“How did you find him?” the man questioned where the genius had come from.
“He was found in a car wreck, his parents both dead,” she explained.
“How long has he been unconscious?” he asked.
“Three days… I didn’t know who to call, but I have to be honest, I’m surprised they sent a Colonel from the State Department,” she explained. The man shrugged it off and then nodded toward the boy in the room, who was now shuffling in his bed.
“I think he’s waking up.” The nurse pivoted to the room and left the man immediately in the hall to attend to her patient.
Xander’s eyes were open but blinded by the fluorescent light overhead. An unclear face slowly came into focus before him. A young nurse stood before him.
“Xander?... Xander?”
“What happened?” He exhaled from the fog of his mind. His hands reached up and found the itch on his forehead, a large bandage was taped over it.
“Xander… you were in a car crash. How many fingers am I holding up?” The nurse held up three fingers that separated and rejoined before Xander’s eyes.
“Three…”
“Do you know what day it is?” Xander shook his head.
“Do you know what month it is?” Xander again shook his head, confused and lost.
And then the memory of the crash surfaced. His face tensed and tears flowed immediately. “My parents…” His voice trembled. The nurse frowned her pity and reached out a comforting hand to his.
“I’m sorry, Xander… I’m sorry…” Xander’s head fell into her comforting embrace as he painfully wept into her arms. Over her shoulder, Xander saw through teary eyes the Colonel in the hallway looking on with a grave expression. It was a face he would never forget. It was the face of Colonel Jackson Hardy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the Vice President’s office, Xander finished the notes on Doctor Cohen’s experiment and collapsed into the chair. His mind raced every aspect and implication of the Ivory Tower Sessions. He could feel his brain breaking the implanted walls built within it. His memory flowed for the first time and he was able to discover his childhood again.
They brainwashed me? The DARPA under the direction of our current President brainwashed me. They made me into a guinea pig… they made me smarter and then led Hardy to discover me. They built me for Project Sparta. Dr. Cohen’s theories were correct. He found a bacterium that could increase the neural pathways to the brain, making the electrical currents of thought run smoother.
Ezra’s fourth clue came back to mind.
The Professor’s Text Unlocks the Charged Mind… You Must Remember a Past Once Erased.
He flipped the page to a listing of subjects. There were only six, including himself.
Rachel Jordan-Deceased
Ryan Cranfield-Deceased
Julie Mueller-Deceased
Jason Richardson-Deceased
Xander Whitt-Alive
Anne Guthrie-Deceased
I’m the only one that survived? Did they test the other kids until they died? Maybe their bodies weren’t receptive to the treatments… I work for a government that stole everything from me. They took my free will and programmed me for their own use… And I got a terrorist locked up that has set a deadly –
Xander stopped. He recalled Ezra’s words.
The truth is the cure… The truth inside…
Then he remembered Catherine’s.
What we need are the antibodies that can combat this pathogen. Antibodies circulate in the blood stream. These antibodies can be developed naturally by the body after repeated exposure to the bacteria. In short, we need someone who has survived this bacterium…
Xander’s eyes fell to himself as his mind recalled the two blue pills repeatedly fed to him by Dr. Cohen during the Ivory Tower Sessions.
I am the cure…
Chapter 56
Massachusetts Avenue NW
11:15 PM
Xander opened the office door quietly and stepped out onto the veranda. His eyes searched through the pouring rain for any guards roaming the grounds but could not find any. He turned to find the large black helicopter on the Vice-Presidential grounds – a back up to Marine One in case of emergencies.
He opened the cockpit door and closed it gently, fitting the comm unit over his head. He flipped the switch above him to fire up the propellers. A low engine hum sounded as the helicopter’s blades started their revolutions. Guards emerged from the tree-line alarmed by the engine’s churning. The propeller’s cycled faster and faster until the weight shifted in the cockpit and the chopper started its ascent into the air, leaving the guards to panic below.
Xander’s steady hand guided the helicopter up and over the Vice-Presidential residence and once it was high enough, he pushed the yoke down, tilting the chopper’s axis over the city and toward the surrounding forestry of the city.
He was heading for the Compound.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A small crowd had gathered in the Oval Office, the Attorney General had arrived, who found a Bible in the President’s desk. He held it out on his palm, before the Vice President. Johnson placed his hand on top of the Bible and raised his other hand.
“Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Thomas Warfield Johnson do solemnly swear…” the Attorney General instructed.
“I, Thomas Warfield Johnson do solemnly swear” he repeated.
“That I will faithfully execute”
“That I will faithfully execute…”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Hazmat team opened the door to the Navy Mess hall where they found two dead bodies belonging to Stacey Chapman and John Minick. The rest of the quarantined coughed violently. They handed out the packets of red pills that the infected swallowed immediately.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“The Office of President of the United States,” the Attorney General said.
“The Office of President of the United States,” Johnson repeated.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Another member of the Hazmat team, a man overcome with emotion, folded President Hooper’s hands over his body and slowly zipped the body bag over his head.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“And will to the best of my Ability.”
“And will to the best of my Ability.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The First Lady sat on the edge of her bed in the residence and finished weeping in her hands. She was broken. Then her phone began to ring, and the caller ID showed that it was Kalli. The First Lady remained in emotional shock as she brought the phone up to her ear, only to hear the shrilling cries on the other end.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Preserve, protect and defend.” The onlookers smiled as the oath continued.
“Preserve, protect and defend,” Johnson repeated again, firmly with conviction.
“The Constitution of the United States.”
“The Constitution of the United States…”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ashton Chambers directed the Hazmat team in Van Ness Metro Station to the quarantined who sat against the tiled wall of the station. Although not many symptoms had settled in, the hundreds of people who were quarantined received a dose.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“So, help me God!”
“So, help me God,” he finished.
“Congratulations, Mr. President,” the Attorney General concluded. The shaken room offered a hopeful applause. Johnson didn’t smile for the pictures but thanked the crowd by offering firm handshakes around. After a few minutes, Agent Callahan leaned into the President’s ear and updated him.
“Preliminary signs indicate that the infected’s levels are stabilizing. It appears they may be getting better.” Only then, did a smile spread across his face. He nodded in an attempt to contain his excitement and conceal the events of earlier that day.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harak Khan pulled the hot-wired Jeep to a stop along Michigan Avenue. He did not get out of the car, rather he sat patiently and continued
to drag on his cigarette. His gaze remained fixed on a graffitied building across the street. He ashed out the window and cracked a nefarious grin as his eyes narrowed on the garage door leading to Tobias’s laboratory.
Chapter 57
The Compound
Midnight
Illuminated in the glass cell by the two spotlights positioned toward them, Fiona turned the knob on the battery and a low buzz sounded as volts of electricity surged down the wires and into Ezra. After five seconds of agonizing torture, she untwisted the knob. Ezra fell limp, attempting to catch his breath.
“What aren’t you telling me?!” Fiona snarled in his ear.
“Xander has to learn the truth…”
“What truth?!” she asked, desperate for answers. Ezra’s eyes glanced up at Fiona from a weakened body.
“You are turning aren’t you… I can see it in you… brewing. Now that you’re on the other side you can see clearly… They followed you when you were kids… stealing your life and using it for their own interests and justified it with the American flag… what about the countless people your husband has killed… You know it by now… the ends don’t justify the means… and America is the greatest offender of that.” Ezra breathed the words, wheezing as his heart pounded relentlessly.
Fiona froze and considered his piercing words. She felt herself teetering under the temptation. The anger from the past boiled in her. She wondered if the man before her was the terrorist or the victim. Then she looked down at the battery in her hand that was connected to her prisoner and wondered if she was the terrorist or the victim.
“We have dedicated our lives to this country. We protect and defend it from terrorists like you. It’s that simple... you set a deadly plague lose in the city!”
“I showed the American public their true reflection. I showed them how weak and fragile they are. What happened when Apollo was released? What did the government do? They covered it up, just like they cover up everything else. But I exposed them for it and now everyone else knows as well as I do that this democracy is dead.”
“You don’t want to fix this country… you want to terrorize it, you want to infect everyone…”
“We sent our message to the American public through the news, spreading the word of the plague so people would stay inside, forcing the government’s hand to close down the city rather than covering it up, ensuring the collateral damage remained contained,” he explained.
“We make this country a safer place… That’s not manipulation – that’s service. It’s duty and something you would never know! You’re a terrorist and nothing more…”
“That’s what they called the men who founded this country. But its time for another revolution … The Collective will rise. Join us in our effort to cure this country of itself!” The battle waged fiercer inside Fiona. She was losing control of herself. She turned the battery knob up again, allowing the hate to flood her heart and descend on her prisoner.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Seamus arrived at Tobias’s warehouse in North DC. He approached the auburn rusted building, buried under the graffiti and banged loudly on the garage door, which rattled a screech out into the night. Seamus waited a minute, but there was no answer.
He tried the side door, next to the garage – it was wide open.
Something is wrong – Tobias’s door is never unlocked.
Seamus entered the warehouse and slowly walked toward the isolation unit.
“Tobias!?! I have some blood for ya to look at!” he shouted. No response.
Then he stopped. Trauma ceased his body and his legs gave way. On his knees, the weeping began. Every so often he looked up ten yards from his knees to confirm his eyes’ sight.
Tobias Greene laid dead - face down in a thick puddle of his own blood.
Catherine was gone.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Colonel, I have the antibodies in me. No time to explain, but I’m the cure…” Xander shouted over the helicopter blades into his headset.
“Xander, something claiming to be a cure has been delivered. It is being given to the sick right now,” he responded.
“It is the cure. Seamus and I found their underground lab in Dupont Circle, the old trolley station. The cure was gone but it was there, and it was being manufactured.”
“What does all this mean?” Hardy asked.
“He’s trying to manipulate the city, he’s trying to manipulate us, I think he’s trying to recruit.”
“Recruit for what?!” Hardy asked over the comm.
“I guess this revolution they are calling for… Regardless, I don’t think they are done with me…” Xander worried aloud.
“Keep your head out there and keep me posted, no more running away on us!” Hardy shouted.
“I’m on my way to the Compound right now,” Xander yelled back.
Xander flew the chopper over Great Falls toward the Compound when his phone vibrated. He saw Seamus’s number. He answered the call and patched it through the helicopter comm channel.
“Seamus…”
“Xander, Tobias is dead. Catherine is gone. I think Khan got to them!” he yelled. Xander’s hand wiped his face trying to shake off the distress of the news.
“Tell me everything…” he spoke, distraught by the death of Tobias but focused on the mission at hand.
“I came in delivering the blood for testing and no one was here. I found Tobias face down in his own blood. Oh God!” Seamus began to lose it.
“Seamus! Focus! Tell me how he died,” Xander instructed.
“It looks like his throat was slit. The cut line is thin, like maybe a scalpel,” Seamus reported. “And his eye… it’s gone. Xander, they took his eye! Something is wrong, Xander, Ezra always seems to be one step ahead of us and I think he’s finally making his move.”
At these words, Xander hung up the phone, leaving himself to think through it all one last time.
He knew what we would do…
Xander’s mouth dropped open as the next thoughts formed.
Catherine discovered the disease and sent it to the NIH for processing. Mohammad Azir broke in to steal it but how do you break in to a secure location without someone on the inside…
“Could it be?” he asked aloud.
Catherine took my blood at my last checkup.
He remembered the doctor in the Dupont Trolley Station.
They already had the antibodies, I just needed to reproduce it.
He remembered his blood culture with Catherine.
You’re taking a lot of blood.
Yeah, we’re doing a full work up on it.
Then what he saw in the Ivory Tower Sessions struck home.
Julie Mueller -Deceased
He remembered Catherine’s words after returning from Arlington Cemetery.
My sister died of a seizure. I watched as she swallowed her own tongue. She was only nine years old…
The last puzzle piece clicked into place, taking the breath from Xander.
The Ivory Tower took her and tested her, eventually killing her… Catherine wants to avenge her sister.
He pushed the cyclic stick forward, angling the chopper forward to gather speed.
Catherine Mueller is a double.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A sound echoed through the Compound, jarring Fiona from her interrogation. She powered down the volts and perked up to trace the echo to its origin. She glanced back at Ezra who lay defeated against the cell wall. She ascended to her feet and exited the glass cell. She gazed out into the darkness beyond the spotlights from behind a raised hand, blocking the bright lights from her eyes.
“Xander?” She squinted her eyes and saw a silhouette begin to take shape.
The silhouette morphed before Fiona as it broke through the spotlights, but it was a face she had never seen. A woman with short, honey colored hair split at the center framing her stern expression.
It was Catherine Mueller.
“How did you get in here?!” Fiona asked off guar
d.
Her hands dangled at her sides and dropped Tobias’s eyeball on the ground next to her, which helped her past the eye scanners.
“We are the Collective. Are you?” she asked Fiona directly.
Fiona considered the whirlwind of ideas before her. She turned to Ezra in the cell, considering his propositions –his true motivations. She remembered the file of her as a child, being scouted from her youth for Sparta. But then her eyes fell to her hand. Her wedding ring glimmered in the spotlights. She turned her head considering the wedding band before her.
“I said, we are the Collective. Are you?”
She stayed frozen on her wedding band and found the conviction she needed, the boil in her gut simmered as she became at peace with Project Sparta and the lives they had led.
“It’s about the family…” she marveled to herself under her breath. Then after this realization a smile came over her. She raised her eyes to meet Catherine’s.
“No, I am not part of your Collective… despite its flaws America is still the best country in the world. People continue to flock to America for an opportunity because it’s one of the only places where dreams can come true.” Tears welled up in her eyes as words flowed from her heart. “What you two are forgetting is that America is a revolution. We continue the fight that our Founders fought. It’s a revolution against threats to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I want no part of your revolution… because I… I am already part of one…”
At hearing this, Catherine looked to Ezra for word. He offered a weak nod to which she shrugged.
In one quick motion, she reach behind her.
And pulled a pistol.
And fired a bullet into Fiona’s skull.
Upon impact, she collapsed dead at Catherine Mueller’s feet. Her face blank and lifeless. The last sight she saw was Catherine stepping over her body and approaching the opened glass cell.
Project Apollo Page 31
