Page 148 of Storm Warning

“I’ll pull the trigger without regret, then choose someone else to help. If I have to, I’ll go through every one of you. Am I making myself clear?”

Tall One nodded slightly, then inclined her head toward the large refrigerators lined up against the wall.

Violet pushed Tall One toward Noah, then handed him his Sig. “Monitor her. If she lied, she’ll be the first to die.”

“Copy that.” His hand clamped around the woman’s upper arm.

Violet glanced at Riley, then headed toward the closest refrigerator. Riley trailed behind her friend. Though the thought of facing a deadly virus horrified her, she wouldn’t leave Vi to face this task alone.

She opened the refrigerator door. Inside were row after row of glass ampoules labeled Obsidian Storm. Part of Riley wanted to roll her eyes at the arrogance of Garcia and Mendoza in naming a virus after their organization. Another part wanted to run screaming from the lab to get as far away from the virus as possible. One broken vial could cause so many deaths.

Riley drew in a slow breath, staring at the vials containing liquid death. “How do we destroy the virus, Vi?”

Gunfire rang outside the lab. The glass windows spiderwebbed but held for the moment. The windows wouldn’t last long. They had to hurry. “How can I help, Violet? We’ll have unwanted company soon.”

“Look for a red button or switch on the wall. It has to be close. The immunologists wouldn’t want it too far out of reach.”

The shouts, curses, and gunfire increased outside the lab.

“Hold your fire,” Seth said. “Noah, get those civilians back into their safe place.”

“Yes, sir.” Noah motioned for the rest of the civilians to move to the back corner of the lab. “Get down on the floor and cover your head.”

“Are you going to kill us?” a young woman asked.

“You made your choice. You’ll live or die by the consequences.”

Riley scanned the wall nearest her for the red switch or button, praying they found it soon. She didn’t want to know what would happen to these ampoules if the bullets peppering the room shattered glass and spilled the virus too soon was high.

She moved to the next section of wall and froze. A red switch nestled among four cream-colored switches. “Violet.” Riley pointed to the switch.

Violet’s eyes lit up. “That’s it. Great work, Riley. Seth?”

“Whatever it is, it better be fast, Violet. We’re about to face a lot of ticked-off Storm soldiers.”

“Everyone needs to close and cover their eyes.”

His head whipped in her direction. “You know how to destroy the virus?”

She nodded. “I need a minute before we flood the lab with UV light.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Watch.” Violet glanced at Riley. “Want to have some fun?”

“Sure.” What could be fun when you had a deadly virus a few feet away with only thin glass walls separating you from liquid death? “What do you want me to do?”

“See those vials?”

Her gut knotted. “What about them?”

“Take them to the far corner and dump them out of the tray and onto the floor. The ampoules must break. Otherwise, the disinfectant can’t get to it.”

She stared. “Are you nuts? That will release the virus and infect all of us.”

“The virus will only be live for a few seconds.”

“What are you going to do?”