The Galilee Falls Trilogy (Book 3): Fall of Heroes (33 page)

“Joanna?” Jem asks.

Oh, a half ton of bricks lifts off my spirit when I hear his voice. Only another thousand to go. “Yeah. Hi.”

“Hi. Are you okay?”

“I’m good. I’m home. I’m sorry if I scared you earlier. It was panic attack.”

“I know. You’re okay now?”

“Yeah. Justin’s taking good care of me. They took some bone marrow. That shit hurt. Who knew my polluted, black Irish blood could ever help people, huh? How are
you
?”

“Still a human pin cushion. The meds are helping but making me tired.”

“You sound better. How’s the cough?”

“Better. I’m fine, Joanna. I’m in the best of hands.”

“Well, mine are included. I’m working on getting in to see you as soon as possible. Do you want me to bring you anything? Books? A cake with a file so you can bust out?”

“That last one’s tempting, but—” He begins coughing again. “Sorry.”

“Are you fine? Don’t lie to me.”

“I am. I’m exactly where I need to be.”

“Okay then.” I pause. “There is some good news. We narrowed down the list of doctors to four. Dr. Sabine DeRue, Dr. Sergi Lermentov, Dr. Kelvin Tan, and Dr. Andrew Mendelson. We think they’re—”

“Did you say Dr. Andrew Mendelson?”

“Yeah. Do you know him?”

Jem’s silent for a few moments. “He was one of my…engineers. You can cross him off the list.”

“Why?”

“Because Jordan hunted down all the doctors linked to the experiment and murdered them. He called it his pet project. I’d receive photos. He flayed Mendelson alive then slit his throat four years ago.”

“Jesus.”

“The other names,” he coughs, “are vaguely familiar.”

“We think they’re in India. Operatives are already on their way.”

“Sounds as if you’re on the gun.” He pauses. “I love you.”

“I love you too. So much,” I say.

“Get back to work. Love you.”

“Say it again.”

“I love you,” he says.

“Once more with feeling,” I say with a smile on my face.

I can all but hear his smile too. “I love you with all my heart, and all my soul Joanna Fallon. For a million nights—”

“And a million more,” I finish. “Call me if you’re up for some phone sex.”

He chuckles. “I love you, Joanna. Bye.” He hangs up.

He sounded good. Better than before. I’ll take it, at least until I can get in to see him. I can think now. Concentrate on the task at hand. I fire off a quick email to everyone, including the state department and Indian ambassador, about Dr. Mendelson, including the manner of his death. Maybe he was on the project before Jordan found him. The man hasn’t been reported missing. I suggest they check for any unidentified corpses with those types of wounds. It’d give us an approximate location of where Mendelson was at the time. Where the research facility could be now. Of course Mendelson could be a dead end, but my gut tells me no. If he was evil enough to create then torture two small boys in the name of science, he’s sure as shit evil enough to help develop a virus to obliterate a race of people just to see if he can.

Next order of business. I continue to catch up, but nothing piques my interest. Shipping forms it is. But before I begin that mind-numbing task, I call Dr. Sharpesh. I almost forgot about him. Glad I didn’t delete his email. We need any help we can get.

“He-He-Hello?” the man asks nervously.

“Um, Dr. Sharpesh?”

“Y-Yes. Who-Who is this?”

“You can call me Guardian. I work with Captain Moonlight in Galilee Falls. I’m the one who sent you the email about your work and—”

He hangs up. Uh…okay. I dial again, and he picks up on the sixth ring. “Hello?”

“Dr. Sharpesh, I think we got disconnected. I just—”

“I can’t help you. I’m sorry. Please don’t call here again.” He hangs up.

Curiouser and curiouser. Someone’s been threatened. I’ve had a dozen informants say the same exact words with the exact same tone. Shit scared. I dial again and when he doesn’t pick up, I hang up only to try again. And again. And again. After nine tries, he finally picks up. “Leave me alone!”

“I can’t do that, Dr. Sharpesh. And quite frankly I’m sensing you can’t afford to let me do it. Sir, I work with Captain Moonlight in Galilee Falls, White Knight in Independence, and Lionheart in Jericho. If you are in danger you must tell me right now so I can dispatch someone to your location to protect you. Lionheart can be there in fifteen minutes.” Where’d you put his contact information, Justin?

“I-I don’t…they threatened my family,” he whispers. “They threatened my medical license if I talk about my research. I don’t have a legal right to talk about it anyway. It belongs to Goliath now.”

“Doctor, they threatened you for a reason, and these are not the type of people to leave a loose end hanging for long. I have the sense these are the same group that have kidnapped, killed, and are planning the genocide of all humans with the uber-gene. You are in mortal danger whether you talk to me or not.” Got it. I pull up Lionheart’s email and begin typing Dr. Sharpesh’s home address and telephone number. “We’re going to get you and your family someplace safe, okay? Lionheart is on his way over. Do not let anyone in unless they give the password, ‘Guardian.’”

“O-Okay,” he says. “H-Helen! P-Pack bags for us and the kids,” he shouts. “Fo-For how long—”

“Pack for a week. It really depends on what you can tell me.”

“A week, Helen!” I hear a door shut. “I’ve been so afraid, ma’am. Th-The phone rang at three this morning. I-I got it and a person with an electronic voice t-told me that I must not speak to anyone about my research, must not share it, or they’ll kill my wife and children. They knew where the boys go to school, where my wife works. Then, when I went out this morning…my cat was dead. Lying on my doorstep with a bullet in her head.”

Fucking hell. “I’m so sorry. You must be terrified. But we’ve been consulting with dozens of doctors and researchers worldwide, and none have reported being threatened. So why you? Why now?”

“Ma’am, I’ve asked myself that question all morning. I don’t know. I didn’t tell anyone you contacted me, not even my wife. Co-Could they have my email under surveillance? This phone?” he asks, voice now trembling.

“I don’t know.”

“H-How do I know th-this isn’t a trick? You’re not with them? This isn’t a test?”

A fair question. This is big. I can sense it. I can’t lose him. “Because I’m going to trust
you.
You can’t tell a living soul, not your wife or anyone, otherwise my life and the lives of the people I love could be in danger. Trust for trust, okay?” I pause. “I’m Joanna Fallon.”

The other end remains silent for several seconds. “You ruined my career.”

“What?”

“When you sold Blackwater. Goliath shut us down. They stole my research!”

“I know. I just learned about it yesterday. I-I had no idea that was their plan. I swear on my own life I would have stopped the deal had I. But I’m friends with Bennett Stone. I’ll convince him to turn all rights back to you. I’ll personally pay for a facility for as many years as needed. You must be onto something for these people to threaten you. What precisely were you working on?”

He’s silent for a few moments again. Moment of truth. “An adenovirus that degrades other adenoviruses.” If I wasn’t sitting down I’d probably collapse from relief. “It is such a new area of science, we figured mistakes would be made along the way. Our hypothesis is if we knew which adenovirus and which genes were targeted, we could input all that data into our virus and have our virus attack.”

“C-Could a person make a full recovery? I ask, voice brittle.

“In theory. With the rogue virus dead, the patient would certainly have a better chance. With no virus, there’d be no autoimmune response attacking the body. But there are a million factors at play. I-I’d need as much information about the original virus. How it was developed, the exact sequencing, all the raw data otherwise our virus loses its efficacy and can potentially cause an autoimmune response as well. I reviewed what you sent last night. I need more information and a lab, but can begin—”

“Wait. I-I thought you were years away from producing a viable result.”

“Miss Fallon, we were about to request permission to enter the human testing phase. Our previous tests on chimps produced a eighty-three percent success rate.”

My stomach seizes. “But…th-that’s not what I was told. H-He said…”

“Who said?” the doctor prompts.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

I begin to see spots again and bile rises into my mouth. I swallow it down and take several ragged breaths to calm myself. Fuck. Fuck.

“I, uh…” I all but float out of my body. I can’t stand to be inside anywhere he’s touched. “Y-You need to gather all your research, anything you’ve still got. Lionheart will be there in a few minutes. Have your bags and family ready, but we’ll need you to connect with the task force and get to work immediately. He could release the virus worldwide soon, if he hasn’t already. There’s a man dying in the hospital. M-My fiancée.”

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’ll do what I can, but as I said, I need all data on the original virus for full efficacy.”

“You’ll get it. I-I just…I have to hang up. I have to go. Lionheart will be there soon. Goodbye.”

I hang up and despite the absolute agony rippling through my hip, I race to the bathroom just in time to collapse to the floor and throw up in the toilet. Not good enough. I whack my forehead against the rim several times, I guess hoping to render myself unconscious to escape the deeper circle of hell I’ve just plummeted into. “Stupid, stupid,” I keep saying with each whack. “Stup—”

I burst into tears. Hard, from the bottom of my soul, wracking sobs. I curl into the fetal position, sobbing and sobbing until I can’t breathe. I don’t know how long I stay here, losing my fucking mind again, before I hear, “Jo? Joanna?” I can’t move. I can’t stop crying. “Jesus Christ! Jo?
Jo?
” I sense him fall to his knees beside me. Touch my back. I still can’t stop crying, not even when he collects me into his arms, hugging tight. As tight as I do him. “It’s okay,” he whispers, stroking my hair. “It’s okay, Jo. I’m here. I’m here.”

I hold onto my best friend as if he were the only thing keeping me from falling off the face of the earth. “I-I-I-I-I…”

“I’m here. I’m here, Jo. Just let it out. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got you. Let it out.”

I begin to calm down with every stroke, with every word until after another minute I can finally say it out loud. “It-It…Bennett Stone,” I whisper.

“What?”

I sit back and look into his frightened blue eyes. “It’s Bennett Stone. He’s killed my Jem.”

*

As I take a scalding hot shower in an attempt to burn off the skin I allowed that monster to touch, Justin coordinates with Lionheart to help the Sharpesh family get to safety. To save them from the danger I placed them in. Because of my stupidity. My blindness. He was so close, and I just couldn’t see him for what he was. He stepped right into my blind spot. I trusted him. My friend. Another betrayal. I’ll never be clean again. He’s still in there. Under my skin. Like a virus.

Justin waits in the living room, phone pressed to his ear and typing away on Doris Jr. when I come out, my skin as raw as my nerves. “…reimburse you, Lionheart. It can’t be in her name.” He listens for a moment. “It just can’t, but he needs to get here.
Now.
I’ll transfer you the money but charter it in the name Joe Proctor.” He listens again. “We can use any help offered, but with the outbreak, it’s not safe here. It’s your call.” Justin looks up at me and give me a sad smile. “He’s fighting. If anyone can beat this, it’s Moonlight. Just get that doctor and his research here. I’ll be in touch.” He hangs up. “Feeling better?”

“Are they safe?”

“They’re on their way here.”

I flop into the easy chair. “Good. If anything happens to them, I’ll slit his goddamn throat myself.”

Justin stares at me, lips pursed. “Are you sure—”

“He’s the only one I told about Sharpesh. I-I asked him about Motoneslly and hours later they’re wiped off the face of the earth? He’s been asking me about the prison break and virus every chance he got. He was here, in Galilee, excusing himself to use the phone at the precise time of the prison break. He has books on plagues. It fits. It all fucking fits. He has the means, the motive, all the opportunity in the fucking world. And I…”

“Jo, I’ve known Bennett Stone for over a decade. I’ve had lunches, we’ve partied, we—”

“And I fucked him. Twice. I’m business partners with him. I-I knew he disliked supers, but this…?”

“Who the hell could have seen this coming? How many years, how many billions, how many lies and plans have gone into this? Who could have that much hate in their heart? And the man came to you with the idea for The Guardian Society. To
help
supers. Why do that if you plan to wipe them off the planet?”

“So, if the worst happened, and he was found out, everyone would ask that very question? To entice me into becoming partners because he knew I’d be a good source of information? Because the demonic voices in his head told him to? It doesn’t matter.
All
that matters is finding information Dr. Sharpesh needs to create a cure. Bennett Stone is the key. So, how do we approach this? Do we tell the feds or—”

“No. The man’s friends with the fucking President. And he’s probably already on edge with the Motoneslly leak. No, we keep this in-house. Just us and the other supers. Eventually he’ll find out about Sharpesh but—”

“We could just kidnap and torture him for the information,” I cut in.

“No,” Justin states plainly. “Not unless we have no other option. No, we’ll analyze his phone records, travel records, business dealings for the past year and—”

“That’ll take too long.” I pause. “There is another way.”

“What?” I stare at him blank faced, but he still reads me like a fucking book. “
No
.”

“I get in, I knock him out, download the information from his phones, his computers, make copies of his files, sneak out, and he’s none the wiser.”