by L. T. Ryan
Bear searched the room until he found a pair of latex gloves. He squeezed them over his hands, and then went to work flipping through the notebooks. They were in no discernable order, so he looked for dates until he had lined them up sequentially. There were over twenty notebooks spanning from 2002 to present day. If these didn’t hold their answers, he didn’t know what would.
As much as he wanted to sit down and read every page, Bear moved on. He didn’t know how much time he had and there was plenty left to explore. Sing’s desk drawers contained office supplies, a few snacks, and an uneaten bagged lunch. Going through a deceased’s belongings was never easy. He was conflicted about Sing. She was undoubtedly at the center of whatever was going on in this town. However, Mrs. Moore seemed to believe the doctor was trying her best to help people.
Bear skimmed the bookshelf against the far wall. It was mostly full of medical textbooks and journals. They were for posterity or research purposes, and he needed something concrete. He moved to the lab table in the center of the room.
Sing had been in the middle of something before she died. He snapped as many pictures with his phone as he could. Slides containing drops of blood. Solutions of various colors in the refrigeration unit. Charts and drawings with numbers and symbols written all over them. It all mattered, even if none of it did. McKinnon could find someone to decipher this stuff.
Bear found what might have been the holy grail. A box full of pills. They were capsules, white with either a blue or red end. Were these the drugs making people sick? Or were they the cure?
Bear pocketed the box. The room went dark. After a few seconds, red emergency lighting switched on, casting an eerie glow. A shrieking alarm blared. Bear’s time was up. He grabbed a plastic bag from one of the desk drawers and dumped Sing’s uneaten lunch onto the table and replaced it with the notebooks from earlier. They barely fit, but Bear wasn’t about to leave a single one. He was certain the information within would bring HealTek to its knees.
As soon as he pushed his way out of the office, a bullet slammed into the wall next to his head. Debris pelted his face. He ducked and rolled, then sprinted down the hallway and around the corner. He took cover to collect himself. Alarms continued to scream. Red lights strobed. He could hardly hear the commotion behind him. When he poked his head out again, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
Bear ducked back behind the wall as another bullet whizzed by.
There had to be another exit. Maybe there was only one way to get down here, but there’d be another to get outside. Especially with all this equipment.
Bear only hoped that the HealTek board members cared about being up to code. They clearly didn’t care about the townspeople. He was betting they wouldn’t want their scientists to go up in flames even if they were willing to kill Dr. Sing.
As another bullet crashed into the corner of his protecting wall, Bear scrambled to his feet and dashed down the corridor. At the other end, he slowed down before rounding the corner. A pair of armed guards headed toward him.
Halfway between Bear and the guards was an exit sign. He sprinted for the door. If they had somehow overridden the system, he’d either wind up dead or in jail.
Bear was eighty percent to the door when pain ripped through his shoulder. He glanced down. Flesh wound. He’d survive. He burst through the exit and stumbled as the door shut behind him. The tunnel was lined with red lights. He didn’t look back as he sprinted down the corridor with the bag clenched tight to his chest. At the end of the tunnel was a ladder. He climbed to the top, where he found a door that opened with the turn of a wheel.
He burst through the door. The cool night air chilled his sweat-soaked body. He was two hundred yards from the building. Guards flooded the yard. They sprinted toward him with their guns raised and shouted for him to stop. Bear ignored their warnings. He sprinted through the woods to the street on the other side. He didn’t slow down when he hit asphalt and was almost wiped out by a passing car.
The driver slammed on the brakes. Tires squealed. The smell of burning rubber pervaded Bear’s senses. He launched himself in the other direction and hit the ground hard on his injured shoulder. The passenger side window rolled down. Bear saw a familiar face.
Weinberger leaned across the seat and popped the door open. “Get in!”
Bear didn’t hesitate. He scrambled across the street and crawled into the front seat. “What are you doing here? I told you to leave.”
“Felt guilty.” Weinberger barely gave Bear enough time to get in and close the door before he pinned the accelerator to the floor. “Find what you were looking for?”
Bear looked down at the notebooks and smiled. “Yeah. We’ve got everything we need.”
44
It was amazing what a group of pissed off people could accomplish.
Bear gave Weinberger most of the credit. He had put Bear’s plan in place. He had gathered enough people together. The truth had been revealed. More than half the town was on their side now.
Weinberger had led the march through the front doors with Bear and Mandy at his side. Behind them were more than a hundred parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. People who had been long-time employees and supporters of HealTek. People who had once kept their heads down in order to protect themselves.
No more.
Once they’d heard about Dr. Sing’s research, they realized keeping their heads down had done nothing more than encourage HealTek to walk all over them. Weinberger had hand selected the families he thought would listen to what Bear had to say, and by mid-afternoon, they had a small army.
All in time for the board meeting.
Weinberger led them to the elevator and scanned his keycard while a pair of men detached themselves to stand guard at the security desk.
Bear entered the elevator first, Mandy by his side. She had insisted on being there. Bear felt certain they weren’t walking into danger. They outnumbered the board almost ten to one. And it’s not like HealTek didn’t know Mandy existed. Besides, Bear needed her help with the technology side of the plan.
Mrs. Moore hadn’t let Marcus attend, so he was at home running the backend. He’d make sure enough people saw what HealTek really was.
Marcus promised he’d broadcast it anonymously. Bear could tell his mom was proud of him for doing what she’d always been afraid of doing herself.
The first elevator full, Bear pushed the button for the sixth floor. Weinberger stayed behind to give the next group access to the elevators. He’d ride up with the last of the parents, ensuring everyone got a seat at the table.
The anticipation in the air electrified Bear. The elevators opened with a ding. His group parted to let him lead the charge. Mandy had her phone out and was recording. She looked up at him with a smile on her face. For the first time since he found Katie Lamoureux’s body, Bear was certain he’d made the right choice.
The board didn’t see them coming. When Bear pushed through the doors into the dark meeting room, all eight members around the large oval table looked to the small army, surprised and angry. Bear flipped the light on to reveal who had entered their private meeting. All eight faces turned to disbelief.
“Evening, folks.” Bear went to the front of the room and allowed the crowd to join him. Even if the board members wanted to escape, they had no outlet. The only exit was blocked. “I have an announcement to make.”
“Who do you think you are?” The man at the head of the table asked. He had a shock of white hair and bright eyes.
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know me, Mr. Anderson.” Bear had studied their faces on the website. Anderson was the head honcho.
Anderson didn’t bother arguing. “What’s the meaning of this? This is a private—”
“It’s not private anymore,” Bear said. “We’ve called a town meeting. And we decided to have it right here.”
“You can’t do that.”
“We just did.” Bear spread his arms open and gestu
red to the crowd. He knew they had a lot to say. He wanted to paint a picture for their online audience first. For effect, Mandy scanned the crowd, making sure not to include Bear’s face. They were still trying to lie low, after all.
Bear waited until Weinberger entered the room and closed the door behind him. He stood with his arms crossed like he was their appointed bodyguard.
“I’m giving you a chance to come clean,” Bear said. “Who wants to start the explanations to your fellow townspeople?”
Caplan looked directly at the camera with his bright blue eyes. “What’s with the theatrics? None of this is going to save any of you in the end.”
“Shut up,” Anderson snapped. He turned back to Bear. “You’ll be hearing from our lawyers. In the meantime, we’re not saying anything.”
“Good.” Bear let the grin he’d been holding back spread across his face. “That means I can do all the talking.” He pulled out one of Dr. Sing’s notebooks and saw a few of the board members’ faces darken with recognition. “I see you know what these are. For those of you who don’t, let me explain.”
Bear stepped forward, holding the notebook high. Most of the townspeople in the room had received the watered-down version of what had been going on. This would be the first time they had seen the whole picture.
“On September 11th, 2001, America experienced a horrific attack on our own turf. Just a fledgling company at the time, HealTek saw an opportunity to develop a drug to use as a biological weapon against those who wished to see our demise.”
Anderson got to his feet. “Lies.”
“Say what you want. I have the proof. Dr. Aimee Sing was a consultant for the company back then. She has written, beginning in June 2002, several questions she was asked by high-ranking members of HealTek. She also kept track of the answers she provided. I’ve read every single one of these journals. Sing had concluded HealTek attempted to develop a drug that could be fed into the water supply to kill off entire towns without a trace of evidence.”
The crowd was murmuring now, unable to help themselves. It spurred Bear forward.
“HealTek used their employees as guinea pigs. First in small doses, then in larger quantities once they realized they weren’t getting the results they expected. What HealTek created was a drug that accelerated the rate of cancer in its recipients. Not everyone developed the disease in response to the compounds they ingested through the water supply. Those who did were dead within a few years. Sometimes it happened quick. Others, it dragged on for months. They all died in the end.”
One of the board members—Bear recognized him as Abraham Irons—stood and attempted to make his way through the crowd. Two heavyset men stood in his way and pushed him back until he was sitting again. Anderson shot the man a look of disgust, but he didn’t dare say anything.
“Having realized their weapon was too slow-acting to be useful to the United States government, HealTek gave up on the project.” Bear opened the notebook so the camera could see Sing’s scribbles along the pages. “Then they started a new one. They developed a drug that caused cancer. So, why not reverse-engineer their technology to come up with a cure? If they could cure cancer with a single pill, they’d be rich. Beyond rich. A foolproof plan.”
Bear paused, hoping a board member would say something. He wanted them to defend their actions—it would be damning to have that caught on tape—but they were too smart to say a word.
“Members of the town continued to get sick. Dr. Sing studied their cases, hoping to come up with a miracle cure. According to her journals, she was on the precipice of discovery when I uncovered the body of a twelve-year-old girl in my backyard. Katie Lamoureux. She’d been dead for over fifteen years. Her father had been close to talking about what he knew went on in the company, in the town. So they killed her. And it worked. Her parents moved away within a couple months. Another loose end had been tied off.”
Bear stared at Anderson. “Your first mistake was thinking you could bully me and Sheriff McKinnon into submission. Your other mistake was thinking the people in this town would stay afraid forever.”
“You have no proof,” Anderson spat. “Just the journals of a dead woman.”
“We have proof, but you’d find a way to cover that up, too. Men with money are dangerous, and you’ve proven you’d go to any length to save your own asses.”
Bear turned to a pair of women behind him. One carried a pitcher of water, the other a tray with eight empty glasses. They went around the table and set a glass in front of each board member.
“This is the same water parts of town have been drinking for close to two decades. We know you have ways of expediting the effects if you wanted someone to get sick quicker. We’ve used the same methods on this pitcher of water. If you’ve done nothing to the water supply, then you have nothing to worry about. Go ahead. Take a long drink.”
“You can’t make us. It doesn’t mean—”
“Oh, it does. If you don’t drink, it’s incriminating. Maybe not in front of a judge, but the court of public opinion will have plenty to say about it.”
When Anderson didn’t reply, Bear nodded to Mandy, who cut the feed. The two of them walked out of the room, their steps lighter than they had been in weeks. The rest of the townspeople stayed behind. As Bear and Mandy stepped onto the elevator, they saw a team of the sheriff’s deputies marching down the hall, handcuffs ready.
Bear looked down at Mandy. Whatever happened next, he knew he’d done his part to make her proud. And that was reward enough.
45
Bear met McKinnon outside the hospital. It had been two days since the video of HealTek’s most recent board meeting had gone viral. McKinnon had spent the better part of her recovery filling in the State Police and FBI on everything she knew. She also handed over all the evidence Bear had collected. When they’d asked her where she had gotten it, she said an anonymous source had provided it.
“Thanks for picking me up.” McKinnon hoisted herself into the front seat of the truck with a grunt. One hand was full of paperwork. “I appreciate it.”
“The least I could do for keeping my name out of this.”
“You act like I don’t owe you more than a thanks for figuring all this out.”
Bear shrugged and put the truck into drive. “Didn’t have much of a choice, really.”
“You did.” McKinnon eyed him from the passenger seat. “Something tells me you’re good at disappearing. You could’ve left town if you’d wanted to.”
“Almost did.”
“What kept you here?”
“Mandy. Her friend, Laura Lynn. You.” He looked over at her and smiled. “Couldn’t let you have all the glory.”
“Glory.” She scoffed. “More like mountains of paperwork.”
“The Feds say anything promising?”
“They’re all over this. Especially with rumors that this was government sanctioned. They’re gonna try to cover this up as much as possible.”
“Sounds about right.”
“I think they’re here to help. The notebooks sealed the deal. Combined with testimony from all the HealTek workers, they’ll be able to paint a significant picture.”
“I see Weinberger hasn’t backed down.”
McKinnon smiled. “He’s become quite the unlikely hero, hasn’t he? The State Troopers told me he’s doubling down on everything. And he’s got a lot to say.”
“Good for him. Good for his daughter.”
“Everything’s about to change.”
Bear glanced over at her. “What do you mean?”
“Dr. Sing was so close to finding a cure for cancer. Someone out there will finish her work. We’ll be able to cure the people who’ve been sick. Laura Lynn. My neighbor’s kid. All of them. If they can just hold on a little longer, they’ll have a real future ahead of them.”
“And HealTek won’t get any of the credit. That’s a reward if I’ve ever heard one.”
“Speaking of rewards,” McKinnon said. “I’ve got a
surprise for you.”
“Oh?”
“Trust me, you’re gonna love it.”
“Last time I trusted someone…”
McKinnon waited for him to finish. She didn’t press when he didn’t.
She instructed Bear to drive out of town until they were winding their way along a country road. Just as Bear was about to question where she was taking him, they saw a group of police cruisers lined up along the street with their lights flashing.
“Pull over here.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, they’re expecting us.”
Bear pulled over. The two of them hopped out of the truck and walked up the driveway just in time to see a group of officers pulling a struggling man out of his house. He was kicking and screaming, but when his eyes landed on Bear, he stopped. Spit dribbled down his chin. He looked deranged.
“You.”
“Jeremy Olsen.” Bear chuckled, happy to see the man in cuffs. “We’ve been looking for you.”
Bear had left Olsen tied up in the middle of the Bowser Freight warehouse, knowing full well someone would set him free by morning. When the news broke of HealTek falling under and the board—who had been cutting checks for him for decades—being arrested, Olsen ran. As much as it pained Bear to think about it, he figured they’d never find him. If he were smart, he would’ve put as much space between him and HealTek as possible.
Turned out Jeremy Olsen wasn’t all that smart.
“He tried to lie low at his girlfriend’s house.” McKinnon pointed at the woman who had stepped onto the porch in a robe and slippers. A cigarette dangled from the woman’s lips. “As soon as she heard what happened, she alerted the authorities. Poor bastard didn’t even see us coming.”
Bear tipped his head back and let out a guttural laugh that brought tears to his eyes. He locked gazes with Olsen. The smile that formed on Bear’s face was one of the most genuine he’d ever felt in his life. “What’s he being arrested for?”
McKinnon watched as her deputies loaded the screaming man into the back of one of their cars. “Attempted kidnapping. Attempted manslaughter. Assault with a deadly weapon. I’m sure we’ll find a few more. We’re reexamining Katie Lamoureux’s case. He had something to do with that, too.”