Apocalypse Soldier by William Massa Read Free Book Online Page B

intensity in the man’s features, a lean, almost wolfish quality. He looked dangerous.  
    Doyle decided to have a few words with the new face. “Hey, wait up… I want to talk to you about the patient…”
    The male nurse never looked back and never slowed down.  
    Doyle followed. “Hey, I said hold on…”
    The man in scrubs disappeared around the next corner. Doyle loped after him. He came around the bend and saw the man vanish through a door that led to the staircase. At 33, Doyle ran every day and considered himself in better shape than when he first joined the Bureau. Picking up his pace, he sprinted and reached the staircase seconds later. His quarry was already a flight down, taking two steps at a time.
    Doyle pounded down the stairs. The male nurse disappeared through another doorway, and Doyle tore after him. Arriving in a deserted corridor, he spotted the stranger farther ahead, now striding briskly toward a set of double-doors.
    Doyle followed. He still hadn’t called for backup, partially because he was baffled by the situation. He drew his pistol, barged through the doors and entered the hospital morgue. Freezers lined the walls. Harsh, fluorescent light spilled down on the shroud-covered bodies resting on their shiny steel slabs.  
    The dead triggered a flashback to the terrible scene he’d encountered in Cabrera’s church only 48 hours earlier. Walking into that defiled setting and taking in the bloody remains of the men, women and children sprawled among the pews like broken dolls had torn him up inside. He’d sworn right then and there to bring to justice the monsters responsible for these heinous crimes.  
    Doyle took a few hesitant steps, moving deeper into the morgue. He passed the row of corpses, choking back the chalky taste in his mouth. A sudden noise made him whirl and he spotted one of the dead bodies rising from a table behind him. The revenant cast off its shroud, revealing the male nurse.
    Doyle leveled his pistol just as the man shoved a nearby gurney toward him. Wheels screeched over the stone floor as the gurney slammed into his stomach and the shot went wild. He gasped and desperately tried to regain his bearings but before he could, the stranger loomed above him. His attacker snatched Doyle’s arm and twisted until he released his pistol. It clattered to the floor.
    Before he knew it, Doyle was looking up at the muzzle of his own gun. The man’s penetrating gaze bore into him.  
    “Who the hell are you?” Doyle asked.  
    The stranger’s answer was to back away toward the exit and turn off the lights, plunging the morgue into blackness.
    Doyle followed the sound of the swinging doors, trying not to think about all the dead bodies that shared the darkness with him.  
    By the time he stumbled his way out of the morgue, the stranger was long gone.  

C HAPTER E IGHT

    CASCA ARRIVED IN Silicon Valley right on time to attend Xtel’s monthly board meeting. His father had built a technological empire in the early seventies and Xtel chips could be found in twenty-five percent of all computers on the market. It represented the source of Casca’s wealth and power, but he’d never fully embraced his legacy as CEO of a billion-dollar-plus conglomerate. Consequently, he wasn’t exactly enamored with corporate rituals and saw these meetings as a necessary evil, at best.  
    Once in a while, though, the boss had to check in with the men and women who took care of the day-to-day operations of the company.  
    Today was one of those days.  
    Casca struggled to keep his mind on business matters, his thoughts repeatedly shifting back to the church massacre. On the return flight to the Valley, he’d speculated about the objectives of this cult. What would drive these fanatics to hunt down three exorcists?
    By the time he arrived at Xtel for the big meeting, there were seven new images on his phone. While his chief operating officer rattled off the latest sales figures, Casca stole quick