Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

Juan nodded to Eddie, who unzipped the duffel and removed two U.S. Army–issue NBC suits and masks. He handed one to Juan, who pulled it on over his clothes, sealing all the seams with tape.

When he was dressed, Eddie put on his own suit while Juan kept watch on their captive.

“Hey, come on,” Tao said, nervously eyeing the two of them. “Don’t I get one?”

Juan reached into the duffel and grabbed a folded orange hazmat suit. It was bulkier and looser than their own formfitting versions. Instead of gloves, it had awkward mittens.

“This thing?” Tao complained. “I like yours better.”

“It’s that or nothing.”

Tao stepped into it and struggled to get it on. “Will this really protect me?”

Eddie looked at Juan and shrugged.

“You better hope it does,” Juan said to Tao. “This is just in case you or someone else has booby-trapped the storage unit to gas us.”

“I told you I don’t know anything about any Novichok. Do I look crazy enough to let something like that on my ship?”

“That almost sounded convincing,” Eddie said.

“He knows it’s over the side to become shark food if he’s not telling the truth,” Juan said.

Tao finished getting dressed in silence. When he was fully encased in his suit, Juan couldn’t resist a chuckle. He looked like a traffic cone. On the other hand, Eddie was straight out of a horror movie about a global pandemic.

Both Juan and Eddie trained pistols on Tao.

“Lead the way,” Juan said. “I think it’s pretty obvious that we’ll shoot you if you try anything stupid.”

Juan thought Tao nodded, but it was hard to tell in the plastic suit.

He led them up to the deck, where the blazing sun instantly transformed their suits into saunas. They went aft to a set of refrigerated containers. He pointed to a white one on the bottom of a stack of five.

“You’re sure this is one of them?” Juan asked.

Tao nodded. “The other one is aft.”

Eddie looked at the shipboard crane resting next to the containers and frowned. “Why didn’t you stack this one on top if you were going to be taking it off at Jhootha Island?”

Tao shook his head like he was just as puzzled. “It was a requirement that Rasul had. I don’t ask questions. I only do what they pay me to do. And they pay me a lot.”

Juan made a mental note to find out who “they” were once they had the Novichok secured.

The container door had a heavy padlock on it. Eddie used a collapsible bolt cutter to sever the hasp.

Juan nodded at the door and stepped to the side with Eddie.

“You open it,” he said to Tao.

“Me?”

“We don’t know what might be in there.”

“I don’t either,” Tao protested.

Juan didn’t say anything. He just raised his pistol. Eddie got his flashlight ready.

Tao unlatched the handle, wrenched the door open, and stumbled backward. He gaped in astonishment when he saw the interior.