Days Of Perdition: Voodoo Plague Book 6 (23 page)

The steel door set into the roof’s bulkhead was locked with
a deadbolt and I didn’t have a key.  But the hinges were on the outside and I
did have several thermite grenades courtesy of Zemeck.  Seems he’d thought of
everything. 

Thermite grenades have been used by the US Military since
World War II to disable equipment, most commonly artillery that has to be left
behind and is at risk of being captured by an enemy.  Though they are called
grenades, there is no explosion, rather the ignition of the combination of
magnesium, aluminum and iron.  The chemical reaction quickly reaches
temperatures of 2,500 degrees Celsius and will destroy the barrel of a canon,
or the hinges on a door.

OK, so maybe he hadn’t thought of everything.  How the hell
was I going to keep the grenades in place on the hinges long enough to melt
them?  Realizing there was no way to use the thermite I raised the NVGs and
clicked on a small flashlight to examine the door.  It was set flush into a
steel frame, the exterior smooth and unbroken except for the deadbolt and a
small knob.

In frustration I grabbed the knob and tugged, surprised when
I felt the door shift slightly.  I pulled a couple more times, watching the
whole frame move when I did.  Glad that shoddy workmanship was alive and well,
I drew my Ka-Bar and inserted the blade into a narrow gap between the doorframe
and the bulkhead’s wood framing and started working it around the perimeter.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that when the door
had been set it had been held in place with small, temporary screws.  Someone
should have come along and installed the big, heavy lag bolts that were almost
certainly required for a security door, but they hadn’t.  And I wasn’t
complaining.

Pausing after I started to apply leverage with my Ka-Bar, I
looked over my shoulder at the dead pilot.  He most likely had a smaller
survival knife on him that I could use and not risk breaking a knife I might
need.  Sheathing mine I strode to the body and found a six inch, fixed blade
knife strapped to his flight vest.

Twenty minutes later I had one screw to go when Zemeck’s
baritone sounded in my ear.

“Got a few more infected arriving in the area.”  It was just
an update and he didn’t expect an answer.

I kept working in silence, finally breaking through and the
door coming free.  The top began to tilt out towards me and I let it move
enough to grasp each side and lift it free.  Shuffling sideways I set it down
then carefully lowered the top until it was flat on the roof.  I had managed to
work very quietly and was confident that unless someone had been right on the
other side of the door they wouldn’t have heard me.

The lights were on inside the casino revealing a
red-carpeted flight of stairs that led down.  Rifle up I began descending,
treading lightly and listening hard for any indication that I’d been detected. 
The area was quiet and when I reached the bottom of the stairs I found myself
in what looked like a VIP area.  That made sense, as anyone who had a
helicopter on the roof would have almost certainly been a VIP.

Looking around I spotted a row of switches and started
pressing them until the lights in the room went out.  I had to open a door to
move into the main area of the casino and I didn’t know if it was lit or not. 
Either way I didn’t want the room I was coming out of to be brightly lit and
visible to anyone who happened to be looking in my direction.

Cracking the door open half an inch I pressed an eye to the
gap and peered through.  The main area was lit, but only with dim lights set
far apart in the ceiling far overhead.  There were lots of shadows along the
walls and large pools of darkness spaced out into the distance.  Row upon row
of slot machines stretched away, none of them powered up.

I stood still for several minutes, watching and listening,
but didn’t detect any movement.  Rifle gripped with my right hand I slowly
pulled the door farther open with my left.  Poking my head out I took a quick
look in each direction and still seeing nothing of concern I swiftly stepped
through the opening, softly closed the door behind me and moved into the
closest spot that was dark.

Still clear of danger I ran to the nearest bank of slots,
rifle up and scanning in sync with my eyes.  Pausing behind the eight foot tall
row of machines I checked behind me before continuing on deeper into the room. 
I passed through two areas lit from above before pulling up in the shelter of a
giant Wheel Of Fortune slot machine.

Crouching in the dark I caught my breath when I heard a
quiet cough from the adjacent row.  Remaining stock still I listened for a
moment then checked behind me again before continuing deeper into the
building.  I kept moving like that, dash and pause, dash and pause, until I was
approaching the area where the majority of the blobs had shown on the thermal
image.

No more dashing from this point.  Slow, cautious, steady
movement.  I could hear the faint sounds of conversations and smell cigarettes
being smoked.  The aroma of food cooking threatened to start my stomach
rumbling.  I was surprised as it was the middle of the night and I’d expected
most of the people that weren’t on sentry duty to be asleep, but that didn’t
seem to be the case.

Working my way forward I stopped in a shadowy area at the
end of a bank of large slots and listened for a moment.  A couple of low
conversations and faint sounds of pots and pans being banged around. 
Flattening my body to the floor I slowly poked my head around the base of the
machine, the legs of a stool providing some camouflage.

I was near the far end of the casino from where I’d entered
and the area along the wall was better lit than the main gambling floor I’d
just crossed.  A guard carrying an AK47 rifle was walking away from my
position, presumably continuing on a set patrol.  He didn’t look particularly alert
and was focused more on the carpeted floor in front of his feet than he was on
the surroundings.  That was not unexpected and was also good for me.  They felt
secure, and even though they had posted men to patrol the building the sentries
were bored and not really doing their job.

Three men lounged around a low, felt topped table, and this
was one of the conversations I was hearing.  Two of them were smoking and there
was a half empty whiskey bottle on the table, a shot glass resting in front of
each man.  I could just make out what they were saying and listened intently
for a couple of minutes.

They were discussing organizing a fight and trying to decide
what form of payment they would accept for an entry fee; food or ammunition. 
They settled on ammunition, then moved on to women.  This part of the
conversation didn’t make as much sense at first as they seemed to be debating
which woman was the best.  Then, as I continued to eavesdrop, I got a sick
feeling in my gut when I realized they were talking about women they were
holding captive.

Raising my head slightly I made note of their weapons then
pulled back around the corner into the dark.  I started moving again, further
along the row of slot machines, sticking to the darkness and spotting and
cataloging different members of the group.  Quietly moving past a couple of
large poker rooms with glass walls I could see a lot of people sacked out in
sleeping bags in each room.

Wood paneled doors with small, oval windows set head height
led to the kitchen where the cooking smells were coming from, next to them a
man seated in front of another door that had a discreet sign on it marked
“PRIVATE”.  He looked like he was guarding whatever was in the room, a shotgun
resting in his lap.  He was dozing, his head repeatedly tipping forward until
he jerked himself back awake for a few moments.

My count was at fifty-five.  I hadn’t been able to approach
and look into the kitchen, but I made the assumption there was only one person
cooking, so I upped the number to fifty-six.  Eleven more bodies to find, and
presumably two of those would be Katie and Roach, though I hadn’t seen either
of them yet.  Continuing my cautious recon I upped my count to fifty-seven when
I spotted the next guard that was sitting in front of another glass walled
poker room.

This one was well lit and it took me a moment to realize
what I was looking at.  Here were the women the men had been discussing.  Six
of them.  All dressed in lingerie typically only seen in a strip club or
Victoria’s Secret catalog.  Where the hell had they found the clothing? 
Chastising myself for letting my mind wander to a topic that was unimportant, I
adjusted my position to get a better view into the room.

The women were stretched out on the carpeted floor,
sleeping.  They hadn’t been provided sleeping bags or even blankets and just
lay with their arms folded under their heads for pillows.  My breath caught
when I spotted one with long, wavy red hair.  She was lying with her back to
me, legs pulled up towards her body, as she was most likely chilled from
wearing next to nothing.  Between the distinctive hair and the small tattoo I
could see on her right hip, revealed by the white thong she was wearing, I had no
doubt.  It was Katie. 

“We’re in the building.”  I heard Zemeck’s voice over my
earpiece.

I was working my way back to the far end of the casino after
spotting Katie and spending some time locating as many more members of the
group that was occupying the building as I could find.  Roach and two others
were still unaccounted for, my final count four short of the sixty-seven that
had been spotted on thermal.

There was any number of reasons for the discrepancy.  The
satellite image was several hours old and people could have left.  There were
also a lot of private rooms and offices that I hadn’t been able to approach and
check without risking being spotted by a sentry.  I was thinking about all of
these as I heard the radio call and looked up to find a location to tell Zemeck
to meet me.

Each of the large banks of slot machines I was moving
through was numbered.  Large signs stuck up from the top of each group so that
they were easily visible and identifiable to the casino staff from anywhere on
the floor.  Spotting one a few rows deeper into the casino I activated my
radio.

“Meet at 42.  Four two.”  I said in a very quiet voice.

“Four two.  Copy.”  He replied then the radio went silent
again.

Changing directions I began working my way to the rendezvous
point.  I was far enough away from the concentration of people that I was once
again moving quickly from shadow to shadow, pausing every so often to listen. 
Nearing my destination I dashed to a dark area, shadowed by a row of video
poker machines labeled 38, and froze when I heard the sound of a match being
struck from the far side of area 37.

Reaching up to my vest I pressed the manual transmit button
on my radio two times in quick succession.  This would send two clicks to
Zemeck, telling him there was a problem and he needed to go still and silent
until I gave the all clear.  A moment later there were two answering clicks in
my earpiece as he acknowledged my message.

I could smell cigarette smoke now as well as see it drifting
up into the faint light above the 37 sign.  Scanning the area I didn’t see
anything other than quiet machines so I moved to the end of the bank with my
short rifle up and ready.  When I came to a stop I was close enough to hear the
burning of the tobacco as what I presumed was a sentry took a drag, a moment
later the soft sigh of his exhale clear to my ears in the quiet.

Risking a quick look I leaned out; rifle aimed and finger
moving onto the trigger.  The man was seated at the far end of the row, four
machines away from where I stood.  His back was to me as he stared towards the
far end of the casino.  Not wanting to make any noise I lowered the rifle to
the end of its sling and silently drew my Ka-Bar.

When I’d first entered the building I’d not been in a hurry
to start engaging the occupants.  They could have been survivors who sought
refuge from the infected in the security of the big casino.  They could have
been employees who had just hunkered down.  But when I’d found my wife,
obviously being held against her will and forced to dress like she was, any
hesitation to kill on my part had been removed.

Ka-Bar gripped tightly in my right hand, I took two long,
quiet strides and clapped my hand over the man’s mouth as I thrust the blade
into his kidney.  A deep strike to the kidneys will send the human body into
immediate shock, rendering it unable to fight or flee.  Pulling the knife free
I stabbed in from the side, the eight inch blade slipping between his ribs and
piercing his heart.

Maintaining my hand over his mouth I twisted the Ka-Bar to
ensure an instant kill then pulled it out and lowered the corpse to the floor. 
After wiping the blade clean on his clothing and re-sheathing the knife I took
a moment to pull the stools away from the slot machines, roll the body against
their base, then put the stools back in a neat row.  Anyone walking by would
easily see the dead man, but from a few yards away, in the shadows, he wouldn’t
be readily apparent.

Raising the rifle I scanned the area but came up clear.  Two
slow clicks on the radio let Zemeck know he was OK to move again and I turned
and headed for the 42 sign.  I arrived a few minutes ahead of them and took the
time to check two rows on either side of the location.  Both were clear of any
guards and when I moved back to the bank of machines I spotted Zemeck leading
Rachel, Martinez and Dog.

“Why’d you come inside?” I asked quietly after Dog calmed
down and quit insisting that I pet him.

“Infected showed up,” Zemeck answered in an equally soft
voice.  We were talking in mumbles, not whispers.  The sibilant sounds of a
whisper carry much farther and are more easily detected by the human ear than a
very quiet mumble.  “Too many to fight without retreating, so we came up the
rope.”

I turned and looked at Dog who thought my glance was an invitation
for more petting.

“He’s a heavy bastard, but at least he knows to stay
still.”  Zemeck said with a grin.  “So what’s the landscape?”

I filled him in on what I’d found, Rachel and Martinez
pushing in close to hear what I had to say. 

“No Roach?”  Rachel asked.

“Not that I’ve seen.”  I said.  “He could be gone, could be
in an area I couldn’t get to, or could be dead.”

She nodded and Zemeck spoke up.  “So, what’s your plan?”

I pulled out the sketch Stephanie had drawn for me and
spread it out on the floor.  With Dog pushed out of the way everyone was able
to lean in and see as I pointed out what I wanted to do.  Zemeck asked a few
questions, but kept nodding his head as I spoke.

“Rachel, will you get to Katie?”  I asked, looking up at
her.  She looked back at me and smiled.

“Yes.  I’ll make sure she gets out.”  She said, meeting my
eyes and still smiling.

“Thank you,” I said, reaching down, drawing my back up pistol
and handing it to Rachel.  “Hand her this when you get to her.  She knows how
to use it.”

Rachel nodded again and tucked the weapon into her
waistband.  We reviewed the plan one more time and when there were no more
questions I looked at each of them and thanked them for their help.  Zemeck and
Martinez nodded, slightly embarrassed.  Rachel looked back at me and I could
tell she was holding back tears.  Martinez noticed too and motioned Zemeck to
come with her and give us a moment of privacy.

“I wouldn’t be here without you,” I said to Rachel.  “I
don’t know how to thank you or tell you how much you mean to me.”

She reached out and took my hand in hers, leaning in and
kissing me.  It was a slow, soft, deep kiss, but there was sadness behind it.

“Let’s go get your wife,” she said.