Dark Cure: A Covid Thriller (Dark Plague Book 1) by Bradley West

Author:Bradley West [West, Bradley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2020-11-15T16:00:00+00:00

chapter twenty-four

UNLIKELY BEDFELLOWS

Monday, July 13: Oakland and San Francisco, California, first light

Burns had written a display ad and uploaded it with Katerina’s video of a before-and-after patient (himself) advertising “The Covid-20 Miracle Treatment: The Dark Cure” to Pirate Bay, the onion router’s foremost purveyor of illicit substances. That one-month ad had run him five Bitcoin, forty-five thousand and five hundred dollars at the current exchange rate. He expected to break even quickly with the introductory offer of fifty thousand dollars for the first dose. He knew he had jumped the gun as Katerina required two lab days to produce amounts in excess of the treatments they’d reserve for themselves, but he didn’t know when he’d next have the chance. If they were inundated with orders, they could stall even if a few potential customers died while they waited. He needed time to work out shipping and payment logistics in any event. He had nodded off when he heard the garage door rise and then Muller and Katerina’s voices. He fell back asleep, but the overhead lights tripped, and new voices sounded.

Rolf Muller entered the clubhouse with a gagged and zip-tied Stephanie Maggio. He marched her over to the table and waved a steak knife in her face. “I’ll cut you free, but you need to stay quiet or you’ll never touch your baby again.”

Stephanie pulled her gag out as soon as her wrists were unbound. “Where is he?” she croaked, her mouth dry and her throat constricted with anxiety. The woman looked like hell: haggard, dark circles, straggly hair, blotchy face and disheveled clothes.

“Stephanie, Tyson’s fine,” Burns said. “He’s in a box over here with me.”

Stephanie rushed over and knelt by the fruit carton. The overhead lights weren’t good, but Stephanie stared with rapture at her sleeping son. “When did he eat last?” she asked.

“He drank five ounces two hours ago and has been asleep ever since. I changed him around midnight. His diapers and formula are in the plastic bag over there. He’s all yours.”

“That’s very kind from the man who kidnapped him,” she said as her anxiety morphed into anger.

“Don’t thank me, thank Melvin. He’s a former paratrooper, a big black guy you wouldn’t expect to be gentle.”

“I met him earlier tonight. That bastard hit my mother in the face with his gun.”

Muller stood in the gap between the tarps and monitored the room. “We need to shift locations,” he said to Katerina. “I was surprised Melvin didn’t shoot us and take the baby. That’s what I would have done, but he lacks balls. If he can recruit more gunmen, he’ll be back.”

“Don’t forget he has a million dollars and a gassed-up vehicle. He could be headed for the hills. That’s what I would do.”

“He’s plagued by a Baptist guilt complex. He cried when he found out the office Burns hired us to torch had two people in it. Why the fuck should he care? He didn’t even know them. Now he’s decided that he’s Tyson’s protector and he’ll be back to claim him.

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