Enemy Within (Jack Forge, Lost Marine Book 7) by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2019-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

Beretta leaned back in the chair and looked across the command deck. The central holostage showed him the image of the civilian transport. Red dots on the green line diagram of the ship showed him the locations of the crazed civilian hordes. Inset was the image of the old chemist, looking nervous. Beretta wanted him focused and calm.

“Take your time and get it right, but don’t take too long. Do you understand me?”

Sounds in the background from the laboratory drew the old chemist’s attention and he looked away. It sounded like doors sliding open.

The old chemist called out in panic.

“No! Get out. Lock the door.”

Beretta leaned toward the holoimage as a wild civilian came into the holoimage field and fell onto the old chemist. The chemist held up his hands to fend off his attacker. The civilian’s eyes were wide and red, their mouth foaming, and they tore into the old chemist tooth and nail.

The thug in the corner drew a pistol and fired at the civilians, killing several before more came pouring in and slammed into him, pressing him to the deck. Another couple of pistol shots rang out and then stopped.

Beretta zoomed out the image to show him the entire workshop. More civilians were pouring through the open door and falling onto the old chemist. The young assistant was backing away and throwing laboratory glassware at the wild-eyed civilians who came lumbering forward. They grabbed at his face and his neck and tumbled to the floor. Beretta smiled to himself as he saw the laboratory fill with a mass of crazed civilians.

“Well, that’s annoying,” Beretta said as he canceled the holocall. “I guess we’ll have to find another science team to cook up that spoiled version of the Dox vapor.”

Beretta returned the main holostage to show the outline of the civilian transport. Thousands of civilians filled kilometer after kilometer of corridor space, and the red hazy blobs showed where the civilians roamed in crazed bands. And there, at one location, Beretta spotted a small group that were not registering with any civilian ident chips. They were moving out of the secondary supply hangar.

Instinctively, Beretta knew this was a group moving against him. He zoomed in using the security sensor grid and immediately saw the two black-clad Fleet Intelligence enforcers moving ahead of a group of Marines in tactical suits. Behind them, two Marine officers and a Fleet Intelligence agent followed, the three of them wearing emergency breathing masks.

Beretta tapped away on the command chair’s armrest console and identified all the sealable hatches on the ship’s security systems. He began to seal the hatches behind the small group, far enough behind so they didn’t hear and realize their retreat was being cut off. Then Beretta sealed the hatchways ahead of several groups of crazed civilian hordes.

“I guess I’ll have to work with what I’ve got,” Beretta said as he continued to corral the horde and send them against the squad moving through the lower decks of the ship.

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