Brett Battles - Sick

“We heard that, too, Greg. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to confirm any numbers. I can say that twenty minutes ago, a convoy of vehicles, mostly Suburbans, passed through the roadblock and headed into town at high speed.” As she spoke, footage of the caravan replaced the two talking heads. There were five vehicles altogether, their windows blacked out. “Our producer, Tim, heard from someone on the roadblock that these were part of a CDC team here to help the situation.”

The picture switched back to the double shot.

“Are there any concerns that the virus could reach where you are currently situated?”

Dr. Karp rolled his eyes. Ten miles away through a warm desert? His skills were excellent, but they weren’t that excellent.

“Greg, we’ve been told that our position is completely safe. In fact, one of the officials who stopped here earlier made a point to say that even if the roadblock were just a mile out from the town, there would still be no problem. A source has told me that the extra distance gives the authorities enough room to spot anyone crazy enough to try and sneak into or out of Sage Springs. As we already know, two people have attempted this and have been arrested.”

“Thanks, Tamara. We’ll check back with you-”

“I do have one piece of new information that I can share with you, Greg. It concerns the man authorities have deemed a person of interest.”

Dr. Karp leaned forward. Beside him, Major Ross did the same.

“Daniel Ash?”

“Yes. According to my information, Ash is either in or was in the U.S. Army. We know that three and a half years ago he was a lieutenant at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and before that, he was stationed at Fort Irwin, which is less than eighty miles from Sage Springs.”

“How the hell did she learn that?” Major Ross said.

Greg, the anchor, looked equally surprised by this new information. “That’s certainly something we haven’t heard yet. Is there more?”

“That’s all I have at the moment, Greg, but as soon as I know anything else, I’ll let you know.”

“Thank you, Tamara. You and your crew be careful out there.”

“We will, Greg. Thank you.”

As the image switched to a one-shot of the anchor, Ross picked up the remote and hit MUTE. He then quickly punched a number into the conference-room phone, making sure the speaker was engaged.

One ring, then, “Yes?”

“Were you watching that?” Ross asked.

“If you’re talking about the Costello woman, then yes, I saw it,” Shell said.

“How the hell did she find that out?”

“Apparently her brother sent her the information in an email.”

“Her brother? I thought you had her brother.”

“We do. We only learned twenty minutes ago that the email had gone out before we were able to fully secure his equipment.”

“Twenty minutes ago? You could have stopped her then!”

Shell was silent for a moment. “There was no reason to. The information was going to come out eventually. It’s not going to do any harm.”

Dr. Karp, who’d been content to let the other two fight it out, finally said, “I think we can use this to our advantage.”

Major Ross glanced at him doubtfully. “You want to explain that?”

“We’ve already been putting the pressure on Captain Ash. A little more can only help. I say we identify him as a mole. People will already be thinking that’s a possibility anyway.”

“So change him from a person of interest into a suspect,” Shell said, the hint of a smile in his voice.

“Not a suspect,” the doctor said. “ The suspect.”

It would either flush Ash out or get him killed. Either way, he wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

The one thing Ash was very good at was going all in when he decided on a course of action. The only goal he had in his life now was getting his children back. Rachel, Matt, and the others described a plan that, even a few hours earlier, he would have found crazy. But not only was his face plastered all over television, it was now being openly speculated that he was responsible for the virus outbreak, exactly as Rachel had predicted.

Give it another day and he would be branded a terrorist, something they were all convinced would occur. And when it did, not only would he be in danger of being arrested if anyone recognized him, there was a good chance some “concerned citizen” would try to kill him.

If he was going to save his kids, the Ash he saw every morning in the mirror had to go.

“Watch your step,” Matt said as he opened a door that led down into the basement of the Lodge-the name that apparently everyone called the ranch’s main building.

Matt went down first, with Ash following and Billy bringing up the rear. When they reached the bottom, Ash saw that the space was mainly being used for storage.

Matt headed straight to the south wall, stopping in front of a clear spot between two shelving units. For several seconds, he didn’t move. Ash looked over at Billy, his eyebrow raised in question, but Billy was looking at the wall, too.

A sudden thunk caused Ash to look back around. Nothing had changed as far as he could see. Then Matt reached out and pushed on the wall. A door-shaped panel of stone moved inward, and a light in the space beyond came on.

Matt started to go through the opening, but Ash hesitated. “You’re not going to lock me in down there, are you?” He’d had his fill of confinement.

Matt paused. “Absolutely not. Besides this, there are two other ways out-one that exits in the dormitory where your room is, and another in the ruins of an old barn in the trees. We’ll show you both, and I promise no doors will be locked behind you.”

The two men watched Ash until he nodded and said, “Okay.”

Stepping through the door, Ash found himself in a five-foot-by-five-foot room. As soon as Billy closed the secret panel, Matt put his hand on the wall. A small square section surrounding his palm lit up for several seconds. As soon as it went dark, the wall to their right slid open, revealing a set of stairs.

These were at least double the length of the ones that led down from the first floor into the regular basement. When the trio reached the bottom, Matt palmed the wall again, and a door popped open.

The only thing about this new level that said basement to Ash was the lack of windows. Otherwise, he thought it was very much like a high-tech military facility. There was a long central corridor running down the middle, with rooms and other hallways leading off to the sides.

“How big is this place?” he asked.

“The footprint’s about twice as large as the Lodge,” Matt explained as they walked down the corridor. “We can comfortably house fifty people down here for several months, if necessary. There are actually two more levels below this, but both are smaller and used only for storage.” He pointed to the left, down an intersecting hallway. “There’s a firing range down there, and our armory. That room…” He pointed at a door just head. “That’s the IT room, where all our servers and other computer equipment live.” He nodded at another hallway. “We have a small cafeteria down there, and several dorm rooms just on the other side of it.”

“I thought bomb shelters went out with the fifties.”

Matt glanced at him. “There are a lot more things to be scared of than just bombs.”

“Like what?”

“Like viruses that get out of control,” Billy said.

“Or, more importantly, the people behind them,” Matt added. “Here we are.”

He opened a set of double doors, then ushered Ash in. Billy’s examination room upstairs was nothing compared to the full-on operating room they’d just entered.