“Hell, no,” Roslyn replied. “Move as a group, sweep up. Look for more data.”
The door to the first stairwell they found had been wedged shut from the other side.
“Leave it,” Roslyn ordered. “There’s got to be another set of stairs, and I don’t want to risk surprises.”
By then, Knight had a map of the building loaded into her helmet and pointed wordlessly.
“This is a fucking nightmare,” Mooren murmured. “I think I’m at nine dead, but I can’t be certain. Plus, I’d say only half were in Guardia uniform.”
Roslyn nodded grimly as she followed Knight.
“Probably Guardia, prisoners and people being processed were all hit,” she said. “There might still be people in the cells, but everyone who was mobile…was affected.”
“Whatever that entails,” Killough said grimly. “Did they all end up like her?” He gestured at the teenager he carried, who was still occasionally trying to bite him.
“We’ll find out,” Roslyn said, then held up a hand as Knight stopped at a door.
The Corporal paused next to the door, listening for a moment before she pushed it open. Nothing happened immediately, so Knight stepped through.
“Stairs are clear,” she reported. “I think I’m good all the way up.”
“Let’s move as a group,” Roslyn repeated. “Fire team Delta, then Killough with the prisoner, then everyone else.”
She hadn’t even introduced the MISS agent. Everything had gone chaotic so quickly, she was hoping her people were keeping up.
The other two Marines of Knight’s fire team joined her, heading up the stairs, and then Roslyn and the others followed. The station was still and quiet as they moved.
“Sir, this is Herbert, we are inbound on the precinct station,” the pilot reported. “I’m linked in with the Guardia, and they are establishing a perimeter around the affected region. No one is quite sure of the limits, but they’re blocking roads and moving in riot trucks.”
“Good,” Roslyn replied. “There should be a pad on the roof. We’re going to need to improvise a cell. We’ve got one prisoner who I want delivered to Huntress for medical examination under full quarantine protocols.”
There was a pause.
“Sir, if we’re engaging quarantine protocols…”
“Then everyone in the ground is already locked down, I know,” Roslyn confirmed. “We’ll need full medical work-ups on everyone on my team before we go aboard ship. You are to act as if we are infectious until then; understand, Lieutenant Herbert?”
“Yes, sir,” the pilot agreed. “This is terrifying from above, sir. It’s like half the people in the region just went mad.”
“We know,” Roslyn said quietly. “Leave it to the Guardia perimeter for now…” She sighed. “Can you link me to whoever is in charge? I need to update them on their precinct station.”
No one was going to enjoy that conversation.
“What do you mean, dead?” the officer on the other end of the channel demanded. He paused, swallowing hard. “Apologies, Commander, but that seems…”
“I haven’t pulled the station’s security feeds,” Roslyn told him. She hadn’t got a name yet for the man in charge of the Nueva Portugal Guardia effort to contain the disaster she’d unintentionally caused. “But we haven’t seen anyone alive in here. It appears that everyone in the station was…affected by whatever is causing this and they turned on each other in extreme violence.”
She heard the swallow.
“I see, Commander Chambers.” He paused. “I am Captain Victoriano Bolivar. I normally head up our tactical response team, but this is…beyond anything we’re prepared for. I’m pulling officers in from their days off to run barricades, and basically leaving the rest of the city to fend for itself.”
“Are you in contact with my commanding officer?” Roslyn asked. “Huntress has many tools that should be able to assist.”
“We’re getting a sensor feed, but the regional Governor has forbidden us to call on further resources than that,” Bolivar admitted bluntly. “You’re on the ground, Commander Chambers. What are you seeing?”
“So far, a horror show,” she told him. “I’ve got a teenage girl in manacles who attacked two of my Marines with her teeth. She’s still trying to bite anyone who gets near her. Your precinct station has multiple people physically torn to pieces, and I haven’t dared send anyone down to check on the cells.
“My shuttle is landing now and, thankfully, has exosuit armor aboard for all of my Marines,” she said. “I’m going to have to settle for combat armor and a biohazard seal. I think you have to assume whatever is in play is infectious, Captain, until you have data showing otherwise.”
“No one is leaving the perimeter until we’ve tested them to see if we can find anything,” Bolivar agreed. “This is madness, Commander. What was in that explosion?”
“I don’t know, Captain,” Roslyn said. “A nightmare. My intent is to secure the precinct station once my Marines have full armor and heavy stunguns. Otherwise, I am standing by for orders from Captain Daalman.”
“Understood,” Bolivar told her. “You are authorized to secure the station, but asking you to do more would violate my Governor’s orders. What I could use is blood samples from your prisoner.”
“We’re going to be sending her into orbit under full quarantine protocols,” Roslyn told him. “That means a vacuum-barriered pod on the flight deck, not even sharing air with the rest of the ship.
“I’ll request that Captain Daalman forward you all of our results as soon as we have them, but I don’t think we can risk dropping off actual samples.” She paused, swallowing hard herself. “We need to assume that anything that has entered the zone is potentially contaminated. Do you have biohazard gear, Captain?”
“Not in the numbers I need for this,” Bolivar said grimly. “The regional Governor is holding off on requesting help from the Cardinal-Governor in the hopes we can contain this.”
“You have more data than I do, Captain. How bad is it?” she asked.
“Best guess is that eighty percent of the population has locked themselves in their homes and is hiding from this disaster,” the Guardia officer told her. “The other twenty percent are in the streets,
