“Whoa.” Randall stumbled through the door leading into the labs, nearly falling on the pile of dead bodies. Eyes wide, he backpedaled against the wall. “What happened?”

“Some guys Tom and I took care of.” Al kneeled and pulled magazines from the rifles and ammunition vests. He put them in two stacks on the floor.

“I was going to ask about the guards.” He averted his eyes from the bodies. “That’s horrible.” He bent over, one hand on the wall, the other on his stomach.

“No.” Tom grabbed Randall by the arm and pulled him toward the glass separating them from the labs beyond.

“We don’t have much time to mess around, so tell us what you have going on in there.”

Randall closed his eyes and took several breaths through his nose. “I, huh.” He took one last inhale and opened his eyes, focusing straight ahead. “It starts, I think, with my girlfriend, Seeta.”

Niki interrupted. “I told you, no matter what you think, she isn’t your girlfriend.”

Randall’s swung around, his face red. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pool of blood around the bodies. He choked and faced the window. “We’ve known each other for quite a while now. We lived together off and on when our schedules aligned, and we discussed marriage before all this. I know what I'm talking about.” He waved his arms around the room. He glanced at Niki and turned back quickly. The intensity in her eyes scared him. “I would appreciate it if you would stop saying that.”

Tom lifted his hand before Niki could launch into the man. “I don’t care if she’s his girlfriend, wife, or mom.” He leaned his head toward her, his eyes daring her to say anything. He slapped Randall on the arm. “You were saying.”

Randall put his hands on the window, leaning forward. “When I met her, Seeta was a grad student in the History department. Some of her research led her into the realm of historical epidemiology studies, a hobby of mine.” He went silent, smiled, and dropped his hands.

“Focus.” Tom crossed his arms over his AK.

Randall cleared his throat. “Right. We met at a seminar I gave at the University. The subject matter was the transmission and spread of disease in ancient armies. The focus was on Alexander the Great and his army. Disease is an ancient killer of all armies during wartime. Smallpox and other diseases followed him from Greece to Afghanistan. Its impact in Afghanistan was of particular interest to Seeta since she’s from here. We also spoke about the bio-weapon program Al Qaeda ran in Afghanistan. The U. S. bombed their facilities in 2001. I was a part of the CDC Global Rapid Reaction Force in those days. I was there after the bombing.”

Tom rubbed his eyes, pulled his hand down to his mouth, and left it on his chin, pulling his beard. “I’m assuming there is a point to telling us this?”

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“After the seminar, she asked some amazingly insightful questions. We took the conversation to dinner and drinks. She revealed that a relative had discovered a cavern in the mountains with the bodies of ancient soldiers. He disturbed some of the bodies, taking some of what he had found. He contracted what had killed those soldiers. The artifacts identified the soldiers as part of Alexander's force. At the time, I didn’t know what it could have been. Smallpox? A bird flu variant from Egypt? It could have been many things. Anyway, he returned to his village and infected everyone in it, many of whom died. It was an interesting academic mystery to me at the time.”

A quick shake of his head. “Smallpox, the disease in that plague pit was smallpox. It lay dormant for over two thousand years but still had the potency to kill most of the people of that village. The pit itself isn’t far from the valley outside.” Randall paused. “It was going to be an exciting vacation.” He smiled sadly. “We would meet Seeta’s relatives, explore, and do the things people in love do. Men dressed as soldiers ambushed us almost as soon as we left the airport in Kabul. They killed our driver, tied our hands, put hoods on us, and drove for most of the day to get here. That’s when I found how horrific people could be.”

“For the first week, I didn’t see Seeta, didn’t know this lab existed, or what I would have to do. Instead, a Giant beat me daily, sometimes two or three times a day. No one spoke to me, and I was not allowed to speak to them. If I spoke, he beat me harder. I was a bloody mess after that weak. After those seven days, he took me to Baabaa Hotak’s office. While two guards brought me in, I saw Seeta dragged out by two other guards. I was tied to a chair in front of a large, ornate wooden desk. Baabaa Hotak sat on the other side, dressed in silk and drinking tea.” A tear fell down Randall’s cheek. “That’s when I found out my fate. I was going to help lead a team of scientists from around the world. They were mostly North Korean, but some were from a few other unsavory places as well. We had epidemiologists, biologists, microbiologists, and everyone else you would expect to find in an operation of this size and scale. Baabaa Hotak tasked us to weaponize the variola virus found in the smallpox from that plague pit.”

“That’s not good,” Al said.

“And you helped Hotak?” Niki hit him with her good arm. “Ugh.” She bent over in pain. She straightened a grimace on her face.

“I had no choice.” He faced around, ignoring everything but the three people in front of him, judging him. “There’s a chamber under the valley used for human testing. Anyone who tried to quit or leave was taken down there and infected. They became a part of the experiment then died horribly.” He wiped his eyes. “Besides, if I didn’t help, they would have killed Seeta.”

“How far are you with this thing?” Al said.

He dropped his head, shaking it.

Tom grabbed him by the front of his smock and slammed him into the window. “He asked, how fucking far along has this experiment of yours gone?”

“It’s done,” Randall mumbled.

“What!”

“It’s finished.” He lifted his head. His arms stayed limp at his sides. “We finished several weeks ago.” Tears ran down his cheeks, dripping off his chin onto Tom’s hand. “Hotak paid everyone and let them return to where they came from.”

Tom withdrew his hand, wiping it on Randall’s green shirt.

“They’re all gone. They’re gone, or dying or dead in the chamber. It’s only me. Hotak told me I would be the last to leave. I would view the fruits of my labor from his office as his guest, Seeta and me.” He lifted his hands, covering his face. “I haven’t seen Seeta in so long. I have to believe she is alright. Hotak said he would let us go.”

Al pointed into the room behind the glass wall. “What are they going to do with it?”

“I don’t know. All I do know is it’s aerosolized and will be transmitted somehow by respiratory droplets. Beyond that, I was never told.”

Al pushed Randall into the glass wall. “Man, do I hate officers.”