Episode 8: FANthrax
Part 8
“What do you think? Should we split up? We can cover more ground that way,” Nick asked as they stood at the top row of seats, looking out over the arena.
“Nah, I think we should stay together for this,” Julilly said briskly. “Two pairs of eyes are better than one. We can’t fuck around this time, Nick; we gotta be on the ball. C’mon.” She strode down the aisle.
They started at one side of the arena, looking in various hidden and unused spots. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They quickly but carefully worked their way over to the other side of the arena, still coming up short.
“Shit, this is fuckin’ useless. There’s nothing here,” Nick growled in frustration.
“There’s gotta be something we’re missing. Something,” Julilly sighed.
“Hell, whoever orchestrated this isn’t gonna stick around here. I mean, that’s a long shot.”
“I know that, Nick, but maybe they left something behind, something we can use to…”
Just then, Nick’s cell phone rang. Now what? Fumbling around inside the bulky suit, he flipped it open. “Carter.”
“Hey, Nick. Jay here. Look, we just got reports of some suspicious activity taking place at Toronto City Centre Airport.”
Nick frowned, looking over at Julilly. “The airport? But it’s supposed to be closed.”
“Exactly. Something’s going on; we need you to head over there and fast.”
“Shit, SHIT!” Nick moaned, flipping the phone closed. “C’mon, we’ve got to head over to the City Centre airport.”
“Huh? Airport? But why? It’s supposed to be…”
“I know, damn it, but Jay said there’s something going on over there. We need to check it out. It‘s him; it‘s gotta be.”
Turning, they quickly made their way up and out of the arena.
***
Julilly had barely brought the Hummer to a stop before Nick jumped out and ran to the entrance of the Toronto City Centre Airport, a small compound located on Lake Ontario. Quickly showing his badge, he plowed through the door and found himself in a long pedestrian tunnel that connected the mainland to Toronto Island, where the terminal was located.
Nick raced down the deserted tunnel and up the tallest escalator he had ever seen. By the time he got to the top, he was winded, but he kept running until he reached the check-in area. Then he came to an abrupt stop, causing Julilly to bump into him from behind.
“Let me know before you brake next time, Carter, jeez!” she complained. “What is it? What do you see?” She tried to look around him.
“Nothing.”
She frowned. “Nothing?”
Nick’s eyes panned across the row of empty counters. “Yeah, it’s quiet… a little too quiet.”
Julilly rolled her eyes. “It’s evacuated. What were you expecting, a marching band?”
Nick turned to glare at her before he started walking again, making his way past the security checkpoint.
Besides the airport being eerily empty, nothing appeared out of the ordinary until they reached the concourse. Several of the chairs in the waiting area near one of the gates were tipped over onto their sides. The shiny tiled floor was littered with glass from one of the large plate-glass windows, which had been shattered.
“What in the hell happened here?” Julilly gasped.
Just then, they heard a door slam. Turning, Nick took off at a run. “Hurry! He’s here, damn it!” he yelled. Julilly followed, hot on his heels.
They rounded a corner in time to see a door swing shut ahead of them. They hurried through the door and found themselves in a stairwell.
“You go up; I’ll go down!” Julilly barked, darting down the steps before Nick could protest.
Why do I gotta be the one to go up more stairs? he grumbled to himself as he began to climb the staircase as quickly as he could, still winded from his trek up the never-ending escalator.
But a reward awaited him. As he rounded the corner, he caught sight of a man standing at the top of the staircase. Although his back was turned, there was something familiar about his styled, dark hair and Napoleon-esque stature.
“Freeze! Hands in the air, asshole!” Nick screamed, drawing his gun as he scrambled up the last flight of stairs. “Stop, or I’ll shoot!”
To his surprise, the suspect halted and raised his hands. Turning around on the spot, Dr. Rough smirked. “Aww. Looks like you found me.”
“You. I should have known you were behind this,” Nick replied coldly. “You’re going down.”
“Am I?”
“Yes, you are,” growled Nick. “Right… NOW!” He took a flying leap off the last step, tackling Dr. Rough to the ground. “Don’t move, you bastard!”
Dr. Rough laughed. “I‘m so scared…”
“Shut up! Shut the hell up!”
“How have things been at work, huh? Busy, busy, I hear, what with all the recent rash of people getting sick. It‘s so tragic. Your hands must be full with all those investigations. Probably have to have people from different branches of… oh, I don’t know, the government, maybe, to help you?”
Nick stiffened.
Dr. Rough smiled. “How’s your friend? That CIA officer? He dead yet?”
Nick blinked. How did he know?
It was just the opening Dr. Rough needed. Before Nick knew what had happened, his head whipped to the side from a weak but effective blow. Caught off-guard, he toppled backward.
Dr. Rough scrambled away before he stood up and brushed off his suit. “It’s really a shame, isn’t it? He’s going to die and for such a noble cause… Oh well, can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs, right, my friend?” Dr. Rough sneered.
“Don’t move, you bastard. Hands up!” Relieved, Nick turned to see Julilly reappear at the top of the stairs, her gun raised.
Dr. Rough threw her an unimpressed look, then ducked through the door behind him before she could pull the trigger.
“Damn it!” Julilly hissed, hurrying after him. Nick jumped to his feet and followed her, his heart pounding as hard as his footsteps as he raced through the door. It led to the roof, where there was a helipad. A helicopter was waiting, its rotors already spinning as the engine roared. Nick recognized it as the very same one that had rescued Dr. Rough from the pirate ship.
“No!” Nick screamed, running toward it. But he was too late.
Dr. Rough climbed into the cockpit and quickly closed the door behind him. Before Nick could get close, the helicopter rose off the ground. Nick stumbled backward as the wind whipped across his face. “That was a fuckin’ cheap shot, you asshole! Way to get me next time, huh? Why are you running?!” He raised his gun, emptying it on the helicopter as it flew away.
Breathing hard, he slowly lowered the gun, staring at the sky as the helicopter disappeared into the clouds. He’d gotten away; Nick couldn’t believe he’d gotten away. Again.
“C’mon, Nick, we’ve gotta get back,” Julilly pressed, tugging on his arm.
Nick reluctantly turned and started off with her. This wasn’t over, not by a long shot.
***
Tapping against the tile floor, her feet sounded like drums in her head as she hurried down the hall towards Brian’s room. After Nick’s phone call, Opal had called in every favor she could to get to the Canadian hospital her boyfriend was in as soon as possible. Thanks to a friend in the Air Force, she’d made it there in mere hours so she could be by Brian’s side.
She didn’t care about the assignment she’d been given the other day after Brian had left for Canada. She had left it all behind in an instant. Brian was more important to her, and the agency would just have to understand that. And if they didn’t, she’d handle that later. No matter how much she loved and valued her job and country, none of that was important right then.
As she approached a pair of double doors, a man at the desk in front of them cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Miss, you can’t go into that unit; it’s on complete quarantine and lockdown.”
“I know; I’m here to see someone who’d been brought in.”
“Ma’am, you can’t do that–”
She flashed her badge. “YES, I can, as a matter of fact.”
It worked. Soon she found herself walking into the isolation unit, wearing full protective garb. Her heart pounded as she approached the door to Brian’s room. She pushed it open and poked her head in, afraid of what she would find inside.
There, lying on the bed, was Brian. Her heart ached at the sight of him. A small-framed man to begin with, he seemed even smaller than usual, dwarfed by the equipment that surrounded his hospital bed. She tried to look past the tubes and wires attached to him and focus on his face, but even that was hard for her. His skin was pale and pocked with black pustules. His eyes were closed; she couldn’t tell whether he was asleep or unconscious. Beneath the thin blanket, his chest rose and fell in regular intervals, but his breathing sounded labored.
A young woman in a Hazmat suit stood at his bedside, checking his vitals. When Opal cleared her throat, the woman glanced over at her. Her face looked tired and worn. Beneath the helmet of her suit, her lank red hair was plastered to her forehead. “Opal?” she asked.
Opal nodded, surprised to hear her alias instead of her real name. This woman must work for Himitsu Takana. “Nick called me. I came as quickly as I could.”
The woman nodded. “I’m Red Jewel. He told me you were coming. He and another agent went to try and find the man behind this.”
“How is he?”
“The truth?”
“Please.”
Red Jewel sighed as she put her clipboard aside. Opal could see the frustration in her eyes. It reflected the way Opal felt herself: hopeless.
“He’s not good. He got the direct strain, right in the bloodstream. We think it happened when he was handling evidence; a pin poked through his gloves and infected him. That seems to be the source. Because he got it directly, rather than through the air, it’s striking faster and fiercer, giving us less time to treat it.”
“But you can treat it, can’t you?”
Red Jewel hesitated. “Hopefully. There’s a team working on an antidote as we speak, but there are no guarantees.”
Opal clenched her jaw to keep from crying. She needed to stay strong for Brian, but she felt so helpless, weak, and worthless, unable to do anything except watch him waste away before her eyes.
Red looked at her with sympathy. “I’ll let you be alone with him,” she said, patting Opal’s shoulder as she walked past her.
Remaining in the room, Opal sat next to Brian’s bed and took his hand, lacing her gloved fingers through his blistered ones. When she thought of her future, as she often did, she could only see Brian. When she considered marriage, he instantly came to mind. When she pictured children, they looked like him. When she imagined herself as an old woman, she saw Brian at her side. He simply couldn’t die. Not yet. Not now. It was too soon, too sudden, and too unfair.
Now that she was alone, she felt the burn of tears in her eyes. Despite her efforts to hold them back, one escaped and slid down her cheek, trailing along her face in silent victory.
“Ashie…” A faint murmur, but her keen ears caught it instantly.
“Brian? Brian… I’m here.”
He tossed restlessly in his bed, beads of sweat gathering upon his brow and glittering against his skin like diamonds. His eyes shut tight as he fought something only he seemed to see within his mind. Delirium.
“Ashie… Ashavari… no… I need you…”
She stroked his face. His skin felt alarmingly warm, even through the layer of sterile latex that protected her hands. “Bri, I’m here, baby. I’m not going to leave you. I’m here.”
“Don’t leave me…”
She shook her head, tears blurring her vision. “I’ll never leave you. Don’t you leave me.”
***
“Hey, wait!” Julilly stopped suddenly, thrusting her arm out and catching Nick hard in the chest.
Nick coughed and sputtered exaggeratedly. “Jeez — what was that for?” he complained, rubbing his chest.
One corner of the Canadian officer’s mouth twisted slowly into a smile. “Do you see what I see?”
Nick followed her gaze to the tarmac, where a gray helicopter was grounded near a small hangar. Recognizing the symbol emblazoned on its cabin — a white star in a circle of navy blue, flanked by red and white stripes — he said, “Hey… that’s a U.S. Air Force chopper.”
“Yes. And we’re gonna chopper-jack it.”
Nick barely caught the expression of pure, wild glee on Julilly’s face before she turned and ducked back through the door, leaving him alone on the rooftop. “Julilly — wait!” he cried exasperatedly, catching the door before it shut. He ran after her down the stairs, shouting, “You can’t be serious! We can’t steal an Air Force helicopter!”
“I thought you hated the U.S. government!” she shouted over her shoulder.
“I do!” Nick panted, bursting into the main terminal behind her. “But who’s going to fly it?”
“I am,” Julilly replied matter-of-factly. “I used to be in the Air Force. Canadian, of course. But I don’t think the Yanks will mind me borrowing one of their choppers, not if it helps us catch a terrorist, do you?”
Nick could only offer a weak, “Uh…” He was already beginning to feel queasy at the idea of getting in that helicopter, a feeling that had nothing to do with guilt over the theft of military property.
Julilly rolled her eyes at his hesitance. “Oh, please. You guys are all about the war against terror. Well, now you’ve got yourself an ally — so let’s go fight the bad guy.”
Before he could protest, she grabbed his arm and hauled him after her through the terminal until they found an exit onto the tarmac. There was no one outside to stop them; air traffic was supposed to be suspended, after all. What the Air Force helicopter was doing there was a mystery to Nick. The pilot was nowhere in sight, so it was all too easy for Julilly to climb into the cockpit.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Nick grumbled as he followed her.
“What’s the point of working for an independent organization like HimTak if you’re afraid of breaking the law once in a while to complete a mission?” scoffed Julilly, firing up the chopper’s ignition.
Nick’s heart began to race as he felt the engine rumble to life beneath his seat. “It’s not that!” he shouted above the roar. “I’m afraid of flying!”
“What??” Julilly shouted back, shaking her head and gesturing to her ears. She reached for a pair of headsets hanging in front of them and handed him one. The headset muffled the helicopter’s noise and allowed him to hear Julilly’s voice in his ears. “There, that’s better. Now let’s go take this bastard down before he gets too far out of range.”
There was no chance to repeat his reservations about flying. Julilly had already reached for the throttle. Nick’s stomach bottomed out as the helicopter rose from the ground with an unsteady jerk.
“Sorry about that,” Julilly said with an unapologetic laugh. “It’s been a few years.”
White-faced, Nick watched the grounded airplanes grow smaller and smaller out his window as the chopper gained altitude. He tried shutting his eyes, but that made it worse. When Julilly shifted direction in midair, the sensation was dizzying without being able to see where they were going. When his eyes flashed open again, they took in only sky and clouds. He couldn’t see anything on the ground without leaning far over in his seat — a mistake, he discovered as soon as he tried it. He’d never been a fan of airplanes, taking them only when necessary, but now he knew they didn’t even compare to the terror of helicopters.
He felt like he was on some hellish rollercoaster as the chopper rose, dipped, and weaved abruptly under Julilly’s control. Coasters were fun, though, and mostly safe. This was neither. As much as he hated the idea of Dr. Rough escaping again, he prayed Julilly would give up and take them back to the ground soon.
No such luck — for Nick, anyway. It seemed luck was on Julilly’s side this time, for after just a few minutes of pushing the helicopter to its maximum speed, she shouted a triumphant, “A-ha! You see that? At about… two o’clock?”
Nick followed her finger out the windshield, straight ahead and slightly to the right. There was a black speck in the distance, too far ahead to be identifiable, but, with air traffic banned, could it be anything but the FANS chopper? “I see it,” he said weakly, suppressing a groan.
“Ha! We’re on his tail now. He’s not getting away this time.” She leaned forward over the controls, her eyes glimmering dangerously. Nick wanted to be excited but could only feel nauseated as the helicopter lurched in the direction of the black speck.
Looking down, he saw a large body of water beneath them, which only increased his anxiety. He assumed it was Lake Ontario, though it could have been Lake Erie — for a man who traveled the globe for his career, geography had never really been his strong suit. In any case, as Julilly made up ground (air?) between them and Dr. Rough, all Nick could envision was the helicopter plummeting into whichever Great Lake it was, the cockpit filling with icy water before he could force his door open.
“Well, we’re in U.S. airspace now,” said Julilly after a few minutes when they were back over land. “I wonder if they’ve realized we’ve kidnapped their helicopter yet. I’d radio them if I knew the right frequency, but they might not be so helpful, given the circumstances…”
“Let’s just take him down and get back to the ground,” Nick pleaded.
“You got it.”
They seemed to be getting closer, at least. The speck had taken on the distinct shape of a helicopter. Before long, they came close enough to catch a glimpse of the infamous initials stenciled on the side as the helicopter veered to the left.
“You think he knows we’re on his tail?” Nick wondered.
“Oh, he knows. Notice he’s staying over populated areas. That must be Buffalo below us,” said Julilly, pointing towards the ground. “He thinks we won’t attack over civilian zones.”
“And will we?”
Julilly shrugged. “Not if we don’t have to. I’ll try to force him west toward Erie.” She urged the chopper forward, gaining on the enemy craft. As they started to come up on the FANS chopper’s left flank, the black helicopter swerved sharply to the right and dipped out of their range. Nick’s stomach flip-flopped again as Julilly forced their copter to plummet after it.
The waters of Lake Erie loomed ahead, sparkling blue in the sunlight. Even from the air, the lake looked vast. Nick didn’t want to fly over it, but Julilly was forcing Dr. Rough in that direction.
“Arming the guns,” said Julilly once they were over the water. “Fire one!” She shot off a round from the helicopter’s weapons, but ahead of them, the FANS chopper swerved out of the way at the last minute. “Hang on… we’ll get him,” growled Julilly in determination. “Fire two!” Another round.
“Damn it,” Nick swore in dismay. The FANS chopper was still in the air.
“Come on, you bastard… fire three!”
The other helicopter had rotated suddenly in midair as if to turn on them. But this time, it took a hit on the side and started to spin out of control, plummeting in a death spiral. Julilly began to descend after it, intent on capturing Dr. Rough from the water, but halfway down, the FANS chopper suddenly exploded.
“Pull up!” shouted Nick as a ball of flames swelled upward. Julilly yanked on the stick, throwing him back against his seat as she forced the helicopter to climb again sharply.
Once they leveled out safely above the inferno below, Nick gazed downward. Through the black smoke, he could make out the burning wreckage: the helicopter’s mangled fuselage half sunk in the lake, the rest floating in pieces all around it in the water, still on fire.
“What made it explode before it crashed?” wondered Nick.
“Must have hit the fuel tank,” Julilly guessed. “You think there’s any way he could have survived that?”
His eyes still on the wreckage, Nick slowly shook his head. “It’s blown apart. There’s no way… If he didn’t die in the blast, he would have been thrown out of the cockpit; the fall alone would have killed him.”
He should have felt relieved, even delighted, over his realization, but he didn’t. He felt strangely let down. He’d wanted to catch Dr. Rough himself and make him pay for his crimes, not kill him instantly in a helicopter crash.
“Maybe we should go down anyway,” he added suddenly, “and check.” And then I can find someone to drive me back to Toronto, he thought, vowing he would never set foot in this helicopter — or any other — again.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Julilly agreed, but just as she started to descend again, the radio crackled to life.
“This is Lieutenant Gooding, U.S. Air Force. Identify yourself at once. Over.”
Julilly exchanged a look with Nick but shrugged and responded, “Copy that. This is Officer Hawk of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, formerly of the Royal Canadian Air Force. My apologies for borrowing your helicopter without permission, but you’ll be glad to know that, with its help, I was able to bring down the man responsible for the act of bioterrorism on Toronto. Over.”
“Say again, Officer Hawk? Over.”
“I said, the terrorist is down, crashed over Lake Erie. We were about to go down and take a closer look, but if you want your chopper back now, you can radio the base closest to Buffalo, New York and have them send their own team in to investigate. Technically, we’ve over U.S. soil now — not my turf. Over.”
“Copy. Give me your coordinates, and I’ll radio for backup. Report back to the airport immediately. Over.”
“Roger that. On our way,” replied Julilly and gave him the coordinates for their location.
“So we’re leaving? Just like that?” asked Nick as the helicopter rose higher into the air.
Julilly shrugged. “Like I said, it’s not really my turf.”
“Well, it’s mine!”
“You’re not U.S. government either.”
“No, but I’m at liberty to investigate there if I want to!” Nick protested.
“Nick — chill out.” Julilly smirked at him. “You said it yourself — there’s no way he could have survived that. Leave it to someone else to worry about the clean-up. There’s nothing to find that would interest us — not now, anyway. Let’s get this baby back where it belongs and see how they’re doing with that cure. It’s just too bad we couldn’t interrogate the bastard.”
Nick wasn’t appeased, but he was eager to be back on the ground, so he didn’t argue when Julilly turned the chopper northward again. He did, however, frown in confusion when she bypassed the airport. “Uh, weren’t we supposed to land back there?” he asked.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go back after I drop you off,” replied Julilly calmly.
“Drop me off? Where?”
“The hospital — where else? So you can check on the situation there,” said Julilly. “Plus, then no one has to know you were involved in the hijacking of United States military property. They can just blame Canada, as usual.”
Nick shot her a wicked grin, forgetting, for the first time, that he was in the air and terrified. “Blame Canada… blame Canada!” he sang triumphantly. “It seems that everything’s gone wrong, since Canada came along…”
Julilly rolled her eyes. “Please stop.”
“Blame Canada… blame Canada! They’re not even a real country anyway…”
Momentarily distracted, Nick didn’t realize they were descending upon the helipad on the roof of the hospital until the helicopter touched ground with a rather large — perhaps unnecessarily and on-purpose — bump. Nick’s heart leaped into his throat, pulsing crazily until he realized he was safe at last. He let out his breath in a rush and reached for the door handle.
Julilly said something, perhaps a goodbye, but the roar of the engine drowned out her words as Nick tore off his headset and opened his door. He jumped down, doubling over to avoid the rotors as he scrambled out of the helicopter’s shadow. He nearly collided with a short, balding man in blue scrubs, who was standing near a stretcher and looking confused.
“Where’s the life flight?” the squat doctor shouted above the noise.
“She’ll get out of your way!” Nick shouted back. Turning, he flashed Julilly the thumbs up. She gave the thumbs up back and reached for the controls within the cockpit.
As the helicopter started to rise from the ground, the doctor reached up to wave. Nick saw what was about to happen a split second before it did, but there was no time to push the other man out of the way. The rotor of the helicopter caught his raised arm and severed it swiftly in a shower of blood. Nick stared in horror as the mangled arm was thrown halfway across the roof, and the doctor collapsed in the pool of blood formed by his spurting stump.
“Oh shit! Sorry!” cried Nick, as the rest of the doctor’s team sprung to action around him. “Uh… blame the Canadian!”
***