Mitchell knew that it was only a matter of time before they caught up with him. The best he could hope for was to make sure that when they did, they understood that something was wrong with him and took the right measures to make sure nothing bad happened to him.
The police told news agencies that the phone had a note on it but left out the part about three flares to avoid having pranksters send them on false leads. Interesting and frustrating to Mitchell was that they were calling his request for medical containment a “demand,” like he was a terrorist asking that they let his friends in prison go free.
From what he could make of the coverage of the mail truck incident, it didn’t sound like the arresting police were using protective gear of any kind. He was certain that if he had been driving the truck or hiding in the back, he’d be dead by now.
News reports were still calling it “contagious hysteria” until the surveillance video footage was scrutinized. A retired Army chemical and biological weapons expert speaking on Fox News pointed out the reactions of people who didn’t have Mitchell in the line of sight. The idea that there was something actually causing people to behave this way besides Mitchell’s actions was gaining traction.
When the FBI and DHS held their press conference, Mitchell felt good to hear them finally say they thought there might be some kind of chemical agent involved. The idea that he had something on him was ridiculous, though in a fit of paranoia, he searched through the duffle bag and his backpack again for anything strange. He, of course, came up short. Mitchell was certain that when he surrendered the authorities would see that something was wrong with him and then they’d understand. He was one of the few people, if any, who was relieved to find out that he’d gone from a local fugitive to the target of a federal manhunt.
To Mitchell that meant agencies like the FBI and Centers for Disease Control taking what happened more seriously than a local police department that wanted to charge him for shouting “fire” in a crowded movie theater.
Mitchell began planning how he would surrender. He wanted to wait another day to make sure that the authorities had the right precautions in place. In Mitchell’s mind that meant men wearing hazardous-material suits and some kind of hermetically sealed chamber in the back of a truck where they could take him to a special hospital and find out what was wrong.
He was ready to be treated like a patient and not a criminal. As soon as he knew they were going to do that, he’d walk right into their hands. Mitchell was confident everyone would understand his actions once they could see for themselves what was going on.
39
Instead of moving on, Mitchell decided to stay put on the island until he had reason to believe he could surrender without harm. He listened to news reports throughout the day, waiting for information indicating it would be safe to turn himself in.
Listening to Rookman’s show that night gave him second thoughts.
Rookman’s familiar theme music began and his gravelly voice started talking. “Well, folks, what an interesting turn of events out there. Public Enemy Number One, our own little Mad Mitch is now accused of being a one-man weapon of mass destruction.
“
Our own expert on these kinds of things, Dr. Lovestrange, not his real name, is with us on the line from his secret location. Doctor, what do you make of all this?”
Lovestrange spoke in his usual calm voice. “Well, Rookman, I have to say one thing. Don’t believe it. There’s something else going on here. As you know, there’s the story they know and the story they want you to know.”
Rookman replied, “How do you mean? What they’ve said sounds pretty scary. They’ve tented up a shopping mall like an exterminator tent, and they’re wrapping the Super Center in plastic. If they’re not trying to cause a panic, they’ve failed.”
“
Then explain the logic to me here,” said Doctor Lovestrange. “The government is saying that Mitchell has come in contact with some kind of chemical agent that is making people go crazy. OK. Here are two problems with what they’re saying. First, how come Mitchell hasn’t gone crazy? Everything I’ve seen indicates a very sane, rational man trying to run from people pursuing him. Second, what’s the logic in creating a WMD that makes people want to kill the person using it? That gives suicide bomber a whole new definition.”
“
Playing devil’s advocate,” said Rookman. “What if Mitchell has been given some kind of antidote to this, and the fact that people were attacking him wasn’t the intended effect?”
“
Possible,” said Lovestrange. “It sounds like a very bad plan. It also brings up another set of questions. Who made this? Everything we worry about terrorists getting a hold of is smaller versions of stuff we have like nukes and anthrax. An agent like this is technically way beyond their capabilities and probably most governments. It’s also, I might add, illegal under international laws and treaties.”
“
So who made this?” asked Rookman.
“
Certainly not Mitchell acting alone. Three countries have the expertise and weapons programs to make something like this, Russia, China and the United States. Is Russia or China going to hand over one of their most state-of-the-art chemical weapons to some radio host to spray in a shopping mall? Why?”
“
Maybe it was a test run,” said Rookman.
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You don’t test run chemical warfare agents you want to keep a secret inside a foreign country.”
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How do you test them?” asked Rookman, already knowing the answer.
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You do it on your own people,” said Lovestrange.
“
Wait up a minute, Doc. You don’t mean to say our own United States government would use its own citizens to test something like this?” Rookman exaggerated his disbelief knowing full well how Lovestrange would respond.
“
The CIA exposed subway passengers to an aerosol-based LSD in the 1950s. In the ’60s and ’70s we conducted tests to see how quickly bacteria could spread in urban environments. This is nothing new.”
“
That was then, Doc. We exposed all of that and put a stop to it.”
“
Did we, Rookman? We did those things when we were acting out of fear from the cold war. After 9/11 we learned a new kind of fear. A whole generation of brilliant minds started imagining all of the scary things that bad people could do using genetic engineering, computer viruses, nanotechnology and a thousand other technologies.
“
Once you start thinking about that stuff, you can’t stop wondering what the other guy has got. Your biggest fear is getting hit by something you don’t understand. And there’s only one way to try to understand these kinds of things. The first atomic bomb didn’t blow up in Hiroshima, Japan. It was detonated in the middle of New Mexico in the United States. That next day a radioactive cloud covered half the state, and the public was none the wiser until we dropped the bomb on Japan.”
“
Are you saying this was an intentional test of a weapon by our own government?” asked Rookman.
“
Not a weapon in the traditional sense. This isn’t some kind of device used to spray a crowd with crazy gas. The government said ‘chemical’ agent, which implies a device to distribute it. There is no device. Because this isn’t a chemical. It’s a life form. We’re looking at a genetically engineered bacteria or a virus that’s causing this. Mitchell is just patient zero.”
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But why didn’t it affect him?” asked Rookman.
“
I don’t know. In some diseases you have carriers. Maybe he’s just a carrier for it. Somewhere he got accidentally exposed to it. Maybe he was intentionally exposed and the people behind this wanted to see what would happen if they sent him into a crowded population.” Lovestrange paused. “What better way to get rid of a dictator than to have the whole world watch as his people tear him apart on live television?”
Rookman let out a whistle. “That’s some serious stuff, doctor. So what advice do you have for our boy out there?”
“
Keep your head down and make sure when you’re caught it’s by the right people.”
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And who might that be?” asked Rookman
“
Not the ones who did this. If they get a hold of Mitchell, we’re only going to hear one side of the story because Mitchell is either going to vanish down some dark hole or be killed in a fake escape attempt.”
“
Mitch, if you’re out there, trust no one. Only come in when you think it’s safe. If you think they’re not being straight with you, run, brother. Run.”
40
Up until Rookman’s show, the thought had never entered Mitchell’s mind that he was a pawn in some kind of plot. The paranoid yet sane-sounding Doctor Lovestrange had him even more worried.
What if he was infected with some kind of secret government experimental virus, he wondered. The scenario Lovestrange laid out about using it to kill a dictator made a lot of sense to him. Was he really just some kind of guinea pig?
Mitchell thought about when he had been sick for the past two weeks. Was that an incubation period? Did someone sneak something into the food in his apartment? His mind kept racing with questions.
The idea of surrendering no longer sounded as appealing to him. Could he trust the people he surrendered to if they were the same people who did this to him?
Who could he trust?
His best chance was to make himself look as innocent as possible. He needed to do whatever he could to make sure that in the public’s eye he was a victim and not someone who was part of a terrorist plot.
Mitchell decided that when he surrendered he needed to have an escape route. His surrender point would also be the most public place he would be. He needed to make sure that the things they were going to accuse him of wouldn’t hold up in the public’s eyes.
He made his way through the tangled brush in the darkness and out to his boat. He pulled off the palm leaves he’d covered it with and pushed the boat back into the water.
Mitch pulled the starter cord and drove the boat five miles back to a spot he’d seen earlier that morning.
It was a medium-sized marina catering mostly to luxury yachts. Several of them had “For Sale” signs on them, a sign of the Florida economy.
One of the things he’d learned when he worked in a marina was that when an owner tried to put a boat up for sale, after the first month they let go of any crew they had to save costs. Large vessels weren’t as much of a target for theft because it took too long to get them out to sea.
There was one noteworthy exception. Mitchell had heard of a man and a wife who managed to get a boat all the way to the Bahamas by taking the time to change the name of the boat on the stern and the registration to a similar boat. When Marine Patrol and the Coast Guard saw a vessel that matched the description of the stolen one, they’d run the name and registration and come back with a boat that wasn’t reported missing.
The biggest problem was fuel. Any boat he found wasn’t likely to have enough on board to get very far. That wasn’t going to be a problem for Mitchell. He didn’t need to go too far with the boat.
Mitch drove his little boat into the harbor and started looking at the different boats. He drove by one 200-foot yacht that still had its lights on. It was obviously occupied and not the ideal boat for Mitchell, but it gave him an idea.
He pulled out the iPod he’d stolen and turned it on. Sure enough, the yacht had an open Wi-Fi connection. Mitch pulled up a webpage showing a list of all the yachts and powerboats in the area that were up for sale along with all of their features.
Originally he thought about just stealing a luxury yacht and waiting for SWAT to storm the boat if the surrender didn’t go right. Then he had another idea. Why not just get a large powerboat instead? He’d never be able to outrun the full force of the federal government, but he could at least buy some time.
Mitch began looking up listings for fast boats. The kind Scarface would want to use. One in particular caught his eye. It was a model that wasn’t too obscure and would be easy to mark up as another vessel if he could get the tools to do it. What really stood out was a piece of equipment that it came with.
Mitch had to have it.
Mitch put the iPod away and patrolled the marina until he found the vessel. The vessel had “Highlander” written across the stern. It was a 40-foot Donzi.
He climbed over the transom and lifted the covering that was buttoned over the cockpit area. He slid underneath. There was a row of seats in back and two chairs in front. The boat was intended for two things: scuba diving and going really fast. It was the kind of boat you’d take for an overnight diving trip to the Bahamas or the Keys to bring back lobster or a hundred kilos of cocaine.
The control console was covered with a metal sheet that was secured in place with a thick lock. The entrance to the main cabin had a similar lock. Mitchell could see there was no way he was going to be able to use his tire iron to pry the locks off. He was also certain he wasn’t going to find a spare key hidden on the deck.
If he could get past the lock on the cabin, he was sure he’d be able to get inside and get the lock for the console and the key for the ignition. He looked at the lock on the cabin again. Bolt cutters wouldn’t do it. He’d need a power tool.