Don Pendleton - Nightmare Army

VIRULENT TERROR

Attacked by a horde of feral, rampaging villagers infected by a synthetic virus, Mack Bolan barely escapes the isolated mountain town in time to witness a mysterious black ops team as they raze the place and kill all its inhabitants.

Determined to find the source of this powerful bioweapon, Bolan tracks the virus to a secret facility, where scientists are working to make the infected victims stronger, swifter and more deadly. But the wealthy industrialist who turns out to be funding this research has his sights set on all-out toxic warfare. Now that it’s ready, the germ will be unleashed on a mass scale across the European Union, targeting specific ethnic groups for destruction. With millions of lives at stake, Bolan has no choice but to embark on a seek-and-destroy mission.

Tentatively he sniffed the air.

It was redolent of decaying plants, fresh bark, a hint of blood—and sweat, coming from the corner to his right.

Bolan took his hand away from his face to find it clenched into a fist, just like the one at his side. What the hell is happening to me? he thought. Every sense was preternaturally aware. Every inch of his body overflowed with energy, as if he could run a dozen marathons back-to-back.

But above all, his mind was filled with the overwhelming basic instinct of fight-or-flight. But it was difficult to consider flight as a viable option anymore. Instead, there was only the burning need for combat, to dominate his opponent—any opponent—and leave the person bleeding and defeated in the dirt.

Almost unaware that his lips had peeled back from his teeth in a feral grin, Bolan stepped farther into the room, his eyes wide and searching.

Hunting for his prey.

Nightmare Army

Don Pendleton

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

—Buddha

The evil ways of evil men will eventually bring them down. And if it takes too long, I’ll step forward to hurry things up.

—Mack Bolan

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text VIRULENT TERROR Attacked by a horde of feral, rampaging villagers infected by a synthetic virus, Mack Bolan barely escapes the isolated mountain town in time to witness a mysterious black ops team as they raze the place and kill all its inhabitants. Determined to find the source of this powerful bioweapon, Bolan tracks the virus to a secret facility, where scientists are working to make the infected victims stronger, swifter and more deadly. But the wealthy industrialist who turns out to be funding this research has his sights set on all-out toxic warfare. Now that it’s ready, the germ will be unleashed on a mass scale across the European Union, targeting specific ethnic groups for destruction. With millions of lives at stake, Bolan has no choice but to embark on a seek-and-destroy mission.

Introduction Tentatively he sniffed the air. It was redolent of decaying plants, fresh bark, a hint of blood—and sweat, coming from the corner to his right. Bolan took his hand away from his face to find it clenched into a fist, just like the one at his side. What the hell is happening to me? he thought. Every sense was preternaturally aware. Every inch of his body overflowed with energy, as if he could run a dozen marathons back-to-back. But above all, his mind was filled with the overwhelming basic instinct of fight-or-flight. But it was difficult to consider flight as a viable option anymore. Instead, there was only the burning need for combat, to dominate his opponent—any opponent—and leave the person bleeding and defeated in the dirt. Almost unaware that his lips had peeled back from his teeth in a feral grin, Bolan stepped farther into the room, his eyes wide and searching. Hunting for his prey.

Title Page Nightmare Army Don Pendleton

Quotes It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. —Buddha The evil ways of evil men will eventually bring them down. And if it takes too long, I’ll step forward to hurry things up. —Mack Bolan

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

Copyright

PROLOGUE

Labored breath loud in his ears, bare feet shuffling down the dark path, Motumbo staggered through the dark jungle. His side, red and sticky with blood, pulsed with pain at each step, but he didn’t stop. Instead he kept scanning around, nose flared to scent possible prey, red-rimmed, watery eyes staring wide into the darkness.

Time held no meaning for him anymore—he couldn’t say whether it had been twenty minutes or two hours since he had broken free of his captors. Now all that was left in his mind was the relentless desire to move, to hunt.

Normally the Congolese jungle held no fear for him, even at night. Although there were creatures in the dense forest that should be avoided, such as the stealthy leopards, the territorial gorillas and the wide variety of poisonous snakes, spiders and insects inhabiting the lush underbrush, Motumbo knew them all and how to avoid them. Growing up in the isolated northern region, the twenty-year-old had been fortunate to avoid the violence that had swept much of his country for the past decade. But he hadn’t been so lucky avoiding the silver ghosts haunting the deep tropical forest.

They had appeared about six months ago, mysterious, gleaming beings appearing seemingly out of nowhere to snatch whomever they could find: men, women and children. Appeals to local law enforcement had been ineffective; the men who had tried to find the elusive beings had either come back empty-handed—or disappeared, as well. The populations of the scattered villages in the area, still on edge from the violence of the simmering civil war that had been slowly cooling for the past few years, didn’t enter the jungle unless they absolutely had to. But they had to eat.

That was how Motumbo had been captured one day, hunting in the jungle against his father’s wishes. The ghosts had appeared like magic around him, one of them tossing a small canister at his feet that had spewed a noxious yellow gas. One whiff had made him pass out in seconds.

When he’d awakened, he had been in a place unlike anywhere he had ever seen before. Bare, bright rooms with hard, white walls. Strange currents of cool air came from square holes in the ceiling. And he’d been surrounded by quiet, pale men and women, all dressed in long, white coats with paper masks over their faces, their dark brown or bright blue eyes measuring and cold.

And the screaming. From the moment he woke to the night he was able to escape, Motumbo always heard someone screaming. Sometimes it was a man, the voice hoarse and low, sometimes a woman, the shrill shrieks lancing through his head. But it was constant, unrelenting, endless.

The men and women poked and prodded him, weighed him, made him do physical tests that he didn’t understand. Failure to comply was met with shocking force, administered by large men with devices that shot strange darts with wires attached to their handles that made Motumbo’s entire body feel as if it was on fire. He’d only needed to experience that once and afterward he had complied with their demands as quickly as possible.