Black Mountain by Greig Beck Read Free Book Online Page B

She began to slide forward in the shadowy room, towards where the voice was coming from.
    ‘Israeli, I surrender to you. Here . . .’ A new Glock handgun clattered on the floor in the centre of the room.
    A lesser agent would have been momentarily distracted and perhaps have missed the almost imperceptible sound of the flattened steel pin of a stun grenade being removed.
    The man stood to throw the explosive. At the same time, the woman also stood and fired twice in quick succession. The man took two shots to the forehead and hit the ground at roughly the same time as the grenade. The woman dived behind a couch, crushed her eyes shut and held her hands over her ears. Stun grenades were designed for maximum disorientation and had little shrapnel; however, they could destroy eardrums or maim if they landed close by.
    The small black cylinder exploded with an ear-shattering whump and a flash that would have seared the woman’s retinas for days. The impact wave blew out all the windows, and the pyrotechnic metal oxidant set fire to the rug and most of the furniture.
    The woman stood, her ears still ringing even though they’d been covered. She crossed to the table where the missile schematics lay, stuffed them under her robes, then ran to the kitchen and retrieved her bag. She looked down at the black gun she still gripped; the hand that held it was as steady as a rock. In the meat between her thumb and forefinger was a small tattoo – a blue Star of David.
    She quickly wiped the weapon and threw it onto the burning rug, then spoke to the dead man. ‘And there will always be thousands more like us waiting for you.’
    She pulled on her gloves and slid the glasses back onto her nose. She pressed a small stud at the side of one lens and spoke softly. ‘Blue Star requesting immediate extraction.’
    The emotionless voice spoke into her ear again: ‘Extraction authorised.’ And then: ‘Be advised, Blue Star, Arcadian conscious.’
    She almost stumbled as her body, already awash with adrenaline, kicked up another gear. Awake , she thought. At last .
    She drew in a long breath, calming her urge to rush. She bent slightly at the knees and waist before she pulled open the door. Once again, an old woman suffering from the heat shuffled down a winding street in the city of Beirut.
    *
    Adira Senesh couldn’t take her eyes from the figure on the bed. She found it hard to associate the mucus-covered thing staining the sheets with the strong, handsome HAWC soldier she had known. Alex Hunter had been – was – like no human being she had ever seen or probably ever would again. Adira’s jaw clenched and she felt her anger rise at fate’s cruel joke. She had told Alex she would take him horse riding along the shore of the Sea of Galilee; to stand on the purple cliffs of the Golan Heights. She had wanted to show him her Israel. Now he was here and yet he wasn’t. It wasn’t fair.
    Together, they had faced horror and death, and he had saved her life. In turn she had stopped the Americans from cutting him into a thousand pieces for study. She drew in a deep breath. The man she knew was buried in there somewhere. She was sure of it.
    She became aware of the scientist next to her talking.
    ‘Although we’d kept the specimen at extremely low temperatures, the bacterium was still active in his system – just slowed to a point of near inactivity.’
    ‘The specimen,’ she echoed, feeling her rage increasing further.
    Weisz nodded, unaware of her reaction, and continued. ‘And then a week ago it inexplicably resumed its vigorous progress. We don’t know what triggered it, but it didn’t leave us with many options. Nothing has worked against its aggressive progress to date. In my opinion, this thing is straight from Hell. You’ve seen what it can do to flesh? We extracted and cultivated some of the bacteria immediately on the specimen’s arrival at the facility, then injected it directly into several chimpanzees. In twenty-four