Deadly Messenger (Earth Survives Book 3) by R R Roberts

Author:R R Roberts [Roberts, R R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pajama Therapy Books
Published: 2019-07-19T22:00:00+00:00

Coru had been in the Freeland prison intake section on Level Twenty-nine, one floor below surface for hours before he was “processed” along with the now seething Mike Grimes and moved into a still further enclosed space. It was to be a work party for them. It was there Coru thought he recognized someone, lying on a bunk, being cared for by another prisoner, an older man of indeterminate age and suspect physical ability. This man was not fit for a work party, nor was the boy, who was better fit for a hospital bed.

Fear burned through Coru as recognition slowly trickled in that this was, in fact, Mario Antonelli, Tony and Gayle’s oldest son, the young man who’d fought so bravely with the Bear Lake Outlanders, who’d engineered their escape from the Indies, who’d hurried back with his father to warn the others the POE were coming to capture their women, to bring them all to safety in Freeland. This brave boy had been beaten, both eyes were swollen shut, his lip split, his face displaying bruises of varying shades, testament to the fact this treatment had been going on for a few days. His hands and arms were bruised, his knuckles split, showing he’d put up a decent resistance, but now he was finished, out of options.

Coru knelt on the filthy cement floor beside the boy. “Mario? Can you hear me?”

Mario didn’t move.

“It’s Coru. I’m back. I—” He glanced up at Mike Grimes and at the prisoner who’d been caring for the boy and thought, why pretend? They’ll know any time now. In a normal tone, he told the silent Mario, “We got the antidote for the virus. If we can reproduce it in time, we can inoculate everyone before the POE come. Whatever you’ve done here was worth it, son. You’ve saved lives, I promise you.”

Mike Grimes pulled him aside. “Seriously? The POE are on their way?”

A prisoner behind Grimes shoved him aside. “Never mind the POE—what virus?” His voice carried and many prisoners swung their way, alert for the answer.

“A virus?”

“There’s another virus!”

Coru looked around himself, seeing an ocean of desperate faces, then turned to stare at Grimes. “You got my back?”

Grimes nodded gravely. “All day long. I’ve known something was amiss here in Freeland for a while now—I just didn’t know what. What happened today was the kick in the butt I needed.”

The man who had been caring for Mario stood. “I’m in, whatever you’ve got going—I’m in. It’s what happens beyond those doors there,” he nodded at a pair of black double doors at the back of the large open cell, “that’s got my full attention. People going through those doors never come out again.”

Grimes demanded, “What are you talking about?”

“Those doors are death.”

Grimes stared at the doors then grabbed the old man by his shirt, twisting the fabric in his fist, his expression sick with fear, with realization of what might come…

Coru meant to stop Grimes, to wrestle him away from the old

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