Zero Day Read online

  Copyright © Marlon Karda

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  The Living Few:

  Zero Day

  Marlon Karda

  CONTENTS

  Prologue 5

  Chapter 1 9

  Chapter 2 15

  Chapter 3 17

  Chapter 4 22

  Chapter 5 31

  Chapter 6 41

  Chapter 7 59

  Chapter 8 72

  Chapter 9 77

  Chapter 10 90

  Prologue

  J eff Sanders gazed over the edge of the ledge at the scene below him. The two girls had already swum to the shore, while Riley and Tanner were dog paddling in the water egging them on 10 feet or so from where they had landed, after leaping off the cliff. Jeff wasn’t afraid of the leap from Craggle Rock into Wipporill Creek–he had done it many times before. But this time he had promised his friends he would do something special. He planned to pull off a full corkscrew front flip.

  He moved closer to the edge of the rock, steeling himself to make the leap, when a movement caught his eye in the brush maybe 30 yards from where Stella and Madison had exited the water, where they were drying themselves off by the shore. As his friends below yelled for him to jump, he watched with alarm as a man shambled out of the bushes, eyeing the girls below him. The man, who looked to be in his 30’s or maybe 40’s, watched the girls for a moment before moving towards them.

  Even at a distance Jeff could tell something was amiss–the man’s clothes were ripped, his face was oddly contorted, and he seemed to be shaking uncontrollably even as he picked up speed and began running towards the girls. Jeff shouted out a warning to them and begun running down the path that led from Craggle Rock to the shore below. He heard a scream before he could make it to the girls; by the time he reached them a shocking sight awaited him–the strange man had Madison on the ground on her back and was holding her down while biting her neck and face as she thrashed around, trying to escape the assault. Stella was behind the man, trying to pull him off Madison, but his shirt ripped as she pulled at it and she fell to the ground clumsily.

  Riley and Tanner reached the scene a second before Jeff. Riley, using all his high school fullback bulk, barreled into Madison’s attacker, knocking him off the girl. As the man twisted around, grabbing at Riley, Tanner kicked him full in the face. Jeff thought that would subdue the haggard man, but it only slowed him for a few seconds. Twisting to face Riley, he pulled the young man’s face toward his, mouth wide open, preparing to bite.

  Full of rage, Jeff kicked the man in the face just as Tanner had done. At the same time, Riley, who was a wrestler as well as a football player, slipped behind the man, administering a leg lock. Tanner tried to kick the man again, but the stranger jerked his head back in time to avoid the blow. Before Jeff could land another kick, the man’s arm lashed out and grabbed his leg, causing Jeff to tumble to the ground with a thud. He hit his head on a rock as he fell, drawing blood. He felt woozy, but nevertheless forced himself to get back on his feet.

  Groggily, he watched as Riley changed his hold on the thrashing man to a full nelson, trying to hold him still as Tanner readied himself for another kick. Before Tanner could strike again Stella’s sudden scream stopped him short.

  “We have to do something, she’s bleeding out,” the girl cried. Stella was using her shirt to try and staunch the bleeding, but Jeff could tell that the bites on Madison’s neck were deep enough to warrant immediate medical attention.

  “Tanner, take the girls to the car,” Jeff said. Tanner hesitated for a second, looking from Riley struggling with the crazed assailant back to Madison bleeding on the ground. “Go!” Jeff shouted. “We’ll catch up with you.” At this, Tanner ran over to Madison and helped Stella bring her to her feet.

  Jeff picked up two large rocks from the bank and approached Riley and the wildly thrashing man, who was making guttural sounds, almost growls, as he struggled. None of the stranger’s utterances were intelligible to Jeff. “He must be a tweaker,” Riley shouted as he held on for dear life while the man tried to break his hold. Jeff had to agree. Who knew what type of drugs the guy was on, but his ability to shake off two direct kicks to the face surely meant he wasn’t feeling pain the way a person who wasn’t loaded to the gills on something would.

  “Hold him steady,” Jeff said, as he held the larger of the two rocks above his head, ready to strike.

  Riley tightened the pressure of his hold on the tweaker’s neck, but as he did so the man twisted his head and sunk his teeth into the flesh of Riley’s shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain from the boy, who released his grip on the tweaker. Before the man could make another move, Jeff swung the rock at him, striking him on the back of the head. This stunned their assailant for a moment, but incredibly, didn’t stop him from twisting his body towards Jeff and attempting to rise to his feet.

  Jeff didn’t hesitate, striking the man on the side of the head with the edge of the rock as he turned, gouging a chunk out of the man’s skull. The rock slipped out of his hand as he landed the blow, which knocked the tweaker to the ground. Before the crazed junkie, if that’s what he was, could rise again, Jeff threw the other rock at him, striking him in the right eye. Riley had risen to his feet and stood beside Jeff, who yelled to him that it was time to get out of there. He didn’t care whether the attacker lived or died at this point, he just wanted to make sure they got to the hospital in time to help Madison.

  They turned to run as the man rose to his feet again. After the beating the tweaker had taken, Jeff wasn’t worried that he would catch them as they ran, no matter how high he was. It was half a mile along the path from Craggle Rock to where their car was parked. They covered the distance quickly, catching up with Tanner and the girls as they ran. Madison didn’t look good, she could barely walk, and blood was still dripping from the wounds on her neck. Jeff yelled for Tanner to run ahead and start the car, while he and Riley carried Madison.

  A minute later they had reached the side of the road. They bundled Madison into the SUV, and Riley turned onto the highway. To their shock, the haggard man shambled out of the brush bordering the road not more than 20 yards ahead of them. Jeff couldn’t imagine how the guy was still on his feet, no matter what he was on; his right eye was swollen shut and the viscera in his brain could be seen where Jeff had gouged in his skull with the jagged edge of a rock. “Finish him,” Jeff yelled, and Tanner gunned the black SUV forward, hitting the tweaker head on then rolling over his body. Stella was on the phone calling 911 as they raced down the road at high speed. They had to make it to the hospital in time to save Madison.

  ***

  Half an hour later, Jeff sat in the hospital waiting room, holding his head in his hands. They hadn’t been in time to save Madison. She had lost too much blood and succumbed to her wounds shortly after they reached the hospital. It was hard to comprehend that she was gone. How long had he known her? Since kindergarten, he thought. What was that, 11, 12 years now? It was inconceivable to him that something like this could happen in Ralston Falls. He knew there were users around town, hell, he and his friends had used some of that stuff at particularly wild parties a few times. But nothing like this had ever occurred as far as he knew.

  A junkie attacking high school girls and biting one to death? It was like something you would read about happening in New York, he thought. Or Los Angeles, or Chicago. Not that there weren’t a lot of good people in those cities of course–but those massive metropolises were so large that seemingly inconceivable things were likely to happen there from
time to time.

  That wasn’t all. He hadn’t told the others yet, but after they had run over the crazed tweaker he had looked out the back window as they drove away. Riley had too for a moment before turning around to help Stella with Madison. Jeff had kept looking behind them. Just as the road had started to bank left, eclipsing their view of the tweaker lying on the road, Jeff had seen a sight which chilled him to the bone–the man had suddenly risen to his feet, his arms twitching as he looked in their direction.

  Chapter 1

  30 Days Before

  C arl Rath looked at his watch. It was 2:30 PM. Where was Dirksen, he wondered. The man was rarely, if ever, late, and here it was half an hour past the time of their appointment. At least he could console himself with the view. He’d been in the FBI’s Seattle field office for a little over a year now, but he always marveled at the natural beauty of the area. Sprague Park offered a panoramic vista of Puget Sound, and Carl found himself so enamored of the natural beauty before him that he didn’t realize Dirksen had arrived, until his fellow agent grabbed his arm.

  “Good thing I wasn’t looking to mug a random suit-wearing individual in Sprague Park,” Dirksen said. “Otherwise you’d be out a wallet and those fine-looking shoes by now.”

  “I admit I was taken in by the view, but from a situational awareness standpoint I can also say that, given the low crime rate here in Sprague Park, my inattentiveness was at least statistically unlikely to put me in much danger.” Dirksen regarded him impassively as he spoke, waiting for him to get to the point.

  “Besides, you’re just trying to distract me from pointing out how late you are, which is the more significant phenomenon, given your reputation as a timeliness freak.” Carl had joined the FBI at the same time as Dirksen and gone through training with him–where the two of them had enjoyed ribbing each other whenever the opportunity presented itself.

  “It sounds to me more like you’re trying to distract me from pointing out how situationally unaware you just were. What would J. Edgar Hoover say if he heard one of his top agents had been mugged in a park because he was taking in the view?”

  “Probably the same thing he would say if an agent showed up 30 minutes late for a meeting with him.”

  Dirksen laughed at that. “Touche. Although, after your experience in Denver I would have thought you might be a bit jumpy when out in public.”

  “That . . . experience ended, as far as kinetic action goes, once the last guy who took a shot at me was killed, as far as I’m concerned. Do you know something about the situation that I don’t?”

  “Absolutely not. I just want to make sure you’re not getting complacent now that you’ve been transferred to a more peaceful locale. Not that Denver necessarily had a rep for being a hardcore posting. Not until you showed up, anyway.”

  Carl smiled at that. “I thought the same myself, until I discovered just how violent producers of illicit anabolic steroids can be when cornered.”

  “Didn’t that cult the gunman was supposedly affiliated with have something to do with it. Tellus Rex, or something like that, I think was the name?”

  “That’s right, but the group always denied the shooter was anything but a rogue member who had no power in the organization. I was investigating for signs of any deeper links when they moved me to Seattle.”

  “You know the Bureau. They don’t want you to get too comfortable in one place–breeds complacency. Did the investigation go on after you left?”

  “Ryan Shaw took it over. I believe you know him. I’ve been busy here, so I haven’t been able to keep a close eye on it–but after my last talk with him my impression was that it didn’t seem to be going anywhere.”

  “Roger that.” Dirksen hesitated for a moment before going on. “In any case, it does pain me to be late, as you well know. But your office is so out of compliance that I’m working my fingers to the bone trying to update all the out-of-date firewalls.”

  “I thought your role was more focused on updating the field offices on the latest cybercrime tactics than on updating firewalls.”

  “Indeed, but I had to think up some excuse for being late, so I figured that would do as well as any.”

  “As opposed to telling me why you were really late. What’s going on Harvey? First, you’re late, and not just a little late, highly uncharacteristic, and second, why did you ask me to meet you here instead of in the office?”

  “I told you, there’s a great coffee shop just outside the park. The lattes are to die for. I can’t believe you’ve been here for more than a year and haven’t visited it yet.”

  Carl wasn’t buying it. “Try again, Agent Dirksen. I thought something might be up when you asked me here in the first place, but now I’m sure of it.”

  Harvey looked around the park, then motioned for Carl to follow him. “You’re not wrong. Let’s take a walk.” After they had moved to a secluded part of the park, Harvey scanned the area quickly before leaning in to talk to Carl, his voice low. “Look. There is something going on. Something big. I wanted to give you a head’s up, because I know you would do the same for me.”

  “Is that why you’re out here talking cybersecurity, so you could give me a heads-up?” Carl sounded skeptical.

  “I was already slated to make the rounds of selected field offices, but I did make sure that Seattle was first on the list when it came time to draw up my itinerary.”

  “Why? Why not just give me a call?”

  “Do I even need to dignify that question with an answer?”

  “Okay, I get it, this is big; but what is it? Am I in some sort of trouble? I thought I was doing okay after the Biozeme Corporation bust. The director even gave me a commendation.”

  “No, you’re not in trouble, but you’re on point with the Biozeme reference. It plays a part in what I’m about to tell you.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  Harvey took a deep breath, then started speaking again, his voice still low. “You know I’ve got some connections at the top?” Carl nodded. Harvey paused for a moment, scanning their surroundings to make sure nobody was near.

  Harvey’s father had been an agent and was friendly with the deputy director, who had taken an interest in his career at the agency. This had occasioned some jealousy among a few of the other agents, but Harvey was a consummate professional as far as Carl was concerned– he didn’t believe the man’s rise through the ranks to this point was at all unjustified. And Carl had enjoyed spending time at Harvey’s father’s house every now and then while they were in training. The elder Mr. Dirksen had been like a mentor to him, encouraging Carl in his career and offering sage advice on what it took to be an agent. Carl’s biological father had deserted Carl and his mother when he was six (“run off with some floozy,” his mother had told him), and while his stepfather had been a good man, he had kept his distance emotionally; perhaps as a result, Carl had found himself seeking out father figures in the form of mentors throughout his formative years and into adulthood.

  “Well, a week or so ago I started hearing about a potential threat to the homeland that was way beyond anything we’ve experienced previously.”

  “That sounds serious.” Carl had never thought of Harvey as prone to histrionics. The man was as unflappable as they came, in his estimation. “Beyond 9/11? Pearl Harbor?”

  “Maybe. I’m not in the inner circle here, so I can’t say for sure, but what I’ve heard so far is chilling. Apparently, they’ve tried to contain it to the very highest levels and those working directly for them–need to know only below the director level.”

  “Then how is it you know about this?”

  “Because something slipped. Whatever it is, they haven’t been able to handle it. My source got in touch with me again a couple days ago. He told me to be ready with a bugout plan, just in case things went sideways.”

  Carl could guess who Harvey’s source was. “Are you kidding me? A bugout plan? What the hell for?”

  “You know. Civil insurrection; riots;
plague; fire; famine; the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, that type of thing.”

  Carl looked at Harvey closely to see if he was joking, but the man’s face displayed no sign of levity. “Can you be more specific?”

  “Yes, after what I learned during our last talk I can. But you have to swear to me that none of what I’m telling you will ever be linked back to me. None of it.” Carl swore to it and Harvey continued: “Apparently, there has been a breach at one of the highest security bioweapons labs in the country. I don’t know the exact details, so don’t ask me, but somehow whatever they were working on there is thought to have fallen into the hands of some bad actors, and they’ve been unable to track them down or find out what they intend to do with what they’ve acquired.”

  “That’s bad news, but there have been scares like this before. What makes you think this is worse than sending anthrax through the mail, or sending bombs in the mail, for that matter?”

  “As I said, I don’t know all the details, but from what I hear, whatever this is has been used already, and it’s lethal, with no known cure or antidote. They’ve had a devil of a time covering it up so that the press doesn’t get ahold of the story.”

  Carl looked at Harvey for a moment, thinking. “Thanks for filling me in. But I’m still not sure why you’re telling me this. I appreciate you letting me know, of course, but if things continue like this, I’m sure I would have heard of it anyway. Why go to all this trouble?”

  Harvey smiled at him. “Hard to get anything by you Agent Rath, isn’t it? That’s why everyone hated you at the academy. Always acing the cognitive tests and ruining the curve for the rest of us.”

  “Spare me the sob story, Dirksen. You did well enough on the tests when you weren’t out chasing tail at a bar all night, before the day the of the test.”

  They shared a smile at the recollection. Harvey had actually been a superior student most of the time, if only to avoid disappointing his father, but the few times he had gone on a bender had been memorable enough that they stood out in Carl’s memory.