The Liger Plague (Book 1) (24 page)

Tag put his hand on the kid’s back and tried as best he could to console him, but what could he say? Once the Coast Guard had all three bodies onboard, it sped out into the open water and toward the eastern end of the island.

“I’m sorry, Fez.”

“I’ll never trust them Coastie assholes again, no matter how many times they bailed out my dad and uncles!”

He helped the boy up, and the kid immediately sprinted onto the biggest boulder facing the ocean. He stared out over the thick blanket of fog, his knees up to his chin. Despite the danger of the situation they now found themselves in, Tag climbed alongside the kid and stared out into the darkness of night.

“My cousins weren’t doing nothing wrong. They were just trying to get off this crazy island.”

“They didn’t know any better, Fez. They had no idea about the kind of virus we’re dealing with, nor what the government’s response would be.”

“I hate the government.”

“Yeah, but not all of them are bad. I’m not so bad, am I?”

“Except for you.”

“The person who planted the virus is the one to blame for all this.”

“My cousins weren’t dummies, Tag. That’s why they wanted off. Because they knew the government wouldn’t do jack to help them,” he said, sniffing back the tears.

“Your cousins had no idea about the length to which the government will go to keep this disease from reaching the mainland, including killing innocent civilians.”

“Tell me the truth, Tag. Did you have anything to do with this? Because if you did, it’d really kill me.”

“I swear to you I had nothing to do with it. I’ve spent my entire life trying to protect people from such horrible diseases, not to make them sick. Someone out there is setting me up to take the blame, for whatever reason.”

Fez turned and stared at him, tears in his eyes. Tag didn’t know whether to hug the boy or let him be. The beam from the lighthouse swept past them. Seconds later the foghorn sounded loud and low. He put his arm around the boy’s shoulder and gazed out into the murky depths. He knew they needed to get back to the truck as soon as possible, before any more of these human ghouls pounced on them.

“We should be heading back now.”

Fez nodded, wiping tears from his cheeks.

“I hope my mom and dad are still alive.”

“Me too.”

“Seeing my cousins gunned down like that has changed me. I want to hurt someone so bad I feel like I’m going to explode.”

“I understand how you feel, kid, but don’t lose hope. There’s still a lot of good people out there. Versa and I are still here for you, right?”

“You’re okay, Tag, but I don’t know about Versa. She’s kinda mean.”

“She is mean, but she’s also honest and speaks her mind. She’s a good person to have on our side.”

“We’ll see about that.”

They stood to leave. As they turned to head back up the steep path, Tag heard a cracking noise behind him. He stared out at the choppy waves arriving on the beach and realized that the waves were caused by the wake. The tattered fragments of the rowboat came crashing into the rocks. A lone paddle washed up along the sandy beach. Fez ran over and picked it up, and stuck it into the sand as a monument to his three cousins. He stood staring at it, his hands clasped together in prayer. Tag put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and gently guided him back up the path.

They’d walked not ten feet when his phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, shuddering at the prospect of answering it.

Chapter 17

The battery to his phone was running low. Tag turned Fez around so that the kid faced away, making sure to keep the water behind them so as not to be attacked from behind. He aimed the Magnum over the kid’s right shoulder, keeping his eye on the woods in case anyone popped out. The spectral glow of the fog filled him with anxiety. Could there be more of these diseased people wandering in the woods and looking for more humans to attack?

“When I answer this phone, kid, you might hear some things…”

“Can’t you just talk in private? I don’t want to hear any more bad stuff, Tag.”

“I’m sorry, but I have no other choice but to put this call on speakerphone.”

“Why can’t you put it up to your ear?”

The phone continued to ring. “Because we may have a bug in our brains waiting to go off.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll explain it to you later,” Tag said, holding the phone out in front of him and answering the call.

“Hello, Colonel. I hope you’re surviving this ordeal in good spirits,” the scrambled voice said.

“Don’t worry about me, asshole. Where’s my family?”

“Still haven’t found them? Tsk tsk. I thought you were a much better detective than that, especially considering all the battles you’ve waged in life: politics, war and especially on the home front.” He laughed. “You know what they say, ‘you want to fight, get married.’”

“You’ve made it pretty difficult for me to find them.”

“So I have, so I have. Of course, you can’t expect me to make it easy for you now that you’re a big-shot army colonel. The bigger question is, what do you value most in life? Or should I say,
who
do you most value in life?”

“What are you talking about?'“

“You have your missing wife and daughter to find. Then you have your two other children who didn’t make the trip to the island. How are they doing?”

Tag’s entire body tensed at the mention of his other two children. They’d not made it to the island this weekend but had been expected the following weekend. James was spending the summer at the University of New Hampshire, while Katy was working as a lifeguard on Cape Cod before returning to Dartmouth for her senior year. During all the chaos, he’d only exchanged texts with them.

“The liger has gone above and beyond all my expectations, Colonel. He’s done some major damage to Cooke’s Island, wouldn’t you say? I wasn’t sure he had it in him to produce such devastation, but boy, was I ever wrong. He’s quite a unique species.”

“I’ll give you credit, Lenny. You’ve created a powerful weapon here. I think you made your point.”

“I’ve made no such point. Now, Colonel, you’ve got an important decision to make. You can keep searching for your family or try to prevent Lenny from traveling over to the mainland, where he’ll spread like wildfire once his paws touch the ground. Then you’ll be forced to worry about your other two children.”

“I can assure you that no one’s getting off this island. The Coast Guard is patrolling these waters as we speak and preventing anyone from leaving.”

“Are you sure about that?” The caller laughed. “There are far more small craft on this island than you might expect. And if just one infected person happens to make it ashore, Lenny will reproduce faster than a cageful of cute bunnies.”

“What do you want from me? Are you playing some kind of cruel game to entertain yourself?”

“Yes! No! Check off all of the above.” The caller laughed. “This is for a higher purpose, Colonel, but I don’t see why I can’t have a little fun in the process.”

“Jesus, you’re one sick bastard.”

“Not sick. I’ve been vaccinated just like you.”

“Isn’t there a better way to accomplish your goals other than committing such malicious terrorist acts?”

“Are you really that naive? The political process is a joke, and the military is the most corrupt institution of them all. You and your ilk are such small-minded peons, supposedly more concerned about the well-being of the human species than anything else, and then you go off and kill thousands in the name of democracy. Did you ever consider that man is not the center of our universe? That the viral and bacterial forces are the true powerhouses in nature, whose role in all this is to balance the planet’s books? Our goal is to speed up the evolutionary process and try not to stop it.”

“But viruses and bacteria have no soul. They exist primarily to keep the ecosystem in balance.”

“And humans do have souls? The existence of the soul is the most mythicized rubbish ever concocted by the human race, and I’ve demonstrated that here on this island by turning normally good people into ravenous, immoral cannibals. I’ve turned the Golden Rule on its head and showed the world that the brain is merely a byproduct of the evolutionary process, no more, no less. To think that the rest of the universe revolves around the human species is a laughable notion.”

“Have you and I ever worked together? Did I somehow do you wrong at some point, Lenny?”

“I have it in for everyone and everything, Colonel, so don’t think you’re the only corrupt one I’m targeting. It’s now up to you to decide who to save: your mainland family or your family on the island.”

“Has everyone on the island contracted the brain virus? Is any of this even reversible?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. So many questions, Colonel, so little time. Let’s just say that after this plays out, assuming you manage to survive with all your marbles intact, you might not ever want to leave Cooke’s Island again. Because if even one of those viral spores escapes, Cooke’s may be the only safe place left on earth.”

“I still don’t understand your political motivation or what you stand for.”

“I’m a right-wing terrorist. No, I’m a left-wing terrorist. I believe in anarchy as much as I believe in strict law and order. Personal liberty requires the administration of harsh justice. Politics will transcend the political process to make way for the new order. Catch my drift?”

“Hardly,” Tag said, trying to delay Lenny and keep him on the line.

“Do you believe your God rules by democracy? By representing the people’s will on earth?”

“Of course not. Then again, you’re no god either.”

“My point exactly,” he said. “Soon the infected will be entering the next phase of the plague, and they will become less contagious as the virus burns itself out. At that point I suggest you call the authorities in for help. They’ll be quite interested to see the destruction you’ve wrought.”

“I should have figured that you set me up.”

“Yes, I most certainly did. You should be proud to take credit for creating that magnificent liger virus. In some ways I’m honoring you. Only a few people in this world possess the rare ability to create such an organism, and one of them is you.”

“Well, for your information, I’m not honored. Spending the rest of my life in prison doesn’t sound very appealing to me.”

“Lucky I’m not very good at this sort of thing, Colonel. Setting people up to take the fall is not really my strong suit. I imagine you’ll be pilloried in the media for a short while before the truth of your innocence comes out. Or maybe not, since they’ll be looking for a convenient scapegoat. By that point you’ll be finished anyways, reduced to drinking heavily in order to drown your sorrows, wondering what happened to your loved ones and your esteemed career as a public servant. You’ll not be able to sell that beautiful home on Cooke’s, if it still even exists after all the damage done on that island. Real estate values will plummet to nothing. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the authorities flatten the island completely.”

“So where do we go from here, Lenny?”

“Cooke’s Island is merely a testing ground for a much greater battle, Colonel. Society needs to be broken down to nothing in order to change. Mankind needs to view itself in a different light, rather as a small part of the universe than the prima facie reason for existence. I’m pitting organism against humanity to see who wins. You, sir, are at the forefront of this noble struggle to save mankind from its own stupidity.”

The line went dead. Checking his phone’s battery, he realized that the battery was quickly dwindling. He pushed Fez up the dirt path, listening to the waves crashing behind them. He kept his eyes on the woods surrounding the dirt trail, expecting at any moment for a group of poxers to jump out and attack them. Once they reached the truck, he saw Versa sitting in the illuminated cab, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. Without warning, the engine roared to life. For a second he feared that Versa might run them over in the mistaken belief that they were poxers. She flipped on the high beams, and he had to shield his eyes from the blinding light. The truck’s engine revved up and down. It inched forward and then backed up on the dirt path, repeating the process as if trying to scare them back into the woods. The lights dimmed, and he could hear Versa shouting for them to get inside. He pushed the kid forward and climbed in the cab.

“A couple of them sickos came limping down the path. I put this rig in reverse and flattened the bastards.”

“I thought you’d mistaken us for them.”

“The thought crossed my mind when I saw you two raising up your hands. Good thing I recognized you at the last second or else I would have sent you two back over that cliff.”

“What now?” Fez asked.

“We have no choice but to wait until daybreak to resume our search. I can’t put you guys in any more jeopardy. You know this island better than anybody, Fez. Any ideas where we should go next?”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Versa said.

“You said yourself that you rarely left the house,” Tag replied.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t know my own island, Colonel.”

“There’s a house at the point of Sebago Cove,” Fez said. “An old lobsterman named Walt Cooper lives there by himself. He’s a mean old guy. Lived there his whole life. Used to chase us away whenever we trespassed on his property or rode bikes down there. It’s the most hidden away spot on Cooke’s and way safer than that stupid old bunker.”

“How do we get there?”

“Ask Versa. She says she knows this island better than anyone,” Fez said, smiling.

“How should I know where the old coot lives?” Versa said.

“I thought you said your husband was a lobsterman. He’d surely know where old man Cooper lives?”

“My old man’s dead, you little smartass,” Versa said, putting her face up against Fez’s. “And he did the lobstering around here not me. Think I know where every goddamn smelly fisherman lives on this island?”

“Whoa! My bad.”

“Your bad is right. I don’t like little punks like you disrespecting their elders.”

“Boy, it’s a good thing you didn’t have kids, lady,” Fez mumbled under his breath.