Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(16)

*

"They know, now?" Rafe asked as I walked into the room where he and the others waited for me. Auggie, Leo and Richard had gone off to have a phone conversation with Madam President. I didn't envy them.

"Yeah. As much as they need, anyway," I said.

"You know something?" Maye asked.

Yes, but we can't discuss it here-there are bugs and unfriendly employees, I replied to Maye's question.

No surprise, she sent and nodded at me. Too bad for Merle Askins that he couldn't bug mindspeech. We could call him a bow-legged twat in mindspeech and he'd never know it.

Why are you smiling? Maye's eyes narrowed as she watched the corners of my mouth curl.

I just called Merle a bow-legged twat in my head, I returned.

Maye started laughing.

"What's going on?" Opal asked, her dark, unblinking eyes studying me.

I called Merle Askins a bow-legged twat, I sent to her and the others.

Nick slapped a hand over his mouth before the guffaw could escape.

*

Notes-Colonel Hunter

The call took place outside, far from any bugs. I hoped that someone, somewhere, wasn't bugging my phone while I spoke with the President.

"That's what Corinne said?" Madam President asked. She wanted to believe Corinne, who'd never lied to us yet, but the news was so far-fetched as to fall in the realm of pure speculation.

"It's what she said. It makes sense, I suppose, but I still can't wrap my head around it."

"And Dr. Farrell thinks it's plausible?"

"Hell, Corinne just confirmed his suspicions," I replied. "According to him, everything went back to that time, and he'd done enough research to know that the scientists initially working on the drug were stationed in the Southwest. If I'm right, that's when this bunker was built. It's been upgraded all along, but the original building dates back to the late forties."

"That's true," Madam President sighed and went silent for a moment. "If the Russians have the same thing, and they've done all this," she hesitated again. "Damn. This is outrageous. I can't believe my predecessor put so many lives in danger."

"Do you think he'd gotten wind of the experiments going on in Russia? Did he think he needed his own army to combat what they were building?" I asked. "Rafe didn't know about this, but Baikov likely did," I added.

"Does this mean that the enemy, whoever he is, may have come from those experiments? Could he be Russian?" she asked. "This President hasn't been in power very long, but he seems bent on following in his predecessor's footsteps. I hoped things would be different after the last one died, but that wasn't to be."

"No idea about a Russian connection, but we'll start looking at likely candidates," I promised.

"You still have sixteen survivors to track," she reminded me.

"I know, but that trail may lead to the same place and the same person," I pointed out. "If he took them, after getting them out, somehow, we may be in a world of trouble. Did you see the photographs of that giant, well, whatever it was? Corinne says it's a dinosaur of sorts from another planet."

"This is a nightmare," the President mumbled. "And it happened on our watch."

"I like to think that we're where we are, because we're the right people for the job," I said.

"I sure hope you're right, because you know what might happen if you're not."

"Let's not think about that for the moment. We have a job to do, and I need to get my people on it ASAP."

*

Corinne

"Cori, where do you think we ought to start looking for that thing-and the others with it?" James flopped onto the uncomfortable sofa beside me. No furniture inside the bunker looked as if it were begging to be lounged on while reading a book.

Leo Shaw had taken charge of the bottled water from our vehicles, and ordered the lab inside the facility to analyze it for the poison it contained and look for fingerprints or residue. That made me happy and kept Pete's employees occupied at the same time.

The only records we had concerning the water were of the delivery made by the vendors who supplied Nellis AFB, where we'd picked up the vehicles. James had worked on tracking down their suppliers before they'd gotten the cases of water, and ordered all deliveries picked up so they could be examined for contamination.

Auggie didn't want word of the poison leaked if he could help it, and worried that we'd been targeted specifically by someone wanting all of us dead. It was a valid thought, and one I considered exploring.

The other thing that came to my mind was this-were they testing us? Testing me, perhaps, just to see if I'd find it before anybody died?

For the moment, Auggie wanted information on James' poisoning to remain with us, and everybody we'd had contact with would be watched carefully. He depended on me for that, knowing I'd see it in them if they were guilty.

I considered letting Rafe, Nick or Maye know first, because they wanted a few pieces of the one responsible and I wasn't about to stop them. Auggie, Leo and Richard walked in together.

"Cori, is there anything to find here?" Auggie asked.

"No," I shook my head. "There's no trail to follow and wherever they are, something is hiding them. They won't find anything helpful on the water, either, except that it contains ricin, which we already knew. Dinosaur Boy and his entourage could be far away by now."