Terror Rising: Book 0 – The Insurgence Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Get Rex back.”
    She took the flashlight from him, shining it
at the metal floor while tugging on the leash to pull Rex back.
    “ What do you see?” Chief Drake asked,
leaning in.
    Martinez pushed his way through and hopped
up, leaving Angela behind to watch with the others. He went to his
knees and immediately began feeling around. “Dawson’s right.
There’s something here.” He paused and felt around some more. “The
surface… it’s hollow underneath.”
    “ Stand back,” Dawson said.
    Martinez moved out of the way as Dawson
drove the crowbar into one of the joints in the floor and pushed up
with all his might, breathing hard. At first, nothing budged. He
pulled the crowbar out and jammed it in again, pushing up and
leaning on the end for leverage. A pop sounded, and the metal panel
on the floor split open.
    Captain Reynolds held the flashlight above
them, shining it into the hole.
    “ What is it?” the chief said,
squinting behind his glasses.
    Angela looked over the shoulders of her
fellow agents, staring down into the hidden compartment. She could
see it as well as everyone else: multiple canisters aligned in
rows.
    “ Canisters,” Martinez replied. “At
least a dozen of them.” More eager than ever, he stood up and
grabbed the flashlight from Captain Reynolds.
    Rex pulled toward the hidden compartment,
whimpering with intensity. Martinez then leaned down and flashed
the light into the hole to reveal dozens of plastic bottles lined
up in rows like a shelf at the grocery store.
    “ Hydrogen peroxide,” Martinez
continued. “A shitload of it.”
    Dawson pointed to a sealed metal case among
the bottles. “What’s that say?”
    Martinez shined the flashlight across the
letters, which read, “acetone.”
    “ My God,” Dawson continued.
    “ Chemicals,” Martinez said as he
turned to the group. He stood up and handed the flashlight to
Captain Reynolds and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
    “ No narcotics?” Chief Drake asked.
“What are we dealing with here?”
    “ Looks like a dirty bomb, Chief,”
Martinez replied with his hands on his hips. “Or at least the right
ingredients.”
    A hushed silence came over the agents, soon
followed by a commotion of side conversations. Angela could barely
believe it herself. Had the men they shot been terrorists? The
notion seemed more likely as she stared into the hidden
compartment. Martinez quickly hopped out of the truck with a sense
of urgency.
    “ Everyone needs to keep their
distance,” he said, waving at Dawson and Reynolds to follow him
outside. “I mean it. Stay the hell away from this truck. We don’t
know what else is in it.”
    “ Captain Martinez is right,” Chief
Drake added. “We need to get back and get a HAZMAT team in here
pronto.”
    The team seemed to agree, and everyone began
backing away, keeping a careful distance between themselves and the
truck.
    “ Where’s Dawson?” Chief Drake asked,
looking around.
    Angela was curious herself. She’d thought he
was right behind her. It got quiet, and they could hear movement
coming from the shadows in the truck.
    “ Dawson, what the hell are you doing?”
Drake shouted. “Get out of there!”
    “ Hold on, sir,” Dawson called out.
“There’s another panel here. Another compartment. I can almost lift
it.”
    Martinez stepped forward, angered. “Did you
hear the chief? Get out of there before you—”
    The explosion was surreal, silencing
everything in a violent eruption that shook the ground. Angela
couldn’t hear. One deafening blast and everyone hit the ground. The
force threw her down onto the dirt. She could feel searing heat
traveling within inches of her face. She closed her eyes and saw
nothing but dim shades of orange. When she opened them, she could
see an immense fireball launching into the sky, with the echo of
the blast traveling farther and farther and fading into the
desert.
    Smoke and fire enveloped the site, and it
was at that moment when she finally