Chapter 4 - The Abandoned Airbase
The rain in upstate New York fell like sheets of ice.
An old, rusted hangar at the edge of the abandoned Strategic Air Command base sat lit by powerful portable halogen floodlights. Outside, four heavy armored SUVs belonging to Apex Defense Solutions were parked in a defensive perimeter, manned by mercenaries wearing unmarked black tactical gear and carrying submachine guns.
Inside the hangar, parked beside a twin-engine medical transport plane, sat an advanced mobile intensive care unit.
Lying on a gurney inside the glass-walled unit was General Arthur Vance—a seventy-year-old man with silver hair, a ventilator tube taped to his mouth, and monitors humming rhythmically around him.
Standing beside the bed was Dr. Richard Sterling—a renegade former military physician who had been dishonorably discharged ten years earlier for conducting illegal pharmaceutical trials overseas.
"Retinal scanner is online," Sterling announced, holding an advanced optical device over the unconscious General’s eye. "The toxin has induced moderate corneal edema, but I can clear it with a localized saline drop. Give me two minutes."
Standing behind Sterling was Director Vance-Moreau—a high-ranking civilian contractor wearing a wet trench coat, holding a satellite phone to his ear.
"Keep him stable until the scan uploads," Moreau commanded into the phone. "Once the server confirms access to the Fort Detrick repository, shut down his ventilator and torch the hangar. Make it look like an accidental oxygen explosion."
BOOM.
The heavy steel side door of the hangar blew inward in a shower of sparks, concrete dust, and twisted metal as a breacher charge detonated.
Before the smoke could clear, flashbang grenades bounced across the concrete floor, exploding with blinding white light and deafening concussive blasts.
"CONTACT! WE HAVE CONTACT!" an Apex mercenary screamed, turning his rifle toward the entrance.
A single rifle shot cracked through the smoke. The mercenary dropped instantly.
Commander Kane and his four JSOC operators moved through the fog with terrifying speed, engaging the Apex guards in a brutal, close-quarters firefight.
Through the chaos stepped Colonel Avery Lennox.
She didn't take cover behind the crates. She moved with deliberate, lethal grace, her SIG Sauer raised. When an Apex guard lunged at her from behind a fuel bladder, Avery ducked beneath his swing, drove her elbow into his ribs, spun behind him, and fired two quick rounds into his body armor, dropping him to the concrete.
Dr. Sterling dropped the optical scanner in terror as Avery kicked open the glass door of the mobile ICU.
"Sterling," Avery said, her gun pointed directly at his forehead.
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Sterling recognized her instantly, his eyes filling with shock. "Avery...? No... you were retired! You were in hiding!"
"Step away from my father," Avery said, her voice dropping an octave into absolute freezing steel. "Or I will demonstrate how quickly a trauma surgeon can find your femoral artery."
