Ashes (A Project Eden Thriller) Read online

  The girl looked over, saw the steaming mugs, and hopped up, too.

  “Martina?”

  Riley was standing in the hallway, motioning for Martina to join her.

  “What’s up?” Martina asked as she walked over.

  “Mom…she…” Riley couldn’t seem to finish, so instead she hurried over to the door of the bedroom her parents had been using.

  As soon as Martina joined her, Riley pushed it open several inches.

  The light was on inside so Martina didn’t have any problem seeing Mrs. Weber lying on the bed. At first she thought the woman was asleep, but then she noticed the sweat along Mrs. Weber’s hairline, and the look of pain on her face. Suddenly, Riley’s mom twisted back and forth, and let out a low groan that turned into a cough.

  Without even meaning to, Martina took a step backward. “Did you go inside?” she asked Riley, though she already knew the answer. She could see the mug of hot chocolate sitting on the nightstand.

  “She’s my mom,” Riley said. “What am I going to do?”

  “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” Martina dashed back to the living room. After catching her mother’s eye, she said, “Can I see you for a minute?”

  “Sure.”

  Once her mother had entered the hallway, Martina whispered, “It’s Mrs. Weber. I think she’s sick.”

  Her mother’s eyes grew wide. “What?”

  Martina led her over to the bedroom door so she could peek through. She watched as the blood drained from her mother’s face.

  Before either of them could say anything, Donny called out from the living room. “Hey, Mom. Can you bring me a tissue when you come back? I need to blow my nose.”

  4

  GREAT FALLS, MONTANA

  10:23 PM MST

  DR. BRADLEY GARDINER sat on the couch in his living room, his wife Kathy on one side and their fourteen-year-old daughter Emily on the other. None of them had said anything for over an hour as they watched the news on TV.

  Many cities were reporting minor instances of civil unrest, while others, such as St. Petersburg, Florida, were experiencing fires that were spreading faster than the areas depleted of emergency personnel could handle.

  The most shocking images, though, were of the silent streets in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, London, and the other great cities of the world. Daytime, nighttime, evening, morning—it didn’t matter. There wasn’t a soul in sight for as far as the cameras could see.

  “We are expecting more detailed information about food distribution sometime tomorrow. We’re also anticipating more on when a Sage Flu vaccine will be ready. We’ve been told that the…oh, excuse me. We’re going to cut to our colleagues at the BBC, where the British prime minister has just begun addressing Parliament.”

  The news anchor was replaced by an interior shot from the House of Commons. On either side of the chamber were rows of chairs, rising toward the walls like bleachers on opposite sides of a narrow basketball court. Only a handful of the seats were occupied, and everyone was wearing a mask. Standing in front of a lectern was the prime minister, recognizable even behind his mask.

  “…safety of all. This is not a time for debate or delay, for both will only result in more deaths. I have spoken to—”

  There was a loud knock on the door. Gardiner’s daughter jumped, while his wife jerked under his arm.

  “Who could that be?” Emily asked.

  “I don’t know, sweetie,” Gardiner said. He rose from the couch.

  “Brad,” his wife said, shaking her head. “Whoever it is, just ignore them.”

  A second knock was followed by a woman’s voice. “Dr. Gardiner?”

  Kathy shook her head again. “Don’t,” she mouthed.

  “She knows we’re here,” he said.

  “I don’t care.”

  “Dr. Gardiner?” the woman said again. “I’m Captain Scott, US Air Force.”

  The air force had basically taken over the town when the national state of emergency was declared.

  “I have to see what she wants,” Gardiner said.

  Kathy, not looking happy, said, “Wait for me.”

  Together they entered the foyer, and Gardiner flipped on the outside light. Looking through the spy hole in the door, the first thing he noted was that the porch was still dark. He flipped the switch off and back on again. The light remained off. There was enough illumination coming from the streetlamp that he could make out the shape of the woman on the other side of the door.

  “Dr. Gardiner?” she said again.

  “I’m here,” Gardiner said. “What is it you need?”

  “Sir, we’ve had an emergency over at the base that requires your assistance.”

  “You should contact the hospital if you need anyone. I’m not on call right now.”

  “We realize that. That’s why I’m here. We need a surgeon, but decided it would be best not to disturb the rotation at Benefis.”

  Gardiner frowned. “What’s the emergency?”

  “Internal injuries. I have X-rays right here to show you.”

  “Don’t you have your own surgeons?”

  “We do, sir, but they are both currently occupied.” The woman paused. “It was a helicopter crash, sir. Multiple injuries. We need your help.”

  Gardiner dipped his head and nodded to himself. “All right. Give me a minute.”

  “No problem.”

  “No!” Kathy said. “You can’t go. Not tonight.”

  “People are hurt. It’s my job to take care of them.”

  “Dad,” Emily said. “You’ll get sick if you go out there.” She pointed back at the TV. “It’s everywhere.”

  The doctor grabbed his coat from the closet. “I’m sure it won’t take long, but don’t wait up.”

  “Wait!” Kathy said. She hurried over to the entrance table. “You need a mask.” She grabbed the box of paper masks Gardiner had brought home from the hospital, and pulled one out. “Here.”

  There was another knock on the door. “Dr. Gardiner, we need to hurry.”

  __________

  THE DOCTOR’S HOUSE sat on the north side of Young Street. A nice, multibedroom home with a big front yard and two-car garage. While large by Great Falls standards, it would have been considered moderate in most larger cities, given the owner’s profession.

  Chloe parked the motorcycle down the street and approached on foot.

  Light from a television flickered through the windows at the front of the house. As she got closer, she could see at least two people sitting on a couch watching TV. It was tuned to the news, of course. She doubted there was anything else on.

  She moved over to the front door, quietly worked the cover off the porch light, and unscrewed the bulb. Once the cover was back in place, she knocked.

  When the doctor had finally responded, she used the tactic she’d come up with on the drive over to convince him to open the door. While he said he was coming, the door was still shut, so she placed her ear against it, and heard two women arguing with the doctor to stay.

  Chloe knocked again. “Dr. Gardiner, we need to hurry.”

  “I’ll call you when I get there,” she heard him say. “And I’ll have them bring me home as soon as I’m done.”

  “Please, Dad. Please don’t go.”

  “Sweetie, you know I have to. I’ll be all right.”

  Chloe chewed on her lower lip, troubled by the conversation.

  Crap.

  Discarding her original idea, she retrieved her gun.

  The deadbolt clunked open, and the doorknob began to turn.

  “Put your mask on first,” the older woman—probably his wife—said.

  The doorknob recoiled to its original position as the doctor let go, but the door itself was now unlocked.

  Chloe turned the knob and eased the door open. The wife was helping her husband put a paper mask over his head while the daughter watched from a few feet away. None of them showed any of the physical signs of being ill.r />
  “Sorry,” Chloe said as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “Change of plans.”

  The Gardiners turned in surprise. When they caught sight of her gun, they froze.

  “Is there anyone else in the house?” Chloe asked.

  The man shook his head. “No.”

  Had he answered too fast? She looked at the daughter. “Is he telling the truth?”

  The girl’s eyes were locked on the gun.

  “Hey,” Chloe said. “Is he telling the truth?”

  The girl jerked her head up. “What? Yes. Just the three of us.”

  She seemed far too scared to lie.

  “Okay,” Chloe said. “This is your lucky day.”

  “What do you want?” Gardiner asked. “I don’t have any drugs here. But you’re welcome to any money or food you want.”

  “I’ve already told you what I want, Doctor—you. I have an injured man who needs your help.”

  “Take him to the hospital.”

  “Not that easy,” Chloe said.

  She looked past them into the rest of the house. Beside the living room, there was a stairway leading up to the second story where the bedrooms probably were, and the open door to a bathroom. Along the back wall of the living room was a wide break, and on the other side was what looked like the dining room. She figured the kitchen had to be back there somewhere, too.

  “Into the other room,” she said.

  “What are you going to do to us?” Gardiner’s wife asked.

  “Save your life.”

  Gardiner looked at her like she was crazy. “Please, just leave us alone.”

  “Move it!” Chloe barked.

  The Gardiners backed into the living room.

  “Keep going,” Chloe told them, motioning to the dining area. After they passed into the back part of the house, she signaled for them to stop.

  Another quick scan. To her left a family room, and to the right an open-plan kitchen.

  “That door,” she said, nodding past Gardiner toward the kitchen. “Where does it lead?”

  Gardiner glanced over his shoulder. “That? The…the garage.”

  “What do you got parked in there?”

  “Um…uh…”

  Chloe turned to his daughter. “What kind of cars?”

  “Mom’s BMW. And the Yukon.”

  A Yukon SUV.

  Perfect.

  __________

  GETTING THE GARDINERS into the Yukon wasn’t particularly difficult. Despite the fact Chloe never directly pointed her gun at any of them, its mere presence was enough to ensure their cooperation.

  She had the doctor take the driver’s seat while she herded the two women into the back with her—the daughter, whose name was Emily, in the middle; and the wife, Kathy, behind her husband.

  Gardiner turned on the headlights as they backed out of the garage and down the driveway.

  “No,” Chloe said. “Lights off.”

  He looked for a moment like he was going to argue, so she raised the gun a few inches and he flicked the lights off.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  “To the left. Keep it slow.”

  The Ranch was northwest of Great Falls. The main route out of town would have been via the interstate, the same way she’d come in, but the roadblock eliminated that option. Searching on her phone for a new route, she saw a pair of two-lane highways that led roughly in the right direction. She hoped the air force hadn’t seen it necessary to block those off, too.

  “As soon as you can, head down to Central, then go west,” she told the doctor.

  At the next corner, Gardiner turned the Yukon left.

  “Where are you taking us?” Kathy asked.

  “Someplace safe,” Chloe said.

  “Safe? We were safe in our home.”

  Chloe looked over at her. “No. Not even close.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Chloe looked back at the road and ignored the question.

  As they turned onto Central, she saw headlights several blocks away heading toward them. To the Yukon’s right was a bank with a parking lot that went all the way back to the next street.

  “Turn in here,” Chloe ordered. “Now.”

  Gardiner hesitated.

  “Do it!”

  He turned the SUV into the parking lot.

  “Pull around the back of the building, and stop,” she said.

  Once they were hidden from the main street, she rolled down the window a half inch. Cold air streamed in, threatening to undo the increase in cabin temperature the SUV’s heater had achieved.

  At first the sound of the other vehicle was only a low rumble in the distance, but it grew in intensity as it traveled in their direction.

  A truck, she realized. A big one. Maybe even a couple of them.

  “Don’t be stupid,” she said, flashing the gun at Gardiner and his wife, making sure they got the message. “You don’t want to see me angry. I guarantee it.”

  They both nodded, the doctor going so far as to take his hands off the steering wheel and set them in his lap.

  The noise was loud now. Definitely two trucks, diesel engines. The first reached the bank and drove past. But as the second was nearing, Chloe caught a flash of red behind the Yukon. She glanced over her shoulder, then whipped her head back around.

  “Foot off the brake!” she yelled.

  Their brake lights flashed again.

  “Off the brake!”

  She reached through the opening between the two front seats, grabbed the doctor by the arm, and shoved the end of her pistol into the side of his head. Gardiner’s wife and daughter screamed.

  “Off!” Chloe yelled.

  “You won’t hurt me. You need me,” the doctor said.

  Chloe glared at him for half a second, then let go. She reached across Emily and grabbed Kathy’s arm. “You’re right. But I don’t need your wife.”

  Gardiner pulled his foot off, and the brake lights went out. “Don’t hurt her. Please.”

  Without letting go of the woman, Chloe focused her attention on the trucks outside. The engine of the first one was fading as it continued down the road, but the second seemed to be slowing.

  “Listen to me, very, very carefully,” Chloe said. “Drive onto the back street, go five blocks, then take us back over to Central. Not once will you touch the brakes. Understood?”

  Voice full of fear, Gardiner said, “Yes.”

  “Then move!”

  The Yukon pulled away from the building and exited the parking lot at the back, getting onto the street that paralleled Central.

  It wasn’t going to be a perfect getaway, Chloe knew. With the snow, their tracks would be seen and easily followed. But the big truck would not be the right vehicle to do that in, so if the people in it thought the Yukon was worth checking out, they would have to radio it in and request another vehicle be dispatched.

  She didn’t let go of Kathy until they made the transition back over to Central. Behind them, she could see the lights of the second truck. As she’d suspected, it had stopped near the bank.

  She looked out the front. No headlights coming toward them, only empty road.

  As they passed a sign pointing toward the entrance to the interstate, she said, “Keep going straight.”

  It wasn’t long before the unused space between buildings increased as the city thinned. At the Sun River, the road bent to the north, mirroring the contour of the waterway, then bent again before settling on a western direction once it finally crossed the water.

  “Can I turn the lights on now?” Gardiner asked.

  With the city truly behind them, there were no streetlamps to help with navigation.

  Chloe thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Not yet. Stay in the middle. You’ll be fine.”

  The decision turned out to be a good one. When the Yukon topped a slight rise, a lit-up barricade similar to the roadblock on the interstate came into view. It was about a half mile away.

/>   “Foot off the gas,” Chloe said. “But don’t touch the brake.”

  The doctor did as ordered, and the SUV slowed to a crawl.

  Chloe brought up the map on her cell again, this time switching to satellite view. A glowing dot indicated their position on the map. Just ahead and on the right was what looked like a dirt road that ran up to a farm. It stopped there, but on either side were fields that ran along the highway for at least a mile.

  “Okay, let’s go, but keep your speed way down,” she said. “We’re looking for a road on our right.”

  The road was heralded by a large mailbox and an old sign that read FRESH EGGS. The ground was bumpy, so the doctor had to lower their speed even more. While the fields that surrounded the farmhouse were open, the home and the barn were fenced in on three sides. Unfortunately, the only way to get to the rear of the fields without being spotted from the road was through the farmhouse area.

  “Keep to the right,” Chloe directed as soon as they entered the property. “Past the barn.”

  The doctor followed Chloe’s directions, slowing as they neared the fence again.

  “Drive along it.” Several seconds later, she pointed out the window. “There. Roll to a stop.”

  As she’d hoped, there was a gate in the fence, no doubt to allow farm equipment in and out of the field.

  Once the car was stopped, Chloe said, “Mrs. Gardiner, you’ll need to get out and open that for us. I know you might be tempted to run for help, but the moment you start doing anything other than what I’ve asked, we will leave you behind. If that happens, you will never see your family again. That’s not a threat. It’s simply a fact.”

  “I won’t go anywhere,” Kathy said.

  Chloe put a hand on Emily’s arm, just in case the woman had any plans to pull her daughter out with her. “Make it quick.”

  Kathy opened the door, shut it again, and ran over to the fence. It took her a moment, but finally the gate swung open, and she hurried back into the SUV.

  “Good,” Chloe said as the woman settled back in her seat. She let go of Emily and tapped the back of the doctor’s seat. “Stay to the back of the field as far from the highway as you can. Keep your speed down, but keep it moving. Go.”

  She had not been willing to take the chance of letting the Gardiners grab their winter gear before they left, so it wasn’t surprising that Kathy was now shivering. Using her free hand, Chloe removed the few items she’d been carrying in the pockets of her own jacket, took it off, and handed it to the woman. “Here. This will help.”