Pandemic

Rounding the third corner, Haldane almost jumped from his seat when the screen flashed with fire and smoke. The cameras jerked in every direction before settling again. Then the image focused on a fallen commando, lying with arms twisted over his head. "Damn it!" Paddy said and rubbed at his eyes.

Another soldier knelt forward and struggled to drag his fallen comrade back toward the entrance. The camera swept from the soldier to the far end of the corridor where four robed men had collapsed. Three of them lay awkwardly on the ground, while the fourth sat propped against a wall, gun in his lap and head tilted off to the side like he had fallen asleep at his post but the gaping wound in his face suggested otherwise.

The cameras inched toward the fallen terrorists. Haldane felt his chest tighten with each step as if he were crawling along with the soldiers down the lethal hallway, but they made it past the bodies without further incident.

One of the helmet-cameras focused on a doorway. Two soldiers kicked at the door until it swung open. No one budged for several seconds. Haldane felt the sweat forming on his brow, but he stayed as motionless as the men on the screen.

One of the commandos in front waved his hand indicating to the others to follow. The camera moved into the large open room, which resembled a big classroom except it was scattered with rugs instead of desks. Haldane wiped his brow, relieved that the men were in a more open, safer-looking space than the dangerous hallway. But the soldiers moved with the same cautious urgency. They scrambled across the floor, assuming assault positions by another doorway on the far side of the room.

Just as the cameras caught up to the soldiers, the screen flashed a single brilliant white light and went totally black like someone had switched it off.

The communications officer sitting in front of Noah ripped off his headset, as if in pain, and threw it down on the console.

Stunned, Haldane did not at first understand what he had just witnessed. Then he heard the voice of Gwen beside him. "Oh, no, please, no…"

He glanced back to the sky view of the complex, which was now swallowed in flames. Smoke wafted up so high that soon the building was shrouded and Haldane could see nothing but ominous gray.

All eyes in the van watched the dead stillness.

Minutes later, when the smoke finally cleared enough to see, three-quarters of the complex had disappeared. Haldane felt his chest sink. Tears welled in his eyes.

"Damn it!" Paddy spat and dropped his face into his hands.

* * *

The longest half hour of Noah's life passed before the call came through on Paddy's radio. Paddy spoke into the radio for a moment, clipped it back on his belt, and then turned to Haldane and Savard. "Okay, the complex—" He paused to get his voice to cooperate. "At least what's left of it is secure."

Haldane didn't ask Paddy about the soldiers trapped inside the collapsed building, because he didn't want to have the last glimmer of hope snuffed out. He forced the bleak thoughts out of his mind, pulled on his helmet and mask, and then followed Paddy and Gwen out of the van.

Haldane noted with admiration that there was no trace of emotion in Paddy's demeanor as he assembled the site survey team in front of the two waiting HMMWVs. Aside from Gwen and Noah, there were four technologists, all members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They grabbed their equipment bags — loaded with test tubes, specimen containers, and swabs — and then climbed in the backs of the all-terrain vehicles, which took off into the dark smoky night.

It was a bumpy sixteen minutes later before the vehicles turned onto a dirt road. They passed soldiers and trucks, some heading in the opposite direction and others stationary at the side of the road. In the light of the trucks and spotlights ahead, Haldane caught his first glimpse of the still-smoking complex. Most of the structure had collapsed in on itself, but the formerly attached single-story building still stood at the far end of the complex.

They exited the HMMWV about thirty yards from the building. Haldane watched as numerous medics and other soldiers frantically rummaged through the pile of rubble that represented the central part of the complex. Several of the soldiers scrambled over the stacks, trying hopelessly to budge the blocks of cement while yelling to their comrades trapped inside. Haldane was overwhelmed with a familiar helplessness. He wanted to climb on top of the rubble and dig until his hands were raw, but he knew the gesture would be as useless as the shouts and cries of the soldiers standing on the pile.

Paddy waved him over to where he stood by the entrance of the lone building left standing. "Look!" he said, his voice muffled by the face mask. He pointed down. Two soldiers flashed a bright beam on the dead enemy fighter lying by the entrance.