Grant gathered himself, set the hard drive down, and stepped towards the young soldier, seemingly being able to comprehend the gravity of his statement. He grabbed him by both arms and squeezed them gently.
‘We’re so close now. I just need you to keep things together for a while longer.’ Grant smiled at him. ‘I’m relying on you, Donald. When the time comes, I know you’ll do what needs to be done.’
McCaffrey nodded and Grant released him from his uncomfortable hold. McCaffrey reached into his shirt pocket and produced a small slip of paper from it.
‘It’s Ethan’s full name. You can look him up if you get the time.’
‘OK. Thank you.’ Grant took the paper and slipped it into the pocket of his lab coat.
‘I better get going. I have a lot of security checks to do before I turn in for the night.’
‘Of course. Don’t let me keep you,’ Grant said.
As soon as McCaffrey left the lab, Grant collected the hard drive from the bench and pressed play on his MP3 player. He connected the hard drive externally to his main computer. The monitor flickered on and he immediately accessed the files he needed and took a seat. He hovered the cursor over a sub-folder called ‘LS502’ and clicked on it.
The screen populated with a microscopic LED image recording and an array of mathematical equations began to appear beneath it.
Grant’s face lit up, the red green and yellow of the imaging technology reflecting in the lenses of his glasses. He continued to stare at the data for another five minutes until he was sure the information was as legitimate as it claimed to be.
He then paused for a moment, tracing his fingers over the keyboard. He opened the facility’s satellite internet browser and reached down to his pocket. He unfolded the piece of paper that McCaffrey had given to him and read from it, typing the name ‘Ethan Vallaluna’ into the search engine.
The first page of the search displayed several news articles connected to his name. The first being: ‘Police Deny They Found Dockside Strangler’s Hideout With Help From Psychic.’ The second read: ‘All-seeing Touch: Fact or Fiction. An Interview With Justice System’s New Secret Weapon.’ This article showed a picture of Ethan sitting in a daytime television studio.
Grant stared long and hard at the image, sweat seeping from the edges of his scalp.
Episode Six
These Hands
1
Two Years Earlier
‘What the hell is that?’ Raine said.
Julie Hannigan smiled and twirled the device between two of her fingers, tweaking the ends on one side of her neatly bobbed hair.
‘They call it an E-Cigarette. My doctor told me if I insist on inhaling something, it has to be one of these things. Tastes of nothing and dries out your throat,’ she said.
‘It looks like a kid’s toy,’ Raine said.
‘That’s exactly what it is. It’s playing at smoking, but I guess it’s better than dying.’
Raine shrugged at her remark, glancing around at the comfortable surroundings of her therapist’s office. ‘I can’t answer that one for you.’
Julie stopped twirling the fake cigarette and adopted a more familiar, curious expression.
‘Do you have a vice, Raine?’
‘Kickboxing. I started taking classes once a week at the L.Y.C.’
‘You never mentioned it before.’
‘Didn’t think it was important.’
‘And it’s keeping you out of trouble?’
‘For the most part,’ Raine said.
‘Does it help you to control it?’
‘Control it?’
‘The rage you talked about in our last session,’ Julie said.
‘I don’t beat the shit out of people anymore, so I guess you could say it’s working.’
‘But you never really did beat the shit out of people before, did you? I looked at your files. A clean rap sheet, and no criminal activity before that as a civilian. It was just that one specific occasion with that particular officer.’
‘What can I say? He pissed me off.’ Raine leaned back in the chair and her attention wandered to the tropical fish tank in the right corner of the room.
‘What was it exactly that set you off?’ Julie said.
‘You just said you read my files. Obviously, skim read a few parts.’
‘I know what it says in your statement. I’m asking you if you could elaborate for me.’
Raine tightened her jaw and shuffled uncomfortably.
‘There’s nothing to elaborate. We were both drunk, he accused me of not paying out properly on a card game, things got out of hand.’
‘This is what I’m finding so difficult to understand. Outside of this, your record is exemplary. There’s no instance anywhere of you losing control, not even in combat situations, but then your senior officer accuses you of something trivial and you hit him so repeatedly and so hard that you fracture his skull in two places and detach one of his retinas. I understand that Lt. Colonel Armitage could remain partially sighted in his left eye for the rest of his life.’
‘Like I said: he pissed me off.’
‘Evidently. Armitage was also your commanding officer during the time you spent in Iraq in 2010,’ Julie said.
‘So what?’
‘The details of your unit’s activities are limited. It simply says you were part of special operations. Did something happen out there, Raine—something between you and the Lt. Colonel?’
The young therapist noticed her patient’s thighs flex as she pushed the balls of her training shoes into the hard floor like she was slamming on the brakes of a car.
‘Listen, doctor,’ Raine said.
‘Please, Julie.’
‘Ms. Hannigan. You may have access to my military history, my previous psych evaluations, and my doctor’s records. You may even know when I last pissed fire and had to get a prescription for it, but like I told you before, anything that happened in Iraq is classified, and discussing that is not in the terms of my probation.’
Julie sat forward, never breaking eye contact. ‘If you want this to work, which I have to believe you do, you have to start to trust me.’
‘Don’t take this personally, but I don’t trust anyone outside of my unit.’
‘Terms of your probation or not, nothing you say in here will ever go any further than these four walls. I’m duty bound to protect your privacy.’
‘So you understand what taking an oath means,’ Raine said.
‘I’m not supposed to lead you in any particular direction. I’m only asking the question because I believe that some part of you wants to tell someone.’
‘I know the drill. Telling someone initiates a period of release. Processing the experience to make it more manageable and all that psycho-babble bullshit.’
‘Text book definitions always sound cliché, but on the whole, when something is verbalised, it can go into the past instead of being constantly relived,’ Julie said.
‘What if I don’t want it to go into the past?’
‘This is a penance?’
‘Call it whatever you want,’ Raine said.
‘You must suffer for what you’ve done?’ Julie said.
‘Yes.’
‘And is there anything at the end of this penance? Any justice for what haunts you?’
‘No, there’s nothing.’
‘Then why, Raine? Why put yourself through it?’
Raine turned away and gazed at the bars of sunlight creeping in through the window blinds.
‘Because that’s all there’s left to do,’ she said.
2
Foster and Salty stood abreast of O.B., helping him to twist so he was sitting on the edge of his bed with his legs over the side.
His left foot touched the floor and he immediately lifted it away again.
Foster collected the pair of crutches that were leaning against the wall and positioned them under both arms.
‘There. Don’t be afraid to put pressure on it. It might be painful at first, but it can’t cause any further damage,’ Foster said.
She moved around to support his back and he took a deep breath before standing using his right leg and crutches to gain his balance.
Darla sat at the bottom of his bed and watched him with interest. Raine and Doctor Osgood also stood at the back of the room.
Once O.B. was confident that he wouldn’t fall over, he tentatively lowered his left foot to the ground and allowed it to take some of his weight.
‘How does it feel?’ Foster said.
‘Strange,’ O.B. replied.
‘In what way?’
‘Like my leg belongs to someone else.’
‘It’s nothing to worry about. Having your leg elevated and the trauma the gunshot caused to the nerves are probably the reason for that. The more you walk on it, the more it will feel like yours again.’
‘Gettin’ some more exercise would be good for you in lots of ways,’ Salty said.
Foster scowled at him and shook her head.
‘What? The kid’s a little on the chubby side. I’m sure he’s noticed it himself.’
O.B. smiled and winced at the same time as he put some extra pressure on his injured leg.
‘It’s good to know nothing much has changed while I’ve been in here.’ He then looked around and realised that someone from their group was absent. ‘Where’s Ethan? He hasn’t been to see me for a couple of days.’
‘It’s nothing personal. He’s just not particularly sociable at the moment,’ Raine said, her arms folded.
‘Yeah, no shit,’ Salty said.
‘Is he OK?’ O.B. said.
‘He’ll be fine. When we went outside, we ran into some trouble and he was almost bitten. He’s having a hard time dealing with it,’ Raine said.
‘I’ll take a look at him if you like. Maybe I could prescribe something for his anxiety,’ Foster said.
‘Be my guest, doctor. Just don’t expect too much. He’s barely left his room since we got back,’ Raine said.
‘I’d really appreciate it if you could check up on him,’ O.B. said.
‘No problem, Oswald,’ Foster said.
Darla rolled her eyes. It hadn’t escaped her attention that O.B. had been smitten with the elegant doctor ever since she’d nursed him back to health.
‘If you can get him to talk to you, remember to ask him for a sample,’ Osgood said.
‘A sample of what?’ Salty said.
Raine turned to face the doctor, just as curious about his comment.
‘I suppose it’s a good time to ask you for a small favour now our patient is finding his feet again,’ Osgood said. ‘You’ve been extremely helpful to the military element of our project already, but we were hoping you’d contribute in the interests of science by donating some of your blood.’
‘Why do you need our blood?’ Raine said.
‘The data recovered from your trip has turned out to be quite remarkable. Grant, Foster and I believe that we are now in a position to synthesise a serum to effectively combat the infection. It won’t reverse the process, but it will at least halt it so it can’t kill you. However, in order to refine it, we need fresh blood samples from living human hosts. We already have Mr. Schaffer’s consent and we were wondering if you would also agree. It’s purely on a voluntary basis, of course.’
Raine cast her eyes over the other members of her group.
‘We’ll think about it,’ she said.
‘Thank you,’ Osgood said. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have, as always, some work to attend to.’
‘Go ahead,’ Raine said.
‘Doctor Foster.’ Osgood gestured towards the door, indicating it was time that they made their exit.
‘I’ll let you walk around for a while. Take regular rests. No more nightmares?’ Foster said.
‘No more. Just that one time,’ O.B. said.
‘Good. I’ll see you later, Oswald.’
‘Bye, Geraldine.’ O.B. waved to her as she left, grinning from ear to ear.
‘I don’t wanna burst your bubble or anything, but that ain’t the kind of fluid she wants a sample of,’ Darla said.
‘Jesus. Do you think you could get your mind out of the gutter for once?’ O.B. said.
‘When your body’s been in there for so long, your mind kinda goes along for the ride,’ she said.
‘OK, enough,’ Raine said, still positioned by the door with her arms folded.
‘What’s your angle on the blood samples?’ Salty said.
‘I’m not sure. I can’t see what harm it can do if they’re just taking something out and not putting something in. They’re gonna have to be pretty damn persuasive to get a needle in Ethan’s arm.’
‘He ain’t the only one they’ll have trouble with,’ Salty said. ‘I’ve been keepin’ tabs on our resident priest. The guy’s on the edge.’
‘He’s been like that since we came across him,’ Darla said.
‘Not like this. He wanders around the facility at night, mutterin’ to himself and he spends all day in his room. I don’t think he sleeps. All kinds of weird-ass noises coming from there.’
‘I’ll speak to McCaffrey about it—see what he thinks,’ Raine said.
‘Something needs to be done soon. It’s this place—the isolation. A stable person can have trouble copin’ underground. Someone like him has no chance. If somethin’ ain’t done about him soon, I’m concerned he’s gonna do a lot more than accidentally shoot someone in the leg,’ Salty said.
Raine heard him and understood what it could mean, but she wasn’t worried. She was readier now to do what needed to be done then she’d ever been in her life.
3
Crawford checked under the helicopter’s tail boom and ran her hand over its surface, as if she were stroking a beloved pet. Her hand traced across to the main body of the aircraft and she opened the fuel cap so she could insert the gas nozzle.
She squeezed down on the trigger, placing her free hand onto the surface of the chopper again in order to feel the vibrations of the gas pumping through to the tank. The engine was still warm from its recent flight and the chemical fumes emanating from the refuelling smelled strangely comforting to her.
‘You’re back already?’ McCaffrey said as he climbed up to the helipad.
‘Yep. Decided to fly out early this morning,’ Crawford replied, never turning to greet him.
‘How far up the coast did you go?’
‘New York.’
‘Find anything?’
‘I saw a huge herd of rotters—about three thousand or so—all waist deep in the ocean. Just standing there, like they’d been hypnotised. But no people.’
McCaffrey rested his arm against the tail boom and rubbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve.
‘Every time we venture out, we’re seeing less and less of everything,’ he said.
‘That’s kind of what happens when the world starts to die,’ Crawford said.
McCaffrey was annoyed that she almost seemed smug when she said it, but he chose to let it slide.
‘At least there was some good news about the hard drive we retrieved. I would have told you earlier, but you haven’t exactly been “present” lately.’
‘It’s not like it’s possible to get too far away,’ Crawford said.
‘Even Grant was floored by the amount of research data he was able to pull from it.’
‘Great! At least we didn’t almost die for nothing then.’
McCaffrey bit his tongue again and didn’t respond to the obvious cynicism of his colleague.
‘Osgood’s asking our visitors for blood. They reckon they could have a stable serum ready in a matter of days.’
‘Haven’t civilians given enough blood for this project?’ Crawford said, still soothed by the relaxing hum of the pumping gasoline.
‘We all have,’ McCaf
frey said.
‘So, what happens after that?’
McCaffrey moved closer to compensate for her refusal to make eye contact.
‘I think you know,’ he said.
‘I’m surprised a trooper like you isn’t first in line to volunteer,’ Crawford said.
‘The project still needs me. It needs you too, Major,’ McCaffrey said.
‘So I can fly the good doctors the fuck out of here when they’ve overrun this place with the monsters they’ve created?’
McCaffrey shook his head angrily.
‘We’re just trying to take back what’s ours.’
‘Is that what this is about?’
‘It’s what it’s always been about. Why we’re living down there. Why we’ve done the things we’ve done.’
Crawford smiled.
‘I’m sorry to kill your buzz, Donny, but I don’t have a clue what’s so exciting about it.’
‘A cure? A way to stop the infection? You don’t think that’s worth the sacrifice?’
‘One bite won’t kill you anymore. It’s a pity those things aren’t inclined to have a little nibble and then walk away. No kind of shot is gonna do much good if twenty of them are tearing you a new one.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying it’s lost, Donny. It’s always been lost, but you’re too hung up on Doctor Death and his monologues to see it.’ Crawford released the trigger on the gas pump and whipped the nozzle from the aircraft’s tank.
‘Just be ready. I’m gonna need you soon,’ McCaffrey said, following Crawford back to the fuelling station.
‘Stop pretending you won’t know where to find me,’ she said.
‘Hey! Hey! Are you gonna be up for this?’
Crawford slammed the nozzle into its housing and finally looked him in the eye.
‘I’m still here, aren’t I?’
McCaffrey stared at her, wanting to say more than he already had, but settled with, ‘Get some rest, Crawford.’
‘Yeah, right,’ she scoffed. She turned her back on him and McCaffrey climbed down from the helipad and headed inside.
Everything Dies [Season Two] Page 15