Hidden

Chapter 5 - The Mission

A nudge brought Ian Black from the depths of his unconscious mind and back to the surface of reality. His head snapped up as he quickly collected his thoughts and remembered where he was. He looked in the direction of the nudge, and saw Skall looking at him from his seat across the center aisle.

"I thought you might want to meet the final member of our team," he stated matter-of-factly before looking out the window. His voice was low and gravelly. This was the first time Ian had heard him speak "We're about to land in Beijing."

China. This was their last pick-up location.

The Beijing Capital International Airport itself was beautiful. Two main buildings comprised the semi-famous location, shaped like two large arrows pointed at one another with a large line connecting them in the middle. One of the buildings had a series of runways that formed a circle behind it. It was an altogether gorgeous sight.

They touched down on one of the runways and pulled near one of the buildings to retrieve the final passenger for their long trip. Ian looked at his watch. 6:13 a.m. He was surprised he had slept so much longer than his usual six hours. But judging by the apparent severity of their unknown mission, he was going to need the extra rest.

A dark clothed figure used small, quick strides to reach the ramp to the cabin. Upon entering, the figure stood still, gazing at the passengers with a face hidden by the shadow cast from a hood. It wore a black zip-up hoodie with black jeans and white-on-black Converse sneakers. The figure finally reached up and drew back its hood to reveal the only female member of the team.

"Gentlemen," said Lassin in his strangely reassuring voice. "May I introduce to you Ling Yan-Mei of the Chinese Special Operations Battalion."

For a moment, there was silence. Then Dawson stood up with a smile and introduced himself with a firm but friendly handshake, which was quickly followed by Jason and Ian. After a few minutes of lighthearted conversation, it seemed they were finally able to bring Ling out of her shell. She began to share her story, which was in some ways similar to Dawson's.

She had been active enough to be noticed by certain agents in the Chinese government, but it was partly because her older brother had been part of one of the major triads. She went through intense training until she had become the best of their cadets and had excelled quickly when put alongside the elite squadrons.

Later, around 8:15 a.m., Lassin stood to his feet and had his flight attendant close all of the windows remotely and dim the lights. He walked to the small open area beyond the seats and pulled down a projector screen as the flight attendant wheeled out the projector on a stand.

"Please gather around," he said, his voice strong and commanding without being rude. The team followed the simple order and stood in a half-circle around the screen. He picked up a small remote and pushed a button, causing a picture of an archaeological site to appear.

"As you all know, I have been funding the excavation of an ancient structure in Turkey known as Göbekli Tepe. Until six months ago, we thought we had found all there was to it. We thought it was a temple of some sort, although we were never sure what. But then we found this."

He pushed the button again and an image of a pool filled with some black liquid came up.

"One of our men was trying to remove a stone from the lower levels to examine its elemental structure. When he pulled it out, he discovered a small hidden chamber, only a few feet high, with this inside. He described it as having a rosy scent. He immediately alerted the site supervisor, who sent a group of scientists down to take samples to figure out what it was."

A slide appeared with a picture of scientists conducting experiments on a sample of the substance.

"They discovered it wasn't a liquid at all, but rather a parasite, and a new one at that. This was three days after the discovery. We were going to find a way to seal off the pool itself when we ran into a very severe problem."

The next slide came as a complete surprise.

"Here, you can see the victims of Patient Zero, the man who uncovered the parasites. Without warning, he turned on the people around him. But he concentrated his attacks on the scientists experimenting on the parasite sample. He killed seven of them before security finally took him down. Now here comes the strange part."

Another slide came up. It showed a man's dead body with a small pile of bullets next to it. The body's clothing had holes all across the torso, and instead of a face, there was a bloody mass.

"This is Patient Zero. For some strange reason, he took eleven bullets to the chest before a shot to the head finally stopped him. After he was confirmed to be neutralized, we removed his shirt and discovered that all of the bullet wounds had healed themselves."

A wave of shock swept through the room. Only one man seemed to be unaffected.

"I take it this has something to do with this team's mission?" asked Skall. This earned a small nervous chuckle from some of the group, and Skall glared at them in response.

Nodding, Lassin replied, "Yes, and I was just about to get to that part." He gestured to the flight attendant to bring the lights back up. She came and wheeled the projector out as he moved the screen back into it's roll hanging from the ceiling.

"As you all must have noticed by now," he continued. "You have been selected as the most elite of all of the special forces agencies from around the world. The reason for this is simple: our mystery-" at this he looked at Ian. "-requires all of your skills."

He walked back to his seat and sat down facing everyone, who also returned to their seats.

"You see, the parasites have begun to spread. We have already counted over twenty-five personnel infected, and they went on to infect others. Now, your job is not what you think, to eliminate the infected."

There was a long pause as Jonathan Lassin looked into each of their eyes before he finally spoke again.

"Your mission is to protect the infected."