Danny and Tex got out of the truck, and Tex jumped into the back, covering for Danny who was checking in with Nathan James and Wolf. The schlumpy man who had not given his name helped Tex start getting a few boxes out of the back of their truck. Tex wasn't exactly sure what these boxes were for though.
They worked in tandem with the other people around them loading boxes onto dollies, people taking dollies inside, and bringing them back out empty again. It was a smooth operation all things considered. They had the operations figured out at the very least. Danny would come in and out and Tex did his best to keep an eye on him, though sometimes he roamed out of range. He would never hear the end of it from Kara or Rachel if he let the kid get hurt.
They didn't hear anything from inside the complex, which he supposed was a good thing. They needed to get more information and if they got the nervous inside and there was fighting He asked someone what they were doing with all the boxes and just got what seemed like a rote answer, lots of people, lots of mouths to feed.
Rachel did not have time to think about what Tex and Danny were doing outside the complex because in the few hours that they had been gone, Garnett and Chung made her a magnificent machine to see if the aerosol would even work. Bertrise and Milowsky stood watch as she dropped a few mice into both sections of the machine.
"I've administered the virus to these four mice and now, it's time to introduce them to the cure," She put the cure in its slot and let the aerosol whoosh into the contraption, ready for the science to win out. "And then we wait,"
"So all they have to do is breathe it in?" Bertrise asked.
Rachel nodded, "Yes, all they have to do is breathe. It works very much like an inhaler," They had done so much work already in the last eight hours, working on it, hopefully this part came together fairly easily.
Danny came back, riled up. He looked to Tex and they stood close together. "Neils is here," Danny said in a hushed tone.
Tex pulled down his sunglasses, "Excuse me?"
Danny quickly nodded. "Neils is here."
"Are you sure it's him?" Tex asked.
Danny nodded again. "It was him. He was experimenting on something,"
Tex cursed under his breath and then cursed openly, but quietly, "Jesus. I thought we smoked that mofo on the Vyerni." This was a complication that was more than just a pickle. It was the whole damn pickle jar.
"Well, he's back from the dead." Danny said seriously.
And then they were being called to load up. It was time to get more supplies or whatever they were supposed to be doing. It was basically like being service monkeys because they had the keys to a truck.
"Where we going?" Danny asked.
And Tex understood why people said it. He'd heard it from other apparently more experienced members of this place say a lot whenever they got a question about stuff. And it was just easy to tell it to Danny too. "Lot of people, lot of mouths to feed," He said as they loaded back up in the truck and waited. Danny took as long as he could keeping his eye on Neils. They should be very careful around that man and Tex was glad for Danny being surveillance on the matter.
It took a few minutes, but when it was their turn, Tex turned the truck out of the service entrance and back down the road where they followed everyone else.
Danny still wasn't over the fact that Neils was here. And he was on the supply run that they were doing. Tex got a little skittish about it too, though he didn't let it show in his body. It would be bad for his driving.
"How did he hook up with these assholes?" Danny asked.
That was an excellent question, since he was set to die on the Vyerni, but of course the worst person in the world would manage to make it out of any situation alive, because well he didn't care about other people.
"What the hell you think there up to?" Tex asked, not really caring about how Neils got with them, only what they intended on doing with them, and what they were doing now. The team knew these guys blew up the labs and were with the people on the sub, but other than that, they had no idea what these guys wanted. Whatever it was, if they had Neils it wasn't good.
"I'm not sure," Danny said as he grimaced out the front windshield, "Whatever it is, he'll be spreading the virus,"
A question came up, "You think he might recognize us?"
That Danny was clear on. "Nah, he saw us for what, twenty seconds, AND he was inside a bubble,"
Tex wasn't so sure about that answer. Neils was tricky. "Well, you're a lot less recognizable than me when it comes to that," Danny looked offended, "What, I'm just saying, I mean you got that, vanilla thing. I mean look at me," He said with a bit of a laugh.
Danny fired back, "Okay, whatever you say, Duck Dynasty,"
Tex shrugged and just laughed, "Yeah, I'm a distinctive man,"
They stopped at a trailer park and they all got out of their trucks or vans. Danny walked around, keeping his eye on Neils and Ned. Tex kept his head down leaning on the truck, but watching Neils too.
Suddenly Ned looked to the crowd, "I need a volunteer," He said, "Who likes kids?"
Tex looked around and the others were nervous too. This was not just a normal supply run that was for sure. Danny perked up though, from behind the truck, "Yeah, I'll go, I'll do it," He said as he came forward to Ned. Tex shot him a look but Danny didn't look back at him. Whatever he was doing, he was sure of it, Tex guessed there was always an upside to that.
"Give it to him," Ned commanded Neils.
Neils just pushed the bear into Danny's hand and walked the other way for a moment, the look on his face, he was fuming. He was not used to the way that Ned talked to him. There was a rift there. Interesting Tex thought. Ned gave Danny some instructions and then made two of the other more experienced men go with him to back him up. Tex did not have a good feeling about being here.
When Rachel came back to the mice, the ones in the second compartment were dead.
"I don't understand," Bertrise said as she watched Dr. Milowsky put the mice into a biohazard bag, ready for their graves at sea. "The machine didn't work?"
"No," Rachel replied, "The machine is not the problem." She groaned. "The mice closest to the porthole were able to inhale the vaccine immediately, by the time the vaccine made its way to the second chamber, it must've lost its potency," She said as she looked at the machine.
Dr. Milowsky had even worse news on the subject. If they couldn't make it work with mice and this machine, no human would ever get a therapeutic dose if it was dropped from a plane. It wouldn't be anything by the time it got to the ground. Of course, that would be another problem that would have to be solved. They were so close and yet. And yet.
Neils kept giving him the stink eye and he couldn't bear it. He crossed his arms, but when that didn't work. He tried to walk around the truck and back again. Nothing. Neils was still looking at him.
Neils came up to him, still with that curious look in his eye. That look was going to be hell to get away from. "Can I help you with something?" He asked.
"I feel like we've met," Neils said, eyeing him, like he was trying to figure out a puzzle.
Yeah no shit, Tex thought, we wanted to kill you. But he didn't say that. "Not unless you've been to Reno,"
Neils looked confused for a minute, "No, I don't where is this Reno, but we've met before," He said with confidence.
Different tactic, Tex thought. He just had to get Neils away. "Look, you're creeping me out, man" He said. This seemed to sadden Neils for a moment and work, because Neils left him alone. But he couldn't be sure for how long.
He went to fiddle with the engine. He thought, a thing that Neils didn't know that much about, it would steer him away from talking too much. It would keep the creep away from him long enough to learn what the hell was going on here. Or at least until Danny came back.
He was checking all the systems in the truck. He hadn't gotten too when Danny and Wolf had brought it initially anyway. The oil didn't need changing and the coolant looked like it was a little low, but it would still work for a while. He tightened anything the bolts just to make sure that everything was secure. He didn't want to be working with a ticking time bomb.
"The Vyerni, yeah, that's it" Neils surprised him. "You know, I think Ned and his brother would be very interested to find out who you really are, huh?" He asked.
Honestly, Tex was glad to cut the bullshit. "Does he know who you are?" At least he knew where he stood now and could get ready for what would surely be the sour part of this mission. "I bet his people won't be very happy to find out that their whole belief system's just a sham. They ain't chosen. You're just the lab rat that started all this," He said, not backing down from Neils.
"They need me." Neils said with as smile, teeth bared, an attempt to make himself scarier. One that sort of worked.
Tex asked, almost laughing at the thought. "Really?"
"Yeah." Neils growled.
"More than they need to believe their own story?" That Neils couldn't fight. He knew the importance of the narrative. It was the one that was going to make him the antagonist in the story of the virus.
He heard the gunshots and knew it was time. He grabbed Neils by the neck and pulled out his gun while Neils started shouting. Bullets started flying and Neils still wouldn't shut up. He shot at Ned trying not to take shots himself. Neils took a couple of hits, but he would be fine. Honestly, it was the least that he deserved.
He threw Neils in the back of the van that Ned and Neils had come in and shut the doors on him. Tex did not care about Neils's screaming that he'd been hit. That was not high on the priority lists now. Danny came running out and he thanked the lord above that it was Danny and not one of those other guys,
"Get in!" Tex yelled as Danny opened up the door quickly and tried to reload his gun at the same time. "I got him. I dropped that scumbag," He said and they peeled out of the parking lot as fast as they could. It was time to get out of here. And Vulture team, they would have to find their own way out. He hoped they could do it.
Tex made it to the rally point and quickly and badly pulled into the parking lot. There was no one around to enforce the little white lines at this point, he didn't care. Someone else would get use out of this care eventually. Or maybe not. It didn't really matter. It wasn't his car anyway. In this day and age, if you found a car, it was yours until you didn't need it anymore. And then it got circled of life.
"This is tiger team, standing by at rally point, requesting immediate extract," Danny said into the mic of his radio.
"Tiger? Cobra. Ship's at Emcon,"
"Roger that," Danny said, "Any signs of the captain?"
There wasn't. That could be good. And it could be bad. Hopefully, the news hadn't gotten back to the complex quite yet, but they didn't know. And it was grueling waiting for everyone to rally back, wait for the ship, they were sitting ducks.
"Tiger! Cobra! This is vulture! What's the extraction point? I say again, what's the extraction point?"
Thank god, they weren't dead, but also from the little tremble that came over the radio in the yells, it didn't sound like they were in a good situation. Wolf filled them in on the situation and said he would take five minutes to get there too. The whole team in one spot. That was at least the best this situation could have called for.
Wolf came in one car while the Captain, Ravit, and Burk were in another. Wolf got there first. They were still waiting for Tom and the others to arrive. Hopefully, not with a bunch of bad guys on their tail, but he knew that seemed unlikely.
Neils just whined, "I'm bleeding,"
He didn't care about that. "Apply pressure dipshit," He told him as they were guns up.
Danny wasn't having it though. He took Neils by the collar and pressed him against the hood of the car, "I'll cut your heart you piece of shit,"
To his credit, all Neils did was talk about how he was dying. Being caught in the firefight, he had taken some damage, but not enough for him to be bandaged up and cared for at the moment. And then he thought about Rachel and how Neils might be useful to her in some capacity. What capacity that was? He didn't exactly know, but it was better for him to be alive, for everyone's sake.
"Hey don't kill him," Tex groaned, "He could be useful,"
When the Captain swerved in, he stopped the car immediately. "Where's our ride?" He asked.
Tex shrugged. Wolf answered. "Unclear. The ship's at Emcom,"
Tom looked to Neils who was still on the hood of the car, "Where the hell did you find him?" He asked. Tex was about to tell him about the funny story that went down but the Captain caught sight of the helo, "Helo's inbound. Secure the LZ perimeter," He told everyone.
And just like that, he had to drag Neils with him, "Come on, Dirtbag,"
Danny stayed behind to firebomb the car with the bears. He had filled him in on the way to the extraction point about what the fucked up things that Mr. Sorenson was doing for these immunes. It disgusted him, but he couldn't say that he was surprised. At least Danny was doing something about it, so those stupid bears could never be given out to unsuspecting children.
Of course, the immunes were inbound and chasing them with guns. That, he figured was going to happen. They had forced them out of their little plan and now they had to change tactics. If this was their only tactic anyway, and Tex knew that was just optimistic thinking.
They ran to get into the helicopter, and Burk and Wolf kept shooting at the immunes, to let everyone else have safe passage and he threw Neils into the helicopter, "Sit down, dirtbag,"
Neils just whined the entire time that he was dying. Tex rolled his eyes at Neils and looked to Tom, once everyone was in the helicopter and they were getting off the ground. "Thought you and Dr. Scott might wanna have a chat with him," He yelled over the roar of the helicopter engine.
He looked to the stranger to Tom's left and gave Tom and a look, "Who's that?"
"Jeffrey Michener, Commander in Chief!"
Tex took off his sunglasses, and looked at Tom again, "Come again, Boss?!"
"He's the President of the United States!" Tom yelled and that was something that he couldn't quite piece together, but apparently they were sitting with the president. Tom would tell him the specifics of it later, that Tex was sure of, because this was going to need a bit of a history and civics lesson.
The helicopter landed on the green deck and Rachel wasn't there. Tex didn't take that personally, he assumed that she was in the lab and a little too busy to listen in on when the helicopter was coming in. They let her in on that information whenever possible, but sometimes she or the others just didn't communicate it.
He walked to the bay that the lab was in and opened the hatch. She still didn't notice, going through piles of notes that had been printed off, trying to find something specific no doubt. He pushed the bear down on her desk and she looked over, with a curious glance.
"What's this?" She asked.
"I think you better sit down," He told her.
They both did at her desk, looking at the toy. He took in a big breath, let it out and then looked at her with a smile, "Well, let's go over what it is not first," He said, "This is not a gift. Well, it's not a romantic teddy bear,"
She looked to the bear and she looked to Tex and sighed, "Why do I have a feeling this is going to be absolutely horrifying?"
He laughed. "Because I said that you needed to sit down, like we need to talk. And both of those things mean bad things. But you did need to sit down. And we do, unfortunately, need to talk about this little bear," He said as he picked it up, looked at it, really looked at it, and then put it back down. "It's bad."