Waterkill (Dave Henson Series) (31 page)

“You lie,” seethed Spencer. “The machinery continues to run. Listen to it you fool.”

“Yes, the pumps may be running, but they’re just recirculating the water inside this filtration plant,” responded Dave, knowing full well that he was lying.

Spencer glanced back at the hopper for a brief second. Dave could see he was becoming severely agitated.

“Spencer, put the lid back on the canister that’s in your hands and place it on the floor.”

Spencer turned back towards him. However, as he did, he threw the canister at Dave. Dave attempted to duck from being hit by it and its contents, but was not so fortunate. The canister hit him square in the chest. When it did, the contents of it splashed upwards and out of it, dousing Dave in the face and chest.

Dave, panicked, attempted to wipe the deadly toxin from his face with his left hand while attempting to still keep the Glock trained on Spencer. However, Spencer took advantage of the moment and reached for the dead guard’s gun that he had placed next to the duffle bag. Dave fired his weapon twice before Spencer grabbed his own, ducked behind a steel I-beam and returned fire. One of the rounds that Spencer fired grazed Dave in the left triceps muscle.

Simultaneously, Dave also retreated a few steps and positioned himself behind a large holding tank. He glanced at his arm and saw that the wound was just a slight nick, the bleeding minimal.

“Spencer, you’re trapped. You are not going to get out of here,” yelled Dave over the roar of the machinery. “There are agents on their way. Lay down your weapon.”

Dave’s command was answered by two additional rounds of fire directed at him.

“The United States murdered my wife. The United States has murdered millions of other people from my homeland. Its people will pay, and I am going to make them pay.”

Dave heard movement from Spencer’s direction. He peered around the holding tank. Spencer had moved out from behind his cover and was attempting to quickly yank his duffle bag back in behind the cover of the I-beam. Dave did not hesitate. He fired two rapid shots at Spencer, one immediately after the other. Both rounds hit mid center in Spencer’s body. However, Spencer seemed only slightly fazed by the two bullets. Dave saw only a slight grimace from his face when the bullets ripped into his body. Spencer picked up the duffle bag and slipped back behind the I-beam. A second later Spencer had lifted himself up over the catwalk railing and was working his way down the metal scaffolding to the first floor.

Dave raced over to the I-beam and looked down. Spencer had dropped onto the first floor. Just as he began to pick himself up off the floor, Dave saw an axe suddenly come flashing out from around a turn in the walkway below. The flat side of the axe silently slammed into the side of Spencer’s head, crushing it. Spencer’s body immediately collapsed onto the floor, and as it did, Ron’s figure walked into view and looked up at Dave.  

“Jesus,” said Dave as he stared down at Ron.

“Hey, I wasn’t going to let the bastard get away, particularly after what he did to Dana,” yelled Ron as he lifted the axe off of Spencer’s body. “Are you okay Dave?”

“Yes and no. I got grazed on the arm by one of Spencer’s errant shots. However, I have a little bit bigger of an issue. I was doused in the cholera toxin.”

The two other agents who had been searching the building for Spencer suddenly came racing up around the catwalk where Dave was standing. He turned and yelled for them to stop. “Don’t come any closer. I’ve been contaminated and there is more of this stuff lying all around my feet.”

The two agents backed up a few feet as they saw Dave’s wet face and shirt, and the empty metal canister lying on the catwalk next to his feet. One of the agents spoke into his radio calling for an ambulance and an emergency hazmat team.

“Where’s Fenton?” asked Ron from below.

“He’s on the catwalk, just around the corner from here,” said Dave. “He’s been shot, with a severe wound to the shoulder and neck area.”

One of the agents ran to find Fenton while Ron made his way up a nearby staircase.

“Did you swallow any of that stuff?” asked Ron as he approached Dave and the agent while observing Dave’s wet face and clothing.

“I don’t think I swallowed any, but based on the amount that hit me I’d say I’m pretty screwed.”

“We’ll get you to a hospital ASAP,” said the agent. “Hopefully you won’t come down with the disease, but if you do, at least you’ll have the best care to fight it.”

Dave shook his head in resigned acknowledgement. “And I guess I’ll know in the next hour or so, but I’m not the only one with a problem.”

“What do you mean?” asked the agent.

Dave drew the agent and Ron’s eyes over at the open lid on the large metal hopper. “He did it. Spencer had already dumped a canister of the cholera toxin into that hopper by the time I got to him. Unfortunately, many other people are about to become very ill as well.”

“You can nix that thought,” said the agent.

Dave and Ron both turned to the agent with questioning looks.

“When Fenton found Spencer, and before he engaged him, he called in over his radio to shut down the outflow of water from the filtration facility. No water has exited this complex for the past fifteen minutes.”

Dave and Ron broke out in smiles. “So the cholera toxin has been isolated to just this building,” said Dave with relief in his voice.

“And we can deal with it,” replied Ron with a big smile growing on his face. “With Doctor Hayden and Doctor Gillian’s new water decontamination system we can scrub the water in this facility until it is safe to reintroduce into the Dallas water supply.”

“How soon do you think you can get the system installed?” asked Dave.

“Not long. I will call Doctor Hayden and have him fly down here immediately to help me install it. Unfortunately, Doctor Gillian won’t be able to help out, as he will be recuperating for some time to come.”

Ron looked back at Dave, his body still dripping in the toxin. “So all we need to do is make sure you can get through the cholera symptoms if you indeed come down with it.”

Looking a little grim, but resolute Dave said, “Well at least if I do come down with the symptoms I’ll be in a place where I can get the best treatment.”

Ten minutes later several EMTs and first responders arrived on the scene, all wearing hazmat suits. After a cursory review of their gunshot wounds, both Fenton and Dave were wheeled out of the filtration building on stretchers and transported to a local Dallas hospital. Ron stayed back at the facility so that he could contact Doctor Hayden and to begin working with the station’s staff on determining the best location for installing the water decontamination system. He also called Dana to let her know of Dave’s situation.

At the hospital, Fenton underwent surgery for his shoulder and hand injuries, while Dave’s triceps wound was simply cleaned and bandaged. However, Dave had begun to experience gastrointestinal discomfort and was placed into a biocontainment unit. 

C
hapter 50 (May 3, Tuesday 9:00am, Dallas, Texas)

She had lived at the hospital for the past two weeks providing him with moral support and praying for his recovery. To pass the time, she walked the hospital’s endless hallways during the day. At night, the hospital staff was gracious enough to let her sleep in an empty room and provided her with a cot and a blanket. It had been a long time of waiting and worrying, and she was exhausted, but today new life had been breathed into her. She was again full of hope and energy. The man she loved was finally coming home to her.

Dana looked in through the door’s glass window at him while she held the phone to her ear. She was all smiles as she spoke to Dave, who stood on the other side of the biocontainment unit door in a hospital smock. Though he was looking gaunt and pale, and his voice weakened, he had received exciting news from his doctor just an hour earlier. Dave’s doctor had reported that for the third day in a row his culture sample had come back negative for any signs of cholera bacteria in his system. As a result, the doctor had given him a clean bill of health and the green light to go home. He was just waiting for final medical paperwork to be signed off so that he could once again become a free man.

“I can’t wait to take a shower, put on some real clothes and give you a kiss,” said Dave with all the energy he could muster in his tired sounding voice.

“And I can’t wait to get you out of there and put some food in your body,” responded Dana with a laugh. “You look like skin and bones.”

Dave extended and elevated his arms, the hospital smock sliding back down to his shoulders. He looked at his atrophied arms. “I’d have to agree,” said Dave with a slight chuckle as he rotated his arms and wrists marveling at how thin they had become. “I think I’m up for a seventy two ounce steak right about now.”

“Before we leave Dallas, I’ll take you to a Ruth Chris Steak House,” joked Dana.

“Have Ron and Doctor Hayden headed back to McCall?” asked Dave.

“Yes, they flew back yesterday. The water decontamination system was a fantastic success. They were able to install it within a couple of days, and in just a week the water utility station was back on line. Also, Ron and Doctor Hayden orchestrated having a second system constructed back at NSurv while they were in Dallas. It shipped to Eberswalde, Germany four days ago and is now being installed as we speak.”

“Fantastic. Have there been any reports of anyone else coming down with the disease in Dallas?”

“No. The CDC reported again yesterday that no other cases of the disease have been reported in Dallas, or anywhere else in the country.”

“That is great to hear,” said Dave as he sat down on the bed, still feeling tired from the effects of the cholera disease that had coursed through his body for the past two weeks.

“It seems Spencer was essentially operating as a lone wolf,” responded Dana. “Though he had been working for Aref Zarin, according to a conversation I had with John Bates yesterday, Spencer was a very sad and sick man based on the evidence that was collected from his apartment and computers. The death of his wife Aaila appeared to be the turning point in his life. He was devastated by the loss of her. In time, his despair turned to anger, anger that became directed at the United States.”

“Based on data taken from his computers, it appears about a year after her death Spencer began to follow and contact known terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Indirectly, that is how he wound up connecting with Aref Zarin.”

“In the end, both Zarin and Spencer used each other as instruments for acting out their hatred on the United States. Both were bent on attacking the U.S., but their extremist Islamic ideological reasons may not have been the root cause of their animosity towards western civilizations, and in particular the United States. Personal revenge appears to have trumped their religious and political beliefs. Each had lost love ones at the hands of the United States government, Zarin with the death of his entire family when the Iranian airliner they were on was shot down by the USS Vincennes, and Spencer with the loss of his wife caused by a United States military aircraft accidently bombing her family’s home in Turkey.”

With his head hung low and the phone still propped to his ear, Dave slowly shook his head in sadness. “When will it ever stop? Why does so much of mankind continue to think that by killing someone else’s loved ones in an act of revenge, that they will in some way eliminate their own despair?”

“I’m not sure it will ever stop,” responded Dana in a quiet voice. “Man is no different than any other animal on the planet. When the things they value are in some way threatened, taken from them, or destroyed, all animals will defend themselves, and protect their family and property. Sometimes their defensive actions are during the moment of threat or loss. In other instances, it’s afterwards, quite possibly to protect themselves and their remaining possessions from future loss or destruction, rather than for the basic concept of revenge.”

“It’s hard to accept that conclusion,” responded Dave. “There must be a better solution. Personal education, hope, somehow an improved lot in life, something else that survivors can hold out for, other than seeking revenge for their unjustifiable losses.”

“Perhaps,” responded Dana. “However, I think in most cases where immediate revenge is not taken, it is merely due to the lack of resources available at the time, rather than for any other healthier reasons. You can look back on any war as an example of that conclusion. Take for example World War I. Germany was severely punished for its actions during that war, and consequently German people suffered for years as a result of those punishments. It is arguably those harsh penalties on the German people that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the horrific actions of Germany during World War II.” 

Dana hesitated a moment before continuing. “Also, look no further than Aref Zarin himself as an example of an individual’s reactions towards suffering an unjustifiable loss. He was given incredible educational opportunities here in the United States, that he took full advantage of after the loss of his parents and siblings. However, even with the enlightenment of his schooling, the indefensible loss of his family caused by the United States government still tore at his heart years later. Consequently, acting out on his hatred towards the United States was simply suppressed and deferred, while he obtained the educational and financial resources to pursue his personal revenge.”

Dana paused briefly. “And when he finally did acquire the means and resources, he attempted to unleash his fury on the country, and its people, that stole his family from him.”

Dana suddenly went silent. She realized her words were having a negative affect on Dave’s spirit, something she absolutely did not want to do. As she viewed his emaciated body through the glass window, she could see that he was looking increasingly more defeated while he sat on the edge of his bed listening to her.

With her silence, Dave lifted his head up and looked at Dana through the glass window. “Sadly, you are probably right. However, we can’t stop trying as individuals to make the world a better place. Though a small gesture, there is something that I can do, that I must do, to possibly prevent someone else from acting out on their own personal vendetta and continuing the cycle of related violence.”

Dana looked questioningly at Dave. “What do you mean?”

“When I regain my strength, I need to take one more trip to the Middle East to where this all began.”