The Carrier (The Carrier Series Book 1) (20 page)

“Well, well, Agent Hill. I have to say, I am
impressed. First you escaped my man back at the factory, and now you actually
had the guts to kill the Carrier. Ethan had little faith in you, but I was sure
you’d go through with it. Now, there is no time to waste. You must join me in
preventing a little blue rock from blowing the Midwest off the map.”

Sick, breathing heavily, and full of rage, I
turned toward Agent Harper. “You and the CBB can rot in hell.” I was banking on
the hope that Harper wouldn’t find Ava back through the trees for a while, and
I had no idea what was going to happen to me next, but I didn’t care.

Without displaying any emotion, he said, “Agent
Hill, you disappoint me. Oh well, that’s too bad. I guess Myers was right—the
CBB has no use for you.”

Then I heard a loud bang and instantly my world
went black.

The hospital bed was too hard and the
fluorescent lights were too harsh. I kept my eyes closed as I tried to figure
out where I was. I was very uncomfortable and quite disorientated. The pain in
my side was too much as I tried to sit up. Then I heard a soft voice from the
bedside.

“Don’t try to move just yet. You’ve had a few
operations but you are safe now.” It was a female voice I didn’t recognize.

“Nolan?” I managed to squeak out. The voice
said nothing but gently applied a cold washcloth to my forehead.

“Don’t talk now. Just relax.”

I shut my eyes and slept—not because I wanted
to, but because I couldn’t help it. I dreamt of flying over the beautiful brown
river, gracefully darting around the Lower Dells. I flew next to the cliffs and
then swooped down close to the river, skimming it with my hand. I examined my
body in the reflection of the water and expected to see a bird, but there were
no feathers, and I had no wings. I was perfectly human.

Flying felt absolutely wonderful and free—I
felt truly happy. But then I looked back into the water and saw the reflection
of a dark cloud roll in above my head. Flying right above me was a scary,
hooded figure holding a sharp, shiny knife. The hood was slowly removed, and I
saw Nolan’s face staring at me with a menacing grin.

I woke up with a loud gasp. I sat up quickly in
bed, sweating and breathing heavily. My hand instinctively went to the place at
my side where I had felt hot, radiating pain. There was a nurse in the room
checking the machines by my bed and she rushed over.

“Where are my parents?” I asked the nurse.

“No one can see you right now. Try to rest.”
She helped me lie back down. I felt a distant pain in the back of my head, but
was able to fall asleep relatively quickly.

It was only a few hours later, I thought, when
I woke up and saw my mother by my bedside. She looked like she hadn’t slept in
days.

“Mom?
Oh
thank God! What happened? Where’s Dad?”

“Oh sweetheart, your father is gone on a work
trip. He wants me to tell you he’s thinking about you and feeling horrible that
he can’t be here by your bedside right now.”

I smiled for my mother. Fear struck my heart as
my mind changed thoughts. There was something else weighing on my mind. “Did
they catch Nolan?” I asked my mother. “Is he in jail?” My heart ached a little
at my words.

 
“No, sweetie.
Actually, he’s lying in a hospital bed down the hallway.” Her eyes looked
bloodshot like she had been crying.

“He’s hurt, too?” My heart perked up, wondering
what could have happened after I was stabbed. “What happened after he left me?”
My mom was reluctant to say anything.
“Oh, Mom.
Would
you please tell me what happened last night?”

My mother grabbed my hand gently and took her
time saying, “The doctors don’t think your body is ready to handle the truth of
what happened that night. They think you might go into shock.”

“Mom.
I
loved him. I think I need to know the truth in order to heal.” I looked at her
with imploring eyes. My mother’s were beginning to tear up. She put a soft hand
on my arm.

“He loved you, too, Ava. He and I had a
heart-to-heart this morning. He is quite a special man.” She patted me on the
knees and I wondered what had been said in that conversation.

I took a really good look at my mother. She had
large bags under her eyes, and her skin color looked a little off. Her hair
somehow seemed thinner and she looked weak. What had happened to her? She
looked like hell.

My eyes began to fill with tears. All I wanted
was to ask Nolan a million questions.

“Go to sleep now, Ava. When you are well enough,
I promise you’ll get all your questions answered.”

*    
*     *     *

My
mother’s voice woke me gently from my sleep. “Ava honey, you have a visitor.”

Nolan?

I opened my eyes and anxiously looked toward
the door.

“Hey, hot stuff! You’re looking great!”

“Ted.” A smile fell across my face. “It is so
good to see you.”

He sat down on the chair by my bed. My mother
very graciously excused herself to the waiting room and closed the door gently
as she exited.

Ted’s expression turned somber. “You know, I
thought you weren’t going to make it there for a while.”

“Ted. What the hell happened last night? I
thought for sure I was going to die.” I knew he’d tell me the truth even if the
doctors thought I couldn’t handle it.

Ted looked confused for a second. “Last night?
Oh, honey, no one told you?”

“Told me what?” I didn’t like how this was
going.

“Well...you’ve been here in the hospital for
almost two weeks.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe my ears. How could I
have been here for so long? “After Nolan”—it was hard to say it out
loud—“stabbed me...how did I get off the rock?”

“I don’t know all the details, but I’ll tell
you what I do know. First of all, Nolan is an FBI agent. Or at least he thought
he was.”

“Funny, Ted. Now quit trying to cheer me up.”
He said nothing for a moment and when I looked into his eyes, I saw he was
telling the truth.

“What? There’s no way!” I had spent almost the
whole summer with him and felt like I knew him better than I knew myself. How
could I not have known that he worked for a federal agency? But then I
remembered the briefcase of gadgets I found under his bed before the Fourth of
July party.

Ted went on. “He was placed in the Dells as a
field agent this summer.” Then that friendly Ted-smile that I had come to love
made an appearance. “I knew there was something fishy about that dude.”

I laughed nervously at his comment.
Something fishy, indeed.

“Anyway—and here’s where I’m a little shaky on
the details—there is something about you and your family that the authorities
were investigating.”

“What?
Me and my family?”

“Yeah, something about that blue rock in your
bedroom. So anyway, Nolan’s boss thought you and your
family
were
going to use the rock to create some sort of nuclear weapon and
decided that you needed to die for your criminal plots. Oh, and he also decided
that Nolan was the one who was supposed to kill you.”

“That rock is nuclear? The FBI will kill you if
you are a criminal? I’m so confused!”

“Now Ava, try to pay attention. I said Nolan
thought
he worked for the FBI. Turned out it was some evil man named Myers who headed
up some covert, fake government outfit and made Nolan believe he worked for the
FBI.” He took a big breath. “Anyway, Nolan had no choice but to pray you didn’t
die and hope I would find you in time.”

“Wait, wait,
wait
.
You
came to rescue me?” I was shocked. I didn’t know Ted and Nolan had any
communications since that night at the Dairy Queen
booth
.
“You’ve
gotta
back up. I had no idea you two were
friends.”

“Well, not friends, exactly, but Nolan
understood the friendship you and I share. He knew if you were in trouble, I
wouldn’t think twice about coming to help you out.”

I was trying to put it all together in my brain,
but it still wasn’t making sense. My face must have displayed my confusion
because Ted went on.

“The morning of the night you were stabbed,
Nolan showed up downtown when I was driving shuttle. He pulled me around the
corner to the alleyway and spoke in whispers. I could tell there was something
wrong, so I paid careful attention even though I never trusted the guy. Nolan
gave me a black box with a screen on the top and told me that I needed to watch
it all day. It was a GPS device, and if the light on the top lit up, it meant
that I needed to follow the directions on the screen to find the other tracking
piece. He said you might be in trouble, and I was the only one who could save
you from serious danger. I had no clue what he meant, but he looked so stressed
and serious that I got the feeling I should do what he said. Before I could ask
him any questions, he told me you would thank me later and then left quickly. I
immediately called you, but you must’ve had your phone turned off on the boat.”

I listened, not knowing exactly what it all
could mean.

“I kept that box on me all day, and it did
absolutely nothing. I tried calling your phone several times, but you never
answered. Then after work, I was trying to distract myself by watching TV with
Mr. Kitty when the thing lit up like a Christmas tree. The screen showed a map
of the area by the community pool, and there was a little star labeled ‘Ava’
right on top of Make
Out
Rock. At first I thought it
was some kind of little joke or something, but then I thought about Nolan’s
demeanor downtown that morning, and I figured I needed to check it out.

“I drove my butt down to the rock as fast as I
could and ran all the way down the tracks to the rock. That’s when I about
crapped my pants. You were lying there unconscious in a pool of blood, and
sitting on top of your shoulder was a tiny black button sticker emitting the
same lights as the ones on top of the GPS box in my hand. I called 911
immediately, and they rushed you off to this hospital. You went through surgery
to repair the kidney that he barely brushed with the knife.”

My jaw was stuck in the open position. This all
seemed farfetched, but I didn’t think Ted could make up something like that.
“That clears things up a bit, although I still have a lot of questions,” I
said.
“One of which being, if I had surgery that night, then
why have I been in the hospital for two weeks?
And where am I exactly?
Some kind of high-tech hospital?”

“I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer all
those questions. It gets pretty technical from here, but it has something to do
with that blue rock at your house. Apparently it’s been emitting some type of
crazy space radiation and you and your family had to go through some kind of
futuristic gene therapy here at the Milwaukee FBI hospital or you’d turn into
psychos.”

A laugh snuck out of my lips. “Ah, Ted, I’m
pretty sure you made that up.” I shook my head with disbelief.

“Not even one word.
Absolutely
not.”
He looked very seriously at me.

“So that’s why my mom looks sick?” I suddenly
felt a chill and pulled the thin hospital blanket up to my chin.

“Yes. Apparently the rest of your family got
the least of the radiation, but they were all treated.”

“It was in my room,” I whispered quietly and
Ted went on.

“You had much higher levels of radiation and
had to undergo pretty intense therapy, but the FBI doctors believe you all will
be completely normal.”

“Wow... Okay, that is a lot to take in.” I
stared at the wall for
a moment
thinking about
everything Ted had just told me. Then I reached over and squeezed his hand.
“Thank you, Ted, for saving my life.” I smiled at him, and he mirrored my face
back to me.

“Not at all, my dear.”

I had a lot more questions for Ted, but my
doctor came in and decided it was time for him to leave and let me get some
rest. Ted said he’d be back to see me the next day.

That night I was feeling much better and
decided I couldn’t wait any longer to see Nolan. As soon as the night nurse
believed I had fallen asleep, I carefully got out of bed and shuffled over to
the door. I stuck my head out and looked down to the nurse’s station. It was
very quiet and there wasn’t any movement in the hallway, so I crept out of the
door and walked down the hallway until I saw Nolan’s name on a doorplate.

My heart stopped for what felt like many
seconds. I looked back at the nurse’s station. No movement. With shaking hands,
I slowly pushed open the door to Nolan’s room. My heart dropped into my stomach
when I saw him lying there on the bed. His blue eyes were closed, and he looked
so peaceful. Although I could tell he had been sick, he still was
breathtakingly beautiful to me.

My brain flashed back to the moment he stabbed
me and I panicked. I quickly backtracked toward to door to leave, but then I
heard him speak.

“Ava?” His voice was hoarse like he hadn’t used
it in many days.
“My beautiful Ava?”

I said nothing as I took a step back towards
him. The corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly.

“Can’t stay away, huh?” He stared at me with
those baby blue eyes, and I could feel my heart melting. “I am so ecstatic you
are alive.” Then he restated. “Actually, I was pretty darned sure I would miss
all your major organs.” He chuckled a little under his breath, but then
grimaced with pain. He paused and searched my face. He raised his hand slowly
off the bed and motioned for me to take the chair next to him. “Could you ever
find it within yourself to forgive me?”

I didn’t know what to say. There were so many
questions still in my mind. If what Ted said was true, then Nolan was a good
guy. But how could he be good if he had lied to me for the past three months?