"Well, the only one that should go is me, since it's my relations."
"Like hell," Mason yelled standing up so fast his chair fell to the floor. "You don't go anywhere without me."
"Oh yea? Well let me tell you something, he-man, I'll damn well go where ever the hell I want and not you or anyone else will stop me."
"You want to test that theory?" His eyes had gone all black and I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. I hate authority, especially when it was directed at me.
I started to tell him the way it was when I was interrupted by Ken.
"Sit down both of you. I didn't come here to start a fight. She won't go anywhere without me so don't get all cave man on us. It won't do any good and in the end, she'll do what she wants to, anyway."
"Sounds like you know what you're talking about. Guess being related helps."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here. It pisses me off."
"OK, now let me see if I can explain this without ticking anyone off."
"That would be best." Lacy said shooting me a look that said calm down, then sending waves of love and understanding that wrapped around my mind and heart like a warm blanket.
Thanks
, I thought back at her.
Then a thought hit me so I hard, I nearly gasped. "Oh, my God! He did it didn't he?" I said softly.
"Did what?" Randy asked, looking from Ken back to me.
"Uncle Bill is a research scientist." I said looking from one to the other of them. Willing them to understand what I was saying. When no one guessed it, I continued, looking at Ken. "He developed the anti-virus for the walkers, didn't he?"
Ken smiled big and placed the briefcase I'd been wondering about on the table. Flipping the locks he slowly opened it like a present, revealing the many papers inside. He reached in and pulled out a letter sized envelope and handed it to me. My uncles, sloppy scrawl on the front said it was mine. I looked at Ken as I slowly traced my name on it.
"The paperwork from the lab Norther Uncle Bill been working on is in this briefcase. Lab results and equations and such. I don't understand it all. George put it all on a disc for you. There's a computer program there also so it can be downloaded. There's maps of the route there, and what not. He just told me to get this to you."
"But how did you find me?"
"Are you kidding me? All you did was talk about Lions Lodge. It was Lions Lodge this and Lions Lodge that. Every time you had some time off you came to Lions Lodge. Weekends, summer vacations, Christmas. You practically lived here and then you were talking about working here cleaning rooms and being a waitress. Uncle Bill got the coordinates and put them in a GPS contraption and I taped it to the windshield of the plane, and here I am."
He plopped back in the chair and pushed it back to balance it on its back legs. He used to do that all the time, and it was nice to see him to it again. Grinning he waited, drinking his coffee and watching everyone in the process.
"I can only give you 24 hours to think about it, then I'm headed back to try to get em out on my own. Its a days flying time for me but if you're going, it'll be two days driving time. The way I figure it, it will be two days getting in, maybe two days there and then out, before the bomb goes off in seven days."
"Wait a minute, did you just say bomb? What bomb?"
"The installation is set to explode when the generators that powers the air, water, filtration and security locks quits. The fuel tanks that keeps everything going is drying up. When that happens...KABOOM! It was a security measure that no one can figure out how to by-pass. Seven days, JD, that's how long we have."
"Couldn't we just haul some fuel in there and fill the tanks?
"That idea was attempted, but some fool broke the valve to open the tanks and now they can't be refilled. Some high end company back east makes the valves. They didn't have an extra one on hand and they don't know how to make one."
"Great, now we have to do this or we could all die from diseases the geniuses have been playing with. It's not fair, it just isn't fair."
"Not exactly, the explosion is designed to kill everything in the place. Good idea in theory, it just doesn't account for the people living there."
"Well, I'm going and would fly in with you but there isn't room in the plane for two others so we'll have to drive. We could drive in...."
"Hold on a sec there, Calamity Jane, you aren't going without me, so just stop talking around me."
"Calamity Jane?!" I stood up and put my hands on my hips.
"That's enough, you two. Geez, you guys married of something?"
"Or something." Lacy replied. I saw the look and shifted my perspective.
"No, you are NOT going. I nearly had a heart attack getting you out of Florida and I am not worrying about you, too."
"JD, I'm not a child anymore."
"You aren't going, dear, so sit back down." said Randy, softly. She turned to say something to him, but stopped at his expression and quietly sat back down. Randy took her hand and kissed it gently. I was going to have to ask him how he did that.
"The way I see it," Mason said, "JD and I can take that shiny new Volvo because it has a bunk and pull a tanker of fuel behind us. That would save time looking for a place to re-fuel all the time."
"Good idea," Kenny said.
"It was my idea," He frowned at me so, I shut up. Reluctantly.
"Then when we get there, we can switch to something else to get them out. Since we don't know the extent of the bomb blast, we'll need to put a lot of space between us and the facility or find a place nearby to protect us for a short period. We can fine tune it on the way there. If you're going, Ken, then we need to talk some more and look at the maps you brought. We can plan to leave in the morning, if JD can be ready in that time."
"I'm ready now," I replied, and left the room, stomping all the way to my bedroom to pack a few things. Lacy was close behind, listing all the reasons I should stay. I sighed as I began packing.
Chapter 2
Lacy was pacing. I hated it when she did that. I was packing and trying to stay out of her way, but she wasn't paying a lick of attention to what she was doing, so I kept running into her. Finally, I grabbed her by both arms and steered her to the love seat where I sat her down. Sitting beside her, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, waiting for her to begin. It had started out to be a nice day, then a plane, a cousin and a briefcase later everything was out of kilter.
"I don't want to lose you," she said, "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you." I sighed, here comes the tears.
"I don't plan on anything happening to me but I can't sit here all safe and sound when our family needs help. It would've been nice if someone would've come to our aid but we managed ok. I'll will again. I just don't have a choice in the matter."
"You always have a choice, JD. What has Northern Uncle Bill done for us? He is the most untouchable, standoffish, heartless man I've ever met. All that genius made him hateful and mean. Not like Southern Uncle Bill, who is a big teddy bear. I love George though and I hate to see her hurt, but Northern Uncle Bill has no heart. He's gotten her into this mess now he wants someone else to do the dirty work to make sure she's safe."
"That's true and I understand your position, but he has the means to end this virus, we have to get him out. George is just the person to give me the incentive to do this. He knows it too, but I'm more concerned with George than him. Mason and Ken will be there so we'll be ok. I don't know what else to say, but I don't want to be fighting anymore about it. Please, just help me out here a little."
"OK, sis, I can't convince you not to do this, so as much as I hate to I'll support you but I won't like it and I will miss the hell out of you till you get back." We hugged and sniffled a bit then I finished packing a few things before heading back downstairs.
The menfolk were outside gathered around Ken's plane. Duke right in the middle them. I didn't care a thing about it so wandered into the kitchen where lunch preparations were under way. The ladies had been whispering when I entered the room but quieted suddenly.
"Should I wait in the dining room till you finish talking about me?"Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, I tapped some Koolaid into it and shook it up while I waited for an answer. They looked everywhere but at me, so I shrugged and turned to leave.
"We don't know why you have to go too. I mean, the guys can handle it just fine, why do you have to go?" asked Melody.
"You all want your men to leave not knowing when or even if they'll return?"
"Well, no, not when you put it that way."
"I thought not. Look, this is my family and they need help, so no one else needs to go. Granted he may have found an anti-virus for the walker problem and that would be great, but when it comes down to it, it's my responsibility. So, what's for lunch?"
They stood looking like they wanted to say something else, then everyone started talking at once. Things were back to normal or at the very least, they had nothing else to say on the matter. I wandered back into the dining room and found the letter Northern Uncle Bill and sent me. I took a breath and opened it.
JD,
I see Ken has found you and that you are well.
Ken has informed you of our whereabouts and situation. I don't know of the conditions outside our compound but if it's half as bad as inside I do not want you to come to my aid. I would appreciate, however,the rescue of Georgina. I can't conceive the thought of her death and if there were another way I would have discovered it by now.
I have failed. I don't like the feeling and now know how you feel.
I have included all pertinent information for our imminent rescue in the briefcase. Study it well. You will of course, follow the enclosed directions and I will see you in several days
.
The fate of the world is in your hands.
Failure is not an option.
Read George's letter and she will give you the final preparations.
Wm May
It's amazing how quickly he can piss me off. I don't know why, since I've been dealing with his indifference all my life. A mind such as his is so full of his work that he has no room for anything else. I had learned to live with it, I just hadn't learned to like it.
Lacy picked up the letter, read it and tossed it back on the table. She just looked at me, shook her head, walked to the window and watched the men at the plane, crossing her arms defiantly. I sat down and started to look through the array of paperwork in the briefcase. A map "suggested" a route to the facility as well as times to drive each day and places to rest. It included a departure time and arrival time. Oh yea, let me see, looks like around $50,000 in cash. I shook my head as I read the information, dividing it into two piles...relevant and not. The money went into the not relevant pile.
Mandy wandered in, picked up the envelope, shook it and out came a photo SD card. It sat on the table like a giant, black widow spider, ok a small one, but scary just the same. Lacy turned at the sound of it hitting the table, then put her hand on my shoulder as we stared at it. "Well, hell." I tried to put it in my camera the wrong way at first then with fumbling fingers I managed to snap it into place. I started looking at the photos of Uncle Bill with his glasses perched on his nose as he stood before a microscope, at his desk behind a stack of papers, with his arm around a colleague, eating dinner...wait. I went back to the picture of his arm around a colleague and studied it a moment.
"Lacy do you know how to put this picture on a computer and blow it up?" I asked handing her the camera.
"Sure, follow me."
After several moments of fiddling with the computer, the picture was enlarged on the 22" monitor. There he stood again. There was something about it I couldn't put my finger on. I've never seen his arm around anyone, including George, why is he doing it now?
"Why is he putting his arm around that person? He doesn't even look like he's enjoying it." She leaned forward and squinted her eyes, then stepped back and squinted her eyes. I wondered if that helped so I tried it and got dizzy. I shook myself like a dog, walked back a few more steps and bumped into the chair so I sat down.
"What are you two doing?" asked Mason as he blocked the door from several people who were frowning at us. Lacy and I jumped like we'd been shot.
"Good heavens, do you have to sneak up on a person like that. You'd think you weren't taught good manners."
"My manners are just fine and I wasn't sneaking. You just don't pay attention to what's around you most of the time."
"You were sneaking and I pay plenty of attention...when it's deserved that is."
"Are you sure they're not married?" Ken asked Flynn, who was grinning.
"Oh, for heavens sake, Ken, we are not married."
"Then you need to quit acting like it." he said going to the sink to wash his hands.
Mason and I looked at each other with our mouths gaping open.
We don't act that way, do we?
he asked.
Absolutely not, I don't know where he got that idea.
I said, "Lacy and I have discovered something we don't understand. Ken, did you ever see Northern Uncle Bill put his arm around anyone let alone have his picture taken that way?"