joined: a huge vertical shaft that was bored straight down into the cathedral roof of the lava chamber. Superheated ga.s.ses rose up into the shaft and then dispersed through the six upward-slanting vents. Heat always rises, and that kept the engines turning and at the same time created a vulnerability because heat could only vent if nothing prevented it. Block the vents-all of them-and the heat would be trapped below the generators. With lava funneling that much heat it would be a matter of minutes before the generators either melted to slag or blew up. In either case it would trip all of the Bunker's fail-safe devices-protocols that were hardwired into the station's structure with so many redundancies that even a deliberate attempt to disable them would trigger them. Once triggered the fail-safe would send electrical signals to explosive bolts that would slam every door shut and then burst-weld them into place. The fail-safe system would then start a series of asbestos-coated alloy fans that would take the superheated ga.s.ses and blow them into every room and chamber in the Bunker. Gault had designed the Bunker that way to keep his pathogens from escaping. He really did not want to destroy the world. All he wanted was to become the richest man in it.

He crawled along the tunnel, pouring sweat, inching toward a spot that could only be found by touch: markings like Braille that Gault himself had etched into the plate steel. Behind that plate were six hydraulic levers. Each one would cause about a ton of rock to crash down onto a separate vent pipe. Easy as pie.

Forty feet to go.

Thirty. Twenty. Then he heard it. A voice whispering in the darkness somewhere behind him.

"Sebastian," she called. Low and sweet and dreadful.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two.

The Liberty Bell Center / Sat.u.r.day July 4; 12:19 P.M.

I STAGGERED BACK from El Mujahid as he lumbered forward out of the darkened office.

"Mother of G.o.d," I heard Top whisper.

The makeup on El Mujahid's face had run, giving him a weirdly melted look. It revealed a wicked cut, like a knife slash, that bisected his face. It was the first time I'd been this close to him. He had to be six five and two-fifty if he was an ounce. He pulled off the jacket he'd worn as part of his Secret Service disguise, then jerked the tie loose and tore that off, dropping it on the floor. His white shirt was soaked with blood, and he touched the bullet holes. They were in the right place, they had to have clipped his heart. He smiled.

"It worked," he said in wonder. "My princess has found the way "

Skip said, "Here's an incentive for you, boss. My employers may not have been trying to bring about the end of the world but this a.s.shole? s.h.i.t, he's one of the hors.e.m.e.n of the apocalypse. He gets out of this place and it really will be game over."

El Mujahid snarled at Skip, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Skip staring at the big terrorist with a mixture of admiration and disgust. Then I noticed that Top was looking straight at me, his dark eyes intense and unblinking. My hands were at my side and as I turned my face toward El Mujahid I curled the thumb and pinky of my left hand so that I showed three fingers. Then I curled the ring finger up, then the forefinger. Then the index, hoping that Top had read me the right way.

Abruptly I lunged at El Mujahid and chopped him across the throat with as hard a knife-hand blow as I'd ever used on a human being. At the same instant Top pivoted, his speed powered by adrenaline and fear and a h.e.l.l of a lot of indignation. He grabbed Skip's wrist with one hand and drove his opposite elbow back into the young man's stomach. Skip's finger clutched in a spasm of pain and the bullet burned across the side of Top's temple. Top bellowed in pain but he came up off the floor and tackled Skip, driving him halfway across the room so that they both crashed onto a desk. The pistol flew into a corner.

Skip shoved Top back with a curse and with a shake of his wrist a knife dropped from a sleeve holster into the palm of his hand. He opened his mouth to taunt Top, but First Sergeant Sims moved forward in a blur and slammed into Skip. They hit the desk and then rolled off on the far side and out of sight.

I couldn't go help. I had my own problems.

The blow that I'd used on El Mujahid should have killed him. At very least it should have crippled him. It would have done that to any man.

But El Mujahid was no longer a man. He coughed but then he expanded his chest and I could actually hear the fragments of his shattered hyoid bone click together. It was the creepiest sound I'd ever heard.

In a hoa.r.s.e rasp of a voice he growled, "My princess has made me immortal. Praise Allah!" His eyes had looked dazed and dull when he'd first come out of the room, but I could see them becoming more focused. I didn't understand it. If he was a walker, then why was he able to talk? Or think?

He took a step toward me. The first step was wobbly, as if he was uncertain how to use his body. But the second step was firmer. The third step showed no instability at all.

c.r.a.p.

His face took on an expression that was half triumphant leer and half naked hunger, and a fanatical light burned like a solar flare in his eyes. "Allah is the only G.o.d and I am his wrath on Earth!"

"Whatever," I said as I dodged to one side and kicked him on the meat of the thigh with the steel toe of my shoe, a blow that would cripple anyone. But again it did nothing to him.

"It's funny," he said in Farsi, "but it doesn't even hurt. Oh, Amirah how I love you."

I made a lunge for my fallen pistol but El Mujahid leaped at me. Any awkwardness he might have experienced upon returning to life was gone. For all his size he moved with cat quickness and he body-blocked me away from the piece and kicked the gun under a desk. I slewed around and came up into a fighting crouch. Okay, I thought, c'mon, Joe, you've done this before. Break the neck and you stop these b.u.g.g.e.rs.

So I jumped in and tried to grab his chin and hair. Most people have only seen this move in movies. They won't recognize it when someone tries it on them, and it's such a fast move that by the time they figure it out they're on the cold side of being dead.

Unfortunately for me El Mujahid wasn't a novice. He parried my lunge and hit me in the ribs with a short chopping punch that lifted me completely off the ground; then he combined off that and planted an overhand right that nearly took my head off. I managed to get a shoulder up in time to save my head, but El Mujahid was a tank and his punch dropped me. I landed hard and immediately tucked into a sideways roll and barely managed to avoid a stamp that would have crushed my skull.

The First Lady was screaming over and over again and I wondered if her mind had snapped.

I came out of my roll on fingertips and toes and tried to reach for the.38 on my ankle, but he rushed me with a flying tackle that sent us both rolling over and over across the floor. At the end of the roll I managed to get a knee up between us and braced it against his chest as he tried to pull me into a bear hug. With his arms he'd have splintered my back. I drove my shoulders back and used the greater power of my legs to break his grab. He skidded back and I again went for my pistol, this time getting it out; but El Mujahid threw himself forward like a dolphin jumping out of the water onto the side of a pool. It was a sloppy move, all momentum, but it worked and he made a big reach and swatted the pistol out of my hand.

So I kicked him in the face and back-rolled to my feet.

I had my back to the wall and he was between me and any guns. He rose slowly, head down, shoulders hunched, hands forward and out. This was a son of a b.i.t.c.h who really knew how to fight. Without rules, just react and destroy. Like me.

Past him I could see parts of the tussle that was going on behind the desk. Legs and arms, and a lot of cursing. I had no idea who was winning that fight.

El Mujahid stalked me, cutting left and right to try and box me into the corner. Against most opponents a corner is a pretty good place to make a stand, it allows for a lot of options when flight is no longer in the mix; but with a fighter like this bruiser it would be a death trap.

He leered at me and bit the air with a clack of teeth. "I think I'll take a bite out of you," he said, pitching it to sound like a joke. I wasn't laughing.

I could still hear gunfire and screams coming from the Bell Chamber. It must be one h.e.l.l of a battle in there. Would Grace survive it, or had she already fallen? Would she rise as one of the mindless walkers or as a new and improved thinking monster like the one I faced?

What would Church and the President do? Let everyone in the Liberty Bell Center kill each other and then torch the whole place? Could the President risk any other response, even with his wife here?

Then I realized that the First Lady was no longer screaming. El Mujahid noticed, too, and we both turned to see that she had picked up my.45 and was pointing it at the big terrorist. She fired, but in her panic she jerked the trigger instead of squeezing it and the gun bucked upward and the shot punched a hole in the ceiling.

I rushed in her direction, wanting that d.a.m.n gun, but El Mujahid lunged in to cut me off, pawing at me with a fast grab. I parried it, but it was a fake and he snaked the other hand in and caught me by the sleeve of my suit jacket.

The First Lady got off another shot but it just tore a chunk out of El Mujahid's hip.

He jerked me forward with such force that I flew off the ground, and he hit me with an elbow shot that broke a black bomb in my head. I sagged in his grip and as he bent toward me I could feel his hot breath on my exposed throat.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three.

Gault and Amirah / The Bunker GAULT SCRAMBLED FORWARD in a panic, feeling for the etched markings as Amirah's eerie voice floated through the darkness toward him, louder each time she called his name.

"Sebastian!" She drew it out, making it a perverse song.

His fingers scrabbled across an uneven spot on the wall and he stopped, fumbling at it. Yes! He felt for the upper-right corner of the panel and then punched it with the side of his fist. The corner folded inward and he gripped the edges and tore the whole panel away. A small red light flicked on inside the compartment, illuminating the rubber-coated handles of six big levers.

"Sebastian!"

"Witch," he breathed and grabbed the first handle and pulled. It was much harder than he thought it would be, and the angle was bad. He had to stand hunched over and throw his entire weight backward to move the handle. On the first pull it only moved five inches.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" he growled and tried again, screaming with effort. This time the handle tilted toward him and locked into place. There was an anticlimactic silence for a few seconds and then far away there was a heavy rumbling that he felt more than heard.

He grabbed the second handle and again it took him two pulls to lock it down.

"Sebastian!"

Her voice was close. G.o.d, he thought G.o.d!

Even as the rumbling started for the second collapsing vent pipe he threw himself back with the third, and this one locked down on the first try. The rumbling started at once.

"Sebastian!" Now there was a different tone in her voice. Perhaps a faint flicker of doubt. He grabbed the fourth lever and pulled. It was so hard, so stiff that it took him five tries to lock it down, but finally it clicked and the rumbling started.

"Sebastian!" He could hear the hurried scuff of her feet and her voice definitely had a note of alarm in it. It gave him strength to hear the fear and he tackled the fifth lever with a will and in two grunting pulls it locked down. Already the ambient temperature was rising as the superheated ga.s.ses began recoiling from blocked vents. A deep red glow was reflected through the steel pa.s.sages and it bathed him in a b.l.o.o.d.y light.

"Sebastian!"