Exit 9

31

I.D. MINUS 12 HOURS 14 MINUTES

LOCAL TIME 10:46 PM

The mood at the Ranch was somber. Billy might have been a disagreeable sort at times, but his heart had always been in the right place, and he’d been part of the team trying to stop the Project since early on. In his role as doctor, he had treated nearly everyone there, so in one way or another, he had touched all of their lives.

That, of course, was not to diminish the loss of Karen Pruitt. She had also been a valuable team member, and there were those at the Ranch who had been very close to her.

But for Matt, losing Billy was like losing a brother. It was simply…inconceivable.

If not for the fact the day they had been both fighting against was looming, he would have been sitting alone in his room, numb to everything around him. He couldn’t afford that now. None of them could.

At the moment, there were teams all around the world trying to find ways of stopping, or, at the very least, limiting the damage from the plague the Project was about to unleash. Which was why Matt was in the communications room, monitoring events. But even knowing that automated shipping containers were one way the virus would be spread, his people were having very little luck finding them. Jordan had been able to track down a handful, but it was just a drop in the ocean. The containment, if that was even possible, would only be a moral victory at most.

“What’s the latest on Ash’s team?” Matt asked.

The man assigned to monitor the Arctic mission was Oscar Guerrero. “The last report was that Pax’s group had already been taken to Amund Ringnes Island, and that Ash and his group were about to leave for Yanok. We should be getting another report at any time.”

“Let me know as soon as that happens.”

“Yes, sir.”

Matt doubted Ash would even find Bluebird, let alone get inside and do something to stop Implementation Day, but he hoped, oh God, he hoped. It was, after all, the only way the coming hell could be avoided.

“Matt?”

He turned and found Jordan standing a few feet away, a closed laptop in his hand by his hip. If anyone had taken Billy’s death harder than Matt, it was Jordan. He clearly felt responsible since he was the one who had found the container. Matt had told him he had nothing to do with Billy’s and Karen’s deaths, that finding the container had been vitally important. It didn’t seem to help.

But now, Jordan looked different, almost excited.

“What’s up?”

Jordan took a hesitant step forward. “I think I might have figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“How they’re distributing everything.”

“We already know it’s the containers, at least in part.”

“No, no. I mean who.”

“Who?”

“The front.”

Matt stared at him.

“Here. Let me show you.”

Jordan set his laptop on Matt’s desk. As soon as it was open, a web browser page appeared for Hidde-Kel, the company whose factory the container that killed Billy had come from.

“We already know Hidde-Kel’s the front,” Matt said.

“Not the front. A front. I know how we can identify the others.”

He brought up a new page. It was a map of an area surrounded by four rivers.

“Recognize it?” Jordan asked.

“No.”

“There are hundreds of variations, so that’s understandable. This is Eden.”

“Eden?”

“Yes. These four rivers are the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.”

“Okay. So?”

“The Tigris and Euphrates had different names when the story was written. The Euphrates was called the Phrath, and the Tigris the Hiddekel. Hidde. Kel.”

Matt felt the skin on his face tighten. Project Eden had taken its name from the Christian version of the origins of man, when people were few and resources plentiful. Had they used the reference beyond that?

“I found several other companies around the world utilizing the name Hiddekel or Hidde-Kel, and one even using Hid-de-kel. Not all of them are involved, but some definitely are. And that’s not all. I broadened the search and found suspect companies using Gihon, Phrath, and Pishon as part of their name.”

He brought up another web page. The header read PISHON CHEM.

“This company has supposedly developed a spray that it says will eradicate mosquitoes carrying malaria. It’s hired thousands of locals and is going to do a trial in dozens of major cities throughout Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa.” Jordan looked over at Matt. “It’s scheduled for Friday.”

It was as if every centimeter of Matt’s skin had gone numb. Not only had Jordan potentially discovered how to ID those distributing the virus, he had also turned up a date.

Friday was the day after tomorrow.

Then Matt realized something else-it was also the day before Christmas Eve. In the predominantly Christian countries, the streets would be full of shoppers, easy targets for the virus.

“We’ve only got two days?” Matt said. It wasn’t nearly enough.

“No,” Jordan said. “Not two days. Friday starts in some of these countries in less than six hours.”