Blood Soaked and Contagious by James Crawford Read Free Book Online Page B

particle design, to say nothing of the waste material that would be created.”
    I sipped my tea. It was wonderfully tasty cardamom-flavored tea that would, under the best circumstances, relax the Hell right out of me. At that moment, I was using it to swish around in my mouth to cudgel my brain into coming up with an idea that Baj hadn’t.
    The main problem was that Hightower, no matter what we did as far as Baj himself went, could keep right on moving toward that goal. Our friend doing the Hindu seppuku would make no difference in the grand scheme of things. At most, it would delay the use of those nano-thingies. Eventually, another qualified programmer/architect/mad genius would be found and work would continue.
    Answer: improbable. Execution of answer: way out of our league. Possibility of wrangling help in 24 hours or less: equally, fucking unlikely.
    “I know what we need to do,” I spoke up, “but I don’t think we can do it without major backup, evacuation, and the US Cavalry.”
    “All right, we are considering all the possible options here, even if they’re immensely unlikely. Go on,” Baj said and motioned for me to continue.
    “We have to kill Hightower and massacre every single undead shithead that might have been taken into confidence about his Evil Plan.” I enunciated those capital letters with great care.
    “That’s not all that outrageous,” Shawn said. “We’d just have to be more organized about things. Hit them at the right time. That kind of thing.”
    “I think I see what the problem is,” Baj said from behind steepled fingers. “The most efficient way to do that, and you can correct me if I’m not following your lead, is to do it in a single massive strike. Something on the order of an atmosphere-ignition bomb.”
    “Bingo,” I replied.
    “Gentlemen, I am assuming that this weapon is not nuclear,” said Jaya, with one graceful eyebrow arched in an expression both inquisitive and appalled. “I hope you are not talking about such a thing.”
    “No, Jaya,” Shawn spoke up, “but it’s got similar destructive power. I mean, right up under a nuke, but it isn’t radioactive. Things like these ignite the oxygen in the air and make a fucking huge fireball out of acres of territory.”
    “Oh my.”
    “Yeah, I got to say though, it would sterilize the area,” Shawn added, with no small amount of regret in this voice.
    “True, but as it was mentioned, we do not have access to military ordnance of that kind or the means to evacuate all the living people from the blast zone without being seen.” Baj’s expression was looking more and more grim, and I can’t say we all didn’t feel the same. “ It might be possible to assassinate Hightower when he returns tomorrow, but I am under no illusions; we are being observed. It would have to be Jayashri and I for that task.”
    I couldn’t fault his logic, even if I wanted to. Hightower hadn’t gotten where he had in life without good intel and planning. There would be fallback plans.
    “Right. You two kill him. What happens next? They’ll just overrun us.” Shawn’s frown was huge, weighed down with redneck gravitas. I didn’t feel much better about it.
    “They might not,” I said. “It would take a little time for them to reorganize under someone else, unless that’s already been planned out. Baj, you said he seemed completely at ease.”
    “Yes. Chatty, even.”
    “He didn’t expect you to say no. The two of you treated him as if he were a normal human being, not the walking dead. He couldn’t have been expecting that. By the time he left, I’m betting he was mostly convinced you’d be on board for it.”
    “You sure you’re being properly cynical about this, man?” The redneck caveman creased his forehead at me. The ridges it created were so severe that I could have grated cheese on his face, if I had been so inclined.
    “I think he might have a point. I listened to the conversation while I was in the kitchen, and