Read Darkness at Dawn for Free Online

of, not to mention pockets of the disease remaining in the soil, seeping down into the groundwater. But what we just saw—it’s genius, though it’s horrifying as well. They’ve figured out a way for the virus to cause the dead body to self-destruct. That ash blowing away won’t contain any viruses. So, Mr. Deputy Director, the perfect weapon might be in enemy hands. A virulent airborne disease that kills in a short time span and disposes cleanly of the body. Guaranteed to allow you to empty a country and then occupy the land.”
    “I think that’s just what we’re facing,” Montgomery said quietly.
    “Then my initial assessment was correct,” Dr. Samuels answered. “We’re fucked.”
    Mike spoke up, his mind already far along the planning stages of the upcoming mission. “Wherever that scene was, it was obviously at a high altitude in mountain terrain. High-altitude missions are what the Tenth Mountain Division does. I have a team of twenty men who are training right now in Alaska’s Granite Range at ten thousand feet. They can be airlifted—”
    Montgomery lifted a hand. “Stop, Captain. The team has already been set up. The mission will be carried out by the four people in this room. Two here and two in the field. Dr. Samuels will be the technical advisor, and I will run the field team, made up of you and Dr. Merritt.”
    That was so outrageous Mike’s jaw dropped open. He looked over at Lucy Merritt, expecting to see the same outrage, but all he saw was resignation.
    He was so angry he had to steady his voice. Montgomery might be a legend in national security circles, around since the Jurassic, but obviously he’d lost it. Going on a mission where a possible bioterror weapon was waiting at the other end, and in harsh mountain conditions, was bad enough when Mike was infiltrating with his men—the finest mountain troops in the world. Fully equipped, fully trained, with the warrior mind-set to get the job done no matter what.
    Infiltrating into a high-risk high-altitude mission with Hot Babe—no way. She was probably some hotshot analyst, probably supersmart, very probably smarter than he was. Fine. So let her stay in a heated room analyzing intel. He and his men would be the point of the spear, and no one more than him knew how deadly it was there.
    Maybe Hot Babe had a genius IQ, but she’d last ten minutes, tops, at minus forty degrees.
    Mike had a lot of experience talking to shit-for-brains superiors, with crazy-ass ideas that sounded fantastic in a room but were a recipe for death in the field. So he put reason and firmness in his voice, while half his brain was already picking men and packing gear.
    “Sir.” He flicked a glance at the woman sitting next to Montgomery.
    Gorgeous as she was, she didn’t have a mountain climbers’ physique, lean and sinewy with long muscles. Mountain climbers, men and women, also kept themselves low-maintenance.
    She was slender but soft, hair done by a pro, nails short but manicured. Expensive clothes that couldn’t just be dumped into a washing machine. The real high-maintenance type.
    Nope, she wouldn’t last five minutes in the field. “Dr. Merritt might have special qualifications, sir, but I can assure you that my men and—”
    “Captain Shafer.” Montgomery’s voice was sharp, cutting right across what Mike was saying. “I am afraid you are laboring under a misapprehension. You’re not the mission. Dr. Merritt is. You’re just along for the ride as muscle.”
     
    IF the situation hadn’t been so truly, galactically awful, Lucy would have laughed at the expression on the captain’s face, or what was visible of it under all that hair and beard. His eyes widened and he closed his mouth with a snap.
    As it was, she could hardly stay in her seat with anxiety. Her heart thudded, and every cell in her body was laden with dread. She knew exactly what was coming next.
    Uncle Edwin had put up a photograph on the huge monitor. The Palace in Chilongo,