Jonathan Maberry - The Dragon Factory

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Joe Ledger and the DMS (Department of Military Sciences) go up against two competing groups of geneticists. One side is creating exotic transgenic monsters and genetically enhanced mercenary armies; the other is using 21st century technology to continue the Nazi Master Race program begun by Josef Mengele. Both sides want to see the DMS destroyed, and they've drawn first blood. Neither side is prepared for Joe Ledger as he leads Echo Team to war under a black flag.

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Son of a bitch moved fast.

“Normally I’d wait on this and let the Los Angeles office deal with it, but they’re in lockdown and you’re the only senior officer on the streets. Besides,” he said, “the Denver thing looks like it’s going to break big.”

“Meaning…?”

“Meaning that it’s starting to look like a DMS project. There’s a high probability it’s tied to the deaths of my colleagues overseas, and to some old cases that were supposed to have been closed a long time ago. Now it seems that we were wrong. Once you’re airborne you’ll teleconference with Dr. Hu, who will send you a feed of a video we received from an anonymous source.”

“A video of what?”

“I’d prefer you watch and form your own opinions, but… it’s compelling.”

“Can you vague that up a little for me?” I said.

He ignored me. “Contact me when you’ve watched it. This is a bad day, Captain, and tensions are running high. I need you to be cool. Tell your people the same thing. This other matter, the Denver job… if it turns out to be what I think it is, then it’s big.”

“Bigger than the Vice President launching a witch hunt?”

“Potentially,” he said.

“Swell. Okay, I’ll go see what I can do… but one last thing about the Vice President: if anyone else at the DMS gets hurt because of this-politically, legally, or otherwise-then I’m going to want to do some damage.”

“Are you talking about revenge, Captain?”

“And what if I am?” I snapped.

There was a sound. It might have been a short laugh. “I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”

With that he disconnected.

Chapter Sixteen

Baltimore, Maryland

Saturday, August 28, 10:15 A.M.

Time Remaining on Extinction Clock: 97 hours, 45 minutes

Mr. Church closed his phone and laid it on the desk in front of him. He was a big man, broad shouldered, blocky, strong. There were gray streaks in his dark hair and old scars on his face, but rather than serving to reveal his age they stood as marks of use; their presence toughened him in ways the people who knew him could recognize but not define.

For over a minute he sat with his big hands resting on either side of the phone, which sat just off-center of the green desk blotter. He might have been a statue for all the animation he betrayed. His eyes were only shadows behind the lenses of his tinted glasses.

To his left was a glass of water, no ice. Beside it was a plate of vanilla wafers. After he’d sat for two full minutes, Mr. Church selected a cookie and bit off a piece, munching it thoughtfully. He brushed a crumb from his red tie.

Then he swiveled in his chair and reached for his office phone. He punched a code to engage the scrambler and then entered a special number. It was answered on the fourth ring.

“Brierly,” said a crisp male voice.

“Linden,” said Church, “I know you’re busy, but I want you to listen very closely. This is a Brushfire Command Protocol.”

“Ah,” said Brierly, “it’s you. I was hoping you lost my number.”

“Sorry to disappoint. Please verify that you’re on active scramble so we may proceed.”

Brierly made a sound that might have been a curse, but he verified the scramble. Linden was the Regional Director of the Secret Service and was directly responsible for overseeing the safety of the President while the Commander in Chief was in Walter Reed for his heart surgery. One slip and Brierly would be working out of a field office in the Dakotas. A successful job, on the other hand, could be the last résumé item needed for the step up as overall Director of the Secret Service, which would make Brierly the youngest man to hold that office. The hot money-and the heavy pressure-was on him during the current crisis.

“Here is the Brushfire code,” said Church, and recited a number-letter string that identified him and his authority to make this call.

Brierly read back the code, moving one digit and adding another.

Church repeated the code and made his own two-point change.

“Verified,” said Brierly. “Brushfire Protocol is active.”

“I agree,” said Church.

“You just activated a Presidential Alert, my friend. We’d better have missiles inbound or Martians on the White House lawn. You do know what’s happening today?” Even with the mild audio distortion of the scrambler, Brierly’s sarcasm was clear as a bell.

Church said ten words: “The Vice President is trying to take down the DMS.”

“What?”

Church explained.

“Jesus H. Christ, Esquire,” Brierly growled, “the President will fry him for this. I mean fry him. Even if he has the Attorney General in his corner, Collins can’t possibly believe that he’s going to make a case against you.”

“He seems to think so.”

“This is weird. I know him pretty well, and this is not like him. For one thing, he doesn’t have the balls for this.”

“Then he grew a set this morning. For now let’s assume he wouldn’t attempt this kind of play if he didn’t have some interesting cards in his hand. What they are and how he’ll ultimately play them is still to be seen.”

“I’m starting to get a bad feeling about why you called me.”

“Listen to me, Linden. If the VP gets MindReader he also gets everything stored in MindReader. Take a moment and think that through.”

Brierly didn’t need a moment. “Christ!”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you take it offline? Dump the hard drive and wipe it with an EMP?”

“Sure, and we’d lose active tactical analysis on forty-six terrorist-related database searches, including the two assassination plots your office sent to us. If MindReader goes blind, then so does the Secret Service, a good chunk of the DEA, CIA, FBI, and ATF, and Homeland will essentially have its head in a bag. We lose our data sharing with MI6 and Barrier, not to mention certain agencies in Germany, Italy, and France. We’d be playing Texas hold ’em with blank cards.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Church… you should have shared this system with everyone from the start.”

“Really? You’d personally like to see everyone from the VP on down have total access to your records? You’d want to grant everyone in every agency the ability to read all secrets and access all files without leaving a footprint? You’d want all of the President’s personal business made public?”

“I-”

“Two words, Linden: ‘Houston Marriott.’ ”

Brierly hissed, “Don’t even joke.”

“I’m not joking, and I’m not threatening. With the President out of power, MindReader and the DMS are vulnerable. I’ll hold the line, but I don’t think either of us want to see what happens if this turns into a shoving match between the NSA and my boys.”

“They have you outnumbered and outgunned, Church.”

“You’ve met Major Courtland and Captain Ledger, I believe. You’ve seen them in action. Where would you place your heavy bets?”

“This isn’t the O.K. Corral.”

“It shouldn’t be,” Church agreed, “but the VP is making a hard play. He’s well organized, too, and using a lot of field resources. None of this went through e-mails or active command software packages, so he must have set it all up via cell phone or word of mouth. He knows enough about MindReader to do an end run around it for this operation.”

“You sound calm about it,” Brierly said.

Church bit a cookie, said nothing.

“You’re describing a coup.”

“No, this isn’t directed against the President, and the VP will probably yield power in the proper way and at the proper time. But ultimately this could bring down the presidency. Maybe the VP knows that, maybe he doesn’t… but the effect will be the same. So, indirectly this is an attack against the President.”

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