Claws

by Ricky Sides

  “We need to know where it was shipped,” Jerry stated.

  “Yes, but they’re refusing to cooperate. They are claiming that they were following orders from the company president, and as I said, they want a lawyer.”

  “Alright, take me to them,” Jerry responded.

  “One moment. I want to get Talbot, but I can’t have these men tortured while they’re in my custody.”

  “Robert, you watch too many bad movies. I won’t tell you I’ve never used force to get an answer, but as a rule, torture doesn’t work effectively. Trust me. You’ll see how this is really done.”

  “Alright, I just wanted that clearly understood,” said Robert, and then he opened the door and the two men entered the command center.

  Inside the large room, Jerry spotted the two men who’d been apprehended by security. Two large security men stood a couple of feet from their chairs. Jerry stopped a few feet from the men and stared at them appraisingly. He observed the affect his presence had on both men. “Gentlemen, my name is Jerry Wilson. I’m a lieutenant in the United States army, assigned to a counter terrorism unit. I understand that you two men want an attorney present,” Jerry stated.

  “You’re damned right we do,” said the bigger of the two men with open hostility. He grinned as he added, “We know our rights.”

  “But do you know the consequences of exercising those rights?” Jerry asked with a smirk on his face. He chuckled when the men remained silent. “You terrorist wannabes always think you have all the answers, but it usually turns out that you don’t know shit when it comes to the realities of your situation. Before I let you two idiots screw yourselves into a life sentence, or possibly even a death sentence, I’m going to do you a favor and lay it out for you.”

  “You are working with a known terrorist. That makes you an accessory to his crimes. You have been shipping a dangerous substance that can lead to the deaths of innocent people. You have information that can save those innocent people, but you are unwilling to disclose that information. You have information that can lead to the apprehension of one of America’s ten most wanted fugitives, but you are unwilling to do so. That adds aiding and abetting to the charges, and if just one innocent person dies because of what you’ve done, I guarantee you the government will seek the death penalty when the charges are upgraded to murder. If you lawyer up and we turn you over to the police, then you face the full consequences of your actions as I just laid them out. However, if you cooperate by giving us the locations where those shipments were delivered, and tell us where you’re supposed to meet Talbot, then I’m in a position to see to it that you both avoid the most serious charges.”

  “We want immunity!” the beefy suspect said.

  “Robert,” Jerry said while staring the suspects in the faces.

  “Yes?”

  “I think I’ll grab a cup of coffee. Give them five minutes to reach a decision. If they insist on the lawyer, then call the police and turn them over to the local authorities, and I’ll inform my superiors that they don’t want to cooperate for leniency. As far as I’m concerned, these two idiots should face the full consequences of their actions,” Jerry said, and then he walked to the coffee pot on a nearby table.

  “I’ll be watching the clock. I don’t want them stinking up my command center any longer than necessary,” Robert said.

  “Tell them what they want to know, Ben,” the smaller of the two men said. “I didn’t get involved in this to hurt anybody.”

  “Are you saying I did?” the larger man belligerently asked.

  “No. I’m saying that Talbot screwed us both. We had no idea we were shipping anything dangerous. We just thought he was skimming loads of feed to pocket the money.”

  “Shut up,” the beefy suspect said.

  “Kirk,” Robert said, “if you know where the loads were sent, and where Talbot is, then maybe Jerry will get you the leniency. You could just let Ben suffer for his stupidity. You don’t have to go down with him.”

  “Stop trying to drive a wedge between us,” Ben said angrily.

  Robert looked pointedly at the clock and the wall and shrugged. He reached for the phone on the desk beside him. Kirk’s eyes nervously followed his every movement. “Wait! It hasn’t been five minutes yet! Ben, we have to cooperate!” he said in a voice that betrayed his panicked state of mind.

  “Alright, damnit. You win. We’ll tell you everything you want to know. It’s like Kirk said. We were just trying to earn some extra cash for the holidays. We had no idea Talbot was a terrorist. Neither of us wants to be involved with terrorism,” Ben explained.

  Robert nodded. “I’ll let Jerry know,” he responded, and then he moved away to join Jerry at the table.

  “You followed up well,” Jerry said quietly with a note of approval in his voice.

  “You were right. It was easy to see where you were going with your speech. You did that well. Somehow, I have the feeling that it wasn’t the first time you’ve used that approach,” Robert observed.

  “I do find it more effective than the thumbscrews,” Jerry said with a grin.

  “Hey guys,” yelled Ben. “Did you mean what you said about the feed being dangerous?”

  Jerry walked over to stand before the men. “Yes. The feed is dangerous, which is the reason you’ll need to help us locate it.”

  “What does it do?” asked Ben. “Why is it dangerous?”

  “It has an unusual affect on the animals that eat it. It makes them dangerous. That’s all you need to know,” Jerry responded.

  “Is that just cats, or would it make dogs dangerous too?” Ben asked.

  Jerry had a bad feeling about the nature of the man’s questions. “It’s formulated for cats, but yes. It would also affect dogs to a lesser degree.”

  “Rottweilers?”

  “Yes, all animals would be affected. Just how much would depend upon the amount they were fed, their weight, and the length of time they’ve been eating it,” Jerry explained.

  “Robert, I need you to call my wife and tell her to take the kids and go to her mom’s house. Tell her I said to leave the dogs at home, and that I’ll explain later,” Ben said in a pleading tone of voice.

  “Do it,” Jerry said when Robert looked to him.

  “Now, where is Talbot? Tell me that. I’ll go pick him up. You can give Robert the rest of the information, including all the details concerning your dogs.”

  “Not so fast, mister. We’ll cooperate, but first, I want to know that my wife and kids are safe. Those dogs have been acting weird lately. I raised them both from pups. They used to love me, but lately they’ve been getting aggressive. One of them growled at me last night when I was late feeding them. I told the kids to stay away from them, but if they are dangerous, then I want my family seen to before I give you what you want.”

  Jerry frowned and said, “If Talbot gets away because of your delay, then you may wish you hadn’t insisted on doing things this way. You’ve had the dogs all this time, what makes you think they’re going to do something in the next few minutes?”

  “Talbot said to meet him at 7:00 P.M. You’ve got almost two hours to get to that meeting, and it’s a twenty minute drive, tops.”

  “There’s no answer at your house,” Robert said.

  Ben’s face visibly paled. “We’ve got to get to my house.”

  “Give me the address. I’ll go,” Jerry stated.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “This isn’t a negotiation. I’m not taking you with me. Now give me the address. You’re wasting time,” Jerry said in a no nonsense tone of voice.

  ***

  A few miles outside the Athens city limits on Highway 127, Jerry parked in front of a small wood frame house. He saw the dog pen to one side of the house, just as Ben had described it, but there was no sign of the two dogs. There was nowhere inside the fence that the Rottweilers could hide with the exception of the doghouses, and Jerry could see inside both. He could also see that the fence was intac
t and the gate was closed. This led him to believe that someone had let the dogs out of the enclosure, which meant that the animals were probably in the house with the family. Ben had said that his wife sometimes let them in when the temperature was expected to get below twenty degrees.

  Jerry got out of his car and walked toward the front door. He had only taken a few steps when he heard what sounded like muffled screaming. He paused to listen, but traffic on the road behind him drowned out the sound. He started forward again. He continued toward the front door. When he knocked at the door, he heard the sounds of vicious barking, and then Jerry heard the muffled screaming again.

  Alarmed, he drew his nine-millimeter pistol, chambered a round, and then he tried the front door. To his surprise, it was unlocked. He cautiously pushed open the door, waiting for the dogs to make the first move. He could now see inside the living room, and what he saw made his blood run cold.

  He saw two of the largest dogs he had ever seen in his life, and one of the dogs had a woman down on the floor. It’s jaws were closed on her forearm. The woman moaned and tried her best to hold the dog off as it tried to get at her throat, but the animal seemed confused. To get to her throat, it would have to let go of her arm and it didn’t want to let go.

  The second dog had retreated to a doorway across the room and was growling menacingly. Beyond that doorway, Jerry could faintly hear what sounded like children crying. He noted all of this in the first two seconds he was in the house, and then the dog in the doorway charged him. Reacting with combat reflexes honed by years of experience, Jerry shot the dog in the chest. The nine-millimeter hollow point lacked the stopping power of the forty-five, but it had enough to terminate the massive animal. The Rottweiler fell to the floor. Its forward momentum slid the body another three feet before it came to a stop.

  Jerry shot the animal again to make certain it was dead, and then he moved toward the woman. The dog that had her down on the floor released the woman and turned toward Jerry. Its muzzle was coated with the woman’s blood. “Out,” Jerry said in a firm voice. He moved away from the open door, but not toward the dog. He wanted to give it the option to leave the house. The dog looked at him, and then looked back at the woman, whining as if it was confused.

  “Out, Jeb,” the woman said weakly. “Get out, boy,” she said again in a slightly stronger tone of voice.

  The dog whined again. It took a few tentative steps toward the door, but then it turned and launched its body at the prostrate woman. Jerry shot the animal twice before it could reach the victim. The animal collapsed on the floor near its owner.

  “The kids. They ran to the bathroom. Check on my kids please,” pleaded the woman.

  “I’ll be right back,” Jerry promised.

  He went through the doorway the other dog had occupied just moments before. He found himself in a short hallway and saw a door with heavy scratch marks to the left of the threshold. “You kids in there?” Jerry asked. “Your mom wants me to check on you. It’s safe to come out. The dogs are dead.”

  The door abruptly opened and a little boy and two older girls came out. “Where’s mom?” asked the oldest of the children. Jerry estimated that the girl was in her early teens.

  “She’s in the living room. We need to get her some help. One of the dogs bit her, but she’ll be alright. Get me a wet washrag and a towel. I’ll make an emergency bandage that will do until the ambulance gets here.”

  In the living room, Jerry worked on the woman’s arm and listened as she talked. His mind filed the information for future reference as she said, “Lately, Jeb and Lace have been acting funny. They seemed angry most of the time, and they were always so hungry. I doubled their feed and even that barely seemed to content them. I thought maybe they were spending too much time away from the family out in that pen, so I brought them in to be with us. They started barking at the kids and acting aggressive, so I had the kids go into the bathroom while I tried to get them out of the house, but Lace knocked me down and Jeb grabbed my arm. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come along when you did. I need to call my husband.”

  “He’s at work. He sent me to check on you when you wouldn’t answer your phone. My name’s Jerry Wilson. I’m a security consultant, working with Alcorn at the moment.”

  “Are you Ben’s friend?” she asked as he tied the makeshift bandage around her arm.

  “I just met him today,” Jerry said, evading the woman’s question. Then he said, “There, that will do for the moment.”

  “You killed our dogs, mister?” asked the little boy.

  “He had to, Honey. Something was wrong with them,” the mother told her son.

  “Why did they turn on us, Mom?” asked the oldest girl.

  “I don’t know,” the mother said with a frown.

  Jerry was spared any further questions by the arrival of the ambulance.

  ***

  “You’re sure she’ll be alright?” asked Ben in a worried tone of voice.

  Nodding his head in assent, Jerry said, “She’ll be fine. She was understandably shaken up by the attack, but she’s a brave one.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for saving my family,” Ben responded. He hesitated for a moment, and then he added, “Listen, about last night, I’m sorry I roughed you up.”

  “I can’t say I was happy about that encounter, but there are bigger issues at hand. Did you give Robert the addresses of the shipments as promised?” Jerry asked.

  “He did,” Robert stated. The shipments were sent to four Athens grocery stores. Alcorn executives have already contacted those stores and had the product pulled off the shelves. They’ll be picking up the shipments tonight and replacing them. We’ll do an inventory on the returned stock in order to determine how much of the product has reached the consumers.”

  “Are we going to be fired?” asked Kirk.

  “Yes, but you’re lucky. The company wants this kept quiet, or you’d be going to jail tonight. The executives had an emergency meeting. They decided to let you go, provided that you cooperate, but you are never to set foot on Alcorn property again, and you are to keep your mouths shut.”

  “But we were just following Talbot’s orders,” Kirk pleaded.

  “It’s not my decision,” Robert said coldly. He didn’t like the idea of letting the men walk away from this with no punishment beyond their termination. “Now give Jerry the address so we can conclude this business.”

  “We get to go home then?” asked Kirk.

  “No,” Jerry answered. “You’ll stay here until after I make the meeting with Talbot. I can’t risk letting you go before that meeting. You could tip off Talbot.”

  Ben frowned, but he didn’t argue. He said, “I know you won’t believe me, but I hope you get him. That bastard played me for a fool and cost me my job.”

  “If he shows up, then I’ll get him. There are some serious questions I need to ask that man.”

  Ben nodded his understanding, and then he gave Jerry the address for the meeting.

  ***

  Jerry sat in the parking lot of Alcorn long enough to contact Sergeant Haskell and brief him on the latest developments. He then drove Ben’s car to the parking lot where Talbot was supposed to meet his henchmen, but Talbot didn’t make that meeting.

  ***

  Rusty Talbot wasn’t in Athens. In fact, he was no longer in the state of Alabama. The man had meticulously planned his escape. He had made a substantial withdrawal from his savings account in the wake of Patricia’s termination, and made several key purchases that would enable him to leave the country unhindered.

  He bought a used car from an individual, paying cash and giving a false name. Under the ruse that he would take her with him, Talbot had Clarisse locate a pair of cruise tickets for a trip with multiple stops in the Bahamas, instructing her to pay cash so that no one could trace the tickets to them.

  Then Talbot had laid a false trail of credit card purchases. He bought an airline ticket for a trip to Mexico
in his name, reserving a hotel suite at his destination.

  Now Rusty was in Georgia, just south of Atlanta, driving to Jacksonville, Florida, where he would board the cruise ship. Once he was in the Bahamas, it would be a simple matter for him to go to an airport and book a flight to Switzerland.

  Having sold the formula to eight major governments, Talbot had several new Swiss bank accounts waiting, and if his test run in Athens bore fruit, one of those accounts would see an even larger deposit when the Russians bought the secret.

  Rusty Talbot had sold out America, and in the process, he had unleashed what had the potential to be the biggest biological weapons breakthrough in the history of mankind. Now, the genie was out of the bottle, and no amount of effort could put it back.

  Chapter 15

  Charlie Ritter knew they were back. He couldn’t see them out there in the darkness, but he could sense the presence of the pair of giant cats that had returned as they had the previous night. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and sighed. His frozen breath hung heavily in the air near his face. “Let’s see how clever you beasts are,” he said quietly as his eyes tried to penetrate the deepening darkness.

  Charlie had contemplated the problem all that day. He finally decided on a course of action and spent the remainder of the afternoon preparing. He walked to the nearest grocery store, which was Hometown, and purchased a bag of Alcorn cat food. He would need the food for bait, and Alcorn gave the city stores a discount price, which they passed on to their customers. Purchasing the cat food meant he would have to eat nothing but rice the rest of the week, but if he didn’t find a solution to his problem, he might not live the rest of the week.

  He had worked the rest of the afternoon gathering firewood for the coming night and preparing his surprises. Charlie had cleverly concealed the snare near the small mound of cat food. He had rigged it so that he could trigger it when they approached the food. He knew it wouldn’t get both of the cats, but he hoped to improve the odds by eliminating one of the felines who seemed so intent on stalking him at night. Now he waited beside his fire, shifting from foot to foot in the cold night air.