“My husband teaches love and care,” Sarah corrected Noel. “My husband takes care of me and would die for me in the blink of an eye. My husband helps me wash dishes and cooks dinner when I am hard at work. My husband rubs my legs at night and asks me how my day was. My husband brings me flowers and offers me a love I never thought I would find after my first husband divorced me.” Sarah shook her head. “One man hurt me—another man healed my broken heart. You can’t hate the world for the actions of a few, Noel. Not all men are bad and not all women are good.”
“You’re just trying to justify—”
“You murdered a woman in cold blood. What does that make you?” Sarah snapped.
“I eliminated a threat,” Noel snapped back.
“The so-called criminals inside the United Nations, with their allegedly sick and twisted actions, are only doing the same thing, right? What makes you any different from them? They start wars and kill—you have started a war and you have killed. They want power and control—you want power and control. Noel, you are no different than they are.”
“Shut up!” Noel screamed, and grabbed her head. “I’m a woman—proud, brilliant and powerful. I will change everything. I will—”
“You’re lost in a fantasy world! And you married Nolan!” Sarah yelled back. “You must not have been as liberated as you hoped.”
“I married Nolan because—because—” Noel’s mind began to crumble. Sarah was backing her into a corner. “I married Nolan because—”
“Because you fell in love and love felt good, didn’t it?” Sarah said. “Love is pure, Noel—sweet to the heart and healing to the soul. You felt a love that covered over the ugly sores infesting your soul!”
“Shut up!” Noel yelled, and charged at Sarah.
Sarah fired a single shot into the ground. “Not another step,” she warned Noel. “Now, get down on the ground. You’re under arrest.”
Noel stopped running and stared at Sarah with deadly eyes. “I’m no fool,” she hissed. “I always have a contingency plan.” Noel pointed south. “I have already set my virus inside the Anchorage airport. I placed the virus in a heating and air duct. A little bomb is attached to the virus to spread it through the entire system.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?” Noel grinned, standing up a little straighter as control returned to her mind. “If I don’t dial the bomb’s control unit every four hours and speak a code into the device—boom—the bomb goes off and the virus is carried out of the air ducts and sprayed all over the airport.”
Sarah felt panic rise in her heart. She knew Noel was speaking the truth. The woman was insane and had no reason to lie—it was far too late in the game to lie. The truth, the complete truth, was now laid out on the table. “You intend to set off that bomb no matter what we do.”
“Of course,” Noel grinned. “But first I needed to see how my little baby worked. I needed—lab rats, in the form of human beings. Mrs. Kraus informed me that the White Cell was upset with her husband for not spraying Amanda and her husband with the virus he had created. The White Cell, of course, did not know that his virus was meant only to kill mine, which was far more deadly, or that Kraus had been ordered to bring your close friend back here through deceptive means. Well, I saw an opening.”
Sarah nearly shot Noel on the spot in a blind rage, but regained her temper, realizing she could ill afford to explain that to the authorities later. Besides, she needed the woman alive. “You’re going to deactivate your bomb.”
“Or what?” Noel laughed. “Are you going to shoot me, Sarah?” Noel shook her head. “Sarah, you’re not a killer. You’re one of those goody-two-shoe cops and foolishly believe you can save the world. In reality, you’re just a peon—a nobody, a nothing. Why? Because you think caring about mankind will actually make a difference? You’re nothing more than a fool.”
“I would rather care for one friend and die a fool, than kill millions and live as a tyrant,” Sarah said, throwing her words at Noel as if they were live rounds.
Sarah’s words struck Noel in the face. Noel hissed. “You’re truly an idiot, then.”
“Maybe,” Sarah agreed, “but I’m an idiot with a best friend—no, a sister—who would lay down her life for me in a split second. I have a husband who loves me. I have friends who care about me. Maybe I am a fool for caring, but in the end, when I die, I will have caring eyes looking at me. What will you have, Noel? Who will look at you? Nobody except the doctor who will inject deadly chemicals into your veins while you’re lying strapped to an execution table.”
Noel felt her control leaving her again. “Shut up!”
Sarah realized that Noel feared death—feared the truth—and she understood that using the truth against Noel was the perfect weapon. “Why?” she asked. “Are you afraid of the truth coming out, Noel? Are you afraid that in the end when death comes for you, you’ll be all alone?”
“You have no idea what I’ve been through in my life—no idea! How dare you stand there and judge me? How dare you assume that you know anything about me!”
“Don’t give me that,” Sarah fired at Noel. “In life there is truth and then there is garbage.” Sarah stepped closer to Noel. “The tyrants brainwash people with lies—filthy, ugly, garbage-filled lies. Tyrants manipulate and create social engineering campaigns to brainwash the youth of the world. American kids today can’t tell you what the eighth amendment is or who the second president of the United States was. They couldn’t tell you the first thing about the signing of the Declaration of Independence—but they can spew the garbage taught to them through trashy media programs. They know more about the Kardashian’s than they know about the war in Iraq.” Sarah pointed at Noel. “The battle for truth is being fought all around us, Noel, and the truth will prevail because in the end, lies can only destroy the very foundations of society.”
“Nice speech, Sarah, but your words are futile,” Noel told Sarah. “My eyes and ears are fully aware of the social engineering campaign being carried out against the youth of the world. I intend to change that. I intend to undo the centuries of oppression and teach women world dominance. Perhaps even force the worst of the men into slavery as they have done to women for so long. I intend to lead the women of the world into a new era, controlling countries, resources, land—”
“You intend on becoming a world dictator? How does that make you any better from these men you hate?” Sarah snapped. “In the end, because you will suppress freedom, you will create a world still full of the same old hate, death, misery and war. The women you assume will obey you and do your bidding will turn against you because, Noel, women aren’t slaves to men now, and they certainly don’t want to see men enslaved. You have a sick and twisted view of the world if you think women are simply going to leave behind the husbands and families they love so dearly. And this may come as a shock to you, but men love their wives and love their families, too.”
“You are so blind,” Noel hissed.
Sarah threw her hands in the air and backed off. She had pushed Noel to the edge with the truth and now needed to focus back on the bomb. “If you release your virus in the Anchorage airport, you will kill millions of women.”
“An acceptable loss,” Noel replied.
“Tell that to the women who are going to die. Will they still accept you as their leader once they find out you killed so many innocent lives to achieve your aims?”
“Power demands servitude,” Noel answered.
“You mean you’re going to force every woman to serve you whether they choose to or not?” Sarah asked. “Some freedom,” she snorted.
Noel stared at Sarah. Sarah was peeling back one layer of truth after the next, forcing her into a deep dark corner, and out of fear she began to kick and claw her way out. “You have one hour before the bomb explodes,” she warned Sarah. “Either set me free or I will refuse to dial the code. The death of millions will be on your conscience, not mine.”
Sarah stared at Noel and then ch
ecked her watch. Assuming Nolan would live if he reached the hot springs in time, still needed more time to wait out the virus dying in his body. Sarah needed to buy time. She needed to make sure Nolan was going to live and that he and Amanda made it back to the lodge. Then, Sarah thought, she was going to have to roll up her sleeves and put two deadly bears down into a deep cellar.
Nolan felt his body begin to burn and struggled to crawl out of the hot spring. Amanda took her foot and kicked him back down. “That’s the virus burning out of your system,” she said, and aimed Nolan’s gun at him. “I’m in no mood to play, you slimy bloke, so sit down and heal.”
Nolan stared up at Amanda with weak eyes and then gritted his teeth in pain. He felt like his insides were being doused with gas and lit on fire. “I’m burning alive, the water is too hot.”
“You’ll live,” Amanda replied. “It’s not the water. It’s the virus dying inside you. Just be grateful that these sweet waters have the power to heal and not kill.” Amanda stepped back from the hot spring. “I knew you would come back. I didn’t think you would get too far. Not with the virus maturing inside of you.” Amanda looked around the wild woods. “Sarah is a brilliant detective and she’s taught me a few tricks.”
“You can’t win,” Nolan told Amanda in a pained voice. “Noel—she has a bomb attached to a tube, and the tube is full of her virus. The tube is in an air duct at the Anchorage airport. If we don’t set her free, she’s going to activate the bomb. My wife—the woman I fell in love with—is dead. I don’t know who she is now.”
Amanda drew in a deep breath. “Right now, I have to focus on you,” she told Nolan. “Even though you’re a sewer rat in my view, you are still human. I want you to live long enough to answer to the justice system.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t count on that,” a vicious voice said.
“Huh?” Amanda spun around and saw a man wearing a black assault uniform, like the one Nolan was wearing. The man pointed a gun directly at Amanda. “Oh dear,” Amanda whined.
“Drop the gun.”
Amanda dropped Nolan’s gun and stepped back toward the hot springs. “Who are you?” she asked, staring into a clean-shaven face that appeared intelligent if not charming. The man was far from charming, though. Amanda knew she was staring at a cold-blooded killer who had trained his face to deceive. “You can call me Hank.”
“You can call him Wilson Jorge,” Nolan said, forcing his body to remain in the hot springs. “This man was sent to your town to be a monitor from the White Cell. He’s disguised as a cop.”
“You’re the new deputy,” Amanda gasped.
“I was,” Wilson agreed. “The boss man started to get a little concerned when you didn’t check in, Nolan. He sent me up here to check on you. I found a tree cut down across the road and followed your signal to this location.”
Nolan squeezed his hands together in pain. “I deactivated the chip in my arm—there is no way you—”
“There is always a way,” Wilson assured Nolan. “When the boss man realized your signal had been deactivated, he had his people triangulate the last known signal. Then he tapped into security system cameras until he found you. He gave me a call and ordered me to come and find you.” Wilson shook his head. “Still in love with the crazy woman, are we?”
“She is my wife,” Nolan said, in a voice struggling to hold onto a conscious thought.
“She’s a dead woman,” Wilson corrected Nolan. “Once we locate her, she will die.” Wilson focused on Amanda. “And as for you,” he said, and pointed at Amanda. “I have been ordered to let you go free. The boss man is not pleased with how his plans have fallen apart. He has ordered me to offer you a choice—go home and forget about what you’ve seen and heard, or die. However,” Wilson added and looked at Nolan, “I’m a little curious as to just what has happened here.”
“Noel had old lady Kraus spray her virus in the main cabin, and she infected me, the woman standing here, and the other woman,” Nolan said, through gritted teeth.
The color drained from Wilson’s face. He took a few steps back. “You’re lying. Our intelligence sources have assured us that Noel does not have a virus.”
Amanda tossed a thumb back toward the main cabin. “Noel is at the main cabin. Go see for yourself if you don’t believe us.”
“Impossible,” Wilson demanded. “We have men at the airport monitoring Noel as we speak.”
“A decoy you idiot,” Nolan said. “She’s used a decoy for years. Noel is at the main cabin. Sarah is with her, and the woman is a cop. I don’t know what is going on at the cabin. This woman brought me here to burn the virus Noel infected me without of my body.”
“The virus can’t survive at a certain high temperature,” Amanda explained. “My friend and I were both infected and the hot spring burned the virus out of us.”
Wilson stared at Amanda and then looked at Nolan. “We had Noel under constant observation. There is no way she could have escaped. The woman at the cabin—that has to be the decoy,” he insisted.
“The woman at the cabin is my wife,” Nolan tried to scream as the hot waters continued to burn the virus out of his body. He clenched his jaw in agony and fought to keep his limbs under the water, knowing it was his only chance at survival.
Amanda bit down on her lip. “Nolan, how would Noel activate the bomb to release her virus?” she asked, feeling her mind begin to clear up and get back on track. She felt lousy—hungry and weak—but at least she was wearing a fresh green dress and was alive. Of course, she wanted a cool bath, a hot tea, and custard tart, but those things would have to wait. She had to stop a virus.
“Cell phone,” Nolan answered, grimacing.
“This far out?” Amanda asked. “There aren’t any cell phone towers around for miles and miles—and Anchorage is far away.” Amanda continued to bite her lip. “Could it be that the woman at the airport will activate the bomb and Noel is just bluffing us?”
Nolan raised his eyes and looked up at Amanda. “Noel has a special cell phone that can reach to Anchorage—at least that’s what she told me.”
Amanda looked at Wilson. “Listen, mister,” she said, “I have no doubt in my mind that the sick, twisted little woman will release her virus inside the Anchorage airport. She has an evil mind, let me tell you. But with that said, I don’t think she can activate the bomb from this far out. All you have to do is look around and see the truth—we’re surrounded by hundreds of miles of open wilderness.”
Wilson wasn’t interested in debating with Amanda. He had escaped and found a location that would allow him to contact his boss. For the time being, he was standing blind. The only thing that showed he was alive was a little red dot on a monitor screen in some computer room filled with technicians who may or may not do their jobs properly if he disappeared. “I have to contact the boss man,” he said, in an urgent voice. “I can’t leave you two alone, though. I have to secure this location.”
Amanda read Wilson’s eyes. The man was preparing to kill her. She knew that quick action was needed so she did the only thing she knew how. She dropped down to her knees and grabbed her belly. “Oh, my belly!” she cried out.
“What’s the matter?” Wilson demanded. He ran over to Amanda and grabbed her arm. As she did, Amanda raised her head and coughed all over Wilson’s face. He froze. His face drained of all color. Amanda didn’t waste any time. She grabbed his arm, pulled him forward, and managed to throw him into the hot springs pool Nolan was sitting in. The man landed head first. He came up splashing and coughing, and didn’t see Amanda grab Nolan’s gun. Amanda fired a single shot in the air.
“Don’ move, you smelly skunk!” Amanda yelled, and looked around. She spotted Wilson’s gun lying on the ground and picked it up. “Here is how this is going to work,” she explained, “you’re going to sit in that hot tub for a solid two hours and let the virus I coughed all over you die. If you get out of the hot tub, you’ll—well, you’ll die.” Amanda hoped Wilson bought her lie and wouldn’t realize t
hat a healthy woman couldn’t infect him. To her relief, Wilson sat very still and listened, fear and panic washing over his face. “Do you understand me?”
“I understand,” Wilson promised. “You’ve locked me in a cage!”
“Nolan,” Amanda ordered, “you must—” Amanda stopped talking when she heard something rustling through the woods toward her location. “Oh my,” she said, and without wasting a second, took off running. A few seconds later, the grizzly bear came bursting out of the woods as Amanda watched from a hiding spot in the dense trees.
The bear lumbered grumpily over to the hot springs, spotted two scrumptious meals sitting in the water, and attacked. The men cried out in pain and thrashed around trying to avoid the grizzly’s deadly claws, but the space was cramped. Nolan, using all the energy he had, managed to escape. But Wilson Jorge fell victim to the angry bear, whose slashing paw caught his throat and ended his life within seconds. The last thing he remembered thinking was how ironic it was that he would die out in the middle of nowhere at the hands of a wild beast, when he was already infected with a deathly virus. The grizzly bear wasn’t worried about a virus at all, however. All the grizzly bear cared about was filling his belly and preparing for a long winter’s sleep.
As the grizzly bear focused his attention on Wilson, Amanda made tracks back to the cabin. When she heard someone running behind her, she dared to look over her shoulder and saw Nolan stumbling down the trail, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. “Oh—darn,” Amanda said, feeling her conscience attack. She spun around and ran to Nolan. “Put your arm around me, you great big idiot!”
Nolan threw his arm around Amanda and together they managed to reach the main cabin. “Bear—big grizzly bear,” Amanda told Sarah, breathing hard. She let go of Nolan and collapsed down onto the bottom step of the front porch. Nolan dropped down onto the ground. “I think he got the other guy—”
“What other guy?” Sarah asked, in an alarmed voice.
“One of them,” Amanda said, and pointed at Nolan. “He—the bloke I encountered, was the fake deputy that came to Snow Falls. He was ordered to come up here and check on him.” Amanda pointed at Nolan. “I think the bear got him.”
Hot Springs Murder Page 11