Prologue

The wind blew viciously across Lucy Tyler’s face. The weather conditions had worsened in the hour since they had arrived at the warehouse and it had now started to snow heavily.

“Typical weather for Chicago” Lucy muttered to herself, trying to keep herself focused despite the cold.

She had come to Chicago with her DPD Team in search of an infectee. They had been able to trace the individual, thanks to a local hospital reporting that a patient had shown a DNA match against the test devised by the DPD a couple of months previous.

A few days prior to their arrival, Lucy had sent several agents to monitor the infectee’s movements and identify who he had made contact with. There was no doubt that he would be making his best efforts to spread the infection.

The reports that came back indicated that the infectee was working on some project in the area. The objectives now were to capture him, uncover his plans and remove the threat. While they knew that many of the infectees they had tracked were working in groups, this particular one had not appeared to have made contact with anyone else during the surveillance.

Despite following protocols, the team had been disorderly on their arrival on the industrial complex, and had alerted the infectee to their presence. He had caught sight of them as they turned up at the gates to the compound and had fled. They were now forced into chasing him around the buildings on foot.

She tried to keep as close to the wall as she could, edging cautiously towards a metal door about twenty metres ahead. It made no difference against the cold; the wind was blowing hard into her face. Thankfully, the beanie hat she was wearing kept her hair from blowing into her eyes.

At the touch of a hand on her shoulder, she stopped as she reached the door. She looked round and was relieved to see her partner, agent Bale, following closely behind.

“Let me go first,” he said to her.Lucy nodded and let him edge past her. He steadied himself, twisted the door handle with his left hand and let it fall open.

Peering into the dark, they could see the warehouse was full of crates and boxes, but it looked like many of these had been here for some time. Everything was covered in dust and looked like nothing had been disturbed recently.

Despite being ordered by their operation commander, Al Johnson, who was monitoring the operation from back at DPD command, not to enter the warehouse until back up could arrive, Lucy was determined they move in immediately. She felt that as it was not a large building they could easily manage this job between the two of them.

As Bale edged his way in, she followed him closely, carefully watching the area for their target.

He made his way to the right side of the door as he entered, checking behind it as he advanced. Lucy moved to the left, keeping tight against the wall. She raised her gun to an alert position, catching her partner’s eye and nodding the silent signal to split up. Although the situation was highly hazardous, they knew they would cover more ground working separately.

They edged around the walls of the warehouse, each making their way to different corners of the building. Lucy could see clearly down the side of the warehouse to a set of stairs that led up to what she suspected were offices. This, she thought, might give her a good vantage point and allow her to guide Bale to the location of the infectee.

She had made her way quickly along the wall to the stairs, checking down each of the four aisles between the crates as she went. Arriving unhindered, she quickly surveyed her route and edged her way up the stairs.

On reaching the top, she carefully opened the door and moved stealthily into the first office. To her left was a large window over-looking the main warehouse floor. Straight ahead was another door which led in to a second office. Taking a quick look through, she saw there was another similar room beyond it, but this one had a door leading out onto a balcony. She made her way through and into the second office, making sure to leave the door ajar so her exit was clear.

A creak and a click made her spin round to see the door she had just come through close, apparently of its own accord. Her heart beating furiously, Lucy scanned the room for any signs of life.

Nothing.

She turned back and continued into the second room. Another sound off to her right caught her attention, but before she could act on it, she was thrown across the room and landed against the bank of filing cabinets.

Momentarily dazed, she realized she had dropped her weapon from the force of the impact. It was in front of her by a couple of feet, just out of arms reach.

In the corner of her vision, she saw a large pair of black boots approaching.

Not recognizing them as ones worn by Bale, she raised her head to see who they belonged to. As she did, a powerful kick connected with her jaw, sending her slamming back into the filing cabinets. Hovering near to unconsciousness, she felt two strong hands wrap around her throat and squeeze down forcefully on her windpipe.

She guessed, correctly, that these hands belonged to the infectee who they had pursued into the building. His grasp was getting tighter around her neck. Each breath was hard won and her vision was starting to fade.

Lucy flailed frantically against the infectee’s grip. He was obviously bigger and stronger than she was, and the desperate struggle was useless. She just hoped Bale had heard the commotion and had been able to catch up with her in time.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the pressure around her neck was released and Lucy slumped to the floor, gasping to get some air back into her lungs. Her vision had not cleared enough to see what was happening, but she guessed that Bale had got to the room to rescue her.

Lucy slowly began to make out two blurred figures in front of her. She could feel the impact as one of them smashed into the wall next to her. He then rolled himself forward, back towards the other who had started to direct another attack at him.

A gun shot sounded, followed by the violent flash and crackle of the stun charges the team used to incapacitate an infectee. As suddenly as it had all started, it was over.

Relieved, Lucy started to sit herself up. The remaining blur helped her into a sitting position and a hand was gently placed on the side of her face. Her head was raised up and she could see the outline of a man’s face was looking into her eyes to see if she was okay.

As her eyes came back into focus, she realized it was not Bale with her. Although groggy, she instinctively went for the gun at her hip, and froze when she realized it wasn’t there.

“You’ll be alright,” he said to her, a voice she found strangely comforting. “I’m guessing you’ll have just a few bruises and probably the mother of all headaches tomorrow.”

This was a dark haired man, probably in his mid-thirties she thought. It was not someone she recognized at all.

“Who..” Lucy started to ask.

“Am I?” he finished for her. But a loud crash caused him to snatch a look behind, before turning back. “A friend. You are not alone. We are all fighting the same enemy”

Lucy looked at him, still disorientated. “I don’t know what you mean?”

“You have a new ally, Dr Tyler. Everything will be made clear to you very soon”

There was a second loud crash, and Bale burst through the door into the offices.

Lucy turned back to the stranger as he pointed his weapon at the window overlooking the warehouse. A gun shot rang out and the window shattered into a thousand pieces, and Lucy realized her rescuer was preparing his escape route.

The stranger turned back, pointing the gun directly towards her face as he edged his way backwards, turning his focus towards Bale advancing on him. This caused Lucy’s colleague to hesitate at the door, ready to dive in to save his partner, poised for the inevitable shootout.

Suddenly the stranger turned and ran towards the window, and Bale saw his opportunity to burst through the door and into the second office. He leveled his gun at the stranger, who jumped over the balcony and disappeared back to the ground floor.

“Stop!” Lucy yelled, only now finding her feet. “Let him go!”

Bale moved out on to the balcony and watched as the stranger disappeared across the warehouse floor. His gun followed the stranger, but he could not get a clean shot off. The stranger made his escape out of the door they had entered only a few minutes before.

As Lucy laid her hand on his shoulder, he turned to look at her. Before he could say anything, she answered the questioning look on his face

“I think our cause has gained a new friend.”