Chapter 15

Xavier Fisher looked around in desperation as he drove fifteen miles over the speed limit. He’d heard the phrase, There’s never a cop around when you need one, but the truth was, he’d never really needed one before. Not like he did now.

As he drove, he saw a McDonald’s on the other side of the street. He checked his side mirror then cut across the two empty oncoming lanes and hung a hard left turn into the parking lot. He gunned the engine around the side of the building through the almost empty parking lot and swerved into the drive-through lane. He stopped at the window and leaned on the horn.

A startled teenage boy looked at him from the other side of the window. “Holy shit! Where’d you come from?”

“Please, I need a phone!”

“You wanna steal my phone?”

“No, you can make the call if you want.”

“Who do you wanna call?”

“9-1-1.”

“Dude, I’m not pranking them.”

“It’s not a prank, please!”

The manager, a woman in her forties, came over. “What’s going on?”

“Please, I need to use the phone!” Fish said. “It’s a life and death emergency!”

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a WMD in the city!”

“A what?”

“A weapon of mass destruction. And right now, I’m the only one who can stop it. But I need help because… I don’t know how to do this sort of thing.”

She looked him over for a few seconds, then made her decision. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Goddamnit!” Fish took his foot off the brake, let the car coast forward a few feet, and put it in park. He opened his door, got out, and started back toward the window.

The manager closed the drive-through window. She clicked the lock on just before Fish reached it and started pounding on the glass.

Fish looked around. He went to the garbage can next to the entrance doors. He picked up the can, carried it to the window, and slammed the bottom of the can through the window.

Both the manager and the teenager screamed as they jumped back from the shattering glass and ran away.

Fish swept the broken shards aside with the bottom of the garbage can as best he could, then dropped the can on the ground outside the window. He pushed himself up with his arms and wiggled his way in through the hole where the window had been.

He grabbed a hold of the counter under the window and turned himself around. His feet landed on the floor and he immediately started scanning the place. “I want a phone! Someone get me a phone right now!”

No one said anything.

“If I don’t get a phone in the next ten seconds, I’ll tear this place up and everyone in it!”

An instant later, a cell phone skidded across the floor and bumped off the side of Fish’s shoe. He bent down, picked it up, and dialed 9-1-1. He put the phone to his mouth.

Two rings later, the other end of the line picked up. A woman’s voice said, “9-1-1, what is your emergency?”

Fish took a deep breath and started. “My name is Xavier Fisher. I’m a PHD student at Harvard. My professor, Dr. Michael Radford, is making a hybrid virus at…” he gave them the address. “You need to get there as fast as possible. One of my classmates, Abdul Jasser, has been shot in the leg. There was at least one other man in the building when I left. He’s the one who shot my friend. He’s armed and extremely dangerous. This is not a prank. This is not a misunderstanding. And I promise, I am not crazy.”

The operator waited for a few seconds then said, “What was that address again?”

Fish repeated the address to the building.

“Sir, we just got a report of a fire at that same address about two minutes ago. Was that you?”

“No, mam.” Fish was stunned. He and Abdul hadn’t even been near anything flammable… “Listen to me very carefully. They must be burning the evidence. Tell the firemen that there is a secret laboratory on the second floor and make sure they understand there’s a deadly super-virus there. The fire should kill it but I don’t know what kind of… I don’t know… potentially contagious and extra deadly smoke they might get on their fire suits. I’m saying it’s possible the virus might hitchhike onto their suits and kill them when they take their suits off when they get outside. Maybe.”

In nine years of answering emergency calls, this was the most terrifying call the operator had ever taken. “All right. I’ll let them know.”

“Also, make sure the firemen have police protection. I don’t want any of them getting killed because they couldn’t shoot back.” Fish stopped talking but started again before the operator could speak. “One more thing; I had to break into a McDonald’s to make this phone call.”

“I’ll pass that message along. Is that where you’ll be waiting for the police?”

“No, mam. I had to leave my friend behind to make sure the authorities knew what was going on. Now that you know, I’m going back to get him.”

☣

Fish looked over and saw two fire trucks in the parking lot of the building he’d worked in for the last three weeks. About a dozen firemen shot water onto the burning building with three hoses. Four police cars were off to the side and at least a half dozen police officers stood around with their guns drawn and ready to shoot. There was also an ambulance off to the side but the paramedics didn’t seem to be in any hurry. The roof didn’t have any fire on it but there was a lot of smoke and flames coming from the second floor windows.

Fish slowed down, turned, and pulled the Mercedes into the parking lot.

One of the police officers broke away from the others. His partner went with him. They both had their guns up and approached Fish’s car slowly as it stopped and parked at the edge of the parking lot.

Fish got out of the car with his hands up and tried to look as nonthreatening as possible.

“You can’t park here,” The first officer said. “Move your car now or you’ll be arrested and your car gets impounded.”

“My name is Xavier Fisher. I’m the one who called in and recommended you be here to protect the firemen.”

“That was you? What the hell is going on around here?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know but right now, I’ve got to get on the roof.”

“Are you out of your mind? You’re gonna tell me what’s going on--”

“My friend is up there and he’s going to die if I don’t help him!”

“Your friend is on the roof?”

“He was when I left.”

“What the hell was he doing there?”

“We were hiding and running away from the man who shot him.”

“He was shot?”

“Yes. What were you told? About why you’re here, I mean.”

“We were told to guard the firemen.”

“Nothing about the toxic smoke?”

“Buddy,” said the second police officer, “all smoke is toxic.”

“Yes, but… you weren’t told about the WMD?”

“The what?” yelled the first cop.

“Listen, we can go over all of this later. Right now, I really need to get on the roof.”

The first police officer didn’t know what to think. He wanted to think Fish was crazy; the problem was he seemed fine, intelligent even. “Come on.”

Fish followed him. The second cop got in line behind Fish and the three of them went to a fireman standing next to the fire truck on the left.

“Hey,” the first cop said. “This guy says he needs to get on the roof.”

The fireman looked Fish over for a few seconds. “Does he, now? And why would he want to go and do a damn fool thing like that for?”

“My friend was on the roof the last time I saw him. He’s been shot and he needs medical attention.”

The fireman’s attitude changed immediately. “I’m sorry about your friend. But the dispatcher warned about some kind of strange smoke that could kill us if it got on out suits and--”

“I know all about the smoke. I’m the one who told the dispatcher.”

“You’re the one who called in the fire?”

“No. I’m the one who called about the WMD and about the shooting. I didn’t know about the fire.”

“Why was he on the roof if there wasn’t a fire?”

“That’s where we were hiding from the man who shot him.”

The fireman thought over the situation. He got on the side of his rig and climbed into the basket. Fish jumped on the truck and raced up after him.

The fireman waived his hand. “You can’t come in here, it’s against regulations.”

“But--”

“Not a debate.” He pushed a joystick and the metal arm that held the basket pushed it up.

Fish waited until the basket was over his head then raised his arms and jumped up, catching the basket by the corner with one hand on each ledge. He hung on as the basket went up.

The fireman saw and felt what Fish had done. He stopped the basket, then lowered it back down.

Fish’s feet went back on the truck.

The fireman wanted to punch him but instead made room in the basket. Fish climbed in. The fireman looked down at the cop who had brought Fish and said, “When we come back down, I want you to arrest him!”

The first police officer who had seen the whole thing gave him a raised thumb. “You got it!”

The fireman raised the basket back up. Fish widened his feet to give himself more of a base and held on to the side of the basket with one hand. His concern for Abdul’s safety was the only reason he didn’t freak out at being twenty, then thirty feet off the ground in a basket.

The fireman looked at him. “You all right? You look a little shaky.”

“I’m afraid of heights,” Fish said.

“Then why’d you jump in here?”

“Because my friend needs help.”

When the basket towered over the roof, the fireman shined a light down and they both scanned the roof for any sign of Abdul.

The light started at the southwestern corner of the roof and then went straight north. When it reached the northern edge, it moved east enough so as not to overlap with what had already been searched and went south to the edge of the roof. After about forty-five seconds, the entire surface area of the roof had been examined by both Fish and the fireman.

Fish was stunned. “I don’t know what to say.”

It was obvious to fireman that Fish was concerned for his friend. He decided to overlook the young man’s overenthusiasm and said, “It’s good he’s not there. He probably got out.”

“He had a bullet in his leg. He didn’t go anywhere unless somebody… Could you please light up the roof of the building behind this one? That’s how we got in. We jumped from that roof to this one and then went down the stairwell. Maybe he jumped over when the fire started.”

The fireman decided to keep his opinion of roof jumping to himself. He re-aimed the light and shined it on the roof of the building behind the burning one.

Once again the light shined down a roof, further away this time but almost as easy to see given the power of the light. Once again, a controlled grid search. And once again, an empty roof.

The fireman looked at Fish and said, “After I put us down, we’re not going back up again.”

Fish kept looking out into the area the search light was shining on, but it was no use; there was nothing to see. “Okay, you can set us down. Thank you for your help. But just so you know, I’m not wrong about the virus and how dangerous it is.”

The fireman saw how dejected Fish was and didn’t want to push it. “I just put the fires out. Somebody else handles those kinds of things.” He pulled the joystick and the basket started down.

The two police officers who had brought Fish to the fireman were standing there waiting for the basket to come to a stop. The first cop had his handcuffs out. The second still had his gun in his hand. They were both looking right at Fish.

Next to them was a second fireman. He looked up as the basket stopped in its spot on the truck. “What the hell is a civilian doing in the basket?”

The first fireman opened the basket door. Fish got out. “I don’t see no civilian,” the fireman said. He looked back at the second fireman. “You see anyone?”

The second fireman thought it over for a couple of seconds and shrugged his shoulders as Fish climbed down. “Nah, I don’t see nothin’.”

The first cop was annoyed with the first fireman. “So, what, now you don’t want me to arrest him?”

The fireman shook his head. “No need.”

The first cop looked at Fish and said. “I hope you don’t think this means you’re getting out of here scot-free.”

Fish was now facing the two cops and had his back to the parking lot. “Officer, I have no intention of getting out of here. As a matter of fact, I have a lot of very important things I need to talk to the authorities about and I went out of my way to make sure I would be able to do so.”

“That’s good to hear--” said a man’s voice from behind Fish. He spun around to see who it was.

FBI Special Agent Vincent Cataldo and DHS Analyst Danielle Lynette both held their federal IDs up for Fish to see.

“--because we want to talk to you too,” Cataldo said.