Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis by Russ Watts Page A

was thrown open and Lazarus stood before him wearing an unbuttoned black shirt and jeans.
    “Tim? What is it?” Lazarus was clearly surprised to see him. “You look terrible.”
    Tim looked over Lazarus’ shoulder and saw the figure of a woman on the bed. He heard a faint groan before Lazarus took a step into the corridor and shut the bedroom door.
    “I heard something, sir, on the radio, just now.”
    “ Well, I hope it was something important, Tim, for your sake. I don’t like to be interrupted when I’m...busy.” Lazarus’s lips curled into a half smile, but his dark eyes never left Tim’s.
    “It was a naval boat, sir,” Tim went on. He thrust out a handful of soggy papers. “I made a few notes for you. It’s nearly all there. I wrote down what I could. It was the British Navy, sir, they’re here!”
    Lazarus motioned for Tim to sit down as he scanned the wet pulp in his hands. “Go on and tell me what you heard,” he demanded, frowning.
    Tim had expected Lazarus to be pleased. He hadn’t imagined he would be jumping up and down with joy , but he had thought what he had heard was a good thing. Lazarus’ grave demeanour caught Tim off guard. “Well, I came upon it by luck more than anything. I thought I’d tried the CNR bands and at first I got nothing, but then...It was the HMS Daring. They’re somewhere south of here by the sounds of it. I heard an Admiral McCulloch talking. He was corresponding with a Henry Samson, a Captain, I think. It was hard to tell - sometimes the frequency distorted what they were saying. This Henry Samson bloke was definitely American, sir. I’m sure he said he was stationed on the USS Abraham Lincoln.”
    “And you heard this, just now?” asked Lazarus.
    “Absolutely, and the things they were saying...” Tim’s mouth was open, still in shock at what he had heard.
    “ Well, go on then, Tim,” said Lazarus, his patience growing thin.
    “ This Henry Samson was talking to the Brit, the Admiral McCulloch. He said they were on a rendezvous with the USS Gerald Ford in the Caribbean. Apparently, both ships were on naval duties in the Atlantic, some kind of war-games or something, when the infection broke out. They were ordered to patrol the US coastline, but a week after the infection started, they had received no further orders or contact from the mainland. They had been in touch with each other and remained out at sea, unsure if they should try to dock or keep their last ordered positions.
    “ Samson said he’d been trying various frequencies to get in touch with command, but hadn’t been able to raise anyone. From the sounds of the conversation, I’d say they had only just begun talking with each other, sir. McCulloch had told a pretty similar story. He told the yanks about the evacuation of Britain, but that it largely failed, as there was nowhere to go to. The infection was worldwide. Too many of the evacuation ships the navy used unwittingly took on infected people and were eventually overrun. He said there was only themselves, the HMS Daring and one other ship he had maintained contact with, the HMS Illustrious. Both are somewhere close, I think, but he didn’t say where exactly.”
    Lazarus let out a long sigh and drew up another chair to sit down beside Tim. “Why where they so open with each other? I mean I know we’re long-time allies, but still, these are...tense times to say the least. They must be on a war footing. How come they were so... trusting ?”
    “That’s what I thought at first too, sir. McCulloch told Samson that effectively the chain of command had broken down. With the governments collapsed and the military broken, then the infrastructure of their operations was compromised. He said normal protocol would be for radio silence, but and I quote, ‘This is war. Fuck protocols. We are leaderless. Britain is under attack and we have to act before she is lost.’
    “ Samson said they would stand side to side with McCulloch and they started to