Pale Horse (A Project Eden Thriller) Read online

  PALE HORSE

  Praise for the Project Eden Thrillers

  “Sick didn’t just hook me. It hit me with a devastating uppercut on every primal level—as a parent, a father, and a human being.”—Blake Crouch, author of Run

  “A gem of an outbreak story that unfolds like a thriller movie and never lets up, all the way to the last page. Absolutely my favorite kind of story!”—John Maberry, New York Times bestselling author

  “Not only grabs you by the throat, but by the heart and gut as well, and by the time you finish you feel as if you've just taken a runaway train through dangerous territory. Buy these books now. You won't regret it.”—Robert Browne, author of The Paradise Prophecy

  “Like a fever, Sick makes you sweat and keeps you up all night, wondering what the hell is happening. It'll make your heart race like someone shot you with an EpiPen. You think Battles was badass before? He just cranked it up to 500 joules. CLEAR!”—PopCultureNerd.com

  “Brett Battles at his best, a thriller that also chills, with a secret at its core that's almost too scary to be contained within the covers of a book.”—Tim Hallinan, author of the Edgar-nominated The Queen of Patpong

  ALSO BY BRETT BATTLES

  THE JONATHAN QUINN THRILLERS

  Novels

  THE CLEANER

  THE DECEIVED

  SHADOW OF BETRAYAL (US)/THE UNWANTED (UK)

  THE SILENCED

  BECOMING QUINN

  THE DESTROYED

  Short Stories

  “Just Another Job”—A Jonathan Quinn Story

  “Off the Clock—A Jonathan Quinn Story

  “The Assignment”—An Orlando Story

  THE LOGAN HARPER THRILLERS

  LITTLE GIRL GONE

  EVERY PRECIOUS THING

  THE PROJECT EDEN THRILLERS

  SICK

  EXIT 9

  PALE HORSE

  ASHES (Fall 2012)

  STANDALONES

  Novels

  THE PULL OF GRAVITY

  NO RETURN

  Short Stories

  “Perfect Gentleman”

  For Younger Readers

  THE TROUBLE FAMILY CHRONICLES

  HERE COMES MR. TROUBLE

  PALE HORSE

  Brett Battles

  A PROJECT EDEN THRILLER

  Book 3

  What Came Before

  TIME IS RUNNING out for the human race. First it was the test, a contained release of the KV-27a virus by its creators at Project Eden. It proved so successful that the world gave it a name, the Sage Flu, and collectively breathed a sigh of relief when it seemed to burn itself out.

  It left its scars, though, on Army Captain Daniel Ash and his children, Josie and Brandon. His wife was one of the Sage Flu’s first victims, and he was later accused of being the man responsible for its release. Ash had nothing to do with the spread of the disease, but he did plan on doing something to keep it from happening again.

  Aligning himself with a group that worked out of a secret facility in Montana, calling itself the Resistance, Ash, along with several others, went in search of the Project’s headquarters, a place known as Bluebird, in hopes of stopping Project Eden’s true plan—the removal of over ninety-nine percent of mankind so that humanity could have a restart.

  He found Bluebird on Yanok Island above the Arctic Circle, where he ran into former Project member Olivia Silva. She, too, had been looking for Bluebird, but while it seemed their goals were the same, she was not entirely forthcoming.

  Back in Montana, at the Resistance’s headquarters known as the Ranch, a Project Eden attack squad was spotted heading their way. Having no choice, Resistance leader Matt Hamilton sealed up the underground bunker where members were hiding. Two people were not able to make it inside on time. One was Daniel Ash’s son, Brandon.

  At Bluebird, Ash, Olivia, and the people they’d brought along took over the Project Eden control room. Ash was relieved when they were able to stop the virus’s release, but the feeling was short-lived as Olivia revealed her true plan and input the go code.

  As her finger hovered over the keyboard, Ash aimed his gun at her, and…

  And I looked, and behold a pale horse;

  and his name that sat on him was Death,

  and Hell followed with him.

  —Revelations 6:8

  IMPLEMENTATION DAY

  THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22nd

  World Population

  7,176,323,921

  Change Over Previous Day

  + 280,229

  1

  BLUEBIRD, YANOK ISLAND

  11:03 AM CENTRAL STANDARD TIME

  DANIEL ASH LOCKED eyes with Olivia Silva, his gun held out in front of him.

  For a moment it was as if time itself had frozen solid.

  Then the corner of her lip curled up in the slightest of smiles.

  Oh, God. No!

  Even as he thought this, he squeezed the trigger, but her finger was already plunging toward the ENTER key.

  2

  RIDGECREST, CALIFORNIA

  8:25 AM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME

  MARTINA GABLE’S PLAN had been to sleep as late as possible. She’d arrived home the previous evening, after spending the first few days of her winter break getting in some extra workouts at Cal State University Northridge’s athletic facility. Like most freshmen, she had wanted to come home right away, but she knew if she put in a little more time at the gym, it would go a long way toward scoring points with Coach Poole and the other members of the softball team’s staff. As good as she had been at the game in high school, she was just one of a hundred or so equally talented players at the university vying for a spot on the squad.

  It had been a good move. Only two other freshman girls and one sophomore had hung around, and the coaches seemed both annoyed that more hadn’t stayed and pleased that Martina and the other three were there.

  Instead of trying to one-up the other girls, Martina had gotten them to work together, helping each other like teammates would. It wasn’t any kind of strategy on her part; she was just good at that kind of thing. But it was clear from the comments she received from the coaches before she left that her leadership skills had not gone unnoticed.

  Finally, once the staff had left for the break, she drove the two and a half hours back to her hometown.

  Sleeping in her own bed for the first time in months, she was sure she wouldn’t open her eyes until noon, but by eight o’clock she was wide awake. With a groan, she pushed the covers back, swung her legs off the bed, and pulled on the running clothes she'd laid out the night before.

  Five minutes later, she was out the door, and heading east toward town. When she’d left for college that August, it had been blazing hot. That was to be expected, of course. Ridgecrest was located at the northern edge of the Mojave Desert, so blazing hot in summer was the norm.

  Winter was a different thing altogether. Most days wouldn’t rise above fifty degrees and many were considerably colder. On this particular morning, three days before Christmas, the temperature was hovering just above freezing. If it had been cloudy, there would have been a good chance for some snow, but the sky, as it was most days, was clear.

  As soon as she reached that blissful state she always felt when she ran, the cold became a distant memory and her mind turned to other things, like the gifts she still had to buy for her parents and a couple of her high school friends she was getting together with that evening. And, of course, Ben.

  On she went, past the track homes, the churches, then down through the old business district on Balsam Street. Would it be tacky to get her dad a gift card to Home Depot or someplace like that? Probably, but it would be so mu
ch easier, and he’d undoubtedly be happier in the end.

  You can’t do that, she told herself. Just talk to Mom. She’ll know what he wants.

  A car horn honked, the driver waving and smiling as the vehicle passed by. It was Mrs. Henson, one of the secretaries at Burroughs High School.

  Martina waved back, then returned to her thoughts of Christmas and her parents and her almost boyfriend. There had been several days that previous spring when she was sure she’d never see another summer, let alone Christmas, but she’d been one of the lucky ones who’d survived after contracting the Sage Flu during the outbreak. That was a nightmare she never wanted to live through again, yet if it hadn’t been for the quarantine, she and Ben would have never met.

  The truth was, though she didn’t know it, she could never live through a hell like that again. At least not in the way she did before. Her exposure to the virus had given her immunity. So if the Sage Flu bared its fangs again, she would not fall victim.

  Of course, the same couldn’t be said about nearly everyone else she knew.

  MONTANA

  9:35 AM MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME

  LIZZIE DEXEL WAS not a typical recluse. She had lived, if not quite thrived, for many years right in the middle of Denver, Colorado. It hadn’t been easy, and she had been prone to the occasional panic attack, but she had made it work. She’d even had a couple friends. Well, one work friend, anyway. When she left for the day from the accounting office where she was employed, she would go straight home, make some dinner, and watch Animal Planet until it was time to go to sleep. She had no pets. She liked cats, but was allergic, and dogs took too much work. So she contented herself with watching them on TV.

  When her brother Owen died, things had changed. He’d been even worse with crowds than Lizzie. The one time he had visited her in Denver, he had barely left her apartment, and when he did, his eyes watched every face he passed. He was much happier in his isolated home in Montana, where he was able to feed his paranoid belief of a coming war.

  That’s where his body had been found. He’d been chopping wood behind his house and had apparently suffered a heart attack. If Lizzie hadn’t become worried because he wasn’t answering her calls, it could have been months before anyone found him. As it was, his body lay on the ground for nearly two weeks before the sheriff drove out and checked, giving the bugs and the animals plenty of time to take what they wanted. Needless to say, it was a closed casket funeral.

  Being the only one Owen kept in contact with, Liz had inherited his house. At first she thought she’d sell it, but after spending a week there going through his things, she found she liked the solitude. She thought if she did a little redecorating, and lost the survivalist theme, his place would actually be nice.

  Back in Denver, she had worked out a deal with her firm to work remotely from Montana.

  It didn’t take much to convince her bosses that it was a good idea. She did great work, but was a bit of an oddball in their view, kind of a loner who had a paranoid streak in her. She, of course, would have said the description fit her brother, not her, but she never really had been good at seeing the truth about herself.

  At the end of summer, she moved permanently to Montana, and settled into her new life. The only times she saw anyone in the months that followed were on the two occasions she’d gone to town for supplies. No one ever visited her house, and she believed no one ever would.

  It was probably for the best that she didn’t realize how soon that belief would be shattered.

  OUTSIDE MUMBAI, INDIA

  9:12 PM INDIAN STANDARD TIME

  THE ROAD SANJAY and Kusum had been traveling on was really no more than two rutted tire tracks running through a stretch of wilderness outside their home city of Mumbai.

  Sanjay had been forced to drop their speed to a crawl, so that the front tire wouldn’t get caught in a hole and fling them both to the ground. Kusum’s arms were tight around his waist, but he knew she was only trying to hold on, not showing him any kind of affection.

  Despite his protests, she’d been right when she accused him of kidnapping her. But what choice did he have? When he’d found his cousin Ayush dying in a makeshift hospital room, then learned the truth about the “miracle malaria spray” they had both been hired to help douse the city with, he’d had no other option. The spray had nothing to do with saving lives. In fact, quite the opposite. They and others hired by Pishon Chem would be covering Mumbai with the same deadly virus from which Ayush had been dying. Sanjay had stolen some vaccine, talked Kusum into joining him for lunch, then kept driving the motorcycle he’d rented until they were well out of the city.

  He’d done it to save her. He had to save her. She was all he ever thought about, all he cared about—especially now that Ayush was surely dead. If that meant kidnapping her, then so be it.

  When he’d stabbed the needle into her arm, and injected her with the life-saving vaccine, she had all but flown into a rage, thinking he had drugged her. He’d tried to explain what he had seen and learned, but naturally she didn’t believe him.

  “I promise if I’m wrong, I will take you back and turn myself over to the police,” he told her. Finally, she had reluctantly agreed to stay with him.

  As they came around a turn, Sanjay immediately jammed on the brakes. The back of the bike fishtailed right, then left, before stopping at an angle to the road.

  Kusum immediately released his waist. “What’s wrong?”

  “There.” He nodded at the road ahead.

  A pool of water, perhaps twenty meters across, covered the road. He didn’t think it was very deep, but knew it would be better to cross it in daylight to be safe.

  “We’ll stay here.”

  She looked around. “Stay where?”

  “Here.”

  “In the jungle?”

  “It’s not that much of a jungle. We’ll be fine.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “It’s just for one night.”

  “I’m not sleeping here.”

  “Fine. You can stay awake.”

  He gunned the engine, circled the bike around to the way they’d come, then turned into the wilderness and drove them back amongst the trees and bushes until he found a wide spot that would work for their camp. Killing the engine, he flipped down the kickstand, but Kusum didn’t move.

  “Please,” he said. “Get off.”

  “I will not.”

  “Well, I’m getting off, and when I do, you’ll fall.”

  She huffed in frustration then climbed off the seat, making sure her foot kicked him as she did. Once he was off the bike, he stretched, and retrieved the bag he’d strapped to the handlebars that contained the food they picked up earlier.

  He sat down in the small clearing and opened the bag. “Have something to eat.”

  “I am not hungry,” she said.

  “You need to eat. It’s important.”

  “I told you, I am not hungry.”

  “All right.”

  He pulled out the container of vada pav, quickly ate two pieces, then took the bag with the remainder back to the motorcycle and hung it over the handlebars so insects would be less likely to find it.

  “When you get hungry, it’s here.”

  He stretched out on the undergrowth and glanced at Kusum. “If you’re not going to eat, you should at least try to sleep.”

  “I told you, I am not sleeping here.”

  “Kusum, please. I am not your enemy. What I have done is only because I care about you.”

  She glared at him, her eyes full of fire. “If you cared about me, you would have taken me home already.”

  In a few days, you will see how much I care, he thought, but he said nothing, hoping he was wrong.

  Hours later, he stirred, his eyes opening for just a moment. Kusum was on the ground a foot away from him. Tentatively he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. At first she tried to pull away, but then she stopped. A moment later, she scooted back against him, and h
e could feel her body shake as she cried.

  3

  THE RANCH, MONTANA

  10:10 AM MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME

  THE RANCH WAS on fire.

  The dormitory, by far the smaller of the two buildings of the Resistance’s headquarters, was already well on its way to total destruction. Even if a hundred firefighters had been on site, there would have been nothing they could do.

  The Lodge was a different story. Though it too was being consumed by flames, there would have still been the possibility of saving some of the structure, given its massive size. But the nearest fire crew was over seventy miles away, and they had received no emergency call.

  Nor would they.

  Just before ten a.m., three helicopters and several ground vehicles had been spotted rushing toward the Ranch. There was no question who had sent them, or what their purpose was. They were a Project Eden attack squad, coming to eliminate everyone there.

  “Full cover,” Matt Hamilton, the head of the Resistance, had ordered.

  Giant impenetrable doors had been sealed, locking everyone into the large underground bunker deep below the Lodge, and the self-destruction of the two surface buildings was triggered. The burned wreckage would block the two main entrances into the Bunker, and, Matt hoped, keep the killers above from finding a way in.

  “Don’t worry,” Rachel Hamilton said. “Jon will keep him safe.” She was Matt’s sister and closest advisor, so it wasn’t surprising she knew exactly what he was thinking.

  “I know,” he said, though he wasn’t as sure as she was.