Chapter Sixteen
We have to get a message to my sister,” Amy insisted, taking a bite of the burger Glenn had picked up for her.
Glenn shook his head before realizing she couldn’t see the gesture. “There’s no way to get a message to her, Amy. She’s locked up at Winchester Industries. Even if I knew what floor they had her on, all calls are monitored. I’d never get through.”
“We could back to my place and leave her a clue.”
“A clue?” Glenn ran a hand down his face, silently praying for patience. Amy’s naiveté astounded him at times. “Jefferies has to know we’ve bailed by now. He’ll have people watching Piney Point and all surrounding hotels.”
Tears sparkled in Amy’s light blue eyes. “We have to do something. Mallory will go insane if she returns and can’t find me. She’ll do something stupid and get herself killed.”
If she hasn’t already, Glenn thought with a guilty conscience. “Fine. I have a friend that I can contact. But if Jefferies knows I’m in the wind, he may have already pulled him in for interrogation.”
“Please call him. I hate to sound so selfish, but it’s my sister. She took care of me when no one else would.”
With a sigh of resignation, Glenn pulled out his disposable phone and dialed a number he’d called many times in the past.
“Spivey,” his friend answered absently, picking up on the first ring.
“Leon,” Glenn greeted in a tight voice. “This is Anderson. Are you somewhere private where we can talk?”
“No, sir. But if you can give me a second, I will be.”
Long moments passed before Spivey returned to the line. “Hey, Glenn. What’s going on?”
“It’s a long story, man. I need your help.”
“Okay,” Spivey murmured low. “Whatever you need.”
“Thanks, Leon.” Glenn spent the next five minutes giving Leon the short version of a very long and complicated story. Ending with, "Can you get the message to Miss Cahill without drawing suspicion to yourself?”
“Glenn?” Leon hissed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? They’ll kill you, man. Or imprison you at the very least.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
Spivey grew quiet for a moment. “Then why are you doing it? I haven’t heard anything as of yet, so Jefferies probably hasn’t realized that you’re gone. It’s not too late to turn back.”
Glenn lifted his gaze to the young blonde sitting across from him. Innocence stared back at him from sightless blue eyes.
“I can’t go back, Leon. Will you help us or not?”
“I’ll deliver the message,” Leon conceded before blowing out a defeated-sounding breath. “Where will you go?”
Glenn hesitated. “The less you know, the better. It’s enough that you’re risking your neck for me with Cahill. Involving you any more would be too risky.”
Leon cleared his throat. “Will I ever hear from you again?”
“Probably not after tonight,” Glenn admitted. “Unless we can expose the cover-up, prove the government’s involvement, and have Howell impeached for kidnapping civilians.”
“Okay then. I’ll make sure the reporter knows her sister is safe.”
Glenn rubbed at the tension knot in the back of his neck. “I appreciate this, Leon. I’ll check back with you this evening.”
Disconnecting the call, Glenn laid the phone on the table and peered over at Amy’s half-eaten food. “You’re not going to finish that?”
Amy shook her head. “I’m not that hungry. What if your friend gets caught trying to relay the message to Mallory?”
“He won’t get caught,” Glenn assured her with more confidence than he felt.
Amy began bagging up her leftover food. “What happens now?”
“We wait.”
* * * *
Douglas Jefferies entered the lab where Doctor Lambert had been temporarily set up to work. He stopped next to a softly humming machine with small vials rotating inside. “Did you put the ecstasy in their food?”
Lambert stiffened, but kept his head bent over a small tray of concoctions in front of him. “Yes,” he spat in a low tone. “A large dose. Just as you instructed.”
“What are the odds of her becoming pregnant?”
The elder doctor lifted his head. “The IUD has only recently been removed. The hormones it exuded will remain in her uterus for days. According to her last menstrual cycle, she would have been ovulating in the next week. The injections will speed up the process. If she copulates with the alien between now and the next two days, there is a good chance she will conceive.”
“That’s great news, Doctor Lambert.”
“I said it was a possibility. Nothing is definite.”
Jefferies nodded. “We’ll be moving her to a more secure location soon.”
“What about Vaulcron?”
Doug narrowed his eyes. “You’re now referring to the alien by name?”
Doctor Lambert straightened, his face turning red with anger. “You have me violating that poor woman in an attempt to impregnate her with that alien’s seed. I deal with them on a very intimate level. The least I can do is show them a modicum of respect. Sir.” That last word was forced out between clenched teeth.
“I know you think I’m a heartless bastard,” Jefferies stated, turning to go. “But I’m only doing what has to be done. The fate of the world depends on it.”
“You’re wrong.”
The quiet admission of Doctor Lambert’s statement stopped Jefferies in his tracks. He turned back to face the elder man. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Lambert crossed his short arms over his chest. “It means that Abbigail Sutherland is the only hope of finding a cure. For whatever reason, she is immune to the virus. I can almost guarantee that Miss Cahill, isn’t.”
Doug threw out a hand in frustration. “Cahill may not be immune, but her child will be.”
The doctor shook his head. “Not true. The CDC’s mutation of the virus assures us of that. Somehow, Abbigail Sutherland was able to fight off the bacteria. My best guess would be that she’s been previously vaccinated against whatever the CDC used to mutate the virus.”
“And the alien child she carried built up her resistance against the bacteria carried in the Bracadyte’s barbs,” Doug finished for him.
Lambert nodded. “Something like that.”
Jefferies dropped into a chair. “Then we vaccinate Cahill before she becomes pregnant.”
“There’s no guarantee it’ll work. The virus has been rapidly mutating. If Cahill does become pregnant, the mutated bacteria could very well terminate her unborn fetus.”
“Then why didn’t that happen to Sutherland’s child?”
“I don’t know,” Lambert admitted. “But I don’t think Abbigail is the key to a vaccination. I believe it’s her offspring that’s the enigma.”
“We have to find them,” Jefferies snarled, jumping to his feet. “And soon.”