Frankenstorm: Survivors (7 page)

Epilogue

“Welcome to this special Red Pill Radio podcast. I’m Ivan Renner.

“What you’re about to hear is a recording of Dr. Fara McManus. She was part of the team working in the old Springmeier Neuropsychiatric Hospital for Vendon Labs. This recording is a confession. In it, she explains what they were really doing at Springmeier. The official story was that they were developing new antibiotics to fight antibiotic resistant infections. That was not true.

“I have given this recording to Jack Bembenek of KIEM News, and it will be picked up by other news outlets, I’m sure.

“Some of the people who died during last night’s hurricane did not die because of the hurricane. They died because of what was done to them by others. When you hear why, I hope you’ll get angry. It’s happened before. And if you don’t get angry and do something about it . . . it probably will happen again.”

 

 

Hurricane Quentin had torn its way up the coast through Del Norte County and into Oregon, all the way up through Lane County, past Eugene, before it began to dissipate.

The official death toll had not yet been tallied when news of Ivan’s recording and the story behind it began to spread the next day. The story was picked up by every major news outlet in the country, and soon, in the world.

 

 

Two days later, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department released a statement expressing suspicion that Deputy Ram von Pohle had somehow contracted the virus created in Springmeier. Sheriff Mitch Kaufman stated that it was the only reason he could imagine for such an upright family man and a sheriff’s deputy of long standing to suddenly murder his wife, his children, and a neighbor, then do the other things he apparently had done.

The day after that, Andy Rodriguez’s attorney held a press conference to announce that the sheriff was mistaken, that Ram von Pohle was a cold-blooded murderer.

The story captured local attention immediately and became a preoccupation.

 

 

Ollie had taken twenty-four men into Springmeier Neuropsychiatric Hospital. It seemed like too many at first, but he wasn’t sure where the homeless people would be inside that big hospital and he figured more men would find them faster.

Nine of his men came out of the building.

Ollie quickly became a TV personality, thanks to his appearances on the news. When asked by a CNN reporter why he’d risked his life and the lives of his men to rescue the homeless people being held inside the hospital, he said, “Because that’s the kind of thing a good American does, and whatever you might have heard, I’m a good goddamned American.”

The work done in Springmeier Neuropsychiatric Hospital quickly overshadowed the story of the hurricane and became the topic of conversation in and outside the United States.

Vendon Labs denied that they knew what Corcoran was doing and expressed outrage over the revelation. A statement was released admitting that Dr. Corcoran had been having difficulties with addiction lately, but no one at Vendon Labs knew how severe the problem had become. The company maintained that the aim of the project had been to develop new antibiotics to fight antibiotic-resistant infections and at no time were they working on a weaponized virus.

No one believed them.

The White House released a statement claiming that Vendon Labs had no connection whatsoever to the Pentagon or military.

No one believed them.

But the only evidence that such a government-funded project had taken place was Dr. Fara McManus’s recorded statement. She could not back that up because she was dead.

No one believed Vendon Labs or the government . . . but no one knew what to do about it.

 

 

Donny had nightmares. Andy was sure he would for some time. Maybe the rest of his life. He had explained to the boy what had happened to his mother. Donny took the news quietly, then dismissed himself and went to his room.

It would take time. But Andy had plenty of that, and he was willing to give all of it to his son.

 

 

Early Saturday morning, Latrice was placed in the morgue of St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka as a Jane Doe. She was put there with the other Jane and John Does who had been left behind by the storm. Statements were released asking anyone who may have information about the Does to please come forward.

Latrice had left her purse in Giff’s house, so she had no identification on her. No one knew she carried a deadly virus. She had been shot to death.

She lay in her drawer, waiting for someone to come take her home.

PINNACLE E-BOOKS are published by

 

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Copyright © 2014 Ray Garton

 

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ISBN: 978-0-7860-3406-2

 

First electronic edition: February 2014