Chapter 39
39
Gil kept his four-wheeler close behind Victor’s as they approached Smoky Lake. Not that he didn’t trust the scientist, but…no, he realized. He didn’t trust him. He’d been acting off ever since they got off the plane.
No, ever since he’d shown up at Carlo Creek. From the first words he’d spoken, he hadn’t seemed like himself. Jittery, full of himself, irrational.
Why hadn’t he been more forthcoming with Dr. Christianson? The more information the medical community had, the better. Why withhold any of it?
He wished he could make a detour and see Lachlan, but his brother’s house was out of their way.
Before he and Victor had set out, he’d managed a quick text while he still had service in the CDC tent.
Checking in. Just got back. You good?
All good here. Tested neg, but sticking around anyway. You?
With Victor. Heading to Smoky Lake.
Be careful.
That sounded an alarm bell. You need anything?
No. I’m good. Watch Victor.
The dreaded three dots appeared, then dropped. Gil had waited as long as he could, but then Victor had yelled for him.
Did Lachlan mean “watch Victor” as in “take care of Victor” or as in “watch out for Victor”? What sort of warning was it? Sometimes his brother didn’t grasp when something was imminently dangerous. That was why Gil had to get him out of trouble so many times.
The bite of early autumn was in the air as their four-wheelers careened through the thick spruce forest at this southern tip of Smoky Lake. The leaves of the tall cottonwoods trembled in the constant breeze coming off the lake. Were they going to turn soon? In the fall they turned bright yellow, and that time wasn’t far off. Around here, fall was short. The first snowfall could come in early October, the first frost as soon as September.
He’d lost track of time since Ani had shown up on Lachlan’s doorstep…but it had to be August now.
“You know why it’s called Smoky Lake?” Victor called back to him as the first glimpse of the lake appeared through the trees.
“The fog?” Almost every time he’d come out there, there’d been mist drifting across the surface.
“Nope.”
“Wildfires? All the smoke?”
“No. It’s because of the cottonwoods. In mid-summer, the seed fluff can pile up a foot deep around here.” Victor stopped the four-wheeler a few feet from the shimmering water, at the beach where the Institute kept its fleet of boats and canoes. “It’s also shaped like smoke from a candle, the way it curves.” He took a sniff of the mountain air. “I smell smoke.”
“It’s probably from the Institute, sorry to say. It’ll probably smell that way for a little while.”
Victor turned off his four-wheeler and jumped off. “The speedboat’s gone,” he called after poking around in the bushes for a moment.
“It’s probably still at Bob’s cabin. That’s where I left it.” Gil had forgotten that logistical detail. Or maybe he’d assumed the Army crew would put everything back to normal.
“Shit. Canoes are going to take too long. I guess we’ll just have to take the shore trail. It might be a little rough. No one’s been maintaining it. I told them we might need it someday, but no one listens to me. I’m not even sure I could find it.” Victor gestured with his head toward the bushes. “I need to take a quick leak. Can you see if you can locate the trailhead?”
Gil nodded and did a quick reverse and turnaround to head back to the trail. He’d never used the shore trail, and hoped it still existed. Things could get overgrown fast around here.
After much poking around and getting scratched by spruce needles, he found it—marked by a faded orange ribbon tied to a lower branch of a spruce tree. He called out to Victor, but the drone of an engine drowned him out.
Who else was out here? Anyone armed and dangerous?
He turned his four-wheeler off and listened. It sounded like the outboard motor of a boat.
Jumping off the four-wheeler, he raced on foot back to the little beach to track the sound. There it was. The Institute’s speedboat, headed from the shore on a beeline toward the Smoky Lake Research Institute.
Goddamn it.
“Sorry!” The word drifted across the water from the man at the tiller. Victor. “Gotta protect my research!”
“I can help you!” Gil shouted. “You could be in danger!”
“Just go back! Lachlan needs you! So does Ani!”
What the fuck did that mean?
Victor was trying to scare him, that was all. Make him run back to town. But he’d just texted with Lachlan, and Ani was with Sergeant Thomson.
Whatever Victor was up to, he wasn’t going to let him get away with it. The hell with that. Gil raced back to the four-wheeler and gunned it toward the trailhead.
Why would Victor have to protect his research from Gil? It made no sense. Nothing about Victor’s actions was adding up.
By the time Gil reached the gutted structure that had been the Smoky Lake Institute, he had scratches all over his face and hands from the alder branches along the trail.
“Victor!” he yelled. No point in trying to sneak up on the guy on a four-wheeler. Those things were noisy. He climbed off and strode around to the back. The missile had hit the front of the building, but the back was relatively intact, and the garden untouched. The kale was leafier than ever. Amazing how nature just carried on.
He took a few more steps forward. “Victor, are you here? Tell me what’s going on. I can help.”
“Stop where you are.”
He spun around at the sound of Victor’s shaky voice. The scientist stood just outside the back door, which opened onto a basement-type room partially dug into the slope. Gil knew there was cold storage in there, with a generator providing the power, but wasn’t sure it was still functioning. Victor had exchanged his backpack for a zippered, insulated cooler with shoulder straps.
He lifted his arm and Gil saw, with a quick shock, that he held a Glock 22.
“Victor,” Gil said softly. “What are you doing?”
“I need you to go away. Just go away. Like I said, go back to Lachlan. Go back to Ani. Just go.”
Gil heard despair and desperation in his voice. “But why? Come on. I know you’re not going to shoot me.”
“I don’t want to! You know me, I don’t choose violence. But I will if I have to. Please don’t make me. All you have to do is go away .”
“Okay. Okay.” Gil flattened his hands in a calming gesture. “I hear you. I want to get shot even less than you want to shoot me.” Maybe some humor would bring Victor back to his senses. “I’ll go away.”
“Good.” Victor gave a sob of relief and shoved a shank of curly hair off his face. “That’s smart. Lachlan always said you were just as smart as him, in your own way.”
“Really, he said that?” Gil figured anything to keep Victor talking would be good. “He thinks the world of you too. He just told me to watch you. Why is he worried?”
“Leave Lachlan out of this. Just go.” He waved the gun again.
“I’m going. I’m going.” Gil took a step backwards, then another one. But he knew he’d hit on a soft spot of Victor’s—Lachlan. Other scientists respected and revered Lachlan.“You know what Lachlan says about you? He says you’re like Indiana Jones crossed with John Muir. He thinks someone should make a movie about you.”
Victor’s hand shook so hard that he brought up his other one to steady it. “Just go,” he choked.
Watch Victor. It had definitely been a warning. Too bad Lachlan hadn’t offered more specifics.
“Whatever’s going on, it’s not going to take Lachlan long to put it all together. You know how he is. He likes to believe the best about people, but he is a scientist. In the end it’s all about the evidence. Did you cross a line, Victor? Other than the ones I know about, filching a virus sample, going outside your grant, injecting people without their knowledge. Are you…”
As he spoke, some pieces fell into place and formed a terrible picture.
“Are you selling your research to someone? To whoever wants to weaponize the virus?”
“Stop! Just stop! I’ll shoot you!”
Shocking them both, Victor did shoot—into the ground a few yards from Gil’s feet. The report echoed through the woods and across the lake. Crows croaked and Gil heard the flap of wings behind him.
“Oh fuck,” Victor muttered. He stared at the gun in his hand as if he’d never seen it before. “I didn’t mean to do that. Oh shit. I’m sorry, Gil. You have to go. They’re?—”
Unlike Victor, Gil wasn’t fazed by the sound of gunfire. He’d be a pretty terrible security agent if he was. Even though his pulse raced, he held his ground.
“ They’re coming? Who’s they? Is that why you need me to leave? Are you meeting them here to hand over your research? Is that why you didn’t tell Dr. Christianson about it? You want to make money from all your hard work? I can understand that, I suppose. It wouldn’t be the first time a scientist sold out.”
Sweat ran down Victor’s face. “You don’t understand anything. I’m not selling out. I…I would never do that. I want to help people. I’m so close. Imagine stopping all viral infections forever. Just imagine it!”
“That’s beautiful. So why do you have a gun aimed at me? I’m not stopping you. Is someone else trying to? Maybe I can help you.”
“You can’t help me. You can’t. You don’t understand. It’s over our heads. I’m in over my head, I know that. This is the only way out. The only way out is through. I thought I could beat them but I can’t. And now…”
“Now?” He waited, but Victor was trembling too much to continue. “Come on, man, you got me into this. You’re the one who asked me to watch out for Ani. You have to trust me.”
“It’s too late,” Victor cried. He looked out over the lake. A floatplane appeared over the misty surface, angled for a landing. Gil knew all the local flying services, and this plane didn’t belong to any of them. “They’re here. Just go. If I don’t give them what they want, the whole town could be in trouble. I have no choice.”
This time Victor’s hand was steady as he aimed the gun at Gil. “Go. While you still can.”