Revenant Syndrome: 02. Patient Zero: Revenant Syndrome, #2

By Robert E. Taylor

Lucas Wright had joined the shadowy Special Operations Group in order to get information. Knowledge that, as a mere soldier, he had little hope of being privy to.

But now, on his first mission for the Group, he would find that the so-called "Revenant Syndrome" was far more widespread and bizarre than anyone had imagined. Sent in to extract the first-known victim of the Syndrome, things quickly get out of hand.

Thrust into the heart of enemy territory, he must use all his skills and keep his wits about him if he hopes to survive. However, survival was only a part of his problem.

As he was about to find out, where the Syndrome was concerned, there were far worse fates than death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert E. Taylor
• Release date: Apr 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301390342

Robert E. Taylor

Robert Taylor lives with his long-term partner just outside London, England. He has travelled widely, visiting most of Europe, much of North Africa and parts of the Middle-East. His jobs have included many diverse careers such as Bank Courier, Cinema Projectionist and even Scuba Diving Instructor. In his off time, he enjoys travel, reading, computer gaming and watching movies.

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REVENANT SYNDROME

02. Patient Zero

By

Robert E. Taylor

PUBLISHED BY

Robert Taylor

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SMASHWORDS EDITION

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Copyright © 2013 Robert Taylor

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All rights reserved

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ISBN: 9781301390342

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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities are entirely coincidental.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The idea for this series of novellas came about whilst I was in the process of considering new ideas for books and series in general.

The initial novella represented an introduction to the setting, threw out a few mysteries, introduced a few characters and generally set the scene, as it were.

Originally, I had intended that first novella to be followed by a series of full-length novels. However, I found I liked the shorter format so much, and it fit so well with the story at hand, that I decided to continue it.

On the one hand, writing to a target size presents some issues, but it also allows me to focus on the more important story elements and not veer off into multi-page descriptions of trivial events. In short, it focuses me on the story, not the minutiae.

It is also quicker to write a shorter story and fits in between my larger projects without delaying those unduly.

This second novella continues the tale of Lucas Wright and his struggle to understand what the Revenant Syndrome is and where it comes from.

I hope you enjoy it!

Robert Taylor, March 2013

CHAPTER ONE

Alright! Fix your Oculars! Special Agent Kirk ordered.

Lucas Wright, along with the rest of the five-man squad, including Kirk himself, did just that. Lucas ferreted about in the breast pocket of his combat harness and retrieved the tiny device, unfolded it, and pressed it to his cheek.

The tiny unit adhered lightly, allowing him to adjust its position to his satisfaction. Once he was done, a press on the activation stud caused the unit to attach much more firmly. So firmly, he knew, that it would tear half of his face off to try to remove it by force.

It was similar to the helmet monocles that he had used in the Federated European States military, but was an order of technology beyond anything they’d had.

The display rendered the same view that his eye would have given him, but enhanced and augmented with information and tactical options. It would give him feeds from remote sources, allow him to see in darkness, and provide information on almost anything he might need.

Information was relayed to the device from an orbiting satellite yet somehow there was no appreciable time-lag in communications. Everything was effectively real-time. Amongst the new recruits, of which Lucas was one, it was a source of speculation and suspicion as to exactly how the simply named Special Operations Group had acquired access to such technology. Technology that even the highest levels of the Fed States military did not have access to.

Since he’d joined the SOG, Lucas had undergone a number of training regimes. His former military service made the tactical and field operations side of the training relatively straight forwards. The classroom work had caused him some problems, but he had struggled through. It helped that all of the trainees tried to help each other out. The few individuals that tried to solo everything, whether by dint of skill, or the fact that their egos would not let them accept assistance, rarely lasted long. Washouts from the training courses were frequent. But they were almost always replaced by new recruits.

This was another source of late-night discussions among the newbies. For an organization such as the SOG, which seemed to be clandestine in nature, to have so many recruits seemed oddly inappropriate.

Lucas’ own belief on the matter was that the SOG was gearing up for something major. Some action, or series of actions, that would likely have a high attrition rate. They were training people at a rate that suggested they had a long term, difficult to achieve, goal in mind. In short, the time for them to remain a shadowy and little-understood, group was now over.

Not that anyone Lucas had showed his SOG operative card to had the slightest difficulty in jumping to his every command. During his month off between training sessions, he had used his new found status to look in on one of his old squad mates, a decision that had only given him more things to ponder in the dead of the night.

Sarah Watson had been a replacement sniper on his last ever mission for the FES military. The rest of the squad had been slaughtered by Cultists, but Lucas and Watson had survived. However, Watson was herself now a Cultist, a turn of events that had shaken Lucas and made him ever more determined to get to the bottom of things. She was being held in a secure medical facility for her own, and others’ safety.

The general belief was that the Cultists – most of whom were perfectly normal citizens with no history of violence or extremism – had been infected by something. Some air, or water borne agent that triggered the mental changes that led to them becoming homicidal lunatics. So far, however, despite studying live Cultists and dissecting their dead, the cause of this infection remained elusive.

After discovering the name given to this mystery agent, Revenant Syndrome, Lucas had done his best to dig up all he could on the matter. It was not much. The term was just a tag. There were historical references showing the first recorded instance, more than two years before, and tactical assessments showing the spread of the phenomenon. But little was really known about it.

His delving had not gone unnoticed, however, and it wasn’t long before he was questioned about it by his superiors. At least, he assumed they were his superiors. Rank was a simple affair in the SOG. There were Operatives, Agents, Special Agents, Supervisors and Directors. Each had several levels of seniority within it to denote progress. Lucas was technically a probationary Level One Operative, the lowest of the low. Those who questioned him were almost certainly Supervisors and Agents, at the least.

They had questioned his investigations, bringing up his visit to the facility where Watson was being held and demanding answers as to what he hoped to achieve.

Just that. He had told them. Answers. But before I can get those answers, I need to know what questions to ask. I can’t do that without more information.

His response had, apparently, been sufficient. He had been returned to training.

He later found out that the training respite he had been sent on had, in itself, been a test. A test to see what he would do with his new-found powers once he was released into the world. A lot of people, apparently, made flippant, or self-serving use of their new importance. Those people did not return to the training program. That he, Lucas, had used his position to try and get answers to the problems besetting the FES world had gained him brownie points with his superiors.

Looking around at his new squad mates, Lucas was aware that, whilst he no longer worked for the military, the SOG was a very militant organization in its own right.

Special Agent Lee Kirk was a large bear of a man, in his thirties, with a bearing that screamed former military.

Next to him was Agent Amanda Eades. She was a hard, imposing woman, also with a military background, who had a no-nonsense attitude that almost dared people to test her patience.

On the other side of the Albatross’ crew compartment, Lucas sat with his fellow Operatives, Jonas Weiss, Viktor Shumenkov and Drew Summers. Weiss was a Level Four Operative and Shumenkov was Level Three. Summers was also Level Three. Again, all the men were former FES military personnel.

Lucas himself was rated still as a Level One Operative. The lowest of the low. In this party, he was the newbie, and he intended not to make an ass of himself if he could avoid it.

With his Ocular in place, Lucas had access to everything about the mission – or so he was told. There was a part of him that suspected that not all Oculars were created equally and that the two Agents along for the mission had access to far more data than he and his fellow Operatives. But that was only to be expected. They were in charge, after all.

Even if he didn’t have access to everything, Lucas had access to more than he would likely ever need, or have time to examine. Medical feeds from his squad mates, mission maps and data, weather reports for the target area, threat assessments, primary and secondary target information, technical data on every conceivable weapon and vehicle they might encounter and so on. The list was endless.

The thing that Lucas found most useful, however, was the SOG database access. Whilst wearing the Ocular, he had unfettered access to the database – something that was not normally possible back at base – and he made extensive use of it during both training and now, in mission.

He didn’t bother himself about the mission. He had already memorized everything about it. A simple check to make sure nothing had changed was all that he required. Once he was done with that, he delved into the database to learn everything that was known about both Revenant Syndrome and the combat droids that had ended his last FES mission so effectively.

The Cultists and their condition he had already learned as much as he could about. But the droids were another matter.

Although he supposedly had unfettered access during missions, he knew that such access was constrained by his own clearance level. However, the database helpfully informed him when articles were beyond his security level, effectively letting him know there was more to be learned