D Carpenter - Infertile Grounds

“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.

“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.

“Go on,” Sarah said.

“Yesterday, when you described what you were doing and why you were doing it, at the time I just brushed it off. Not giving it any consideration but standing there in in the forest your words came back to me. I understood it, it clicked deep inside my brain and I knew that I didn’t want to stop it and now I’m here, aren’t I, not with the police but alone. That should be proof enough.”

She nodded. That was the one indisputable fact.

“I could’ve gone to the authorities or done anything else I wanted. Instead here I am, more or less offering myself to you and your cause. I can help you.”

“I don’t buy it,” Seth said. “This doesn’t smell right.”

Sarah was about to say something when the Latino Carrier burst into the room and said, “Come downstairs. You’ve got to see this.”

Everyone followed him downstairs. The female Asian Carrier was at a notebook computer. “I was checking my e-mail. I get daily updates from an underground news site. They give it like it is. Look at this headline. ‘Virus Scare in Boston’.”

She proceeded to read the text aloud and launched a video clip of the WOTN anchorman that played until the clip went to static. “This is about us, isn’t it?” She said as she turned and looked at Sarah. Her round face looked calm and controlled but her voice quivered. The other Carriers were chatting nervously, rapidly working themselves into a frenzy.

“This can’t be about us,” Sarah said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “It must be something else. A Coincidence.”

“It sure sounds like it is,” one of the frightened kids blurted.

“It isn’t,” Seth said. “No way. Why don’t you guys go load your stuff in the truck.”

Some of them looked like they wanted to argue but several headed for the door and the potential rabble rousers reluctantly followed.

“How do they know?” Camilla asked as she too turned to Sarah.

In one swift motion, Seth grabbed Chris’ broken arm, twisted it behind his back and slammed him down onto a table. His face connected with the heavy wooden surface with a brain rattling crash. The pain didn’t begin to equal that in his healing arm. It felt like Seth had stuck his fingers into the incision and was ripping the sutures apart one at a time. Chris cried out. Camilla jumped at the sudden attack.

“What do you know about this?” Seth asked as he pressed Chris’ arm up toward his shoulder blades and rammed a pistol barrel into the base of his skull. He cocked the gun. The metallic click of the hammer locking in position silenced the room.

“Nothing,” Chris replied as he struggled against Seth’s hold.

“It’s just a big fucking coincidence, huh,” Seth said. “You disappear for a few hours, and all of a sudden the whole world knows about us – about Gen96.”

“Seth, take it easy,” Camilla said.

Seth turned to her. “If you don’t like it, you’d better leave the room because he’s going to talk and he’s going to do it now or I’m going to kill him.”

“Don’t do it,” Sarah said.

“What, you too?” He cried. “Don’t get soft now, Sarah. We’re not done here. If she could find this on the web, you can be damn sure that every able-bodied federal agent is out there right now looking for us. The big question is do they know where we are, and that’s what I’m going to find out. Why do you care about this guy anyway? You were willing to kill David but this guy is untouchable. I don’t get it.”