Operation Sea Mink Read Online Free PDF Page A

then dropped the M27 and Gilboa at the market’s sliding glass doors.
    “It was nice seeing you again, Alex. Keep up the good work,” Samantha said.
    One of her Infected knocked on the cracked glass. Then like a pack of spooked gazelles, they sprinted off in the other direction.
    Du Trieux ran forward, snatched up her Gilboa and the M27, and tossed it back to him. She took aim at the backs of Samantha’s herd as they scattered, but didn’t take a shot. She lowered the rifle and glared at Miller so fiercely, he actually blinked.
    “What the fuck...” she began.
    Just then, the market doors slid open and there stood three more Infected. It took a matter of seconds for Miller to realize these were different from Samantha’s group. Their eyes were wider, glassier, even more distant; and they had a rash of fungus growing up each of their arms and veined across their faces.
    With a violent surge the Infected thrust forward, reaching with their fungal-infested hands toward du Trieux’s face. With a quick burst, Miller opened fire and shot them down.
    At the noise, three more spilled from the opening. Du Trieux used the butt of her rifle to knock them back, trying to get far enough away to open fire. Without their hunting knives or sidearms, they pulled back quickly, shooting at will as a horde of Infected spilled from the building.
    Only after the Charismatic entered the street and returned fire did Miller realize that Samantha had led them straight into a trap.
    Shouldering his M27, Miller aimed and fired, hitting the Charismatic between the eyes, and sending the surrounding horde into a panic.
    “Trix!” he bellowed.
    “ Oui !” she answered at equal volume.
    And, together, they turned on their heels and ran.

 
    3
     
     
    M ILLER PACED THE confines of his cell, spun around, and stalked back in the other direction.
    What utter and complete bullshit .
    He did not punch and shoot his way out of an Infected commune and come all the way back to the compound— on foot —through the wilds of New York City, fighting terror-jaws and slapping away packs of hungry rat-things, just so they could throw him in quarantine like a dog that had gotten off its leash.
    He was so angry that when they came to take a tissue sample from his mouth, he almost bit the swab in half.
    Not to mention the way they had treated du Trieux.
    It made his fists clench to think of it. How they wrenched her arm behind her and pushed her off and away from him as soon as they’d crossed the compound’s threshold. As if she were under arrest. As if she were resisting, which she wasn’t.
    He understood they thought they’d been infected. He got that. But didn’t they understand that if he and du Trieux had been infected, they wouldn’t have been able to come back to the compound? They would have already communed with the others and the pheromones would have kept them with the Infected.
    Did they really not understand how that worked by now?
    Of course, there had been that bomber. He’d been an Infected inside the compound. Why hadn’t the pheromones kept him with his commune? But still, he was an unknown refugee, a stranger amongst the masses. Miller and du Trieux were members of the security team—a part of the inner workings of the compound—and shouldn’t have been treated like common terrorists.
    Miller shook his head at his own logic. There was no sense in spinning his wheels until he knew what they wanted, or why they were putting him on ice.
    The only explanation that made any sense to him was that they must have known how they’d been held by Samantha, and they wanted to know what he’d said to her, and vice versa.
    But how could they know that, though—that’d he’d seen her? The security forces at the gate had ‘arrested’ them seconds after their return. Miller and du Trieux hadn’t even had the chance to tell them what had happened.
    Had Morland or Hsiung seen them get taken by the Archaeans?
    Maybe, but unlikely. Neither of