The Emerald Virus (56 page)

    
“That’s the only reason I took this chance. I have to know what mistake you
made to make sure Heather and I don’t do the same thing.”

    
“I hate calling it a mistake, although I don’t know what else I’d call it.

    
“Danny and I were always careful about talking about our mission. We would
either talk outside away from everyone, or one of us would tell the other that
they were going to take a shower and we would both go in the bathroom and turn
on the water and then whisper.”

    
“That sounds safe, and I’d have done the same thing, but what went wrong?”

    
“Danny left for his scouting run but I talked to Danny each evening, and
carefully, but apparently not careful enough. In our last conversation I asked
him about getting out of here as soon as he returned. I was worried he might
want to stay longer to make things look better.”

    
“And what happened?”

    
“That was the call that did us in. Turner had drilled a hole in the underside
of the RV and put a small voice activated recorder under the sofa. We checked
for bugs each morning and each evening, but a simple recorder doesn’t show up
on the electronics, which look for transmitters. I don’t know if Turner knew
what he was doing or if he used low tech gear and got lucky. He or one of his
men had to replace the recorder periodically, but Danny and I spent enough time
in the saloon so that wasn’t a problem.”

    
“Okay, at least I know what to look for. Do you know if he records from all
RVs? That hardly seems likely but what has he said to you?”

    
“The only thing he said was that his intuition never fails him.”

    
“I have no idea what that means. Okay, we’ve used enough time. You’re going to
have to beat me now. Try not to break any bones, but you have to make it look
real. If we do this right it may save you some trouble.”

    
“Jack, do you know how much this is going to hurt?”

    
Jack smiled and said, “Shelly, the Taliban had me for almost sixty days, you
don’t have to worry about surprising me.”

    
“Is that where the scars came from?”

    
“Some.”

    
Five minutes later Jack stumbled to the door and yelled to be let out. The
guards took one look at him and said, “I think that’s it for the night. There
ain’t no sense in letting anyone else try her and the boss said only one person
at a time. It would be crazy to let anyone else in.”

    
Jack stumbled into the RV a couple of minutes later. Heather looked dismayed
but said, “Why honey, it looks like you got your ass kicked, which is what you
deserve for leaving me for another woman.”

    
When Danny pointed at the bathroom she continued, “Well, let’s go and get you
cleaned up, although I’m tempted to smack you myself while I can.”

    
They went into the bathroom and Jack turned on the shower. Heather whispered,
“Are you all right Jack? You look really bad.”

    
Jack whispered back, “I’m mostly okay, it looks worse than it is. Look, you
have to get me cleaned up and then first thing in the morning we have a big
fight over me seeing Shelley. We have to split up and you have to go to the
park and let them know what’s going on.”

    
“Jack, I can’t leave you, I mean I work only with you, I’m not sure how I’ll do
without you around to help me.”

    
Jack winced as he tried to smile through his split lips and said, “Heather, we
don’t have any choice. I have to be here to help make sure the exchange goes as
we want, and you have to go to the park and make sure they know what I’m doing.
Most importantly, make sure they know what I’m wearing. I don’t want anyone to
shoot me if things go hot.

    
“For now you need to work on fixing me up and tomorrow morning we’ll go for a
walk and I’ll let you know what information you’ll take back to Sam and her
group. Then the two of us will stage a big fight and you’ll take one of the
heavy duty pick up trucks and go pick up the RV we stashed in Butte, and then to
the park.

    
“You’ll probably have to get Charlotte involved to convince Sam and Noah that
you are who you say you are.”

    
“Okay Jack, you know I’ll do whatever I need to. Now get ready to scream while
I clean you up.”

Tuesday,
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

    
Heather arrived at the park at eleven o’clock Tuesday morning. She had to pass
through guards at the entrance who escorted her to the lodge. When they arrived
she asked to see Sam immediately.

    
Colleen looked at her incredulously and said, “What in the world would you want
with Sam?”

  
Heather
replied, “I just came from Turner’s camp and I have news about Shelley she’ll
be interested in knowing.”

    
Three minutes later Sam and Noah entered the lobby. She took one look at
Heather and said, “Who in the hell are you and what are you talking about?”

    
Heather laughed and said, “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t funny but the look on
your face is priceless. Let’s start at the beginning. I went to Turner’s camp
with Jack Sweeney a week ago. He was hoping to scope out Turner’s camp and
figure out what he was going to do. His plan was to come here and share the
information with you.

    
“The plan changed of course and I’ve ended up coming alone.”

    
“I’m sorry but I’m having a hard time with this. How in the world do you expect
me to have a serious conversation with a kid with multi colored hair, tattoos
and rings everywhere? You have to be crazy.”

    
“Sometimes I think you’re right, I must be crazy. Actually I’m serious about
this. Jack told me you would probably have to talk to Charlotte White before you’d
believe me. Let’s call her and save us both some time.”

    
Charlotte didn’t answer her phone and Heather asked Sam to call Jane. Jane
answered and went to find Charlotte.

    
While Sam was waiting, Noah asked Heather what she and Jack were doing on the
road by themselves.  Heather told him “We have mostly been looking for
survivors that might be having trouble. We have saved some, rescued some and
buried some.” She then giggled like a 16 year old and continued “Oh, and there
was one that we met and he then continued on his way, alone. He was funny so
I’ll tell you the story while we wait. His name is Jason Bushwick, and
somewhere in the middle of Nebraska we saw him and his motorcycle coming
towards us. Jack came to a stop and held his hand out the window to let the guy
know we’d like him to stop. He did so by driving his bike across the median to
our RV.

    
“When Jack asked him if he was in trouble he said no, but that he just got out
of some trouble and he was okay now. I asked him what kind of trouble and he
said that driving cross country one last time before real winter set in. He
said he stopped at survivor camps whenever he came across one. Well, it seems
he had stopped a small gathering of RVs about a hundred miles back and spent
some time with the people, who, as it turned out were a very religious group.
Jason said he was fine with that, having been raised a Christion. He then
mentioned that he has underestimated the fervor of the some of the group. He
and one of the women in the group had gotten together and started sleeping
together. To him it was just a good time. To her, she believed she had a moral
obligation to help repopulate.

    
“Jason said all was going well but that she had one idiosyncrasy that he
thought he’s have some fun with. Apparently each time they made love, just as
she was about to climax she would start saying, over and over, ‘Oh Lord, Oh
Lord’. So that morning as she climaxed with her usual Oh Lord comments, Jason
responded by saying “Blessed is she who comes in the name of the Lord”. Well
she jumped out of the bed, and while yelling ‘blasphemer’ went for her gun.
Jason said it was all he could do to disarm her and then hold her down while he
threw some clothes on. She was shooting at him as he accelerated out of the camp.

    
I still laugh every time I think of the story”.

    
Sam had joined them by the end of the tale and said, “Heather, I’m still having
trouble with this, but Charlotte convinced me that you are the real deal. I’ll
do my best to ignore your costume if you’ll tell me what in the world is going
on at Turner’s camp.”

    
Fifteen minutes later Sam thanked Heather for what she had done.

    
Noah asked, “Heather, what can we do for you?”

    
“I need to get myself back to normal. If you can give me fifteen minutes to
clean up I’ll meet you back here and we can talk about what we’re going to do.”

    
Heather left and Sam looked at Noah and said, “Did you hear her ask what we’re
going to do? As if I’ll let a sixteen year old participate in whatever’s going
to happen.”

    
“It’ll be interesting to see how she reacts to your decision.

    
“I’m going to get Ted Green, the other principals, and the new militia to join
us. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

    
When the group gathered in the lobby a cute blonde teenager walked in took an
empty chair next to Noah and said, “Hi, my name is Heather, I’ve been with Jack
Sweeney in the Turner camp for the last ten days or so. I’m here because Jack
felt he could be more help by staying and trying to look after Shelly, and I
could be more help coming here and letting this group know what was happening
in the camp.

    
“He also thought it was somewhat important that I tell you what he looks like
and how he is dressed just in case it helps keep someone on this end from
shooting him if this turns into a firefight.”

    
Sam looked at her and couldn’t believe how focused and confident this kid was. 
Now she looked like a normal teenager, except she was carrying an M-16 assault
rifle and a holstered 9mm.

    
Ben looked up and said, “I don’t know what we’re going to do yet, and probably
we’ll have to wait until late today or early tomorrow for Danny to get here
before we can finalize plans. One thing I’m sure of is that I’ll need to cover
the exchange with the ZR-50 and I’ll need a spotter and loader with me.

    
“If we can decide on whom that is he and I will be able to practice while we
wait.”

    
Andy asked, “What’s a ZR-50 and why a loader and spotter?”

    
Ted Green said, “It’s the most advanced sniper rifle in the world and Ben has a
prototype model. He’s also the best 1,000 yard shooter in our camp. The ZR-50
uses a five round clip and he only has ten clips. If we get into a firefight it
will take him less than a minute to shoot fifty rounds. The loader will fill
the clips as Ben empties them so he can continue to shoot.

    
“The spotter uses a telescope to search for targets because the shooter uses
only the scope on the rifle, which is usually better, but restrictive in that it
covers a very narrow pattern. The spotter scope doesn’t have the precision but
sees a wider picture.”

    
Heather said, “Ben, I’ll spot and load for you. I have a Swarovski HD STS 80
with a 20-60 eyepiece I’ll use, unless you have something better. You can teach
me the rifle when we practice and I’ll be your back up if need be.”

    
Sam looked at Heather and said, “Heather, I don’t think this is something we
should ask a sixteen year old girl to do for us. Besides, I think some of the
men might have a little more experience than you.”

    
Heather looked around the group and saw some people nod in agreement, some had
neutral looks and a couple looked unsure.

    
She said, “In the last three weeks I’ve been in two gun battles, I’ve stabbed a
man, and I’ve probably shot a thousand rounds from a 30.06 while Jack was
spotting for me, and he did the same while I was spotting for him. I’ve spent
the last ten days in an enemy camp with some of the meanest men you can imagine,
and I did quite well, thank you. Now if anyone here has a better or more recent
resume, speak up. If not, I’ll spot and load for Ben.”

    
Sam recognized that Heather had tried not to sound confrontational, but Sam
still felt defensive. Who in the world did this kid think she was and who was
Jack Sweeney to teach her anything? He was obviously a good bureaucrat but
teaching teenage kids how to shoot didn’t make any sense.

    
She could feel her face flush and she was starting to get angry. Before she
could say anything Ted Green said, “Sam, she does have a good resume, better
than anyone I have. We have a couple of great shooters, but no one with
spotting experience.

    
“By the way, I did some checking on Jack Sweeney myself. I would guess some of
you are wondering why he would take it upon himself to teach Heather anything.
The answer is that in the past he did undercover work for Homeland Security. He
worked exclusively in Afghanistan for almost two years before the war started.
He was shot, captured and tortured by the Taliban, and when he escaped he went
back to the same work. If he has vouched for this young woman, that’s good
enough for me.”

    
Sam had cooled down a little by the time Ted finished, she now looked around
the room and realized that Heather hadn’t offended anyone but herself, and she
was over that now.

    
She looked at Heather and said, “I stand corrected. I like your resume and Ben,
if it’s okay with you, Heather will spot for you.”

    
Ben smiled and said, “She has more experience than me so I’d be happy to have
her.”

    
Sam saw Noah smiling and realized he was probably thinking the same thing she
was thinking, Ben should be happy to partner with a cute girl.

    
The group spent the next hour talking about options available to them and
decided to wait for Danny before going any farther. Ben and Heather left for
the range to start practicing. They told the group they would practice with a
30.06 to save ammunition for the ZR-50. Ted asked them to both take ten shots
with the sniper rifle before they quit for the day.

    
Meanwhile Danny was driving as fast as conditions would allow towards
Yellowstone. He had talked to the group at the lodge every hour or so to let
them know his progress. He was excited to know that Jack Sweeney was in the
camp trying to look after Shelly. He was also looking forward to talking with
Heather about Shelly.

    
Bob Turner called Danny around noon and asked, “Where are you Danny, we need to
get on with the exchange before something bad happens to Shelly. I don’t know
how long I can keep them at bay.”

    
“Turner, you’ll keep them at bay for as long as you think your life is
important. If something happens to her, you and a lot of your men will die. You
shouldn’t question me on this point.”

    
“That’s big talk from someone stupid enough to get caught doing such a simple
job. I can’t tell you that I’m too worried about your threats.”

    
“You should be, but you make your own choices, I’ll react as I want to, not as
you want me to.”

    
“You know you aren’t in a great position to negotiate. I’m not even sure ole
Rick is that important to me. I might just decide to keep Shelly for myself.”

    
“Turner, when you get right down to it I’d almost rather kill Rick and come
after you. That makes more sense as I think about it.”

    
“If you do that she’ll die you know.”

    
“I realize you’d kill her. What you don’t realize is that Shelly also knows
what the score is. She was ready to give her life when she agreed to join me.
If anything you do makes me think that going through the exchange is going to
result in more rather than fewer deaths on my team I’ll walk away from her.
I’ll feel badly about it, but I’ll walk.”

    
“Now don’t you worry.  All we’re going to do is exchange your bitch for one of
my men.”

    
“You mean my woman for your bitch don’t you Bob?”

    
Danny could tell by the silence on the line that he had hit a nerve, and had
probably touched the truth. Not much else explained why Turner would trade
Shelly for someone Turner hardly knew.

    
Turner said, “Don’t let that mouth of yours get you in trouble Danny. We have a
nice agreement here; don’t screw that up by meddling in something you know
nothing about.”

    
“Turner, enough of this nonsense, let’s talk about where to make the exchange
so I can get off the phone, I’m tired of talking to you.”

    
“Smart man. Let’s meet on I-90 in the middle of Butte at nine o’clock
tomorrow.”

    
“I’m going to have to drive through the night to get there, and I can’t
guarantee I’ll be there on time. You want to wait or you want to push the time
back a couple of hours?”

    
“I’ll be there at nine o’clock with the girl; if you aren’t there I may
reconsider the exchange.”

    
“I’ll do everything I can to be there on time, but I won’t meet you in the
middle of Butte, I don’t trust you not to have shooters there and the city
gives you too many hiding places. I’ll only meet you in the country where there
are no hiding places. Your side of Butte is all rock; I’ll meet with you
somewhere between Butte and your place. I’ve got a map; let’s talk about what
works for both of us.”

    
“I don’t really care what works for you, except I’ll give you the fact that
Butte provides too many risks. Let’s meet at the Farmington Road exchange on
I-90. The only cleared lanes are the eastbound lanes. Come alone.”