EVO Universe 1: The First

by Kipjo Ewers

  “This is the Hudson residence…we’re not in right now, but please leave a number and a brief message we will get back to you,” she went back to her maiden name.

  Mark drew a deep breath before finding the words he wanted to say, “Michelle…Annie…hi…you guys must be out or something. I hope you’re both safe. Listen…I’m…I’m sorry; I wasn’t there, and I know it’s too late. I know…I always thought…one more case…one more mission…that I was working for a better tomorrow, a better country. Some shit you hear in a stupid commercial…and I believed it…so much that I forgot what was most important.”

  The tears began to roll, an emotion the old Marine had not felt since losing his parents and Penny, “I fu…I messed up …really badly. I messed it all up. Everything I fought and sacrificed for…it was all for a lie, all for a damn lie. I just wanted you both to know that I have to go away…to do something right for a change. If I get back…When I get back…if it’s okay, I’d like to tell you this in person…and if for some reason I don’t. Annie…the second greatest day in my life was when God gave me you and Penny…and the only reason why it’s the second…is because you giving me the privilege to share my pathetic life with you Michelle and giving me two awesome kids was the greatest day of my life. I regret every day I didn’t cherish either one of you…I’m a stupid slow old man…but I get it now…I get it now…I love you both…”

  Mark hung up his cell and wiped his eyes with his sleeve, he wanted to say more but he knew the answering machine would have cut off the rest of his message. He hardened his heart one more time as he dialed another number; the person picked up after two rings, “Nick…how you doing?”

  “Mark, what’s going on man?’ his old friend said with concern, “Saw it all over the news, you guys had some crazy shit going on in the Capital today, you okay?”

  “I’m good,” he confirmed, “How’s the family?”

  “They’re good, boy’s growing like a weed,” Nick chuckled, “I’m about to break my daughter’s Iphone one of these days. Susan asked me yesterday if I spoke to you.”

  Mark smiled, “Tell her I miss her meatloaf.”

  “You’re the only one who’ll eat that shit,” Nick joked, “But you didn’t call for small talk…did you?”

  “I’m asking if you and your boys in the FAA can check and confirm the whereabouts of a black Sikorsky private helicopter,” he said finally getting down to business “It would have landed after 2:30 PM at either a commercial or military airport here in Washington or another airport on the East Coast…preferably private or military. I also need to know what aircrafts took off from that same airport and its destination…specifically private and cargo planes.”

  “You okay man?” Nick came back with the same concerned voice at the start of the conversation, “You never “ask” me for anything…you usually demand.”

  “I’m fine Nick; I’m also asking for one more favor,” Mark hesitated knowing what this meant, “I’m going to need a pilot and plane once I get this information…like tonight. Ex-military, willing to fly with no questions asked.”

  There was a pause on the phone before Nick responded, “I’ll see what I can do. You sure you’re okay man?”

  “I’m fine Nick, just fine…as soon as you can.,” Mark hung up his phone and went upstairs to pack; when his phone went off due to an incoming call; the ID said Doctor Senji Kumamoto and something was telling him to pick up, “Dr. Kumamoto…?”

  “Special Agent Armitage…glad I got you…I have been trying to contact you all day. I finally got your number from someone in your office,” said Doctor Kumamoto with great concern in his voice, “Someone has stolen all of the samples and data from the lab this morning concerning Ms. Dennison.”

  “What? How?” Mark asked in disbelief, while having a good idea who did it.

  “We’re still trying to figure that out,” said the Doctor, “But I called to tell you after compiling Ms. Dennison’s entire medical history. I found something very interesting.”

  “What is it?” Mark asked with great interest.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Mark walked the tarmac of College Park Airport heading blindly into the unknown without hesitation.

  Sure enough, Nick came through; he confirmed that a black Sikorsky private helicopter did land at Leesburg Executive Airport at Godfrey Field in Loudon County, Virginia. A private corporate plane took off thirty minutes later; it’s destination the Oregon City Airpark; typical that it would be all the way across the damn country; an almost six-hour flight would make the trail considerably cold. Not that it was stopping him from going, Nick also came through with a pilot and a plane; ex-military as usual who would not asked any questions while getting him where he wanted to go. Especially since he was carrying, a mixture of his old military and F.B.I gear with all the guns and ammo in his possession.

  He drew a heavy sigh walking to the plane with his gear as the last person he wanted to see stood in front of him with a none too happy look on his face.

  Dustin walked up to him with the intent to slug him, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “How’d you find out?” Mark asked dodging his question.

  “You’re frantic ex-wife and daughter called me and told me you left some insane message on their answering machine,” he seethed, “I put it together that you weren’t somewhere putting a bullet in you skull. I then called Nick up threatening to come to his house and beat his ass in front of his wife and kids if he did not tell me where you were. Now what the fuck are you doing?”

  “You know damn well what I’m doing,” Mark fired back at him.

  “Exactly what you were ordered not to do,” Dustin moved closer getting in his face.

  “This is not your concern…” Mark began to tell him.

  Dustin shoved him backwards sticking a finger in his face, “You selfish son of a bitch it is my concern! Let’s start with Michelle and Annie who still give a shit about you, and then there’s me whose supposed to be your partner, then let’s add the fact that you’re jeopardizing your entire career, as well as your life if you fuck with this guy! If he kills you, he cannot be touched! So you tell me why I shouldn’t knock you on your ass, and drag you out of here in restraints till you come to your senses?”

  With no time to get into fisticuffs with Dustin, Mark pulled out a folded piece of paper in his pocket handing it to him.

  Dustin snatched it out of his hand opening it up to see a picture of a little four-year-old girl with hazel eyes and thick curly black hair wearing a Catholic schoolgirl outfit. The picture is on a printout of an Amber Alert for Kimberly Stone.

  Mark pointed at the picture, “She had a daughter…that’s why she surrendered.”

  “What are you talking about?” Dustin asked for the first time without the information in his grasp.

  “Sophia Dennison was pregnant while on trial,” explained Mark, “Doctor Kumamoto running into a dead end with the blood pulled all of her medical files and found out she was pregnant while in Harris County Jail during her trial. Dr. Hampton wasn’t just visiting her as a concerned friend; she got the requested to appoint him as her designated obstetrician.”

  “Say what?” Dustin stunned and frustrated over the never-ending madness.

  “The baby was reported coming out stillborn,” Mark went on, “He signed the death certificate and by Dennison’s wish had the body cremated. Something seemed funny so I dug around in the birth and adoption databases narrowing the field down to a month…he wasn’t even subtle about it… Hampton signed a birth certificate for this little girl the following day at a closed adoption to a couple in Boston, Massachusetts.”

  Dustin stood there in disbelief at yet another puzzle in this crazy affair, “Why would they fake her baby’s death?”

  “I don’t know,” Mark shook his head before going on, “What I do know is almost thirty-six hours ago Mr. and Mrs. Brian and Jamie Stone where both found dead in their home in Boston. No forced entry, DNA, or fibers fo
und at the crime scene…both dead from carbon monoxide poisoning and the child …this child is currently missing.”

  “We need to…” Dustin for the first time decided to formulate a plan that involved going to King with this new information.

  Mark enforced his already made decision, “I’m more than six hours behind…I don’t have time for the red tape.”

  “Then I’m coming with you…” Dustin demanded.

  “No you are not!” A furious Mark with very little patience got in his face, “You are not going to make Bethany a widow, or leave Kyle, Marcus, and Angie fatherless. You’re going to start answering your goddamn phone when your family calls you! No matter how stupid or petty it is! You’re going to stay here and watch my back, especially if I don’t come back; tell Doug what I found, and make sure I don’t disappear in some propaganda cover-up bullshit.”

  Dustin stared down the man who was the godfather to his kids, and as much as he wanted to argue with him, he knew the truth, he had to stay, “I know this is all messed up man…but why? Why does it got to be you?”

  Mark looked up at the dark starry sky as if the answer was there, “Because I didn’t sacrifice everything for a country where good people are butchered in their sleep, while their loved ones take the fall for it…and no one points a gun in my face and gets away with it.”

  Mark passed Dustin no longer looking to get in his way, but not before putting a hand on his shoulder, “The rest of the files are printed out on my desk at home, was going to leave you a message about them. You know where the key is. Give me a six hour head start, and then get them to Doug…open his damn eyes…make him listen.”

  “Tell me you’re coming back,” Dustin said with a heavy heart, “Tell me you’re coming back and I’ll do it…”

  “I’m coming back…” Mark patted his shoulder before walking off to the plane.

  It was a half lie he said leaving his friend standing there, if Mark had it his way he would do everything in his power to come back; but even armed to the teeth his fate was not up to him. He was still leaving with all the fear and uncertainty in the world in him. Uncertain if he would find the Director, Dennison, or even the little girl, and very much fearful that he might not make it back from wherever he was headed to; fearful because this was not him on tour in some unknown foreign country. This madness was going on in his backyard.

  As he walked up the steps boarding the plane, he heard Dustin yell at the top of his lungs, “Yay tho I walk into the valley of the dead…I shall fear no evil…!”

  Mark finished the prayer they always recited when they were heading out into the shit, “Because I will be the baddest son of a bitch in that valley…Amen.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  September 9, 2008, after almost seven hours between the flight and traveling via a 1990 Honda Civic he acquired from a used car lot for six hundred dollars in Wilsonville; Armitage pulled into the town of Klamath Falls. The trail was not cold…it was arctic. After landing in the Airpark Aviation Condominium in Aurora he confirmed with air traffic control and ground crew that a Bombardier Challenger 300 did land followed by the landing of a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. Five minutes later two M1070 truck tractors with M1000 heavy equipment transporter semi-trailers pulled onto the tarmac where three massive containers were then unloaded from the Globemaster onto the trailers. Finally, a female occupant in some weird type of restraints exited the Challenger 300 with armed guards; all of the occupants of the private jet immediately boarded another waiting black Sikorsky private helicopter heading south followed by the military transports no doubt taking the I-5S.

  After almost five hours of driving hoping he could play catch up, and coming up with basically nothing; he needed to get his bearings, find a lead, a bread crumb of some kind. Being up for almost twenty-four hours minus the three-hour nap on the plane, he pulled into the Black Bear Diner in Klamath Falls, Oregon for some black stuff, hoping to ask the locals without alarming them if anything big and weird rolled into their town today.

  He quickly looked at his phone contemplating turning it back on to check his messages, but thought it best not to take the chance. All it would take is a second for it to be on, Doug would know his location and have agents down on him faster than he could sneeze, which was why he was forced to purchase a car in cash instead of renting one. The only way he was going to complete his mission was to stay off radar.

  As he entered the diner, the locals either raised their heads or turned their necks to acknowledge he was at the door before going back to breakfast, or whatever they were doing; Armitage found himself sitting at the counter where he knew the regulars usually sat. The waitress behind the counter walked up to him with coffee in tow and a friendly bright smile obviously happy to welcome a new face into their establishment.

  “How are you doing today?” she smiled pointing to her name tag, “my name is Carolann, I will be your waitress today…”

  “Mark,” he smiled with a nod, “please to meet you Carolann…”

  “Would you like some coffee Mark?” she chirpily asked.

  “Yes please,” he nodded again, “Black…two sugars…”

  She quickly poured him a cup, and finished placing two sugar packs to distribute it into his coffee how he saw fit. She then placed a menu in front of him and pulled out her pad to take his order.

  “I’ll take a vegetable omelet please,” he narrowed his eyes quickly looking over the menu, “And a side of orange juice….”

  “Coming right up…” she smiled taking his order.

  Ten minutes later Carolann was back with her perky smile, his omelet and orange juice, “Here you go sweetie…”

  “Thank you…” he said looking for the ketchup to throw on the omelet before digging in.

  “So what brings you to Klamath Falls?” she asked making the basic small talk.

  Mark used it as an opportunity to see if he could get some Intel from a local, “Vacation…decided to do some camping and hiking…get some nature and clean air in me.”

  “Where you from?” she asked with that bright near obnoxious smile of hers.

  He needed a trick answer for an honest question seeing as how the vehicle he pulled up in could in no way be a rental car. Only an oddball buys a vehicle in the same state he is going on a camping trip, while coming from another state, or someone hiding something.

  “Sacramento…” he said dismissively.

  “Wow,” she emitted with some shock, “That’s a heck of a drive!”

  “People I’ve spoken to told me it’s worth it,” he shrugged, “Especially for the experience.”

  “You headed to Gilchrist State?” she leaned forward showing Mark much cleavage and acting quite flirtatious at this point.

  He remains polite about it, “Considering it…or Sun Pass…”

  “Well if you’re going to Gilchrist or Mount McLoughlin by Upper Klamath Lake be careful,” she warned, “The black bear population has been growing in those areas…they stay away from folks for the most part, but they love wrecking camp sites looking for food.”

  “Good to know…” he said lying through his teeth about doing any camping.

  Just as she decided to walk off to attend to other patrons, Mark decided to put his nose to the floor and see if he could sniff out a breadcrumb.

  “So, are there any military bases around here?” he asked innocently while taking a bite out his omelet.

  The question caused her smile to fall a bit, as if she was trying to hide obvious concern for what he just said; Mark saw a possible breadcrumb. His suspicion became bigger when some of the locals within earshot gave him dirty look out of the corner of their eye.