“Stand away from the wall.”
“But just because they’re dead,” she said, “doesn’t mean you can’t deliver my message to Dr. Karp.”
She obviously hoped that whether his children were dead or alive, Ash would want Dr. Karp to pay for what had been done to his family. And though he wasn’t about to accept the possibility that Brandon and Josie were gone, she’d been right.
The biggest problem now was that NB7 was in Eastern Oregon, 370 miles away from the Bluff.
The jet Matt had sent them west on wasn’t an option. Mike had checked. The plane was apparently somewhere in Texas, and wouldn’t be able to get to an airport close to them for nearly four hours. Add on the flight time, and the fact that the closest place they could land would still be an hour away from NB7, and the balance decidedly tipped in favor of driving.
Mike had suggested they get at least a few hours’ sleep at the Bluff before they left, but that was out of the question. Every minute saved could be the difference between Ash’s kids living or dying.
According to the car’s GPS, the trip should take them six and a half hours. Ash planned on slicing at least an hour to an hour and a half off that once they hit level ground.
“You going to hold the steering wheel like that the whole time?” Chloe asked.
He shot her a quick look. “What?”
“You’re gripping it like you want to tear it out of the dash. You’re wasting energy.”
He glanced at his hands. His fingers were wrapped around the wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white. Now that he was aware of it, he could feel the stress running up his arms and into his shoulders. He forced himself to relax, then looked back at the road.
“I can drive, if you want,” she said. “I’m pretty good.” She paused. “I didn’t forget how, if you’re worried about that.”
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Sure, whatever you want. I’m here though, okay? ‘Cause, you know, I think you’d want to be at your max when we get there. But that’s your choice.”
He didn’t respond, but he knew she was right. It would be after midnight when they arrived and he’d need to be sharp. Maybe after they got out of the hills, he’d let her drive for a couple of hours while he slept.
“What did you think of Olivia?” Chloe asked.
Ash shrugged. “I just wanted the location from her. I didn’t think about her otherwise.”
“Last time I saw her she was mad as hell because we’d just caught her, like a cornered wild animal.” She paused. “She used to work with Dr. Karp on the experiments. Yours wasn’t the first, you know. Not even close. But probably their most successful, huh? Not only did they find something that worked, they found you and your kids, too.”
Without looking at her, he said, “What do you mean?”
“The experiments. You know about that, right? Matt told you?”
“He just said we were part of a test.”
“Oh. Well, then…maybe…I shouldn’t…I mean it’s not my place. Oh, dammit. Just forget it.”
The silence lasted for nearly a minute.
“He was going to tell me,” Ash said. “Back at the ranch, but I just wanted to focus on getting my kids. That first day, he started talking about things that were bigger than I could imagine, like I’d been caught up in some sort of…of…”
“Conspiracy?” she asked.
“Conspiracy,” he said, nodding. “That’s exactly what it sound like to me. Some nut-job theory like NASA faking the moon landings or the U.S. Government being behind 9/11.”
“NASA landed on the moon?” she asked.
He looked at her, his eyes narrowing in concern.
“I’m kidding,” she said. “I forgot about who I was, but things that I learned, things that weren’t about me, I remember most of those.”
“How is that possible?”
She shook her head and shrugged. “Maybe we can ask Dr. Karp when we see him.”
“He did this to you?”
“Not him directly. One of his colleagues.”
“Now we’re back to the conspiracy theory,” he said.
“Yeah, except this one isn’t a theory. It’s conspiracy reality.”
Once Ash had realized his kids were still alive, the only thing he’d concentrated on at the ranch was them. He hadn’t cared one way or the other what Matt and his friends were really involved in, but he was beginning to think maybe that was a mistake. Maybe he should care, maybe there was something to whatever it was they seemed to think was happening.
“Who are they?” he asked.
“Who are who?”
“These people you all seem to be fighting, who are they?”
“I…I don’t know. It’s not my place.”
“Maybe it’s not, but Matt’s not here.”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“I already think you’re crazy.”
They glanced at each other, then she laughed.
“All right,” she finally said. “Are you buckled in?”
He rolled his eyes, then smiled. “Yeah. I’m buckled in.”
“I’m serious.”
He held up a defensive hand. “Okay, sorry.”
She was quiet so long that he looked over to see what was wrong. She had twisted in her seat and was studying him.
“What?” he asked.
“I’ve never been the one to tell anyone before. I’ve only listened as others have done it, so I want to get it right.”
“Okay,” he said, drawing the word out. “Just let me know when you’re ready.”
He heard her take a breath, then she said, “I’m ready now.”
Outside, the mountains had finally started to fall behind them, and the road started to straighten out.
“The end of our world is coming. And it’s happening on purpose.”
Thirty-Nine
“CAN YOU HEAR me?” Tamara said into her phone. She was sitting in the front seat of the van, with the door closed so that no competing reporter might overhear the conversation, trying to figure out who she was talking to.
“Yes, I can hear you,” the female voice replied.
Tamara glanced into the back of the van where Bobby was sitting at the editing console. “Is it okay?” she mouthed.
He gave her the thumbs up, nodding. Often phone conversations needed to be recorded, so they had a device that hooked Tamara’s phone into the van’s equipment, only this time the setup was a little stranger than other times, as the voice of the person on the other end was coming via another phone being held up to a CB radio.
“Can you please give me your name?” Tamara asked.
“It’s Martina Gable.”
Tamara gave it a beat so that Bobby would have a place to cut out the first part of the audio, then said, “Martina, can you tell us where you are, please?”
“Yes. We’re in Cryer’s Corner, California.”
“Who’s we?”
“Well, I’m here with the Burroughs High School softball team. We were headed home from a tournament when we got stuck here.”
“Because of the quarantine?”
“Yes.”
“And there are others there, too?”
“Yeah, there’s the people who live here, and a few others who showed up in cars and got stuck, too. And Ben, of course. Ben Bowerman. He’s the one who figured out the CB.”
“And that’s how you’re talking to us?”
“Yeah. All the phones and the Internet stopped working. And there hasn’t been any cell service here since we arrived.”
Now that Tamara had gotten the basics out of the way, she started in on the more important questions. “It’s our understanding that Cryer’s Corner is in the quarantine zone. How did you get there?”
“Well,” Martina said. “It wasn’t in the zone when we arrived. Until this morning, the roadblock was west of us.”
Interesting. “And then they moved it east?”
“Yes.”
“Any idea why?”
Martina didn’t respond right away.
“Are you still there?” Tamara asked.
“Yes, I’m here. We think they moved it because of Paul.”
“Who is Paul?”
“Paul Unger. He’s the one who took the video your channel’s been playing.”
Tamara smiled. This was exactly what she wanted. “And you’re the one who uploaded it?”
“Yes.”
“How long after this did the Internet go out at Cryer’s Corner?”
“Maybe an hour or two.”
“So, after it started playing on television.”
“Yeah.”
“I’d like to talk to Paul about the video. Is that possible?”
A pause. “He was…injured just as he got here. He’s in the café across the street.”
“How bad is he hurt?”
“Messed up his knee and hit his head when the guys in the helicopters took a shot at him.”
Tamara froze for half a second, stunned. “Can you repeat that?”
Martina did.
“Can you tell me exactly what happened?”
“Sure. I saw most of it from the roof of the gas station.”
The girl then proceeded to tell Tamara about Paul’s escape. After that she relayed the story Paul had told her about his brother and his girlfriend, and their murders in the desert canyon. Through it all, Tamara and Bobby kept sharing shocked looks.
“There’s…there’s something else, too,” Martina said as she finished Paul’s story.
“Yes?”
“Coach Delger thinks Paul might be sick. You know, with the Sage Flu. We’ve split into two groups. One that was exposed to Paul and one that wasn’t. No one else has shown signs of anything, though, so maybe he just has a cold.”
Tamara had already been feeling a strong connection to the girl, but now she felt her stomach sinking. “Which group are you in, Martina?” she asked, afraid she knew the answer.
“I…I was exposed. That’s how I found out about the video. Bu please don’t put that part in your story. I don’t want my mom to know yet.”
“Sure. We’ll keep that part out,” Tamara said, meaning it. “Can we talk again in the morning?”
“We’ll have to come back to the truck where the radio is. What time?”
“Eight?”
“Zee?” Martina asked. “Is eight okay for you?”
“As long as I’m still sitting here, which looks pretty likely,” the trucker who’d connected them said.
“Great,” Tamara replied. “We’ll talk to you then.”
As soon as she hung up, she turned to Bobby. “Oh, my God.”
“Oh, my God is right,” he said.
“I’ll bet you that the helicopters that shot at this Paul guy are the same ones we saw. The same ones who killed his brother and his girlfriend.”
Bobby didn’t reply, but the look on his face said he was thinking the same thing.
There was a knock on the passenger window beside her. Joe was standing right outside. He’d been on lookout to make sure nobody got near the van while she was on the phone. She motioned for him to climb into the back.
“So?” he asked, once he’d joined them.
“You’re not going to believe it,” she said.
“Tell me.”
While Bobby worked on cutting the important parts of the interview into their already prepared piece, Tamara filled Joe in.
“I think we should go up with it on my next spot,” she said once she was done.
She could see the hesitation in Joe’s eyes.
“Come on. It’s great stuff,” she told him.
“It is,” he said. “I would just feel a bit more comfortable if we sent it to the network first, so they know what we have.”
“I think we should just go for it,” Tamara argued. “I don’t want them messing this up.”
“You know that’s not the way we’re supposed to do things. Network has the right to see all this first.”
“Oh, I see. You’re Mr. Corporate-Rule-Follower now?”
“No,” he said, his face hardening. “But I am a man with a family who would like to keep his job. We do this on our own, there’s a very good chance we get fired. You’ll have no problem finding something else. Me, it won’t be so easy.”
She looked out the window, annoyed, but knowing Joe was right.
“Fine,” she said. “But if the network tries to change any of this, our version gets posted to the Internet.”
MR. SHELL HAD been right to keep his eye on the reporter. Perhaps taking her brother had been a mistake, but it had revealed that she was a problem.
If people would just let things go, they had a much better chance of living.
He had watched the report the woman and her editor had just sent to their bosses in New York, and knew it was time to do something about it. But given the slapdown he’d gotten over the death of the girl’s brother, he decided to cover his ass first.
The Director of Preparation called five minutes after Shell sent him an email with a link to the video.
“Tamara Costello appears to be very good at her job,” the DOP said as soon as Shell answered.
“Unfortunately for her, sir.”
“Yes.”
Shell hesitated a moment. “I assume you’d like her removed.”
“Mr. Shell, I believe part of your job is making those decisions yourself. I don’t have time for you to run every little aspect of your operation by me first.”
Shell gritted his teeth, but pushed his frustration down and said, “I’m just bringing this particular case up in light of what happened concerning the subject’s brother.”
“Well, he was a mistake. You should have seen that from the beginning.”
“Yes, sir. You’re right, of course.”
“I’m sure you’ll make the right decision this time, Mr. Shell.”
The line went dead.
THE DIRECTOR OF Survival was sitting across the table from the DOP. They had both been eating their dinner when the email from Shell came in. Together they had watched the video, then the DOS listened as his counterpart talked to Shell.
“So he was looking for guidance, then?” the DOS asked once the other director had hung up.
“Yes, he was.”
“Disappointing.”
“It is, but given recent history, not necessarily surprising.”
The DOS cut his asparagus into three parts. “Better to know now.”
“Very true.”
“Is his replacement ready?”
“Of course.”
With nothing more to say on the subject, they both began eating again.
Forty
“ON PURPOSE?” ASH asked.
Chloe was still watching him. “I know it’s hard to believe, but yes.”
“I’m not really sure I know what you mean by that.”
“What I mean is that this group of people we’re up against, the group you’ve unintentionally become entangled with, is working toward bringing about the end of civilization as we know it.”
He tried hard not to laugh as he shook his head. “You’re starting to make the idea of a fake moon landing sound reasonable.”
“I warned you,” she said.
“You did.” He should have known better than to ask questions. Whatever delusions these people were operating under were their business, and obviously had little to do with his kids. But as he watched the road his curiosity got the best of him. “Just exactly how are they supposed to be bringing about the end of mankind?”
“I didn’t say the end of mankind. I said the end of civilization as we know it.”
“What’s the difference?”
She was silent for a moment, then said, “How many people are on Earth right now, at this minute?”
With a smirk, he said, “Well, I’m not sure I have the exact number.”
She frowned at him. “Roughly.”
“I don’t know. Four or five billion?”
“Over seven.”
“Okay, seven.”
“When do you think we reached one billion?”
“I have no idea. Why is it—”
“The early eighteen hundreds. Just a little over two hundred years ago. That means it took over a hundred thousand years for us to reach that number. Do you know how long it took to reach two billion? Just over one hundred and twenty years. Three billion, thirty-three years. Four, fifteen. You see the pattern?”
“So are you saying we’re growing so much it’s going to bring about the end of civilization?”
“These people, the ones that Dr. Karp works for, they believe exactly that. They believe the end of civilization is impossible to avoid. But they also believe that if they can control how things end, they can create a new beginning without sacrificing the resources the planet still has.”
“Okay, so how are they planning to do that?”
“You ready? This is the good part, relatively speaking. They’re going to eliminate over 99% of the current population.”
Ash snorted a laugh. “Right. Sure. They’re going to kill off 99% of the planet.”
“More than ninety-nine. We don’t know the exact target number, but we think they want to end up with around ten million people. They start again, only without losing any of the knowledge the human race has already obtained.”
Ash shook his head. This was ridiculous. Chloe, Matt, Rachel, and the others had been more than helpful, but they were clearly operating on the fringe of reality. Check that, beyond the fringe.
“What do you think was going on at that base where you and your family lived? You said Matt told you, right? It was a test, Ash. They’re trying to find the best method to get rid of everyone else. And when they do finally unleash whatever it is they come up with, you better believe that those they’ve chosen to remain behind will have been immunized against the disease by a vaccine developed from someone who had true immunity.” She paused. “Someone like you and your children.”
The sneer that had been on his face disappeared.
“No one ever believes it the first time,” she went on. “I didn’t. So I don’t expect you to, either. But you’ve heard it now. It’s there in your mind. In time, you’ll see that everything I’ve told you is true.”
The Project Eden Thrillers Box Set 1: Books 1 - 3 (Sick, Exit 9, & Pale Horse) Page 23