Oculus (Oculus #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

you.” I offer her a look that I hope carries every bit of my doubt and she laughs. “I’m not kidding. Let them worry about their security protocols and perimeters. Your strength is not just your ability to take down a target. It’s finding a way to do so when it seems impossible. You can still get each and every one of them, Sic. Now come on, let’s get you some breakfast.”
    Our day hasn’t gotten any better. After we eat, the reports pour in over HAM radio. Operators up and down the coast are reporting the same thing. Heavily armed troops geared up in full containment suits are searching the woods neighboring every Corp compound. It seems like a pretty lame offensive to me, so I wait anxiously for the other shoe to drop. Just before evening the figurative wooden clog hits the ground. Our dinner sits simmering on the stove, a nice bit of venison stew, courtesy of The Resistance as part of the payment for the Hector Benson job, when the radio squawks. Multiple voices fight to transmit their message.
    “I say again, drones spraying unknown substance over settlement and forest…”
    “…Soldiers maintaining a perimeter, keeping us contained in the area. Drones are saturating the woods with something…”
    “…Doesn’t appear to be a nerve agent. No apparent immediate effect…”
    The radio chatter continues late into the night. Around midnight, I hear the buzz of an approaching drone. Fortunately, we have an old gas mask and I force Anna to put it on. Part of my genetic enhancement is that I’m almost completely immune to most chemical and biological agents. I don an older gas mask hood that we’d acquired some years ago, just in case, and seal up the windows with wet cloth on the off chance the Corps drones come out this far.
    The next morning, Anna seems fine, and I feel no hint of illness. I venture out on my normal run. The spray from the drones doesn’t seem to have done anything obvious to the wildlife. None of the animals or plants are dead. Insects buzz around me as always. I’m puzzled; it’s not like The Corp to waste energy doing something that has no purpose.

    It’s been a week since the drones came. We sit down to discuss which mission I will take next and that’s when the coughing starts. It doesn’t seem like a big deal at first. The radio squawks incessantly as Anna’s body is wracked by fitful coughing.
    “…Massive sickness in settlement…”
    “…Nothing seems to touch this thing. Symptoms come on suddenly…”
    “…Relatives of Corp employees are leaving in droves for the compound. They say a cure is available there…”
    “People returning from the compound cured. Having to sign indenture contracts for medical care…”
    “The untreated are dropping like flies here. Corps is refusing treatment without contracts…”

    We sit at the table, eating a breakfast that I can’t taste. It’s the ninth day since the drone flew overhead. Anna was up hacking most of the night and looks exhausted and drawn.
    “Anna…” I search her face, hoping she’ll open up about the elephant in the room. She raises her hand as a bout of coughing steals her voice away. When she manages to catch her breath, she looks down at the cloth she was coughing into and winces. “I could just go steal you the cure.”
    “Because that would never have occurred to anyone else.” Her sarcasm is a bit more biting than usual, a true sign of how poorly she must feel. “I feel like a fool. I should have seen something like this coming. You poke the hill and all the ants come pouring out. In this case, it’s fire ants.”
    I sigh. “They must have been planning this for a while. You don’t just have bioweapons lying around, and it would have taken weeks to distribute the agent and cure.”
    She nods, her face covered again by the cloth as she coughs. Taking a rasping breath she manages to respond. “Yes. The Corp finally hit on a brilliant plan. I’m sure whoever thought it up got a promotion.