“Do you mind if I keep it? I lost mine.”
“Sure, lady.” He pushed the receipt to the edge of the counter.
Damn it. “Don’t need it. Everything’s electronic these days.” She ran back to the car, threw the bag on the passenger seat, and gunned the engine.
Tucking the bottle between her thighs she cracked the cap with one hand, and drank the whole bottle down. She fiddled with the aspirin but couldn’t get the cap off so she pulled over, and quickly sprang three pills and downed them. With a shoulder check, she got back on the highway. Time to find someplace to wait this out.
She slowed when she saw a sign cross her headlights that said Kaibab Recreational Site. Turning the wheel, she took the forestry road. The pine, spruce, and fir trees would keep her hidden. Driving slowly, she noted only two camp sites were occupied. A couple of outhouses sitting on uneven ground next to each other made her ponder how she’d go to the bathroom. She’d have to contain her bodily fluids. Pulling into the last site, she parked the car. Checking her cell service, the phone rang. The number was blocked.
“If this is a United States SEAL, I want you to hang up.”
“Lumin, you sound tired.”
Tony’s concerned voice struck her in the heart. She closed her eyes, but it didn’t stop the tears. A harsh squeeze in her chest threatened to make her bawl like a baby. “I’m okay.”
“No, my lady, you’re not. Before you hang up on me, I need to tell you something.”
“I’m not dying in a cold cement room with a guy wearing a baggy suit hovering over me, Tony.” She tucked her hand underneath her armpit to coddle the thrumming pain. The lymph node was swollen, and she remembered the picture they’d shown her at the base. Fear had taken up a solid residency in her stomach. Six hours to go before her expiration time. She stared at the passenger seat, at the bottles of aspirin sitting there. Could she do it if things got too bad?
“Then talk to me, because I want to hear your voice. I want you to hear mine.”
“Later. I’ll call later.”
His voice hitched. “When it’s too damn late, you mean. When I can’t save you. Don’t hang up, please.”
She snuffled and rubbed the tears away. “I know you can stop Dafoe. I know you can do anything you want to do.”
“I want to hold you in my arms. More than anything I’ve ever wanted.”
“That wouldn’t be smart. I thought SEALs were smart.”
“I’m a man, and right now my heart is going a hundred miles an hour. If everything falls apart, if the team can’t stop this, I want to be with you.”
“I’m scared.” The air hitched hard in her throat and she choked out a sob. The wall of hope she’d surrounded herself in crumbled.
“Please, Lumin, tell me where you are. Don’t make me run in circles. You’re making me nuts.”
Lumin nearly jumped out of her skin when someone knocked on her window. A young couple with knapsacks peered inside. “Are you okay, lady?”
“Yes.”
“Roll down the window,” the girl said, winding her hand.
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
A flashlight beam punctured the glass and swept through the car, settling on the seat beside her. The girl’s eyes strayed back to her. “Whatever it is, it’s not worth that.”
“Please back away from the car. I’m okay.” The guy pulled on the girl’s arm, drawing her away. They took another look over their shoulder before disappearing down the road. They had to be in one of the campsites she’d seen driving in.
“Why did she say that, Lumin? What’s not worth it?”
“Tony, you need to stop calling me. Do your job. Dafoe is insane. Find him.”
“It’s too late to stop him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Three towns are now quarantined. The population is infected. He released the second strain into the town’s water source.”
“Water!” She gripped the phone tighter. “Can it make it to the Colorado and other major rivers?”
“That’s a likely scenario.”
“The second strain can survive in air and water?”
“We don’t know about air. They were taking you to Las Vegas to infect others. We assume so, but we don’t know, and we can’t know until I find you. Kayla and Mace are trying to find Bjornson and the vaccine. I have to know where you are so I can give it to you. Hiding from me will only waste time.”
“Don’t be mad at me. I’m not hurting anyone else.”
“You’re hurting me.”
“No, I’m not.” Her voice wavered with emotion. “We barely know each other.” Her lip quivered and she couldn’t stop it. Her right hand gripped one of the pill bottles and she closed her eyes, knowing it wouldn’t be much longer before thinking straight would be a chore.
Tony sucked in a short breath. “I’m fucking begging you not to give up on me, Lumin. I thought you trusted me.”
She smiled through her tears as the ache in her heart twisted tight. In spite of the agony she was about to face, the fear was swallowed by the memory of his arms around her. “I have a huge crush on you, Tony Bale. I have ever since you saved me from Gordon in the bar. Every night since then, I dreamed about the moment you left me on the steps of the Porter’s home. I play it over and over again like a moment from an epic love story.” She coughed out a laugh. “Stupid, but it’s the truth. My heart raced when I saw you for the first time. It races now thinking about you.” She swept her forearm across her cheeks and took a big, stuttering breath. “I’m probably not the first to tell you that, and I most definitely won’t be the last. You are an amazing man, Petty Officer Bale.” The phone was absolutely silent for so long she thought they’d been cut off from each other. It broke with a strangled cry. He was crying? “Tony?”
“I’m going to find you, woman, and when I do you’re never going to run from me again. So hide all you want, because I’ll be damned if I’ll let my soul mate die alone. Come hell or high water, I’ll be with you to the end. So, tell me where you are!”
A small beep sounded and the background noise went silent. She yanked the cell from her ear to see the battery was depleted. The tears came, rolling like a giant wave, and she leaned her forehead against the wheel, the phone falling from her fingers to the floor of the car. Pain, heartbreak, they stirred together in a cauldron of loss.
* * * *
Date: 07.27.2014
Time: 1400UTC 0600hrs PST
Mission: Code Name Luminous
The anteroom door to Base Command cracked open with a suck of air. Mace, geared in his fatigues, strode through it. “Ready to roll, Snow White?”
“Affirmative. I’ve got the address for the Bjornson residence. It’s at the end of Telegraph Canyon Road near Otay Lake.”
“Let’s go pay them a visit.”
Kayla grabbed her purse and slung the strap over her shoulder. “You don’t think they’re there, do you?”
“We’re going to find out.”
Kayla stared up at the clock and her brows knit together.
Mace shook his head at her. “She’s already out of time.”
“No,” Kayla spit out. “She’s young and strong. The virus will act differently with everyone. Let’s go.”
It took them twenty minutes to reach the well-kept acreage with white fencing and a modest rancher sitting on a knoll above the road with an unobstructed view of Otay Lake.
“What do you think?”
Mace’s eyes scanned the front of the house and the surrounding area. “Stay here for a second.” He cracked the door and reached for his Sig. Running for the house, he put his back to the wall when he reached it and scanned the property. He waved and she got out of the car. He pointed toward the side of the house. She nodded and followed.
The back yard was beautiful, with a huge green lawn, a hip-high fence and a large brick patio. An outdoor fireplace and loungers completed the outside living room. A kid’s swing set and an oak tree with the
beginnings of a tree fort sat snug within its noble branches. She followed Mace, and they both peered in the back window. The TV was on. Mace edged his way down the wall and reached for the patio door. It slid open with a pull. He signaled for her to join him.
“Your show, I’m just the muscle,” he whispered in her ear.
“Hello, is anyone home? Ariana Bjornson, please come out.”
“Who are you?” A worried voice came from the hallway leading to the kitchen.
A small child whispered in an overly loud voice and was hushed by an adult female.
“We’re here to talk to you about your husband,” Kayla said.
A head of white hair appeared from the hallway. “Please don’t hurt us. We don’t know anything.”
Kayla stepped inside the comfortably furnished home. “My name is Kayla Austen. This is Petty Officer Mace Callahan, United States Navy SEAL. We need your help. People are sick and we know your husband has the antiserum. I’m not here to arrest him or hurt anyone. I need to help my friend, and the residents of three towns now infected.”
“Stay there,” Mrs. Bjornson whispered to someone behind her.
She stepped into the kitchen. “Your grandchildren are safe. They can come out.”
Ariana Bjornson was a slender woman, maybe sixty years of age. A young boy and girl followed her, but she kept them behind her. “I don’t know anything. I can’t help you.”
“We have to find your husband. He has the only vaccine to the virus that’s been released by a terrorist. If you don’t help us, we’re all dead. The virus is making its way toward us. It’s in the water. All we can do is get the vaccine, replicate it and start vaccinating people. Even then, thousands will probably die.” Ariana was a mother, and most likely an innocent victim in all this. “I don’t want my son to die, and I want this little girl to be born,” she said, placing a palm on her stomach. “Please help us.”
Ariana blinked and glanced at Mace. Kayla hoped like hell he didn’t have his scary SEAL face on and his weapon was secure.
“That man, Dafoe, he’s looking for my husband.”
“We know. We have to find him first.” The kids made a break for it, and Ariana tried to grab them. “It’s okay,” she reassured. Kayla eased herself into a kitchen chair. Cranking a look over her shoulder, she made sure Mace got the hint. “Mrs. Bjornson, we know your husband was caught up in this. The other scientists were tricked as well.”
Mace gave her a sympathetic look, and he was good at them.
“You’re a SEAL?” she asked, coming to the table and sitting across from them.
“Yes, my wife was infected with the first strain of the virus, but we found the serum. We have to stop this if we can. Once it gets legs, it’s going to kill thousands of people.”
Ariana clasped her aging hands, wrinkled and covered in blue veins. “Clifford didn’t realize in the beginning what his work would be used for. He’d been contacted by an old friend, and asked if he’d like to come out of retirement for a project. He thought it was backed by the U.S. military. They confined him to a lab in New Mexico, and when he realized who the man was behind the project, it was too late. He was a prisoner.”
“Just like Dr. Carmichael,” Kayla added.
“Yes. They had him for an entire year, and threatened our family if I went to the authorities. This man, Dafoe, he promised Cliff would be released when he’d finished his work. Yesterday Cliff called me. We’ve been living at my sister’s place in Colorado for the last year. We only came back today.”
Mace jerked his head toward the living room. Kayla had seen the luggage as well. “He’s hiding.”
Ariana nodded, her eyes dull with worry. Kayla reached across the table and gripped her hand. “Please take us to him. He is our only chance to stop this.”
“Christopher. Maddy. We’re going to see Grandpa, get your bags.” The kids ran from the room. “Cliff isn’t far. We have friends on the other side of the lake.”
“We’ll follow you,” Kayla said, and she and Mace squeezed each other’s hands under the table.
“They’ll be watching this house,” Mace said under his breath. “We’ve got to come up with a decoy.”
“Roger that, thinking the same thing.” She moved to the window and looked out over the lake. “There might be one way.” Mace stood behind her and gave her a big hug, gazing over her shoulder.
“Congratulations by the way,” he said, and kissed the top of her head.
She shifted and wrapped an arm around his waist. “A little girl. I always wanted a little girl.”
Mace smiled down at her. “Are you stopping at two?”
She chuckled. “Thane wants four, but we’ll see how he does with his daughter. I think she’ll be turning him inside out with worry and love the second she’s born. He’ll protect Sloane ferociously.”
“No doubt there.”
“I talked to Nina just before you picked me up. She sounds good. Not exactly the best way to find out you’re going to be a father.”
A beaming smile spread across Mace’s handsome face. “My family is more important than riding high on a mission. We’ve been talking about making a change. If I can get a transfer, we’re considering moving to Hawaii. We want the kids to grow up together.”
Kayla stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Everything has changed so much in the last couple of years. Until now, it was all for the better.”
“It still is, Kayla.” Mace gave her a quick squeeze. “Let’s find Bjornson and get the antiserum to Lumin.”
“Tony must be going out of his mind with worry.”
“She’s three hours over now. She must be in bad shape. Tinman lost contact with her. Her phone died.”
“When?”
Mace darted a look at her. “Midnight. You had enough to deal with.”
“Mace.” She gave him a glare. “There are more people than me in Base Command. All hands are on deck.” She unlocked her phone and dialed the base. Barry answered and she gave him instructions. When she hung up, Ariana appeared with the kids, and she explained the plan.
The wind was warm as it brushed her face. At high speed, she and Ariana crossed the lake in their boat. Mace balked at the idea, but he had the kids and was driving around to meet them. If someone was following, they would follow Mace instead of her and Ariana.
“That dock over there,” she shouted and pointed toward the west.
Kayla nodded and slowed the craft until it was gently drifting a few feet off the dock. She took a quick look at the rise of green lawn toward the back of the house. Dr. Bjornson had to be watching. Hopefully he’d see his wife and present himself. She secured the ropes to the cleats and they walked up the steps cut into the hillside. Ariana wore a worried expression.
“Is something wrong?” Kayla asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ariana said, walking beside her as they approached the house.
The patio door was open, and Kayla saw something that twisted her nerves into a tight ‘be wary’ ball.
“Oh, no,” Ariana cried, and began to run toward the house.
Kayla caught her. “Stay here. I’ll go.” She ran the rest of the way, but cautiously. An arm was draped out the door, and she saw a grey head of hair on the frame. “Dr. Bjornson!” She pushed open the patio door and knelt beside him, listening for other sounds in the house. Clutching his left wrist she felt for a pulse. Weak. “Dr. Bjornson, can you hear me?” she said, checking the rest of him. She rolled him, and saw the pool of blood hidden beneath him. A gunshot wound in his right side bled freely.
“Cliff, Cliff.” Ariana knelt beside him and took his hand.
Dr. Bjornson’s lids flickered as he came to. “You’re going to be okay, sir.” Kayla called an ambulance. There was a lot of blood loss. “Ariana, I need to stop the flow. Can you find me a clean towel?”
“They didn’t get it,” he muttered.
“Kayla,” Ariana cried out.
She ran for the living room. A man lay face
down on the carpet. No movement. Mace came through the front door. “Stop the kids from coming in here, Mace. Ariana, we need you to keep the children outside.” Kayla toed the weapon away, and Mace picked it up and checked him.
“He’s dead.”
She ran back to Dr. Bjornson, grabbing a cloth draped over the handle of the wall oven on her way. She knelt down and put pressure on the wound, making the doctor flinch. “Sorry, sir. The ambulance is on its way. Where’s the weapon you shot him with?” Before he answered, she saw it underneath the kitchen table. “I know you’re in a lot of pain, sir, but I have to find the vaccine to the second virus. Dafoe has released the new strain.”
Dr. Bjornson’s eyes opened a smidge. “Who are you?”
“I’m Kayla Austen. I work with the United States Navy. A friend was with Dr. Carmichael when he died. He told her about the virus and Dafoe, and you. We’ve been trying to find you. Dafoe has infected three towns. He put the second strain of the virus in the water. How long will it live if it gets into the underground water systems?”
Bjornson groaned as he stuffed his fingers into his pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper, and with a shaking, bloody hand, held it out. “It doesn’t mutate, but it can live in water or air. It won’t die off.”
Kayla took the paper and read the numbers on it. “We thought it mutated after thirty-six hours.”
“Didn’t work,” he whispered.
“What is this?” she asked, looking at the paper.
“Where I hid the vaccine. I didn’t believe Dafoe would…” Bjornson’s eyes closed for a second, and his breathing was becoming shallower. “I didn’t think he’d do it without the serum. I found it.” He coughed. “I created the vaccine for Ebola.”
“Where is it?”
“Center—”
Oh shit. “Doc, come on, what center? Please.” Mace hunkered down across from her. “What center?” she said loudly.
“Center for Virus…” Bjornson exhaled, and his hand went limp.
Mace felt for a pulse and shook his head.
“Jeezus,” she yelled and jumped to her feet. “Another fucking piece of the puzzle. Now we have to run this down. We don’t have enough time.”
Code Name: Luminous Page 18
