Burn Read Online Free Page A

permit, even encourage, the Defense Intelligence Agency to investigate the ViraVax site immediately. They could find nothing that would save them, and any GenoVax residue that remained would eliminate the investigators soon enough. There was nothing to lose even if the Agency sealed the site in concrete, and Hodge might even gain a little more time.
    Hodge did not care, now, whether ViraVax came to the attention of the outside world. In a few short weeks, the outside world—the human world—wouldn’t even exist. The Angel of Eden had the right plan: “Destroy the believers and the unbelievers alike, let the Lord Our God sort them out.”
    Hodge himself intended to be sorted no sooner than absolutely necessary. The Angel had promised him immunity, and Ezra the Invisible held firm to the dream of the sailboat, to joining Adam and Eve in Eden with the beautiful, blonde Rena Scholz at his side.
    Hodge prepared the first in a series of slapshots from a kit that Mishwe provided for him. He unfolded the text accompanying his first shot and read it aloud: “I have the keys of Death and of Hell,” then he injected himself on schedule.
    The series promised immunity from GenoVax and a doubling of his life span. He had a backup kit stored safely away to protect Major Scholz, the companion of his dreams.
    Hodge performed a couple of data diversions on his console, then waited for acknowledgment from the Sanhedrin in Texas. The shutdown signal at ViraVax triggered an automatic computer feed into the Agency’s file, which Hodge had already shunted. While it probably wouldn’t matter much in the long run, Hodge didn’t want to give too many heathens and idolators the chance to dig in. He might have to fight them later.
    The major was only slightly disturbed that the feed stopped abruptly right after it started. The Angel had a backup plan, just in case, and Hodge was that plan. The world would be a lonelier place without the Angel, but Hodge was already far too busy to give it much thought.
    In one sense, the breakoff of the feed was a relief to Hodge.
    It feeds into the Sanhedrin’s Central Security and Communications, too, he thought. The Sanhedrin doesn’t need to see their fellows melting down into sludge quite yet.
    Less information meant more time to spread the series of AVAs that the Angel called “GenoVax.” Hodge preferred “Flaming Sword.”
    Major Hodge knew, by the messages flowing into his own Sidekick, that phones were ringing in the homes of Children of Eden all over the world. They would be told that their Master was dead and a successor must be chosen. The Sabbath and their grief would keep them occupied just long enough for everything to be set into motion. They would meet, share bread and ice water, and they would die, successor or no.
    Only Commander Noas and a few of his Operations staff in the Jesus Rangers knew the truth about ViraVax. They were too few and too far away to do anything about it. And they would never suspect that their own company had produced the catalytic agent of the Apocalypse, and used their own people to seed it into the rest of the world.
    Lines also buzzed in the offices of the DIA and, by now, perhaps the White House itself. The White House had its own distraction—water wars in the countryside and turf wars in the cities. He had a few surprises in store for the administration, too. That had been easier for Hodge to arrange than the bomb in Toledo’s car.
    The purest, most contagious version of Flaming Sword was in a warehouse in Mexico City, this Hodge had confirmed, and it would be distributed as vaccine to the World Health Organization as planned. Special shipments were in place already—one each for China, India, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Everyone else would burn in the fallout.
    Even if Colonel Rico Toledo were found alive, he was already discredited and he wouldn’t make it for long. If nothing else, Hodge would see to that himself. The two children