The Carrier (The Carrier Series Book 1) (12 page)

“I love you, too.” Then he kissed me filled
with emotion, but there was obvious confliction behind it. I held onto his
lower back tightly, not wanting to ever let go. We could just stay on the rock
forever, happily kissing, and everything would be okay.

Then it happened. He pulled away, looked me
straight in the eyes, and with a shaken voice he said, “I’m so sorry it has to
be this way. I truly do love you, Ava Gardner,” and then he let out a grunt,
and I heard a strange metallic clinking sound as something fell to the stony
ground. I yelled his name, but then doubled over in hysterics as I saw Nolan
running away from me without looking back. As if he had timed it perfectly, he
crossed the train tracks just as the caboose sped by and he ran off into the
darkness.

My head began to pound violently. Why did this
heartache feel like I was dying? I tried to tell myself to stand, to get my
body up and pathetically return home defeated and broken.

The tears came down like a rainstorm as pain
radiated through my whole body. I was convulsing and shaking, and abruptly felt
extremely cold. Then
came
an excruciating pain in my side.
I slid a hand down to my torso and, to my
surprise,
I
felt a wet and sticky liquid.

Something shiny caught the moon’s ray on the
rock a few feet away. It was a knife about three inches long. My bright red
blood was slowly sliding down the flat layers of rock to the place where the
knife was.

Nolan had stabbed me.

He was gone.

I knew in that instant that I did not want to
live this messed-up life anymore. I was ready for death. So I let myself slip
into the darkness in front of me.

It was late afternoon when I arrived at the
cabin I’d be staying in while working in the Dells. I parked my silver Audi in
a short gravel driveway and stared at the site before me—a few broken-down,
olive green, and incredibly small cabins sitting in a bed of overgrown grass.

I let out a loud sigh as I pulled my key from
the ignition, but stayed in the car a moment, thinking. I looked around. So
this would be my home for a while. I guessed it wouldn’t be so bad.

I thought back to the unexpected events of my
day—especially the Lower Dells boat tour when I first caught sight of Ava. She
had displayed the kind of striking beauty that seemed to come naturally, like
she didn’t have to work hard at it. I smiled at the thought of her.

You have a job to do this summer, Nolan.
Getting a girl is not an option,
my brain scolded. I shook my
head trying to get the picture of Ava from my mind.

I grabbed my cell and the ring of keys Darren
had given me from the console, and then got out of the car. Behind me there was
a row of five more cabins identical to mine, but there wasn’t a soul in sight.
It was eerily quiet.

I popped the trunk and took out my black work
briefcase and the luggage I had packed that morning in Chicago before I left.
It was unclear how long I’d be on this mission, so I had to pack as if I’d be
here for three months.

Ava popped into my mind again. Her body was fit
and she had nicely toned legs. All of that was wonderful, but her smile was the
most gorgeous thing I had ever seen. My mind’s eye could clearly see her soft
brown eyes under her long dark eyelashes. They were sweet, caring eyes that
matched perfectly with her thin pink lips.

I slammed the trunk shut.

So what? She’s gorgeous. I can look, right?
Just as long as I keep my heart out of it.

A worn path through the grass led to two wooden
steps leading up to cabin three. I pulled open the holey screen door and
swatted at a moth as it fluttered past my face, freed from the door’s
captivity. The key fit awkwardly in the hole and I had to use some muscle to
get it to turn, but eventually I got the old wooden door open with a
creak
.

The light on the ceiling flickered when I
flipped the switch, and as I took a step into the small space my nose instantly
filled with a musty smell. When was the last time anyone stayed in this cabin?
The air felt stale and the whole thing was in need of a deep cleaning.

Hopefully I wouldn’t be here too long.

I set my bags down on the floor and sat on the
couch across from the twin bed. Six bright blue Dells Boat Tour bumper stickers
had been haphazardly slapped onto the wall outside the bathroom. My mind
flipped back to my first boat tour. I had sat on the bottom deck waiting for
the tour to begin, and had had the perfect vantage point to watch Ava untie the
front of the boat. She leaned far over the rail on the dock and I followed her
long, muscular, tanned legs all the way up the back of her shorts.

Damn
.

Ava threw the rope onto the bow and I craned my
neck, watching her walk all the way to the back of the dock.

“She’s single, if you were wondering.”

I snapped my head back towards Jack.

Woops
.
Busted
.

I smiled and Jack flashed a mischievous grin
back at me.

It would be hard to ignore this woman. I had absolutely
no intentions coming into it, but my heart argued that perhaps this summer
didn’t have to be all business. My brain intervened:
Don’t even think about
it, Nolan. This is work. You could be leaving at anytime.

My phone buzzed in my hand, jolting me back to
the present.
New text message from Agent Harper.
I slid my finger across the screen to receive the message.

Intelligence indicates the
source of radiation is within a 200-mile radius of your area. Continue ruse and
stand by for further instructions.

A nervous bubble swelled in my stomach, but I
quickly pushed it away. This was my first mission as a field agent, and I was
not about to mess it up. A lot was riding on me being successful here, and I
knew that for now my job was to lie low and play the ticket agent part for a
while.

The Boat Tours had supplied some furnishings
within the cabin including a limited supply of used cooking utensils and dishes
in the kitchen, an overly soft couch, a hard twin bed, and, thankfully, a small
flat-screen TV mounted to the wall outside the bathroom. I turned on the tube
and it was set to a channel broadcasting commercials for attractions in the
Dells. Before I could turn the channel, a big blue and white tour boat glided
over the river through some tall, rocky cliffs.

“The Rocky Island Region,” I remembered from
Ava’s tour. I was taken back to our conversation on the bottom deck of the
General Bailey on the way back upstream, when I had been rendered speechless by
Ava’s very presence.

I was losing my nerve. I couldn’t look her in
the eye. I tried to remember my stress training. Could any of that apply here?

“Keep talking,”
my
heart instructed.

I managed to mutter something about
cornfields. 

Idiot! What are you, some kind of hick? Come
on, pull it together and say something intelligent!

“Are you from the area? It’s so beautiful
here.”

Well, that wasn’t half bad. Showing some
interest is good.

I glanced quickly at her face. She was still
talking, but I couldn’t hear a word she was saying over the loud beating of my
heart.

God, she was beautiful.
 

I swallowed hard, suddenly aware of my
increasingly sweaty armpits and wondered if my cologne was too strong. I felt a
bead of sweat falling from my hairline, so I nonchalantly looked out the window
to wipe the sweat away and get myself under control.

I had been trained to stay as cool as ice in
high-pressure situations, but somehow, Ava had some kind of power over me that
was taking precedence. If some young college girl from small-town Wisconsin
could affect me like this, what would I do when I was faced with real danger?

Dread filled my heart. I was failing at the
very job I hadn’t even begun yet.

I continued to hide by looking out the window,
thinking back to the last nine months in Chicago surrounded by underground
offices, tall, urban buildings, and lots and lots of grey. The natural world
around me was so refreshing. Part of my job would be to protect it.

Was I really ready for the career path I had
chosen for myself? I knew it would be a life of loneliness, but the deeply
rooted loyalty I felt for this country consumed my heart so overwhelmingly. My
parents had had a large part in leading me down this career path. They had
always been extremely patriotic and selfless in everything they did. 

Being here now was only part of a minor
mission—a way for the agency to see if I was worthy for the big leagues. All my
hard work proving myself had brought me here.

During the boat tour I had noticed a classic
all-American family sitting on the shoreline fishing—mom, dad, two kids, and a
dog. They had a picnic spread out on a red and white checkered cloth and were
laughing and splashing in the river water, completely unaware of the thousands
of people behind the scenes that had committed themselves to defending and
protecting the American public from real and horrific threats
everyday
.    

This was what I was meant to do.

So I got to work. I entered my security code on
the lock on my briefcase and it popped open with a loud click. My tablet was
near the top of the collection of items inside, and it didn’t take me long to
set up a hotspot and connect to the Internet. I pulled up my op files and began
to review my mission.

Task Mission #23322: Assist
in locating and identifying hazardous environmental threats to the health and
safety of the American people by searching area environments and interacting
with locals, extrapolating any relevant information and reporting it to the
proper authorities of the CBB offices.

Pretty broad.
I
read on.

The agency has deployed agents in areas
throughout the Midwest posing as false employees for various cooperatives
around Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan. All agents are to be ready
to act as soon as intelligence acquires enough information to support the
intended mission.

It would likely be many weeks, maybe months,
for the agency to narrow down the area further, but nevertheless, we were to
stay alert, keen to our task, and in shape.

An hour later I changed into some mesh shorts
and a T-shirt for a run. I wanted to be in top physical shape in preparation
for any kind of physical demand I may encounter. I had to prove myself to the
agency. This was one job I wasn’t going to mess up.

I am an agent for the FBI.

I’ve always been somewhat of a
brainiac
. My parents and teachers decided I should skip the
third grade. When I was seventeen I went to Northwestern University in Chicago
and got an undergraduate degree in International Law in only three years. I’d
always thought law was interesting, but didn’t think I would ever become a
lawyer; it was just something to study for the time being.

While in college I became fluent in three
languages, and at twenty I graduated summa cum laude. School had always come
easy to me, and although I was younger than most of my peers, my personality
and charm enabled me to thrive in any learning environment. I’m one of those
geeks that everyone loves to hate because I didn’t really ever need to study,
but I always got A’s. It’s like my brain takes a picture of the textbook or
lecture, and I can remember it clear as day later on. Although I did take
school seriously, I had my fun in college too, keeping a few good buddies and
dating casually, but nothing stuck.

I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my
life, so I went back to Northwestern to study for a master’s degree in
genetics, another subject I found interesting.
Two years
later I was studying my notes at a wooden picnic table in the park when, out of
the blue, I was recruited by FBI Agent Harper and offered a job in a special
sector deep within the agency.
I was shocked. Although my parents had
always modeled the value of national pride, I had never considered a career in
national security.

It meant major sacrifices in my life, including
assuming a fake life to fool the people closest to me. I really did love my
family and friends, and I would feel horrible having to keep such a secret from
them. I was given one week to make a decision, and I don’t think I slept a wink
those seven days. In the end, I figured I had nothing to lose. I had no real
plans for my life at that moment, and I felt an overwhelming feeling that the
FBI was my calling.

Even though I do like my job, my life has been
relatively secret to those I am closest to. I often find I am living two lives,
which isn’t always the most convenient. To be honest, it can be very lonely.

I’ve been in training and working in Chicago
for the last two years. Very early on, I was chosen to be a part of a special
Clandestine
Biomonitoring
Branch of the Bureau. This
section employs environmental biologists, genetic scientists, and neurologists
trained to examine the lives Americans live and look for vulnerabilities in our
environment that may cause health risks or other threats to the American
people.

I find this type of work very interesting, but
I had worked in the office for the majority of my time with the CBB thus far.
For the past half a year I had been allowed to begin my survival, torture, and
combat training. It was strenuous and exhausting, but at the same time
thrilling. I was excited to start work as a field agent.

Less than a month ago, the CBB intercepted some
information indicating there may be a non-urgent public health risk in the
Midwest. I have not been made privy to the complete details, but I know the
concern is related to low levels of possibly harmful radiation being passed
through the environment by one source.

Through their research, the CBB had narrowed
the source of emissions down to several areas and sent an agent undercover to
each of these areas for the summer. The experts were working back at
headquarters in Chicago and at other stations around the country continuing
their research. As information became evident, we were supposed to be updated.

So here I was at my undercover job as Dells
Boat Tours ticket agent. On one hand I longed to be back at headquarters
shooting guns and practicing my combat skills, and on the other hand I was on
an actual mission.
My first mission.

Darren had me shadowing various ticket agents
in booths around town. Most days I was bored out of my mind, training for a job
I expected to be at only temporarily. Some days it was hard to pay attention. I
spent a lot of that time on my phone texting other guys at the agency, trying
to get some info on what they were up to. A few guys were still in Chicago,
training and waiting for their tasks to be assigned. Some were luckier, posted
to other parts of the country, kicking ass behind the scenes.

One day I was assigned to train with this cool
guy, Brian. Brian was a nineteen-year-old with broad shoulders and a thin
waist. He had dark hair and eyes, and a very friendly face. Brian and I shared
the same sense of humor, poking fun at tourists behind their backs and being
goofy. Working and learning from Brian was so refreshing. It had been so long
since I’d felt so free.

I could tell Brian was genuinely a good guy. We
talked a lot about sports that day in the ticket booth right next to the downtown
Dairy Queen. I even learned some good tips on how to be a profitable ticket
agent. I didn’t really care about making money, of course, but he was so good,
I couldn’t help picking up a few tricks. Brian was the first agent to trust me
enough to let me sell tickets on his shift while he sat back with his feet up
on the ticket counter.

Brian told me this was his fourth year working
for the boats, and so they placed him mostly at the best booth, Lower One. He
probably knew a lot about Ava, and I wanted so badly to ask him about her, but
something made me stop. I knew in the back of my mind that the agency would
frown upon field agents engaging in personal activity during their mission—but
my mission hadn’t really been defined yet. I was basically staking out our
territory while the guys in the lab on the other side of the country did the
real research. They weren’t even sure of the exact location or the actual
severity of the threat yet.

But oh, those big brown eyes...

A police car sped down Broadway with its lights
and sirens on, breaking up my daydream. People stopped on the sidewalks to
watch it speed by for a second, and then they went back to their business of
vacationing. The sidewalks on both sides of the street were filled with people
of all ages shopping, eating, and buying tickets from Brian.

I decided I could use a friend in this crazy
tourist town, especially if I was going to be here all summer. “Hey, Brian,
whadaya
say I pick up some beer on the way home, and we
head over to the Island to relax a bit?”

He looked at me like I was crazy. Did I say
something wrong?

“Ah buddy...? How old are you? You look like
you’re about nineteen.”

Oh shoot.

I forgot I’m supposed to be almost twenty. One reason
the agency picked me for this assignment was because, although I was
twenty-four, my facial features made me look twenty as long as I kept
clean-shaven.

“
Naw
, I’ll be twenty
at the end of the summer. Hey, I bet you’re not into drinking. You play football
at UW–Whitewater, right?”

“Yeah.
Gotta
keep this
machine in perfect working order, so I stay away from alcohol.”
He
flexed his biceps. “You
wanna
join me for a workout
tomorrow morning?”

I probably should keep up on my weight training
while I was waiting for the action. “Yeah, give me a call in the morning before
you leave.”

After work, I had to visit the Boat office to
restock my ticket briefcase. As I drove down the hill by the Lower Dells, Ava’s
pretty face flashed before my mind. I stopped at the stoplight, wondering how
my brief encounter with her a few days before could have left such a lasting
impression. The light turned green and I took a left, past the docks.
Curiously, I studied the parking lot, wondering if I could catch a glimpse of
Ava leaving work.

There she was, sitting on a park bench, staring
out over the river.

Acting on an impulse, I switched on my left
blinker and waited for oncoming traffic to clear. I watched her sitting there,
imagining sitting next to her with my arm around her shoulders.

What the hell am I thinking? I’m here for work
this summer, not for romance.

I switched my blinker off and glanced over my
right shoulder to merge back into traffic, but a sudden rush of cars forced me
to wait, and provided me time to look back at Ava.

Where’d she go?

I searched the parking lot, but didn’t see her
anywhere. Then my heart shifted into high gear when I spotted her hop the
safety fence.

What the hell was she doing? Was she going to
jump down the hill? It’s probably sixty feet down!

“No! Ava!” I yelled. I had to stop her!

I rampantly took advantage of a tiny space
between oncoming traffic and sped into DBT’s parking lot. I threw my Audi into
park in a handicapped stall and rushed over to Ava just as she almost toppled
down the hill. With no seconds to spare I caught hold of her backpack and
grabbed her tiny waist, lifting her onto the wooden railing.

Holy crap! That was close
.

She looked up at me, stunned, and muttered
something incoherent. She was scared, her arms and legs shaking. She was so
innocently gorgeous. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and make her feel safe. I
grabbed her hand instead. It felt mildly appropriate.

But in the next second anger washed over me and
I inadvertently scolded her. Why would she put herself in danger that way? The
intense desire to pull Ava close, and the fear I felt for her safety scared me.
I barely knew this woman.

You’re here for work, Nolan,
my
brain reminded myself.
Leave now
.

“I’m glad you’re okay. I’ve
gotta
head to the Boat office.”

Dammit
,
she’s so beautiful.

“Take care of yourself, Ava. I’d like to see
you around here again.”

Get out of here, Nolan, before you’re in too
deep.