“I have not, sir.”
Interesting. Lake had the rare characteristic of lacking a moral compass to mess with his life, and Bret could appreciate that fact. A part of him wanted to infect Lake just to see what he could become, but another part counseled caution. First, he didn’t want to lose the man who’d walk through fire for him, and second, he didn’t need Lake any stronger and smarter than he already was. “You are a true soldier, Greg,” Bret said.
Lake’s chin rose. “Thank you, Mr. President, although so far I’m failing you in the most important mission, considering I personally chose the men for the Elite Force.”
“Yes, but that’s not entirely your fault,” Bret said, tugging on a small USB drive he wore on a black cord around his neck. His Harmony USB drive. All of her research as well as Nora McDougall’s research was on it. He understood most of their findings and knew more information was at the damn Myriad Labs. Why the former president had kept it top secret was beyond him, and more than a little frustrating, considering Bret had killed him before gaining the information.
The flash drive also held Bret’s pictures of Lynne, and if he wanted, he could get somebody to rig an old laptop with a generator just to see her. Although he had plenty of pictures in his paper file, which he looked at nightly. “Lynne’s uncle was a retired cop, and a damn good one. Obviously, he was also very good at disappearing. Not every soldier can be that, ah, effective.”
Lake’s jaw hardened, and a vein stood out in his neck. “I will make sure we find her, sir.”
“I believe you. She has been steadily traveling west, and if she continued her trajectory, she has to be somewhere between Arizona and the Pacific. We will find her.” Bret tapped his fingers on the desk. “She’s heading west to find Myriad. Are we any closer to locating it?”
“No. The only intel we’ve gathered is that Myriad is in California.”
Another knock rapped on the door.
Lake instantly shot to his feet and stood at attention.
“Enter,” Bret said, eyeing the canister of Scotch on the far counter. He hadn’t had a drink all day.
A young soldier entered. “Sir? We’ve had contact with a community just outside of Lake Havasu City in Arizona. Five families, basically scavenging to live.”
Bret sat back. “So?”
“They helped Lynne Harmony for two nights,” he said.
Lake pivoted around. “Are they sure?”
The soldier swallowed. “Yes, sir. She was by herself, no doubt recovering from our shooting her uncle in Tucson, and they gave her food and shelter. On the second night, one of them caught the glow from her heart through her shirt, so she ran. They haven’t seen her since, but after our message, they’re afraid they’ve been infected with the stronger strain of the Scorpius bacteria.”
There was no stronger strain. Bret fought the heat of fury at hearing Lynne had escaped once again. His temperament hadn’t returned to normal after the infection, and he had to fight to control himself. “You know we invented the rumor about her in order to get people to call us back, right?”
The kid widened his stance. “Yes, sir.”
Bret focused on Lake. “How many men do we have with us?” He’d had to spread his new units out across the country gathering intel, food, and weapons as well as protecting crucial resources.
“We have twenty-five on this mission, sir,” Lake said.
“Good. Send three seasoned men to meet with the families and get all information they might have. By any means necessary.” Bret played with a pure silver letter opener that would look beautiful piercing a traitor’s throat. “Then kill them.”
The kid at the door sucked in air. “They’re just families, sir.”
“You’re excused,” Lake snapped.
The kid wobbled and then disappeared.
Lake shook his head. “The kid can shoot but lacks mental strength. He was a college kid before Scorpius.”
Bret gripped the letter opener. “You can strip him down mentally and retrain him. I have confidence.”
“Yes, sir.” Lake’s head lifted at attention. “About the five families. At some point, we’re going to rebuild society, and we’ll need, well, civilians. For the menial work.”
True. Bret sighed. “To imagine that one year ago, the United States had more than 300 million citizens.” Scorpius had truly thinned out the herd. “Now we have, what? Much less than 1 percent of our population survived; even fewer have not yet been exposed to Scorpius. At our last guess, we still have maybe five hundred thousand citizens spread throughout the country.” Many of them farmers who were off the grid and far enough from cities not to be infected. “We can take out five families who dared to help Lynne Harmony.” They were lucky he didn’t order them tortured first.
Lake nodded. “Yes, sir. Speaking of countries, any news from abroad?”
“No.” Bret swallowed. “We have no idea of the status of North Korea, Russia, or even the Middle East. They closed their borders when Scorpius began to spread, and I haven’t heard whether they were successful or not.” He needed more troops and now. “We have to assume they contained the bacteria better than we did, and at some point, they’ll attack us.”
Lake shook his head. “With all due respect, I don’t believe anybody contained Scorpius. At least we have several pilots and secured planes.”
“I know, but fuel and maintenance are issues.” Bret twirled the letter opener. “Scorpius swept through our military bases as quickly as it did the cities. We were not prepared.” Now that he was president, he’d do a much better job of keeping his people alive.
There was a reason he’d lived when so many others had died. He’d fulfill his purpose. He was born for this.
He reached for a map to spread on the desk, eying the circles around various known survivor groups. “These are the groups we know have some sort of leadership.” And fighting ability. “When we have time to focus, we should take out the Mercenaries.”
“Yes.” Lake glanced down. “After we secure Lynne Harmony, we’ll double our efforts to reach out and start rebuilding the rule of law. Right now, these rogue gangs are living under their own leadership. That must stop.”
Bret tapped a finger on Los Angeles. “Any news about L.A.?”
Lake nodded. “From our ham radio contact, it seems the same. Several rebel groups vying for food and resources, the most powerful still being led by Jax Mercury.”
Ah, the special-ops soldier who had banded together a group in L.A. while there was still television and Internet. Known for his skills and brutality dealing with the enemy, he’d become almost a folk hero in less than a month, and everybody had been warned to stay out of L.A. if they didn’t want to join his Vanguard group. Bret rubbed his chin. “After we find Lynne, we should reach out to Mercury. He’s still in the service and will follow orders.”
“Yes, sir.”
Bret eyed the door. “Dismissed.”
Lake made a perfect pivot and marched from the room.
Bret stood and reclaimed the letter opener while igniting a lantern as he moved. He might not have Lynne yet, but he did have a woman to deal with. His boots clomped on the dusty tile as he walked through the kitchen to a small doorway for a storage room for pool items.
Now a woman sat in the corner, a chain around her ankle, her hair falling into her face. She lifted her head when he set down the lantern, hazel eyes blinking awake.
He let the letter opener glint in the muted light. While he didn’t like this part of his job, he’d do whatever was necessary to lead the country. “Did you have a nice nap, Vivienne?”
She didn’t answer. A bruise spread an angry purple and yellow across her cheekbone from when he’d lost his temper the day before.