“What you’re asking me to do... I just...can’t.”
And with those words, Casper walked out of the room.
TWENTY
Casper stalked into the next room and lay down on the only available gurney. This room was similar to the one Ashley and Jared currently resided in. Russell slept next to him and didn’t stir when he entered. The gunmen were nowhere to be found. Russell had checked outside, and the two vehicles were gone. So far, the communications equipment Casper had found had been disabled—likely by Jared for this very reason. None of them could walk for hours in this desert to try to find help. They’d have to find a way to communicate from the site. At least they had access to food and water. There was a video camera they’d found that was Casper’s only hope of documenting Jared’s confession.
Now it all seemed like folly.
The anger Casper felt wasn’t because Ashley was wrong... It was because she was right and he didn’t want to confess to himself the lengths he had gone to torture someone else. Jared was definitely in the throes of the illness and had gotten there much more rapidly than Ashley. He would quickly progress to death without the cure.
Casper clenched his fists. The IV pump connected to him rang off that the infusion was complete, and he angrily yanked the line out, pressing his thumb to stem the small flow of blood. Ashley’s infusion had finished a few hours earlier. Clearly, she was better. Giving the cure to their enemy? He tossed and turned for another hour, unable to come to any other conclusion then what Ashley had offered. He whipped the sheet off his body and walked back to the room that held Ashley and Jared.
Ashley was sitting next to Jared doing the same things Casper had done for her. Washcloths were placed over his forehead and around his neck.
Her head was bent. She was praying...for Jared...the man who’d thought nothing of trying to kill them—on more than one occasion.
Casper cleared his throat to draw her attention. She looked up, but didn’t move from her spot. He walked to the counter and picked up the last dose of Russell’s miracle concoction.
“I’m glad you changed your mind,” Ashley said.
Casper straightened out Jared’s arms and pulled a tourniquet taut around his upper arm. He swabbed the area roughly with an alcohol patch.
“I don’t know if I’ve changed my mind,” Casper said. “I only agree with what you said. I don’t know if I’d ever have peace again if I let him die when I could save his life.”
He grabbed the IV and shoved the needle into Jared’s arm. Jared didn’t respond to the pain. Blood flowed out and Casper put the adapter in place. His chest was tight. His pulse raced. Everything in him argued against this...about how stupid it was. At how they had just given their captor exactly what he wanted.
They’d given up their leverage.
Mostly, he was mad at himself for not feeling better about doing this. The difference between God and man became a clear division in his mind. It proved to him that he couldn’t perform this action on his own. A power was working through him because he would not have delivered this cure without it.
He connected Jared to the cure and set the pump for twelve hours. After watching the IV site for a few minutes, deciding the infusion was going into the vein, he straightened up and looked at Ashley.
She was crying. “Thank you,” she said.
Guilt washed over him. If Casper told Ashley what he was thinking...there wasn’t any way she would ever love him. “I’m going to check on Russell.” He turned on his heel and had walked to the door when he heard her voice stop him.
“Casper, wait.”
He laid his hand on the door, but couldn’t turn to face her. In some ways, he felt like giving Jared the cure had killed them all. If not now, then when this bioweapons attack took place. They still didn’t know when it would happen. All of their goals would remain unrealized and people’s lives were at stake.
“I know that was hard,” Ashley said. “You’ve done more for me than any other man and...I love you.”
His heart leaped to his throat and his hand gripped the frame of the door harder. Waves of emotion pounded in his chest. Something in him kept him from turning around. He didn’t want this moment to happen in front of his enemy. Casper did care for Ashley—deeply—but was he ready to say those words?
“No matter what happens I just wanted you to know that.”
Her words comforted him. There was a pull in him—her mind begging him to turn around, and his own desire to return the words she had said to him.
Not now. This wasn’t the right time. He hoped she would understand his distance because there were so many things to tell her that he just couldn’t bring himself to say right now.
Ashley’s voice softened. “Maybe when Jared’s better, he’ll change his mind about things. That’s all we can hope for.” Disappointment tinged her words. Because he’d not said anything, she was changing the subject. His heart dissolved in a pool at his feet. He’d crushed her.
Maybe Jared would change his mind. Probably not. Hope had a long way to come.
* * *
After about six hours, Jared started turning the corner. His skin was markedly cooler under Ashley’s touch. Intermittently, his eyes would focus, staring at her intently, before succumbing to sleep once again.
How would things end? Seemingly, she was closer now to finding out than a few hours ago. Changing a hardened heart was not easy. Could she change Jared’s mind? Were these actions of his spurned by jealousy? Money combined with jealousy? Was that all it took to take innocent lives?
People had killed for less.
Casper and Russell peeked in on them intermittently, but otherwise left Ashley and Jared alone. They were attempting to get some form of communications established. Evidently, no cars had been left behind when the gunmen deserted Jared. Ashley felt like there was a way Jared could reach out, so they were dependent on him.
Ashley took the time to pray. It had worked for Casper and couldn’t hurt anything, but the words felt foreign to her. She could definitely see how her own relationship with her father influenced the way she felt about God. Was that fair? Had she really let God into her life wholeheartedly—without reservation? Had she ever made up her mind to focus on Him and surrender her life to His control? Ultimately, no.
Now was the time.
Two more hours passed and Jared all of a sudden struggled to sit up. Ashley helped him and offered him sips of water. He had difficulty looking at her, but she wasn’t going to step away from his bedside. Not until they had a little conversation. In hopes that would happen, Ashley turned on the video recorder and set it underneath the gurney.
Becoming attuned to Ashley’s steadfastness and perhaps realizing that he didn’t have gunmen to threaten them with, Jared turned toward her and studied her for the longest time. What she didn’t want was to start the conversation—she wanted to let him take the lead. Perhaps if he didn’t feel pushed he would be more inclined to Casper’s plan.
“I would never have been a good father to you. When your mother told me about her pregnancy, I literally ran away to another county and then spent my life convincing myself she had lied to me to trap me into a life I didn’t want.”
Ashley put herself in her mother’s shoes, trying to imagine how she’d feel if the same thing had happened to her. Her mother was barely nineteen when she became pregnant. The father disappearing with no intention of providing support.
“Russell and I had been vying for her attention and she gave in to me. We always had this competition between us and I wanted to win no matter what—no matter what the fallout was.”
Ashley pulled away from him slightly. “Is this really the man you want to be? Bent on destruction no matter what the cost?”
“In the case of your mother, it was easy. I knew Russell loved her and he had the fortitude to raise a child not blood related
as his own.”
Heat fumed in Ashley’s chest. There were good men who made bad choices with evil consequences. Her father was solidly in that category. Then there were just evil men, a description that fit Jared like a glove.
“I made some decisions where the money I got from this deal would erase away all potential consequences. I could flee the country and live the kind of life I wanted.”
“People died, Jared. You released ES1 intentionally in two different populations.”
“Your father always felt guilty about bringing that pathogen to life...but he still manufactured it. The money he got paid for your heart operation, your big house—also funded his ability to build this and make the cure. Russell taking that payment allowed you to live the lifestyle you grew accustomed to.”
Blood money. She’d gone to medical school and it had been paid for by the dirtiest of currency. How could her father do that? How could he leave her with this mental burden? Both Russell and Jared had committed crimes...horrid crimes. Her father creating that virus had led to all these events. He wasn’t an innocent man.
“You were the one who decided to release ES1. To see if it worked.”
“That’s true. After I released the pathogen the first time, all those deaths caused your father to break. Unlike me, Russell has a moral code, though it might have veered off course for a long time. Before I released the pathogen, I later realized, he was already working on a cure, but the realization that the pathogen was so lethal pushed him even harder to develop a cure behind my back. I found that out in Aspen Ridge after he cured those two patients.”
Ashley fingered the scar—a remnant from her surgery. Could she blame him? Would she make the same choice if faced with an ill child? Even if her child were dying, she couldn’t see creating something that could kill so many.
Jared continued. “After Russell sneaked in and cured those patients, my plan changed. I realized a cure was more valuable than the pathogen itself. Desperate people will do anything and pay nearly any price to live. Just as your father chose to take the money I offered him when he found out you needed heart surgery. Because of Russell, I even had evidence the cure worked. Foreign entities would require proof. They’re not going to pay billions for a placebo. I put deals in place. A US attack that used ES1 would panic the rest of the world. As soon as the US figured out there was a cure, I was counting on them to pay me for it.”
“So, you’ll confess to all this on tape?”
He laughed and slapped the bed rail with his hand. “Such a sense of humor. No, this was merely for you, Ashley, as consolation for not doing what I should have done as your father. Of course, I’ll deny every part of this. The only one likely to face prison time is your father.”
Ashley bent down and picked up the tape. “I don’t think that’s true.” She clicked off the video recorder and rewound it enough to play back a portion of their conversation. At hearing his own confession, Jared lunged at her. The glass doors to the room crashed open. Just as Jared began climbing over the bed rails, Casper made a dash toward the bed, went airborne and pinned Jared to the gurney. Russell quickly followed with a roll of duct tape. They bound Jared’s hands and feet together.
“Just in the nick of time, too,” Casper said. “We’ve managed to repair the radios and secure communications with the FBI and Homeland Security since we don’t know exactly who you’ve corrupted within the CIA.”
Jared screamed...a blood-curdling, agonizing scream. Perhaps he realized they had so much more than a confession. When the entities he worked with realized he wouldn’t be holding up his end of the bargain, they’d kill him.
Ashley picked up the tape and walked out of the room.
TWENTY-ONE
Casper didn’t know what day it was. They’d been down in the bunker perhaps two days. The sun was just coming up. Ashley looked past him through the windows at the back of the trailer. He leaned over and tried to catch her gaze but she just tilted away from him again.
They were in the back of a specialized biohazard unit. Casper didn’t blame their rescuers. Until it could be verified that neither he nor Ashley were sick it was the safest precaution. It would take a long time to sort out what had happened between Jared and Russell over the years—exactly who all the players were. Both would face prison time for sure, but maybe Russell would get some leniency for trying to do the right thing in the end. Even though his choices were bad ones, he had ended up saving lives.
Casper reached out and settled his hand over Ashley’s. She gripped the gurney tighter and he slowly tried to lift up her fingers. His heartbeat edged up as he wondered if she would engage in conversation with him.
“I made a mistake that I need to correct,” Casper said.
Ashley released her hand and he took it between both of his, working his thumbs over the back, massaging it gently. His fingers tingled touching hers. Even in their current state of disarray after being on the run for over a week, she was stunningly beautiful. When Casper’s memory returned, he knew he’d fallen in love with her long before she even knew he existed. He’d watched her from afar, silently hoping that someday she would notice him.
Not under these circumstances, but God did work in mysterious ways.
“You said something to me...and I didn’t say the right words back,” Casper confessed. “It didn’t feel like the right time to me.”
Ashley’s blue eyes locked on his. Their matted tiredness glistened.
Casper pulled her hand and rested it against his chest. “I have loved you longer than you’ve known me. Your father’s stories bonded me to you. I hoped for a day when we would find one another—although not due to such a crisis, but it worked.”
God worked.
“I love you, Ashley Drager. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’ll give up my work just to spend every moment with you...if you’ll have me.”
Ashley’s eyes smiled and she leaned forward.
Their lips met and it was the sweetest kiss Casper had ever experienced.
EPILOGUE
Ashley held Casper’s hand as the ultrasound tech guided the wand over her gelled belly and her right thumb and index finger twirled her wedding ring on her left hand. Both of them had decided that waiting to start their lives together considering all that had happened would be the most foolish choice of all. If they had learned anything, it was how precious life was and on what a thin thread it dangled.
The images popped up on the monitor and Ashley’s heart swelled. She could see the heartbeat fluttering. It seemed strong and normal to her but who was she to know what these gray-and-black images represented? Being an ER doctor didn’t mean she was adept at interpreting fetal ultrasounds.
Ashley reached up and caressed Casper’s face, and he leaned down and kissed her on the lips. Even after a year of marriage, the tingle in her toes at his touch remained.
So much had happened. Once Jared had realized that they’d recorded his confession and had been too weak to overpower the three of them, he’d surrendered and confessed where the attack was going to take place. Federal investigators also found supporting proof in the car recovered in Aspen Ridge, where Casper and Ashley had stowed the hospital documents. They’d even managed to find the buried blood samples from Jared’s first planned outbreak. Jared also told Casper where Ethan’s body was so he could be returned to his family for burial. Considering Russell had fashioned a cure, he was given a lighter sentence, but would still remain in prison for the next decade.
Russell would miss seeing his grandson grow up. Miss all the important developmental milestones.
“I’m happy to say that the heart structures appear normal,” their doctor said. “Of course, we’ll have to wait until the actual delivery to know for sure, but I don’t think you two should worry.”
That was the best information she was going to get any doctor to give her at this stage
in her pregnancy. Ashley reached and pulled Casper down, clutching him tightly.
“I told you his heart would be just as perfect as yours is,” Casper said.
She smiled through the tears. It was true. Her heart was perfect now. It had been mechanically repaired a long time ago, but now—with Casper’s love and a renewed love of God—it was whole. The two gaping holes once present had been filled by all the right things.
“I told you, Ashley, God is always working for good.”
* * * * *
If you enjoyed FUGITIVE SPY, look for these other books by Jordyn Redwood:
FRACTURED MEMORY
TAKEN HOSTAGE
Available now from Love Inspired Suspense!
Find more great reads at www.LoveInspired.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from TRACKING DANGER by Terri Reed.
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Dear Reader,
Fugitive Spy was inspired by Ken Alibek’s nonfiction book called Biohazard, where he documents his work with the Soviet Union creating and stockpiling biological weapons of mass destruction.
The concepts in this book might seem unbelievable, but they are pulled from factual accounts. The video described by Casper and Ashley of Gruinard Island exists and can easily be found on the internet. Unit 731 was real as well as Operation Cherry Blossom. Many elements of the novel are based on real-life events. However, if I can ease your mind some, to my knowledge there is not currently a bioweapon called ES1 or one that combines smallpox and Ebola. Let’s hope and pray that never happens.
What is clear from Mr. Alibek’s book is that some governments have made the choice to operate outside the law when it comes to chemical and biological weapons. My impression from him from the book is that we shouldn’t let a piece of paper (as in a law) satisfy our intellect that countries are always operating inside the law without some form of verification.
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