by Mark Goodwin
He turned to see Emilio with blood running down his neck. “You’re hit?”
“Am I?” He seemed not to notice. Emilio ran his hand along the side of his neck and examined the blood. “I think he hit my ear. Let’s keep moving. If we live through this, I’ll get it patched up.”
Josh nodded and pushed deeper into the apartment. He kicked open the door of the back bedroom to see a man who looked like a Muslim cleric injecting a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. Josh pulled the trigger and dropped the cleric, but it was too late. The empty syringe fell to the ground. Josh locked eyes with the young man.
The young man made no attempt to get up from the bed. He said, “Allahu akbar. The Sword of Allah will cleanse the earth of infidels. Allahu akbar.”
POW! A gunshot rang in Josh’s ear and the young man slumped to the floor on top of the dead cleric.
Emilio pulled Josh away from the scene. “Come on, man. This place is hot. We need to get out of here.”
Josh looked around. “He still has the virus inside him. We can’t just leave it.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Cook it. Quick. Find some containers. A gallon of gas should be enough to burn this room.” Josh led the way to the kitchen.
Emilio looked in the fridge. “Here’s a jug of drinking water.”
“Good. Empty it into the sink.” Josh opened the cabinets and found a glass casserole dish. “We’ll cut the fuel line of the first car we come to. I’ll drain it into the casserole dish and pass it to you to dump into the jug.”
“10-4.” Emilio followed Josh down the stairs and back out the door.
Josh crawled under a work van parked at the entrance of the building and cut the line. Gasoline gushed out, splattering in the dish and onto the ground. He passed the filled dish to Emilio and held his thumb over the opening until Emilio gave him the dish back. It took five sorties to fill the jug, but eventually, the task was accomplished.
“We’re good. Let’s go!” Emilio held the jug with one hand and helped Josh out from beneath the van with the other.
The two of them raced back up the stairs where they doused the body of the martyr with fuel. Emilio sparked his lighter and the corpse instantly became engulfed in flames. Smoke filled the room quickly. The two ran out the door.
Josh beat on a few doors in the hallway during their retreat. “Fire! Fire!” he yelled. Josh grabbed the duffle bags but didn’t bother trying to stow his rifle inside.
Once back into the street, Emilio bent down and put a flame to the puddle of gas next to the van. It quickly ignited, surrounding the vehicle with a torrid blaze.
“What did you do that for?” Josh asked.
“To create more confusion. The more emergencies the locals have to deal with the longer it will take them to start looking for us.”
“Let’s just get out of here!” Josh led the sprint to the car.
The two jumped inside, Emilio started the engine and sped away.
Josh looked behind to see if anyone was watching or chasing them. “Do you know where you’re going?”
“North on Vine, east on MLK and south on I-71, unless we’re being chased. If that happens, I’ll need you to navigate.”
Josh continued watching through the back window. “Good so far.” No sooner had he said that than he heard roaring sirens. He turned to see a patrol car racing toward them on Vine Street. “Slow down!”
Emilio tapped the brakes. “Let’s hope they don’t have a description of the vehicle.”
Josh’s heart stopped until the patrol car had passed by. “Get off Vine. Take the side street.” He continued to watch to see if the police vehicle would turn around.
“You’re gonna have to guide me. Find a street that gets us to MLK.” Emilio gave him his phone.
Josh opened the maps app on Emilio’s burner and quickly found an alternate route. “We can go through the neighborhoods until we get to Reading. That takes us to MLK.”
“I hope it’s not too slow. If they get a chopper up before we’re on the interstate, we’re toast.”
Josh examined the proposed path once more. “No. I think we’ll be fine.”
Five minutes later, Emilio entered the on-ramp to I-71 south. “I feel a little better.”
Josh looked around and above. He saw no immediate threats. “I think we’re out of the woods. Let’s just hope that Brice’s team gets their guy.”
Emilio added, “Let’s hope Newark and LA took the threat seriously also.”
CHAPTER 5
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Joel 1:14-15
Once sure that they’d not been spotted or followed, Josh and Emilio headed to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. There, they would pick up Melanie Fisk, the DHS analyst who’d been so instrumental in helping Emilio track down the terrorists.
Emilio sent a text and had Melanie meet them two blocks from the hotel where she’d stayed. Emilio pulled over to the curb. “You weren’t followed?”
“No.” The early-thirties, thin brunette pushed her glasses up on her nose.
“You left your phone, ID, and credit cards in the hotel?” Josh asked.
She looked through the window. “Yes. I did everything just like you told me.”
“Okay, get in,” said Emilio.
She opened the back seat, tossed in her backpack, then shoved the large suitcase into the seat. Once inside, she closed the door. “Good to see you guys again.”
“Good to see you, too.” Josh turned around while Emilio pulled away from the curb. “I’m sorry you had to walk away from everything and everyone.”
“I’m just glad I’m still alive to walk away. Brian wasn’t so lucky.” She reached over the seat and put her hand on Emilio’s shoulder. “Thank you for this, coming to get me, giving me a place to stay.”
Emilio looked into the rearview. “Sure, but Josh is the one who put together the compound.”
“Thank you both.” She took a moment to get settled in the back seat. “You guys are kitted up. Is that just to come pick me up?”
“No,” Emilio said.
“We took out the cell in Cincinnati,” Josh explained.
“What? Like just now?”
“About an hour and a half ago,” said Josh.
“So it wasn’t all for nothing,” she said.
“That remains to be seen,” Josh added. “I spoke with my old boss from Tampa PD yesterday. I’m fairly confident that he took out the Tampa cell, but all communication is cut, so I won’t know unless the news has something to say. We called the crime tip line for Newark and LA, but I have no idea if they’ll act on the information.”
“But you tried. You didn’t just give up,” she said.
“Yeah, we gave it our best shot,” said Emilio.
“Brian would be proud,” Melanie said.
“None of it would have been possible without your help.” Josh glanced over the seat.
“It’s not like I put my life on the line,” she replied.
“Yeah, it is, actually,” said Josh. “Whoever killed Brian will eventually uncover your involvement. This costs you. You’re a brave young lady.”
“Thanks. I just did what needed to be done.”
They arrived back at the compound before noon. Happy to see them return, Stephanie, Micah, and the others anxiously awaited information on how the operation had gone. Nicole made a particularly obvious display of her affection for Emilio, as if to ensure that not only Emilio knew how glad she was to see him.
After their hero’s welcome, Josh and Emilio showered and joined everyone for lunch. When that was over, Josh turned on the television to check for coverage about the raids.
Melanie followed him into the living room. “You have television. I was expecting something more p
rimitive from your compound.”
Josh clicked through the channels on his Roku box. “I got satellite internet. It’s set up in the name of my alias, along with the farm and electric service.”
Poochy introduced himself to Melanie. “I’m Ricky, everyone calls me Poochy.”
“Rick Pooch? The Google whistleblower? No way! I read all about you!” The two of them walked out onto the porch where they could get acquainted better without disturbing the others.
Christina asked, “Can we tell Solomon what the threat is now?”
“I suppose that would be alright,” said Josh. “Did he respond to your offer to come here and hunker down?”
Christina pursed her lips. “He said he’s in the middle of something big. Maybe if he knows what the threat is, he’ll change his mind.”
“Any details on what he means by big?” Josh asked.
“Not a word,” Christina replied. “He’s being real tight-lipped about it, whatever it is.”
Rev pointed to the television, “This is it.”
Josh turned up the volume and took a seat on the couch.
The WNN reporter said, “Reports are coming in from a source inside the Tampa PD claiming that the department took out a suspected terror cell. We have video footage of police tactical teams storming a house early this morning in Tampa, but we have no official word if this is from the operation referred to. The footage was taken by a neighbor who said the address was recently rented and occupied by three Middle Eastern men, but no further details are known.
“WNN has reached out to the Tampa PD as well as Global authorities to ask if such an operation occurred and if so, why it wasn’t carried out by the Department of Global Security. So far, we’ve had no comments from either.
“We’re also getting news just now that a similar raid happened in the Mission Hills area of Los Angeles. Likewise, this information is coming from a source inside the LAPD but no official word has yet been released. Our source inside the LAPD claims that the operation was designed to neutralize a terrorist cell posing a biological threat, however, the source has not revealed why the task was not handed off to DGS or the local Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“We could speculate that the tip came in too late. Perhaps the LAPD and Tampa PD didn’t have time to hand off the information, but that would only be a guess.”
“Nothing about Jersey yet,” Emilio sat on the floor next to Nicole.
“And nothing about Cincinnati.” Micah looked at his father with pride.
Josh replied, “It’s still early. The reports are just starting to come in.”
However, little more was said about the raids in Tampa and LA. Nothing was said about Newark nor Cincinnati, and no official acknowledgment was made.
***
Two weeks later, Josh was hunting with Micah and Lindsey inside the boundary of Mammoth Cave National Park.
“How many laws are we breaking by hunting here?” Lindsey asked with a mischievous grin.
Micah began ticking them off, one by one. “Well, first we have the gun laws. No one is supposed to have firearms.”
“My .22 is legal,” Lindsey said.
Micah shook his head. “Not unless it’s registered.”
“It’s more legal than your pump-action shotgun,” she teased.
He held up the large turkey he’d shot earlier and pointed at Lindsey’s game. “Isn’t that like saying my turkey is more dead than your squirrels?”
Josh shouldered the .25 caliber pellet gun on loan from Rev. “Shhhhh.” Pop! Another squirrel dropped from the branch twenty yards ahead.
“See! That’s what I’m talking about,” said Micah. “Dad is hunting with a legal gun, and he’s still cleaning house.”
“Even if the gun is legal, hunting out here isn’t.” Josh walked over to collect his kill.
“But we need to eat,” said Micah.
“Yeah, we need to eat.” Josh tied the tail of the squirrel to a length of paracord hanging from his belt loop which held three more such unfortunate creatures.
“Everyone else is out here shooting also,” said Lindsey.
“Which means the GU will eventually get around to policing the park. You guys need to start hunting with pellet guns and bows more.” Josh led the group back toward the farm.
“These woods will be cleaned out soon enough. Then no one will be hunting here,” said Lindsey.
“Mammoth Cave is over 5,000 acres. It’s going to take a while to kill all the animals in here. It will also be a lot to police,” said Micah.
“Yeah, but both will happen—eventually,” said Josh.
Poochy met the hunting party at the fence between the farm and the border of the park. “The outbreaks have started. The news is covering it now. Stephanie said you’d want to know.”
“Thanks.” Josh held out the string of dead squirrels. “Do you know how to clean game?”
Poochy stared at the lifeless animals for a moment. “Melanie and I are working on running an antenna up that big hickory by the house so we can hear the other hand-held radio communications in the area.”
“I’m just kidding,” Josh laughed. “We’ll handle cleaning the game.”
“Can we watch some news first?” asked Micah.
“A few minutes, but we need to clean that bird soon. Those things taste gamey enough as it is. The longer it sits, the stronger the taste will be.” Josh led the way to the house. Christina, Stephanie, and Rev were already gathered around the television. The others trickled in slowly.
The female WNN reporter said, “The CDC has identified a new virus outbreak in and around New York City. So far, 85 people have been admitted to local area hospitals with flu-like symptoms. We have Dr. Frank Solano, epidemiologist from the New York City Department of Health on the phone. Dr. Solano, thank you for speaking with us today.”
“Thank you for having me.”
“What can you tell us about the virus going around the city? Is this a bad case of the flu or something more sinister?”
“Well, I think it’s a little too early to know for sure. But your listeners should begin to take extra precautions, especially when they are out and about. Wash your hands, be conscious about touching your nose, eyes, or mouth. Those little bottles of hand sanitizer are usually less than half a mark. It’s a good investment. And don’t be concerned about what people think if you want to wear a face mask. Your health is much more important than other people’s opinions.
“But to be more specific about your question, structurally, it is similar to a morbillivirus, but what we’re seeing in those who have been infected is more in line with the symptoms of a coronavirus.”
“Do you think the virus in New York can be transmitted through the air?”
“Well, for us to have so many people sort of pop up on the radar all at once indicates that they were most likely infected around the same period. Eighty-five people to be admitted to a medical facility in a matter of hours is not something we usually see. Normally, we’d see two or three on the first day of an outbreak, then five or ten, then ten or twenty, and so on. We’re looking into what these patients have in common, where they’ve traveled to, where they work, trying to isolate a location and or date that links them all together. It’s difficult for me to see how the pathogen could have infected so many people so rapidly without it being airborne.”
“But, thankfully, no one has died of this virus yet. That’s a positive sign, isn’t it?”
The doctor’s voice grew grim. “Actually, Bellevue contacted me just before I got on the line with you. They’ve lost their first patient. Another patient is in the ICU at Mount Sinai. Of course, I’m not familiar with the medical history of those patients. They could have underlying issues in addition to the virus, but the virus is the official cause of death for the person who passed.”
“What are you calling the virus?”
“Until we know more about what we’re dealing with, we’re referring to it officially as Virus X. Some people in
the scientific community are beginning to call it Red Virus, because of the deep crimson coloration it exhibits under the microscope.”
“Is the New York City Health Department or the CDC considering any type of quarantine, school closures, anything like that at this time?”
“No. Not at this time. It would be premature given how little we know about the virus. But I do encourage your viewers to take any precautions they can.”
“Two weeks ago, Tampa PD and the LAPD raided terrorist cells suspected of planning a biological attack against those cities. Do you think Virus X could have any connection to those incidents?”
“No. I don’t have any reason to think that. Anyone who says they’re connected is purely speculating. And it’s irresponsible to spread a rumor like that.”
“Dr. Solano, thank you so much for your time. We hope you’ll come back when you know more.”
“I’d like that very much. Thank you for having me.”
CHAPTER 6
There are too many people, that’s why we have global warming. We have global warming because too many people are using too much stuff.
Ted Turner
Josh sat quietly staring at the television, trying to process the information and read between the lines. He knew that what wasn’t being said could be just as important as what was.
“Virus X.” Emilio shook his head. “Do you think the media has no clue about the Sword of Allah, or do you think they’re being told to cover it up?”
Josh pointed to the reporter. “This one has no clue. As to the higher-ups, your guess is as good as mine.”
Rev added, “But if they’re asked to cover it up, or soft-pedal the story, they’ll comply.”