The Carrier (The Carrier Series Book 1) (14 page)

The minute Ava left Delton Corners I pulled out
my work documents and checked the numbers again. Could I really have made an
integral discovery? I dialed the agency’s number with excitement fluttering
through my stomach. Agent Harper would be so proud of me.

But then a stroke of insecurity fell across my
heart before I hit
send
.

I put down my cell phone and picked up the map,
scanning it again. Why hadn’t any of the geniuses at the agency noticed this
discrepancy before? Maybe they had and reporting this would make me look like
an idiot.

I paced back and forth behind the ticket
counter. I was trained as a field agent, ready to protect the American people
from such threats as organized crime, civil rights violators, or drug
trafficking. I wasn’t supposed to be the one to make a discovery like this. My
assignment was to passively hold my post until instructed to do otherwise.

I stopped pacing and picked up the phone. Even
if the CBB already knew about the cosmic radiation, I had to make sure. I asked
for Agent Harper, but reception said he couldn’t be reached. I considered
sending an email, but it seemed like the type of information I should deliver
on a secure line. Nevertheless, this discovery could wait overnight. I’d call
him when the sun rose.

With my work mind somewhat at rest, I began
thinking of Ava and replaying the brochure rack scene over in my head. The more
I relived it, the more adorable Ava became to me. I wondered what she was doing
at her parent’s house. Probably counting the huge stack of cash she earned
guiding today. I pulled open my till drawer and counted how many tickets I had
sold at this booth: two. I couldn’t imagine why the boat company kept this
booth open. It was the epitome of slow. I reread all of the newest documents
the CBB had sent me, just to make sure I wasn’t making some kind of mistake.
Finally eight o’clock rolled around, and my shift officially ended.

When I got home there were several employees
sitting around the bonfire pit, so I stopped to talk to a few of them for a
while just to be nice. I hadn’t spent too much time outside my cabin since I
moved in, so as I sat by the fire, I took in my surroundings. Someone had
nailed a sign that read “Animal Island” to the tree near the front drive. I
wondered what that meant. The back of the land butted up to an alley running
through the middle of the small block. We could see the backs of a few houses,
and I could see straight through to the next street over—Capital Street, I
think.

Something caught my eye on that street directly
through the yards and trees. Parked in front of a two-story, green house was a
light blue Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra that looked exactly like the one that had
been parked in front of the Delton Corners ticket booth only a few hours
earlier. I laughed a little under my breath. Could it be Ava’s? I knew she
lived with her parents for the summer, but what were the chances she lived
across the street from my summer cabin?

I told the guys I’d see them later and went
inside. I made myself a PB and J,
scarfed
it down
while watching Sports Center, and then got in the shower. The hot water felt
amazing on my skin.

After the shower I put on a pair of comfy, red
mesh shorts and a T-shirt and cracked a beer. I began thinking about radiation
again and connected my hotspot so I could search for more information on my
tablet. I knew a little about the three types of background radiation humans
are exposed to on earth—terrestrial, cosmic, and internal—and spent forty-five
minutes reading up on it. When I was finished, I was sure the radiation the CBB
was detecting had to be from a space object like a meteor. I made some notes on
my tablet to organize my thoughts for when I called Agent Harper the next
morning.

I caught sight of the DBT bumper stickers on
the cabin wall and felt the urge to see Ava. I frowned and then sighed loudly,
disappointed in myself.

With a little reluctance, I emailed a friend at
work and asked him to look in the database for Ava’s address and phone number.
He was a good friend, asking few questions about
who
she was or why I needed the information.

It was a perfect summer evening, so I grabbed
my phone and headed outside to see if anyone was still by the fire. There were
a few female Upper Dells guides swinging on an oversized hammock, but most of
the crowd had left already. I opened the outer door but let the screen door
stay closed. Although it was clean, the cabin still needed a little airing out.
I sat down on the step in front of the cabin and checked my phone:
One New
Message.

There it was. Ava’s
address
and phone number. I looked across the street at the green house. It was hers.

Just call her,
my
heart said.

Don’t you dare,
my
brain replied.

I turned the phone over in my hands a few
times. Suzanne’s words echoed in my mind. “She’s out of your league.” And then
my mind saw an image of Agent Harper’s face in the grass. He wasn’t saying
anything, but he was staring at me with a stern face. It was a bit disturbing.
Suddenly his face blew away like smoke, and Ava walked in through the haze. She
was wearing a tight black dress and wore tall black high heels. She flashed a
sultry smile and my heart felt like it dropped down to my feet. She washed away
with a wave of river water, and then the green grass came back into view.

I stared at the phone for another second.

I took a deep breath. “Screw it,” I said aloud
and I dialed her number. It rang several times and then went to voicemail.

A red truck pulled into the next street over
and stopped in front of Ava’s house. I stood up, peering up the alley through
the yards. A young guy got out of the truck and walked up to the door. I took a
few steps into the alleyway and watched Ava opened the door. The guy looked
nervous as hell. And then before I could blink, the dude had climbed the stairs
and had Ava in his arms. She struggled to get free, yelling for him to let her
go.

“Owe! You’re hurting me!” she screamed.

“
Dammit
! Ava!” I
hissed, and bolted across the street.

I woke up early with work on my mind. I knew
Agent Harper was never in the office much before 8:00, so I got up early and
went for a three-mile jog while I waited. I ran past Ava’s house—no one was
awake yet—and through the streets of the neighborhood. I thought about the
asshole I pulled off her the night before, and how when I asked her out, she
accepted.

I was going on a date with Ava! The thumping of
my heart happily drowned out the protests from my brain.

I couldn’t hold back a smile as I looped my way
down to Broadway. The sidewalks were deserted so early in the morning, and all
the shops and restaurants were closed up. The city looked sad without its
normal hustle and bustle of tourists crowding the streets. It was nice for a
run, though, because there were lots of signs and paraphernalia to look at to
help pass the time.

I returned to my cabin sweaty and beat, but at
the same time, the spike of adrenaline left me full of energy. I took a long,
slow shower and then got dressed. With coffee cup in hand, I read the newspaper
out on the camping chair I had set up on my front doorstep. One glance towards
Ava’s house told me she was at work; her car was not parked out in front
anymore. I imagined her standing on the top deck of the
Bailey
looking
beautiful and
rockin
’ the microphone.

At 8:30 I decided to hop in the Audi and head
out of town to make my work call. I drove down Highway 16 toward Portage and
stopped in the parking lot of a drive-in movie theater just out of town. A
bright purple ticket booth sat empty to my left. The place was abandoned at
this time of day—mine was the only car in the lot. It was perfect.

I got out my cell phone and dialed speed dial
number one. An automated voice said, “Classification and identification,
please.”

“This is agent CBB 65179.
Agent
Hill calling for Agent Harper, please.”

“Cipher accepted. Please hold to be connected.”

A new voice came on the line. “Agent Hill,
please give the countersign.” Harper was double-checking my identity—following
protocol.

“Double-stranded nucleotides,” I replied.

“Ah, Nolan!
How
is your placement going? Are you fitting into your temporary Dells life?” I
liked Agent Harper. It was rare to find a boss who knew how to employ the
perfect amount of both professional and personal interest in his employees.

“It’s pretty great, actually. This place is so
beautiful.” I leaned up against the hood of my shiny, silver Audi.

“Superb. Okay, let me see here...” I could hear
him shuffle papers on his desk. “There are some advances in your operation. The
techs have narrowed down the location of the source of harmful radiation to two
zones. You are still in an active zone and will be asked to remain at your post
for the continuation of the cycle or until we apprehend the object. The field
agents that were posted in the other zones will be moved to your zone to bulk
up protection.”

“I see. Sir, I’d like to share some information
I think might be useful to this operation.”      “Go
ahead, Agent Hill.”

“I have reason to believe the source of radiation
is not terrestrial at all, but rather deriving from a cosmic source.”

I heard Agent Harper take a deep breath and let
it go. “Well, well, Agent Hill. I am impressed. Your next op file was to
explain the details of this. Perhaps you’d be better off in
intel
than out in the field.”

Uh-oh.
Being
stuck behind a desk was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my career.
Being out in the field was my passion.

“Oh, well, thank you, sir, but I assure you,
the field is where I’m best placed.”

“Well, we shall see, won’t we?” Then I heard
some papers shuffle again. “At any rate, Agent Hill, we have reason to believe
that the source of harmful radiation is not lying in a natural position on
earth, but we have suspicion that it is being held by an American.”

“Interesting,” I responded.

“We are unaware if this person is planning to
use this source to create a nuclear threat, to build weapons of mass
destruction, or simply to try to sell it on the black market for monetary gain.
This criminal must be found, and he must be apprehended as soon as possible.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Actually, you don’t quite understand it all
yet—there’s more. We have reason to believe that the person who has been
exposed to this object has been subjected to high levels of dangerous cosmic
radiation for several years, and in turn, our geneticists believe this person
may be harboring some dangerous mutated genes. We are calling this person ‘the
Carrier.’ The agency is unaware of the effect of these mutated genes on others
at this point, but our scientists and geneticists are working hard to create
some scenarios.”

“Great. Well, I’m glad we are making some
progress.” I moved my sunglasses down from off of my head and over my eyes. The
morning sun stretched across the deserted field.

“Agent Hill, I believe you are one of our most
promising agents in the CBB. I assure you, if you carry out this mission and
apprehend the Carrier, you will not only be saving America from a certain and
imminent disaster, but you will surely be handsomely rewarded within the
agency.”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate your confidence
in me.” How could I respectfully ask my next question? “Sir, I was wondering if
I could possibly be privy to a little more information about the
Carrier?
I don’t feel like I fully understand my position as
an agent stationed in this area. I want to be as useful as I can, but I’m not
sure I know exactly what I am supposed to be doing.”

I pictured Agent Harper sitting at his desk
looking stylish and professional in his signature black Armani suit. He had a
rather large forehead and his blonde hair was cut short to his head and gelled
into tiny spikes. His blonde eyebrows were barely seen and reminded me of
little cirrus clouds floating over his icy blue eyes. He was a muscular, tall
man in his early forties who gave off a vibe that was very serious, but also
somewhat approachable at the same time. I waited for Agent Harper’s response.

“I admire your dedication to this cause, Nolan.
I can also understand your trepidation toward the assignment. I imagine you
feel like you’re blindly walking down a dark hallway. Let me assure you that
you have a purpose at your station. You have been chosen because you fit a
profile needed for this operation, and your purpose will become evident to you
as time goes on.”

It was hard to trust that I was doing my job
when I didn’t feel like I was doing anything at all, but I said, “I understand.
Thank you, sir.”

Before Agent Harper hung up, he explained that
he would be emailing another set of reports for me to read, and we set up a
time for our next call. I stared out over the lonely movie theater for a
minute. What was my purpose here? Sit around and wait?
For
what exactly?
A light and refreshing breeze blew across my face as I
exhaled heavily. I supposed an answer would become clear soon enough.

I got back in my car thinking, what should I do
now? I had almost forgotten. Tonight I had my first date with Ava!