by DB Carpenter
"So just let her go?" Chris asked. "Without her, none of this would be happening. She's as responsible as Sarah Burns."
"No she's not."
"She is. Whether or not you want to admit it is a different thing. She financed them. No financing, no virus and no virus and none of us are here, David Rose is alive and I'm still fishing at my camp. Do you see it?"
"She's a victim. She got caught –"
"Give me a break. I'm a victim, not her."
Albert glared at Chris silently, there's nothing like facts to kill a ridiculous argument. Chris continued, "She's, at the least, complicit but you and I know she's much more than that."
"I don't know that and it wasn't like that."
"Stop it! You don't want to hear it but that doesn't erase her role."
"She's naïve. Idealistic. She thinks they're doing the right thing!"
"So she's just someone with a cause?"
"More or less."
"Give me a break, Albert. They're playing God and you know it. Parse and massage it any way you want but you know the truth. You know that her and Sarah and the whole lot of them are knee deep in this fiasco that has the potential to change the course of the world forever! Don't you get that? Forever. And who knows how this virus or its results will evolve over time. I'm no genius but I suspect it's a fair bet that the outcome is highly unpredictable. What will this mean to the world? The consequences, intended and unintended, are beyond me but there is no doubt, none whatsoever, that this thing could morph into something that nobody could predict."
"I won't have her go to jail."
"Then what do you want from me? What's with your little 'You are not alone' note? Spit it out already."
Albert pulled over a chair and sat down. "You know that Seth is going to kill you?"
"I suspected that."
"He'll do it."
"I know."
"Tomorrow, probably mid-afternoon. After he comes back from getting the Carriers onto their planes. He'll use a gun and I would suspect you won't even see it coming."
Chris stared silently at the odd man. Speechless. Hearing a detailed agenda for the day of his assassination was not something he had expected to endure and certainly not something he had a response to because being told not only that you were going to die but when, by who and how was short-circuiting his thought processes.
Albert let Chris consider this for a few moments before saying, "We can help each other." Then he reached into his pocket and produced a mobile phone.
"We can't allow this to happen, Chris," he said as he handed Chris the mobile phone. "We have to stop it. I think I can convince Camilla and Mike to leave with me tomorrow morning. They were here for moral support for Sarah and to provide on the ground information back to Philip Spencer but with everything that has been going on, I think they need to get out of here and I'm sure I can convince them to do it."
"So what, they get out of here and?" Chris said shrugging his shoulders.
"And, we get you out that window, you run like hell and make contact with the FBI. They have to stop the Carriers before they get on their planes. They'll be at the airport just before noon in a white Suburban. Six people plus Seth driving. They have to be stopped."
"What about Sarah and the others?"
"Once they get the Carriers, they come back here and round up the rest of them. We'll be long gone."
Chris shook his head, "I don't like it."
"Why?"
"Because I just want to get the fuck out of here. I can't take it anymore. It's not my responsibility."
"You're wrong. This is absolutely your responsibility. Do you want to live in the world they want to create? How will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror when you know that you could have stopped it."
"Why's it all on me? Why don't you go get the Feds?"
"Because I need to get Camilla out of here."
"I don't give a flying fuck about Camilla, Albert. She is not my worry."
"But she's mine and I'm not budging. If you want out of here, you have to play it my way."
"Then I'll just tell the feds that she was involved and they'll come after her."
"So be it, that's better than her being caught up in it here."
"That's what I'll do."
"Suit yourself but her and Philip Spencer are very powerful people. I wouldn't underestimate their resources and resourcefulness but that is all up to you. I just want her out of this situation immediately."
Chris stared at the phone for a long minute, turning it over in his hands, feeling like he was making a deal with the devil.
"What do you say?" Albert said as he produced a screwdriver. "You can be out of here in five minutes."
4:45 am Wilderness Outside Eureka, California
"Is Carl Moscovitz available?"
"Who's calling?"
"Chris Foster."
Chris could hear him mumble something to another person, and then he said, "Let me put you on hold and see if I can get him."
"Sure," Chris replied as he waited for Carl Moscovitz to pick up. Why would someone be answering the phones at this hour? Why was Carl there? Chris was shivering. The air in the dark woods was cold and moist and he had been running, trying desperately to get a mobile signal but now as he was standing still the sweat on his body was turning cold and clammy.
He was getting an ominous feeling when a voice he didn't recognize said, "Arthur Kent."
"Arthur Kent," Chris echoed. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it. He was certain that Pell had mentioned it before. "I was looking for Carl."
"He's not here right now, Chris."
"Really? Who are you?"
"Director of Criminal Investigations."
"Director of Criminal Investigations? You're a pretty important guy to be up at four in the morning talking to strangers."
When Arthur didn't respond, Chris continued, "Do you know why I'm calling?"
"I know who you are," Arthur replied. "And what you've been through this past week."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, I had a long talk with Agent Pelletier this morning. He thought highly of you. Said you would've made a fine agent."
Chris laughed then said. "Thought?"
Arthur paused, "He was recovering nicely until just a few hours ago."
"What do you mean?"
"Pell's dead, Chris."
"Dead? How?"
"They don't know why. Probably a stroke or heart attack. It happened just after midnight."
"Jesus," Chris said as an intense wave of sadness flowed over him and he leaned against a tree.
"I kind of liked the guy myself," Arthur replied. "So what've you been up to? We've been looking for you."
"Well, here I am," Chris replied.
"What have you been up to?"
"Doing your job."
"You didn't need to do that. We're pretty good at it ourselves."
"Well, after that prick Moscovitz didn't want to hear what we had to say I figured I had to do something."
"Carl was working it."
"That's not how it seemed to Pell and I."
"I don't know what to tell you," Arthur said. "So where are you?"
"I have no idea. In the woods somewhere near Eureka, California. It was referred to as the old McGuire place but I don't even know if that's where I was," Chris replied.
"Did you find Sarah Burns?"
"Yes."
"Really? Is she with you now?"
"No."
"Where is she?"
"Close."
"What are you saying?"
"Let's just say I'm done doing your job. I want out. Now."
"I didn't know you were in."
Chris laughed. "It just happened."
"I don't know how that could just happen."
"Whatever. It did."
"Tell me about Sarah Burns. How'd you find her?"
"It was more like one of her people found me but that doesn't matter now."
/> "Why?"
"This virus is real."
"We know."
"How's that?"
"They tested it in Botswana."
"Engamy?"
"How'd you know that?"
"Did it work?"
"Absolutely."
"Jesus Christ."
"Yep. No pregnancies in the whole region as of right now."
"Son of a bitch," Chris said. "How come it hasn't spread?"
"We don't know for sure but suspect they have various delivery mechanisms."
"That makes sense."
"What are we doing here, Chris?"
"The real virus is spread through the air. Person to person. Highly communicable. They're releasing it today. About eight hours from now."
"How do you know this?"
"Does it matter. Just before noon today a white Suburban is going to pull up outside the Eureka Municipal Airport. Inside are going to be six people that are infected and they are going to be carrying the virus in aerosolized form. There'll be a driver and those six people. They will board planes and head out for destinations around the globe. Their sole purpose is going to be to spread the virus. They'll be resupplied as they move. The whole operation is very sophisticated and, given the communicability of the virus, this thing is going to spread fast."
"Jesus," Arthur muttered. Chris heard a few clicks on the line and then Arthur said, "I just transferred you to my mobile. I'm heading to the airport. We don't want to let them make it to the airport, Chris. It's too public. We need to get them before they get there."
"I don't know what to tell you. I don't know where I am. I escaped and now I'm in the middle of the woods. As soon as I got a signal I called you."
"Can you trace him?" Arthur said to someone. "We'll see if we can triangulate your position. I'd rather come straight to you."
"I'm moving, man. I am not sticking around for them to catch up with me again. No way. They'll kill me for sure. If I were you I'd focus on stopping that crew at the airport or wherever you want but if they get out of the country, we're all fucked."
"Will Sarah Burns be there?"
"No, her and the others are at a house out here, deep in the woods. They'll be waiting for the guy driving the Suburban to return."
"How many others?"
"A handful."
"Got a number?"
"No, I was held captive. They were going to kill me but I managed to get away. I didn't have time to count all the people."
"Of course," Arthur replied. He was breathing heavy, obviously moving fast. "You were captive?"
"If you call being drugged and beaten, a captive, then, yes, that's what I was."
"Sorry about that."
"Don't be, it was my fault."
"Just a second," Arthur said and Chris heard the person Arthur was talking to say, "He's on a single tower. We've got the general area but it's impossible to narrow it down and based on the size and placement of that tower, we could be talking about four-hundred square miles."
"Four-hundred? Damn it."
"Sorry but without him hitting a couple towers there's not much we can do."
"Damn it," Arthur said. "Do they know you're gone?"
"No, I doubt it. It's still early."
"How'd you get away?"
"Out a window."
There was a minute of silence, "Are you still there?" Chris asked.
"Yes, how are they going to react when they find you gone?"
"I have no idea."
"Could they run?"
The questions threw him. It was so simple, why hadn't he considered it? The answer to that was simple, he wanted to get the hell out of there and when Albert presented him the opportunity, he took it – unscrewing the sashes, opening the window and down and away. Get his ass to someplace safe and make this call.
"I suppose."
"Damn it," Arthur said.
"What?"
"When they find you gone they'll run. No doubt about it. How far away are they from your location?"
"Forty-five minutes or so."
"Hold on," Arthur snapped. The line went silent and Chris considered what he had done. His desire to get away had blinded him to the fact that his escape could send Sarah and her cronies into the wind. "You need to keep moving. Find a road or a house or hit another cell tower so we can locate you."
"But what if they run?"
"There's nothing we can do about that now," Arthur said. "We have to find you first."
"It'll be too late," Chris said.
"I'm getting on the plane now, Chris," Arthur said.
"Okay," Chris replied as the phone went dead. Was he going to wander through this godforsaken forest hoping he stumbled across somebody? He had no idea if there was anything anywhere near him. All he saw was woods, all he heard was nature and he certainly didn't want Sarah's disappearance on his conscious. That left only one option and against every instinct he had, he knew he had to go back.
5:07 am FBI Jet heading to Eureka California
Arthur was exhausted but couldn't think about resting. The case was mushrooming right before his eyes. William Stevens looked about as tired as he did. He was on the in-plane video conferencing system.
"I saw what was broadcast by WOTN before you got them off the air," William said. "It's not good. What are you doing with the staff you're holding in the building?"
"We told their families that it's a quarantine – legionnaires' disease in the building's air-conditioning system. It should hold them for a few days. After that, it's going to be a battle but it doesn't matter. This thing is coming to a head fast. We just need to hold them off for a day or so."
"We've got to prepare a statement for the press. Just in case. Unless we can round up these fruit-cakes in pretty short order, we're going to need some spin."
"Okay," Arthur replied. William could handle that side of things. Arthur was more focused on the tactical issues right now.
"What happened with Agent Pelletier?"
"Died of as yet unknown causes. I've got twenty bucks says Carl Moscovitz had something to do with it. Damn it, I should've had someone guarding his room."
"That's neither here nor there. So you're heading out to California now?"
"Yes."
"Keep me in the loop, Arthur."
"I will," Arthur said as he disconnected the call.
Arthur didn't like that he was relying on an unknown like Chris Foster. The guy was obviously tenacious and he had successfully found Sarah Burns but who was he really? What was his motivation? That's what bothered Arthur the most, people always had agendas and he had no idea what Chris Foster's was.
6:37 am Eureka, California
"He's gone!" Seth cried as he burst into the kitchen.
"What!" Sarah exclaimed. "Are you sure?"
Seth held up the sheet rope and said, "That window was screwed down tight but somehow he got the screws out."
"How the hell could he do that?" Sarah said as she directed her gaze onto Mike.
"Why you looking at me?" He asked.
"I don't know," Sarah said. "He should have slept all night. I gave him enough pain killers to keep him out for half a day, easy."
"Obviously, you under-dosed him," Camilla said.
"Damn it! I didn't want to O.D. him," Sarah muttered.
"What should we do?" Mike asked.
"Let's go look for him," Seth said.
"That'd be a waste of time," Sarah said. "We don't know how long he's been gone."
The anticipation of the day ensured that everyone was awake early. All of them except the Carriers were in the kitchen and it was crowded. The smell of coffee filled the air.
"We need to get out of here," Seth said. "He could already be at the authorities."
"I can't believe this," Camilla said in a trembling voice. Her blue eyes darted from Sarah to Mike as she gnawed on her lower lip. Her delicate features had taken on a haggard edge.
"You're telling me," Sarah replied glancing at Seth. "He'
s been dogging us since Maine. You were right."
Seth nodded, "Fuckin A right. This is what you get for trying to be nice."
"I think Seth's right, we should get out of here," Mike said. "What do you think, Sarah?"
She opened her mouth to speak when Chris Foster walked into the kitchen as if he were just another houseguest looking for his morning coffee.
The room was dead quiet as he scanned their astonished faces – Albert's in particular. He, most of all, had not expected to see Chris again. Chris had spent the last half hour in the woods just outside the property trying to come up with a believable story but he knew there was a better than decent chance he would be killed on the spot. He had left the mobile phone on and hidden it near the property so maybe that could lead the Feds here at some point.
"I came back because of you." He nodded toward Sarah. "You sold me. The more I thought about it, the more I appreciated what you're doing. You're right. We're headed for disaster. To me a decision to do something like Gen96 is unthinkable. I couldn't ever make it but that's what separates visionaries like you from the rest of us – idealistic purity unencumbered by the moral trivialities. The big goal is the only goal – everything else is irrelevant. Certainly not the way most of us think."
Nobody spoke, nobody moved, the room was filled with mannequins. "I fell into this. I was on vacation – fishing for Christ's sake. I would've never believed that I'd be saying this a week ago, but here I am. I came back because I believe in what you're doing."
Sarah walked toward Chris silently until she was directly in front of him. "I don't believe you," she said.
"I was out of here, Sarah – free. All I wanted to do was get away from you, from here but –"
He paused. "But what?" Sarah said. Chris watched Seth move to his right, getting Sarah out from between them.
"I was running through the woods and I stopped at a stream for a drink. All I could hear was the stream and the forest sounds. No cars, no planes, nothing but nature and, for a brief moment, I felt connected to something bigger than myself, I felt as if I was a part of the world in a way I've never experienced."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Seth said as he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Chris.