by Ricky Sides
“You agreed to participate in that?” she asked appalled.
“I didn’t approve of the plan, if that’s what you mean, but soldiers don’t get to make such decisions, nor do they pick and choose assignments. But I will say this, if it had required a volunteer, I’m not so certain I would have refused.”
“Really? Even knowing everything you now know?” she asked.
“Especially knowing what I now know, because I know for a fact that these animals could accomplish their missions.”
He could see that she didn’t understand, so he said, “This isn’t a new concept. It’s an old concept with a new twist. The military have been using animals to help them for ages. Horses pulled chariots, hauled artillery, or carried mounted troops. Dogs have been used for guard duty, exploring underground passages, and sniffing out mines. Carrier pigeons carried messages and battle instructions. In most of the cases I just cited, the use of animals saved human lives. In this case, it would as well. The military wanted to enhance a cat’s size and aggression, and they wanted a way to trigger that aggression.”
“Jerry, you’re not making any sense. I’m no military expert, but even I know that you don’t generally find cats on a battlefield.”
“No, you don’t, but there are special circumstances when they’d be present, and it’s not limited to cats. There’s no reason to assume it wouldn’t perform equally well when formulated for dogs. But worst case scenario, you could put it in an enemy nation’s cat and dog food supply. Think of the mayhem that would result if the American military quietly tainted the pet food supply of an enemy nation.”
“Selective biological warfare?”
“True biological warfare, because you’d be pitting an animal species against humanity. The resultant chaos would undermine the enemy morale, affect their production capacities, and cause widespread panic and terror among the population,” he stated.
“It would cause the people to exterminate all of the dogs and cats in their country. That’s too cruel and inhumane to contemplate,” she said.
“So is invading another nation with an army to conquer them. But let’s say for a moment that you’re right and the enemy nation reacted by ordering the extermination of all dogs and cats. How would the population react?” he asked.
Patricia’s eyes widened in alarm as she contemplated Jerry’s question, and then she said, “Many would resist. There would be outbreaks of violent protests. Some people would fight them when they came to get their pets, especially if they weren’t showing any symptoms.”
“All of which would force the enemy government to deploy manpower to deal with the insurrection. Troops who would otherwise be deployed to kill United States military personnel,” he pointed out.
“But the cost to the innocent civilians would be horrendous, and that’s discounting the moral and ethical matters involved in tampering with the dogs and cats, which I do not dismiss,” she stated pointedly.
“Oh, I agree that it’s a terrible thing to do, but I think it preferable to firebombing a city, or nuking it. But as I said earlier, I don’t make the decisions,” he stated.
Patricia stared thoughtfully at the floor, absorbing the matters they had just discussed.
Jerry took advantage of her momentary silence to say, “There’s more, that’s only part of what I have to tell you.”
“Did you order my house ransacked?” she asked angrily. “If you did, then you lied to me.”
“No I didn’t order it. Remember, I was with you the whole time. Talbot ordered my team to do it, but he won’t be giving them any further orders. I put a stop to that after the incident. All instructions go through me now.”
Jerry took a deep breath. This was the moment he dreaded most. He took another sip of beer, and then he said, “But I have ordered actions taken that involved you. I ordered your website taken down. I also had Snopes.com notified that the story was a hoax. I did it, but I did it to protect you.”
Patricia was stunned. She felt betrayed. “I trusted you,” she said accusingly.
“I know, and I feel lousy, but it was something I felt I had to do. The brass wanted much more stringent steps taken, but I convinced them to let me handle it.”
“More stringent? What were you going to do? Kill me?”
Jerry laughed and responded, “You must watch way too many bad movies if you believe your government would do that over something like this. No, they wouldn’t sanction your murder. They go after you in other ways. You get your taxes audited, bad credit ratings suddenly just happen, they destroy your reputation, and blackball you in the private sector.”
“You make that sound like the actions of an ex-husband,” she said.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Jerry threw back his head and laughed. He replied, “Or my ex-wife.”
Patricia smiled at him. “Well, don’t expect me to thank you. I went to a lot of effort to try to warn people.”
“But that warning wasn’t necessary, because the special additives aren’t in the public supply. It was only in the feed supplied for the test animals, which were going to be moved to a military base in an attempt to dry them out. The military needs to know if it’s possible, and if so, what the timeframe would need to be to affect a reversal of the symptoms by doing nothing but stopping the tainted food supply.”
“You mean they weren’t going to be terminated?” she asked.
“No, they would have been moved to another location. But they were released, which has led to a lot of problems. Now I have ‘shoot to kill’ orders because they are a threat to the public safety,” he said.
“Have you heard about the death of Johnny Miller today?”
“The auto accident victim?” he asked.
Nodding her head, Patricia said, “They aren’t reporting everything. A cat attacked the young man, though law enforcement thinks it was a bobcat.”
“I’ll check into that then. I need to find out where it happened. The cats will probably be back in that area at some point. As you said earlier tonight, they are territorial. You were right about them returning to Alcorn. Several did,” he said. Pausing, he carefully thought about the matter and then he said, “You’re also right about how dangerous they are.”
“Well, they didn’t get you, so you must be good at what you do,” she said, reaching out and placing her hand on his wrist.
Jerry winced at her touch and she asked, “You didn’t really cut your wrist on a desk, did you?” When he just stared at her, she added, “Let me look at it.”
Jerry unbuttoned his uniform shirtsleeve and rolled it up. Patricia gently removed the bandage. When she had uncovered the wound, she glared at Jerry and said in an accusing tone, “You didn’t even go to the doctor. A doctor would have sewn up that deep cut.”
“I’ve been too busy,” he said with a shrug.
“You did disinfect it I hope.”
“Yes, I did.”
“The bandage had slipped and was pulling on the ragged tear. This really needs stitches, but I can come up with something if you prefer,” Patricia offered. At Jerry’s nod of acceptance, she got up and went to get her medical kit.
Working quickly and deftly, she applied a soothing antibiotic ointment, pulled the lips of the two-inch wound together, and secured them in place with butterfly bandages. Then she wrapped another bandage around those to hold them in place and keep all of the smaller bandages clean.
“There now, that’s much better,” she said. “But you should still see a doctor. There’s a serious risk of infection.”
“I’ll try to do that tomorrow morning.”
“You’re not working tomorrow morning?” she asked.
“Not at Alcorn. I turned in my notice to Robert after we left today.”
“You did?” she asked in surprise.
“I told you that I objected to his grilling you. I meant it,” he responded sincerely.
“Thank you for caring.”
“Thank you for fixing up my wrist,” he
said grinning and holding up his arm. Then turning serious, he asked, “Are we still on speaking terms?”
“We’d better be, or it’s going to be a boring dinner conversation tomorrow night.”
“In that case, are we still on kissing terms?” he asked with a big infectious smile on his face.
“I thought you’d never ask,” she responded and melted into his arms.
Before he left, Jerry reminded her to keep the dinner simple, because there was no way to know when he might get an emergency call.
After Jerry left, Patricia sat down and thought about everything that had happened in the past two days. In a sense, she still felt that he had betrayed her trust in him, but Jerry had done what he had done to prevent the government from doing a lot worse. She did feel that he was hiding something from her, but she sensed that he had told her everything that he could, and probably a lot more than he should have. She was smart enough to understand that he had risked his military career by confiding in her, and by implication, she understood what that meant.
Chapter 8
Patricia was shocked when she read the newspaper the next morning. Deputy Cook had been involved in an accident the previous night. He had exited his patrol car in order to check on an animal beside the road. Minutes later, he had been struck by a vehicle and was in critical condition because of the injuries he sustained. The article went on to report that Deputy Cook had told fellow officers on the scene that the accident wasn’t the driver’s fault. He had explained that a big cat had attacked him and he had stumbled into the path of the oncoming vehicle.
One of the other Sheriff’s Deputies had stated that they had reason to believe a dangerous bobcat was in the community. His opinion seemed to be confirmed by a supplemental story about Tom Barksdale, a local chicken farmer who had been attacked the previous night by a large cat.
She had finished reading the paper and she was on her second cup of coffee when the phone rang. A sheriff’s deputy wanted her to come in to discuss the report she had made the previous afternoon.
At the county jail, Patricia checked in at the front desk. She only had to wait two minutes for a deputy to see her. The man said, “Hello, I’m Deputy Braxton Jones. The Sheriff assigned me to the case. He wants a follow up on what you told Deputy Cook yesterday.”
“I’ll be happy to help. How is he? I saw the news in the paper,” Patricia said.
“It was touch and go for a few hours, but I hear the doctors are saying his prognosis looks good. Thank you for asking,” the deputy responded, and then he led her to his office.
“I’ve got some video I want you to watch. It’s only a couple of minutes long, so please bear with me.”
“Alright, as I said, I’ll be happy to help if I can,” she responded.
The deputy turned on his monitor and swiveled it around so that she could watch the screen. Soon, she was watching the patrol car video of Deputy Cook’s stop on Elkton Road the previous night.
Patricia saw the grey cat feeding on the deer carcass. She heard the deputy contact the dispatcher, report the stop, and say that he was getting out of his car. Then he turned on his flashing blue lights and cautiously approached the cat. As he did so, he inadvertently blocked the camera view of the animal. However, moments later, the feline darted back into view as it ran from the officer. She saw him slowly approach the cat again, and then he knelt on the ground. In the distance, at the outer edge of bright light emanating from his blue flashers, she saw the grey cat slowly making its way back toward the deputy. It looked eerie with its bluish tint, which the blue light caused.
The woman jumped in her chair when the white cat unexpectedly slammed into the officer. Her heart was in her throat as she saw it attacking the deputy, slashing and clawing at the man in wild abandon. Then she saw the wounded officer throw the animal off him and stagger to his feet. He backed away from the stalking animal, reaching for his pistol, and then the lights of an oncoming car illuminated him. Turning his head, he looked at the oncoming vehicle and then tried to dart out of the way, but the vehicle struck his right leg and hip.
The video stopped at that point.
“Miss Reese,” the deputy said, “I’m afraid our department owes you an apology. I understand from Deputy Cook that you tried your best to warn us, but that he didn’t believe you. Andy wanted you to know that he was sorry he didn’t believe you and treat your report more seriously. It was important enough to him for him to tell me that on the scene before he was loaded into the ambulance.”
Patricia sniffed and wiped her eyes, touched that the officer had been concerned about her when his own life was in danger. She cleared her throat and said, “You tell Deputy Cook I said not to worry about me. I just didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I understand the level of disbelief such a fantastic sounding story must generate. I’m not sure I’d believe it myself if I hadn’t been the head of the research and development project for the experimental feed.”
“Did you recognize the cats in the video that you just watched?” asked Deputy Jones.
“Yes. The grey queen and the white tom were both test subjects during the clinical trial of the food,” Patricia responded.
“Queen? I assume that means female.”
“Close. It means a female that has not been spayed.”
“You’re positive that both these animals were from the Alcorn test. I ask because the video is a bit grainy and the resolution isn’t great.”
“Actually, that doesn’t bother me because I’m used to looking at them via a video camera displayed on a monitor. I probably saw them, dozens of times a day, in just that manner,” she replied.
“You said yesterday that the ingredients that caused the cats to become so large and aggressive were in the feed being bought by the public. Is that correct?” asked Deputy Jones.
“Yes, I said that, but I’ve since learned that I was wrong. The suspect ingredients made their way into the test food, but not into the food released for general public consumption.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well, no, I’m not certain, but Snopes.com has it listed as a hoax, citing numerous tests made by various news agencies, and they all came back negative for the ingredients,” Patricia explained.
“How did the news agencies get the story?” the deputy asked.
“I sent it to them,” Patricia admitted.
The deputy leaned back and frowned. “Miss Reese, this is getting more than a little confusing, but that’s probably because we’re working backwards through this. Why don’t we start all over, and this time, let’s start at the beginning.”
“I’m sorry. Yes, that would be best,” agreed Patricia.
For the next twenty minutes, Patricia laid out the events as they had occurred in chronological order. She even detailed her clandestine actions on the afternoon when she was fired, providing a list of the news and government agencies she had contacted. She admitted to sending them anonymously in order to try to avoid a lawsuit. She stated that she was sure she could win the suit, but it would wipe out her savings in legal fees. The only information that she left out was the involvement of Jerry’s special operations team. She didn’t mention that her home had been broken into, her backup files taken, and her computer files destroyed by the reformatting of her computer, because that had been done by the team. Jerry had taken a huge risk when he had confided in her, and she wasn’t about to betray his trust. Next, she detailed her encounter with the cat during her run, and then she speculated that the Johnny Miller case might involve one or more of the test animals.
“We’ve pretty much ruled that out because of the distance from Alcorn,” the deputy stated.
“Can you show me on a map where the incident occurred?” asked Patricia. “I might be able to help.”
The deputy shrugged and said, “I don’t see what it would hurt. It’s no secret.” He spun his monitor around so that he could see the screen and pulled up a map of Athens. He manipulated that image until he had it centered on
the area he wanted.
Patricia had gotten up to watch as he worked. She asked, “Can you switch to the satellite image?”
The deputy did so and soon Patricia said, “I can see how you came to the conclusion that it was too far away, but I’m afraid your conclusion is wrong.”
“Why do you say that?”
“May I?” asked Patricia, gesturing to the mouse.
“Go ahead,” he responded.
Patricia manipulated the image, pulling back out until it encompassed both Alcorn and the site where Johnny Miller had died. “Note the woods that travel most of the way to that area. There are a couple of fields and then there’s another set of woods.”
“Yes, I see it. You’re thinking the cats traveled through the woods, crossed those open fields and are in the other small band of forest?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s a plausible theory.”
“Thank you, Miss Reese. You’ve been very helpful.”
“Are you going to check out those woods?” she asked.
“A group of volunteers did just that yesterday afternoon, and they saw nothing suspicious.”
“They searched on foot?” she asked.
“No. They used ATVs in order to cover more ground before dark,” he explained.
“Then they must have been thorough. I’m sorry my idea was a dead end.”
“Don’t be sorry. It was a good idea. We thought of it ourselves, and we did check it out. If you happen to think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to give us a call,” the deputy said.
“I will. Thank you. Don’t forget to give Deputy Cook my message,” she said.
The deputy assured Patricia that he would pass along her message and she left.
***
“Thank you for the information. I never forget a favor. I’ll remember this when it’s time to review the employees. I think you’ve assured yourself a very nice raise,” Talbot said, and then he hung up the phone. “That bitch!” he said to himself.
Rusty had just received word from one of the production facility employees that he had seen Patricia Reese coming out of the county jail as he was coming back to the factory from his lunch break.