Daniel opened up an MRE, Meal Ready-to-Eat standard field ration, and started sharing it between himself and Elise. It was twelve hundred calories in a package about the size of a bag of potato chips, but they ate it all fast.

Zeke gave Vinny a summary situation report, then came over to the rest of them. By then everyone was gathered around Larry, who seemed to be out of danger.

Daniel thought about giving him a dose of morphine but decided against it. If Elise could deal with the pain of being shot, Larry could too.

“We have to extract,” said Zeke urgently. “That last bastard had a radio and a phone in the security room there. No doubt he made a call. If they’re brave and stupid they’ll react with their helo. If they’re smarter, they’ll get together something we can’t handle. Either way, we don’t wanna hang around. Larry, can you move?”

Larry’s eyes were open by then. He opened his mouth, coughed, and said, “Yeah, I think so. Hey, pretty lady.”

Elise pressed her lips together in a wan, tearful smile. “Hang in there. You’ll be fine now.”

They helped Larry to his feet, leaving the shreds of his armor and most of his clothing in a bloody heap on the floor. Daniel handed him an MRE, then opened another one. Mmmm, chicken a la king. He could have eaten raw chicken at this point. He laughed to himself. Actually yes, I could. Salmonella is no threat anymore.

Skull dragged in the hog-tied man they had caught sleeping, slung him next to the other one. “What about these two?” he asked, gesturing at the immobilized men on the floor.

Spooky walked over to them with his P90 aimed.

“No!” Daniel yelled.

“Shut up, Markis,” warned Skull. He swung his HK Daniel’s direction, an implicit threat. “It’s not your call.”

Daniel stood up, stepped up to Skull. His forward motion stopped with the flash suppressor of the HK in his chest. One twitch of the man’s finger and he might be dead. He wasn’t at all sure his armor could stop a high-powered rifle bullet at point blank range.

Their eyes locked.

“I’m making it my call. This guy’s not the enemy, he’s just doing a job.” Daniel reached up to grasp the barrel with his left hand, shoving it aside. Then he stared Skull down.

“They almost killed Larry,” the thin sniper grated, his eyes cold and fixed.

“But they didn’t. And we saved his life. Nothing to avenge.” Daniel stepped into Skull’s personal space, put a hand on his chest, pushing him inexorably back. Skull stumbled, and Daniel shoved his skinny frame. The thin man sprawled on his back as Daniel pointed a finger at him. “Next time you aim a weapon at me, you better shoot me, or I’ll shove it up your ass.”

Skull spread his hands, backing down for the moment, but Daniel could tell it wasn’t over between them.

“He’s right,” rumbled Zeke. “Nobody kills anybody if we don’t need to.”

Daniel let his breath out with relief. Elise stepped up behind, staring at the unconscious man on the floor. “It’s Miguel,” she said softly. “He’s a slimy bastard and rapist. This is the first time I’ve regretted the virtue effect. I’d like to teach him a lesson he’ll never forget. But I have a better idea.” She reached over to open a drawer and pulled out a syringe. She filled it with blood from her own arm, then plunged it into each of the prisoners in turn.

“Great. You’re rewarding them for being assholes?” Skull asked disgustedly.

“Actually,” she said, “this is the best revenge. The virtue effect will make him regret his own misdeeds, and he won’t repeat them. Maybe it will keep other people safe from him later. And he’ll be useless to the Company now. They both will be.”

“That’s smart, and kind,” said Daniel approvingly.

Elise brightened with his praise. She reached to embrace him, putting her head against his chest.

Skull snorted.

A note of envy in there I think, Daniel said to himself.

Zeke broke the moment. “That’s enough of that. Time to get out. Listen, you,” he poked Miguel, “tell your masters that we got the healing stuff. If they want it kept under control for a while longer, they’ll stop coming after us. Otherwise, maybe we’ll just release it into the water supply. Or start biting people.”

Elise shook her head, started to say something.

Daniel held up a hand to stop her. Rogett remained out cold. Miguel was blindfolded, and Daniel didn’t want him to see Zeke or hear any commentary, because he knew Zeke was bluffing.

Or Daniel thought he was.

He also didn’t think the bluff would work. Governments, or government employees, generally don’t react well to blackmail. We’ve bloodied their noses, embarrassed them, stolen their secret formula, and the person or people behind the whole thing will want it back. The only question was, would they still try to do damage control, or would it be confession time, bump it up to higher authority and turn it into an official reaction by the whole Agency or worse. Daniel really didn’t want that. “Sure wish we could destroy this lab,” he remarked. “That would slow them down a bit.”

Spooky said, “We could burn it. Best we can do. We have to go.”

“Oh, I got something better,” answered Larry in a gravel voice. “I got claymores. And thermite. In the bag in the first closet.” Claymores were command-detonated explosive mines. Not ideal for blowing up buildings, but good enough as a field expedient. Thermite was a high-temperature incendiary that would melt its way through damned near anything.

Zeke nodded. “Excellent. Set them up. Find the fire suppression system and turn it off. Skull, Spooky, get some flammables. Miss Wallis, are there records?”

She pointed at one wall, where several computers sat, with rows of disks and a big commercial-grade hard drive.

Daniel walked over, started dumping all the recordable data media and drives he could find into a pile onto the floor. “Make sure we pour some accelerant over here,” he said.

Elise went over to the computers, opening a drawer and reaching far into the back. She came up with something in her hand, something small, about the size of a pack of cigarettes. “Flash drive. It’s got a secret copy of almost all of our work on it, just in case.”

In case of what, Daniel wondered? He supposed in case of something like this.

“Take this and go over there.” She handed him the flash drive and pointed toward the door.

Puzzled, Daniel complied, moving away.

She picked up a strange heavy device with a handle and a thick three-prong cord on it. She plugged it in and flipped a switch. It started to hum with a noise that made his teeth hurt. “Electromagnet,” she said. “It’ll wipe everything.” She started running the thing over the computer cases and hard drives. He saw now why she sent him and the precious flash drive away.

Skull came in with a five-gallon jerry can of diesel and started pouring it all over everything. The guy in the hood began to scream through the gagging tape when he smelled it.

Probably thinks we’re going to burn him. Daniel thought, watching Skull carefully.

Zeke shoved Skull out of the way, dragged the bound man outside.

Spooky kicked Karl, who was either still unconscious or shamming. “One of you strongmen grab this one. I am no weightlifter.”

Daniel left Elise to her magnetic wiping and grabbed Karl by a leg, then dragged him none too gently out into the parking lot and left him with the other one by the Jeep.

It was quiet outside, except for a faint buzzing sound, like a weed-eater heard from two yards over. Or a helo a few miles out. It was getting louder.

“We got company coming, fellas,” Daniel said. “ETA one to two minutes. I can hear a bird inbound.”

Zeke answered for everyone. “Roger. Rally at the ORP, go go go.”

“Wait, I have to let the chimps out!” cried Elise. She ran for the other room, frantically opening cages. She led the two apes outside, holding each by a hand.