The following day began as a typical morning in the tropics, hot, humid and noisy as birds and animals awoke. Lietenant Jones and Munroe greeted a small fleet of vehicles that arrived, most of the Brazilian military, and two landrovers, from which several Americans alighted. One spoke briefly with a Brazilian army officer, then to Jones. He explained that K Divisions men were being escorted out by the local military, accompanied by a couple of the CIA men who had arrived with the convoy, to an airfield a days drive away, and from there to be flown home. And while the transport was being organised he was to be debriefed, and he pointed him to a man and woman he needed to give a report of events to.
Jones approached the pair and introduced himself as he would to a superior officer, saluting as he spoke.
The man, who  was  in his sixties, told him to relax and forget military protocol. “My name is John Metcalfe, deputy director of the CIA. And this,” with his hand he indicated the woman beside him, “is Lisa Ford, colonel of United States army.”
The woman, who was in her mid thirties and clad in civilian clothing of trousers and jacket, smiled at Jones, and Metcalfe spoke again. “Hve you suffered any casualties?”
“Unfortunately yes, eleven dead.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that. I’ve lost friends in conflicts so I know how you feel.”
The woman offered her condolesences to.
Metcalfe continued. “As Mr Munroe is in charge I take it the message we received yesterday was dictated by him.”
“That’s correct,” Jones replied.
“It stated that Darlings entire establishment was destroyed and there are no survivors. Just to confirm the facts, that is something you would agree with.”
“Yes.”
“And Mr Munroe, being in charge, ordered and supervised it I presume.”
“He supervised it but the order was given by Rose Mcdoanald.”
“Did you tell her that you had orders to secure the safety of the scientists?”
“Yes, but she said they had defected to Darling, tempted by money. And that their death was now the priority.”
“Did she give any further explanation?”
“No.” Jones paused in thought, then spoke again. “Have we done something wrong?”
“No,” Metcalfe smiled reassuringly, “you and your men executed your duties bravely and efficiently.”
“We‘re proud of you all,“ it was Colonel Ford who spoke now, “you did your job well, and we never expected anything less.“
“Well, that‘s it Lietenant, thank you for your help.“ Metcalfe added.
“Can I ask a question?” Jones said.
“Sure.” Metcalfe replied.
“That thing called the deatbringer,”
Colonel Ford interrupted him, “I’m sorry you weren’t warned of that, but we didn’t know of its existence.”
“No problem.” Jones continued, “We’re soldiers, the unexpected is something that happens sometimes. But what did you do to stop it after we alerted you to it?”
“That’s classified I’m afraid,” was her reply.
“Something was done?” Jones frowned as he spoke.
“It has been taken care of, have no fears about that.”
“”Ok, well, er, nice meeting you.” Jones wanted to ask more firmly for a full answer, but knew none would be forthcoming.
And with that they exchanged farewells and Jones joined his troops.

“As we thought K Division’s guys just did as they were told,” observed Colonel Ford.
“Yea, so let’s see what Frank Munroe has to say,” Metcalfe replied, “and it better be good.”
As they walked to one of the tents K Division had used, where Munroe had been asked to wait, Metcalfe spoke again. “I can have Munroe executed, right here and now if necessary. He’s a Brit but I’ve checked with MI5 and they’ve ok’ed it. They say their happy with whatever I think is best, but it isn’t just my opinion that counts here. This is a Pentagon project, your in command, so if after we’ve spoken to him you believe he should be eliminated just let me know.”
Colonel Ford nodded.

They entered  the tent and Munroe, who was smoking a cigar, asked if they would prefer for him to extinguish it.
“No,” said Metcalfe, with a slight laugh, “I’m a smoker myself so it’s ok with me. Lisa?”
“Fine with me to.”
They introduced themselves then sat down on the opposite side to a table Munroe was seated at and Metcalfe continued.
“I’ll come straight to the point Mr Munroe. Lietenant Jones told us the message sent from here to us yesterday was dictated by yourself. As far as your aware is everything in it factually correct?”
“Yes.”
Metcalfe looked thoughtfully at Munroe for a moment. “There were a couple of days when Ms Mcdoanald, Al Nixon and yourself disappeared. Where were you?”
“We were prisoners of Darling. Unfortunately Al Nixon died during this time, killed by Darling’s people.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, he was a good agent. While you were a prisoner what did you learn of Darling’s operation?”
It had occurred to Munroe that his life might depend on the answers he gave in this interview, making him careful what he said. “That he had access to a technology that enslaved peoples minds first, then had a degenerative effect on their bodies, and he intended to sell it to whoever would pay.”
“Did you also become aware that this was in fact an American military project?”
This, Munroe was sure, was the question to which, more than any other, the wrong answer could be the signature to his own death warrant. “No,” he replied, feigning surprise.
“Do you think Ms Mcdonald thought that this was the case?”
“That’s  something you should ask her about.”
“Damnit Munroe,” it was Colonel Ford who spoke now, her  voice and face showing her anger, “don’t play games with us!” She paused, then looked at Metcalfe. “I think it’s time Mr Munroe was made fully aware of the enormity of what he’s done.” Metcalfe nodded, and she continued..
“First, you arranged the murder of a number of American scientists, and a couple from England, who were not only innocent but were patriotic citizens risking their lives for the good of the rest of us. They knew if Darling discovered that he was being deceived by them then their death was certain. What they won’t have anticipated,” the volume of her voice rose slightly, “is being slaughtered by US forces acting on the instructions of someone like yourself.” She took a few seconds to think about her next words, then continued. “And there’s the work they were engaged in, which was possibly the most important military project since the development of the nuclear bomb, and it would have been complimentary to it. We can’t just throw nukes around, their use is a deterrant against major powers, but what had been developed here would have enabled us to undermine terrorists and terrorist regimes, like those in Iran and Venezuela. Infect some of their people, they turn into robotic killing machines and then decay before everyones eyes. A way of out terrorising the terrorists. This would have been a priceless asset to the free world, and you destroyed it!”
Colonel Ford sat back in her chair, leaving Munroe time to absorb what she had said, before, with a tinge of sarcasm, adding, “So you have a bit of explaining to do.”
She now leaned forward, rested her forearms on the table and stared intently at Munroe. “Now, let’s try that question again. Was Ms Mcdonald aware that this was an American military project?”
“She thought it might be but I never did, for an obvious reason. And that was that we had been sent to stop it. Not just Rose, Al Nixon  and myself, there were about thirty heavily armed guys who greeted us when we arrived in the forest. That convinced me that that we were fighting an enemy of America, or why would the CIA send us all here? So, why did they?”
“He deserves an answer to that,” Colonel Ford looked at Metcalfs as she spoke, “it might be better if you took over here John.”
“Yes.” he agreed, “it was the Agency that sent them here so it’s my job to explain it”. And with that Metcalfe looked across the table at Munroe.
“The process that was developed at Darling’s establishment had its origins in the US, with work done by medical researchers Emma and Peter Thompson, whose names I’m sure you recall as you assisted in their execution. When the Pentagon took over this research, which was  because of its obvious military implications, it was still at an early stage. Experimental work needed to be done by their scientists, and for that they had to have people to experiment on. Using Americans was out of the question, obviously, so they had to move the research to somewhere where a supply of peoplle who were,” Metcalfe paused to think of an appropiate word, and Munroe interrupted him.
“Expendable?” He offered.
Metcalfe frowned slightly before continuing.  “You could put it like that”, he continued, “so we came here. The CIA had to go to hell to get the Brazilians to agree, we did everything we could think of to convince them, we bribed some, blackmailed others, and told all of them that this work was vital to the interests of the whole free world. Having secured their agreement there was still the matter of making sure that if the nature of this work became public the US could claim it was nothing to do with us, so Darling was duped into thinking that all our scientific people had been seduced by his offer of wealth to work for him. All was going smoothly until stories began to emerge from here of people being attacked by zombies, and deaths caused by what we now know to be Darling’s infernal machine called the Deatbringer.It caused such a stir that Brazilian army officers, who themselves knew nothing about this operation, were about to have their troops scour the entire region, which would have led to them discovering Darling’s establishment, and our friends in Brazil couldn’t have stopped them doing it. So we stalled them by saying we suspected a major act of terrorism was being prepared here and it would be better if we investigated. They took some convincing so we had to make our apparent investigation look real, and that’s why you and the others got sent here.”
“Couldn’t you have give us any idea that there was an operation that needed to be kept secret, and that we shouldn‘t look to hard for it?” Munroe asked.
“Unfortunately not.. The security on this was extreme, only a handful of people in America knew of it,  even in the CIA precisely three of us were in the know. Any sort of warning to any of you posed a risk, however slight, of a breach of that security. We thought you’d never find Darlings establishment, which, of course, wasn’t how things turned out.”
Colonel Ford spoke now, “And now that the whole thing has been destroyed we’ve got to clear up the mess.”
“Yes”, Metcalfe agreed, “and that’s not going to be easy.” He looked at Munroe again as he continued, “The death toll at La Paza is over three hundred, which means more than six hundred escaped and will be telling the world that an inhuman monster attacked their town, and the Brazilian authorities are going berserk! It’s going to take a lot of effort to contain the publicity within an acceptable environment.”
“Meaning, keep the truth secret,” Munroe observed.
“You have a flair for bluntly but accurately explaining things Mr Munroe,” Metcalfe replied with a slight smile on his face, “and your intelligent enough for me to find it difficult to believe you didn’t at least suspect that Darlings operation was not all it appeared to be. But you weren’t in charge, so we’ll ignore that. For the moment. But we do have to think about Rose Mcdonald, and what we are going to do about her.”
Metcalfe, now silent, stared at Munroe, which he assumed meant a response from himself was expected. “Do you mean what do we do about her, or to her?”
“Your skill for being blunt and accurate again,” Metcalfe replied. “You know, it doesn’t matter if she realised that this was an American project or not. She can’t have failed to notice that there were extraordinary scientific and technological advances being achieved here, and even if she’d been convinced it was a criminal enterprise she shouldn’t have sought to destroy it, but to make the technology available to her country. I can only speculate on what motivated her, but her action can only be described, if I may use the bluntness that you do Mr Munroe, as betrayal of America and the free world. To illustrate the point, at the end of the world war American forces did not destroy the V2 missile bases in Germany but took that knowledge back to America. She should have tried to do the same here, and she will have known that. So,” he paused and leaned back in his chair, “there can only be one consequence for her. I’m sure Mr Munroe you know what that is.”
Munroe sighed, “Yea, her death.”
“It grieves me to say this,” Metcalfe continued, “but that is the case. It’s a great pity, I’ve read her file and great things were hoped of her, she might have ended up doing my job. But she must, and I emphasise must, die. And,” he leaned toward Munroe, “we are looking to you Mr Munroe, to carry out the execution.”
“To redeem myself?” asked Munroe.
“He does come straight to the point!” Colonel Ford observed with a wry smile.
There was a weary resignation in Munroes voice as he spoke again. “Ok, I think I know where she’ll be. If I can borrow one of your vehicles I’ll attend to it now.”
“Do you need any help?” Metcalfe asked, “she’s well capable of looking after herself.”
“No”. Munroe rose from his chair to leave, “I don’t think she wants to live anymore. I don’t think she can.”

Colonel Ford watched him leave. “Can we rely on him?” she asked.
“Oh yes”, Metcalfe replied in a tone of voice that reflected his certainty. “We deal with contract killers like him a lot in the Agency, and their all totally self seeking. And Mr Munroe knows he needs to redeem himself in our eyes, and he’ll be aware of the likely consequences of failing to do so. So if he finds Rose Mcdonald, he’ll kill her.”
“Lets hope he does find her. It’s going to be a major task containing the publicity on this, and we could well do without her going public about what she’s seen here.”
“I don’t think he’ll have much trouble finding her. He said he thinks she doesn’t want to live any more, and that made me think of something I saw in her file. It said she had high moral values, and, though I have to admit I’m guessing, I think she did realise exactly what was happening here and who was behind it, and she couldn’t live with her country, and the standards she feels we should maintain, being behind this. She may not have been able to comprehend the greater good, that the research here, terrible in its nature though it was, was justified. And,” he was thoughtful for a moment, “she felt she had to rid the world of it.”
“She’s certainly done that!” Colonel Ford replied, “She’s totally destroyed it. All the people who were important to the project died in Darlings establishment, and we don’t even have the records of their research. All the notes and computer records were destroyed to. We may never be able to continue their work.” Colonel Ford sighed, “Its all been for nothing. And what amazes me is that she found a way to destroy it.” With a wry smile she added, “You shouldn’t employ such capable people John.”
Metcalfe smiled slightly to. “If  I’m right about what motivated her perhaps we should use more people like Frank Munroe who don’t seem to have any morals!” He sighed, then continued to speak, “I’ve been at the Agency for forty years and nothing has troubled me as much as this, it was a terrible thing we’ve had done to people here. But it was justified, the research here would have made the world a safer place for us all.” After pausing for a second he added, “And we could easily stop clowns like Chavez holding us to ransom over our oil! But it’s all been for nothing, the whole project destroyed by one of our people.”
“Guess it’s spolit your retirement to,” the colonel added, “that directorship you’d arranged, I mean.”
“I’l live with it,” Metcalfe replied, “I did have a non-exec directorship lined up for when I quit the Agency next year, as I’d promised the corporation in question a big contract to supply chemicals for a new military project, this one, which now isn’t going to happen. Pity, that post would have paid a lot, but I’ll be taking up several companies offers of being a security consultant. But, yes, Ms Mcdonald has cost me a lot of money.”
He rose from the chair to leave, as he did so asking Colonel Ford if there was any news on the Deathbringers location.
“No, but there haven’t been any reports of other communities being attacked. I’m wondering if it’s stuck somewhere. According to the guys in K Division it took a direct hit from a grenade but kept moving, so it must be made of material that will be heavy and we’re in the rain forest, so it may have simply sunk into the mud somewhere. But we’re still looking.”
She got up from her chair and they began to leave. “And let’s hope nobody else finds it!”

GOODBYE ROSE

Munroe had taken a jeep and driven to La Paza, alighting on the towns edge and walking through the main street. Not much in the way of assistance had arrived yet but some of the towns people who had fled the Deathbringer had returned. There were a few injured survivors who were being helped, but mainly it was a case of people mourning over the dead. Munroe looked impassively at this grim sight as he made his way slowly through the town, at the bodies, the pieces of bodies, and the pitifully grief stricken mourners. Outside the town church a priest was supervising collection of the dead, and the grisly task of trying to identify those who had been dismembered, and to provide assistance to those who had suffered terrible injuries. One man, who had lost an arm, had a cigarette in his mouth and was trying to strike a match to light it. Munroe stopped, took out his lighter and lit his cigarette, and the man, though evidently in great pain, managed to smile his thanks. Munroe smiled back, and moved on. He passed a small group of people, some crying, gathered around to two bodies, one a young woman, whose head was missing, and a small boy, whose chest had been crushed, no doubt, thought Munroe, by the Deathbringers claw like hands. Among the group of grief stricken people there was a young man, Munroe assumed he was the husband of the woman and father of the boy, as he was even more affected by emotion than the others, crying almost hysterically. And he suddenly ran across the road toward the river that flowed through the town centre, the others pursuing him, shouting at him with frantic voices, until on the waters edge they caught up with him and wrestled him to the ground. He struggled furiously, screaming and crying , the others shouting back at him, some crying to. Though they were all speaking in Portuguese Munroe realised the man had been prevented from drowning himself, and as he watched, the mans struggles subsided, he stopped screaming, and his crying changed from pitiful tears to deep sobs. Munroe moved on.

He was soon approaching the towns boundary and began to wonder if his assumption that Rose would be here was wrong, until, looking ahead, he saw her, sitting on the bonnet of a car, at the point where the town effectively came to an end, and the road changed from tarmac to forest track.
“Hello Frank.”
He didn’t return her greeting. “You must know why I’m here.”
“Yea, I’ve been waiting for my executioner to arrive and perhaps it’s better that it’s you. At least I won’t have to put up with a lecture about how I’ve betrayed my country, and the way you kill I probably won’t feel a thing. Though,” she looked past Munroe at the street full of dead and mourning, “maybe I’m past feeling anyway.” She then looked at him again, “You must have walked through the town. What did you make of it?”
He also looked back for a second. “You told me this job would be different and it certainly has been, and I hope I never see another like it.”
“There all like it! These people weren’t killed by the Deathbringer, but by us. You, me, the CIA, the Western world, we’re the death bringers, wherever we go we bring death.” She sighed, then smiled very slightly. “I know that won’t bother you as you’ve never claimed to be anything other than a piece of evil scum.”
Munroe also smiled, the slightest trace of humour in his voice as he spoke. “And there was me about to say that of all the CIA people I’ve met you’re the only one I’ve almost liked.”
Rose couldn’t help but smile again. “You know, when I was at university I decided to join the CIA because I thought I could do some good working for them, help make the world a better place. I’d have done more good if I’d quit college and gone to work in the local Wallmart. Less harm at least.”
There was a few seconds of silence, Rose looking into the nearby forest. Strange, she thought, that she no longer despised Frank Munroe, as she had when they first met. Despised him as he was a contract killer, a murderer with no conscience, But now she just thought of him as a foot soldier, and the people she despised, loathed, hated, were those in command, those who gave the orders.  And herself.
“Did Tommy make it?” she asked.
“No.”
“Damn.”
“I did try and help him.”
Rose smiled again, and almost laughed. “Careful Frank, you might turn into a nice guy, and that would be a bad career move.” Then she took a deep breath. “Well, that’s it. Do what you have to.”
“Do you wish to turn away?”
Rose shook her head and a second later a bullet from Munroes gun exploded through her forehead and erupted from the back of her skull, the impact knocking her off the cars bonnet and dumping her face down in the dirt. Insects quickly descended on the wound and rats in the forest, smelling the blood, rushed to join the feast.