It was.
Finished, he collated them into several piles, paper clipped them, and placed them in a box for safe keeping and reference should anyone question the decision.
Mike doubted it. To his surprise, it was pretty one-sided voting.
He glanced up at the knock on the door and called out a ‘come in,’
Lars entered. “I didn’t get a chance to speak to you this morning at the voting. Did you find my letter on your desk?”
“Yes, I did,” Mike replied. “Thank you for writing it.”
“It was easy, Mike. I just wrote the simple words, ‘We accept your invitation and look forward to a meeting regarding the situation of these matters.”
“It felt pretty thick,” Mike said.
“Well, I used three pieces of papers and put the note on the last one. I wasn’t letting Hadley get to the answer easily should that be the decision.” Lars cleared his throat then paused. “Did you count the ballots?”
“I did,” Mike said.
“And?”
With a deep breath, Mike lifted an envelope. “It’s time to find Callahan.”
***
Ellen didn’t mind the walk. It wasn’t as cold as it should be for the time of year plus Frank had spent the night in holding and making him drive her the short distance to the clinic was—to Ellen—causing him go out of his way.
Frank looked at his watch. “I’ll see where Dan left off on his rounds and pick up from there. I have a meeting with my Dad later about what Jason found out in Billings. I’ll stop by and see you around lunch.” He kissed Ellen on the cheek.
“Sounds good.”
“You’re all right with what I told you?” Frank asked.
“Hesitant, but all right,” Ellen said. “I hate lying to Elliott unless Lars has something, which I doubt.”
“He needs something to counteract what Dean told him.”
“I’m gonna focus on that task. I’ll look at the findings again.”
“What do you think? What do you really think?”
Ellen shrugged. “I think I’m gonna do everything in my power but if our treatments don’t work, the only option is to let Lars take a look and see if he can make adjustments and hope.”
“No,” Frank corrected. “You can try what I said. It’s mind over matter, El. If all else fails, the mind is a powerful tool. You know that. Look at Elliott before he knew he was sick.”
“You’re right. Medically, if there is limitation on saving his life, then …” She exhaled. “I’ll go one hundred and fifty percent with what you suggest.”
“Good, because I have a feeling.” Frank winked.
“We can’t tell a soul. No one is to know because this is highly unethical.”
Frank laughed.
“What?” Ellen questioned.
“El, please, you give people hideous rashes along with untested serums from genetically enhanced rabbits and mutate them. Look at me. And you talk unethical.”
“You’re right. I’m being strange” She gave a kiss to Frank, but noticed that something must have suddenly crossed his mind. His eyes lifted “Frank? What is it? Did you forget something?”
“You said the word strange and it made me think of something.”
“What’s that?”
Frank shook his head in a ‘nothing’ manner. “Go on. I’ll see you later.” He waited until Ellen started to walk off then Frank went into his office. Barely inside, he dialed the phone. “Hey, Dad.”
“Frank. How was the hearing? I heard you were cleared.”
“Yeah,” Frank said, not paying much attention. “Dad …”
“Is everything all right?”
“I hope. Hey, did any of my men report a serial mutilation this morning?”
“No. Christ, don’t tell me you have something.”
“No,” Frank answered. “Don’t you think it’s strange? Three days in a row we had those serial mutilations, right? And today no one reported anything.”
“Maybe they stopped.”
“No,” Frank said. “No way.”
“He could have taken a break and set up a new pattern. Three days on, three days off. We don’t know enough yet. Why?” Joe asked. “What are you thinking?”
“Okay, bear with me.” Frank walked behind his desk and sat. “This person attacks at night after two a.m., right?”
“Yes.”
“Last night nothing happened. I’m thinking … yeah, the mutilator could be pausing, waiting, or maybe even taking advantage.”
“Of?” Joe questioned.
“Of last night,” Frank explained. “But what if the mutilator didn’t strike because he was busy or detained?”
“Someone on shift?” Joe quizzed “You mean, check the schedules, see who was working and see if they were off on …”
“No, I mean detained, literally detained.”
There was silence for a moment then Joe spoke, “Frank, you don’t think, do you?”
“Dad, it’s possible. We’d need to investigate further, but if my theory is correct and I’m thinking right, last night during prime mutilation time, five men were detained in Bowman and no mutilations occurred. Which means…”
Joe finished the sentiment with a heavy sigh. “We may have just narrowed the suspect list.”
A laundry list of items rattled through Ellen’s mind of things she had to do when she arrived at the clinic. She still hadn’t even taken a look at any lab work—she was pretty positive Dean was lax in that. Her patient schedule was tight, she had Containment duties, and a short trip to Bowman but basically, since her early start to the day, she had time to devote to the clinic.
Entering the clinic, she could feel the ‘earliness’ of the morning. The halls were still dim and empty. Up ahead, the lab light was shining out of the door. The nearer she drew, the more she could hear noises from inside, shuffling, papers, and the clicking of a keyboard. Someone was working. Ellen paused outside the door. Had Dean made it back from Bowman already? She didn’t know how, seeing how she rode with Frank. However, work had been started in the lab. She knew it wasn’t Andrea, so Dean was the only one who should be in there. Ellen bit the bullet and headed herself to face Dean in the aftermath of her court appearance. She took a deep breath, turned, and walked through the door.
One step in, she stopped.
From across the lab, wearing a white lab coat, and holding a clipboard, Margaret turned around. “Ellen,” she spoke, startled.
Ellen froze in her tracks.
***
In order to stand eye to eye with Bertha, Tigger stood on the hood of the Jeep. His hands were folded behind his back as he engaged in close conversation.
Lars gave a nudge to Mike. “See?”
“See what? They’re talking. They became friends.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm?” Mike sneered then cocked his head when Bertha came over.
“Chief Manis, I have to depart. Do you have the decision?” she asked.
“I do.” Mike handed her the envelope. “Tell Hadley he can find my, I mean, our answer in there.”
Bertha nodded then extended her hand. “We will be in touch I suppose.”
“I suppose.”
“Good day.” She gave one more nod and turned.
“Easy enough,” Lars said.
“Yeah.” Mike was ready to leave.
“Oh look,” Lars said, “She’s taking one more moment for Tigger.
“Lars, will you knock it off. That’s just … that’s just a wrong thought.”
“It’s the truth.”
“You’re an instigator. I’m going home. I gotta headache.” Mike took another look as Bertha extended her arms for Tigger. “See? She’s helping him down.” Shaking his head in ridicule at Lars, Mike turned. “She mothers him.”
“In an incestuous way,” Lars said snidely.
Mike stopped, looked over his shoulder and nearly lost his balance when he saw the end results of Bertha’s lift of Tiger. She di
dn’t just raise him from the hood of the Jeep. She raised him up and close enough for an intimate goodbye kiss.
“Ah, sweet,” Lars commented sarcastically.
Mike croaked out an ‘Oh my God’ before bolting away.
***
There was a glaze of disbelief over Joe’s eyes and at any second he expected Jason to point his bony finger and say, ‘Ha, ha, gotcha’ but it didn’t happen. Jason was serious.
All those time Frank was acting dramatic, demonstrating a meteor with his hands on the table and saying, ‘It’s coming’, he wasn’t whacked. Joe was wondering if he actually was psychic.
“Oh, yeah,” Frank graveled in a gloat. “It’s happening.”
Joe held up his hand to Frank and looked at Jason. “Why am I getting a feeling this is pretty serious for us?”
“Because it is,” Jason responded.
Robbie had to question, “But it’s hitting on the other side of the world.”
“We’ll still feel the effect.”
“Oh, yeah.” Frank nodded. “We're gonna be shaking.”
“Frank!” Joe snapped. “Go on, Jason.”
“I think we should wait for Hal,” Jason said then looked behind him when there was a knock on the door.
“That’s him now,” Joe said. “Come in.”
The opening door brought in Jimmy. “Hey, Dad, Frank, Robbie, Mr. Hoi, and Godrichson.”
Nobody smiled.
Jimmy walked in further. “Hal called me to fill in for him. I hope you don’t mind.”
“What about Ryder?” Joe asked.
Jimmy shrugged. “I don’t know. He said he had a situation and his third man was running things there. Then Hal said something about me being family and for this, it’s best.” Jimmy took a seat. “What’s going on?”
With an exhale, Joe sat back. “We have a situation. We didn’t take it serious. Now it looks as if we have to. I’m putting together a team I’ll need a few more than you gentlemen. We definitely want to bring in Tim. See … there’s a meteor that’s scheduled to arrive and impact Earth in about seven weeks.”
Jimmy nodded. “The Fredickson.”
Everyone turned their attention to him.
“What?” Jimmy shrugged. “Everyone knew this, right? I was Navy. I heard about it. None of you did? Last I heard, it was supposed to miss us.”
Jason shook his head. “Nope. Jimmy’s right. It seems our scientific community, along with NASA, has known about this bad boy for about four years pre-plague. That’s why we were able to get our answers so easily and quickly. We pulled it from the system.” Jason dropped a stack of folders a foot high on Joe’s desk. “We have the data with us and we left the Jordan man there to continuously monitor. I’d like to send a few men up with him for company and security.”
Joe agreed. “Consider it done now. Frank, can you pull that together?”
“I can do that as soon as we’re done,” Frank responded.
“Tell us what you got, Jason,” Joe requested.
“Impact will occur in forty-two days. We were hoping for a structure consisting of mainly gases and that it would break up as it moves into our atmosphere. No such luck. We’re talking solid.”
“How is this gonna effect us physically?” Joe asked.
Jason continued, “I will say a cold front from the dust and debris that will float up into the atmosphere. On the other side of the world, you’re talking close to the next ice age. On this side of the world …our weather will be a lot more rainy with lower temperatures running around ten degrees below normal for about eight months. My suggestion is to erect and begin another series of greenhouses just in case. We have the resources. We have the land. We also need to prep a new town.”
“For?”
“For about twenty-three hundred new residents.”
“Doyle’s camp has only fifteen hundred and Bowman's ready for them,” Joe said
Jason shook his head. “Not Doyle’s camp.”
“Then who?”
“Creed and his people,” Jason said. “We have to move them and move them now. When the first one hits…”
“Whoa!” Joe held up his hand. “First one?”
Jason nodded. “The first one. There are two. They’re very close, giving the illusion of one but the scientific community discovered this right before the world went to shit. The first one is about a mile wide and will hit just outside of Tokyo, an ocean hit. It will cause a tidal wave that will rush its way toward our West Coast and the Asian coast, hitting inland about several hundred miles. The second one should impact mid-Asia about two hours later. That one is a mile wide as well.”
Joe folded his hands. “Creed’s got the railroad moving again. The lines are up. I’ll get on the phone with him as soon as we’re done, deliver the news, and tell him to prep the trains to move people. We’ll get a team to escort them back here.”
Danny, who had been silent, spoke up. “These people are ultra-violet ray sensitive. I’ll see what I can come up with. I have a small town and we could do some quick blackening of windows.”
“You’re in charge of that.” Joe pointed. “Okay, so we have the first one hitting. That impacts us the most. The second one will cause screwed up weather. We’ll prep for that. We don’t have much time, but we have warning. That’s a start. All of you, I want ideas, left and right field. We’ll get together tonight and have survival team meeting. I’ll have a few others designated for this. Come up with a tight strategy to put into motion ASAP. Now we’ll …” Joe saw Jimmy’s hand lifting. “Yes, Jimmy.”
“Jason said the other side of the world will be like an ice age.” Jimmy asked, “What about the people over there? I know there are civilizations over there. The Society was tracking life signals.”
Joe lifted his hands. “What can we do? We can’t reach them to warn them. Their only hope is they knew, like you did, and were preparing.”
“There’s got to be something we can do.”
With an inhale, Joe gave a look that all but said, ‘What? What can we do?’ then his attention turned to another knock on his door. “Come in,” he instructed.
Dean popped his head inside. “Sorry to interrupt but I need to speak to Frank. It’s an emergency.”
Joe motioned his head to Frank. “Go on. We’re done here.”
“Thanks.” Frank followed Dean outside. “What’s up?”
Dean looked frazzled. “I just got back into town.”
“Dean, if you’re up here to bitch about the hearing, I can’t …”
“No.” Dean took a moment to possibly review how he could say it. “I arrive into town and all these people are outside of the clinic. No one will go in there. They warned that I shouldn’t. They’re afraid something is going to explode. The lab door is locked.”
“Okay.”
“Frank, Ellen showed up before me. She went to the lab but I wasn’t there. Margaret was working in there. Everyone said Ellen shut the door and no one has heard a thing in a half an hour.”
“What do you think?” Frank asked.
“I think … I think someone’s dead.” Dean raised his eyebrow. “And I don’t think it’s Ellen.”
“She does have that history of knocking off the other woman.”
“Exactly.”
Without saying anymore, Frank took off.
It was a hostage situation from a view. Four of Frank’s Security men, without even being told to do so, held the onlookers at bay. At least thirty people tried to peek at the clinic behind the barricade as if something big was going to occur.
“Fuckin people in this town,” Frank griped. “They’ll do anything to not be bored. Look at this.”
“Frank,” Out of breath— Dan made his approach to Frank. “We got it under control out here.”
With his hands on his hips, Frank blinked in shock. “Why?”
Dan chuckled. “You’re asking why? You do know what’s going on in there, don’t you?”
Dean nudged Frank. “I told yo
u it was bad.”
Frank waved Dean off and faced Dan. “Dan, it’s Ellen.”
“Yeah, I know, but …”
“But nothing. Don’t you think you’re going a little fuckin overboard here?”
Dan chuckled in disbelief. “No. I’m following orders.”
“Whose?” Frank blasted. “I run Security here.”
“Yeah, but Frank,” Dan responded, “when I radioed you, you said you were busy.”
Frank yelled. “I was on my way here!”
“That’s what Joe figured.”
“My dad ordered this?” Frank asked.
“No,” Dan continued, “When Robbie radioed …”
“Wait.” Frank lifted his hand. “Robbie radioed? When?”
“A couple of minutes ago,” Dan said. “Andrea called Joe. Joe said you were with Dean and figured you were on your way here. Robbie said to initiate a Code Seven ‘D’, which is a basic dangerous hostage situation.”
“Fuckin Robbie.”
“No, no.” Dan lifted his and. “I was on it by that point.”
“Swell.” Frank nodded. “So I’m taking it Andrea told you what’s going on in there.”
Dan whistled. “It’s bad. Ellen has Margaret tied up. From what people are saying, not only is Ellen threatening to inject some sort of virus into Margaret, but if anyone comes in, she’ll blow up Dean’s lab.”
Frank questioned in disbelief? “Does Andrea know this for sure?”
“Oh I’m positive,” Dan said. “She has to. She said Ellen wants Dean’s admittance to a long term affair that went on while they were married.”
“Who spoke to Ellen?” Frank asked.
Dan shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
“Fuck.” Frank twitched his head in disgust. “Dean, what do you have in that lab that she could inject in Margaret?”
Dean shook his head. “Nothing in that lab. I have some things in the cryo lab. Ellen could have seen Margaret, went to the cryo lab, came back up, and started this whole thing.”
“Fuck. I’m not getting this.” Frank bit his lip. “Why would Ellen …” He stopped talking when he heard the helicopter overhead. “Don’t tell me you called in air coverage, Dan?”
The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20 Page 410