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They Key to Believingchapter 19
The Survival of the FittestGoing over her drilled moves in her head and knowing to only move when the tower light was pointed farthest away from her location so that it was as dark as possible when she moved, Sloane started to bolt to her next hiding place; she quietly but swiftly darted to the next set of bushes by ducking and rolling to the bushes. She performed a similar move when the lights were low to get behind a set of barrels that were near the building; she successfully got in through a side door of the warehouse when the guards were changing. She had no idea if she was in the right place. But now that she was inside, she knew she had to stay quiet in the darkened halls so as not to be found. She tried to look around her in the dark. Because she had not been in the light for so long and her vision was adjusting to the darkness, she saw rows of aisles in the main center of the warehouse. The halls had tall walls and she couldn’t see past them well enough to see what was in the next space. Most of the aisles were filled with shelves, mostly with glass containers; she had no idea what was in any of the containers or what she was sneaking past. And she still had no idea if she was in the right building. She tried to remember to control her breathing to get more air but didn’t make too much noise by breathing heavily. Also, as a result of her yoga and exercise program, she could easily crouch down so she was not in other people’s line of sight. Only once she was well inside aisles with shelves did she feel safe enough to flash her light on and off on the ground in front of her very quickly so she could get any bearings to see where she might have to go. Thinking she spotted something from a small light source at the end of one hallway, she approached it in the dark, trying to not make any noise or alarm anyone outside the warehouse. Spotting test tubes along the shelves as she walked toward the small light source, she knew she had to be at a medical storage site, though she didn’t know why these materials were here or why they did not need to be refrigerated. Trying to read any of the signs and labels as she walked through the hall, she was able to scan tags enough to read records from patient’s names, though she could not tell what they were records from. Numbers followed the names, and she gathered that all of the last four digits out of eight on the first line of numbers were years. She began to wonder if the first row of numbers were birth and death years and the second row of numbers would be for their social security numbers. If so, most of the people she saw had death dates in the early 1980s. Fear filled her, because if her guesses were true, these records filed and listed deaths, and she didn’t know why these files set up in this one warehouse. If they were medical records, then what for? What happened to all of these people? Still having no answers to her hypothetical questions, Sloane got to the end of the hall and was three feet from sliding glass doors with faint light emanating from under them. She looked through the doors. The cabinets housed a lit interior of rows of vials, cased and labeled. Scanning the containers, each case had vials filled with a solution, but there was a vast array of containers of vials, each labeled with something different. Trying to read any of the labels of the vials or the cases before she opened the sliding glass door, she scratched her head in amazement at everything there. The bottom shelf had containers filled with vials, but she read that each container of vials was labeled with the flu and what year it apparently was a vaccine for. She glanced over the set of vials.
And so on. She was stunned when she deduced that these were records of vaccines for past illnesses, they were vaccines that needed to be kept and refrigerated, probably for future research. She jerked her head up higher. She saw cases with listings for anything from small pox to hepatitis to herpes. She didn’t know whether she should be amazed or stunned by these vials sitting there, full of vaccines and cures. To the back and in the corner of the center shelf, she saw one rack of vials, with the label
Mastered from original virus” She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She had found it. Tucked away amongst a slew of other medications and cures, almost hidden away so you wouldn’t see it unless you were looking. She was stunned. Her heart raced. Her breathing changed. Standing there for she didn’t know how long, and after the shock wore off that she had found the cure, she opened the glass door so she would have access to the set of sealed vials in the container. Somehow, when she was about to grab the HIV antidote, she realized that she apparently tripped an alarm. She heard two or three sets of footsteps echoing around her in the warehouse getting closer to where she was. “Was it when I opened the door to this case?” she wondered. But she had no time to wonder. This was her only chance to grab the cure, if she’d even be able to take it with her. Making a violent rush to grab at the case of sealed vials labeled “HIV ANTIDOTE”, she heard gunshots fired in her direction. She grabbed what she could from the container and started to run. Thinking she saw feet at the end of a hall when she crouched down to look and not knowing if people saw her leaving the case, she realized that the shelf by the glass doors she was at was lit, so she started running. There was an occasional gunshot, but in the dark no one seemed to be able to find her, much less hit her. She tried to listen to the footsteps or guess where people were, because when a gun was fired the sound echoing throughout the warehouse made it impossible to know where it came from. Trying to remember the way she got in and trying to take her steps in reverse order, she took a turn and someone was in the aisle she was about to go down. Guessing that it was a Marine or a member of the Army, she tried to move out of the aisle instantly. The man drew a weapon. She did the same in record time. “This is what I trained for,” she thought. Since she practiced firing one-handed, and without being able to take time or focus quickly, she fired back in the dark, but she didn’t know if she hit anyone. All she thought was not to fire too much because the sound of her gun would let them know where she was. She took off again after firing two shots. Then she remembered how gun shot noises echoed, so she thought that maybe other people didn’t know where she was located. When she got to the end of the aisle, another set of boots walked in front of her and a man knocked her over. When she fell, she had to make sure that the vial in her hand didn’t hit the ground, because all that was on her mind was saving the one vial she had been able to get from the container on the glass shelf. She lay on the ground, not knowing what other move she could make. The men thought she was unconscious, so they slowly walked to her. Thinking quickly about how to get away, she started to roll. In the dark it surprised the man in the boots. As she twisted she turned her gun toward the dark object and fired once more. The body went down, but he was not dead; he grabbed at her arm and started to twist. She could hear him yell as he tried to ram her arm along the metal at the side if the aisle, but she kept trying to get away. She believed at that moment that nothing could stop her. Breaking free and moving around the corner of the aisle, she knew that nothing would stop her. She didn’t have time to think, and she couldn’t believe everything she had just gone through. Her arms were killing her from fighting people, and she was using them with her legs to hold herself up while she ran. Now all she was able to think of was getting free, as quickly and as easily as she possibly could. “Everything is right now, girl,” she said to herself. “You can do anything.” She took another deep breath. The word “Go!” raced through her mind. Looking around, she searched for any chance to escape. Spotting an opened window, she shoved the vial along her waist under her clothes, because it could fall out of a loose pocket. She hoped the vial wouldn’t break while she tried to escape. Her heart was beating a mile a minute; she couldn’t believe how loud her beating heart was. She spotted the open window; she scanned hallways, looking under the bottoms of shelves by crouching low to see if anyone was around so she could make her move. She hoped. Remembering how Carter told her that she could do anything, she decided to quickly make a run for the window. Avoiding rays of light from inside the warehouse, she ran, attempting then to dive through the window. After cutting her left arm on the glass she broke in getting through the half-open window, she actually dove through the window, rolled on the ground, straightened herself up as quickly as she could in her dive-roll to save her life, and then ran to the closest bush so she would be hidden. She was about twenty yards from that window. Sloane didn’t know if they had seen her leave. Shaking her clothes once she was behind the bushes, she saw scraps of glass fall to the ground around her, either from when she dove or when she rolled on the broken glass to escape. Unsure if she would be able to get to the perimeter, she had to decide on the spot if it was safe for her to move out of that area. Making the decision to try to run in safely covered areas, she darted to and then along the perimeter, still looking for any sign that she’d been spotted. Then she tried to see if she could somehow get free. About two miles from where she started running at the perimeter, she finally saw a mailbox at the other side of a street. This was her first sign of freedom in her struggle. Quickly, she darted across the street, hoping at this point everything was safe. Walking down that road for about two miles, Sloane, exhausted, scraped and bloody, found a gas station in her attempts to get cleaned up before she got back to her hotel. They had a bathroom at the side of the building, so she went into the washroom first, removed some of her clothes so she wasn’t covered in dark colors. Also, she worked to smudge as much of the make-up off as she could. Effectively getting it off at the sink with the white liquid soap in the dispenser attached to the wall, she knew that she was a filthy mess, but tried to make herself look better. Moving her pants to see that the vial was still there, she was able to grab it from the seam, still sealed. She was still angry with herself that she was only able to get just one vial, when she thought that she could’ve somehow gotten more. Assuming the alarm that alerted the men to her was in the glass door that sealed the vials, she thought that if she knew about the alarm she would she would have grabbed more vials instantly, stuffed them inside leg pockets, then grabbed her gun and ran like Hell. Reminding herself that she did the best she could, she went into the gas station to grab a cup of coffee and a plain muffin so she could try to remain in one piece before she got to the hotel -- if there was no one waiting there to arrest her and take what she had just taken from the government. Trudging three miles past the gas station, she got to the hotel. Wondering if she actually got away with everything, she threw her clothes into a garbage bag to bring along to wash, because she didn’t feel safe leaving a clothing trail that might lead back to her if the military found it. Showering first, she then looked at her packed bags and comfortable clothes for the drive to New York, if she was not stopped for what she did. Looking at the single vial, she thought about the choice she would have to make: save the drug to possibly replicate it or save Carter. She thought that she didn’t know for sure if it could be replicated, and if anyone tried to take it from her in transport back to Seattle, no one would get this cure at all. She knew what her choice would be. When she thought of the options, her choice then seemed obvious to her. Give it to Carter, but hope the trace amounts from the vial could be used to duplicate the cure for the rest of the world. She had survived; now it was Carter’s turn. Maybe in the process she could help the rest of the word survive too.
While showering she did her best to gingerly clean out the scrapes on her arms and hands. She was surprised that she had scraped knees and was bloody at her thighs under her clothes from when she was so violently trying to get away from military agents. When she got out of the shower she pulled out the hydrogen peroxide to clean cuts on her body: all bubbled repeatedly, but none hurt except when she attempted to put it on the cuts in her arm. Her next step was to attempt to put the Mycetracin on the cuts and scrapes to help them heal faster without infection; once again it hurt like Hell to try to help her arm, but she knew she had to do this to make herself better without going to a hospital for stitches. With her other clothes already packed, she got dressed with a tank top so she could leave her bloodied arm open, because she wanted to be able to bandage it. Using paper towels from the front desk, she covered the cut with bandages from her first aid kit to cover the bleeding. Then she had to brush her hair and try to make herself look presentable for her drive to New York. It had occurred to her that she had not contacted Carter since she left the night before for her mission, she figured that she better call him to have him look for a nurse to be able to watch him and get a needle for the injection. She knew she had some money left, so she dialed from her room and would pay the amount when she checked out a few minutes later. “Hello?” She loved to hear Carter’s voice on the phone. “Carter, it’s me.” “Are you alright?” “Barely...” “I love you.” “I love you too. I’m coming to see you.” “You are? Where are you?” He was hoping he could get her to tell him where she was located, because he was dying of curiosity. “I’m not too far ... but I need you to do me a favor.” “What do you need?” “Remember that nurse that helped you when you first got out of the hospital and you were diagnosed?” “Yeah, she was a nice lady ... why?” “I need to have someone be there for you when I come to your place, and they need to have a regular hypodermic needle with them.” “Why?” “For the medication I have for you, I need it, and I don’t have one. Can you get someone, we can pay them, to be able to come to your place?” “I suppose.” “You don’t sound pleased.” “I’m getting concerned.” “Don’t worry about it, Carter.” “I worry, angel, that’s my job.” “Well, you shouldn’t.” “You don’t know how worried I was after I got that call from you yesterday.” “Well, okay, on that one you should have been. But I don’t think you should worry now.” “You scare me sometimes girl, that’s all.” “I think we’re at the end of having to worry, so just call for a nurse to be there within the next few hours.” “With a hypodermic needle?” “Yes.” “They can’t just carry that around.” “What if they’re doing it for your doctor that traveled across the country to give you the medication? See if the nurse can somehow pick it up for me, please, please, please...” “...I’ll somehow get it done. And angel?” “Yes?” “Please be safe.” “I try to. I love you, and I’ll talk to you soon.” “I love you too.” Sloane hung up the phone, and got ready to pay for the phone call and check out of the hotel, to make her way to the next state to try to save Carter. Not sleeping before she left because of her adrenaline rush but still exhausted from not getting a full night’s sleep, she was able to make her way to Carter’s place in her rental by the afternoon. The attendants for the building took her car to park it in the basement garage and she took the elevator with the vial and laundry to get to Carter’s front door. Knowing she should be excited when she got there, Sloane was still too exhausted and barely let out a knock on his front door. She didn’t realize blood loss from the gash in her arm would affect her, but it may have been the exhaustion of running for her life and living on a liquid diet for days. Carter opened the door because he thought he heard her and was too excited to see her. “How are --” he then saw the bruises and scratches and the impromptu bandage on her arm and changed his question to “what happened to you?” He started to try to hug her but was afraid he was going to hurt her. “I’m ... alive,” she said, “and as long as you don’t hit my arm” she said as he started to pull away “nothing really hurts on me.” “What did you do? Get in here! Wait...” He then reached down and picked her up to carry her into the living room so she could rest on the couch. “I’m trying to outdo you with the injuries and afflictions, I think...” she responded. “Don’t say that.” “I can laugh anything off now.” “Seriously though, what happened?” Seeing the nurse there out of the corner of her eye, she couldn’t explain the story to him. “It’s a long story, I wouldn’t want to bother you all...” When Carter heard her say ’you all’, he knew the she didn’t want to tell him and anyone else, so Carter relented. “Does anyone need anything?” Sloane asked. The nurse got up. “It looks like you need something,” she said, walking over to Sloane. “Let me see what happened to you. What is this bandage for?” “I was cut and I didn’t have anything for the bleeding while driving here.” “Let me check the cut ... When did you cut yourself?” “I think it was four or five this morning.” “Oh,” the nurse said as she peeled the paper off to look at the injury. “It has been too long, but it should have had stitches.” “What should be done for it then?” she asked. The nurse looked over to Carter. “Where did you put my nursing bag?” “It’s over in the washroom.” “Let me get some creams for it and I’ll try to clean it out for you,” the nurse said as she got up to leave for the washroom. Carter walked over to Sloane as the nurse left the room. Crouching down, Carter talked quietly and quickly. “Okay, what happened?” “I broke into a military warehouse to get this vial of medication to cure AIDS patients.” “Just the one?” Carter asked as the nurse started walking down the hall back to the living room, so she and Carter would have to cloud their conversation so the nurse wouldn’t know what they were talking about. “Yes, just one.” “What are you doing with it?” “Giving it to you, Carter. That’s what I needed the needle for.” “You can’t just give the one away.” “I’m hoping for trace amounts from the vial to be enough to replicate it.” “But --” “Carter, I could be stopped anywhere and it could be taken from me, so I am going to do this so that at least someone benefits from my work.” “I just feel strange that you’ll --” “Ouch!” Sloane exclaimed when the nurse probed too deeply into the cut on her arm “Miss, I’m sorry if this hurts you. Hold a pillow if it hurts you too much, but we’ve got to clean this thing out.” Carter walked to the couch to be on her other side. “Here, hold my hand.” “I’m not going to hold your hand for the pain.” “You’re not going to hurt me, so just do it.” She looked at him and realized that she didn’t have to fight him, the way she had been fighting everyone to do what she knew was right. The nurse watched her take Carter’s forearm with her right hand and she then was able to continue cleaning her gash. “Whatever you did, you should be more careful,” the nurse finally said aloud. Carter looked away while she watched the nine-inch long metal tweezers the nurse used. The tweezers looked more like forceps as she tried to remove the dirt and scraps out of her arm. “You’ve even got a lot of glass in her, miss.” “I know.” Carter stared at her while she explained this one to the nurse. “I fell and my hand went through a glass window, and a piece of the glass must have gone into my arm.” She hoped she didn’t need to explain any more. “Any small pieces of glass would be shards from the glass first breaking, wouldn’t it?” “Probably,” the nurse answered. “You should just be more careful.” “I’ll try,” she said, as she had to grab Carter’s arm again to hold back her reaction to the pain. Carter was even surprised at how much she was hurting him when she grabbed his arm. Even though he was in pain and wanted to pull away, he knew he couldn’t do that to her right now. After about twenty-five minutes of her arm being cleaned and bandaged, the nurse finally spoke. “Remember to get the bandaging changed every few days, you can probably do it at home if you have the right bandaging. Now, on to why I was called here ... I’m sure I wasn’t called here for this, especially when I was asked to bring a syringe for a doctor.” “No,” she said as she got up from the couch, checking to see if she could still move comfortably with her arm. “I’m the doctor and researcher of medicines for Carter, I was just injured on my way here.” “What did you need me for?” “Well, we needed your help for the next few days, and don’t worry, you’ll be paid generously for this. We really appreciate your assistance.” The nurse was starting to get confused, not knowing what she needed to do. “Well, what do you need me for?” Sloane took a deep breath to try to explain what they would need, because Carter didn’t even know. “I brought a medication that needs to be given to Mr. Donovan here, but it is a single injection. That’s why we needed the syringe to give him the medicine, because I couldn’t get it from where I got the medication.” “Is this for his condition?” “Yes, hopefully it will really help him. But it is a strong drug, and he will need more than this single injection.” The nurse waited and checked herself before she spoke again. “...What more will he need?” “This drug is an extremely powerful drug, it goes through every blood cell in his body, and it will probably be a slow process. But it has to do that so it can attack the virus-infected cells throughout the body. So ... because it is so strong and so long-lasting in his body ... it will probably make him unconscious for a few days.” “It what?” Carter butted in. “It has worked in a case study before in this same way, I am sure I already told you. You even have a copy of the case files, but I’m sure you haven’t gone over the case file too intently.” Sloane hoped this would be enough of an explanation to remind Carter that Shane, the first Agent, was given this medication and was unconscious for a few days because of it. The nurse also looked confused. “Don’t worry, Nurse Miles,” she said, trying to appease her. “This has been used before and these are expected results. This is why I needed you here, and Carter will need a glucose I.V. if he is going to be out for more than a day.” She again glanced over to the nurse and to Carter to see if they were feeling any better with this idea, and then she continued. “I know a glucose I.V. can stay in a person for up to four days, and I think he’ll be okay before then. We just need someone to give the injection and the I.V. when he slips out of consciousness.” “I’m not going to give him an injection when I don’t know what it is.” “Fine, I can do that,” she answered. “But he’ll probably slip out within an hour. He’ll need something in him for the remaining time he’s out.” “...What happens if he is unconscious longer than that? I’m afraid to watch an unconscious man when I don’t know what’s in him.” “I can understand that. If day four comes and he is still under,” she pulled a business card out of her wallet then continued, “I’d suggest putting a food supplement into his I.V. to make sure he’s okay, then you can call me at my office and I can fly into town to see him immediately. I’ll take over anything from there.” The nurse seemed to be calming down with this idea, but Sloane could tell that she still seemed uneasy, she added, “And none of this is anything you have to worry about. I’m sure nothing will go wrong, but on the off-chance that something does, it won’t be your fault, it is just a request to give him the I.V. and make sure every once in a while that he is okay.” “That’s all you need from me?” “Yes.” she answered. She looked over to Carter to see if this was okay with him. “And cash,” Carter finally said. “We’d pay you in cash up front.” Since Carter paid her before Sloane arrived, the nurse accepted the offer. “You’re doing the injection though, right?” “Yes.” Nurse Miles went to get the syringe and Sloane turned to Carter. “I’m afraid as Hell I’m going to hurt you, Carter. And I’m sure I won’t be able to hit a vein.” She held and opened his arm to have a vein be more visible for plunging a needle in. “If I do this wrong, I could be working for a half -- wait -- how do I know if I even hit a vein? Or do I even need to hit a vein?” “Here you go, Doctor,” the nurse said as she started to walk back in the room. Taking the syringe, Sloane tried to think of how to ask additional favors of her. “I have two more favors to ask of you, nurse.” “Yes?” “The first is that I need this case overnighted to a coworker of mine, Mr. Kyle Mackenzie, because I think I’ll have trouble with getting the object on the plane. I was wondering if you could put your name on the package as the sender. We’ll pay for it, but I just want to make sure that it gets to him without it being taken away.” “Sure I can do that, I guess. What was the other thing?” “Well, I have been a bit shaky since I cut my arm open, and that is the arm I would use for getting the needle in Mr. Donovan. I know you don’t want to inject him, I could press the drug plunger once the needle is in, but it would be really helpful if you could get the needle into his vein so I can get the drug in him easily.” “Yes, doctor, I know what your arm has been through, so I can understand why you’re shaky. I can take care of that. Let me set everything up with Mr. Donovan, and then you can get the drug into him.” “Thank you so much. As soon as it’s in him, I can go with you once Carter’s unconscious to have the bottle overnighted to Mr. Mackenzie.” “Sure,” Nurse Miles said as she turned around to start setting the syringe. Carter immediately wanted to talk to Sloane, but he knew he didn’t have the time right at that moment, because she picked up her phone and speed dialed Kyle at Madison. “This is Kyle at Madison. Who is this?” “Kyle, it’s Sloane.” “Hi! How are you? We’ve been wondering --” “Kyle, I’m sorry, I don’t have the time to talk, but I have a huge request. Can you get to work tomorrow?” “Sure, why?” “I’ll meet you there, but there should be an overnight package coming to you tomorrow from a nurse in New York. It’s Mr. Donovan’s nurse, and there will be an empty drug container in it, and any trace amounts from what is in this container will help us in looking for a cure for AIDS.” “You’re serious,” Kyle said jokingly to her. “Kyle, I’m serious. And please don’t tell anyone I’ve called. We need to be able to pull anything from the container to work. There is medicine in the container that may help our research on AIDS. I had it sent in the nurse’s name to you from New York so someone tracking my name wouldn’t stop it. I’m in New York now, but I am going to try to get an immediate flight back to Seattle.” “You think that hiding your name is necessary?” “Don’t ask why, but yes.” “Okay. But if you’re in New York you should check, because I think Mr. Madison is supposed to be in New York tonight for something, maybe you could get a flight back with him if you can get a hold of him.” Sloane couldn’t believe this was a possibility. “Thank you for the news. Do you have my phone number at home and my cell number?” “Sure do.” “Then you have to call me tomorrow and we’ll meet up to work on this. And thank you.” “You’re welcome.” “I mean thank you thank you thank you.” Kyle laughed. “And you’re welcome ... cubed.” “Is everyone locking things up?” “Yep...” “Okay ... Can you get the front desk so I can check the plane schedule?” “Got it chief. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Sloane listened to the phone line patch her over to the front desk. “Madison Pharmaceuticals. How may I direct your call?” “Hi, this is Sloane Emerson, from Research.” “Hello, Ms. Emerson.” “I’m in New York returning some business materials, and I heard that Mr. Madison may be here with the plane, and I was wondering --” “Mr. Madison should have arrived in New York right about now, and he should be there for a reception and returning this evening. Why do you ask?” “I was wondering if there was any way I could get a hold of Mr. Madison or the pilot.” “The pilot has a cellular phone when he flies with Mr. Madison, I could give you that.” “Thank you very much. I’ve got a pen and paper.” Carter watched Sloane as she jotted down Jim’s cell phone number and hung up the phone. She then furiously dialed Jim’s number to try to contact either one of them. “Jim Anderson, Madison Pharmaceuticals.” “Jim, it’s Sloane Emerson, hi.” “Ms. Emerson, how are you?” “I’m okay, but I need to know where you are and if Mr. Madison is still with you.” “We just got off the plane, but we’re in New York. Did you need to talk to Mr. Madison?” “Yes, if possible, and thank you so much.” She heard the phone change hands. “Colin Madison.” “Colin, hi, it’s Sloane.” “Sloane darling, how is your week off?” Sloane had to be frank. “I looked for AIDS research this week, and I almost died early this morning.” “...Are you okay?” “Yes, thank you, but now I’m stuck in New York because I was going to check on Mr. Donovan before I bought a ticket to go back to Seattle.” “Don’t be silly, come with us -- as long as you’re willing to wait until the end of the night for me. I just got here.” “Mr. Madison, that’s not a problem at all to wait, and thank you very much,” she said, and for the first time she was grinning widely. “Should I find a place and time to meet you?” They decided to meet at the terminal Sloane and Jim usually left from in LaGuardia at eleven o’clock that evening, and they got off the phone. Knowing it was 4:00 in Seattle, she looked at the wall clock to verify that it was just before 8:00 in the evening. She had three hours left in New York before she had to go back home. “I know there’s my car rental place across the street as well, but I have to catch a taxi to the airport after all of this happens, and we’ve got to get this vial to the carrier for overnighting it to Seattle.” “But Doctor Emerson,” the nurse started, “Why don’t you take it on the plane with you?” “I’m concerned they’ll take it from me at the airport,” she responded, looking to Carter for support. “This is why I was asking you to send it out.” “I can send it as soon as the drug is in Mr. Donovan,” the nurse finally said. Although she didn’t like not being there to make sure the drug container went in the package to Kyle, she thought it would be a smart idea if she was nowhere in sight when the nurse sent the package. “Alright,” she said. “And thank you.” She walked over to the container and drained it into the syringe that could be pressed down once the needle was put in Carter’s arm. “Carter, while she’s getting everything, I’m going to return the rental and bring my things back up here. I’m sure it’ll be tough to bring everything on the plane --” “You can leave anything here, because I will visit you in Seattle in a week or two and I can bring it along...” Sloane smiled and thanked him as she left his home and raced to return the rental across the street. She then came back with her suitcase, bag of dirty clothes and cooler that Carter said he was going to keep. “I’ll repack this so that I just have the cooler to bring with me,” she said as the nurse turned to her and said she was about to put the needle in his arm, leaving her enough time to send the container to Kyle in Seattle. Giving her a business card with Kyle’s name on it, she asked her to not write Carter’s name or Sloane’s on the package. Then she waited for the nurse and sat next to Carter. “This is what I need, right?” Carter said to her. She could only hope that it was what he needed; all she knew she could say was, “Yes,” She then put her arm out for Carter to squeeze her if the needle hurt when it was inserted into one of his veins. Carter moved slightly and his breathing changed when the needle went in. “It’s in, Doctor Emerson,” the nurse said as she went over and grabbed the container and the business card. “Ask for a written verification from the person that you give this to that the bottle is in the container, please, and keep the receipt. They can bill the company.” “I will, and I’ll be back,” Nurse Miles said as she left Carter’s home. “This is it this time,” she said. “Yeah, I hope so,” he responded. “I’d stay with you if I never got this vial.” “... I know,” he answered. “I love you, Mister Carter Donovan.” “I love you, miss Sloane Emerson.” And as she heard those words she slid the plunger down slowly so all of the medicine went into his bloodstream.
She worked to make sure everything was out of the tube and into his arm while he asked, “Was that how much I was supposed to have?” “Thanks for asking now, but the amount measured in the vial was the same amount that was listed in Shane’s records when they injected him.” “So ... now I just wait to pass out?” “Carter, I’m sorry, I don’t know --” “How long does it take me?” “I don’t know.” “And we can only guess how long I’ll be out.” “Depending on the strain you had, it may take longer, even though you were battling it well. So I couldn’t guess.” “And ... this is the right thing to do.” She could hear the hesitation in his voice. “It was the only thing we could do.” “I didn’t really feel sick.” “Did you have to change your diet?” “Yes,” “Did you have to stop drinking?” “Yes.” “Did you lose your ability to work unless I threatened leaving Quentin?” “Yeah...” “Do you want to make love to me?” “You’re being cruel, I get it.” “Carter, I want you to live, and I don’t want you to have to settle.” “I didn’t want you to take all of the cure to save just me.” “I might not have been able to replicate the serum. And it probably would have been taken away from me if I kept it. This way I know at least someone can be saved.” She could tell Cater was getting groggy already, and she said, “I want to see you as soon as you get out of this.” “I know what I’m doing as soon as I get out of this.” “You’re going to the doctor to be tested.” “I know that...” “Repeatedly.” “I know, angel...” “It doesn’t matter what you’re doing after that.” “I’m seeing you.” “Don’t worry about then. Think about right now.” “I’m ... really ... tired...” Sensing his drowsy numbness, she could only think of one thing he should do before he went under. “I love you, Carter,” she said as she reached down to give him a kiss. She held this kiss with him for about twenty seconds, until she could feel his lips no longer responding to hers.
Leaving her work phone and cellular number in Seattle for the nurse, Sloane got the written verification and the receipt for the package. In packing a few of her necessary belongings into the cooler instead of bringing the suitcase, she even found a way to wrap the syringe well, throwing the needle away from Carter’s injection. “Maybe there would be enough to run tests off of it,” she thought as she finished her packing, before glancing over to Carter and saying good-bye to the nurse.
Ahead of the game by saving money on a trip back. Sloane felt a bit better that the private plane was in New York for the evening. All she had to carry on was a cooler, her briefcase and her purse. Things were starting to look good. Walking toward the carry-on x-ray checkpoint, she thought that this was the checkpoint she had to go through before she would be in the clear, but at least she had gotten Carter the medication that would hopefully save his life. She made a point to not bring the needle from the syringe to the airport, so she should be set. Walking up to drop her belonging off on the revolving belt, a uniformed man walked up form the side of the room to watch the people checking the merchandise. As soon as her material got under the x-ray, the security agent in charge of the x-ray machine asked, “Is this your merchandise?” Sloane could feel the weight of a rock drop in her stomach when she heard them ask. “Um, yes.” “Come over here, miss,” she responded as they walked to a corner table and she was expected to follow. ’Oh God, oh God, oh God’ was all that raced through her mind as they pulled her to the side with all of her belongings. She knew she didn’t have any metal on her, because she even left her gun at Carter’s because she couldn’t carry it in the airport if they were checking. Her mind raced to remember what she brought: her ammunition was at Carter’s place with the gun, so was the flashlight, all blades were left at her home in Seattle, her computer was emptied out of any data anyone might need, and there were no weapons in any of her cases. “Come here, ma’am,” the uniformed male officer said to her. “Yes?” she answered, still having no idea of what they called her for and having no idea of what they were looking for. “We found a container in this box,” the uniformed man said to her, pointing to the cooler. “Could you open it for us?” Sloane opened the cooler. “Toward your corner there was a container. Could you pull it out for us?” She started to reach in her cooler and realized they must have seen the cure container, she hoped that couldn’t have been it, so she responded as she was reaching, “What was it, sir?” “It was a circular container. It looked like a medicine container or something that would hold a needle. Could you pull it out for us?” At this point she would have to start coming up with any reason as to why she needed the container. “Sir, I am a doctor, a researcher of medical products for a prominent pharmaceutical company, and I --” “Ma’am, we need to look over the product you’re carrying. We believe it will be a security risk. Please remove it and hand it to us.” “Sir,” she attempted to say as she was still fishing through her clothing to delay removing the syringe to give away, “my company needs the materials in this case for work at our laboratories.” She pulled out the syringe as she completed her sentence. “If your company needed these materials, you would have paperwork to safely transport them on an airplane,” the uniformed officer said to her, reaching for the container. “And if this container had medical purposes, it would have to have been refrigerated. A cooler wouldn’t keep it cold enough.” He then tugged at the syringe and ripped it from her hands. The gentleman then said as he was turning around to walk away, “And if you wanted the container, I am sure they sell them at all medical supply stores.” The uniformed officer then walked to the trashcan to throw it away, throwing an old coffee cup filled with coffee on top of it in the trash. Sloane just stood there, staring at what he had done. The female security checkpoint guard then said to her, “Thank you. You can go now.” Wanting to cry, she then tried to get her remaining belongings back into the cooler so she could go to the Madison plane. Sloane knew this had been planned. So she decided that even though she lost the syringe, there’s a chance the container is okay because it was shipped. It was a good thing she decided to use the drug on Carter, because it would have been taken away from her anyway. When she finally walked down to the right door to get to the Madison plane, she thought enough about what had happened and realized that if they wanted proof that the cure was in that sample, they would have kept the syringe container to test the remaining contents. “But if they wanted to remove any evidence of their proof, they would take the syringe container,” she thought, while she waited for Jim and Colin to appear at the plane that was just moved there. Her mind kept going from one cover-up to another. “I can’t implicate anyone and I have no proof that there was any wrongdoing by the government here. Both of the agents died with cause, because of a car crash and in the line of fire, the government made explanations for these deaths and covered the truth up. Claiming that it was a mugging was the legal way they could try to kill the man I love. The security officer at the airport even claimed the ’security risk’ excuse to pull my proof from me.” Then she tried to remember as she stood in front of the plane that even though there were all these excuses and cover ups the government used to conceal their lies, for once she was able to exploit them just for one moment, with information and skill to get something back from them. It almost cost her life, but she was able to do it. If what she injected into Carter was actually the cure. Now she started to worry again. What if she gave him sugar water? What if she gave him a toxin? Why would the government place these cures together in a bin in the middle of a warehouse in Pennsylvania? “Sloane!” she heard from behind her. She recognized Colin Madison’s voice as he continued. “I’m in such a good mood, we can celebrate on the flight back to --” Colin Madison just then walked around her and saw her bruises and her bandaged arm. “What happened to you?” “Mr. Madison, it’s -- hi Jim,” she said as she saw the pilot walking up behind Colin. Colin asked again. “Were you in an accident? What happened to you?” She never once even thought about what to tell anyone about her injuries. “I ... I ... It’s just been a long week.” “Well, my dear, I thought having you on this plane would be a good excuse to have a bottle of champagne, so maybe I’ll break it open for your recovery.” “Thanks ... I think I could use it tonight,” she answered. Jim glanced at her as Colin walked toward the plane first. “Are you okay, Ms. Emerson?” All she did was wink to Jim to get him to lead the way so they could go back to their homes. Colin gave Sloane a ride to her apartment complex in his limo after drinking champagne with her the entire flight back home. Hearing him laugh made her laugh too, and after holding back on drinking for such a short amount of time, the drinking helped too. Drinking with her boss on the flight, she felt like she was giggling like a schoolgirl, and she completely forgot about the pain in her arm or the scratches on her arms, legs and cheek. She arrived at her home close to midnight when Colin’s limo brought her home. She stumbled into her apartment and tried to look to see if anything had changed. Everything seemed in order, she thought, but then again, she didn’t much care anymore if anything was changed. Emptying her cooler’s collection of clothes, she just started stripping for sleep, being cautious of the bandages on her arm. She intentionally dropped herself back first onto her bed. Not knowing how to quickly fall asleep, she decided to think about the place Nuanchan told her about. Immediately the beach came to her mind, and this time she was laying entirely in the water, and she had only a piece of light gauze covering her body. She felt perfectly relaxed. The water felt beautiful and the breeze hit her so softly that she felt perfect. Lifting her head from touching the water over the sand, she looked over to the ocean where the sun had almost completely set. No birds were flying overhead, but she did hear sand being kicked a short distance from her. She turned her head to see what the noise was from, and she saw the same person walking by the water. It was a man, she could tell from his hair and his pants were rolled up and he was just standing in the middle of the sand kicking it around. After watching him for a minute, she finally thought she should find out why he was there. “Hey!” she yelled toward him. He looked up. “Come here.” she half-shouted to make sure he could hear her over the tide coming up the shore. The person started walking over to her, and just then she realized she didn’t know what she was wearing. Feeling like she was wearing nothing, she looking down to see that she was covered in a light fabric and that nothing was exposed. Looking back at this person, he came up to about 5 feet from her; he then stopped, not speaking. “Why are you here?” she asked. “Just felt like walking,” he answered. “But ... you weren’t invited,” she said to him. “Yes I was,” he said. This confused her. She turned her head to think about what he could have meant by that, and after less than ten seconds she turned her head again to ask him another question. He decided to start walking away. And that didn’t bother her, and she sat there, in the water, until she fell asleep in the real world, so she could go to work the next morning.
When she was ready to leave for work at 8:00 in the morning Saturday, she knew that the package wouldn’t arrive at Madison before 10:00, so she thought she’d try to drive by Kyle’s house to see if she saw lights on or if he was home. Driving by his house at around 8:30, she saw his car and lights on downstairs, so she walked to the front door and gently tapped on it. Kyle opened the door. “Hi Kyle, it’s me.” “What are you doing here? And what happened to you?” “I almost died this week, and I figured it would be too early for a package to come, so I thought I’d see if you wanted breakfast.” “It’s nice to see you’re flippant about almost dying. I want to know what really happened, and you’re having breakfast here. Come in.” As she walked in, she whispered to Kyle that she didn’t really want to talk about her injuries to his family, if he wanted to tell them that would be fine, but she was not up for telling strangers. He understood. The kids were at sports practices and Elisa was about to leave for her mall job, so they would be alone in a few minutes. Elisa was going to help clean up breakfast when she saw Sloane. “Hi, how are --” then Elisa saw her when she turned around, “what happened to you?” “Ran my hand through some glass and cut it. Otherwise I’ll live. How are you? Are you going to work now?” “I figured that if Kyle can work so much, I should start working too,” She said, grinning. “Let me help with dishes then.” “No, I’m just about done.” She turned to Kyle to finish her conversation. “You’ll have to clean your mess yourselves,” she said, grinning as she wiped her hands on a towel before walking away. Kyle demanded that Sloane sit, then poured some coffee for the both of them. “So what the Hell happened to you?” “I fell into a window, the glass broke and sliced my arm.” “You’re a dog. Did the glass scrape your jawbone, hands and arms too?” “Don’t forget my knees.” “I can’t see your knees, I’m sorry I forgot that part.” They both smiled as Sloane drank her coffee. “So really, that’s tricky glass there, managing to get you all scraped like that.” “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” “Yes I would.” “What if I said aliens attacked me?” “Then I’d know you were lying ... and a dog.” “What if I said the government did this to me?” “Then you’d sound more realistic, but I’d still think you were nuts.” “So why would I tell you anything; you wouldn’t even believe my alien story...” “Seriously, do you want to tell me about this package I’m supposed to be getting this morning?” “Yeah ... but give me your phone.” “Why?” “Because I want their delivery people to know that we are waiting there for this package, so they better deliver it.” She started dialing the number. She even pulled out the receipt so she could verify the tracking number for the package they were supposed to receive. Kyle wanted to know why she was injured, but5 he also wanted to know what the package contained. After she got off the phone to confirm the package delivery he asked, “So you gonna tell me?” “So you going to give me breakfast?” “What, you want me to cook for you?” “I suggested going out to eat and you made me stay here.” Grumbling, Kyle got up and said, “What do you want?” “I’ll settle for some toast, mister ’Kyle I-don’t-want-to-cook Mackenzie.” “I’ve got glazed biscuits and a doughnut or two too if you’d like.” “Ah, you have kids, Kyle.” “What does that mean?” “That means you’d only have that in your house if you had kids.” “Don’t give me Hell...” “Yeah, I hear giving kids things with a ton of sugar makes them tired and puts them to sleep at night...” “They burn the energy at that age, and I don’t want to hear it from you.” Kyle said before he brought the breads to the table. “So are you going to tell me what the story is about the past week?” “I went a bit of a distance because I heard of a place with medication for AIDS patients.” “Like the billion places you saw on the net?” “Well, this one was unconventional, and I think it was more effective. I see you looking at me, don’t ask me why I know this about this source, just trust me. So, I had to get a sample of it so I could learn from it.” “So did you just buy a sample?” “The makers there said they wouldn’t give it to me, and when I tried to take it, they got angry.” “What do you mean?” “I mean they didn’t want me to take it, so they tried to hurt me to stop me.” “... You’re kidding me, right?” “No. This is why I look bad. I got scraped up.” “So you got some of this medicine? That’s the package coming to me?” “It’s the container inside the package, actually.” “What?” “There’s next to nothing in there, but I’m hoping there’s enough there so we can run tests from it to figure out a solution to any of the AIDS problems.” “I hope you think it’ll help us, ’cause I’m thinking...” “I’m thinking that I was attacked for what I got here, so I’m really hoping we can get something out of this too. And more importantly --” “More importantly what?” “More importantly I think I’m going to have such a sugar buzz from all these glazed Danish rolls that I’ll never get to sleep tonight...” she said, trying to change the subject so she wouldn’t have to explain her uncertainty or the potential possibilities. After picking up the package at 10:30 in the morning from the front of their office complex, the two of them headed straight back to the lab to start working on it. She tried to keep the container away from Kyle to confirm that it was just in a plain steel container and that there was no U.S. government label on it to give anything away to him. She first started calling New York to see if there were any changes to Carter’s condition, but was only able to get a hold of nurse Miles an hour after she called and she only verified that his health condition was very stable, for whatever drug she gave him. They extracted as much as they could and tried to run tests on the medication, and she tried to gear Kyle in any direction possible toward looking for traces that this medication could be a cure, or at least a vaccine. “I hate to break this to you...” “What, Kyle?” “I think it was supposed to remain refrigerated or something, because it seems that some of the parts of the compounds that even stil exist here are entirely dead.” “Oh. ...Well, there has to be something different in this, or usable.” “I don’t even know what I’m looking at,” he answered. “None of this makes much sense to look at.” She wondered if it not being refrigerated destroyed the cure, and if too much time had passed from when she pulled it from the refrigerated bin after getting it to Carter, and the drug needed to be kept cool to remain active. A side of her internally became hysterical, because she didn’t want to force Carter to slip into a coma that wouldn’t cure him and he would never get out of. “Wait, Kyle, let me see this,” she said, fuming internally as she tried to make sense of the news she’d just received. It then occurred to her: it would stand to reason that he wouldn’t have been knocked unconscious if the medication didn’t work effectively, so it must have still been okay. Only when she realized this was she able to look in the microscope to investigate what she was able to view. “What is this?” “I don’t know. It looks like this, but it doesn’t make sense...” Hearing Kyle scribbling, she turned around to see that he was writing diagrams on a piece of paper to show her what he saw. “You see,” he told her, “these atoms were locked together, and I guess they could work to counteract the one part of the virus, but I don’t understand why this part is apparently dead over here.” He pointed over to the lame part of the sample he had attempted to draw. “But wait... Kyle...” she looked back into the microscope to check out what she was seeing, “there’s another part to it that you’re not drawing. That’s a part ... come here and look at this...” Kyle reached over and leaned in front of her so he could see through the microscope again. “Wait, that’s a part of the virus. What’s the point...” She could see that there was not enough information there to be able to generate a cure again, because it was probably destroyed by it not being refrigerated and shipped across the country. But maybe there was another part of this drug that she could use for their AIDS research. Kyle thought the same thing and he came to a similar conclusion and said it aloud first. “If that’s a part of the virus, the way these atoms are attached to it knocked out the possibility of it becoming viable and something that can spread in the body, maybe this is something that we could somehow adapt for vaccine research.” “The way this point is attached here --” Sloane said as she pointed at Kyle’s drawings, “that’s something we never thought of before.” “I don’t think we ever would have thought of it.” “Maybe we could...” “Maybe we could generate a spectrum of samples based on this compound hierarchy; maybe then we could have a workable test group for a vaccine.” “Wow.” “What?” “It just seems...” “It just seems that we’re on to something.” Kyle turned around and started making rough drawings to see what other elements could work with their old research. “And Kyle, the part of the virus they have inactivated, it’s a part --” “A part we’ve never tried before?” “Right, but it’s a part that all of the mutations of the virus have in common, and it’s something we never picked up on.” “Considering that HIV was an original strain and has developed into so many mutations, there would have to be a base.” “But Kyle, why did we never look into this part of the virus to come up with a solution?” “I don’t know ... I guess we just weren’t looking in the right places.” “Well, I almost died getting this information, but maybe this is the only way we’d be able to open those doors.”
Sunday morning she rested. But Monday she came into work, with her arm in a sling and new bandages on it. Everyone had questions about how she had been hurt, and she split her story. To the men she told that her love affair with a man got abusive, and when they got concerned she’d told them to be her alias if anyone she dated is reported dead, because then they’d know she was just pulling their leg. To the women she said she got drunk at a party at a bar in Chicago and fell through a glass window, and that was why her arm was cut. She figured that with the women she would put some truth, somehow, into the story. But once everyone was in, Kyle and Sloane had generated test runs for a few more verifiable compounds for animal testing for a possible vaccine. People were amazed with their results, and right after lunch they had workable samples that they could have generated in three days to test on assorted animals for how much they would react to the virus after the fact. With this news, people wanted to celebrate. Amidst all of this good news, Sloane gave a call and left a message at Carter’s answering machine for the nurse to call her back if there were any problems with Carter’s condition, because she hadn’t heard anything and she would come to his home Tuesday if there was still a problem. Nurse Miles and Carter sat there, listening to her message when she called. Carter had already gotten dressed and just got back from a doctor’s appointment, where his health appeared close to perfect and there were no traces of HIV in his system. He made the deal with Nurse Miles to not tell Sloane that he was conscious yet, because he had already scheduled a visit to Seattle to surprise her on his recovery and celebrate with her. Having his luggage already packed and a plane ticket to leave for Seattle in about three hours, Carter made the deal with the nurse to have her call Sloane from his place and tell her that his vitals appear to be strong and he was starting to move at this stage, so she felt he would be regaining consciousness shortly so Sloane doesn’t need to come by. “Stress to Ms. Emerson that you will call her when I come to,” Carter implored of her, and she readily agreed, because she liked the idea of her patient romantically surprising Sloane. What Sloane didn’t know was that Carter copied her key when he visited her as a friend, so he could surprise her now when she came home from work. As soon as she hung up from calling Carter and his line was free, he called Madison’s front office. “Madison Pharmaceuticals. How may I direct your call?” “Hello, I am a friend of Sloane Emerson’s, and I know she just took some time off, but I didn’t know how much vacation time she had left.” “Three weeks sir, but she was injured when she came to work today.” Carter then realized that she might just be able to take a sick day instead of vacation time. “Okay, I was just checking. Thank you very much.” “Did you want to leave a --” the receptionist stopped herself when she realized that the caller had hung up the phone. Carter hoped that if she couldn’t take a sick day she could take another vacation day, if she wanted to spend any more time with him, now that he was back.
Colin got a phone call in the morning from Sloane once she was hopeful about the drug finds. “Colin, I can’t say it’s a guarantee, but there seems to be a really good chance with this.” “You developed this today?” “Well, it wasn’t all me --” “You did this on your week off?” “I never said that...” “You talk a lot when you’re drinking...” “I didn’t say I found this, Colin.” “Then what did you say?” “I was saying that Kyle and I looked into a compound with a new aspect of the virus to detach for use with a virus, so we’re going to run tests almost immediately on possible vaccines.” “So you didn’t create this?” “Colin, with the vaccines, Kyle and I were both working on this, And for the original plans, a lot of the staff helped come up with phenomenal ideas.” “That sounds great. Now how is your arm doing? I know you were pampering that thing on the flight back.” “It’s hard, attempting to shower when your arm can’t be near water, but I’ll see how it goes. Thanks for asking.” “I just hope you’re feeling better, and the vaccine possibilities is good news. Don’t make me have to have another party at my house for you guys...” “Don’t make us work so hard to be pampered by you...” They both felt better by the phone call and Colin immediately asked his receptionist to have deli sandwiches sent to the lab for their accomplishments. In the middle of their delivered impromptu lunch from Colin, and after Carter had left for his surprise visit to Sloane, Ms. Emerson received a phone call from Nurse Miles. “Sloane Emerson.” “Ms. Emerson, it’s Nurse Miles, I’m returning your call.” “Hello, I was wondering if there was any report on Mr. Donovan.” “I know you’d be growing concerned because tomorrow evening would be four days, but I wanted to let you know that although Mr. Donovan has not regained total consciousness yet, I have noticed his motion though.” “What do you mean?” “Usually when someone is unconscious they are also motionless. I have detected in the past few hours when I have come to check on him, that his arms are moving and I see his legs move under the blankets sometimes. This is a very positive sign, Ms. Emerson, because it will probably mean he’ll be up within the next twenty-four hours.” “That’s a good sign...” “Yes it is. And I wanted to let you know that as soon as Mr. Donovan gets out of it and I remove the I.V. from him, I’ll call you to let you know.” “Thank you, Nurse Miles.” “No problem, Ms. Emerson. And I’ll call you soon.” They both hung up their phones, and Nurse Miles smiled after she let the receiver hang up, proud of herself at how convincing she must have sounded.
Click here for Chapter 20 of The Key To Believing
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portions of this book are in the following books:
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