“Negative on that, Sir. The radio has been dead silent since we rolled out on this mission. Except for your squad comms, we haven’t heard a peep out of anyone: Command, the airport, not even other aircraft. It’s as if the entire world has gone quiet.”
Webb turned to Abarra and pointed toward the pilots, “No comms, as if the world has gone. No people, no radios, nothing.”
“That can’t be good.”
“Yeah, well, regardless, we have a mission to complete.” Webb turns to the doctor. “We haven’t had communications with anyone, including the CDC in Dearborn. Have you had contact with them at all recently?”
She looked around, worried. “Our last communication with them was two days ago. With what has gone on recently, that might as well be two months, much less two days.”
“Copy that.” Webb sat back against the Blackhawk’s cabin panel. He shut his eyes for a second to run through scenarios in his head. He tried to plan for everything, thinking about what is happening next and how to handle it.
“Captain?” The copilot came over Webb’s comms. “We are about ten miles out.”
“Copy that.” Webb pushed his squad comms, “Ok, boys. We are about ten miles out. Neville and Shin, we will drop you off on the roof of the insurance building. A quick assessment of the surrounding area, then concentrate on covering our asset into the CDC building.” Both acknowledged. “We go in, get whatever the doctor needs, and roll out. Kennedy and Abarra will escort Dr. Costa to our exfil point two blocks away. I will stay back and help cover Overlord’s six while we make our way to the exfil point. Questions?”
The doctor spoke up, “I might need some time in that CDC lab, since I can’t take everything I need from there. Some things might have to be completed there.”
“Doctor, if everything is intact then you may have all the time you want. Though, we do not understand what the situation on the ground is. If it is anything like what we’ve seen already that CDC facility could be completely compromised.”
“Captain, I need those samples, and any other information or the world may not stop this.”
“We will do what we can, Dr. Costa, you have my word.”
“Captain, approaching objective. We have a visual….” The copilot broke off in mid-sentence.
“Say again. I didn’t copy it.” The team opens the side doors and looks out. Webb articulates what everyone else is thinking. “Dear God, what the hell?”
The chopper hovered over the remains of the CDC building. The entire block looked like something out of a war-torn France during WWII. Smoke was rolling out of storefronts, broken windows, burned-out cars, and dead bodies littered the streets.
Neville turned to Webb, “Do you think there is anything left in that lab worth saving, Sir? Just say the word, and we will deploy.”
Webb grabbed Dr. Costa’s arm, “Doctor, do you believe there is anything left in there you can use, anything that isn’t compromised?” Dr. Costa was staring down at the destruction. “Doctor, doctor!”
Dr. Costa shook her head and looked back at Webb, “Yes, sorry. We need to see what we can salvage out of there. Anything could help us identify this virus and possibly help to find an antidote.”
“Ok, you heard the lady, we need to see what we can pull out of there. Neville and Shin deploy and take your position.”
Neville and Shin fast roped onto the insurance building’s roof, then the chopper rose higher and moved off the building roof. With Neville using his rifle scope and Shin his range scope, they surveyed the area for movement, especially near the facility the breach team was getting ready to deploy to.
Neville scoped the situation out, “What you got, Shin?” “I do not see any movement in several surrounding blocks.”
“I do not as well.”
“Spider, this is Voodoo, do you copy?”
“Voodoo, this is Spider, go ahead.”
“We do not see any movement in the surrounding blocks. All is quiet. No infected, but no civilians either.”
“Copy that Voodoo. Watch our six. We are getting ready to deploy.”
“Copy, we are on point.” The rest of the team, including the doctor and Kennedy, exited the bird on the CDC roof. The bird took off as to not draw any unwanted attention as they found the roof access door and entered the building.
CHAPTER 12
Shaw and Priest low crawled, along with Doug, to the edge of the terminal building. They were all in the prone position and looked out across the flight line where planes were towed in for maintenance. They also used the area as a hub for some private jet charters helicopters, including the state police or Life Flight, and a few network news choppers. There were two private jets parked there with a Boeing 727 that looked like they towed it in for repair. They parked the 727 to the left and parallel to the terminal building. The two private jets were each parked in front of a maintenance hangar.
Doug’s news chopper was two hundred yards away to the right of the terminal building. It was sitting by itself out in the open, which presented the team with a Catch 22 scenario. On one side, it was in the open, allowing the team to see anything coming, which presented no change for an ambush. On the other side, it was in the open, so anything remotely within view of the helicopter would see them making a run for it. Not an ambush situation, but stealth was out the window, and they risked being overrun.