When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [93]
“All right, I hear you. Where are you now, Tom? Where exactly is Dr. Kroner’s house?”
“Forget about Henrich Kroner. Kroner is dead. I told you that. Peter, they’ve killed children. They destroyed embryos. They’re experimenting on humans. I saw it myself. I saw the awful, horrible lab where they worked. I was there.”
“Tom, where the hell are you? ” Peter Stricker finally raised his voice.
“I’m on a fucking phone in the middle of Hell, and in case you’re interested, there are 7-Elevens here! I want fifty agents now! Get everybody from Denver. Tell them to head to Bear Bluff, Colorado. Go to what used to be the Inn-Patient. It’s an animal hospital. They can’t miss it. Somebody burned it to the ground. I’ll make contact with them—not the other way around. I’m running this now!”
Stricker sighed. “All right, I hear you. We’ll send people in.”
Kit hung up the pay phone and took a deep breath. That was pretty damn good.
The cavalry was coming.
Chapter 98
I SAW KIT GET OFF THE PHONE after a very animated conversation. He jogged back to the car, and he actually looked better. He had some of his color back. He told me that his old boss had finally listened. “I don’t know how much he believed, but he believed some of it. He’s sending agents here.”
The feeling I had, the crazy imagery in my head, was that I had been thrust into a real-life scenario that roughly paralleled the one in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I was beginning to think I could no longer trust anyone in Boulder or the surrounding towns.
We hurried back to Carole’s house from Boulder. Carole saw the car lights and was waiting for us at the front door.
“Everything’s cool here, Frannie,” she said. Obviously, she’d read the worried look on my face. “The kids were really good. Nobody’s been flying or anything.”
“Yeah, except for you, Meredith, and Brigid. You’re flying out of here right now. Another doctor from the hospital is dead. Henrich Kroner. Pack your things now.”
Carole and the girls were ready in fifteen minutes, which was a new land-speed record for them. I felt guilty about involving them, but I knew they would be, anyway. Whoever was after me could easily find out who my sister was, if they didn’t already know, and where she lived. Camping in Gunnison National Forest was the safest place for Carole and her girls to be right now.
We hugged furiously hard and tried not to cry. Then everybody waved sad good-byes in front of the house. My sister and her girls drove off into the night. I prayed they would be safe, that all of us would be.
But I didn’t really believe it. Too many bad things had happened, and we knew about most of them.
Chapter 99
DR. ANTHONY PEYSER was slow climbing out of the slate-gray Mercedes sedan. His face showed the pain of the exertion. Peyser was in his late seventies, and genius or not, he hadn’t been able to arrest the ravages of aging and a highly stressful life.
He walked slowly toward the men waiting for him in the small wooded clearing. He waved a greeting and looked to be a pleasant older chap.
“We haven’t caught up with her yet.” Harding Thomas spoke before he did.
“So it would seem,” the doctor said and smiled thinly. “Well, I’m not surprised. Under different circumstances, I might even be pleased with the results. She had avian instincts for survival and flight, and the clever intelligence of humans. She is superior to all of you, and she’s proving it, isn’t she. Of course she is. What a supergirl.”
“We’ll get her,” Thomas said.
Peyser nodded and pursed his thin lips. “I have no doubt of it. She’s sought out help, and the humans will be her downfall. She’s finally made a mistake.”
Harding Thomas nodded. As usual, the doctor was right.
“Bring her in alive if you possibly can. She’s worth a small fortune,” Peyser said. “But if that fails, bring her in dead. And that goes for anyone else who’s seen her. The good that will ultimately come will justify everything. The most important days in history