Black Harvest

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

The Texas night was blacker than the inside of the Titanic. Behind them, the flat dirt and rock of the panhandle vanished in darkness. The compound looked like an alien installation on the surface of the moon, all reflections and angles and geometric shapes of metal in the glare of the lights.

The night was cool. Nick sweated inside the black gear they all wore. Aside from their weapons, Nick and Korov carried backpacks loaded with the explosives and detonators. Everyone wore red goggles against the glare from the lights.

Their SUVs were invisible, parked beyond the wall of light. Lamont had the Barrett laid across one of the hoods, a scoped M4A beside it. He had a wide view of the compound interior. There was a clear field of fire down the security road between the buildings. He could move right as needed to cover the eastern half of the compound. For the .50 caliber Barrett and scope, distance was no problem. He had plenty of ammo. He'd be fine, as long as he didn't have to pick up the thirty pound rifle and run with it. Nick knew Lamont would do it if he had to, weak arm or not.

They waited for the substation to blow. Nick glanced at Korov, lying next to him. He seemed relaxed. Nick had to give the guy credit, he was a pro. He knew what he was doing. You could tell. They'd fallen into an uneasy acceptance of each other, masked by needle jabs of humor. Grudgingly, Nick was beginning to like the guy. Too bad he was a Russian.

"One minute." He spoke softly into his headset. They waited.

Beyond the compound, a muffled boom. The floodlights died. They pulled off the red lenses.

"Go."

They got to their feet and ran to the fence. Ronnie took out the plasma cutter. It was about the size of an electric drill, a masterpiece of military technology. It had a self-contained power supply good for eight minutes. Ronnie pulled welding goggles over his eyes. He fired the torch.

Plasma cutters used a high voltage circuit to create a small, stable pocket of plasma gas. The main plasma cutting arc ignited when brought into contact with metal. The cutting arc put out 25,000 degrees. It was bright, a necessary risk. They could be spotted, but Nick figured everyone would be busy looking at the fireworks out on the highway.

In less than a minute and a half, Ronnie had cut a door sized opening in the wire. He dropped the cutter and the goggles. They entered the compound and ran for Building Four. They reached the entrance, a recessed doorway halfway down the side. There was a camera over the door. Ronnie sprayed the lens with black.

Any patrol coming would appear to the north or south along the road.

"Selena, cover north. Ronnie, you take south." She ran across to the next building and ducked into the doorway, reached up and sprayed the camera.

Korov placed a charge against the door lock on Building Four. It went off with a dull thump. They pushed the door open, stepped inside and closed it. They turned on lights mounted on the sides of their helmets.

They were in a long corridor with a door at the end. A door in the wall led into a room with an airlock. From outside came the rumble of diesel engines starting up. A row of lights came on in the hallway.

Korov and Carter ran to the end of the hall and opened the door. They entered a modern laboratory. Tables, microscopes, centrifuges. Things Nick couldn't indentify. A row of refrigerators on one wall. Korov opened them. The last one contained glass jars filled with the virus. Korov began placing charges. Nick went to the back wall. He tried the handle on the freezer door.

Locked.

He shaped charges around the lock and hinges, set detonators and moved away.

Korov never glanced up when it blew. The door fell onto the floor. Cold air rushed into the room. Sealed boxes filled the freezer, each about two feet long and a foot high. Nick pulled off his pack and began.

The heat from the charges would melt the steel walls of the freezer and its contents along with the supporting beams of the roof. The thermite might explode as it mixed with vapor from the freezer. Adam had warned about explosions, but there wasn't anything Nick could do about it. If it did blow, the heat ought to take care of it. He hoped.

"Done." Korov came over. He helped Nick finish the sequence.

Nick activated the timers. "Ten minutes. Time to boogie."

"Boogie?"

"Get out of here."

"Nick." Selena's voice sounded in his headset. "Patrol. Coming from the north."

"Don't engage unless they spot you."

"Roger."

"I think," Korov said, "that now it gets interesting."