Nick plunged the syringe into the man’s arm. With the virus delivered, Nick left the tent and sealed it behind him, leaving the man to his fate.
Farsi and the youths stepped back as he removed his suit. “It’s okay,” said Nick. “That was just for effect. The virus isn’t contagious until after about four hours in the bloodstream. Now let’s get that tape uploaded and put some terror into terrorism.”
Chapter 26
“You need to see this!” said Colonel Barnes, barging into Turner’s office and taking control of his TV remote. She selected the Al Jazeera channel and was rewarded with an image of the plastic tent holding a man strapped to a bed. Frankie gasped when Nick appeared in the shot. The anti-Western diatribe that followed was shocking in itself and overpowering, particularly given that it was delivered by an apparent white American, the same white American who had been the subject of newscasts for the previous twenty-four hours.
“How long do we have to find him?” asked Turner, watching the syringe infecting the patient on the screen.
“He’s dead already,” said Barnes shaking her head. “There’s no cure. The moment you’re infected with the strain, it’s a death warrant.”
“Jesus! Can we stop this getting onto American networks?” asked Carson.
Turner shrugged, he didn’t know. However, when the website address scrolled across the bottom of the screen, any attempt to block the broadcast was deemed futile.
Turner rushed out onto the gangway and shouted to the floor below. “I want that IP location traced asap!” he shouted.
A number of nods from the techies below told him they were on it.
“He’s not that stupid,” said Carson.
Turner nodded. “I know, I know, you taught me that lesson yesterday but we have to try.”
The room dropped back to silence as the image of the man struggling against his restraints played out on screen. It was straight out of a horror movie but the desperation and fear shown by the victim was no act.
Colonel Barnes broke the silence. “In twenty-four hours, the fever and headaches will start, followed by diarrhea and vomiting shortly thereafter. A rash will precede open, bleeding wounds, and then death. This man will die a horrific death before our eyes in the next forty-eight hours.”
Turner hit his intercom and was instantly connected to his assistant. “Get me someone from Justice up here now!” he shouted.
An out of breath and very young looking man burst into the office. “Dan Gimenez, sir,” he said, “I’m from Justice.”
“Son, no offense, but I was looking for someone with a little more clout.” Turner turned back to his intercom.
“Sir, I work directly for the Attorney General. I graduated first in my class from Yale and spent two years clerking for the Chief Justice.”
Turner turned back round. With those credentials, there was every chance he’d be working for Dan Gimenez in a few years. “My apologies, Dan,” he backtracked seamlessly. “Have you seen this?” he asked, pointing to the website address on the screen.
Dan nodded.
“I want it blocked on Google, Yahoo, Bing or Bong or whatever you call it now, whatever providers we know and have some influence over, do you understand?”
“Ah, there may be a problem,” said Frankie, looking up from the laptop she was working on.
She turned the screen to Dan for him to read. There was a warning page. Dan scrolled down it as though scanning it and turned it back to Frankie.
“Did you read it?”
Dan nodded. “Miss…?”
“Frankie, just Frankie,” she said.
“Frankie’s correct. We have a problem. According to the notice on the page, they have a room full of patients. Any provider or search engine that blocks access to the website will have a new patient infected and added to the website wearing a T-shirt stating that provider or search engine killed them!”
Frankie nodded, impressed. “You read fast!”
Dan smiled. “Very.”
“Shit!” said Turner. “One step ahead,” he added under his breath.
“All right, thanks, Dan.”
Dan returned to the floor below, his ego and confidence leaving a little while behind him.
“We need to start preparing for the panic this video will cause,” said Colonel Barnes.
“Somebody does,” agreed Turner, “but what we need to do is catch this evil son of a bitch before he does something we can’t stop.”
“I think Paul’s right,” Carson said, “we can’t do both. We need to focus on catching and stopping him. I’ll give the President a call, get FEMA involved, and get the ball rolling.”
“I’ll prep a team for them,” said Barnes, who rushed out of the office, almost knocking Barry over in her haste.
“We’re certain the driver doesn’t know anything,” he said, entering Turner’s office uninvited. “Are you okay for us to release him?”
“Yes, yes,” replied Turner dismissively. He had forgotten all about the Clio driver.
“Also, we’ve pulled in a few more teams and stationed them around the EMEA area,” Barry said, referring to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “We have six teams available. We can have a team at most major cities within an hour.”
“Thanks, Barry,” said Turner.
“Excellent. We have a lead he may be headed to Cape Town,” said Carson.
Barry was about to answer when he noticed the wicked grin on Carson’s face. He was playing with him. “Okay, North Africa. We can cover North Africa in about an hour,” he said, leaving the room and closing the door firmly behind him.
“You shouldn’t wind him up,” Frankie snickered.
“It’s too easy and those shits are loving this. They’d love to bring the DIA guy down and show us how it’s done.”
“We don’t have time for playground nonsense,” chided Turner. “Frankie, did you notice anything in the video that could help us?”
“Like what?”
“Phrases you recognized, gestures, movements, what he’s wearing. I don’t know, anything that reminded you of a time or a moment you were together.”
Frankie didn’t hesitate. “I have no idea who was in that video. Physically, I recognize him as Nick Geller but that’s it. There’s nothing about that man that I recognize. Jesus, we just witnessed him murder an innocent man strapped to a hospital bed!”
“Well, we’re assuming he was an innocent man. We don’t know who he was,” corrected Carson, drawing surprised looks from Frankie, Turner and Reid.
“I’m just saying,” he protested. “You never know.”
“Did you hear him? Did you hear what he said about the infidels not being fit to breathe Allah’s air?”
Carson held up his hands in defense. “Fine, forget I said anything.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“Where we were, only with the panic of a killer disease spreading fear across the nation and world,” summed up Reid.
With the meeting at an end, Carson, Reid and Frankie left Turner’s office. Agent Reid continued back to the main floor below, while Frankie followed Carson into his office.
Frankie showed Carson the photo of the message left by Nick.
“Where did you get that?” he asked angrily.
“On my mirror this morning,” she said defensively, pulling the phone away from Carson’s reach.
“Sorry,” said Carson. “I’m just a bit rattled with what Nick’s done. Best just delete it. He’s gone.”
“I know, I just thought it might help,” she said quietly, and left Carson’s office, making her way to a desk that had been set aside for her on the main floor below.