D Carpenter - Infertile Grounds

“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.

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.”