Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected by Ricky Cooper Read Free Book Online Page B

Rawlings finished his little diatribe.
    'That ain't the reason we never bothered with this
place. It's the fact that the Russians thought it was a secret and we
allowed them to think that.'
    Fadei stoically ignored the comment as he levered his
bulky form from the Jeep. Kingsley hopped out from the back of the
Jeep, his boots thumping into the ice crusted soil. He gazed around
him and sniffed, the salt tang stinging his nostrils slightly as he
smirked.
    'I thought you said this place was a commerce port. This
is a damned military base, it's blatantly obvious.'
    Fadei shot Kingsley an undisguised glare of hatred as
Baker chuckled.
    'Like I said, we knew it was here, we
just didn't know what
“ it”
was. We could never get a tasked satellite in place soon enough to
break through the snow and cloud cover that blankets this place.'
    Fadei snorted as he barged past Baker.
    'Why do you think we picked it?'
    'So what are we looking at on the inside? Also, I just
thought I would raise a small point, but where are the containment
teams? Your boss told us that we should expect them to be here.'
    Fadei glanced around himself as they strode through the
steel security gate, Bakers question hanging on his earlobe like a
Diamanté pendant ear ring. Fadei pulled his weapon from off
his back, setting the stock into the crook of his shoulder as the
motorised gate squeaking on the frozen ball bearings was softly
winched aside.
    'That, my friend, is a very good question.'
    Baker cocked an eyebrow at Fadei's choice of words, for
at that precise moment they were anything but friends. His rifle came
to his shoulder as he slowly began to sense the deep blanket of
malice that seemed to seep from the very bowels of the facility.

    ****

    The salt brine tang clung to their throats as they
breathed in, the S-10 gas masks they wore, doing little to filter out
the pervading scent of the ocean as they quietly entered the
building.
    Their barrel mounted torches cut through the darkness,
the bare, grey concrete walls sucking in the bright white light like
a sponge drinking in the light as the darkness closed around them.
    The orange tinged pools seemed to disappear into the
utilitarian walls of the corridor, as if the building itself was
consuming what light and life touched its coarse concrete shell. The
darkness was total; nothing could penetrate the ink black wall before
them, as the small band of men made their way deeper into the dark
inner sanctum.
    'I don't like this, Chief.'
    Bolton's hushed tones rang in Pottergate's ear as he
walked slowly onwards. 'Neither do I; if we don't make contact with
the containment teams soon, we are aborting the mission and calling
in the Mig's on station in Rogachevo.'
    Bolton nodded sharply, walking on
several feet before he realised that the motion was pointless. 'Roger
that.' Bolton's reply was undercut by the quavering fear that edged
his tones, a singular thought running through his mind as he spoke.
Although he knew better than to vocalise it, still he couldn't help
thinking it all the same. 'I
just hope we're still alive to make that call.'
    Glancing around him, he tried to discern the state of
his surroundings as he carried on moving forward. Baker's breathing
rasped in his ears as he drew breath deep into his lungs through the
filters of his gas mask. The high impact blast resistant lenses of
his apparatus turning the whole corridor into two bisected portholes
of darkness while the thick rubberised outer skin blocked out his
peripheral vision completely.
    His torch cut through the dark in front of him like a
knife, the blackness dancing away from his torch beam as the hot
white light illuminated all it touched. Sweeping left, he watched as
something glinted softly under the lights beam. Moving forward
slightly, he played the beam back across in front of him searching
for the source of the reflection. 'Shit, Chief, I found one of the
containment teams.'
    Their bright yellow hazard suits where torn to