Redaction: Extinction Level Event (Part I) by Linda Andrews Page B

forced her eye to remain open as the green beam scanned her iris. The light snapped off and time ticked down as the computer calculated the patterns and compared them to her identification pattern. “Why use a courier? Why not just email me the updates?”
    “The damned Chinese have hacked the Pentagon’s computers again. Most systems are off-line so they don’t know that our eyes in the sky are monitoring them and their burning fields.” Miles chuffed. “Everything will be couriered to you just like in Iran.”
    Mavis fingered the ridge of scar tissue running under her jaw. She hoped this assignment turned out better than the Iranian one had. The Windows icon fluttered across the screen before disappearing. From the corner of her eye, she watched the officer. No way would she let the malevolent Kewpie doll get his grubby mitts on her data. “Who will deliver it? Colonel Lynch’s duties are too important for him to act as a courier every day.”
    Miles grunted. “Colonel, who is your driver?”
    The officer’s jaw worked as if he’d been chewing on a large beetle. “Sergeant Major David Dawson, sir.”
    “Well, Sergeant Major David Dawson, you’ve just been drafted as Dr. Spanner’s personal courier.”
    Mavis nodded at the soldier. David Dawson. It was a good name, strong and true.
    “Now see here.” Colonel Lynch glared at the phone. “We’re still disposing of bodies and...”
    “You’ll have the Sergeant Major’s new orders by the time you return to base, Colonel.” Miles bit off, his irritation snapped through the line. “Dawson, you and only you are to touch that package. Keeping that information flowing may be the most important duty you’ll ever have.”
    Sergeant Major Dawson squared his shoulders. “It will be an honor, Sir.”
    “Mavis, are you sure you don’t want to come here?” Papers shuffling came over the line. “It’ll save us a lot of time. Every minute will count if this thing crosses the ocean.”
    “I’m claustrophobic.” She rubbed the goosebumps from her arm and opened her mortality modeling program. “No way are you packing me sixty feet underground with a hundred other people, quadruple bunked and breathing recycled air.”
    Gamma Base was just another name for mass tomb.
    “That’s filtered, recycled air,” Miles sighed. “And there’s lots of space in the labs.”
    “I suck at bench work.” She cracked her knuckles while the program loaded. Soon a picture of the U.S. filled her screen. “Now leave me alone.”
    “I’ll have my secretary send you the finishing school literature,” Miles chuckled. “Colonel Lynch make certain Dr. Spanner gets all the assistance she needs, and I’ll make certain the President himself places a commendation in your file.”
    The officer straightened and smoothed his rumpled, stained uniform. “Yes, sir.”
    “Mavis,” Miles voice downshifted into resignation. “Call me with the projection as soon as it’s finished. I need to know if humanity is facing an extinction level event.”

 
     
    Chapter Ten
     
     
    Manny braced one palm against the door as it swung slightly open. Eyes straining, he tried to decipher the shadows—people? Plants? Beyond the empty carport, the world was a study of silver and gray. Shifting and moving, but not rushing forward to swallow him in nothingness.
    “Irina?” His hiss accompanied the rustle of leaves.
    A scrape on the ground jerked his attention to the cement pad.
    “Here.” Hiding into the darkness sucking at the edge of the house, a large mound unfurled into spindly limbs and a thin torso. “Help me get him inside.”
    A limp arm fell in Manny’s direction. He caught the chilled flesh and bone, before crouching lower and moving his hand up to the damp armpit. “What happened?”
    “The Aspero.” Irina sobbed and straightened in the moonlight—a sharp angled version of once lush curves.
    Manny’s heart lurched and the shockwave rattled out his extremities. God, she had