Engagement [Book 3: SEKTOR V Trilogy]

Chapter 20: Hybrid Extraction

Chapter 20: Hybrid Extraction

The past twenty-four hours had been very eventful, to say the least. Through mental communication with Troop members at the Perimeter Camp, Cairo learned that 274 highly flammable explosive charges had been put in place throughout the Zeta DC facility without any of Jake's infiltration team being detected. This was good, she thought. What was even better was the fact that the Rigel bioweapon was working more efficiently than anyone had imagined. Twenty-four hours earlier, Jake's Infiltration Team had managed to penetrate the ET command post and release an airborne variant of the ET-specific, gastrointestinal bio pathogen that Drs. Coker and Holland had perfected decades earlier. And now, it was exceedingly clear that it was working. The top two Zeta military leaders were near death. Over the past six hours, they began to experience severe internal bleeding. Both would be dead soon and there was nothing the ETs could do to stop it. In addition, Cairo had heard enough mental chatter over the past twelve hours to know that the compound's physicians were completely flummoxed and had no Earthly (or any other celestially-induced) idea what was causing the "illness" that suddenly confronted them.

The Troop's apparent "success" helped explain the giddiness that currently surrounded her at the Resistance Command Center (RCC). While Cairo understood the emotional response given the enormous pain and suffering that Humanity had experienced at the hand of the Greys, it nevertheless bothered her. The periodic waves of vitriolic hate mixed with feelings of "joy" that she sensed were quite literally starting to make her sick.

"Had we become them? Was pure hatred now driving our actions? Did we derive pleasure from watching others endure pain and suffering?"

Philosophical thinking aside, the distractive and emotionally-charged mental traffic swirling around her was impacting Cairo's ability to do her job....again.

"For the third time in as many days, and regardless of your rank, I will have to ask you to leave if you cannot control your thought patterns. By now, you should know that they are in no way helpful given our current precarious situation. We are not out of the woods, both literally and figuratively..." Somehow Cairo managed to keep her cool even though she really wanted to let them know how she really felt about their collective thought vibe.

Not now, she thought with a heavy sigh. She knew it simply wasn't worth it to let any sort of sideshow distraction get the best of her.

General Coker, probably the worst offender of the group, responded to her comment. "My apologies, Cairo. You're absolutely right. We will tone down our excitement."

"You mean tone down your thirst for blood?" she openly thought. Quin looked at her and gently shook his head in an attempt to stop her before she went any further. Cairo backed down. She knew she needed to focus on the Troop, who, as she correctly surmised earlier, was still in danger, especially Jake's Infiltration Team. The overall mission was unfolding as planned but many of the important details had yet to be successfully executed...

~~~

Jake had his Infiltration Team in place just outside the southern perimeter of the Zeta DC compound. The next move was for the Perimeter Team to remotely detonate distraction charges near the infirmary on Jake's command. All they had to do now was wait...and wait some more. My stomach won't quit. His uneasiness was related to the realization that, so far, absolutely nothing had gone wrong over the past twenty-four hours. Given the disastrous adventure the Troop had just experienced, the recent tranquility was not sitting well with him. Somehow, a day earlier, his Infiltration Team had managed to set hundreds of strategically-positioned charges and successfully compromised the circulation system of the heavily guarded Zeta compound without detection from the countless IR seeking drones that routinely monitored the facility. Despite all that, and no matter how hard he tried, Jake couldn't shake the feeling that things were going a bit too smoothly and that their good luck couldn't last forever.