“Becker’s here.”
“What?”
“Yeah, he’s in a lab upstairs and looks like he’s about to test some patients.”
Black sighed. “You want to bring him back along with Walsh—that is if we can find him?”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Corralling both of them will be tricky considering what kind of hellfire we’re about to unleash on this place.”
“I don’t care,” Hawk said. “He’ll have some answers for us.”
“Okay, we’ll make it work. I’ll give you five minutes to convince Becker to go along with you. Then I’m going to light this place up. Hopefully, the explosion will flush out Walsh if he’s here and I’ll take him down. If we get separated, let’s meet back at the site where we breached the perimeter next to the communications tower.”
“Alex is gonna kill us,” Hawk said.
“Or rescue us,” Black said with a wry grin. “We haven’t escaped this place yet.”
Hawk nodded. “Five minutes.”
“Go.”
Hawk raced up the steps to the second level and returned to the lab where he’d seen Becker. The doctor was preparing some sort of mixture to inject in the patients with an assistant. Against the far wall, five patients sat blindfolded, apparently unwilling to be tested.
Hawk entered the room and locked it behind him.
“Can I help you?” Becker said without looking.
Hawk clicked the safety off his weapon and trained it on Becker. “Doc, I need you to come with me.”
Becker stopped and looked up at Hawk. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m saving these people,” Hawk said. “And I’m taking you hostage.”
The patients started to murmur amongst themselves.
“What’s going on?” one of them asked. A man on the far end of the row removed his blindfold.
“I warned you there would be consequences if you took off your mask,” the assistant said as he drew his weapon. He did hesitate to pull the trigger, hitting the patient in the head. The man crumpled to the ground.
“Anyone else have questions?” the assistant asked.
Hawk wheeled around and put two bullets in the assistant, one in his chest and the other in his head.
Becker shook his head and stamped his foot. “I thought you were one of the good guys.”
“I am,” Hawk said. “That’s why I just shot and killed your murdering assistant.”
Becker picked up his syringe and squeezed it slightly as he watched the liquid drip from the point.
“I’m about to save these people’s lives,” Becker said. “And they don’t even know it yet.”
“No,” Hawk said as he retrained his gun on Becker. “You’re going to let these people go and come with me.”
Becker rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so.” He marched over to the patient next to the dead man slumped on the floor and searched for a vein.
“If you value you your own life, you’ll drop that syringe,” Hawk said.
“If you valued yours, you’d let me inject you with this,” Becker fired back. “You just don’t get it, do you? I’m the one who’s going to save all these people, not you.”
“I’m not going to warn you again,” Hawk said as he moved closer to Becker. “Drop it.”
Becker glanced back at Hawk. “What are you going to do? Shoot me?”
“If I have to, yes.”
“I thought you were nobler than to shoot an unarmed man.”
“Nobility has nothing to do with it. If you want to keep testing my limits, just make another move.”
Becker ignored Hawk and tapped the forearm of the patient in search of a vein. Hawk fired his gun, sending the patients into a further panic.
“I'm not doing this anymore,” one of the women said before ripping off her mask and lunging toward the door.
Becker reached up and grabbed her, flinging her against her chair. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Yes, she is,” Hawk said as he jammed his gun into Becker’s back. “In fact, you’re all free to go. And I encourage you to run as far as you can away from this place.”
The remaining masked patients almost in unison removed their blindfolds and dashed toward the exit, leaving Hawk alone with Becker. Once the door latched shut, Hawk turned his gaze toward Becker.
“You can’t say that I didn’t warn you,” Hawk said.
“Feel free to warn me all you like, but you are in way over your head here,” Becker said. “If anyone is going to survive the virus that’s about to be unleashed on this planet, it’s going to be because of the brave men and women who donate their bodies to science.”
“How many have survived?” Hawk asked.
“That’s the beside the point.”
“No, that’s exactly the point. If people aren’t surviving, you are failing. And nothing Obsidian wants to do is going to work without making sure that they have an antidote to extort nations and their key influencers to do what’s necessary to help this organization take control.”
“That’s right. And I figured it was better to get on board now before it was too late,” Becker said as he grabbed his shoulder.
“Getting shot is painful,” Hawk said. “But I don’t need to tell you that.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Then drop the syringe and come with me. We can help put an end to these ridiculous notions of Obsidian.”
“They're more powerful than you can even imagine,” Becker said. “I heard they even got to your mother, who was under federal protection.”
Hawk glared at Becker. “Watch it.”
“I’m not as evil as you think, Mr. Hawk. We’re on the same side, you know.”
“And what side is that?”
“The side of humanity.”
Hawk huffed. “If you cared about humanity, you wouldn’t be doing what you’re doing.”
“And what do you think I’m doing? Killing patients for sport?”
“You’re certainly not healing anyone.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Becker said. “We’ve had several cases where people have recovered thanks to the antidote I’m studying.”
“Several cases out of how many trial subjects? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions?”
“Don’t be absurd. Nothing would ever get that far without drawing attention from watchdog groups. No, what we’re doing is so special and so secretive that nobody even knows about it.”
“And you trust the patients who just sprinted out of this room to get away from you?”
“They’re being monitored,” Becker said.
