The Galilee Falls Trilogy (Book 3): Fall of Heroes (26 page)

“Besides me?”

He frowns. “You know we never considered you a serious suspect.”

“Did I?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. After a second, I smile again. “It’s okay. I forgive you.”

“Thank you.”

I nod. “So, were there any serious suspects? Anyone who sticks out now in light of recent events?”

“No. Someone with a lot of money. Connections. But this doesn’t feel personal, does it? It’s more—”

“Organized. Surgical.”

“Exactly. If what Ryder told you is true, the villains were nothing but lab rats. But why go to such trouble? Kidnapping? Murder? Millions if not billions of dollars?”

He’s going to make me say it. I don’t want to. That always makes it real. I have to gather my strength before saying, “They all have the uber-gene, Harry. Xavier had the highest concentration in the country. Maybe…the fact they’re criminals had nothing to do with it.”

“Jesus,” Harry whispers. “You think—”

“I
know
we need to track Ryder’s movements. That’s where our focus needs to be. I’ll be on Doris if you feel up to helping.”

“Give me a couple minutes.”

“Just like old times,” I say as I leave. “See you soon.”

The moment I’m out of sight, I let out a ragged sigh. Keep busy. Don’t think, just do.

I sneak downstairs to The Chamber. The lab door is closed but I know he’s in there, trying to find out all he can about the little bugger. I barely passed Biology so I’m useless in there. Jem can handle the virus, I’ll take the carrier.

So far the car is a bust. I access the GFPD and Marshall Service systems to see what they have so far. Since the car’s a hot zone, specialists will have to examine it and even what they gather will go to a Level 4 Biohazard lab. More protocols, more procedures, more care. We probably won’t have any results on fingerprints or anything else until tomorrow at the earliest. More bad news, the fleet has no record of the car. Not in their system and not in the insurance database. The plates and insurance card could both be fakes, but I doubt it. What’s more probable, the user getting pulled over for speeding or a patient stealing the car? No it was all legit and official. They just wiped the systems when he escaped. Maybe there’s a paper trail. The Feds will have to track that down now I’m stuck in this house like Typhoid Joanna.

Car trail is cold for now. Phone call to Jem, you’re on deck. A photo of the message slip is in the Fed’s file. Miranda took the message at 6:10 pm. Okay, Ryder wouldn’t have known Jem’s direct number which means he went through the main menu. Which provider does the hospital use? I should have paid more attention in those board meetings. I waste three minutes uncovering that they use Independence Bell like half the city. I walk into their system through Doris’ back door. Assuming he may have had to wander through the phone menu to Jem’s, I put the window of the call between 6:05-6:10. In that time there were, fuck, fifty calls from the outside. Cut out those from a non-Galilee area code, we’re down to forty. Since we didn’t find a cell phone on him chances are he used a pay phone. They’re few and far between but still out there. And every one in a high traffic public area.

“How’s it going?” Harry asks as he descends the ramp. I didn’t hear the door open.

“Slowly. Just working on tracing the call now.”

“How can I help?”

“There’s an extra terminal where the chair is. We can split the numbers.” I waste a few minutes setting him up and showing him how to search, but he’ll buy it back with the search split.

“Jesus, Jo. I had no idea it was this…capable.”

“Justin knew what he was doing, I’ll give him that.”

“This is so illegal, Jo,” Harry says.

“Arrest me later when we’re not trying to save the world.”

First five, all cell phones. Ryder could have thrown the cell out after he used it or something in case they were tracking the GPS. That’s actually the better scenario. No breathing plague on innocent people. Of course if that’s the case then the other area codes come back into play. This lab could be a hundred miles away or just around the corner.

“Jo,” Harry says, once again snapping me out of my head. “Got a pay phone. 805-555-7865.”

“Okay, keep going. I’ll see where it is and pull up the CCTV feed from the area,” I say, already beginning.

“It does that too?”

“Harry, the only thing Doris can’t do is your taxes.”

Corner of Simone and 17
th
. 6:09. It takes a few minutes for Doris to cull through the footage to find the exact place and time, in which Harry finds another pay phone number, as do I. Simone is a bust. Woman making the call. Gaiman and Wilson, gangbanger surrounded by his posse. 47
th
and Dini…motherfucker. Same car parked on the curb, same parka with the hood up. “Got him.”

Harry stands and moves beside me. “Jesus. How many people would you say are on the sidewalk?”

“This feed’s from right outside the Metro station.” A surge of people walk out of the station as Ryder hangs up, body wracked with coughs. “That ain’t good.”

Harry grabs the phone and dials. “Cam, it’s O’Hara.” He listens for a moment. “Fine, just, we know where Ryder made the call. Pay phone at 47
th
and Dini. He exited the car at 6:07, used the phone between 6:07-6:09, then left the area at 6:10. He was coughing on the feed. You need to find out which trains departed and arrived around that time. We’ll work on tracking the car through CCTV in case he made more stops.” He’s quiet for several seconds. “I don’t know, think of something. Anonymous tip. The number here is—”

“555-1981.”

“They cut the house line and took our cells. This is the only way to reach us.” He glances at me. “I already spoke to her, but can you give Bella this number too? But only her.” He listens. “Call with updates and we’ll do the same. Bye.” He hangs up. “Hope that’s okay.”

“It’s fine. Just no phone sex.”

“No promises,” he says with a smile. He sits back at his terminal and pushes up his glasses. “So, how
do
we track him?”

“Very dully. Check the footage at every intersection for his car. He probably took the most direct route here, Dini to Mignola to 76
th
to Kane Bridge. You’re on that. I’ll begin backtracking his movements.” With any luck he’ll lead us right to that lab.

Yeah. No.

After two hours of reviewing footage, the good news is as far as we know he only left the car the once. The bad news is we can’t be sure because I lose him four miles from the pay phone. Both Harry and I search every camera for the car but those are few and far between the further from downtown he gets.

“Fuck,” I shout after fifteen minutes of nothing.

“Maybe we should stop for a while,” Harry says, rubbing his eyes. “Get an hour or two of sleep. I have to use the bathroom anyway. We’re no good when we’re like this.”

He’s right. I passed running on fumes half an hour ago. But I don’t have the luxury of sleep. I do have the luxury of coffee. It damn well better be on the approved quarantine diet. “I’ll be up in a minute. I should check on Jem.”

“Okay. See you in a few hours.”

“Sleep well if you can,” I shout as he walks up the ramp.

“You too,” he calls.

I wait until he’s out of sight before rising. Jesus, my body’s so stiff. I stretch but it does little good. Oh fuck, what if body aches are a symptom? What if…okay, stop.
Stop.
I’m doing it again. Maybe my gummy eyes are a symptom or maybe I’ve been staring at a computer screen for hours. Yeah, so time for a break.

I knock on the lab door, but only get a response the second time. “Step away from the door.”

I obey. “Okay.”

He quickly opens and closes the door. “What?”

“Just checking in. It’s really late. I haven’t seen you since the trailer.”

“I’m fine. Working. The others?”

“Mostly asleep. Or trying to be. How’s it going in there?”

“Not as well as I would like. I’m limited in the types of tests I can conduct. Without live cultures, animals to test, more samples from the body, all I can do is cursory tests. We need an antibody test, serology reports, genetic testing, and DNA/RNA mapping. I can’t do any of those in there.”

“Luckily there’s an entire team camped out on our front lawn who can. Have you found
anything
?”

“It could be an adenovirus. Possibly a retrovirus like HIV or orthomyxovirus like influenza. It has characteristics of all. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Is it airborne?” I ask, the words sticking in my throat.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I have good and bad news. Which would you like first?”

“Good please.”

“We traced the call Ryder made to the hospital.”

“Which I assume leads to the bad.”

“He made the call at a public pay phone, the one in front of the 47
th
Street Metro station. During rush hour.”

Jem’s shoulders slump. “You should have said I had neutral and cataclysmic news. If it is an aerosolized virus, we have a potential epidemic, possibly a pandemic by the month’s end.”

“Okay, you said it yourself, you don’t know anything right now. There’s no point planning for the apocalypse just yet. Let’s review what we
do
know. Hang on.” I go grab my pad and pen before plopping on the black leather couch. Jem, somewhat reluctantly, sits on the opposite end. The last time we were together on this couch we were naked, not preparing for end times. “Here are the puzzle pieces. A group of sixteen commandos drugged an entire prison and abducted every supervillain.”

“Every person known to have the uber-gene,” Jem corrects, the sides of his mouth twitching as he does.

“Right. They’re brought to a lab, tested, injected, forced to inhale something, then days later they get sick. Which should be impossible because some have regeneration capabilities. Ryder’s immune system and cellular creation capabilities were on super-steroids. He probably never even had a cold. So is it possible for a virus to override genetics?”

“Yes. It’s what I’ve been studying, remember?”

“I sort of zoned out when you started using seven syllable medical jargon. Sorry. I’m paying attention now.”

“What I’ve been studying is a way to do precisely that, overriding genetics. Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer, all have a strong genetic component. What all viruses do, basically, is inject their own DNA or RNA into a cell, infecting and/or changing the cell’s genetics like a cuckoo bird replacing its own egg in a bird’s nest. Our immune systems begin to recognize the difference, create antibodies, and kill the infected cells so the body can create new, healthy ones. With adenoviruses,
we
create the virus’ DNA and RNA to do what we want. Gene therapy. The virus helps, in theory, and can even eradicate the unhealthy genes. But it’s a new science and our government has strict regulations on testing, especially regarding stem cells which are the greatest tool in this research. We’re years behind where we should be and very few companies are throwing money behind the research.”

“Which is why you’re moving to China,” I add.

“I’m not…” His mouth snaps shut. “The good news is there are only a handful of companies worldwide capable of creating adenoviruses, especially one this sophisticated. A contagious adenovirus is unheard of, and this one is more flu than adenovirus. My hypothesis is they mean for the flu to act as a flea.”

“I’m sorry?”

“With the Black Death, the rats carried the disease, the fleas bit the rats, then bit humans who then contracted the plague.”

“So you think whoever designed this, their ultimate goal is to infect people who have the uber-gene with this adenovirus.”

“Taken in context with the prison break, that is a fair assumption.”

“I guess it’s possible, but it’s still just a theory, yes? I mean, just to play devil’s advocate, you’re basing this on one dead body, conjecture, and the fact it
might
be an adenovirus. Maybe the virus and what happened are two separate events. They injected Ryder with something that-that made his body go haywire and injected the virus to
save
him. We don’t know. We don’t really know anything for sure right now.”

Jem stares across the couch, searching my face for something, and whatever he finds garners a sympathetic smile. “You’re right.”

The knot in my stomach loosens a little. “Look we’re both scared, frustrated, and run ragged. Harry’s right. We need a few hours’ sleep to process everything. The world won’t fall apart in two hours, right?”

He smiles again. “I suppose. I’m exhausted.”

I rise and hold out my hand. “Bedtime then.”

He glances at my outstretched hand, but stands and puts his own hands in his pockets. My arm drops, along with my smile. Jem keeps his eyes down as he passes me and begins up the ramp. In fact he doesn’t raise his head all the way to the second story bedrooms. He acts as if I’m not there, a mere phantom at his side. Oh fuck, what have I done now? How did I piss him off this time? I probably shouldn’t have brought up China. I didn’t mean anything by it. And now he’s…and I thought—

“Which is my room?” Jem asks.

His voice snaps me out of my self-flagellation. “Uh…I don’t…” I count the doors. Fuck. “I forgot to prepare one for you.”

“Oh. Then where…”

“I, uh…”
Oh, just say it, Jo.
“you-you can bunk with me or—”

“No, that’s not a good idea,” he cuts in.

“Right. Yeah. Right.” Oh God, if I could only turn invisible right now. Please, God? Please? No such luck. Jem stares at me, mouth opening and closing as he struggles to find words. “I-I-I don’t know why I even suggested—”

“No, I-I-I-I would-would love nothing more than-than to…
bunk
with you. It-It’s just truly not a good idea. Medically. I-I had the most contact with Ryder. I had his blood and fluids covering me. It’s almost guaranteed he…transmitted the virus to me. I really shouldn’t even be in the same room as you. We need to limit contact.”

“Right,” I chuckle nervously.

“I’ll, uh, just…end of the hall.”

“Okay,” I say with a smile.

“Okay,” he says with a smile back. He turns down the hall and starts toward his room again.