The Genesis Plague (2010)

settlements. Since Iraq was home to the earliest cities and gave birth to agriculture, Mesopotamians would have been among the first people to transmit infectious disease. They’d have picked up all sorts of germs from domesticated cows, sheep, chickens, you name it. So it makes sense. And these men that Lilith killed belonged to a sizable, relatively isolated population. If they had no immunity to a disease brought in by an outsider, it would have spread like wildfire.’
    Flaherty slowed to make a left on to North Hollywood Boulevard. ‘All right, let’s hold off on this for a little while, because we’re almost there. We need to talk about how we’re going to handle this Stokes character.’
    ‘He may not even be here, Tommy.’
    ‘He’ll be here,’ Flaherty replied confidently. ‘Remember: he needs that encrypted phone line to talk with Crawford.’
    Nestled at the foot of a desert mountain, the modern edifice of the megachurch glinted in the afternoon sun.
    ‘Holy cow, will you look at that,’ he said.
    ‘Wow. It’s huge .’
    ‘Supposedly seats up to ten thousand.’

51
IRAQ
    Jason was inside the tunnel entrance when he heard the rat-tat-tat-tat-tat of automatic gunfire. He dropped the rubble-filled bucket he’d just taken from the marine in front of him, ran to the opening, and squatted low. Then he cautiously poked his head out and scanned the camp. Behind him, four marines queued up.
    ‘I heard it too,’ one of the marines said. ‘What’s going on?’
    Jason held up a fist to signal for them to remain quiet.
    In the moonlight, he could see a marine crossing the roadway - presumably the shooter. On the other side of the road, the scout swiftly moved around a hillock with the stock of his M-16 raised up against his shoulder. The other marines stayed back and hunkered down to cover him.
    Then the scout lowered his weapon and shook his head, pointing to something that lay on the ground behind the hillock. Jason couldn’t hear clearly what the scout was saying, but saw five marines go out to have a look at what he’d shot. When the scout reached down and held up a limp, bloody fox by its tail, they all lowered their weapons and gave him a good ribbing.
    Jason didn’t like the fact that the scout was so quick to shoot a suspicious target. What if instead that had been some curious Iraqi kid who just wanted to see what was going on? He sighed and turned to the others. ‘False alarm.’
    Disappointed, they went back to their positions as Jason grabbed his bucket and lugged it outside.
    As he dumped the stones down the slope, he was surprised to see that the carefree marines remained out on the open road, clustered together, heckling the shooter. Why wasn’t Crawford or Richards reprimanding them?
    ‘Not smart, fellas,’ he grumbled to himself.
    Jason scanned the area, but Crawford and his officers were nowhere to be found. Probably back in the tent grilling Al-Zahrani again, he guessed. Ten minutes ago, one of the marines who’d been assigned to watch over the prisoner came looking for Crawford, visibly distressed. But another man had redirected him down the hill to where Crawford had gone to check on the men working inside the MRAP. Now Jason was wishing he’d asked the guard if there was a problem.
    If something was wrong, would Crawford have said something? Jason wondered. Studying the area around the tents, he thought: No, that stubborn jackass wouldn’t say a damn thing.
    Something wasn’t right … he could feel it.
    ‘Guys, I’ll be back in a few minutes,’ he called to the men in the cave.
    As he loped down the steep incline, a whump - hsssss sound - like Fourth of July fireworks being shot up into the sky - made him stop dead in his tracks. He crouched low at the same time as his eyes locked on to a fiery orange light streaming through the night … on a direct path for the loitering marines.
    Jason cupped his hands and yelled, ‘Get off the road!’
    But it was too late.
    The marines had no time to react. The RPG mortar struck directly at their feet and popped, tearing them to pieces in a billowing fireball. Shrapnel spray took down three more marines posted nearby.
    Jason looked over his shoulder and saw the marines streaming out from the cave. Hazo and Camel were with them. They’d clearly figured out what was going on.
    ‘We’re under attack!’ one of them yelled to the others still inside the cave. ‘Everyone out!’
    Down below, chaos broke out as the marines