“I don’t know that and it wasn’t like that.”
“Stop it! You don’t want to hear it but that doesn’t erase her role.”
“She’s naïve. Idealistic. She thinks they’re doing the right thing!”
“So she’s just someone with a cause?”
“More or less.”
“Give me a break, Albert. They’re playing God and you know it. Parse and massage it any way you want but you know the truth. You know that her and Sarah and the whole lot of them are knee deep in this fiasco that has the potential to change the course of the world forever! Don’t you get that? Forever. And who knows how this virus or its results will evolve over time. I’m no genius but I suspect it’s a fair bet that the outcome is highly unpredictable. What will this mean to the world? The consequences, intended and unintended, are beyond me but there is no doubt, none whatsoever, that this thing could morph into something that nobody could predict.”
“I won’t have her go to jail.”
“Then what do you want from me? What’s with your little ‘You are not alone’ note? Spit it out already.”
Albert pulled over a chair and sat down. “You know that Seth is going to kill you?”
“I suspected that.”
“He’ll do it.”
“I know.”
“Tomorrow, probably mid-afternoon. After he comes back from getting the Carriers onto their planes. He’ll use a gun and I would suspect you won’t even see it coming.”
Chris stared silently at the odd man. Speechless. Hearing a detailed agenda for the day of his assassination was not something he had expected to endure and certainly not something he had a response to because being told not only that you were going to die but when, by who and how was short-circuiting his thought processes.
Albert let Chris consider this for a few moments before saying, “We can help each other.” Then he reached into his pocket and produced a mobile phone.
“We can’t allow this to happen, Chris,” he said as he handed Chris the mobile phone. “We have to stop it. I think I can convince Camilla and Mike to leave with me tomorrow morning. They were here for moral support for Sarah and to provide on the ground information back to Philip Spencer but with everything that has been going on, I think they need to get out of here and I’m sure I can convince them to do it.”
“So what, they get out of here and?” Chris said shrugging his shoulders.
“And, we get you out that window, you run like hell and make contact with the FBI. They have to stop the Carriers before they get on their planes. They’ll be at the airport just before noon in a white Suburban. Six people plus Seth driving. They have to be stopped.”
“What about Sarah and the others?”
“Once they get the Carriers, they come back here and round up the rest of them. We’ll be long gone.”
Chris shook his head, “I don’t like it.”
“Why?”
“Because I just want to get the fuck out of here. I can’t take it anymore. It’s not my responsibility.”
“You’re wrong. This is absolutely your responsibility. Do you want to live in the world they want to create? How will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror when you know that you could have stopped it.”
“Why’s it all on me? Why don’t you go get the Feds?”
“Because I need to get Camilla out of here.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck about Camilla, Albert. She is not my worry.”
“But she’s mine and I’m not budging. If you want out of here, you have to play it my way.”
“Then I’ll just tell the feds that she was involved and they’ll come after her.”
“So be it, that’s better than her being caught up in it here.”
“That’s what I’ll do.”
“Suit yourself but her and Philip Spencer are very powerful people. I wouldn’t underestimate their resources and resourcefulness but that is all up to you. I just want her out of this situation immediately.”
Chris stared at the phone for a long minute, turning it over in his hands, feeling like he was making a deal with the devil.
“What do you say?” Albert said as he produced a screwdriver. “You can be out of here in five minutes.”
4:45 am Wilderness Outside Eureka, California
“Is Carl Moscovitz available?”
“Who’s calling?”
“Chris Foster.”
Chris could hear him mumble something to another person, and then he said, “Let me put you on hold and see if I can get him.”
“Sure,” Chris replied as he waited for Carl Moscovitz to pick up. Why would someone be answering the phones at this hour? Why was Carl there? Chris was shivering. The air in the dark woods was cold and moist and he had been running, trying desperately to get a mobile signal but now as he was standing still the sweat on his body was turning cold and clammy.
He was getting an ominous feeling when a voice he didn’t recognize said, “Arthur Kent.”
“Arthur Kent,” Chris echoed. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it. He was certain that Pell had mentioned it before. “I was looking for Carl.”
“He’s not here right now, Chris.”
“Really? Who are you?”
“Director of Criminal Investigations.”
“Director of Criminal Investigations? You’re a pretty important guy to be up at four in the morning talking to strangers.”
When Arthur didn’t respond, Chris continued, “Do you know why I’m calling?”
“I know who you are,” Arthur replied. “And what you’ve been through this past week.”
“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?”