Kharon

by Wayne Marinovich

  'No, he won't. Let's finish up here and move out.'

  As they walked down towards the truck, the satphone rang.

  'Bob?' Gibbs answered.

  'There is a string of industrial buildings along that road. Most of them are abandoned and have been for some time. Full of scavengers so not worth the effort I am told.'

  'Load up the trucks and drive with the men up to that area. Call me when you are near to Minneapolis. We will fly in and wait for you at the airport.'

  'But it's over a twenty-hour drive.'

  ‘I know that, Bob, but it’s a lead. We have to take a look around that area. Why else would they have burnt the paperwork unless it led to one of Butler operations? We are up against the clock on this one so get moving.'

  'Are you sure that you don’t just wish it to be something, Gibbs? We should focus on the other sightings.'

  Gibbs was silent for a while. 'We don't have much else to go on right now, do we? Just meet me there.'

  ‘Fine. This is your show,’ Bob said and hung up.

  Shredder took a step closer. 'Everything okay, boss?'

  ‘Not sure. Maybe nothing.’

  ‘We’ve fought together long enough to trust each other’s gut instinct. What is it?’

  'Did either of you ever tell Bob that it was me who shot Butler in London?'

  Both Smithy and Shredder shook their heads.

  'You think Bob is being dishonest?' Shredder asked. 'He could have heard about you and Butler somewhere else.'

  'Maybe. It's just something that has been bothering me,' Gibbs replied.

  Chapter 26

  Albert Lea Ranch, Albert Lea, Minnesota, USA- 2033

  'Stay right here,' the man with the rough voice said to Christina. She had been blindfolded and helped down from the truck by Jonathan. He said his goodbyes with an awkward hug and walked away, the crunching of driveway pebbles under each step. Someone grabbed her by the arm roughly and pushed her forward.

  'Step up!' he shouted, and she lifted her foot up over the obstacle. 'Stop here!'

  Tilting her head backwards, she tried to look beneath the blindfold but could see nothing. A loud knocking came from somewhere ahead of her. The creak of a door. Hushed, secretive voices. Footsteps on the nearby floor and then she was grabbed by her elbow and dragged forwards.

  'One step!' the gruff voice said again. She was too late this time and stumbled forward, landing on cold floor tiles with a grunt. She was indoors again, the flood of air-conditioned and scented air, around her.

  'Come on, clumsy,' another male voice said, this time in a softer and more refined tone. 'Now, are you going to behave yourself, Christina? I’ve been told that you misbehaved on the trip over here. I will remove the blindfold if you promise to behave.'

  Christina nodded her head. Gentle hands untied the knot at the back of her head and a good-looking man with blue eyes and short cropped blond hair stood and smiled at her. Christina blinked, looking at the effeminate man in the khaki uniform in front of her. She blinked a few more times to acclimatise her eyes to the bright white corridor she was standing in. Three large round skylights in the ceiling let in streams of sunlight.

  'I am Corporal Roger Brookestock, Lord Butler's personal valet here at his Albert Lea ranch. You can call me Roger or corporal. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable.'

  Christina looked at the young man, sadness flowing through her. She had seen a stream of attractive boys come and go in Butler's life. The odd one got away with his life.

  ‘Okay, Roger. Could you tell me why I have been separated from my son and brought here?’

  'All of that will be revealed in the next few days. Will you follow me so we can get you settled and out of those restraints?' he said and walked down the corridor.

  The air was filled with the scent of his aftershave as they walked past a big sunken lounge to the left. In the corner was a stocked bar counter, two large L-shaped brown leather couches near three built-in bookcases. A little further on, they passed an extensive study to the right with a big dark wooden desk up against the furthest wall.

  'Is that Lord Butler's study?'

  Roger kept on walking.

  Turning right at a T-junction, they walked in silence on the white tiled floors until they came to the first set of doors. Roger opened up the door on the left and ushered her into the neat room with a large double bed and two bedside cabinets. A small white dressing table was to the left of a door that led to a bathroom.

  'You will stay here for the next few days until Lord Butler has decided what he wants to do with you. I am to see that you are comfortable and settled although you will always be under armed guard.'

  'What do you think will happen to me?'

  'I don't know all of Francis's plans, Christina, so cannot give you any more details.'

  A tall man in green fatigues walked through the doorway and over to her. 'Ma'am, please turn around and face the window.'

  She hadn’t even noticed the window behind the white curtains and felt him slip a knife underneath the silver tape and cut through it. Massaging her shoulders vigorously, she turned around to see that two others had joined them in the smallish room. A second soldier in green, even bulkier than the first one, and a youngish lady in a white top over blue slacks.

  'There is a good possibility that you have contracted the H9N1 Avian Flu or Kharon virus on the trip over here, and we have only recently received the cure. Lord Butler wants you vaccinated, as there are a few people at the ranch who will not be vaccinated.’

  'Forget it, Roger. I don't trust any of Butler's stooges who suddenly appear holding syringes.'

  'We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Are you not tired of fighting against your predicament? We have another twenty soldiers on this premises, and you will be given this by force if need be.'

  Christina looked at the men and the young lady.

  'This is Nurse Miriam, she is attending another patient here at the house, and Lord Butler has asked her to administer the two injections. Are you happy for her to do this?’

  Miriam walked up and produced two syringes, injecting the first bright green liquid into her arm, and she followed that up with a clear liquid. Christina rubbed the spot of blood away and then stood up to say something. She felt the warmth crawling up her bicep and into her shoulder and neck. A thickening of her tongue made her panic, and she sat down on the edge of the bed with the help of the nurse. Her head spun, and she saw the ceiling with its pressed panels come into view, and then the curtains before it all went dark.

  • • •

  The bright light sent sharp spikes of pain through to the back of Christina’s eyes. The room was warm and comfortable in the morning sun, and she looked down to see that she was under a white cotton duvet. Flipping it to one side, she swung her legs down onto the floor. She was dressed in a white nightgown, yet she had no recollection of getting undressed. Across from her, draped over the small white chair that was in front of the dressing table, were woman's blue slacks and white blouse.

  Once she was dressed, she poured herself a large glass of water from the tall glass carafe and downed the entire glass. The woman glancing back at her in the mirror looked entirely different to the captive waif in the ship's cabin.

  Walking to the main door, she placed her ear against it. The silence allowed her to push down on the brass lever handle and with a gentle shoulder shove she pushed the door open. Slipping out the narrow gap she had opened, she looked down the left side of the corridor. All the wooden doors in the corridor were closed, so she turned to look right and jumped with fright. A guard stood against the wall to her right. He smiled and gestured her to go into the room adjoining her room.

  'Who bloody undressed me? Was it you, you pervert?'

  The man scowled and gestured her to go into the room again.

  Walking forward, she opened the door and was shocked by the sheer size of the dining room. Enormous wall tapestries hung on all four of the walls, and there wer
e three wooden cabinets and sideboards adorned with silver cutlery and old white crockery. The long mahogany table occupied the centre of the room and was set for two people at the far end of the twenty chairs. She couldn't see who was sitting at the head of the table as the figure was blocked by the large flower arrangement that decorated the centre of the table.

  Butler! She felt her fists clenching.

  Moving to her left, she was shocked to see a short, sickly man sitting at the head of the table.

  'Hello, Christina,' the man said. 'Please come and take a seat. Join me for some breakfast. You must be starving.'

  Walking over to the seat on his right, she sat and stared at the man, his neatly combed black hair and gaunt face were familiar.

  'May I recommend the eggs benedict? Chef is a master at the hollandaise sauce,' he said in a French accent.

  'What is going on here? How did I get undressed and why am I here?'

  'Forgive me, Christina. I forgot what a tiresome and confusing journey you have been on. I will answer all of your questions that I can. Nurse Miriam and one of her female staff, probably Stephanie, made sure that you were comfortable.

  'You are on Francis's private ranch, and I guess you will be here until he returns. You have met Roger and no doubt some of the other staff. Despite their presence, you are free to roam the house. All the guards will watch the exits and the perimeter walls, so please don't try and run or they have been told to detain you by force. Now please, have some coffee.'

  The slim man rang a small bell and Corporal Brookestock walked in.

  'Roger, can we have some more coffee and two of Chef's tasty eggs benedict.'

  'Of course, Alex, ' the man said, bowing slightly. 'Good morning, Christina, I hope you had a restful night.'

  'Thanks to the sedative you slipped me, I slept fine. Now when are you going to give me some answers?'

  'Alex will be able to answer more of your questions than I can,' he said and exited via a door in between two tapestries of European castles.

  'Wait a darn minute. You were Butler's henchmen and dogsbody in London, weren't you?'

  The man grimaced and reached down into his lap. Christina felt herself holding her breath. Lifting a plastic mask, he raised it to his mouth and breathed deeply into it for a few breaths, his eyes closed at the pain.

  'I am Alex Brun, yes.'

  'You are the lowlife who let Gibbs go to prison for nothing. You had the chance to release him. You knew he was innocent.'

  Alex looked down at the empty plate and played with his butter knife. 'Yes, Christina, I made a big mistake with Sergeant Gibbs, a man whom I respected and would love to have worked with.'

  'Repentant words of an ill or dying man.'

  'Yes. They may seem glib words to you now, but they are genuine. It was because I let Gibbs kill David Kirkwood that Francis sent me here to help oversee his operations of Styx Enterprises. I contracted the Kharon virus and as punishment, he is refusing to give me the cure. I am now on basic retroviral drugs and only have a few weeks left to live. I believe that it pleases Francis to see me suffer and die slowly.'

  'Oh my God, Alex. That is terrible and so damn barbaric. Why would he let you, of all people, suffer?'

  'He is not the man that I first met. He cared for people and the planet but after the events in the Phoenix compound, the darkness inside took over. Power once again has him in its grasp now, and nothing will stand in his way of getting it.

  'The whole Kharon project was started when he kidnapped your parents a few years back and had them working up in Canada on a cure. They were close to a cure for HIV before that, but were threatened with their lives, and more importantly, your death if they failed to deliver a vaccine for Kharon.'

  Tears welled up in Christina's eyes and she let out a gasp. 'He promised me that they were safe and alright.'

  'Well, he lied, Christina. That’s what he does. Once the H9N1 virus evolved and started killing people, he knew that he had his Kharon. Nobody else had the capacity to work on it. Your parents found a natural cure in some plants or something like that. That’s when Lord Butler started releasing the infected people into Europe.’

  'The people trafficking?'

  'Correct. He transports infected people and then releases them into various small populations. They are forced to do manual labour or sex work and thus contaminate everyone they meet.'

  'But why is he trafficking people from the UK? I saw thousands of people on the ship.'

  'Many will work in his factories here in the US, and then once they are infected, he will send them back and so the whole conveyor belt of infection will…' he said, wheezing and lifting the oxygen mask to his face again. 'No one will notice the infected people because they naturally fit back into their lives in Europe. That is how this has been undetected all this time.'

  'But he has the cure?'

  'Yes, but think of all the power that it brings him. He intends to hold the NAG and NEG to ransom with the cure, and then, only supply them the vaccine in return for immunity and wealth. It will make him untouchable.'

  Christina sat back in the chair and sipped on a dark coffee. The thought of all the men, woman, and children in the container ships brought tears to her eyes.

  'He has to be stopped, Alex.'

  'I know. I am a prisoner here just like you, and I would love to help. Before I was sent here to die, I heard rumours from one of his other lovers that the NEG was sending troops across, led by your husband. Francis wants his revenge on all of you here in the US.'

  'Yes, that Woolf bloke told me that’s what they intend to do.'

  'If you can help me get a dose of the vaccine, I will help you bring the bastard down.'

  She looked into his brown eyes. 'Okay, Alex, I will try to get you the vaccine if you promise to find out information about Stuart.'

  'I will see what I can get from the staff.'

  • • •

  Nurse Miriam was standing in the kitchen, leaning up against the white kitchen cabinets, sipping coffee and talking to a younger woman who was seated at a small oak table which was pushed to the side of a large stove and fridge.

  'Nurse Miriam, may I have a moment?' Christina asked.

  The woman sitting at the table got up and exited a door to the outside of the house. The gust of cool fresh air came inside made Christina shiver.

  'You can go for walks outside if you want. Just ask Corporal Brookestock and he will assign two guards to accompany you around the ground.'

  Christina smiled at her. 'Are there any more doses of the vaccine available in the house?'

  She shook her head. 'Lord Butler only gave us enough for the ranch staff, and the last was for you. Are you asking for Alex?'

  'Yes. The man needs some respite. Could we not get any more, without Butler knowing?'

  She looked shocked. 'He would kill us all in a heartbeat. Alex would never let us do that for him at the expense of more lives.'

  Miriam walked to the doorway and looked outside. Scanning to the left and right, she turned and walked back to Christina. Her eyes flicked back to the door that led to the dinning room. ‘Don’t trust anyone in this house. Everyone is trying to keep on Francis’s good side. They would sell out their family to keep in his good graces.’

  'I just thought I would just ask,' Christina said. 'Maybe I'll go for a walk outside.'

  ‘That is a great idea. I'll go and get Roger.'

  Christina leant back on the end of the table, watching the woman walk out of the kitchen.

  Chapter 27

  Minneapolis - St. Paul's airport, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA- 2033

  The C-27J taxied across the main runway and turned towards the abandoned main terminal. The fuselage shook as it hit rough, weed-strewn patches on the tarred taxiways and concrete aprons. Coming to a halt at the main terminal, the engines wound down, and the co-pilot opened the rear ramp that slowly descended onto the concrete with a clang.

  'This place reminds me of those third world ai
rports we used to visit,' Shredder said, stepping onto the apron, his M27 out in front of him. He scanned the horizon.

  Smithy walked down and stood next to him. 'Jeez, nature has taken over quickly hasn’t it? Look out there between the runway and taxiway, three white-tailed deer.'

  'Venison on the menu for tonight then,' Shredder said.

  'Don't be an idiot. Leave them be,' Smithy said and knelt down to pull up some of the grass that was pushing through all the cracks and joins in the concrete. 'She really is taking over, isn’t she?'

  'I will throw up all over you if you don't stop all this sentimental shit, you fool,' Shredder said, then glanced over at one of the deserted hangars. 'Heads up, gents, we have incoming.'

  Smithy stayed on his knee but raised his M27. 'Covering the lead man with the shotgun.'

  The three figures were a long way off and approached with care. The lead man wore a long black jacket and had a shotgun out in front of him, his long black hair blowing across his face as he walked. The two behind were more cautious and hung back.

  Shredder glanced up the ramp and saw that Gibbs had opened the side door of the plane, and was targeting the new arrivals from inside. The other soldiers stepped down the metal ramp, M27s raised out in front as the scanned the area. Without a word, they fanned out in a semi-circle, all targeting to cover the three men.

  The tall man stopped a hundred meters away and stood looking at them. His two colleagues fanned out to either side of him, one raising an M16 and the other, a pistol.

  'What are our orders, boss?' Shredder shouted.

  'Hold your fire. Let's wait and see,' Gibbs said.

  The three men chatted amongst themselves and then the long-haired man lowered his shotgun and raised a single hand. He took a step backwards and then swivelled on his heels, walking back to a distant hangar with a slow, graceful gait. The other two followed quickly.

  'What the hell was that about?' Shredder asked.

  'No idea, mate. Maybe they were just scavengers,' Gibbs said. 'Bob said that many of these folks were looking for isolated areas to hide from the NAG and the virus.'