“Neither do I, but he has to slip up sooner or later if I have him pegged right. Let’s hope you get something back from forensics to tie him to the vet’s death. At least you know you’re not on your own with your view that he’s a slime ball.”
Cox rose to her feet.
“I’ll make a coffee, you look beaten up,” she said.
He didn’t like to tell her he felt like she’d done the beating. Not now they were hitting it off. The situation with Ted was worrying. The clock on the wall was just clicking over to 4:20 a.m. It would be another three hours and forty minutes before Frank arrived at the office to advise him on the progress with Ted.
She set down a mug of coffee in front of him. He picked it up and savored the aroma, then took a sip. He noticed an engagement ring on her finger with a single pink stone, and a wide chunky wedding band.
“What does your husband think of you working all these hours and being away from home?”
She choked on a sip of coffee.
“Husband!”
“Well, yeah I took it you’re married with the ring.”
“Sorry, I should have said. We only got married this year with the change in the laws. Betty doesn’t mind. She likes the solitude, and keeping the home clean the way I like it. I’ve developed Asthma, so that helps.”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to pry. I didn’t realize you were—”
“Does it bother you?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Anyway never mind that, tell me all about your investigations into the vet’s death.”
Shaw finished the details, pleased at some of the tips she had given him. She knew her game. It was good to share ideas with someone of a like mind. Dawn was breaking outside. He heard a rumble, low at first and then the noise increased to the sound of throaty engines and the squeal of metal on metal. He climbed off of the stool and walked over to the window. Looking out on to the backs of the stores along the main street, he saw large trucks in convoy passing by the gaps between the buildings.
“What is it?” Cox asked.
“Could be a circus is in town, but I doubt it. I’ll take a look.”
He opened the door and walked into the living area.
“What’s that noise?” Carla said. She was dressed and at the window.
“Beat’s me,” said Shaw, as they all huddled to look outside.
A truck and a jeep thundered to a halt over to the left of the entrance to his office. What he assumed were soldiers wearing camouflage outfits clambered out of the back of the truck. They didn’t have helmets, but sported hoods and filtered breathing masks. The driver of the jeep and his passenger climbed out of their seats. The passenger waved his arms about as if he were barking orders; the sound of his words inaudible with the mask he wore, and the din of more trucks arriving. A soldier drew back a wooden barred gate to a field, while others directed trucks to pass through. Some of the vehicles had the sign of a red cross. A large truck with a trailer bounced on the ruts as it entered the field. It looked to be carrying apparatus for a marquee.
“Jesus, I didn’t think that quarantine would involve the army. This is serious shit,” said Shaw.
The home phone rang. Carla and Cox hurried over to their computer equipment. Cox nodded at Shaw and he picked up the handset.
“Shaw speaking.”
“It’s Cleo. I need you to visit me urgently. I have some news on the DNA and—”
The line buzzed with a continuous tone. He tapped the cradle, but the line was dead. He pulled out his cell phone to dial her back.
“Crap, I’ve got no signal, check your phones.”
Cox and Carla took out their cell phones and exchanged glances. Both shook their heads. The windows of his apartment vibrated to the drone of whooshing blades. Shaw rushed to the window. Lights danced over the trucks as a helicopter hovered overhead, and then tilted forward to head over the field. He watched it land.
“What are they doing sending a Black Hawk?”
Chapter 43
COX edged away from the window, and said. “I think we should go outside and see what’s happening. Our cell phones don’t have a signal.”
“Bad idea,” said Shaw. “If they’re all suited up with bio-hazard suits, we could be walking into danger.”
Carla walked over to the sofa, and flopped on to a cushion. Her concern was evident in her eyes, staring blankly. She let out a sigh.
“Looks like we got the short straw on this assignment,” she said. “Do you think the bug that’s going around is airborne?”
“Don’t know. I wish I’d gone to the council meeting now to find out. I have surgical facemasks down in the stockroom. I’ll go and get some,” said Shaw.
Cox stepped in front of Shaw.
“I’ll use my scanner to see if I can hear the quarantine guys communicating. Neither of us have a cell phone connection. And no outside land line, means no Internet. I’ll try my laptop with my mobile connection.”
“You do that. Carla, you come with me.”
Shaw sidestepped Cox, headed out of the room, charged down the stairway and into his office. He flicked the light switch, and opened the storeroom door.
“Here, take these mask and gloves upstairs. I’ll stay here. If they see the office lights, they could pay us a visit.”
Carla scuttled out of the office. Shaw donned a mask, then sat at his desk. He picked up the radio microphone and pressed the speak button.
“Blue Leader to all Taskforce personnel, call off the search for Fox and go home. Maintain silence, we have ears, over.”
Frank’s voice answered.
“Taskforce One to, Blue Leader, understood. The Fox has gone to ground and given us the slip, over.”
Shaw shook his head.
“If you have facemasks, use them and stay indoors. It looks as though quarantine is being implemented in town. Await instructions, Blue Leader, over and out.”
“Affirmative. Briefing at zero eight hundred hours. Taskforce One, out.
He wondered how Ted had managed to give them the slip. So much for their expertise and tracking devices.
Someone pounded on the office door. Shaw exited the office, walked along the corridor and unlocked the outer door. He opened the door to two men wearing hazard suits.
“Good to see you’re wearing a mask. FBI agent Summers. Forgive me for not shaking hands.”
“I thought you were with the NSA these days?”
“Who told you that?”
“Don’t remember, but I have two of your agents upstairs—Agents Cox and Martinez. Are you here with news on Amy?”
“No, but I’ve heard about the kidnapping. I’m with the quarantine team. I’ve been seconded to head the unit under the command of the Pentagon.”
Pentagon?
“I’m setting up a command post in the field, just by the gate. Just so you know, we need all residents to stay indoors. The county sheriff will be here in a few hours and he’ll brief you. All the roads leading to Breakers Pass are going to be closed. I need to get going to supervise setting up the field hospital.”
The smaller of the two hustled past Shaw and into the corridor.
“I’m with Homeland security. You must be Sheriff Shaw.”
“That’s me.”
Summers turned and walked away. The small guy took off his helmet, removed his facemask, then closed the door. Shaw recognized him straight away.
“Alice Fuller. We meet again.”
“How do you…? Oh never mind. Call me Fuller.”
“You not worried about catching something?”
“Why, is there anyone ill in here?”
“No, but—”
“Good.” Fuller slipped his facemask over his mouth.
Shaw turned to the sound of footsteps on the stairway. Cox appeared in the corridor.
“The satellite connection is blocked. Lucky I have a mobile for the FBIs secure satellite. I’ve sent an e-mail asking them for clarification of what’s happening. Who’s
this?” Cox asked.
“Sorry, this is Alice, from Homeland security.”
Fuller’s cheeks reddened.
“Fuller, if you don’t mind. I never use my Christian name. Blame it on my parents. They were Alice Cooper fans.”
Shaw sniggered inside at the revelation. He wondered if that’s why he wouldn’t give his name when they first met, and not out of some kind of personal security as he’d first thought.
Cox faced Fuller. “Are the phones your agencies doing?”
“No, it’s all part of the protocol for the quarantine exercise.”
“Protocol?”
“CONOP 8888.”
“Damn, I’ve not heard of that since our last FBI training session. You are joking—right. Don’t tell me they’re expecting zombies to crawl out of the ground?” Cox said, and laughed.
“It’s not a joke. If you substitute zombies for an unknown cause of an outbreak, as we have here. Maybe CONOP will start making sense.”
“Look we can’t stay here all day. Let’s go upstairs,” Shaw said.
He followed them up the stairway. Shaw wondered where this was all leading to. He now knew the significance of CONOP 8888 penciled in the margin of the ‘dog-’s file.’ That the protocol was matched with the GPS coordinates for Breakers Pass in the same notation seemed beyond a coincidence.
“Why is Homeland Security involved?” Shaw asked, as they walked into the living room.
“We’re involved because we have to consider the possibility of the hand of a terrorist faction in all this.”
“How long will the phones be out?” Carla asked.
“Until we know what’s causing this sickness and find a cure, or at least stop the spread of infection, I can’t say. We have to think of the panic it could cause when we don’t have answers.”
“So really there’s no point in our being here without phone lines,” Carla said.
Shaw realized that without a way to contact him, the kidnappers couldn’t relay any ransom. Carla was right. There was no point in them being there. Frustration hit Shaw, enhanced by a lack of sleep. With the Taskforce militia bungling their surveillance on Ted, he knew that he was powerless to carry out his own line of investigation. Shaw felt as if his personal space had been invaded.
“I’ll leave you all to talk. I’m going to see if I can find anything of interest in Amy’s room.”
Shaw walked to Amy’s door, opened it, and walked inside. It wasn’t the time to be worrying about crossing the line and invading her privacy. He rummaged through her closet, then through her drawers, but there was nothing of interest. He sat on the edge of the bed, reached over to her nightstand and picked up a notebook. Looking through the pages, he stopped at some doodling. It was a series of symbols in rows, and they ran across the page. He didn’t recognize the two symbols that were randomly repeated. He turned over to the next page and then the next. Flicking through to the end, it was page after page of the same.
He took one last look around and noticed a picture of her mom holding Amy as a baby. He couldn’t have stopped the tears that rolled down his cheeks even if he wanted to. Shaw heard a tap on the door.
“You okay in there. I’ve made you a coffee,” Carla said.
He wiped his sleeve across his eyes, and took a deep breath.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
He opened the door.
“Find anything?”
“Just some doodling that could be some sort of code. It looks like Japanese to me, but with only two symbols.
“Here, let’s take a look.”
Shaw handed her the notebook and watched her flick through the pages.
“What do you think?”
“It could be code. I’ll scan the pages and send it over our satellite feed. Maybe some of our code breakers will understand the significance of the symbols.”
They walked back into the living room. Fuller wasn’t there.
“Where is he?”
Cox removed her earphones. “Gone down to the office. It seems as though he still has a signal for his phone. He must have an agency satellite connection. I heard a buzzing in his pants, then he made his excuses to go to your office. I managed to hack into his call. He’s talking to someone called Cleo. They’re talking gibberish, but I heard mention of your name and DNA results before it went to encryption.”
Shaw heard a door slam downstairs. He walked out of the room and down the stairway. When he looked into his office, Fuller wasn’t there.
Chapter 44
A vehicle pulled up outside the office. Shaw lifted his head from his desk and yawned. He swiveled on his chair to see Frank at the window. A glance at the wall, and the small hand on the wall clock hit the hour, signaling it was eight o’ clock. A pain pulsed in his neck. Using his hands for leverage on the desk, he stood and yawned some more. He stumbled to the exit, unlocked the door and pushed it open.
“You look as bad as I feel,” said Frank.
“Tell me about it, I feel like crap,” he said, and rubbed at the sore muscle in his neck.
They worked their way into the office. Shaw collapsed his backside into the chair. Frank did the same in his chair.
“What happened with your foolproof surveillance?” Shaw asked.
“Ted got out through a tunnel.”
“A tunnel?”
“Yeah, the entrance was in the cellar under the bench. It led to a hut at the bottom of the back yard. He obviously found the app on his phone. He left it for us to find on a stone wall next the crossroads sign at Claymore.”
Frank dug in his pocket, then dropped Ted’s phone on his desk.
“He probably guessed you were watching the cabin.”
“You said he was smart.”
“God knows what we do now? Pass his phone here.”
Frank sighed, stood and walked over to Shaw’s desk, dropping the phone on his IN tray. Shaw picked up the phone and put it in his pocket.
“If we get the lines back, use Ted’s cell number to contact me. That way the Feds can’t listen in. Really, there’s nothing we can do, except I need a coffee.
“I’ll make some,” Frank said, and rising from his seat, he trudged over to the coffee machine. “I called at the water plant on the way here. The ground was wet next to a pipe leak at the entrance. The guy working there said the tracks I found weren’t there before he reported that someone cut the lock at the gate.”
“What type of tracks?”
“A large truck, double wheeled.”
“Crud, don’t say they’re stealing water with the drought.”
“Well, it is in short supply.”
“What next?”
More vehicles pulled up outside. Frank placed a coffee on Shaw’s desk. Jim walked into the office, followed by the county sheriff, and Summers.
“I thought you weren’t working,” said the county sheriff.
“All the lines are down, so no point waiting for a ransom call.” Shaw turned to Summers. “When will we have the phone lines back and the TV channels?”
“Hard to say. Our technicians are working on providing a local TV news feed. It will show a looped program advising how to take precautions, and the signs they need to put out front when someone is sick, or what to do if they have a death, with repeated messages to stay indoors. Every home will be visited and masks provided.”
“What about movement? Are my deputies permitted to go about the area to keep the peace? Things could turn nasty as the death toll increases. Not everyone will stay inside if they need supplies.”
“Emergency rations will be distributed to all households via pickup posts. As for you and your deputies, as long as you wear you masks, and don’t go outside the territory, no problem. But the county police and my soldiers take priority to give and carry out orders from central command.”
“Where is Alice Fuller?”
“Don’t know. Homeland Security works in mysterious ways.”
Grimes walked in through the door.
; “Sorry I’m late.”
Shaw rolled his eyes. Summers called the meeting to order, then relayed details of the quarantine.
“What’s happening over at Claymore?” Jim asked. “Only I saw four Black Hawks, and a large drone, together with considerable troop movement, and with some serious artillery parked up in the fields.”
“Can’t say, other than it’s part of our planning.”
“What happens if someone attempts to leave the area?” Grimes asked.
“Orders are to shoot anyone who doesn’t obey commands to stop.”
Shaw gulped. “That’s a bit drastic.”
“Executive orders. We’re up at four hundred and fifty deaths in twenty-four hours. That’s quicker that the spread of Ebola. Breakers Pass is spread over a good sized area, with a small population. Imagine what would happen if it reached to LA. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, and we sure as shit don’t want it spreading.”
“So you’ve no idea what’s causing the sickness?” said Grimes.
“No, the scientists are working on it now.”
Shaw shook his head. With everyone left in no doubt as to how the quarantine procedures would work, and their responsibilities in the scheme of the protocol, Summers closed the meeting.
“Any more questions, only I have to get back to the command post?”
“So when will the troops have the area sealed?” Grimes asked.
“All roads in and out are sealed already. In four hours we’ll have the entire cordon under surveillance.”
“You sure you can’t tell us what the troops and Black Hawks are doing over at Claymore. I’m the mayor, I should know everything.”
“Sorry, you don’t have the security clearance.”
Grimes screwed his nose, then marched out of the office. Shaw was glad to see the back of him. Summers and the county sheriff followed Grimes out of the office.
Frank took off his hat, threw it on the floor and stamped on it, then kicked it across the room.
“See what I said about the federal agencies. It’s coming to something when they’ll sanction killing their own for just being scared. Next they’ll go around every home, executing everyone in the town boundary.”
The Killers Amongst Us: Chimera Dawn Chronicles Page 28