In Hot Pursuit

by Patrick Doyle

  “You don’t want to shoot me, Kirk.” She was trying to be defiant. “You don’t want a murder charge on top of the others.”

  “That will be hard to prove.”

  She saw him trying to go for the gun in his waist, and she sprang into action. She wasn’t going to let him kill her. She pulled the knife from her ankle holster and flung it at him. The knife went into his upper left shoulder, and he stumbled back, and the gun fell from his hand. He looked shocked. She had taken him by surprise. She jumped to her feet and kicked him in the stomach, twice, sending him flying backwards into the wall. She didn’t hesitate. She picked up the gun to shoot him.

  Shots ran out from the door before she could pull the trigger. Someone had beaten her to it. His upper body was riddled with bullet holes. They were quick, clean shots, enough to end his life. She heard him gasped. His body jerked a couple times. It shook violently, like a leave on a wintry day. He grabbed his chest and fell to the floor. The wide look in his upturned eyes was one of unmistaken horror. She heard footsteps and spun around. Her finger was still resting on the trigger when she saw him.

  “I couldn’t let you kill him.” Earnes walked into the room. His footsteps were slow and sturdy as he came towards her. “I didn’t want that hanging over your head. The guy is scum. He deserves to die, but I didn’t want you be the one doing it. You shared something with him, Gab.”

  “Earnes,” she said in a tired voice. She was relieved to see him, and not because he had killed Kirk. She’d been worried about him.

  “That’s a nasty cut you have there.” He peered at the small cuts on her lips, and the bruise on her cheek. “You should get some ice on it.”

  “Thanks. I thought you made it to Mexico.” She tried to sound light-hearted. She knew he had taken a big risk coming here.

  “Crossing the border isn’t as easy as it used to be, even for us criminals! They shouldn’t bother building that damn wall! They don’t need it!” He gave her an easy grin.

  She saw that he hadn’t lost his weird sense of humor!

  She went over and pulled the knife from Kirk’s shoulder. She took Kirk’s gun and emptied four bullets into this body, aiming for the holes that were there already.

  “That should confuse them a bit. I take it that’s not your gun.”

  “It’s a knock off. The serial number has been sawed off. It’s untraceable.”

  “Good. Another shooter was here. He got away.”

  “Do you really think you can get that pass Bailey? He’s very thorough.”

  “It’s worth a try. And I doubt he will dig very deep with this one. How did you know?”

  “That he was working for Raybourne?” Earnes finished for her. “I had my suspicions when you had the break in. I knew it had to be an inside job. And his reaction to the entire thing, including to the guy’s death was too perfect. He was a terrible actor. I started following him. He met with some of Raybourne’s goons a few times.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?’

  “I was waiting to find out more.”

  “God!” She moaned softly. “I was such an idiot to fall for his act. How could I have missed this?”

  “Come on Gab, don’t be too hard on yourself. The guy was a con artist. He could have fooled anyone, including me.”

  Bowles looked up at him and frowned.

  “I should have known, Earnes. Exposing people like Kirk is part of my job. I should have been able to know something wasn’t right with him. He was too perfect.”

  “Well, at least we caught him. He wouldn’t be around to try that on anyone else again.”

  “That’s a nice way of putting it.”

  “Are you going to be okay?” He looked at her.

  “Yeah, I’m going to be fine. What about you? You know they are looking for you.”

  “Yeah.” He sounded as if it didn’t bother him. “I saw them at the house. I was just pulling up. I suspected they were there for me, so I took off, and ditched the car.”

  “When did you suspect?”

  “When Director Nilsson started icing me out of the investigation. I knew something was up.”

  “I wanted to tell you,” she told him in an apologetic voice.

  “You couldn’t. I understand that.”

  “Raybourne set you up.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “We are going to clear your name, Earnes.”

  “You and who? Director Nilsson and Bailey!” He smirked. “They think I’m guilty. Raybourne made sure every thing he had on me was foolproof.”

  “I’m going to get you out of this, Earnes. I knew you weren’t guilty from the beginning. I should have said something before.”

  “It’s part of the job, Gab. Maybe you should stay out of it. It would be

  career suicide if you got involved.”

  Bowles gave him a stubborn look. “I’m already involved, Earnes. There is no way

  I’m backing out now. I’m going to get the proof I need to get you out of this.”

  “You shouldn’t bother,” Earnes told her, and walked to the door. “I will give you time to call this in.” he told her from the top of the stairs.

  “Earnes,” Bowles tried to stop him. “How can I reach you?”

  He winked at her. “I will be in touch.”

  She heard him running down the stairs, and out the back door. She waited until she heard it slammed. She rushed to the window, and looked out across the street to see if she could see him getting into a car. He was nowhere to be seen. He was already gone.

  Chapter 13

  “Those men weren’t members of a gang, neither were they Chinese nationals, as we assumed. The majority of them were North Koreans. We are slowly beginning to unravel the pieces of this highly unusual and dangerous puzzle.” Director Nilsson came close to where Bowles and Dr. Bailey were sitting. He had been pacing the room ever since they entered the conference room for an emergency briefing. It was so unlike him. Usually he was more composed. “It appeared Mr. Raybourne was planning to start World War Three, and he was going to do it with the help of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.”

  Dr. Bailey spun around in the chair to face to him. “We must give Mr. Al-Bishi credit for cooperating with us. Without his cooperation we wouldn’t have been able to uncover the magnitude of what Mr. Raybourne was planning to do.”

  Director Nilsson didn’t seem to fully agree. “That may be so, but he was in on it from the very beginning.”

  “At least he had a changed of heart and decided not to go through with it.”

  “Don’t expect me to give him a medal!” Director Nilsson was still fuming. “That being said, I hold him equally responsible. He will be transported to our secured facilities in Arizona where he will live out the rest of his days under our watchful eyes. He knows too much. We can not let him go. And he has been completely complaisant in Mr. Raybourne’s plot against this country and our allies. He could have alerted the authorities when he arrived here, and had knowledge of it. And he must have known what he was getting involved in when he got on that plane and came here. As far as I’m concern, he’s just as guilty as Gilles Raybourne and the others.”

  “I think his conscience got the better of him at the end. He realized the implications, especially those involving innocent people. That’s why he refused to go further with it.”

  “Well the damage had been done! I figure he is asking for something.” Director Nilsson pressed unwillingly.

  “He’s asking that his family back in Saudi Arabia be told that he’s alive.” Dr. Bailey informed him.

  “I would like to help him, Dr. Bailey, but Mr. Al-Bishi made his bed when he agreed to help Mr. Raybourne, now I’m afraid he will just have to lie in it. No one can know that he is alive, not even his family. Besides, he’s considered a terrorist, and as far as I’m concern, that means we won’t be negotiating with him.”

  “Very well, I’ll find a way to break the news to him.”

  “Mayb
e you should give him a few weeks. We got all we need from him for now.”

  Dr. Bailey seemed slightly disappointed. He had wanted to keep his word to Mr.

  Al-Bishi. He had promised him that he would contact his wife and kids as soon as he told them what they needed to know. He should have known that Director Nilsson wouldn’t sign off on such a serious matter.

  It was Bowles turn to speak. “Were you able to locate any of the men in the photographs, sir?”

  “We caught a few of them. There are still more of them out there, probably hiding under new identities. We are working with the FBI to round them up. Some of them were living under different names in the Washington, New York and LA areas.”

  “There must be a reason they chose those big cities.” Bowles pointed out.

  “Indeed,” Dr. Bailey answered. “They were waiting for the go ahead from Mr. Raybourne.”

  Director Nilsson went back and sat down. He seemed more in control now.

  “Here’s what we have uncovered so far. The men and about six women are all scientists, chemical engineers. They were the best in their fields in their countries. I believe none of them are American citizens. Raybourne most likely did it that way for a reason. He didn’t want any of them having a patriotic change of heart and turning on him. He recruited them with huge offers they couldn’t refuse. Al-Bishi said he was offered five million dollars. That’s a lot of money in his country. The men and women are from North Korea, Russian, China, and Iran.”

  “Do you think their government had knowledge of what they were doing?”

  “Those countries haven’t been acting in our best interests for years, Agent Bowles,

  especially Russia and China. They haven’t been true allies of ours for a very long time. Russia and China have used their people to break into our security systems in an effort to spy on us. We have proof that the Russians have stolen classified information and money from us. We have an election coming up in two years, in 2016. I wouldn’t be surprised if they find some way to meddle in it. North Korea is just as guilty, but not on the scale as Russia and China. The Russians have been targeting us. They have become a torn in our side with their bothersome hacking, and spying, and even more so in the last years, with Putin at the helm directing them.”

  “So you think their governments had a part in it?”

  “If I must say so—yes. Raybourne most likely reached out to them. He knew they couldn’t resist.”

  “But wouldn’t that have caused a huge breach in international relations?” Bowles was quick to note. “American wouldn’t have been the only country affected by this. Our allies in Europe would have been in danger as well.”

  “I don’t think it mattered to them, especially to Russia. What Raybourne did was similar to what the terrorists were hoping to achieve on 9/11. Their only thought was to hurt America. They wanted to put the US economy in turmoil. The markets would have taken a big dive. It would have taken them some time to recover. We were looking at a huge recession on our hands, much like World War Two. We would have suffered drastically from it. It would have taken us years, if not decades to get out of it.”

  “I can’t imagine anyone who was born in this country would want to turn against it in that way. It’s appalling and despicable!”

  “Believe it, Agent Bowles! It’s becoming more and more common. Take a look at what that scoundrel Snowden did. I can’t believe some people are hailing him as some sort of hero. He’s a traitor! He put our troops and this country in a very dangerous position. He compromised classified information. He empowered ISSI and the other terror groups. It’s no different than what Raybourne was trying to do. Gilles Raybourne has a bone to pick with us, and he’s doing it in the most destructive and evil way possible.”

  “We are going to catch him, sir. He will be brought to justice.”

  “I don’t think I want to see him sitting in a jail cell at this point. He’s no use to us now. We have exposed his nefarious plans. We have everything we need to act. The only option now is to have him in a body bag. Jail is too good for him. Why use tax payer’s money to keep him alive!”

  “As intriguing as that may sound, Director, we still have to find him. I will fill in Agent Bowles on what we have discovered.” Dr. Bailey reached for the file in front of him. He scanned through the pages. It was thick. Bowles wasn’t certain he was actually reading any of the information there. He seemed to know what was there already. “We know that five men entered this country in the last year. They were carrying vital information on their bodies, very much like what we found on the dead guy in the Caribbean. It was information the scientists here were using for to make variants of the viruses they thought would wipe out thousands if not millions of Americans. The guy was carrying the last piece of the formula. I can only assume that the others were murdered when they were done with them.”

  “They chose not to use the Internet or the post.” Bowles observed with keen interest. “That way they were certain nothing would be intercepted by us.”

  “We can thank Snowden and all the rest of the traitors for that! They have breached our security on the highest level. This wasn’t about exposing the government to its citizens. It was about risking the safety and capability of this country, especially in its fight against terrorism!” Director Nilsson pointed out in a infuriated voice.

  Dr. Bailey continued. “Raybourne had scientists in faculties all over the country working on different types of contagious viruses. They were planning to mutate certain strains; there by creating new deadly ones they knew there won’t be any vaccines for. We are talking about straits of Ebola, H3N2 influenza, and SARS. They were planning on starting a worldwide pandemic. No one would be safe. The CDC and the WHO would have had their hands full trying to contain it. It would have caused panic and mayhem, basically crippling our economy.”

  “It sounds like an insane plan.” Bowles nodded.

  “Hatched by a very insane and vengeful man—Lucifer himself!” Dr. Bailey agreed. “Mr. Raybourne knew what he was doing. Vaccines for the strains were already developed. Millions of vaccines were in the process of being shipped to Russia, North Korea, China and Iran. And the countries Mr. Raybourne wanted to spare. I guess he was going to sell the vaccines to them at the highest bidder. I also think he had no plans of remaining here. I assume he was going to take refuge in one of those given countries, probably Russia.”

  “Are we going to retaliate, sir?” Bowles thought that there should be some sort of action.

  “It is in the works,” Director Nilsson told her. “We plan on dealing with North Korea first, then Iran. The USS Ross and USS Porter are being deployed to the area, as we speak. It’s time Jong-Un, and the others know that they can’t mess with us, and if they try, they won’t get away with it! We will come after them, and we will come after them hard!”

  “And China and Russia?”

  “We will start with stiff economic sanctions. We will hit Russia and China where it hurt most. They can’t survive without us. We do billions of dollars of trade with China. I’m sure they won’t want to lose that. They aren’t as self sufficient as they want the world to believe. They depend on our US dollars in a very, very big way.”

  “I’m still at a lost about how Raybourne was going to pull this off.”

  “We are happy to tell you, Agent Bowles.” Dr. Bailey offered. “Everything was set to go into motion in a month. They were going to exposed travelers at the big airports to the viruses. In that way, it was sure to spread in no time, starting with Washington, then going all the way back to Chicago, New York and LA. Those airports see hundreds of thousands of people traveling through them each week. They are some of the busiest in the country.”

  “My god!” Bowles gasped. “This actually could have happened!”

  “And Raybourne and his team would have gotten away with it too. It probably

  would have taken the CDC and WHO months to get to the cause of it when people started coming down sick, or turning u
p dead.”

  “Hopefully, we are going to stop it. The Army and the FBI are working with us. They are conducting simultaneous raids on facilities in Washington, Chicago and right here in New York, at this very moment, going on the locations Mr. Al-Bishi provided to us. We have turned that part over to them. We still have a lot more work left to do. Homeland Security has been reaching out to the Canadian government. We discovered that some of them entered the country with Canadian passports.”

  “This is beginning to sound familiar.” Bowles was frank. “I can’t believe they allow this to happen again!”

  “And we are wondering about building a wall on the Mexican side!” Director Nilsson said in a fit of annoyance. “At least we don’t have to worry about terrorists sneaking in from there. The Canadians are some of the nicest people we know. They have been cooperating fully. I personally think they are way too lenient with their immigration policies. They accommodate the wrong people. They still haven’t learned from their past mistakes.”

  “Do you think Raybourne cross the border into Canada?” It was a thought that had been lingering on Bowles’ mind for some time now. “He could be hiding out there.”

  “We have alerted the Canadian authorities. I don’t think he would opt for Canada. My gut feeling tells me that he’s still here, waiting to slip out of the country. He has properties all over the world, including Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, France, and South America. He might try to get to one of those countries, eventually.”

  “Not if we can catch him first.”

  Bowles had never been this determined about anything before, not in a very long time.

  Chapter 14

  “Meet Katherine Grey or Kate—the woman who stole Gilles Raybourne’s heart, the love of his life.”