Manhunters -2006- 29 Link

Phlox intercepted a short-range radio burst at 0400 hours. “He’s hit a mobile clinic near Henderson. Killed two orderlies. Stole a surgical kit and a bag of IV fluids.” Pause. “He’s also taken a hostage. A nurse. Her name is Ellen Bouchard. Age twenty-four.”

Morrow went in low, pistol up. The back room—an examination suite—was dark. He heard breathing. Not panicked. Controlled. “Twenty-nine,” Morrow said quietly. “It’s over.”

Morrow closed his eyes for a long second. Then he gave the order. “We contain the area. No shots unless I call it. Vega, you and Kō flank south. Phlox, jam every frequency except ours. Driscoll, hold the extraction point.” Manhunters -2006- 29

The team’s handler, a woman named Driscoll who never smiled and never missed a detail, pinned a satellite photo to a corkboard. “Twenty-nine was spotted twelve hours ago near the Atchafalaya Basin. He’s moving west. We think he’s trying to reach a smuggler’s airfield outside Lafayette.”

A voice answered from the dark. Calm. Almost amused. “Morrow. I read your file. You’re supposed to be dead.” A pause. “You ever wonder if we’re the same program? Different patch on the shoulder, same leash.” Phlox intercepted a short-range radio burst at 0400 hours

Morrow picked up the syringe. He turned to Phlox. “Find him.”

Then the lights went out—Phlox’s jammer triggered something, or 29 had cut the main line. In the blackness, Morrow felt more than heard movement: fast, precise, inhumanly quiet. He fired twice. The rounds hit drywall. Stole a surgical kit and a bag of IV fluids

Outside, rain turned to thunder. Vega knelt by tire tracks leading into the swamp—not away from it. “He doubled back,” Vega whispered. “He’s not trying to escape. He’s drawing us in, one by one.”