The Emerald Virus

by Patrick Shea

  Blackie was almost within striking range when he stopped and whispered, “Shelly, my name is Jack Sweeney, I was hoping to be able to help you but we need to talk about how to go forward.”

  “Get off my back; you’re no more Jack Sweeney than I am.”

  “Actually I am, although I’m not quite sure how to convince you except maybe to take a step forward and let you have at me if you want. You’re going to have to hit me before I get out of here anyway.”

  He stepped forward with his hands behind his back and waited.

  “Okay, I’m willing to talk as long as you stay like that. Tell me what you’re doing and who is that little punker you have with you?”

  “I’m here to see what Turner’s up to. I wish I’d known you and Danny were here and on our side, I’d of been able to stay away. As for the punker, that’s Heather, who has turned into my side kick. She’s putting on quite a show isn’t she?”

  “She is, but isn’t she a little young for a job like this?”

  “Yes, but she wanted to work with me, and she’s proven herself invaluable. The kids got more guts than most men I know.”

  “How can I possibly trust you at this point?”

  “You don’t really have to. I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do, and what our problems are, and you take the lead after that.

  “The biggest problem is that I don’t think I can get you out of here. Turner has threatened his guards with their life. If you get away, they die. And they all believe he’s serious. Hell, I think he’s serious.

  “No matter what happens I think we are going to have to go through with the exchange. Turner will trade you for Rick, but he wants Danny to be the one to bring him to the exchange point. I don’t know why but I have to believe it’s for all of the wrong reasons.”

  “Danny will know that of course, but I don’t know what he’ll do.”

  “I don’t either, but I’ve known people like him and I know he’ll think of every option Turner might consider.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to think of some excuse to get Heather out of here. She’ll go to the Old Faithful Inn and tell Sam what’s going on. I’ll give her my best recommendations for strategy but I have a problem. Until I know how Turner figured out you were a plant I’m limited in what I can do.

  “That’s the only reason I took this chance. I have to know what mistake you made to make sure Heather and I don’t do the same thing.”

  “I hate calling it a mistake, although I don’t know what else I’d call it.

  “Danny and I were always careful about talking about our mission. We would either talk outside away from everyone, or one of us would tell the other that they were going to take a shower and we would both go in the bathroom and turn on the water and then whisper.”

  “That sounds safe, and I’d have done the same thing, but what went wrong?”

  “Danny left for his scouting run but I talked to Danny each evening, and carefully, but apparently not careful enough. In our last conversation I asked him about getting out of here as soon as he returned. I was worried he might want to stay longer to make things look better.”

  “And what happened?”

  “That was the call that did us in. Turner had drilled a hole in the underside of the RV and put a small voice activated recorder under the sofa. We checked for bugs each morning and each evening, but a simple recorder doesn’t show up on the electronics, which look for transmitters. I don’t know if Turner knew what he was doing or if he used low tech gear and got lucky. He or one of his men had to replace the recorder periodically, but Danny and I spent enough time in the saloon so that wasn’t a problem.”

  “Okay, at least I know what to look for. Do you know if he records from all RVs? That hardly seems likely but what has he said to you?”

  “The only thing he said was that his intuition never fails him.”

  “I have no idea what that means. Okay, we’ve used enough time. You’re going to have to beat me now. Try not to break any bones, but you have to make it look real. If we do this right it may save you some trouble.”

  “Jack, do you know how much this is going to hurt?”

  Jack smiled and said, “Shelly, the Taliban had me for almost sixty days, you don’t have to worry about surprising me.”

  “Is that where the scars came from?”

  “Some.”

  Five minutes later Jack stumbled to the door and yelled to be let out. The guards took one look at him and said, “I think that’s it for the night. There ain’t no sense in letting anyone else try her and the boss said only one person at a time. It would be crazy to let anyone else in.”

  Jack stumbled into the RV a couple of minutes later. Heather looked dismayed but said, “Why honey, it looks like you got your ass kicked, which is what you deserve for leaving me for another woman.”

  When Danny pointed at the bathroom she continued, “Well, let’s go and get you cleaned up, although I’m tempted to smack you myself while I can.”

  They went into the bathroom and Jack turned on the shower. Heather whispered, “Are you all right Jack? You look really bad.”

  Jack whispered back, “I’m mostly okay, it looks worse than it is. Look, you have to get me cleaned up and then first thing in the morning we have a big fight over me seeing Shelley. We have to split up and you have to go to the park and let them know what’s going on.”

  “Jack, I can’t leave you, I mean I work only with you, I’m not sure how I’ll do without you around to help me.”

  Jack winced as he tried to smile through his split lips and said, “Heather, we don’t have any choice. I have to be here to help make sure the exchange goes as we want, and you have to go to the park and make sure they know what I’m doing. Most importantly, make sure they know what I’m wearing. I don’t want anyone to shoot me if things go hot.

  “For now you need to work on fixing me up and tomorrow morning we’ll go for a walk and I’ll let you know what information you’ll take back to Sam and her group. Then the two of us will stage a big fight and you’ll take one of the heavy duty pick up trucks and go pick up the RV we stashed in Butte, and then to the park.

  “You’ll probably have to get Charlotte involved to convince Sam and Noah that you are who you say you are.”

  “Okay Jack, you know I’ll do whatever I need to. Now get ready to scream while I clean you up.”

  Chapter Thirty Nine: The Plan

  Tuesday, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

  Heather arrived at the park at eleven o’clock Tuesday morning. She had to pass through guards at the entrance who escorted her to the lodge. When they arrived she asked to see Sam immediately.

  Colleen looked at her incredulously and said, “What in the world would you want with Sam?”

  Heather replied, “I just came from Turner’s camp and I have news about Shelley she’ll be interested in knowing.”

  Three minutes later Sam and Noah entered the lobby. She took one look at Heather and said, “Who in the hell are you and what are you talking about?”

  Heather laughed and said, “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t funny but the look on your face is priceless. Let’s start at the beginning. I went to Turner’s camp with Jack Sweeney a week ago. He was hoping to scope out Turner’s camp and figure out what he was going to do. His plan was to come here and share the information with you.

  “The plan changed of course and I’ve ended up coming alone.”

  “I’m sorry but I’m having a hard time with this. How in the world do you expect me to have a serious conversation with a kid with multi colored hair, tattoos and rings everywhere? You have to be crazy.”

  “Sometimes I think you’re right, I must be crazy. Actually I’m serious about this. Jack told me you would probably have to talk to Charlotte White before you’d believe me. Let’s call her and save us both some time.”

  Charlotte didn’t answer her phone and Heather asked Sam to call Jane. Jane answe
red and went to find Charlotte.

  While Sam was waiting, Noah asked Heather what she and Jack were doing on the road by themselves. Heather told him “We have mostly been looking for survivors that might be having trouble. We have saved some, rescued some and buried some.” She then giggled like a 16 year old and continued “Oh, and there was one that we met and he then continued on his way, alone. He was funny so I’ll tell you the story while we wait. His name is Jason Bushwick, and somewhere in the middle of Nebraska we saw him and his motorcycle coming towards us. Jack came to a stop and held his hand out the window to let the guy know we’d like him to stop. He did so by driving his bike across the median to our RV.

  “When Jack asked him if he was in trouble he said no, but that he just got out of some trouble and he was okay now. I asked him what kind of trouble and he said that driving cross country one last time before real winter set in. He said he stopped at survivor camps whenever he came across one. Well, it seems he had stopped a small gathering of RVs about a hundred miles back and spent some time with the people, who, as it turned out were a very religious group. Jason said he was fine with that, having been raised a Christion. He then mentioned that he has underestimated the fervor of the some of the group. He and one of the women in the group had gotten together and started sleeping together. To him it was just a good time. To her, she believed she had a moral obligation to help repopulate.

  “Jason said all was going well but that she had one idiosyncrasy that he thought he’s have some fun with. Apparently each time they made love, just as she was about to climax she would start saying, over and over, ‘Oh Lord, Oh Lord’. So that morning as she climaxed with her usual Oh Lord comments, Jason responded by saying “Blessed is she who comes in the name of the Lord”. Well she jumped out of the bed, and while yelling ‘blasphemer’ went for her gun. Jason said it was all he could do to disarm her and then hold her down while he threw some clothes on. She was shooting at him as he accelerated out of the camp.

  I still laugh every time I think of the story”.

  Sam had joined them by the end of the tale and said, “Heather, I’m still having trouble with this, but Charlotte convinced me that you are the real deal. I’ll do my best to ignore your costume if you’ll tell me what in the world is going on at Turner’s camp.”

  Fifteen minutes later Sam thanked Heather for what she had done.

  Noah asked, “Heather, what can we do for you?”

  “I need to get myself back to normal. If you can give me fifteen minutes to clean up I’ll meet you back here and we can talk about what we’re going to do.”

  Heather left and Sam looked at Noah and said, “Did you hear her ask what we’re going to do? As if I’ll let a sixteen year old participate in whatever’s going to happen.”

  “It’ll be interesting to see how she reacts to your decision.

  “I’m going to get Ted Green, the other principals, and the new militia to join us. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  When the group gathered in the lobby a cute blonde teenager walked in took an empty chair next to Noah and said, “Hi, my name is Heather, I’ve been with Jack Sweeney in the Turner camp for the last ten days or so. I’m here because Jack felt he could be more help by staying and trying to look after Shelly, and I could be more help coming here and letting this group know what was happening in the camp.

  “He also thought it was somewhat important that I tell you what he looks like and how he is dressed just in case it helps keep someone on this end from shooting him if this turns into a firefight.”

  Sam looked at her and couldn’t believe how focused and confident this kid was. Now she looked like a normal teenager, except she was carrying an M-16 assault rifle and a holstered 9mm.

  Ben looked up and said, “I don’t know what we’re going to do yet, and probably we’ll have to wait until late today or early tomorrow for Danny to get here before we can finalize plans. One thing I’m sure of is that I’ll need to cover the exchange with the ZR-50 and I’ll need a spotter and loader with me.

  “If we can decide on whom that is he and I will be able to practice while we wait.”

  Andy asked, “What’s a ZR-50 and why a loader and spotter?”

  Ted Green said, “It’s the most advanced sniper rifle in the world and Ben has a prototype model. He’s also the best 1,000 yard shooter in our camp. The ZR-50 uses a five round clip and he only has ten clips. If we get into a firefight it will take him less than a minute to shoot fifty rounds. The loader will fill the clips as Ben empties them so he can continue to shoot.

  “The spotter uses a telescope to search for targets because the shooter uses only the scope on the rifle, which is usually better, but restrictive in that it covers a very narrow pattern. The spotter scope doesn’t have the precision but sees a wider picture.”

  Heather said, “Ben, I’ll spot and load for you. I have a Swarovski HD STS 80 with a 20-60 eyepiece I’ll use, unless you have something better. You can teach me the rifle when we practice and I’ll be your back up if need be.”

  Sam looked at Heather and said, “Heather, I don’t think this is something we should ask a sixteen year old girl to do for us. Besides, I think some of the men might have a little more experience than you.”

  Heather looked around the group and saw some people nod in agreement, some had neutral looks and a couple looked unsure.

  She said, “In the last three weeks I’ve been in two gun battles, I’ve stabbed a man, and I’ve probably shot a thousand rounds from a 30.06 while Jack was spotting for me, and he did the same while I was spotting for him. I’ve spent the last ten days in an enemy camp with some of the meanest men you can imagine, and I did quite well, thank you. Now if anyone here has a better or more recent resume, speak up. If not, I’ll spot and load for Ben.”

  Sam recognized that Heather had tried not to sound confrontational, but Sam still felt defensive. Who in the world did this kid think she was and who was Jack Sweeney to teach her anything? He was obviously a good bureaucrat but teaching teenage kids how to shoot didn’t make any sense.

  She could feel her face flush and she was starting to get angry. Before she could say anything Ted Green said, “Sam, she does have a good resume, better than anyone I have. We have a couple of great shooters, but no one with spotting experience.

  “By the way, I did some checking on Jack Sweeney myself. I would guess some of you are wondering why he would take it upon himself to teach Heather anything. The answer is that in the past he did undercover work for Homeland Security. He worked exclusively in Afghanistan for almost two years before the war started. He was shot, captured and tortured by the Taliban, and when he escaped he went back to the same work. If he has vouched for this young woman, that’s good enough for me.”

  Sam had cooled down a little by the time Ted finished, she now looked around the room and realized that Heather hadn’t offended anyone but herself, and she was over that now.

  She looked at Heather and said, “I stand corrected. I like your resume and Ben, if it’s okay with you, Heather will spot for you.”

  Ben smiled and said, “She has more experience than me so I’d be happy to have her.”

  Sam saw Noah smiling and realized he was probably thinking the same thing she was thinking, Ben should be happy to partner with a cute girl.

  The group spent the next hour talking about options available to them and decided to wait for Danny before going any farther. Ben and Heather left for the range to start practicing. They told the group they would practice with a 30.06 to save ammunition for the ZR-50. Ted asked them to both take ten shots with the sniper rifle before they quit for the day.

  Meanwhile Danny was driving as fast as conditions would allow towards Yellowstone. He had talked to the group at the lodge every hour or so to let them know his progress. He was excited to know that Jack Sweeney was in the camp trying to look after Shelly. He was also looking forward to talking with Heather about Shelly.

  Bob Turner called Danny
around noon and asked, “Where are you Danny, we need to get on with the exchange before something bad happens to Shelly. I don’t know how long I can keep them at bay.”

  “Turner, you’ll keep them at bay for as long as you think your life is important. If something happens to her, you and a lot of your men will die. You shouldn’t question me on this point.”

  “That’s big talk from someone stupid enough to get caught doing such a simple job. I can’t tell you that I’m too worried about your threats.”

  “You should be, but you make your own choices, I’ll react as I want to, not as you want me to.”

  “You know you aren’t in a great position to negotiate. I’m not even sure ole Rick is that important to me. I might just decide to keep Shelly for myself.”

  “Turner, when you get right down to it I’d almost rather kill Rick and come after you. That makes more sense as I think about it.”

  “If you do that she’ll die you know.”

  “I realize you’d kill her. What you don’t realize is that Shelly also knows what the score is. She was ready to give her life when she agreed to join me. If anything you do makes me think that going through the exchange is going to result in more rather than fewer deaths on my team I’ll walk away from her. I’ll feel badly about it, but I’ll walk.”

  “Now don’t you worry. All we’re going to do is exchange your bitch for one of my men.”

  “You mean my woman for your bitch don’t you Bob?”

  Danny could tell by the silence on the line that he had hit a nerve, and had probably touched the truth. Not much else explained why Turner would trade Shelly for someone Turner hardly knew.

  Turner said, “Don’t let that mouth of yours get you in trouble Danny. We have a nice agreement here; don’t screw that up by meddling in something you know nothing about.”

  “Turner, enough of this nonsense, let’s talk about where to make the exchange so I can get off the phone, I’m tired of talking to you.”