The Immortal Harvest (34 page)

“Yes boss – but I think that…” Drew was about to respond when one of the Paramedics had reached Baxter, the other Paramedic stayed to examine Joe.

“Excuse me Agent Baxter, can I take a look at those feet of yours,” the young Paramedic said as she bent down to examine Baxter’s feet. Baxter lent back in the chair and raised his feet so that the Paramedic could have a closer look at them.

“You’ve got quite a few pieces stuck in there sir, and you’ve lost quite a bit of blood. We are going to have to take you…”

“No. You are not taking me anywhere. Just pull out what pieces you can, bandage them up and give me some painkillers and I’ll be fine,” Baxter said and he flinched when the Paramedic brushed one of the glass shards.

“Maybe you should go with them Boss, we can take care of everything,” Drew said quietly.

“God damn it I’m fine, just go and do what I told you to do Agent Webster,” Baxter said angrily.

He sucked in air and winced from the pain caused by the removal of several large glass fragments.

Once they were removed, he exhaled a large breath and then quietly thanked the paramedic for her ministrations.

He watched as she placed butterfly clips over the larger cuts, finished bandaging his feet and then handed him the painkillers.

He gingerly patted the bandages as the paramedic pulled off her rubber gloves, packed up her kit and then made her way back to help her partner who was busily filling out the attendance and incidence record.

“But I was just saying…” he heard Drew start to protest but was cut off by Alicia.

“Come on Drew,” Alicia said as she led Drew away. “We’ll leave the
men
to it shall we,” and smiled at Agent Durning who had returned with the clothes for Baxter.

“Here you go boss. These should fit you. Do you need a hand getting them on,” Durning said as he placed the clothes in a pile next to Baxter.

“No thank you, I’m fine Agent Durning,” Baxter said ignoring Durning’s offer as he took the painkillers and then began to shuffle out of the intern’s coat in preparation for donning the suit.

“What I
would
like you to do is contact Agents Lewiston and Roberts and get them to ascertain the cause of this spike in radiation,” he said as he pulled on the shirt and then gently slid the legs of the trousers over his bandaged feet.

At the same time, you need to get emergency services over there with EPA agents and evacuate that area just in case, I don’t want anyone ending up like those Antarctic geologists. As soon as I am dressed you and I are going to go there and…”

“We want to come too,” Baxter heard Sylvan say from across the room. She had Justen in her arms. His head was buried in her neck, he could hear him sobbing.

“We want to see Crystal, she was our friend. We lived with her,”

Baxter raised his eyebrows at this latest revelation and then exhaled sharply as another wave of pain shot through his head. He hoped the pills would kick in soon as he gingerly slipped the shoes onto his feet and then loosely tied the laces. Luckily they were a size too big so that they accommodated the bandages. He looked up at Sylvan as he spoke.

“I agree that you and Justen should stay with me, but you will have to stay in the van until we tell you that it is safe,” Baxter said as he stood and finished dressing.

“Agent Thompson, can you please carry Justen out to your van. I want to have a quick word with his Mother.

Baxter waited for Agent Thompson to carry Justen out to one of the vans before he made his way over to Sylvan.

He looked at her and could see that the ordeal that she had suffered had caused her to appear to be much older than her young years. He spoke quietly.

“I left you to escape with the others, why did you come back?”

Sylvan seemed surprised at this question.

“I came back to find Justen.”

“How did you know that he would be here?”

“Well I figured that if I had been kidnapped, there was a good chance that he had been kidnapped as well. I was right.

“Thank you Agent Baxter for looking after him,” she said as she gently placed her hand on Baxter’s shoulder and then said quietly.

“I’m so sorry about your friend, he must have meant a lot to you and Justen.”

“He was really the man that saved your son,” Baxter said solemnly. He felt a wave of remorse surge through him but quickly pushed it down. He knew that he would have to set aside his feelings of grief for the moment and focus on the problem at hand.

“What can you tell me about Justen’s Father? Where is he? What’s his name?”

Sylvan appeared to be a little shocked at Baxter’s questions. She took a step back.

“His name was Michael; I haven’t seen him since before Justen was born. Why do you ask?” she said defensively.

Baxter detected a slight degree of anger in her voice.

“I don’t mean to upset you Sylvan; it was just something that Joe said to me that seemed a bit odd.”

“Why? What did he say?”

“He mentioned that Justen was talking to his Father. He told me that he thought it was probably just the stress.

If what you are saying is true, then Justen would have no recollection of his Father and yet apparently he said that his Father helped him escape.”

Baxter could see the confused look on Sylvan’s face. He also sensed that there was something she wasn’t telling him.

Is she lying? And why would she lie?
Baxter thought as he waited for Sylvan’s response.

“Now Agent Baxter, Justen is only six years old. Boys that age have fantastic imaginations, maybe Justen just imagined that his Father would appear and save him. He would have been terrified,” Sylvan said as she looked past Baxter towards her son who was being helped into the van by Agent Thompson.

“Okay, Sylvan but please, if you have anything you want to tell me, anything at all about Justen’s Father or Justen, I would be happy to listen.

Maybe we could even help you find Michael; he really needs to be with his son. A boy needs his Father and his Mother.”

“I’m sorry Agent Baxter but there really isn’t any more to say. Justen and I have been alone. Maybe one day Michael will come back. I just hope that Justen will learn to love him as much as I did…I…”

Baxter could see that Sylvan was beginning to get upset so he decided to let it go.

“Look, how about we join Justen in the van. I really think he is looking forward to seeing his friend again and it might help take his mind off Joe.”

By this stage Agent Thompson had returned and stood quietly behind Baxter.

“The boy’s in the van boss, he’s pretty upset, I think he needs his Mother,” Thompson said as he nodded towards the van.

Baxter smiled at Sylvan and then glanced at her bare feet. His head throbbed and the sparkles of light in front of his eyes seem to pulsate with the pain in his head. He rubbed at his temples and then turned to the agent.

“I’m sorry Agent Thompson, could you please carry Ms Peters to the van, I don’t think I could, my er feet are killing me.”

*     *     *

Stringer’s rage was intensifying with every passing minute and yet he felt rational enough to appreciate the fact that he had very nearly fell into the hands of the Federal Agents that had suddenly appeared at the front of the hospital.

However, he was filled with rage because he knew that he had been betrayed. He knew Oppenheimer had deliberately activated the self destruct feature of the TDI and intended to destroy the Hospital and everyone in it.

Unfortunately for Oppenheimer, Stringer’s TDI had been freq locked and therefore his personal self destruct was unable to be activated.

During the fire fight he had been forced to hide in a storeroom which housed some kind of records, which was tucked in behind the Administration office.

Because of the battle, his heightened adrenalin levels had forced him into automatic combat mode.

All of his senses had been intensified.

His increased sense of hearing had enabled him to take in all that was said after the fire fight had ended.

Of particular interest to Stringer was the revelation that he finally knew where the Traverser was being stored, as he knew that only the Traverser could produce large localised spikes in Ionising radiation. For him it was indeed serendipitous. He could finally be rid of this pathetic planet.

He waited until he heard the agents leave and then quickly made his way down to the underground car park and found his car.

As he drove away from the Hospital, he saw the distinctive flash of the anti matter explosion in his rear view mirror. The rage inside of him grew and focussed his mind on a plan.

To access the Traverser he knew that he would need his freq lock reversed, he would have to persuade Susan Smythe to convince her Father to release the frequency lock on his TDI.

He would have to demonstrate his loyalty to Mundus Nova by completing his mission.

I’ll
kill the feds, the Mother and the boy.

He smiled inwardly at this thought and subconsciously ran his index finger down the length of his facial scar.

He would then have a new mission – kill Oppenheimer.

Above the dining hall in the Mundus Nova homeless shelter, Lisa and Bang-Bang had discovered a long hallway with several rooms on each side which, for all intents and purposes, looked like ordinary domiciles.

Each room had a bed and a locker. Attached to each room was a bathroom which had a shower cubicle and a sink. The rooms were unisex; there was no evidence to suggest that the women were treated any differently to the men.

“Let’s split up Bang-Bang,” Lisa whispered as she pulled her gun out of its holster. “I’ll take the rooms on this side,” she said as she pointed down the hallway using the barrel of her gun as the pointer.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if you run into trouble? How will I know?”

She could sense the nervousness in Bang-Bang’s voice.

“Don’t worry Bang-Bang,” she said as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Just keep calm and remember your training. If you find anything or get into any trouble just holler and I’ll come running.

“Now, you start down there and I’ll check out this room,” she said as she winked at him and then turned and proceeded to enter the room nearest to them.

As soon as she entered the room she knew that she had to be very careful. It was evident that the room had an occupant. The bed was unmade, there were filthy clothes on the floor of the bathroom and the shower cubicle was still wet.

She was a bit perplexed. The clean towel that hung on the towel rack was still dry. So was the cake of soap which sat on the soap dish in the shower cubicle. There was a slight trace of a strange odour in the room which she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

She decided to ignore the smell for now and was just about to open the door of the shower cubicle when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She ducked down and instinctively used her elbow to drive up under the ribcage of her attacker.

She heard the familiar grunt as the force of the blow forced the air from the attacker’s lungs. She swiftly turned, aimed her gun and was ready to fire when she realised that her ‘attacker’ was Bang-Bang.

“Holy shit! Bang-Bang, Are you trying to get yourself killed?” She said angrily as she holstered her gun and went to his aid. Her anger subsided quickly when she realised how close she had come to killing her partner.

Bang-Bang was bent over and gasping for breath. She put one hand on his shoulder and gently felt around his chest. She had to be sure that there were no broken ribs. Satisfied that there were none she led him to the bed and helped him sit down.

“Seriously, never sneak up on me like that. Do you know how close I came to shooting you?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I needed to show you something and I didn’t want to draw attention to what we are doing,” Bang-Bang said as he rubbed his stomach and ribs.

“Ok you got my attention, what have you found?”

“Well, I’ve looked in a few rooms and they all seem to be like this one. Whoever was in them have disappeared.”

“Yep, I’ve come to the same conclusion, so what is your solution to this conundrum?”

“Every room is in the same state. The shower appears to have been used and yet the soap and towels have not been touched I suspect there is something fishy about those shower cubicles. I…,” Bang-Bang was about to continue when he was interrupted by a whooshing sound coming from the room’s bathroom. The main door to the room also slammed shut at the same time.

Lisa was the first to notice the billowing cloud of, what looked like steam, gushing out of the bathroom in towards them. She pushed Bang-Bang off the bed towards the door.

“Quick, get to the door, we have to get out of here,” she screamed above the roar of the rapidly encroaching cloud of gas.

“The door’s jammed, I can’t open it,” Bang-Bang grunted as he pulled as hard as he could on the door handle.

“Bang-Bang, get out of the way,” she said as she aimed her gun at the door and pumped several bullets in to the handle’s locking mechanism. Sparks and splinters of wood flew as the bullets impacted the door.

Bang-Bang waited for her to stop firing and then grabbed the door handle and reefed the door open as the gas cloud enveloped them.

They flung themselves out of the room in unison into the hallway. Lisa was the ahead of her partner and as she turned to see if Bang-Bang was safe, she could not help but notice the strange expression on his face.

She turned around quickly and was met by the sight of two people dressed from head to toe in white de-contamination suits, complete with full breathing apparatus.

It was then that she noticed that they were both aiming some kind of weapon at them. She felt the sting of the dart lodge in her neck just seconds before her mind registered the situation. She did not have time to react or fire her gun, and by the time she thought of it, whatever was in the dart had paralysed her and she collapsed on the ground.

Bang-Bang followed in quick succession and as her vision faded, the last thing she heard was the grunt of his body hitting the hallway floor.