A Flock of Ill Omens Read Online Free Page B

A Flock of Ill Omens
Book: A Flock of Ill Omens Read Online Free
Author: Hart Johnson
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Mystery, Retail
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himself as a dead man, but there were no bullet wounds or cuts, or signs of fighting, or anything to suggest this was inflicted from an outsider. Maybe someone had leaked a noxious gas in here, but that didn't explain no one finding them.
    He finally worked his way back to the central commander's office and found Strauss, dead like the others. Last time Matt had seen Strauss he'd been barking orders to a cadet, using sweeping arm movements and with spittle flying from his mouth. He had a temper and Matt couldn't say he liked him, but he'd always seemed so vital. When he'd died, he'd been poring over a list of soldiers, the only employees Eagle Corp had, and their last known location and status. In what Matt recognized as Strauss's jerky pencil marks, eighty percent were marked dead. The rest, himself included, had been far afield or in locations unknown.
    Matt's first impulse was sabotage. Terrorism. He'd seen some headlines. This flu was killing people. But how could it kill this many soldiers? With no survivors to come do what someone should do when their colleagues died—call family, have bodies carted away, eliminate the damn confidential files?
    Part of him wanted to be that person, the one who made the call and cleaned it all up. But he was too spooked. This seemed targeted, feasibly still contagious. Spending time here might be a death sentence and the last thing he wanted was to be another name on the list of deceased.
    He bolted. He'd never be proud of it, but who knew what germs lingered? He regretted it later, not just from an honor perspective, but also from a security standpoint. He should have destroyed records from the secret files, contacted next-of-kin, and burned his colleagues, but his sense of self-preservation was stronger than that. He'd seen a few names of people with unknown status that he might be able to track down from the 'missing' list and knew of another mercenary team called The Kraken—former Navy Seals, for the most part. He would check in with them before making any rash decisions. Information was always the first line of defense.
    As he sped out of the parking lot, Matt found a radio station with news, instead of listening to the CDs he usually preferred. The flu was everywhere. He heard death rates around the thirty percent mark, which was a lot better than what he'd just seen, but still worse than any flu he'd ever known of. Was it even possible that was what this was?
     
    The first buddy he tried, one who lived locally, didn't answer and the fortress he lived in was too much for Matt to bypass, so he backtracked to Panama City. He stopped at a Walgreen’s to buy latex gloves and face masks before he tried the second, fearing the worst. He and Dwayne Paxton had served their time in the Army together and remained friends for the ten years since. If Pax didn't answer, he knew where to find his parents and ex-wife, so he'd track him down one way or another.
    The house was locked up. Since the ex was geographically closer and, as he understood it, not hostile, he decided to try there first.
    “I was just going out there,” she said. “He was supposed to take Trevor this weekend.”
    Pam was a pretty thing. Matt had been best man at their tiny wedding a decade ago, but she looked better with some age behind her—a few more curves and a lot more confidence. Didn't hurt that she seemed lower maintenance with her hair in an casual band instead of the big overwhelming 'do he remembered. Less make-up, too, though she still had taken an effort.
    “Might wanna brace yourself,” Matt said.
    She narrowed her eyes and Matt could see she assumed this was about a woman or a wild party. “Not like that. Worse.”
    “Well, spit it out.” Her southern accent was the Florida 'only shows up with emotion' version. He wished he didn't find it hot. The timing was bad.
    “Most of our unit in Pensacola has been wiped out. Dead.”
    “Not you, though?”
    Matt shook his head. “Haven't seen anybody in
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