The Perfect Pathogen (25 page)

CHAPTER 42

Walking down the hallway
to elevator, all that Katie could think about was how Hope would cope if only
people with Down Syndrome were left after the epidemic ran its course. She had
to get that thought out of her mind. One of the brilliant minds on the planet
would find a cure to this wretched disease, surely.

Reaching the parking garage, she saw it was almost
empty. As Katie neared her car, another car’s lights turned on and started
towards her. There was a sense of panic, which soon passed as she saw that it
was just one of her colleagues who was also working late. It was a bit dark in
the garage and the shadows always spooked her a little when she was alone this
late in the evening.

She pressed the unlock button on her remote and
slid into the driver’s seat. With her seat belt in place, she backed out of her
spot and headed to the exit. The garage door was still open from the previous
car’s exit, so she didn’t have to wait. She continued up the drive and made a left
on the main street and then started her journey towards home.

She did like this route better than her usual
commute because she didn’t have to get on the beltway. She would connect with
Pennsylvania Avenue, south of the Capitol building, which eventually turned
into Route 4, the road that took her practically to her front door.

As she drove on she smelled something funny in the
car, like a musty, sweaty smell. She looked around and then smelled her own
clothes. “Maybe it just my nose fooling me or the perspiration from her DVC
call that day,” she thought.

This route took her over the Anacostia River and
then under the beltway near Andrews Air Force Base. After passing under the
beltway the road curved around to the right then entered the farmland area of southern
Maryland. She always liked these wide open spaces.

She glanced in her rear view mirror and was
suddenly startled when she saw a man sitting in her backseat. She swerved
instinctively to pull off the road, but the man very calmly said: “Take it easy
Katie. Just keep driving. I will tell you where to turn.”

She could feel the cold steel of a hand gun
pressed against the base of her neck. She was terrified. The man appeared to be
wearing a Halloween type mask that gave him the vague appearance of Jack
Nicholson when he starred in the movie “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” She
had to think fast, what to do?

Katie remained shaken but silent for the next
several minutes and then she asked nervously, “Who are you?  What is it that
you want with me?”

The man answered with what Katie thought was a
heavy eastern European accent. “I just need to ask you some questions. Just
behave yourself and you won’t get hurt.” He was close enough for Katie to feel
his breath on her skin. She didn’t believe him for a second. She had so many
questions: was this the guy who had followed her before? How did he get into
the building?

The stranger ordered Katie to take the next exit,
and as she tried to formulate some kind of plan, deciding whether to wreck the
car or stop and run, the man suddenly appeared beside her in the passenger
seat, his hand on the wheel ready to take control of the vehicle if need be. He
knew what she had been thinking. She now could plainly see the chrome plated
Glock pistol. It was identical to one that Rob had at home.

“I see you staring at this pistol. Have you seen
it before?” asked the man.

“It looks just like the one my husband has,” said
Katie.

“Yep, it is your husband’s gun. I picked it up the
other day at your house as a little insurance policy, just in case you didn’t
want to talk. It wouldn’t be good if people thought you took the gun from home
and went somewhere and killed yourself, now would it? But now all I want is
your cooperation.”

Now Katie was getting really scared. This guy had
been in her house. He was obviously no amateur. As they drove Katie she asked
nervously, “Who wants you to ask me questions?”

“I’m afraid that is confidential. I get paid to do
a job, not to talk about who is paying me. Like I said, all you have to do is
cooperate and everything will be alright.”

They made a few other turns and Katie found
herself on a dirt road heading towards what looked like farmhouse and a barn.
As they pulled into the yard, the man commanded her to park the car by the
barn, and as she did as she was told she spotted a black sedan parked in the
shadows. She decided the only choice she had was to run, but as soon as she
opened her car door, her passenger had grabbed her by the hair and pulled her
backwards to the ground.

She landed with a loud thud, and the air was
knocked out of her body. She tried to sit up, but before she could even try,
the man had slipped a noose over her head, and was tugging at it to force her
to stand. It took all of her energy to get to her feet as she still struggled
to breathe.

“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this, but you
just don’t listen or you don’t believe me!”  He was angry with her now, the
calm he had shown before now melting as his frustration increased.

He gave another hard tug and guided her into the
barn. There was a light on in the corner and he led her over in that direction.
Under the light was a chair, and as they neared it the man threw the loose end
of the rope over a beam in the ceiling and pulled it tight, forcing Katie up on
the stool to the point of standing on the tips of her toes.

“Just so we don’t have any other problems from
you, I want you to stand on the chair like this for a bit.

The rope was starting to hurt Katie’s neck, but
she was afraid to move because she knew if she fell off the chair she would be
dangling from the crossbeam in the barn. Terror flashed through her mind.

The man tied the rope off to one of the horse
stalls nearby and walked over to her and said, “Now are you ready to
cooperate?”

“Yes, yes,” said Katie anxiously in a strained
voice. “What is it that you want to know?”

“Well, I want to know why you think someone would
want you dead?” the stranger asked.

Those words heightened Katie’s fear and she began
to visibly shake. “I thought you said that if I cooperated I wouldn’t get
hurt.”

“Well, I am sorry that I lied to you. It sort of
goes with the work I do. But back to the question, who do you think wants you
dead?”

Katie thought for a second and then said, “I can’t
think of anyone who would want me dead,” said Katie.

“That’s funny, that is exactly what Jennifer said
a couple of days ago,”

Instantly she knew. Jim Redman had to be behind
this. He was as evil as she thought.

“So the Secretary’s death was no accident?” she
asked.

“No, it was suicide. People who commit suicide
shoot themselves or hang themselves. Which would you prefer?  You are already
set up for the hanging. It would probably be easier at this point,” said the
hired killer.

“What did he tell you or promise you?” said Katie.

“Besides the fact that you are an obstructionist
and that your work is at odds with finding a cure for the epidemic, not much.
Oh yes, he promised me that I will be in the first group that gets the
vaccination when they finish developing it. That’s all. Pretty good wouldn’t
you say?  A couple of deaths for the continuation of my life.”

“That is all bullshit,” said Katie nearly hissing.
“Do you think that if a vaccine was being developed that the President wouldn’t
have announced it already?  Aren’t you surprised by the lack of information
being released by the White House?”

“You don’t know what you are talking about. The
reason they haven’t announced it is because they don’t want people storming the
drug manufacturers and taking the vaccine before it is fully ready for use,”
replied the man.

“Have you seen any uneasiness in the public that
would make you believe that?  The truth is we haven’t even figured out what the
cause is yet, let alone developed a vaccine. In fact, it doesn’t look like the
infection is caused by either a virus or a bacteria. The only one who has made
any progress on locating the disease and predicting who is and isn’t infected
is me and my colleague, Dr. Shah,” said Katie. After saying Ben’s name she
wished she hadn’t.

The man looked at Katie in disbelief.

“You can come up with a pretty good story off the
top of your head lady. I bet you got an “A” in your public speaking course, but
I am not buying it. I have worked for this client for a long time and he has
never steered me wrong.”

Katie was desperate for the man to believe her.
“The truth is we are all infected. If a cure is not found, we are all going to
die.” After a short pause she asked, “How are old are you?”

“I am 62,” said the man.

She looked at the man closely, judging that he
would probably only live until the average age of 80. “Based on your age and
normal life expectancy, you will probably only live for another month. Did Jim
tell you that?”

“Now you are talking bullshit,” said the man
disgustingly, spitting to one side to emphasize his point.

“Jim will probably live for another seven or eight
months. And he is the one who has a real chance of lasting until a cure is
developed. He has been feeding you a load of crap,” said Katie.

Katie could see the man was starting to get
pissed. She just hoped it was at Jim and not her. And then a thought occurred
to her.”

“I have my Blackberry in my purse. If you get it out
of the car, I can show you some emails that will convince you that what I am
saying is true,” said Katie.

The man thought about it for a moment. “Ok, but
don’t try and go anywhere or you will be hanging high by the time I get back.” 
He then tied her hands behind her back for added insurance.

Katie did her best to stay still. She didn’t want
to slip and end all of her chances to make it through this terror. The man soon
reappeared. Katie gave him her password and he opened up her email. He pulled a
stepping stool next to her and scrolled through the emails where she could see.

“Go to my sent mail,” she said. “Find one I sent
to Ben Shah earlier today.”

The man found the email and then opened it.
Thankfully, Katie’s anger at Redman’s arrogance had paid off. She had let it
rip in this email, commenting on how Redman would be pissed that she and Ben
were the only ones on the trail of the disease and saying how it galled him
that she wanted the information to go public. In the same email she had
explained her most recent estimates for life expectancy for people in the U.S.
She had used the ages of 40 and 55 and had estimated five and one half months
for a relatively healthy 40 year old and two months for a 55 year old.

“It is all right there. I didn’t make this up.” 
She paused to gather her thoughts.

“Do you have a family? If you want any chance of
them being saved by a cure, killing me is the wrong thing to do. We are the
only two people who are making progress,” she said with great emphasis. “Please
let me go so I can help save your family.”

She could now sense that what she was saying was
starting to make sense to the man. He was really beginning to work up an anger
toward Redman.

He thought a few more minutes.

“This is what I am going to do,” he said. “I am
going to let you go on one condition. Either you agree or you don’t. If you
don’t you will be committing suicide and condemning your family right here and
now.” 

“I will do whatever you ask,” said Katie,
desperate to live.

“Okay then, here’s the deal. You cannot tell
anyone what happened tonight. Not the police, your husband, your boss, no one,
and if you do, a lot of innocent people will die. I will not only hunt you down
and kill you, I will also kill Rob, Bret, Sam and Hope, along with your parents
and Rob’s parents and all of the children and staff at the Center. Do I make
myself clear?  Don’t doubt me for one second,” said the hired killer.

This guy is serious, thought Katie. She was
shaking even more now, thinking about all the people that could die because of
her. He had obviously been following her for a while.

“What about Redman, how will I be able to face him
at work, knowing what he tried to do?” she asked.

“You don’t worry about that, I will take care of
it,” said the man curtly.

“You have a deal,” promised Katie. “I will never
discuss anything that has happened this evening.” Her family’s life depended on
it.

The man loosened the rope and let her down from
the chair. He was holding the gun at her again, just in case she wanted to be
bold again and run.

“One other thing, if you try anything right now, I
will be forced to kill you and all of the other people I have mentioned
tonight. So, don’t try anything.”

Relieved somewhat, Katie wasn’t about to try
anything.

“Sit down in the chair,” the man commanded. “I am
going to leave now and I want you to count to five-hundred after you hear the
engine start on my car. Be sure, because I’ll be watching you. You will find
this gun in the mailbox at the end of the road. You are to take it to your home
and put it back in the locked cabinet where you keep it. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good, I am leaving now.”

Katie sat obediently in the chair as she watched
the man methodically coil up the rope and move towards the barn door. After a
short time she heard a car engine start and quickly drive away. She then
started to count to five-hundred, taking her time, but suddenly she started to
cry uncontrollably. How could this be happening she thought? She didn’t know if
she would ever be able to get the thoughts of tonight out of her head.

After some time she slowly pulled herself together
and then she started to count to five-hundred again.