To Be A Champion

Chapter 18: Poison Whisky

"The distillery is straight ahead, everyone," Chief McCallen announces, and I wrap my arms tighter around myself. My jacket is doing little to keep out the chill of the morning air. "Just keep going over the moorland. There'd be a much better view of the coast if it wasn't for this fog."

"I still wish we could have waited for Sam to get back on coms," Paula says with a frown, and Jody nods beside her in agreement, her brows pinched in worry.

"Me too, Paula, but you heard Janine. Stopping Jones is an immediate imperative."

"Paula, you're the best chemistry expert we have," Tom says. "If we're too late, you can at least test the water, determine if Jones used regular zombie pills or the V-Type variant."

My stomach sinks. If we are too late, there really is no hope. We have no cure with us, and it is far too late to send out a Roufflenet message to ask for some. Even if we could, it wouldn't get here in time. But we need to know if we're going to potentially have regular zoms or V-Types on our hands. With no known burn cubes left, an island full of V-Type zoms would be disastrous, especially since the red fungus is continuing to spread along the beaches of the mainland.

A part of me wonders if this is just happening in Britain or if it's happening everywhere. Is red fungus growing along the coast of America? Nicole hasn't received orders from the Torrencers or the A.M.T.B. in months. Could this be why?

I shake my head. Even if I did know the answer, or had a way of finding out, that can't be my priority right now.

Chief McCallen looks at us with wide eyes. "You really think he'd do this, Mr. De Luca? Poison the whole island?"

I have to stop myself from correcting Chief McCallen's speech of calling Tom 'Mr.' instead of 'Commander.'

"He tried to massacre an entire enclave on the mainland, Chief," Paula answers before Tom can. "The plans we found in his hideout on Niomh were clear. The island's main water supply runs under the distillery. He's going to dig down through the cellar and spike it with zombie pills."

He shakes his head in disgust. "Horrible! To do this to your own people, to the people you've known all your life!" He looks ahead, squinting through the fog. "See that cluster of white buildings up ahead? That's the distillery. I've had the entire island police force come down. He'll be surrounded."

"We don't have a moment to lose," Jody says. "Jones already has a head start on us. Come on, Five. We're not lettin' anyone else die here on this island."

I nod, squaring my shoulders and darting off with her. The fog is thick and heavy, but the white buildings are still visible. I find myself wishing the same thing as Jody and Paula–that Sam were here on coms, but he's still having his own issues and it would probably not do well for us to make him work under this stress. It would only make him sloppy.

Nicole of course could be on coms, but I think she's taking the opportunity of everyone being on the lookout for Jones at the distillery to do some investigating of her own. She has never been one to trust easily, and she always thinks there's always more to something than there is.

Although, to be fair, it has turned out that the creepy island full of secluded scientists is actually the place I was created as a clone, and my last clone who hates me is trapped there, so I maybe I shouldn't blame her for being skeptical. Plus, she can use this time to see what she can get ahold of since she has the same case of sticky fingers that I do.

She didn't tell me exactly where she was going to go or what she planned on doing while we were out and about, but she did sneak a walkie-talkie into my bag so she can call me if she needs me for whatever reason. I doubt she'd need me for anything at all. This is Nicole, after all, but it's for just in case.