Triple Threat - James Patterson Page 0,61

answers. Shit, I just captured one feral human in the wild, then killed a second with my bare hands! So I think I grasp its ‘severity’ very well, thank you. But right now, all I care about is my family. Are they all right? Please. Tell me. Did they arrive safely in Idaho?”

Fileri frowns. “I don’t know anything about that. My orders came directly from the Pentagon, as soon as they learned your plane had gone down. Full-steam to its last known position, rescue any survivors, bring them back to base—”

“I understand that. And I’m very grateful. But what I’d be even more grateful for right now is an encrypted satellite phone.”

Fileri’s eyes narrow. So I explain.

“To speak to the White House. They’re expecting my call. To tell me, now that Freitas is out of commission, how the commander in chief would like us to proceed.”

As I’d hoped, those were the magic words.

Even if they were a big fat lie.

Of course I’ll try to get ahold of somebody close to the president, maybe her chief of staff again, to find out how I’m supposed to get back to the rest of the team running the show now, and what the hell we’re supposed to do next.

But obviously my first call is going to be to the Idaho National Laboratory.

Captain Fileri exits the room. He reappears a few minutes later with a bulky black wireless phone, promising to check in on me again shortly.

As soon as he’s gone, I tap the arm of the friendly nurse still tending to me. “Sorry, I know you’re busy, but you must have a smartphone on you, right?”

Thankfully, she does. Even more thankfully, cell service on the island is still working. Within seconds she’s done me a huge favor: she’s googled the Idaho lab’s main number. I can’t dial it fast enough.

It rings.

“Come on, pick up,” I whisper under my breath.

The line rings again. Then again.

I’m bursting with anticipation now. I can’t stand it.

Another ring. Then another.

By the eighth ring, my cautious excitement has been replaced by a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I’m calling the main switchboard, in the middle of a workday, at a major federal scientific facility. There should be someone there to answer the damn phone!

Chapter 31

“She’s coming! Run!”

Clutching Eli in her arms, Chloe follows the command without question as screams and gunshots ring out nearby.

She quickly falls into step with a stream of other scientists and lab personnel all racing down a long corridor tinged with the smell of smoke.

Running for their lives.

All across the biological sciences wing, red lights are flashing and a shrill alarm is blaring. The warning system was designed to be used if a poisonous chemical or deadly pathogen was accidentally released into the air.

Today it’s sounding for an even more terrifying reason.

A feral human being—captured in South Africa and brought here for study, nicknamed “Helen”—has just escaped.

The chaos began only minutes ago. As a distracted researcher was preparing to conduct a brain biopsy on her, Helen somehow managed to swipe a scalpel off the instrument tray, cut through her restraints—then slice open the scientist’s jugular vein.

A rabid woman on the loose with a surgical blade would be scary enough. But Helen is scary clever, too. When armed guards charged into the research lab, she leapt out from a hiding spot, overpowered one, stole his pistol, and gunned down the rest. Then she took to stalking the halls, shooting at anyone and everyone she saw.

Chloe can feel her heart thudding in her chest. Eli is crying and clutching onto her tight. People are pushing and shoving. It’s chaos.

And the smoke and gunshots are getting closer.

Chloe had first heard rumors while she was still living as a virtual prisoner among those freakish cult members in France that the animal affliction had begun spreading to people. Given her science background and all she knew about HAC, she dismissed it as utter nonsense, scientifically impossible. Just more of their crazy ranting.

But soon after she and Eli were rescued by American security forces and put on a plane to be reunited with her husband, she learned that Oz was on his way back from Japan, where he’d just captured a feral human.

Suddenly it didn’t sound so crazy after all.

Chloe rounds a corner, which leads to an indoor courtyard of sorts, one that branches off into four separate corridors.

The scientists scramble every which way, but Chloe wants to be smart. She wants to run to an exit—not run in