Infected Series (Book 1): Mission: New York (17 page)

“I know I need to explain myself; I needed to keep myself as distanced from the events that have occurred and to keep you safe. It was no accident I was on that helicopter that found you. I had been following and monitoring you all along.” Jones explained. Gasps of surprise issued from everybody on board. Again a flurry of questions erupted and the noise drowned out the low chuckle that Smith issued; but there was one person that did hear him, Ella.

Jones held up his hands, and everyone slowly started to quiet down.

Chapter Thirty Four

Jones then started to explain about the insider first, and then he was going to explain to them about the whole infection. The mole on-board the boat that destroyed the carrier was actually one of the senior terrorists; who, by not having been totally committed to the whole operation had decided to come clean about his involvement; and did not want the plot to infect New York to succeed. He managed to broker a deal to keep his family safe; and for him to remain on board with the terrorists; so he could discover their plot. He would attempt to infiltrate the upper echelons of the group, and feed the information to the United States military. He would feed discover what the group was up to and eventually did pass on the terrorist attack on the UN. That was why the Carrier was actually off the coast of New York, and why the response had been so swift in their reprisals against the infected. They had known from the start that people would die; but they had to let the terrorists think that their plan had worked. All the bridges in and out of New York were subsequently destroyed to keep the infection from spreading beyond the city; otherwise the infection would have been totally devastating to the rest of the western world. That was when they had planted explosives and bombed all of the bridges; to contain completely the infected that they knew would try and escape from the city. Having contained the millions of infected it would then be easier to get rid of the infected people that would be the majority of the population. Having the terrorist insider on their side; feeding them information, would be a huge advantage. Just before the ship had destroyed the carrier however; he had been discovered, then executed. His main goal though had succeeded in getting the information out to the carrier; that could do then do the most damage with the aircraft that it carried on board. The military had known that there would be huge losses; but they had deemed those people that would be infected as casualties of war.

Simon was stunned by this revelation, and was about to ask the next question; but was stopped by Jones. Dawson; I suppose you better come clean, after all it was partly your idea to find the safe house, and get Judith to a safe place. Once I knew of the terrorist plot, I had to get My Judith to safety; that way I would know where she was. She was my only remaining family and I could not let anything happen to her. Dawson was actually tasked with keeping an eye on Judith, and that was why we got on so well. I tasked Dawson with looking after Judith; as she was ex-military, she would be the perfect person to follow my dear Judith. Judith was looking at her uncle now; with equal parts admiration and confusion. He nodded at her and continued; Yes, Dawson was actually paid to keep you as safe as possible. Did you ever think that she was actually at your side very quickly after the initial attack happened on you? She had to try making it look like it was random by getting a few others with her to help get you to safety. That was why she was there so close to you; and could assess the situation and get you to safety. Simon just happened to be the in his coffee shop early that morning; that turned out to be rather fortuitous for my plan. I had planned to come into the city to rescue you, but could not get away any sooner. Dawson had kept me apprised of the situation all the time she was with you in the coffee shop and also once you were out on the boat. When they found the boat; I placed myself on board the helicopter to go out and join you on board. That was when the terrorists plan deviated. Our moles last message was that they had found him out, and his transmissions went dead. We could only assume that the earpiece he had used had been destroyed. Their frigate had then changed course for the carrier; and we can only assume that he had been tortured for the information that he had been relaying to us. That was when their mission had changed to become a suicide mission purely to destroy the carrier; rendering the remaining support useless. That when the plan went a bit awry. I needed to keep you safe when the terrorists had sent the speedboat out to try and destroy is just after we entered the tunnels under the Brooklyn bridge. You see; they also knew about the tunnels, but not about the amount of training that we had done in them. Before they found the mole, he alerted us that a boat had been sent out to try and destroy us in the tunnels. That was why I went back on myself a little; I knew where they were coming from. We had really been training in those tunnels for a while now; that was why I knew exactly where to hide the boat, and then use the surrounding passages to get to their boat. I could easily find their boat because of the location of that particular spot. You see, that was one of our listening posts and we had cameras installed in that point; and when they stopped I was able to track them down and could kill them. You see there were reasons why I did what I did, and when I did them. I had to ensure that everything was actually working to my advantage; because of that upper hand I had I could dictate the next moves we made. I was slightly ahead of them the terrorists the whole time. There were some things I could not control; like the people on the Golf course. That was something that I had no control over entirely. I suspected that they might actually be dangerous, and that was why I had to get them off guard. My circling tactic was also no accident. My comrade in arms; Dawson was again indispensable in that regard. She was the one who had actually been the one who had spotted the other two who held the other people hostage on the island. I needed to get to the flank of our position so that I could take them out. That was when I took them out; after Dawson had notified me of their presence, and she was seeing their intent. Dawson was always a key part of this rescue operation; she is still a key part of this operation. Dawson smiled and moved up next to Jones; placing an arm around his waist she leaned in to kiss him then.

Chapter Thirty Five

The whole group gaped at them; not believing the tale they were being told. It was absolutely shocking that these two had fooled everyone on board. Yet it did make sense in a way; the fact that there was always something so calm about Jones, something so deliberate in his actions. Everybody stood in stunned silence then; looking at Dawson and Jones kiss passionately. Jones continued wistfully; the two of them had met at an army function, and had hit it off straight away. There had been an instant spark between them, and they had immediately fallen in love. Jones explained to Judith that he had married Dawson about nine months ago in secret on the carrier; after all it was where he had been based. Their marriage had been kept secret; although Dawson had actually been inserted into civilian life to act as a civilian go-between. Her role had been to covertly gather intelligence and also keep an eye on certain suspected terrorists. Those people that had gone to the United Nations building to start the spread of infection had been the ones that she had been keeping an eye on. Their intelligence gathering had managed to pay dividends when the alert had gone out over the News services that first day. Jones had actually managed to stay in contact with Dawson right up to the time they had actually caught up to Simon and the rest of the group. Then he had not needed the top secret Ultra high frequency earpieces they had both been using to secretly communicate.  Judith was crossly looking at her Uncle; starting at him in utter astonishment that he had managed to keep the secret for so long. Jones replied that he had been practising this art form for years; since before Judith was even born, so the little ruse between him and Dawson had been easy to pull off. So very easy in fact that that they had managed it without any hitches at all. He had known that Dawson was going to be exactly where she was supposed to be at all times. He smiled down at his wife; looking deeply into her eyes and kissed her deeply. Knowing that she had been a part of the mission had been the easy part; keeping the fact hidden from Judith and the rest of the group had been the hardest thing that Dawson had ever had to do. Judith spoke to the group as well; apologising that she had been a part of the plot the whole time, and not telling them all of the main aim of her mission. To keep Judith safe. Dawson had done her part admirably; although she had told lies to people she had come to know and care about. It had been a necessary evil, but the ultimate goal had been to do that one good thing.

Simon was absolutely dumb founded; shocked senseless by the revelations that they had been listening to for the last while. He had been so sure that he had been leading the group safely; but now looking back on their experiences he could see the subtle influences that Dawson had made. He shook his head in wonder at the two of them; standing there enjoying their moment. Looking at the two of them he could not decide which of the two he wanted to congratulate or which to absolutely hate. He could still not believe how he had been used. Simon asked how he had gotten so involved in this; to which Judith had also piped up. She was also eager to know. Dawson had replied that his shop had been the only one that they had seen that had actually had somebody in at that time of the morning. Simon again just laughed and said if it had not been down to the tax man; he would not have been in that early, but it had been fortunate that he had. His utter amazement that first time at seeing the group; was pure coincidence. Judith; standing next to Simon had suddenly realised that Dawson had been there right by her side almost immediately after the attack on them had happened. It had never really crossed her mind how Dawson had apparently rescued her so quickly. Now it made a strange kind of sense, and everything had finally fallen into place after all the revelations. Judith was also shaking her head at the revelations; laughing now at the utter absurdity of it all. It had been pure coincidence that Simon had been the one that she had been driven to. Her life had totally changed from the initial attack to one where she now had a significant other in her life.

The prisoner had been listening to this the whole time; and was absolutely horrified that their organisation had been so infiltrated by these western cowards. How could it have slipped past their group leaders; that they had had a spy amongst their ranks; had listened and passed on all their information to the decadent western oppressors. He was numb; realising that their plan had had no real chance of succeeding at all. The whole mission had been a failure form the start; apart from the people that had been infected by the virus they had unleashed upon those innocent civilians in New York. He openly started to cry, causing everybody to look down at him. He openly wept for his fellow terrorists that had died because of a stupid plan that they had tried to make succeed by attacking the heart of The United States. His tears also hid the deception he had been playing the whole time. He had not been idle while the story had unfolded. His hands behind his back had actually been busy trying to undo the knots that had been used to tie him up. His wriggling had actually gotten some of the rope loose; loose enough that he had actually then managed to scrape it along a sharp surface; causing the rope to fray. He had used his time carefully; managing to get nearly all the way through the rope before he started to cry. That was going to be his masterstroke to escape. He wanted to use the distraction to escape over the side of the boat. He knew that was going to be a suicide mission; but he had no more intention of living. The plan had failed; America would rebuild, and they would be so much more vigilant than before.

The group was now excitedly talking amongst themselves and did not notice him so much now. Finally the ropes parted; and he sat there, trying to find the correct time to spring up and jump overboard. He could at least attempt an escape, if nothing else he would die a free man and a martyr. The group was hugging each other and congratulating themselves; when he jumped up and quickly hauled himself over the railing into the deep blue sea. Hitting the water with an intense splash, he relished the short moment of freedom; expecting a bullet in his back at any time. The cold water hit his body again for the second time that day; and he wildly started swimming off toward the distant shore.

Ella was the one that noticed the man had disappeared overboard and was now striking out toward the shore far, far away. She called over to Jones, who looked down at where the prisoner had been a few moments ago, then laughed out loud. Turning back to the group and pointing out to Ella that they had never really been alone the whole time had her and the rest of the group confused. They all looked at him in utter confusion again. He laughed at their expressions as they stood staring at him utterly mystified. He laughed again at their faces then stopped laughing mid chuckle. He spoke to them and told them that they were indeed not alone at all; that there was a Kilo class nuclear submarine sitting just below the surface that would pick up the terrorist as soon as he radioed them and advised that the prisoner had escaped. Dumbstruck Judith looked at her uncle, she could not believe that he had just told them that there was a nuclear submarine just below them; and had been watching them a lot of the time? He had nodded and then said that he wanted to see the terrorists face when the submarine surfaced and snatched him off the surface of the water. He laughed again and told them there was absolutely nothing to worry about at all. They just stared at him again; not believing their ears; a submarine, just below the surface? How had they not seen anything at all? Jones told them that he had been enough of a distraction; and that he had been keeping this even from Dawson. She also gasped at this revelation and smiled; knowing that her husband had indeed been more than a mere sergeant in the army. In all truth he had not told her that he was actually a Major General; he had been in control of most of the plan from the get go anyway. Now he divulged the full extent of his rank; explaining that he had indeed been a major part of the counter intelligence information gathering, that had eventually infiltrated the group. He had not told anybody of his true rank; just in case they had actually demand he do something major and not allow them to continue with his carefully laid out plan. Inwardly he smiled as he looked again at the group gathered. Shaking their heads some were absolutely flabbergasted they had been so thoroughly hoodwinked. This quiet, unassuming man had infiltrated himself into their survival; had then helped them by guidance in the right direction. He was indeed someone they now held in very high regard. He had just managed to save their lives from a horrific experience that no person should ever have to go through. He had however been a solid rock that had helped them through various trials and tribulations to get them this far. Looking at the sky, they realised that the day had almost gone now; it was nearing sunset.