The Project Eden Thrillers Box Set 1: Books 1 - 3 (Sick, Exit 9, & Pale Horse)

by Brett Battles

Shell took a moment before he spoke. “There was obviously an oversight, sir. I will deal with it.”

  “Yes, you will. You will also help ensure this does not spread. Dr. Karp, Major Ross, you, too, if necessary.”

  “Perhaps it would be best for an immediate quarantine zone to be set up,” Major Ross suggested.

  Dr. Karp frowned. “I’m not sure if that—”

  “What?” the DOP asked. “Necessary? It’s an excellent suggestion, Major. Our people are already on it. We cannot afford mistakes. The only way we will succeed is to control events, not have them control us.”

  “Sir, if I may ask,” Shell said. “Has anyone tried to trace the number Ellison called?”

  “Why?”

  “It could help in locating Captain Ash. Given this new development, I think it’s even more critical that we bring him in. He can link this outbreak to Barker Flats. And while a connection from that to Bluebird would be impossible, it could raise concerns and interfere with some of our future work, creating unnecessary delays.”

  “Yes, Mr. Shell. We have discussed that here. In addition to helping with the outbreak, you need to continue hunting for Ash. Any additional men you need, please request from your department head and they’ll be immediately assigned to you. As for the phone number, it was to a disposable phone purchased in Milwaukee, and no longer seems to be in service.”

  The doctor was relieved. He’d dodged a bullet with the outbreak, since most of the blame seemed to be falling on Mr. Shell. He was still vulnerable on the Ash issue, but there was a way he might be able to improve that situation, too.

  “Director? I have an idea about how we might be able to flush out Captain Ash.”

  Seventeen

  ASH PUSHED HIMSELF out of his chair and moved over to the monitor, his eyes firmly affixed on the image of Dr. Karp.

  In rapid succession, he asked, “Is he some kind of spy? Who does he work for? Does the Army know?”

  “Dr. Karp is an American citizen,” Matt explained. “Until three years ago, he worked for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. He was then transferred to a classified assignment. That assignment eventually brought him to Barker Flats.”

  Ash looked at Matt, confused. “Are you trying to say that the U.S. Government did this to my family?”

  “We’re saying that Dr. Karp and the people he’s involved with did this to your family.”

  “But you just said he works for the Army.”

  Matt paused, then said, “The Army pays him a salary, yes.”

  “So you are saying the Army did this to us. There’s no way I’m going to believe that.”

  “The Army didn’t do this to you.”

  Ash stared across the table. “You’re not making any sense.”

  “Captain,” Rachel said, her voice soft. “You have unfortunately found yourself in a situation that is much, much larger than you can imagine. We have been…following this for many years, and sometimes it’s too much for even us to grasp.”

  “Oh,” Ash said, taking a step back from the table. “Oh, I get it. You’re one of those conspiracy groups, aren’t you? What is this? Some kind of indoctrination? Trying to recruit me? Well, thanks for your help, but it’s time for me to leave.”

  He turned for the door.

  “If you’d stayed in your cell in California, you’d be dead now,” Matt said. “That much you can’t deny. We got you out. We saved your life. The least you could do is give us a few minutes to hear us out.”

  “I think I’ve already heard enough.”

  Matt started to speak again, but Rachel silenced him with a look as she stood up and moved between Ash and the door.

  “Captain, I understand your doubts and concerns. You are free to go, of course. But we don’t think that would be wise.”

  “And staying here would be? With a bunch of crazies?”

  She studied him for a second. “Just give me one moment.”

  She walked over to a cabinet along the wall. From Ash’s angle he could see the envelope he’d brought from the desert sitting on the shelf inside. But if that’s what Rachel was retrieving, she didn’t get a chance to pull it out.

  As she bent down, the door suddenly thrust open, and a man Ash hadn’t seen before rushed in.

  “PCN,” he said quickly.

  Matt touched the controls, and the television switched from the image of Dr. Karp to the Prime Cable News network. A Breaking News banner was running across the bottom of the screen, while the rest was taken up by a female anchor at the network’s New York studios.

  “…confirm twenty-two deaths at this point. Roadblocks have been set up around the town, and no one is being allowed in or out.” The image changed to a shot of a desert highway. Parked across the road about fifty feet from the camera’s position were several military vehicles and a couple highway patrol cars. In the distance beyond them was what appeared to be the edge of a town.

  “Residents of Sage Springs have been advised to remain in their homes until otherwise instructed. We’re told that a first-response CDC team is on scene now, and that more medical personnel are en route. To repeat, there has been a report of a severe outbreak of what looks like a deadly version of the flu in the town of Sage Springs, California.” The anchor put her hand to her ear. “All right. We have Tamara Costello now just outside the roadblock. Tamara, can you tell us what’s going on there at this moment?”

  The voice changed but the picture remained the same. “Catherine, we have just been asked to tell anyone who has been in the vicinity of Sage Springs or the Mesquite Dunes Recreational Area in the past twenty-four hours to call a special hotline the California Department of Health has set up. I believe that number should be on the screen now.”

  As if she were running the control room, the Breaking News banner was replaced by a new graphic that read Crisis in the Desert on one side, and had a phone number on the other.

  “Though there has been no official announcement,” the reporter went on, “speculation, confirmed by unofficial sources, is that this is not some naturally occurring outbreak, but has been caused by the deliberate release of a virus. One source I talked to believes this is a terrorist attack.”

  “Tamara, if it is a terrorist attack, why was it done in such an underpopulated area?” the anchor asked.

  “Our viewers might be surprised to learn, Catherine, that this part of California boasts a lot of military installations such as Fort Irwin, the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, and, closer to Los Angeles, Edwards Air Force Base. There was a report of an explosion two nights ago at a small military facility less than a hundred miles from here that we are checking out. I should stress, though, that event remains unconfirmed, and any connections to the outbreak are unknown at this point.”

  “Tamara, I understand officials are looking for someone in particular. Is that correct?”

  The guy who’d come running into the conference room suddenly said, “Here it is.”

  “Yes, Catherine. That’s correct.”

  Ash stared at the television, stunned, as the image of the desert was replaced by a photo of him.

  “Daniel Ash is believed to be a carrier of the virus, though apparently immune himself. We’re told that if anyone sees him they should call the hotline or their local authorities, but should not, under any circumstances, approach him.”

  “Is there any indication that Ash is one of the people responsible for releasing the virus in the first place?” the anchor asked.

  “No one is saying that, at least not officially. They are only saying he is a person of interest and—”

  Matt turned the TV off.

  “Thanks, Jordan,” he said to the man who’d come running in. “Record it.”

  “Already going.”

  Jordan left.

  Ash gazed at the blank screen, numb. A person of interest?

  Rachel put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  He continued to look at the TV a mom
ent longer, then turned to her. “I…I should turn myself in.”

  “That’s the last thing you need to do.”

  Suddenly realizing her hand was still on his shoulder, he pulled back. “What if they’re right, and I am contagious? What if I’ve infected all of you? Oh, God! And those people who helped me get out of there, drove me here, they could be sick already.”

  Billy leaned forward. “The incubation rate and course for this particular virus is extremely quick. From infection to death—anywhere from eight to twenty-four hours. The point is, Captain, if you were a latter-day Typhoid Mary, most of us would already be dead, and the rest dying.” He looked around. “Everyone looks pretty healthy to me.”

  “How do you know that? How can you possibly know anything about this…this virus?”

  “The only way we could have gotten you out of that facility was if we had someone on the inside,” Matt said. “The truth is, the only reason we even knew about you was because of him. The same person was also able to feed us information about the virus.”

  The size of the rabbit hole Ash had fallen into was cavernous. If he were to believe they had a man on the inside, it would mean he had to accept the idea that what had been done to his family and his neighbors was perpetrated by this Dr. Karp, an Army employee, and that all the families had been moved to Barker Flats specifically for the purpose of testing this virus. It was ridiculous. Completely unbelievable. Yet, if he didn’t believe there was a man on the inside, then how did they get him out?

  Finally, he said, “If you did have someone there, how did he let this happen? How could he stand by and watch all those people die? My family? Our neighbors?”

  “He wasn’t aware there was going to be a live test until it was too late,” Matt said. “But don’t read too much into that. Even if he had known, he couldn’t have done anything anyway. He would have been killed, and stopped nothing. At least this way he was able to get you out before he died.”

  “Died?” Ash said, surprised. Then he remembered. “The guy who stayed behind so we could get away. The one who got caught in the explosion—he was your inside man.”

  “Yes. But the explosion didn’t get him. He fled before it was set off, so he could get us one last report. Only…” Matt paused. “He said he was sick, and that he didn’t have long. The phone he called from was thirty miles from…from Sage Springs.”

  Ash’s eyes widened. “The outbreak. He’s responsible?”

  “It would seem so.”

  “Then I must be contagious,” Ash said. “How else could he have gotten infected?”

  Billy shifted in his chair. “Your immunity was of great interest to those running the test. The entire time you were in that cell, they were bombarding you with the virus, trying to see if it could break through your system.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Absolutely. Our man reported that when the power came back on in the building, the system spraying the virus into your cell started up again, and the bug leaked into the main corridor.”

  Ash finally sat back down, the weight of everything too much.

  “Under the circumstances,” Matt said, “I think we’re going to have to insist you stay.”

  “You mean you will stop me.”

  “No. But we won’t help you either. And we’re a long way from anywhere out here.”

  Rachel took her seat beside Ash, shifting her body so they were facing each other. “You’re a fugitive now, Captain, and the whole country knows it. Within twenty-four hours, they will finger you as one of those responsible. I guarantee it. You won’t be able to go anywhere without someone recognizing you. You won’t be able to talk to anyone. Here, you’re safe.”

  “I don’t care about my safety. I only care about making those who did this to my family pay.”

  “That’s a goal we would be more than happy to help you achieve,” she said. “But you can’t just blunder off and think you’ll be able to deal with this on your own. Information is power, and at the moment, there’s a lot going on that you don’t understand.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “You’ll help me understand?”

  “We’ll give you what you need,” she said.

  He looked at the others, and they all nodded.

  “Okay. I’ll stay for now. But the minute you deny me anything I think I need to know, I’m gone.”

  “Fair enough,” she said.

  “Then let’s get started,” he said.

  Rachel exchanged a look with Matt, then focused once more on Ash. “The first thing you need to know is about your children.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly. “What about them?”

  “They’re alive.”

  Eighteen

  TAMARA COSTELLO WAS getting frustrated. The only new information she’d been able to find was that a food truck would be serving lunch about a mile back along the highway. Not very broadcast-worthy stuff.

  Without anything new, her network, and all the other twenty-four-hour news channels, would just keep playing the same crap over and over, eventually venturing into areas of wild conjecture. It’s what always happened, and even though she was a part of the system, she hated that. This was supposed to be the age of information, not recycled garbage.

  That’s why, after she completed her update with the brain-dead Catherine Minor at 11:10 a.m., she found a quiet spot and called her brother in San Francisco.

  “Look at you getting all that air time,” he said as soon as he answered.

  She couldn’t help but smile. “You’ve been watching?”

  “Riveted. So, really, how bad is it?”

  “No way to know for sure. They’ve got the whole town blocked off. I’ve tried to call people who live there, but all I get are busy signals. Even the cell towers are down. Thank God for my sat phone.” The network gave all its field reporters satellite phones in case they found themselves in areas that weren’t covered by mobile phone companies despite those fancy maps they were always bragging about.

  “The whole town? Man, it must be bad. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it.”

  She snickered and shook her head. “What are you? Ten?”

  “Seriously, Tam. Think about it. Something so small you can’t even see can kill you just like that.”

  She thought she heard his fingers snap. “Look, Gavin,” she said, trying to get back on track. “I was wondering if you could do a little research for me.”

  “Ha! I knew that’s why you called. You want to know more about the flu? The town? Give me five minutes and I can pull together enough info to fill up an entire hour.”

  While Tamara had chosen a life in the spotlight, Gavin preferred one that was more private, and spent most of his time in his apartment doing freelance software programming.

  “No. The network can find that stuff out on its own. I’m interested in this Daniel Ash guy.”

  “The man the CDC’s looking for?”

  “Yeah. Who is he? Why is he important? Where are some of the places he’d go? If you can actually find him, I’ll owe you big for the rest of the year. An exclusive interview would be incredible.”

  “From a distance, though.”

  “What?”

  “From a distance. I mean, if he’s infected, you don’t want to get anywhere near him.”

  “Right. From a distance.” She paused. “Think you can dig up a phone number?”

  “If he’s got one, I’ll find it,” Gavin said.

  “And anything else you can learn?”

  “Sure, sis. I’m waiting to hear back from a client, so I’ve got some time.”

  “Thanks, Gavin. You’re my secret weapon.”

  GAVIN COSTELLO HUNG up with his sister then sat back down at his desk. Most of his non-computer geek friends were surprised by his setup. They expected multiple monitors, couple of high-end tower computers, and peripheral hard drives and gadgets stacked to the ceiling. What he really had was a 13-inch PC laptop and a backup hard drive that ran automatically in t
he background over his Wi-Fi network. This gave him mobility on those rare occasions he worked away from his apartment.

  Deciding to go the easy route first, he pulled up his current favorite search engine and typed in the name Daniel Ash. Not surprisingly, there was more than one. From the picture he’d seen on TV, the Ash his sister was looking for couldn’t have been more than thirty-four or thirty-five, so that helped eliminate several of the possibilities. Then he tried to see if any of the remaining had a California connection. Two did, but the picture on the Facebook page that one of the links led to was definitely not the guy. The other lived clear up in Eureka and appeared to own a plumbing business. What would he be doing in the middle of the desert involved in a flu outbreak?

  Gavin heard his sister’s voice from his TV. The screen was placed so that all he had to do was swivel his chair around to see it. It looked like she’d moved to the opposite side of the highway, but what she was saying was pretty much the same thing she’d been saying most of the morning. Still, it always gave him a kick to see her work.

  He grabbed his cell phone and typed in a text:

  Maybe you should report from the middle of the road next time. HA!

  He sent it to her, muted the TV, then returned to his computer.

  Five minutes later, as he was still trying to narrow things down, his phone rang. Expecting his sister again, he answered the call without looking. “Hey.”

  Though the line sounded open, no one said anything.

  “Tammy?”

  Still nothing. He looked at the display. Blocked.

  “Who is this?” he asked.

  A click, and the line went dead.

  “Whatever, man.” He dropped his phone on the table and returned his attention to his laptop, all but forgetting about the call.

  Forty minutes later, he hit pay dirt.

  It was a picture of a group of Army officers in a Fayetteville, North Carolina, newspaper from a few years earlier. The officers were from nearby Fort Bragg and had given a presentation to the local high school. One of the men in the photo was identified as Lieutenant Daniel Ash, and the more Gavin looked at him, the more he was sure it was the same guy in the photo shown on PCN.