by Ellen Clary
They went over the details that Adam had sent. Amy was going to meet him at the Strongwill Reservoir. Tyson was going to be listening somewhere nearby.
Tyson said to Amy, “I can’t get close enough to quickly intervene, so be careful.”
Yolanda said, “We’ll be there, too, hiding in the faraway bushes.”
Amy looked down at the table with her brow furrowed.
Yolanda said, “What’s up?”
Amy looked at her and said, “I want you to keep Lars with you, so he has to be far enough away that he won’t start barking.”
Yolanda gave her that Really? Please explain look.
Tyson asked, “Why don’t you want Lars along? It takes more explanation not having him there.”
Amy said, “Dogs become targets when people aren’t in a stable emotional position. Lars has been shot once, and while I don’t think anything weird is going to happen, I just want him out of the picture so I don’t worry about him.”
“But he would keep you more centered.”
“Not necessarily. I tend to go unhinged when I think he’s in danger.”
“Fair enough, then. What’s his cover story?”
“He’s just at a friend’s house.”
Tyson smiled, playing devil’s advocate, “What friend and why haven’t you introduced him before?”
“Okay fine, he’s at the local doggy day care center.”
“Funny, I don’t think we have one.”
Amy shook her head and touched her forehead, then flung her hand off like her forehead was on fire. “WHAT-ever.”
“I’m serious, you have to think this through. This is what cover is.”
“I’ve abandoned him to roam the streets.” She put her hands back on her forehead, but peered out between them.
Tyson crossed his arms over his chest. Amy tried not to find that distracting.
“Okay, he’s with Steve, a friend of my family who just moved here and was wanting company.”
“Is he a farmer?”
“Yes, but he’s not farming right now, and is looking for property here.”
“Better pray they never meet, as Steve will have all sorts of farming questions to answer.”
Lifting her hands from her head, she said, “They actually have met down south. Okay, I give up, I’ll take Lars along.” Her voice had the sound of a decision made.
Tyson seemed surprised. He raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure you’re okay with this decision?”
“As okay as I’m going to be with this whole thing,” she said.
“Okay, Markus tells me you can use the small car from your office. That’s it, right?” he said, gesturing to the parking lot. “It doesn’t look too official, but one issue is, it’s not quite new enough to be a rental car, so try not to call attention to it.”
Taking a breath with an inclined head, Amy said, “Okay, I can do this.”
“You can. Don’t forget your wire.”
Steve and Yolanda, smiling, said, “Good hunting.”
Amy shot them a withering look.
AMY LOADED Lars into the car, got in, and noticed that the navigation system was an infamous older model. Oh, this should be fun, she thought.
“Destination?” it asked.
“Strongwill Reservoir.”
The screen showed: Stronghill, Strongview, and Stenvell.
“No, Strongwill.”
Stronghill, Soundside.
Resting her head on the steering wheel, she was thinking that she was going to have to just drive herself. “No, we’re not going to Soundside.” Much as I may want to, she thought.
Grumbling, she found the map display on the console, and with some hunting around located Strongwill. She hoped this would work, as she wanted to reread all of Adam’s messages before their meeting. She really didn’t want to have to do all the driving.
“Strongwheel Recreational Reservoir,” it said, in what she thought was almost a proud tone of discovery.
Putting her head in her hands, she said, “Go.”
CHAPTER 59:
Amy and Adam
THE CAR pulled into the Strongwill Reservoir parking area, happily announcing, “Strongwheel.”
Whatever, Amy thought.
She could see Adam sitting on his car. She was a little relieved to not see Levi, concerned that Levi might start mentally blasting her with random words. She realized he could just be off chasing a rabbit or a squirrel, so she tried not to get her hopes up.
“Hi, Adam,” she said, getting out of the car and letting Lars out. Lars immediately started to sniff around, looking for a good place to pee. Amy asked, “Where’s Levi?”
“Oh, he’s with Sarah. I think he likes her better in some ways.”
Reflecting on the times where Adam wanted to punish Levi for just acting like a dog, she thought, What a surprise. “How is Sarah?”
“She’s fine. She’s busy on our new project and seems to be enjoying it. Wanna take a walk?”
“I’d love to.”
They walked away from the parking area, down the dirt access road that ran around the reservoir. Then the road started to climb. The water came into view, sunlight playing over the blue-green surface surrounded by the green and brown shore. Amy breathed in the smell of the water, which offered a peace that was eluding her. She was starting to feel like this was one of those awkward dates where no one admits to what’s going on. Adam had been telling her about the goings-on at the farm, and she realized she was only half-listening.
“… and then Sarah had to head the sheep off before it went running out of the pen.”
Amy asked, “Where was one of the dogs?”
“She thought she could do it herself.”
“My friends tell me, ‘That works fine until a sheep has other ideas.’”
Adam laughed. “Yep.”
They stopped at an overlook, with the slope receding into the water below them.
Amy thought about the verbal code that she and Tyson had gone over. The ones about allergies that they had decided on at the dog park, or she could mention the weather. The weather ones were sunny, windy, and rain. They went over and over them, and now they just seemed silly. She was wearing a wire and could probably just say something in plain English and get away with it.
Adam looked out over the water, clearly preoccupied. He continued on over the rise, dropping down to where Amy could see a stream coming down a gentle slope. Amy tried not to worry that she was out of visual range, in case they had decided to tail her.
Adam turned right, edging along by the creek. He started to climb what looked like an old trail, skirting along beside a large berry bush.
Amy said, looking at all the overgrown grass along the narrow, faded path, “This trail doesn’t look very government-issue.”
“This is an older section that has some preexisting features from when it was private property.”
Say what? Amy thought. She hoped her backup could figure out where they were. “Er, features?”
“Like this,” he said, half-turning to her and pointing with his arm extended, palm up.
It was a wooden bridge about fifty feet high going over the stream. Pale with age, it was once robust, but now it seemed less than stable. From this distance, the walkway looked sturdy enough, but the railings, held up by X-shaped cross pieces, looked like something large had been chewing on them. Amy’s eyes tracked across it. She could see the bridge went over what was now a huge berry bush and some large boulders, crossing the creek over to a more forested area. For her listening audience, she said, “Looks like a really old bridge, Adam.”
“This is the only way to access the other side of the creek, where there once was some instrumentation that they used to monitor the creek flow.”
Amy, feeling like she had a talent for the obvious, said, “I take it they don’t do that anymore?”
“Naw, it’s now further downstream.”
Walking up to the base of the steps, he said, “Let’s climb
up and head to the other side.”
Amy looked up again, evaluating, and turned to Lars. “I need you to wait here.”
Lars put his feet up on the steps and whined.
“No, it’s too dangerous, you don’t have hands.”
He blew out his cheeks and arrooo’ed in protest.
“I’m serious. I would be worrying about you the entire time, and we’d both fall off. Here’s a chewy stick.”
He sniffed, considering.
Amy took a few steps over to a clearing and dropped the chewy. “Wait here.”
He sighed in what certainly looked like reluctant acquiescence, and plopped down with his prize.
“Good boy.”
Adam put a hand on the railing and raised his foot up to the first step.
Amy asked, “So where are we going?”
“I want to get to the other side of the creek and this is the best way.” He took another two steps.
You said that already and that’s not exactly an explanation, she thought. She looked back at Lars to see that he was happily working on his chew stick. Well, at least one of us is happy.
Amy looked at the steps going up. It was more like a ladder. Each step was worn in the middle, but they looked like they would still hold their weight. The railings were darkened with the oil of many hands, but time had also greyed the wood. The rails rocked gently when she pulled on them, but they held as she put her weight on the step, steadying herself with the handrail. She took another step and her confidence started to increase. Just get up this section, she thought. She was usually fine with heights, but had little experience in less-than-rock-steady bridges.
While Adam was ahead of her, she started quietly talking as if to herself, hoping her listeners could hear her. “I’m on an old grey bridge that’s just off the main property. We climbed up a creek to get to it. It’s a little rickety. Lars is waiting on the ground at the base.”
As she climbed, Amy looked down. The berry bush was huge and had climbed over some large boulders. She could see the other side of the bridge descending beyond the bush. While there was an easy access to the creek, with a clearing nestled in front of some bay trees, it occurred to Amy that people looking for them would have a difficult time finding them even using dogs. To Amy, this suddenly felt even more risky than it already was.
Adam had reached the top of the steps and was starting to walk across.
“Adam, stop a sec.” Should she fake being afraid to cross? That actually wouldn’t be hard to pull off, she thought.
Adam stopped and looked back. “We just need to go right down there.” He turned and pointed to the creek bank just on the other side. He started up again.
“Adam, stop,” she said.
He resembled an impatient horse just wanting to go. He stopped, but he was still leaning forward, looking ahead.
“You need to tell me what this is about,” Amy said.
“I’ll show you when we—”
“You’ll show me right now, before we go any further on this scary bridge.”
He sighed loudly. “It would be easier if—”
“Now, Adam. Show-and-tell now. I’m not going any further unless I know why.”
Shrugging, he put down the canvas tote he was carrying, knelt down, and unzipped it.
Amy took the time to step carefully closer to him.
He drew out what looked like a large sealed bag. Inside that bag was a smaller, similar bag that held liquid.
“The water in this bag contains nanobots, similar to what we use to lower blood pressure and heart rate. Turns out, they can be switched around to increase blood pressure instead. It will make someone ill.”
Amy tilted her head, eyes squinting. “Why would you want to do that?” She was trying not to panic about the memory of Herman and Lincoln fighting for life in the hospital. Their brain scans red with too much activity, and their BP’s climbing steadily.
“If enough people get ill, then they’ll think there’s something inherently wrong with the place and won’t want to live here.”
Amy took a slow deliberate breath, “Er, wwwwhhy?”
“Well, if they just moved here, they would easily blame it on the location.”
Amy had a dreadful feeling that started in her head and continued to work its way down to her stomach. Oh this is so not good. Call for help. What was it that we’d agreed on? Mention allergies, that’s right. She had to get her mouth working again. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. Can you spell it out for me? And is there something in bloom? My allergies are just killing me.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. Then she remembered she was supposed to mention bad weather. She looked up at the perfectly clear sky, and said, “Do you think it will rain?”
Except for giving her a confused look, Adam didn’t seem to notice that the nonsense she was babbling was actually a code that pulled a fire alarm. It was his turn to take a calming breath. He resembled someone who was trying to explain why the sky was blue to a four-year-old. “We just had 10,000 people from a darker nation arrive. If something mysteriously makes them sick, then they might all just leave.”
Amy scratched her head. This is so weird, it doesn’t take any acting. “How?”
Adam held up the bag. “The bag inside this bag will dissolve slowly in water, releasing the nanobots into the water system.”
Oh Gods. Oh Gods. Amy didn’t even know where to begin talking, so she took a different tack. “Did Tomas ask you to do this?”
“No, he explained to me that it could work this way, but this is my project.”
“Don’t you think he’d be unhappy with you doing this?”
“I’m hoping he likes my initiative. He’s always been encouraging me to explore the possibilities.”
Ah-ha, here’s a chance. “Adam, Tomas doesn’t appear to like doing anything high-profile, especially mass sickness.”
“They won’t know it’s us, that’s the beauty.”
“I think you’re being naive. They will figure out it’s nanobot-caused, and there aren’t many organizations doing that kind of research in this area.”
Adam looked at the bag and didn’t seem to hear.
Amy, having to resist punching him out of frustration, said, “Have you even tested this? I thought you were a researcher.”
“Well, I did a lot of modeling.”
“You haven’t tested it?” Amy’s voice started to rise. This is a completely stupid conversation I’m having about testing mass murder.
“It will work. I’ve already placed three other bags like this,” Adam said, and started forward.
Oh, fuck! She grabbed his arm. “You WHAT?! Adam, stop. There’s something you don’t know.”
“Can we talk about this later?” He shook his head as if she was talking about something inconsequential.
“NOW,” she said. He looked back, with a quizzical expression. Amy said as levelly as she could manage, “The nanobots can kill.”
Adam said, slightly defensive, “How do you know that? What do you know about my work?”
Okay, time to jump off this cliff, she thought.
“Adam, I’m with the police, and we’ve been tracking a serious assault where someone used nanobots.”
His face dropped in shock. “You’re a cop! You’re a fucking cop!” He punched at the air. “I trusted you. And so what if some other doofus used nanobots?” He leaned away from her as if to leave.
Amy gripped his arm harder.
“We traced the nanobots back to your organization.”
Adam laughed, looking away. “That’s impossible. You’re completely wrong. We haven’t assaulted anyone. You people always blame us for everything, why do you think we try to get away from you all?”
Haven’t assaulted anyone yet, she thought. “The assault was done by a third party, but it leads back to you folks.”
“This is nuts.”
Amy leaned into his face, yelling and nearly sputtering. “Do not talk to me about nuts. You’re the
one who’s trying to justify murder.”
“This isn’t murder,” he said, trying to lean back.
Lars, back on the ground, had stopped chewing, /Okay?/
It took Amy a moment to realize Lars was saying something. She replied to him, /I’m okay./ She said to Adam, “You don’t know that. I have seen what the nanobots can do when they’re set to raise blood pressure and heart rate. If not stopped, the brain circuitry will fry, which is pretty dead in my book.”
Adam said, “I don’t believe you. You’re probably with some company who wants our research.”
“Hardly.”
He wrenched his arm free. “Leave me alone.” He started forward.
She grabbed his elbow again.
“Adam, if you do this you will bring down a world of hurt on your group. This could end your group’s existence. This idyllic life will stop. Believe me, Tomas doesn’t want you to do this.”
Adam stopped, considering. “I don’t believe you. I don’t think you’re a cop. I think you’re with a competing lab.”
Amy heard barking, whining, and scratching. She glanced over the frayed railing to see that Lars was trying to climb the stairs.
Amy hurriedly said to him, /No, don’t climb./
She saw him scramble up two steps. /Lars, stop, you’ll—/
Lars’s rear foot slipped and his front feet slid forward through the opening. He tried to right himself with his back feet, but instead he wound up twisting and tumbling to the ground.
“Shit,” Amy said, then remembered to speak empathically so Adam didn’t realize what she was up to. Desperately hoping Lars would listen, she pleaded, /Go get help. Go back. Get help./
Lars stood up, wobbling some, whined, and looked up at the ladder.
She begged again, /Go! Get help. Please!/
Lars paused, considering. Amy thought she could hear him whining, but decided it was her imagination. After a very long moment, Lars took off running back down the hill.
In the meantime, Adam had pulled away and had taken two more steps.
She ran up, grabbing his jacket. “Adam, please stop. The police are on their way. This is over.”
“There are no cops!” he cried.
“I assure you there are.”
“You just want this!” He brandished the bag.