Read Online Ground Zero (The X-Files) by Kevin Anderson, Chris Carter (Creator) - Free Book Online Page B

off the denim jacket that covered his red flannel shirt. With his long hair and bushy beard he looked like a mountain man. His demeanor intimidated many of the people around him, particularly those who didn’t work for him. Bear Dooley didn’t think he was all that difficult a taskmaster, so long as everyone did what they were expected to do. If they weren’t willing to do their jobs, then they shouldn’t have bothered to apply in the first place. Victor and the other engineers who had been on Dooley’s team for several years understood that he was perfectly easy to get along with, that he trusted them and their abilities—but his team members also knew they’d better run for cover if they ever let him down. Out in the halls, the construction workers continued their hammering and pounding, tearing down the walls. Plastic sheeting lay draped over everything as the laborers ransacked another wing of the building.
    The barracks’ outside door opened, and redheaded Victor Ogilvy bounded up the wooden stairs, then down the linoleum hallway to Dooley’s temporary office. He burst in, his face florid, grinning with the eagerness of Jimmy Olsen hot on a news story. His wire-rimmed glasses slipped down his nose.
    “Here’s the satellite printouts,” he said. “And here’s the overlays.” He spread the projections on Dooley’s cleared desk, weighting the curling edges with a stapler and a pair of scissors.
    “See the storm clouds here, Bear? Ninety-five percent probability that this depression will follow the path I’ve marked with red dashes.” He traced a
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    big-knuckled finger along a contour in the Western Pacific, just past the International Date Line in the Marshall Islands.
    “I’ve looked for projected landfalls, and there seems to be an absolutely perfect target—right here.” Victor’s finger completely obscured a minuscule dot that looked like a printer’s error in the middle of the ocean. “Bingo!”
    Dooley looked down. “Enika Atoll.”
    “It’s in the ephemeris,” Victor said, then jerked his head over to Dooley’s bookshelf.
    Dooley leaned back in his chair to grab the thick book, blowing the white gypsum dust from its spine. He riffled the pages, studying the nautical coordinates and finding the brief listing for Enika.
    “Oooh, exciting,” he said, reading the brief description.
    “A big flat rock out in the middle of nowhere. No recent photos, but it sounds tailor-made for our purposes. No existing settlements, not even any history.”
    “Nobody will ever notice anything there,” Victor agreed.
    “Let me see those weather charts again.” Dooley reached forward, snapping his fingers to make Victor hurry. The younger man spread out the charts again, showing the angrylooking knot of cloud swirling across the ocean like a clenched fist.
    “Hurricane warnings have gone out to all the adjacent islands. There’s not much in the vicinity, only a few sparsely populated islands such as Kwajalein and Truk. It’s even in U.S. protectorate waters.”
    “And you’re sure the storm is going to hit land there?”
    Dooley asked. He was already convinced, but he wanted someone else to say it.
    Victor gave an exasperated sigh. “Look at the size of that storm system, Bear! How could it miss? We’ve got a week until projected landfall—that’s an eternity 63
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    as far as weather projections go, but not much time to set up our preparations…if we decide to go, that is.” The whipthin redhead stepped back, shuffling his feet as if he had to go to the bathroom badly.
    Dooley fixed Victor with his best don’t-give-me-any-bullshit glare. “What do you mean, if we decide to go? Is there anything to recommend against it? Be straight.”
    Victor shrugged. “Nothing that I can see—but it’s still your call, Bear. Without Dr. Gregory, you’re the one pulling all the strings.”
    Dooley nodded, knowing full well when he could trust his people—and this was one such