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If it were below freezing, the dead bodies up here wouldn’t have rotted, bloated, and the corpse he hid beneath might have been frozen solid instead of turning into the wet, reeking mess that sagged down around him. The smell was enough to make him vomit, but to do that would be to make noise — to make noise was to die.
Die, or worse.
You ain’t gonna eat me, motherf.u.c.kers, you ain’t gonna eat me …
The motherf.u.c.kers in question were close. They were searching every room in the hotel. Earlier he’d risked moving down a few floors, just to keep checking his surroundings. On the fifteenth floor, he’d heard two men talking; talking about his YouTube video, talking about their search — for him.
It had seemed like such a good idea to upload that video, to make sure people knew who he was so the government couldn’t just make him disappear. He felt so, so stupid now, but it had never crossed his mind that the video would make all the murderers in Chicago want to waste him.
Cooper had thought about running to a higher floor, but he’d waited too long and now he didn’t dare. They were on the eighteenth floor. He’d barely had enough time to implement his next bright idea: dragging a sloughing corpse into room 1812 and hiding beneath it. His brain didn’t seem to work right anymore. Too much stress, too much horror, he didn’t know. He was smarter than this. He knew he was. If only—
Noises, coming from the next room. He moved slowly, adjusted the weight of the body on top of him, pressed his ear against the wall. He could hear m.u.f.fled voices.
“Check under the bed,” one said.
“Stop telling me that,” said another. “There’s no s.p.a.ce under these beds.”
Cooper started to shake. He slowly shouldered the corpse a little higher, so he could reach down to his back. Quietly, so quietly, he drew Sofia’s pistol.
Ain’t gonna eat me, Sofia, not like I ate you, no f.u.c.king way, I got four bullets left …
THE PACKAGE
It seemed so odd that the hotel still had power. Clarence was grateful for working elevators, though — climbing seventeen flights of stairs would have done him in. He was the only one wearing CBRN gear, which made him feel oddly out of place among Klimas, Bosh, Ramierez and Roth.
Beep … they pa.s.sed the fifteenth floor.
“We’re almost there,” Klimas said. He reached to his chest webbing, pressed a black b.u.t.ton. “Radio check, do you read?”
The three SEALs — Bosh, little Ramierez and the big fella, Roth — all nodded. Clarence nodded as well.
Beep … they pa.s.sed the sixteenth floor.
“Bosh, cover the right,” Klimas said. “Ramierez, the left. Roth, out and left. I’ll go out and right.”
Bosh and Ramierez knelt by their a.s.signed corners, M4s pointed straight up. Noise suppressors attached to the barrels made the weapons look long and mean.
Clarence drew his Glock 19 from the thigh holster strapped to the outside of his suit.
“Where do you want me?”
Klimas raised an eyebrow. “You? I want you to stay out of our way and move when we tell you to move.”
Maybe it was the impossible stress of the situation, or maybe his frustration with Margaret sitting squarely in harm’s way, he wasn’t sure, but Clarence felt a wave of annoyance.
“I know what I’m doing in a fight, Klimas,” he said. “I was Special Forces.”
Ramierez laughed and shook his head.
Klimas grinned. “Special Forces, huh? How nice. Know what you’re not? A member of this team. You’re here because Margaret doesn’t want anyone exposed to Mitch.e.l.l’s hydras. You’ve got the CBRN suit so you can handle him. Other than that, kindly stay out of our way.”
Beep … they pa.s.sed the seventeenth floor.
• • •
Cooper heard the door open. A rectangle of hallway light filled the dark room, lit up the face of the bloated corpse on top of him.
“Gross,” one voice said. “It stinks in here.”
“Dead body,” said the other. “d.a.m.n, it smells too far gone to eat.”
Cooper couldn’t see them. He heard their feet shuffling across the carpet … coming closer …
“Check under the bed,” one voice said.
“Chuck,” said the other, “if you ask me to look under the bed just one more time I will shoot you in your stupid face.”
Something in the dead body popped softly, bringing with it an even more rancid stench. A trickle of fluid leaked out, ran down Cooper’s forehead and onto the bridge of his nose. His left eye closed automatically as the foul liquid trickled across his eyelids.
Just go away just go away I don’t want to be eaten …
The elevator doors opened onto the eighteenth floor. Bosh and Ramierez, both still kneeling, leaned out and aimed their weapons down the hallway. Bosh’s weapon let out three snaps, click-click-click.
Klimas stepped out with his weapon pointed to the right, stock tight to his shoulder. Roth moved out at the same time, his weapon pointing left. Klimas fired his M4 once, another snapping click.
“Clear left,” Roth said.
“Clear right,” Klimas said. “Otto, with me.”
Clarence stepped out. One body lay down the hall to the right. A woman, face up, dead eyes staring at the ceiling.
Klimas spoke quietly, firmly. “Bosh, take point. Let’s move.”
The SEALs did just that, moving without a sound, moving faster than Clarence would have expected; he found himself jogging to keep up.
