He smiled and turned and jogged down the steps and onto the beach where he met his friends and got onto their boat.
She stood at the balcony railing watching the boat disappear into the horizon. When she heard the rotors of the FBI helicopter coming toward the house, she went back inside to check on Anton. His color was coming back. The Mexican doctor said he was doing fine.
Bernadette looked at the USB stick in her hand and around her at four dead Russians and the two dead Chechens. She had a hell of story to tell the FBI when they landed. She wondered what she’d come up with.
34
Senior CIA Agent, Maxwell Crowley, stood in the conference room of the Best Western Mayan hotel and looked down at Detective Bernadette Callahan sitting in the chair. Sitting across from her was FBI Agent Cooper and an US Army Captain dressed in fatigues. She assumed the Captain was part of the Military Intelligence Corps sent to look for McAllen. Agent Carla Winston sat on a chair away from the table, by the far wall.
Agent Cooper looked at her with an expression that could not hide how pissed off he was at her. Anton and Bernadette were supposed to be observers and consultants. They had defied orders, taken guns from another FBI officer, and gone hunting McAllen without requesting backup, or informing their liaison agent Carla Winston. Cooper’s hunched shoulders showed his anger.
“Now, Detective Callahan,” Crowley said, “Your report is that you found McAllen, and that he gave you the formula to reverse the damage of the Bio Bugs.” He held the USB stick that McAllen had given Bernadette, “and that somehow, you were not able to detain this man. Even when he was being offered a full pardon. Is that what you are telling this room?” Crowley swept his arm in a wide arc to show Bernadette the total breadth of her story.
Bernadette looked directly forward, straight into Crowley’s eyes. She could see he knew she was lying. But a thing about a lie is if you keep it right there and constant, it remains what it is—a lie that must be proven false. “Yes, that is what my report states. As I was attending to my partner, our suspect, Professor Alistair McAllen, disappeared in the confusion.”
Crowley looked down at the paper in front of him. “Your report also states that four Russians engaged in a gun battle with two Chechens, resulting in the death of all six of these people.” He looked up from the paper. “This is what you want to state in your report . . . you’re stating the facts the way they happened?”
Bernadette held Crowley’s gaze. “Yes, those are the facts.”
“And you could not find the formula that this Professor McAllen had for the creation of the Bio Bugs?” Crowley asked. He looked in the direction of the Army Captain. Their disappointment was evident.
Bernadette said, “Yes, sir, McAllen had only the antidote, he said the formula had been destroyed somehow . . . he did not elaborate on that.”
Crowley, Cooper, and the Army Captain engaged in a whispered conference. Bernadette thought about Anton. She’d spoken with him just that morning. There were several nurses in his room, all looking after him. He’d been airlifted to Houston, and then again to Edmonton, Canada, once he was stabilized. His mother was flying from Toronto to be by his side.
“Just what I need,” Anton had said. “My mother will be overseeing all the nurses and bringing me soup.”
Bernadette told him she would see him back in Canada on her return, once the FBI, CIA, and American Military Intelligence debriefed her. Her attention came back to Agent Crowley. He was looking for something more from her—was there something she was hiding?
Of course there was. She’d let McAllen go in exchange for her partner’s life. Would she do it again? Of course she would.
“Detective Callahan, are you with us?” Agent Crowley asked.
Bernadette shot her head up. She looked around her. The men in the room where looking at her. She had fallen into a trance. There was a fly feasting on spilled sugar on the conference table.
Crowley looked pissed. He was trying not to show how Bernadette was annoying him in front of the others, but it wasn’t working. The harder he tried to hide his displeasure the more it showed. “Do you want me to repeat the question then . . . ?”
“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind,” Bernadette said, now fully aware of the room.
“I said, was there anything else we should know about this USB stick you say you obtained from Professor McAllen . . .” Crowley looked at his peers in the room, “before he disappeared by some sort of miracle?” The others at the table nodded their heads in agreement to his statement.
Bernadette understood the question, but knew they would not understand the answer, “Yes, Professor McAllen said he neutralized the God gene in the formula.”
“And what may I ask, is that supposed to mean?” Crowley looked at her, while he rolled the USB stick between his fingers.
“The professor said you wouldn’t understand, and actually I don’t either, but he said our scientists would understand it,” Bernadette replied.
Ramón Martin waited at the private airport until they closed, then he went home. He returned the next day to wait for the Russians. They did not show up. 24 hours had passed since they’d left. He was worried. He called the Russian Embassy in Mexico City, he told them, his guests were late—the code for this mission.
The contact at the Embassy was abrupt with him. Even by Russian standards, Ramón found it odd. He was told to go home and wait for a call. Two days later, Ramón received a call to go to the airport. The white Suburban drove up followed by two white vans and Mexican police.
A Mexican Police Captain approached Ramón. “Senor Martin, I have four coffins to return to Russia. The Russian Embassy said you would take care of this . . .”
Ramón Martin fainted on the tarmac.
35
Agent Winston took Bernadette to the Merida Airport for her flight back to Canada. The ride to the airport was quiet. Winston said nothing, but cleared her throat several times like she wanted to. Bernadette sat in the passenger seat waiting for the tongue-lashing she knew this compact little black lady looked capable of.
Winston parked the car in front of the terminal and turned to Bernadette. “You know, Detective, that shit you pulled out in San Crisanto almost got you and your partner killed, but god dam it girl, I can’t fault your instincts. You found McAllen and ended up with the antidote. You keep falling in a bucket of shit and come up smelling like a rose—I hope this keeps working for you—because one day relying only on your instincts can get you killed.”
“They almost did, Agent Winston. And look, for whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry for getting you in trouble. My instincts get in the way sometimes, and I just act.” Bernadette said looking squarely at Winston.
Winston chuckled, “I’ve been in worse than this, and you getting the antidote helped big time. Sometimes the biggest screw-ups can be rectified with a good ending.”
Bernadette grabbed her bag and started to get out of the car “By the way, I’ve been out of the loop . . . you know . . . being interrogated by your bosses and all. Did they get the antidote from McAllen over to Europe?”
Winston grinned, “Yeah, they did, the combined Air Forces of Europe bombed the ocean with the antidote yesterday. A few boats tested the waters, and all metal-hulled boats are safe on the waters. And the Bio Bugs are now happily digesting the oil spill, and dying out when they’ve had their fill.”
“I guess that’s a relief.”
“Sure is, and you’ll never guess what the antidote was,” Winston said.
“Beats me,” Bernadette said, “What was it?”
“McAllen recommended in his antidote to decrease this thing called the God Gene, or VMAT2, I believe is its scientific name, by forty percent. He gave instructions to use a vaccine called FUNVAX, and even gave directions where the US government had the vaccine stored in the vaults of the Pentagon.”
“I’ve never heard of it, what’s it supposed to be?”
“FUNVAX is short for fundamentalist vaccine. It was su
pposedly developed by the Pentagon to vaccinate religious fundamentalist, like terrorist. I thought it was a hoax, you know one of those things put on YouTube to scare us all. Well, it turns out the government had the vaccine all along, and used it. But the strange thing is McAllen knew where it was.”
“Bernadette shook her head and laughed, “Damn if I’ll ever understand science, or how McAllen got his information. I don’t think I want to know.” She grabbed her bag, and headed into the airport.
Bernadette flew to Edmonton to visit Anton, before driving back to her home. He was already up and walking. Two nurses were trying to help him, although it was unnecessary. His Italian mother watched them like a lioness ready to pounce. She gave Bernadette a steely cold glare, before she reluctantly left them. There was almost a snarl on her lip as she walked out of the hospital room.
They only had a short moment alone. Anton took her hand, “You know my mother thinks you’ll be the death of me, and has forbid me to work with you again.” Anton laughed and grimaced in pain from his stomach wound.
Bernadette squeezed Anton’s hand, “Hey, I understand her anger, the rest of the RCMP and your department might have made that happen if we hadn’t have solved the case. The Bio Bugs are no longer a threat, and both your department, the RCMP and even the Americans are willing to forgive us.”
“My god Bernadette, you do come out smelling like a rose.”
“Yes, Anton, but only after falling into a large bucket of crap.”
Bernadette gave him a gentle hug, and made her way home as fast as she could. The highway back to Red Deer reminded her of coming up for air while being on a long dive. Every road sign home relaxed her a little more. By the time she reached her home street, she was humming a tune.
Turning the corner to her house, she saw her Grandmother’s truck parked in her driveway. She drove up beside it, grabbed her bag and went inside. Grandma Moses was in front of the television with Sprocket nestled at her feet.
“Hey Grandma, good to see you. How was the Sundance Ceremony?” Bernadette asked, dropping her bag at the door and crouching to greet Sprocket. The dog nuzzled her face. She wrapped her arms around the big dog and felt the warmth of his fur. His breath panted on her, warm, moist, smelling of the outside.
“It was good,” Grandma Moses said, her head moving only slightly from the show she was watching.
“I just got back from Mexico, Grandma . . . you know that dream you had . . . well the tall, dark man . . . he did save me . . .” Bernadette pushed Sprocket away, patting his behind as she walked by.
Grandma Moses switched off the television, and turned to face Bernadette. “I know. In Montana we had an all-night session to take away your friend’s bad medicine of fear—we gave him courage.” She rose slowly from the chair. “We sent a bear and crows to your dreams to let you know everything would be okay.”
“I . . . I saw them . . . the night before we went out on our mission . . . I thought they were a bad omen . . .” Bernadette stammered.
Grandma Moses smiled, “Bernadette, you need to study your Indian lore . . . bears and crows are good.” She walked into the bedroom and closed the door.
Bernadette bent down, scratched Sprockets’ ears, “Damn it, dog, if I’ll ever understand half of what that woman says or dreams about. But I’m so glad for whatever medicine she sent my way.”
There were many things she needed to do. She needed to call Chris, and tell him she was okay, and yes, she had feelings for him, but her feelings of duty to the RCMP just kind of pushed everything else in her life to the edges. Was he going to be happy living on the edge of her life?
She changed into her running gear and with Sprocket loping beside her she hit the pathway and settled into a long easy run. As they ran by the river a large hawk swooped down and picked up a rodent and started to flap with its prize into the sky.
Bernadette watched the scene and smiled, “You see Sprocket, that’s what a hawk is supposed to do.”
McAllen, Sebastian, Percy and Theo sat around a table in an outside café in Antigua, Guatemala; the light was starting to fade in the square. The church bells chimed the hour, and a group of small children finally started to disperse after their attempts to sell the men trinkets made of beads had failed.
Sebastian looked over the menu. “Looks like the specialty is pescado a la plancha.” He looked at Percy who didn’t understand Spanish. “That’s fish sautéed in garlic and butter with citrus—you’ll like it.”
Percy nodded in Sebastian’s direction. “Sounds good to me.” He turned to McAllen. “Well Mac, looks like we got your ass out of the fire—and you didn’t even start the thing.”
McAllen dug a nacho chip deep into some fresh guacamole and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment. “You know boys, I’ve been thinking about that since we got here. There are lots of people after us for something they think we did. So let’s do something that will get their attention.”
“Like what?” Theo asked.
“Just give me some time. I’ll come up with something,” McAllen said. He smiled and raised his glass of beer. “Here’s to science—Salud!”
Dear Reader
I hope you enjoyed this story. I came up with the idea for this book from my many years spent working in the oil industry in sales.
A micro organism had been developed to safely deal with oil spills and I thought what if you blended this with a virus? And Pipeline Killers was born.
As you may know, reviews are like gold to authors. If you have a moment, it would make this author very happy if you posted a line or two.
Here is the link, http://mybook.to/pipelinekiller, any post is appreciated.
I have listed my entire series of Bernadette Callahan on the Also by Lyle Nicholson page, with a link to each book if you’d like to check out the first three chapters.
The next in the series is Climate Killers, where I send Bernadette off on another adventure to deal with a world in peril. This time, she will need the aide of someone she let escape…you already know who that is. Will she be successful in finding him…and will he agree?
About the Author
Lyle Nicholson is the author of seven novels, two novellas and a short story, as well a contributor of freelance articles to several newspapers and magazines in Canada.
In his former life, he was a bad actor in a Johnny Cash movie, Gospel Road, a disobedient monk in a monastery and a failure in working for others.
He would start his own successful sales agency and retire to write full time in 2011. The many characters and stories that have resided inside his head for years are glad he did.
He lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada with his lovely wife of many years where he indulges in his passion for writing, cooking and fine wines.
Also by Lyle Nicholson
The Bernadette Callahan Mystery Series
Book 1 Polar Bear Dawn
Book 2 Pipeline Killers
Book 3 Climate Killer
Book 4 Caught in the Crossfire
Book 5 Deadly Ancestors
Prequel Black Wolf Rising
Short Story, Treading Darkness
Other Books
Misdiagnosis Murder (murder mystery)
Dolphin Dreams (romantic fantasy)
Half Brother Blues (non-fiction memoir)
Please note, Polar Bear Dawn is free to download on most sites. The entire Bernadette Callahan Series is free to read on Kindle Unlimited as is Misdiagnosis Murder.
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Pipeline Killers: Bernadette Callahan. A female detective mystery with international suspense. (Book 2) Page 24
