D Carpenter - Infertile Grounds

“This guy just shot a cop. He didn’t care about that cop’s wellbeing. He has critical knowledge of a very important investigation that we need to extract from him. If he’s going to fall into a coma or die, we need to speak to him before that happens. Lives are at risk here,” Carl said.

“His condition is critical. Do you know what that means?” The doctor said.

“I don’t care what it means,” Carl replied.

“Well I do and, right now, his life is hanging in the balance. If we can get him stable, you might be able to question him. Our focus right now is saving his life,” the doctor said as he turned and headed for the door. His intern was obviously confused, not knowing what to do, support his boss or the authorities.

Carl motioned to Irving to shut the door and block it as he walked after the doctor.

“Out of my way,” the doctor said but Irving stood firm.

Carl reached out, grabbed the doctor’s shoulder and turned him around. “Look, I think we got off to a bad start. Let me—”

“Stop it. You’re not listening. We have a critically ill patient here and the first and foremost duty of every member of the staff in this hospital is to our patient’s health. I cannot, and will not, let you question my patient until I deem he is well enough to be questioned. That is my final word on the matter.”

Carl’s face reddened with every word from the doctor’s mouth. “You’re the one who isn’t listening, doctor. I’m the god damn FBI. If I want to question that son of a bitch, I damn well will.”

“I’m afraid that’s not your call. And if you go against my instructions I will have you thrown out.”

“Ok, I get it. This is your domain. But don’t fool yourself. You may be the king of this hospital but we’re the government and we need to question him immediately.”

“I’ve said all I’m going to say. Move out of my way.”

Carl exchanged a quick glance with Irving then said, “Fine, Irving will stay here and keep me updated. The second he comes around, we need to speak to him and if you think you can hide behind your Hippocratic Oath, you’re mistaken.”

The headlights reflected off the pickup truck parked in the driveway and lit up the dark house beyond as the car came to a stop and Camilla, Mike, and Sarah climbed out.

“This is it? It looks like a dump, Sarah,” Camilla said. “I figured a half a million bucks would have bought a castle up here.”

“No such luck but this place has everything we need, and it’s out of the way. No one will know we’re here,” Sarah replied. She had paid the real estate agent with cash, and he hadn’t seemed at all surprised. “It’s nice inside and we’ve got almost fifty acres – lots of privacy, nobody is going to just happen to stumble by. It looks like Seth and Jerry are here.”

“The place is dark, they must be asleep,” Mike said as he hauled their bags out of the trunk. Sarah and Camilla grabbed the groceries.

“Let’s not wake them up,” Sarah said as they climbed the front steps. “They’ve been going straight since Tuesday.”

Sarah turned on some lights as they went to the kitchen. The walls and ceiling were lined with rustic, rough-hewn wood that absorbed the glow from the lights, muting it to the point that it seemed like candlelight.

Camilla made them peanut butter sandwiches and coffee.

“So what’re the plans now?” Mike asked as they sat around the table eating.

“We’ve got to wait for Mark to get here with the truck. Then we can set up what we need for the implementation phase,” Sarah said.

“What’s that involve?” Mike asked.

“Primarily our network. We need to be able to track where the Carriers have been and what they’ve done. We also have a satellite dish that we’ll hook up so we can monitor the news feeds and get internet access. It won’t take too long for someone to realize that something is going on; I’d say within four or five months, on the outside – probably more like three. Then we just sit back and watch.”

When it was time to go to bed, Sarah showed Mike where he could sleep, and led Camilla to her room.

“Well, this is it, Camilla,” Sarah said as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “This is when it all truly starts. It’s been a long road, but I’m glad that we stuck with it.” Sarah felt a wave of emotion pass through her. She had been working on the project for eighteen years – it had been like raising a child and now she was more than ready to set it free on its personal life-long odyssey and watch the results unfold from afar.

Camilla put her arm around Sarah. “We’ve been through a lot to get here. We owe it all to you, Sarah. Without your dedication and commitment, we could never have made it to this point.”

“Thanks,” Sarah said as Camilla pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Don’t thank me.”

“So what happens when this is all done?” Sarah wondered out loud. “I’ve dedicated my life to my work. The past eighteen years have all been about getting to this point. And then what? I’ve never really thought beyond this. What will I do next? It will be like a huge void in my life and I’m not sure what comes next to fill it.”

Camilla laughed. “Are you kidding me? What’s next is you go on vacation.”

“Vacation?” Sarah said as she stared off into the distance. “I can’t imagine it.”

“I can,” Camilla replied. “But there’s going to be plenty of time to think about what’s next, Sarah. Once Gen96 is out, you’re going to have nothing but time. When was your last vacation?”

Sarah shook her head. She had absolutely no idea, perhaps never.

“There’s nothing wrong with focusing on you for a while,” Camilla said. “You, of all people, deserve it.”

Sarah smiled at Camilla as she stood to leave. “Get some rest, we’ve got an important couple of days ahead of us,” Camilla said as she left the room and shut the door.

Sarah didn’t bother to undress. She just lay back on the bed fully clothed and closed her eyes. As she drifted off to sleep she dreamed and in her dreams she saw the future that she had created for mankind – a secure, less-troubled world where millions of kids weren’t dying of malnutrition and disease each year and the earth wasn’t being raped to support an ever-expanding population. It had taken God seven days to create the earth and set it in motion and it had taken Sarah eighteen years to course-correct it.

If there were truly a God, she was surprised that He hadn’t foreseen the problems of making human beings so smart that they could become too viable, too dominant.

Chris had managed to get the last American flight from Boston to LAX and now he drove up the hillside road, looking for Camilla Haywood’s address. There. The number was carved into a raised panel high on a stucco wall that supported a large iron gate.

“Excellent,” he muttered. Now that he knew exactly where to go, he drove back down to a beach parking lot that he had passed minutes earlier. In the morning he would go back to the house and see if he could find a way to speak to her. Right now he needed to catch some sleep. He shut off the rental car, lay down on the seat, and fell asleep.

When he awoke, the car wasn’t particularly hot but his clothes stuck to his body. It was just after 9 a.m. as he climbed out of the car, stretched and rummaged through his bag to find some fresh clothes. Very few people were on the beach as he walked down to the water. He stripped down to his underwear and dove into the Pacific for the first time in his life. It was just like the Atlantic. That realization was disappointing – he had always expected the Pacific to be something different, something better.