2022 (16 page)

When she arrived, he was waiting for her and
was pouring himself a drink of brandy. “What’s so important?” he
asked while holding up the bottle indicating if she would like
some.

Hope shook her head, refusing his offer. “I
bugged my trailer—Olivia was returning today, and I just picked up
a very interesting conversation between her and Diane.” She
described how Olivia had made the Virtuesh-B virus and vaccine
while at the foundation laboratory.

He slapped side of his chair. “I
knew
she was up to something, but she covered her tracks very well.”

“Is there anything you want me to do?”

“We can’t take a chance on either her or
Diane talking to Richard or the authorities. Not while I’m so
close. Take them both out, but make it look like an accident. If
it’s too obvious, we’ll have more people showing up here, and
that’s the last thing we need.”

“Consider it done,” she said. “When are you
going to get our vaccines?”

“They should be here in a few weeks. Don’t
worry—you’ll get what I promised you.”

I’m not worried at all. Not
anymore
.

The young man held up a package. “Another
delivery for the lab.”

Olivia pointed to a bench without looking up
from her work. “Just put it over there.” After a month’s absence,
there were crates of unpacked lab equipment all over the place that
Olivia knew she had to get to but her priority right now was
getting organized for the upcoming virus vaccination. Currently,
she was labelling the Virtuesh-B vaccine boxes so that they would
not get mixed up with the regular ones.

He placed the package on the table and looked
around the lab and observed what Olivia was doing. Olivia already
seemed to have forgotten he was still there. “Have a good day,” he
said as he made his way out.

She didn’t even notice me.
Hope left
the building in the same disguise as when she had killed the
professor with one added touch. She now carried a few aspirators
with her that contained Xenon gas. One shot from the aspirator and
the heavier than air gas lowered her voice enough to be a quite
believable man’s tone. She had to go in disguise since Olivia was
very clear early in the morning that she wanted to work alone today
and did not need any help from her.

This was the second delivery of the day, and
on this trip, she picked up on what Olivia was doing in labelling
the boxes and now knew which vaccines doses to steal. With this
information, she could finally focus on the evening’s
activities.

*******************

Although tired after a long day, Diane woke
shortly after midnight and knew something was wrong. The hairs on
the back of her neck and arm were raised. The trailer was dark
except for the pale glow coming from a small nightlight in the
bathroom.

She sat up in bed and saw that Olivia was
asleep, but Hope’s cot was empty. Forest night sounds came through
the open window. She put her head on the pillow and closed her
eyes. A sense of approaching danger prevented her from going back
to sleep.

She got up and dressed without turning on a
light and went outside. The moon was almost full and there were
thousands of stars in the sky. Crickets and the occasional bird
sounds could be heard. She went back inside and gently shook
Olivia’s shoulder.

“What…” Olivia said as she started to wake
up. “What’re you doing? It’s the middle of the night.”

“I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that
something is very wrong. Please get up.”

With a groan of surrender, Olivia rolled
over, pulled her feet out from under the covers, and sat on the
edge of the bed. “What’s wrong? Did you hear something?”

“I don’t know. I’m just scared right now. I
know it’s late, but would you mind going to the cafeteria with me?
There’ll be people there.”

“Well I’m awake now,” Olivia said, yawning
and stretching her arms over her head.

She dressed hurriedly and they walked to the
cafeteria. A few people sat around a table playing a game of cards.
They poured themselves mugs of hot cider and decided to walk back
to their trailer.

“I guess I’m being plain silly,” Diane said.
“I felt frightened all of a sudden, but I’m much better now. Thanks
for putting up with me.”

“No problem—I haven’t seen you rattled like
that before. And I’ll be back to sleep within seconds of hitting
the pillow.”

“Me too,” Diane said. Then she reached out
and grabbed Olivia’s arm. “Stop,” she whispered. “What’s that up
ahead by our trailer?”

Olivia saw nothing at first but then noticed
movement near the back of their trailer.

They pressed against the wall of a nearby
trailer and studied the figure moving around the propane tank and
heating unit.

They looked at each other quizzically.
“What’s he doing? Olivia’s mouth shaped the words silently. “Should
we stop him?” The shadowy intruder crouched down to grasp a tool
and the moon provided a spotlight. “Hey!” Olivia whispered
hoarsely. “That’s the delivery guy that came to the lab today.”

Diane stayed quiet while she tried to place
where she had seen that face, and then it dawned on her. “I’ve seen
him before too. That’s the man who was on the bus surveillance
video when my brother was killed. He’s the person who killed my
brother.”

Suddenly several pieces of the puzzle clicked
together. Diane reached into her hip pocket and pulled out a
weathered card given to Gwen by the life-insurance agent. She
dialed the number on the card and kept a close eye on the figure.
The phone rang in her ear, and she saw the man by the trailer reach
into his pocket, pull out a phone, and then put it away.

************

Hope was nearly finished tampering with the
heating unit when she felt the vibration of her phone. She reached
into her pocket to look at the display screen and saw that it was
answering a call to the dummy life-insurance company. The caller’s
name normally was displayed, even those having the block feature,
but no number showed.

Must be a burn phone—probably a wrong
number
.

She put the phone back in her pocket and
finished working on loosening the line that went into the pressure
regulator. If someone later inspected the unit, they would just
think it was a faulty connection, easily explained by the large
number of new trailers that were setup in the last several months.
She pulled out a lighter and held it under the small gas leak she
had created. A flame appeared and started to burn at the base of a
rubber fitting.

Time to go
. She disappeared into the
maze of shadows.

**************

“Hey, that was Hope’s phone,” Olivia
said.

“It certainly was,” Diane said with
satisfaction. “It was just a hunch, but she wasn’t in the trailer
tonight and her build is pretty close to that of my brother’s
murderer. I took a guess that maybe she used a different disguise
to act like the insurance agent that tried to find me.” She had
little time to gloat though as flames leapt against the trailer
wall.

“Fire!” they shouted as they ran forward.
With wood construction and an ample source of fuel from the propane
line leading to the heater, the trailer was soon immersed in
flames.

Others had gathered but could do little as
the blaze lit up the night. Spacing assured no real danger of the
fire spreading, but there was chaos as many scrambled to put out
spot fires ignited from sparks thrown off from the fire.

As the flames died down, the entire trailer
was reduced to charcoaled wood and pieces of metal.

Olivia looked at Diane, both feeling the
chill of shock. “She tried to kill us! How’d you know we were in
danger and had to leave the trailer?” Then she remembered their
conversation with Hope on psychic abilities and how she got the
impression that Diane believed in them.

“I’m not sure.” Diane felt vaguely
disconnected as she watched the last of the flames destroy their
remaining contents.

“We have to do something,” Olivia said. “I
can’t continue wondering where and when the next attack will
happen. We need to figure out what’s going on with Virtuesh-B and
put a stop to it.”

“But what can we do? Who can we trust? The
virus proves that Mikhail is definitely involved in something
shady. Do you think we can talk to Richard? Is he involved in all
of this too?”

“What choice do we have? The only other
option is to contact the police, but Mikhail has probably covered
his tracks so well they wouldn’t be able to find anything. Also, if
they did find something then I’d be sent to prison for the rest of
my life.”

“Then let’s roll the dice and contact,
Richard,” Diane said. “We already have someone trying to kill us,
so our situation can’t get much worse.”

Olivia agreed. They called the foundation
using Diane’s phone as they weren’t sure how much of the company
computer networks and phones were monitored by Mikhail. She left a
message stating there was a critical issue at hand with Virtuesh
and to contact Olivia directly without informing Mikhail.

They returned to the cafeteria having decided
to spend the rest of the night in a public setting.

*******************

“I thought you were a professional!” Mikhail
said to Hope. She had gone to Mikhail’s trailer after starting the
fire and at first both of them thought that the job was done.
However, within a half an hour, they got word that there was no one
in the trailer that burnt down.

She insisted they were asleep thirty minutes
before the fire. “I don’t know what could’ve made them get up and
leave in the middle of the night.”

“We need to rethink this,” he said. “We can’t
make up another accident now. Keep an eye on them, and I’ll let you
know what action to take next.”

After she left, he concentrated on what
should happen. Hope would have to be kept occupied for several more
weeks, and he would need to make sure those women didn’t do
anything stupid.
They need to disappear for a while and I can
take care of that myself.

Olivia and Diane woke up the next morning to
the activity in the cafeteria. After a small breakfast, they made
plans to stay in touch throughout the day then went about their
normal schedules as they waited for Richard to contact Olivia.
Shortly after her arrival at the lab, Olivia noticed that one box
of the Virtuesh-B vaccine was missing. She would have to let Diane
know. She turned towards the exit and was faced with a pair of
security guards.

The guard nearer the door stepped forward.
“Mikhail has asked to see you,” he said.

There was no choice but to follow them, and
she realized they were leading her to the helipad. As they
approached, she could see Diane and another guard. Mikhail arrived
a few minutes later.

“Good! Both of you are where I want you to be
for once.”

“What’s the meaning of this?” Olivia
asked.

“Don’t take me for a fool,” he said, “I know
that both of you are up to something with the virus and the
vaccine. But I don’t need to listen to your chatter. Guards, tie
their hands and tape their mouths.”

His instructions were carried out quickly and
then they boarded the helicopter.

Olivia noticed they were not taking the
normal route to the foundation headquarters. About an hour into the
flight, Mikhail gestured to the pilot to land in a meadow in the
middle of a mountainous forest. He ordered the women out while
instructing the guard to take their cell phones.

“I don’t have the knack for killing in person
but want to make sure that both of you stop meddling in my plans.
In only a few more weeks, they’ll be completed, and I can’t afford
you two messing things up. We’re in the middle of a large state
park, and it’ll take you at least that long to walk out of here;
that is, if you even survive.” Without looking back, he signaled
the guard and they climbed back into the helicopter and took
off.

Olivia and Diane worked at untying their
wrists and removing the tape from their mouths.

“What’re we going to do now?” Olivia asked.
She tried feverishly to scrape mud from her shoes.

“I’m not sure,” Diane said. “I’m just glad to
still be alive. If he had any backbone, he would’ve killed us here.
I wonder why he didn’t take Hope along to finish the job she tried
to do last night. Maybe she’s in trouble for botching up that
fire.”

“She’s not the only one in trouble. I am
afraid I may have been a big mistake.”

“What kind of mistake?”

“I was so paranoid back at the foundation
about the new virus and vaccines that I coated all the bottles of
Virtuesh-B vaccine that I brought back with the original Virtuesh
virus to protect them in case they were stolen. I thought it was a
smart idea at the time, but now I’m not so sure.”

“You did
what
? What happens while
we’re out here and someone touches it?”

“Nobody should—I’m the only one who is
supposed to be working on it but before we were picked up for this
little trip, I was in the lab and noticed that a box of the vaccine
was missing. I was on my way to tell you when the guards picked me
up.”

“So that means that Virtuesh is now in the
open at Percipience, and no one has had been vaccinated yet.”

“I’m afraid so. If we don’t get back there in
a day or two, the whole village may be infected.”

Mikhail’s mood had improved when he landed at
the foundation headquarters. He liked to take care of things
personally, and with Olivia and Diane out of the way for the time
being, he finally felt as though all the pieces of his plan were
coming together. He headed into the building and called Hope.

“I’m on a quick visit to the foundation
headquarters to deal with some business for Richard. I’ll return in
a week with the vaccine. In the meantime, keep an eye on our two
troublemakers.”