by Matt Rogers
A woman sat on the bed next to him. Resting a hand on his chest. Her face was freckled. Her long brown hair fell over one shoulder. She sported a look of concern and worry and anger all wrapped up into one emotion.
Kate.
‘Are you okay?’ she said.
King shook his head, and immediately regretted the decision. His head pounded like nothing else. ‘I’ve been badly concussed.’
‘I know.’
‘Which means I’ll feel like this for weeks.’
She gasped. ‘That bad?’
‘Trust me. It’s happened before.’
‘What the hell happened, Jason?’
‘Where did you find me?’
‘In the factory. Alone. You were just coming to when I made it to you.’
‘You followed me in?’
‘I wasn’t going to just stay in the office. We were sitting ducks in there. The lady was a mess after seeing her partner get shot. She was no use. I saw you go into the factory and figured I would help you out. However I could. I waited a few minutes then came in after you.’
‘And you didn’t see anyone else?’
She shook her head. ‘Not a soul. Who did this to you?’
‘I don’t know,’ King said, pressing a pair of fingers hard against his temple. He struggled to suppress a bubbling cocktail of emotions. ‘I’m being played with, Kate. We’re all being toyed with. All I remember is being hit from behind. I remember being completely helpless. I could have been killed right there. Easily. But I wasn’t.’ He looked around. ‘Where are we?’
‘Hurst. It’s a small town. Ten minute drive from Jameson.’
‘How did you get here?’
‘I…’ She trailed off.
King touched a hand to her face. ‘Kate.’
She wiped her eyes, drying fresh tears. ‘I put you in Billy’s car and just drove. I was so scared. I had no idea what was happening.’
‘You just left Kitchener there?’
‘I’m sorry!’ she yelled. ‘I’m not used to this shit. I’m just a normal person who does normal things like make mistakes when they get shot at. I’m not some kind of warrior like you. I don’t just waltz into gunfights and danger and … whatever. I just panicked and drove.’
‘We need to go back and check on her.’
‘You can’t in this state.’
‘I know. Give me a moment. I just need … some water or something…’
‘You need more than a moment.’
He dropped his head onto her shoulder and took a deep, long breath. The physical effects of recent altercations were catching up to him. Everything hurt. He wasn’t sure where to start with addressing his injuries. It had all moulded into an intricate web of pain. He thought back to that night where he’d first wandered up the road to Jameson, expecting a relaxing visit to an unassuming little town in the middle of nowhere. What he’d encountered was something brutal, something visceral, something he still couldn’t quite put his finger on.
‘Why did you leave?’ Kate said finally, breaking the silence.
He turned and looked at her. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Black Force. Why did you really leave? I don’t believe what you told me before. Something made you quit, just like that, and come all the way out here. Looking for peace and quiet. What was it?’
‘How can you tell?’
‘Something’s eating away at you,’ she said. ‘You’re a shell that I still can’t seem to crack. You’re so quiet, but I don’t think you’re usually this reserved. I think you’re trying to suppress something.’
He didn’t respond for a full minute. He lay back on the bed and wrapped his arm around Kate and stared at the roof overhead, listening to the forest sounds outside.
‘I fucked up a mission,’ he said. ‘My last mission.’
She rolled over, draping a leg over him so she could look him in the eyes. ‘You haven’t failed one before?’
‘I have. Many times. But this one was devastating.’
‘Where?’
‘Kuwait. Two months ago.’
‘What happened?’
‘They sent me in to infiltrate an anthrax weapon production facility. It was operating under the guise of a civilian biotechnology lab. The stakes were huge. They’d been producing hordes of the stuff for months, undetected. They had an enormous stockpile, just sitting there, officially labelled as government research. Intel said they had the means and the motivation to use it.’
‘On what?’
‘I don’t know. Now I never will.’
‘What did you do wrong?’
‘Almost everything. I rushed my preparation. I was discovered early. They managed to cart the anthrax out of there while I was pinned down, and then I never saw it again. Half of them got away. It was a complete and utter failure. And I told everyone in charge that I could pull off without a hitch.’
‘That’s not your fault, Jason.’
‘It is. The higher-ups wanted to send in a full team of Delta Force soldiers. Storm the compound from all sides, big gunfight. Make sure none of the product made it out of that facility, no matter what the consequences. They were willing to let a few soldiers die to stop a full-scale bioterrorism attack. I convinced them otherwise. I told them — no, promised them — that if they sent me in there it would be over quicker and quieter, with the same results. They let me. And now I have to live with the fact that my inadequacy left an entire facility worth of anthrax spores in the hands of a group of radicals.’
‘I’d call you a hero for even offering to do such a thing.’
She kissed him for what felt like forever. Her hair spilled over his face and he let the sensation calm him. They parted.
‘That’s why I don’t have a phone, or a laptop, or anything,’ he said. ‘I left that all behind. I don’t want to look at the news one day and see how many people my failure has killed. I don’t want to know how much pain I’ve caused.’
‘You can’t be sure that the others would have been successful,’ she said. ‘You blame yourself for everything that goes wrong, and you can’t help getting yourself involved. That’s why you’re still hanging around this piece-of-shit town while everyone’s trying to kill you.’
‘I came here to get away from everything. I left the jobs I used to do to faster, stronger, younger men. I wanted to finally be free of all the responsibility that’s been eating away at me for years. And now look what’s happened. I feel like I need to succeed here, or I’ll just cause more death.’
‘If you never got involved there would be a lot more innocent people dead. You’re a good man for staying. No matter what happens.’
‘I don’t know about that. What if I’ve caused more trouble by staying?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘If my old friends are showing up, and this all has something to do with me … then what am I still doing here?’
‘Trying to help us.’
‘But what if I’m just keeping them here?’
‘I don’t think you are. I think this is something bigger. You can see that too.’
King nodded.
‘Well,’ Kate said, ‘at least we have this.’
She climbed off him and crossed the room to the table in the far corner. King watched her as she walked, admiring her. A thin manila folder sat on the surface. She picked it up and threw it to him.
‘What’s this?’ he said, catching it.
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But it’s important.’
‘How so?’
‘It’s the folder that the worker came back for. He dropped it on the way out of the office. I found it on the porch, before I came for you. Figured it might help.’
King clenched the folder in his hands, spinning it over and over. Slowly, a smile spread across his face.
‘Kate, you’re an absolute gem,’ he said.
He opened it, and began to read.
CHAPTER 30
The folder contained a swathe of documents, all bund
led together, all very official looking. King buried his head into the papers and tried to decipher their contents. Kate stayed by the dining table, chewing a thumbnail restlessly.
The first dozen pages had been written with only professional eyes in mind. They contained a plethora of complicated scientific terms, with no consideration for layman explanations. He read through the description of three stages of some kind of bacteria; incubation, prodromal and fulminant. Then an endless list of chemicals, prepared and organised to perfection. All scientific jargon. Information that certainly shouldn’t be in the hands of a countryside construction company. He flicked through to the next section.
This part made a little more sense. It laid out the blueprints to some kind of facility, measured and drawn in exquisite detail. A report on the building stated that it had closed down a few months ago for private use. There was a comprehensive analysis of its usefulness for an unnamed client, including the fact that it was miles away from prying eyes, which apparently made it perfect for their needs. Needs which were seemingly undisclosed in the report.
‘Kate,’ he said, beckoning her over. He held out the papers. ‘Do you know what this is?’
She studied the blueprint for a moment, then nodded. ‘It’s a concrete plant. Belongs to Rafael Constructions. I’ve delivered letters to some of the workers there a few times, back when I had a short stint at Jameson Post as a courier. Haven’t been there in over a year. It’s in the middle of nowhere.’
‘Do you know how to get there?’
She nodded again. ‘I think so.’
‘Something’s going on there. I can’t work it out. Take a look at this.’
He handed over the first cluster of notes. Kate flicked the pages over, eyes narrowed, concentrating hard. When she reached the end she let out an exasperated sigh and passed them back.
‘Absolutely no idea,’ she said. ‘But it looks dangerous.’
‘You know what I’m about to say.’
‘King, you’re in no shape to just barge in there.’
He rose off the bed and shook the pages in her face. ‘Did you read what I just did? This is big. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to die if I don’t try to do something about it.’
‘And did you hear what we just talked about?’ Kate said, raising her voice. ‘How long are you going to keep putting your life on the line? You quit the Force to get away from all this shit. How much more are you going to take? They already could have killed you, you said it yourself.. I don’t think this is something we can just waltz in and stop.’
King fetched the keys to Billy’s sedan off the table, his head pounding, his brow sweaty. ‘I have to try.’
‘Jason!’
‘You want me to leave? After I’ve found out that an old friend is in on this?’
‘I want us to leave.’
‘I’m sorry, Kate,’ he said. ‘Not happening. I’ve had plenty of chances to walk away. Now I can’t.’
‘You can. You’re the only one stopping yourself.’
‘Not after what I’ve learnt.’
They stood facing each other for what felt like an hour, when in reality it could not have been more than a minute.
‘Well, what am I supposed to do?’ she said.
‘Get as far away from me as possible. Like I’ve been telling you this whole time.’
‘I’m coming with you.’
He paused. ‘That is the complete opposite of what I just said.’
‘If you’re not going to leave, then I’m not. I’ll see it out.’
‘It’s your choice, Kate. I won’t stop you, but I can’t promise that you’ll be fine either. I don’t even know if I’ll be alive at the end of the day.’
She shrugged. ‘That makes two of us, I guess.’
King gripped her hand as they made their way back to the car. He unlocked it and they climbed in. A strange smell permeated the vehicle. The combination of lead and smoke and blood and destroyed mechanics. He started it up. The battered engine took a moment, but it chugged to life soon enough and settled into a steady rhythm.
‘Possibly the most reliable car in human history,’ he muttered. He pressed three fingers against his temple, wincing through a particularly vicious wave of nausea. The concussion, rearing its ugly head. Then he sucked it up and touched his foot to the accelerator.
They drove through the empty streets of Hurst, which turned out to be very similar to all the other small towns King had seen during his travels through Australia. They left a crowded main road that acted as the bustling heart of the area, complete with an array of local businesses. As the buildings grew distant and the trees wrapped around them once again, the feeling of seclusion crept back in. It seemed no-one spent time on the roads between towns.
The drive to the concrete plant took longer than expected. Winding roads cut through the forest like a knife through butter, making the scenery identical no matter which way they travelled. They headed in the direction of Jameson. Kate peered out the window, strangely silent.
‘You okay?’ he asked her.
‘I’ve never thought about dying this much before. I don’t know how to feel.’
‘It’s a strange feeling. And nothing I say will help you suppress it. Trust me, I’ve been feeling that emotion for years.’
‘You haven’t become numb to it?’
‘You can’t. But I’ve dealt with it so much that it feels normal. Which isn’t healthy.’
Kate flicked her eyes ahead, then pointed to the left where it branched off to a dusty side road. ‘Down there.’
This rutted track took them through farmland, where great swathes of the forest had been carved out to make way for pastures. Long, low farmhouses dotted the landscape, surrounded by paddocks of mixed grasses and endless rows of fence posts. A few were topped with barbed wire, which had rusted from the elements long ago. Sheep, cows and horses covered many of the paddocks.
‘I lived with a family here when I first flew over,’ Kate said. ‘I helped them out around the farm, all day every day, until I could get on my feet. They were lovely people.’
‘Sometimes I wish I’d gone down a route like this,’ King said. ‘Open skies, long days of labour, full meals. I wouldn’t have had to fear for my life every single day.’
‘But a lot of innocent people would have died. You wouldn’t have been there to save them. You’ve lived a good life, even if it wasn’t pleasant.’
‘Have I?’
In the distance they heard the rumble of a tractor sweeping over its paddock. King took a moment to let the serenity of the setting wash over him. Down the track, the top of the concrete plant rose out of the forest.
They were close.
When the pastures ended the trees swallowed them up once more. This section seemed to be a little more remote than the others. The trunks were clustered closer together. The moss winding around the trunks grew thicker. The weeds covering the forest floor stood higher. It felt like no-one had set foot in these parts for years.
‘Long to go?’ he asked Kate, slightly unnerved by the change of setting.
’Not far now,’ she said. ‘I told you it was in the middle of nowhere.’
Finally the track led into another clearing, indistinguishable from all the others King had seen during his time in Australian woodland. This one had been set on a slope which descended ever so slightly in the opposite direction. The majority of the space was taken up by the concrete plant, broken up into two sections. The main facility was an enormous warehouse, constructed of steel. Behind it lay the concrete plant itself. Six massive cement bins towered over the warehouse, clustered close together. They were all connected to a belt conveyor that descended into the main building, bringing all the structures together into an amalgamation of industrial prowess.
Already, the effects of neglect were beginning to set into the plant. It seemed the freezing weather had started taking a toll on the outer surfaces of the plant. Machinery left out in the open had been worn down b
y the elements, the dormant cement bins had rusted and the whole place had a feel of dilapidation about it.
They got out of the car and crossed the open stretch of ground. No sounds of activity came from the plant. It appeared deserted. King took the lead as they approached a small door at the front of the warehouse. He made sure to be cautious. Aware of all his surroundings. Ready for an ambush. No-one would sneak up on him this time.
He reached out and twisted the handle.
Unlocked.
The door swung open to reveal a massive interior space with a dirty concrete floor, packed with all sorts of machinery. This equipment, however, had a different feel to the rest of the plant. They were out of place, seemingly brand new. As if they had been produced recently, specifically for a certain project. Not the regular gear that usually fills a concrete plant. These machines had a different purpose.
King cocked his head as he looked around. There wasn’t a soul in sight. The shiny new contraptions lay in the open, unmanned, untouched. The place gave off a similar feeling to Rafael Constructions’ head office. Like the entire area had been deserted in a hurry.
He stepped inside and crossed to the nearest machine. His footsteps echoed off the walls, the only noise inside the cavernous space. The contraption was a large metal box, bolted shut, with two exhaust pipes trailing out of the top. A small glass window had been installed on one side. He squatted and peered in, squinting in the dim gloom of the unlit warehouse.
The box was filled with a white powdery substance, still coarse. King took one look at it and recognised it instantly. His throat dried and his stomach fell and his hands grew cold and clammy even before he stood up and read the label plastered to the side of the container.
Bacillus anthracis.
‘Kate,’ he whispered, his voice hoarse.
She sensed the panic immediately, and quickly came to his side. ‘What is it?’
He rested a shaking hand on top of the box and took a deep gulp of air. ‘This is the anthrax. From Kuwait.’