Read Online Pale Horse (A Project Eden Thriller) by Brett Battles - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Brett Battles
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touched the spot where his skull met his neck. His hair felt moist and sticky. He pulled his hand back and saw that his fingers were covered with blood.
He stayed where he was and gritted his teeth through the pain until it dulled enough so that he could check the rest of his body. Cuts and a few bruises, but he was pretty sure he hadn’t broken anything.
He slowly repacked the backpack and pulled it on, then rubbed his hand over the back of his head again. There didn’t seem to be any new blood, so hopefully the wound wasn’t that bad.
He took a moment to figure out the direction the slope was going, and set off again, walking this time. The pain he felt, particularly in the shin that had smacked the branch, lessened somewhat as he walked, but didn’t completely go away.
Twenty minutes later he reached a wide spot amongst the trees, not meadow really, barely even a clearing, but it was enough for him to get a look at most of the sky.
There was not a helicopter in sight. Maybe he was free.
With a sigh of relief, he checked his straps and continued on.
12
THE OUTER BANKS, NORTH CAROLINA
5:07 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME
A COLD WIND blew across the waves, occasionally spraying salt water on the decks and windows of the vacation homes that lined the beach. Most of the places were closed up for the winter, while a few were occupied by people who called the area their permanent home.
One, however, was being used by a man and a woman, recent arrivals who had yet to venture into town. Those few locals who knew they were there assumed that they’d come to spend the Christmas holiday along the shore.
But while Tamara Costello and Bobby Lion had basically lived together since the previous spring, they were not a couple. They were friends and colleagues.
And survivors.
When the Sage Flu outbreak had occurred in California, Tamara was a promising reporter for the Prime Cable News network, and Bobby was her equally talented cameraman. They’d been assigned to cover the outbreak, and in the process had started to unearth the truth about what was really going on. If it hadn’t been for Matt Hamilton and his people in the Resistance—an organization she had no idea even existed at the time—she and Bobby would have been long dead.
Instead, while everyone who’d known them thought they were dead, they’d actually gone into hiding and changed their identities. After the full realization of what they were up against finally sunk in, they had agreed to do whatever they could to help the Resistance stop Project Eden. This meant using their professional talents to make a series of anonymous videos warning everyone about what was happening.
But though they tried to get various news organizations interested, no one took their reports seriously. The only way they were able to get them seen was to post them on the Internet. That had only been incrementally more successful, as hackers from Project Eden would diligently remove them before more than a handful of people saw them.
Still, Tamara and Bobby kept plugging away, hoping that at some point, their videos would become more than just white noise that disappeared without anyone noticing.
Then, less than four days before, Matt had called and told them to prepare the Worst Case video, as it might be needed very soon. This was not a video meant to expose Project Eden like the others were. It was a guide to survival and an explanation of events, and was to only be distributed if the Project’s plan went live.
Scared out of their minds, Tamara and Bobby had put the finishing touches on the video, and relocated to their backup safe house on the outer banks.
“If it looks like things are going to shit and you can’t reach me,” Matt had told them, “upload it. Don’t wait for me to give you the go-ahead.”
They had spent every moment since arriving in North Carolina watching for that moment. There were three TVs in the house, each tuned to a different news channel,
He stayed where he was and gritted his teeth through the pain until it dulled enough so that he could check the rest of his body. Cuts and a few bruises, but he was pretty sure he hadn’t broken anything.
He slowly repacked the backpack and pulled it on, then rubbed his hand over the back of his head again. There didn’t seem to be any new blood, so hopefully the wound wasn’t that bad.
He took a moment to figure out the direction the slope was going, and set off again, walking this time. The pain he felt, particularly in the shin that had smacked the branch, lessened somewhat as he walked, but didn’t completely go away.
Twenty minutes later he reached a wide spot amongst the trees, not meadow really, barely even a clearing, but it was enough for him to get a look at most of the sky.
There was not a helicopter in sight. Maybe he was free.
With a sigh of relief, he checked his straps and continued on.
12
THE OUTER BANKS, NORTH CAROLINA
5:07 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME
A COLD WIND blew across the waves, occasionally spraying salt water on the decks and windows of the vacation homes that lined the beach. Most of the places were closed up for the winter, while a few were occupied by people who called the area their permanent home.
One, however, was being used by a man and a woman, recent arrivals who had yet to venture into town. Those few locals who knew they were there assumed that they’d come to spend the Christmas holiday along the shore.
But while Tamara Costello and Bobby Lion had basically lived together since the previous spring, they were not a couple. They were friends and colleagues.
And survivors.
When the Sage Flu outbreak had occurred in California, Tamara was a promising reporter for the Prime Cable News network, and Bobby was her equally talented cameraman. They’d been assigned to cover the outbreak, and in the process had started to unearth the truth about what was really going on. If it hadn’t been for Matt Hamilton and his people in the Resistance—an organization she had no idea even existed at the time—she and Bobby would have been long dead.
Instead, while everyone who’d known them thought they were dead, they’d actually gone into hiding and changed their identities. After the full realization of what they were up against finally sunk in, they had agreed to do whatever they could to help the Resistance stop Project Eden. This meant using their professional talents to make a series of anonymous videos warning everyone about what was happening.
But though they tried to get various news organizations interested, no one took their reports seriously. The only way they were able to get them seen was to post them on the Internet. That had only been incrementally more successful, as hackers from Project Eden would diligently remove them before more than a handful of people saw them.
Still, Tamara and Bobby kept plugging away, hoping that at some point, their videos would become more than just white noise that disappeared without anyone noticing.
Then, less than four days before, Matt had called and told them to prepare the Worst Case video, as it might be needed very soon. This was not a video meant to expose Project Eden like the others were. It was a guide to survival and an explanation of events, and was to only be distributed if the Project’s plan went live.
Scared out of their minds, Tamara and Bobby had put the finishing touches on the video, and relocated to their backup safe house on the outer banks.
“If it looks like things are going to shit and you can’t reach me,” Matt had told them, “upload it. Don’t wait for me to give you the go-ahead.”
They had spent every moment since arriving in North Carolina watching for that moment. There were three TVs in the house, each tuned to a different news channel,
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