By the next morning at nine Rae was back at her desk, she hadn't had much sleep but at least her four friends were all on the road to recovery. Now all she had to do was try to stay calm about the fact that she was taking her driving evaluation in twenty minutes.
She was reading the interview transcript from the previous day with Donovan, but his attitude, even on paper, was making her extremely angry. In the end she slapped the folder down on the desk and got to her feet.
"Rae, are you all right?" Martin looked at her with concern in his eyes.
"No, yes, no. You know I have no idea."
"Would you like me to come with you for your drivers exam?"
Rae smiled. "Yeah, would you? I could do with a friendly face. Especially if they have to peel me off the wall at the end of it."
"Well, I tell you what, you can drive me there, just to get your concentration levels up, and if you pass you can take me out for lunch, ok?"
"Ok, it will be nice to get back into some sort of routine."
Ten minutes later they were walking out to Martin's car together. As they got closer he threw her the keys, she caught them easily and with her confidence rising she climbed into the drivers seat.
Her confidence was repaid with a permission slip to begin to drive alone again. With a smile as wide as it could be she drove Martin towards the station. As they were discussing where to go for lunch her cell phone began to ring.
"Detective Yeager…Oh, hi, Alex, yes, all right, I'll come in right now…No, I admit it, I forgot…yeah, bye." She put her phone down on her lap and with her eyes on the road began to talk. "Martin, I'm sorry, but I have to go to the hospital so that they can drain the last of my blood. I was supposed to have it done first thing this morning, but I forgot."
"That's ok. Why don't we just have lunch there?"
Rae rolled her eyes and said, "Martin, I know you admire Lieutenant Sloan a lot, but there is no way that I am gonna have two partners who eat hospital food out of choice, ok?"
Martin felt the blush run up his face. "Yeah, I guess so. Why don't we go to your place, you can pick up your little red car and I'll see you back at the station? We can have lunch another day."
Rae had pulled up at a traffic signal and so she looked across at him. "Do you mind? I think that would be better. Thank you." The lights changed and Rae headed off towards her apartment block.
She happily eased Tom into a space in the hospital parking lot and then headed for the main entrance. Rae hadn't thought of the reaction her arrival would create in the lobby of the hospital. As she walked in she was instantly surrounded by at least a dozen reporters and microphones were thrust under her nose.
"Detective Yeager, is it true that you were infected with this bug…?"
"How many people died of this…?
"Were you used as a guinea pig for the antidote…?
"Is it true that the pathogen was ready to repel the alien replicants living in our cities…?"
The room went silent.
"I beg your pardon?" Rae looked for the voice that had spoken.
"Hi, I'm Shelby Turner, from the Daily Comet." A stunning blonde woman smiled at her and Rae smiled back.
"Oh, yes I've heard of you. I have no comment to make. Good day to you all."
Rae turned purposefully away from them and headed for the elevator. When Rae arrived at the path lab, she was astounded to see Amanda working there, looking as if she had never left. "Amanda?"
"Rae, hi, how are you?""
"Fine, I think. I was asked to come in to give some blood. I wondered why I had to come here instead of the ER, is everybody looking as good as you?"
"Yes, we are, sweetie, thanks to you." Rae swung round as she heard Mark's voice and there standing in the doorway were Mark, Steve and Ron, all looking as if they had never had a day's illness in their lives.
"Oh, my…" Rae could say nothing else. She moved towards them and was soon caught up in the middle of a group hug.
Slowly they moved away from each other and with her eyes shining she looked at the four people in the room with her. "I can't believe this. This is wonderful…" She stopped talking. She had no need to say anything else.
Mark began to talk again. "It seems that the antidote just wiped the system of whatever it was that made us ill in the first place, everybody has now been treated, and they are all fine." Then he shuddered. "It's not a field of medicine I want to be involved in ever again." He turned as he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked into the loving eyes of his son.
"I think that goes for all of us, Dad."
Together the five friends walked towards the doctor's lounge ten minutes later. Rae had given her blood sample and was now enjoying their company. As they went into the room she saw that Alex was already there. "Hey, super doc, how are you today?"
Alex blushed a deep shade of crimson and looked away. "I'm sorry, Alex. I didn't mean to embarrass you." She turned to the other people in the room but her words were directed towards Mark. "You would have been so proud of him. He was the consummate professional. I'm sure that he was just as scared as the rest of us and even unsure of his abilities at times, but he never let it show. I felt completely safe with him, and I have no doubt that if things hadn't worked out the way they have, it wouldn't have been for the want of trying on his part."
"Honey, I'm proud of you too. That was quite a speech you just made." Mark was clearly delighted with what she had just been able to say.
Now it was Rae's turn to blush. She had spoken from the heart and had been completely unaware of putting any effort into the production of her words. Now for the first time she knew that she was going to come through this.
"Steve, where's Texas? She's all right isn't she?"
"She's fine, but she wanted to go home, get changed and freshened up before she came down town to make a statement and identify Donovan."
"Oh, ok."
She moved across to get herself a drink of water and found Ron at her shoulder. "Rae, I just wanted to thank you for sitting with me, you have a very calming presence."
Rae looked at the tall FBI agent with amazement. "You knew I was there?"
"I was aware of you, I could hear your voice, I couldn't understand what you were saying, but that didn't matter, what did matter was that somebody cared and wanted to be there." He smiled at her and moved away.
Mark came over to get a coffee and he had something in his hand. "This was waiting for me when I came back down to the ER this morning." He held up a brown envelope. "It's a letter from the head of the police commission, he says he can see no problem in extending your contract for at least another year."
"Oh, Mark, thank you, thank you so much." She flung her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. Then she turned and ran in to Steve's arms as he held them out to her, and then to her surprise and delight he picked her up off the floor as he hugged her.
"Isn't that wonderful? Another year, another year at least." She looked up at her partner and he could see the tears shining in her eyes.
"I can't think of anybody else I would rather work with. Cheryl will be back, I'm gonna suggest that she works with Martin, I think we will make a very strong set of cops, what do you think, partner?"
"I think I agree." She smiled then and they both turned together, and for a second their lips met. Their eyes locked briefly and then suddenly embarrassed, she moved away and grabbed her drink.
Half an hour later Rae, Steve and Ron headed back down to the parking lot. Rae had offered to drive them to the station because Jo had taken Steve's truck, and Steve was waiting for the reaction he knew was going to come any minute.
"Here we are gentlemen." Rae stopped by the side of Tom and looked across the top of the car.
"And where is here exactly, Rae?" Ron stared back at her.
"Your carriage awaits." Rae was smiling now.
"Yeah, but hasn't the fairy godmother forgotten to turn it from a pumpkin into something that actually goes?"
Steve stood back, he was enjoying himself no end.
"Get in the car, Agent Wagner, before the clock strikes twelve and turns you back into something that lives in a hole in the ground." Rae opened her door and watched as the two tall men began to argue.
"After you, Lieutenant." Ron indicated with his hand that Steve should get into the back.
"No, no, Agent Wagner, I insist, you can get in first."
"I believe that I am a little taller than you, so if you wouldn't mind." Ron looked over at Steve again.
"This lady is my partner, it is my place to sit in the front."
"Oh, for goodness sake!" Rae leant over and locked the passenger door. "You can both sit in the back."
"Rae." Steve stared at her a look of astonishment on his face.
"If you behave like children then you will both be treated like children and have to sit in the back. Now move it, or you will be walking."
With a glare at each other, the two men folded themselves up and sat down together on the back seat. Then as Rae watched them in the rear view mirror she smiled to herself and began the slow leisurely drive back to the station.
As Rae and the two men walked back into the squad room Martin Robertson stopped them. "We need to get to Donovan's place, Chapman just called, they have found some very interesting stuff."
Steve and Ron looked at each other and then turned stiffly back round.
"I won't be a minute, gentlemen." Rae smiled at them and headed towards the Captain's room. She knocked and waited for an answer.
"Come in, Detective."
"Sir, please may I have your permission to go to Donovan's house with Lieutenant Sloan and Agent Wagner?" Rae waited.
Captain Newman looked at the young woman across the table from him. He knew that she was unaware of the impression that she was portraying, which was of someone with a desperate need to return to normality.
"You have passed your drivers exam, and you only have to be tested at the shooting range, yes, Detective you have my permission. Please tell Lieutenant Sloan I would like to see him upon his return." He stopped and smiled. "I have finished, Detective."
Rae smiled back at him and hurried across the squad room, "Right come on, let's move."
As they reached the parking lot Ron smiled across at the rest of the party. "I have my car here, I think that Detective Robertson should come with me, and Lieutenant Sloan can travel with Detective Yeager."
Rae opened her door and got in, she saw Steve make a mock bow in Ron's direction and then he got in with her. As she turned to him he took her hand in his. "I've missed you, Detective, let's go."
They arrived at a very tatty run down apartment block on the outskirts of Van Nuys and drew up in front of it. They could see a black and white and another car parked together just ahead of them, and they all began to walk towards the main entrance.
Detective Campbell came out of the building and headed towards them. "Rae, it's good to see you back, I think you will find some very interesting stuff in room 303."
Rae looked around the room. Campbell had been right, the room was interesting, very interesting. In the corner was a bed that she would have sent out with the rubbish years before. Above it on the ceiling was a full-length mirror. She repressed a shudder. The rooms were painted a very dark glossy burgundy, a colour she normally loved, but couldn't live with like this.
Steve opened the dark wood wardrobe, which was standing next to the window. Inside it were a few items of clothing, but it was the boxes in the base that were of most interest.
There was a video camera and several tapes each one labelled with the date and a number. There was also a disc carrier, which had five CD ROMS in it. Steve gently removed them and looked at the fronts. They each had written on them, in black marker pen, a number. 1, 3, 5, 8, and 9.
"I guess they split them up between them. I wonder who has the rest." Rae looked at the discs and then back into the box. Underneath were pamphlets, some on vivisection, and animal experimentation, but more on the production of petrol bombs, inciting a riot and how to hack into government computer systems. There was a set of invoices for the weekly rental of a set of offices, which they made a mental note to check later. But nothing was quite as bad as the book under the bed. It was a small notebook and the writing inside it was tiny and neat. It looked totally innocent, until they started to read it.
Rae had looked at it first. She sat down on the one chair by the dining table, next to a computer which would be taken back to the station to be checked, and began to flick through it. Steve had been cataloguing the pamphlets in the closet when he heard her gasp. He and Ron, who was turning out a drawer in an extremely unhygienic looking kitchen moved over towards her.
"Rae, what is it?" Steve put a hand on her shoulder and she gratefully put her own hand over it.
"This book. It has all the synthetic pathogens listed in it. I have no idea why he copied it all out, but for each CD there is a list, with its symptoms, of everything on the disc, whether there is an antidote, and a rating as to how useful it would be to them along side. It reads like a licence to annihilate. I would guess that this is the one we had." She pointed to a page that had been highlighted. It said #239 at the top and underneath was the description of the nightmare they had just experienced.
#239
This is designed to enable the infiltration of a secure corporation or compound. The initial contact is made by injection that will render the recipient unconscious for up to twenty-four hours. There is a chance of nausea upon regaining consciousness. Once they have recovered they will be completely unaware of what has happened to them and they will be easily influenced into undertaking courses of action that would have been unthinkable before.
Once infected and conscious the carrier will unwittingly infect every person that he/she comes into physical contact with. The nature of the pathogen means that the carrier will be far more tactile than a non-carrier. Handshakes and/or kissing will pass it efficiently as will sexual activity.
The carrier will be immune to the pathogen and will carry on spreading it until he/she is injected with the antidote or until it leaves the bloodstream seven days after the initial infection takes place, at which time they will also be open to contamination. There is a possibility of a small percentage of the population being immune to #239 only succumbing to a rampant thirst. So it is suggested that this is used in conjunction with #2904 being introduced into the water supply, which should efficiently eliminate any survivors.
Underneath the official description there was another paragraph of writing.
Injected Jo five times with 239. Seemed to go into overdose after the third one, but only lost consciousness after the first and fifth injections. Was easily persuaded after first injection and agreed to everything suggested to her. She lifted $175,000 from the bank for the chance to buy a magazine and get an extra pillow on her bed. She lost all her inhibitions and became extremely aroused every time anybody went near her, especially me! Managed to make sure I didn't touch her, or she me, but it was hard. She was very friendly.
Steve turned away from the group and Rae could see he had his fists clenched. Rae moved towards him and he turned. "Don't say anything, Rae, I don't want to hear it." He walked out of the building and Rae could see him waiting by the cars.
They packed everything that they had found into the boxes from the closet and headed back towards the station.
Jo was sitting at the desk in her study with a pot of coffee that Michael had just brought her. Her hand lingered over the telephone receiver and then taking a breath she picked it up and dialled a familiar number, then she put the phone on loudspeaker and leant back in the chair.
"Walters Oil, how may I help you?"
"Good mornin', Mary, may I speak to Mr. Walters please?"
"Good mornin', Miss Walters, I will put you straight through."
"Josephine, is that you, honey? My God I've been so worried."
"David, I'm sorry I didn't phone you before, but things got a little out of hand here."
"But you are all right?"
"I'm not really sure. I'm scared of how I'm feelin', an' I haven't felt like that since… well you know since when."
"Jo, what happened? Do you want me to come up an' see you?"
"No, not yet, David, but I may come an' see you, real soon."
"That would be nice, it must be three years since you have been here."
"David, I have to go, I'll call again."
Michael walked back down the hallway towards the stairs. Her past held some very dark times; he had no wish for her or anyone who knew and loved her to ever have to go through that again, but he knew that there was a possibility of it.
Rae and Steve walked into the interview room and Rae stared at the man who had taken six months of her life and then she sat down without a word. Steve started the recording equipment and took his seat next to his partner. "You have already been cautioned, Mr. Donovan, this interview is carried out under that same warning. Do you understand that you are entitled to have your lawyer present for this?"
"Yes, I waive that right."
"You are sure that you understand what that will mean for your defence? I would seriously suggest that you invite your lawyer to be present."
"Very well, Lieutenant." Donovan made Steve's rank sound like an insult. But neither detective responded to what he said.
Rae and Steve moved out of the room and waited for the arrival of an oily little man called Max Robbins. It took him twenty minutes to travel to the station and then the interview was re-started.
"I would like to state for the record, that have nothing to say." Then Joseph Donovan folded his arms and sat looking at the two detectives in front of him. Every now and again he would run his eyes over Rae and smile.
Steve could see that she had her hands intertwined together under the table and that her knuckles were white. After twenty-five minutes, during which time both Rae and Steve had tried to question Mr. Donovan without success, Mr. Robbins stood up. "I would like to have a word with my client, in private, if I may."
Steve and Rae also stood up and moved outside the door. Five minutes later the lawyer joined them. "He refuses to say anything. I have no idea why I was brought out here to listen to silence. I can do that at home, Lieutenant."
"Because we have procedures which we follow, Councillor. Your client is gonna plead not guilty, but we have the evidence to put him away for a long time. We need information on the other members of his association, but we will find that ourselves. I'm sorry you feel your day was wasted, good day to you, Sir."
Mr. Robbins smoothed out his black pinstriped suit and, picking up a very battered black briefcase, he headed back towards the main entrance and Steve and Rae called the guard in to return Mr. Donovan to his cell.
Rae grabbed herself a cup of tea and walked over towards her desk. She saw a figure she thought she recognised, from when they had been interviewing the activists originally, sitting at her desk and moved a little quicker. "Ms Barlow?"
"Detective, I want to make a statement."
"Oh, do you need a lawyer?"
"No, ma'am, I just want to tell you what happened."
Steve had moved over and began to speak. "Were you involved in any illegal activities, Ms Barlow?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Well then, I think you had better call your lawyer." Steve smiled slightly he didn't want to frighten this young woman.
"I don't have one, the one who came last time was provided by Joseph."
"Joseph?" Rae raised an eyebrow.
"Donovan?"
"Oh, right." Rae was writing all the time she was speaking.
It took just over three hours for a lawyer to be found and Dani Barlow to give a statement that covered almost ten pages. She would face a considerable amount of jail time for what she had done, but as she was taken away Rae could tell that her life had brightened as she had eased her conscience.
As they returned to their desks again Steve heard his name. "Sloan, my office now."
He looked over at Rae and then walked slowly towards the Captain's office. He shut the door behind him and waited for permission to sit.
"Lieutenant, can you give me one good reason why I shouldn't have your badge?" Captain Newman's voice was tight, and Steve knew that he was only just stopping short of giving him a serious ass chewing that the whole precinct would be able to hear.
"No, Sir."
"Good, because I wouldn't have believed you. You have been rude, insubordinate, you assaulted a fellow officer, and I now understand that there is a possibility of withholding information and evidence."
"Assaulted, Sir?"
"How else would you describe slamming Detective Robertson against the wall? You assaulted a fellow officer."
"Yes, Sir."
"Did you withhold information and evidence?"
Steve took a deep breath. "Yes, Sir, I did."
"You are an experienced detective, you know what can happen to you over this."
"Yes, Sir… Please Sir, could I sit down do you think?"
Steve suddenly felt that he couldn't stand up any longer. Now that the case was almost over, and Rae and Jo were both back with him he began to realise just what he had done.
"Sit down, Sloan, and let's see if we can rescue your career from its ashes."
Rae was sitting at her desk, trying not to look over towards where Steve was. She knew that she should be the next person in that office getting her head bitten off. She had, once again, worked just within the rules, and she had been with him when Steve had done the same. She groaned as a thought came into her mind. That is not the way to get a permanent visa, girl.
In the end she could stand it no longer, and she went off in search of Jan Burlington.
Jan was just enjoying half a cup of cold coffee, which had been sitting on her desk for thirty minutes when she saw Rae walk into her office. She stood up and walked over towards her. She had visited her once or twice, but she hadn't seen her in weeks. "Hi, Rae, how are you?"
"Fine, I am back on the job now. I just have to have my shooting tested in two days and then I will be like before. Well, almost like before." She smiled at her friend and perched on the corner of the desk.
"Well, you sound wonderful, you look great. I am so glad that you have recovered so well."
"It was hard, and I couldn't have done it without my friends, but I think I remember most things now, and I know I can still do my job, so I mustn't look back, or get angry about what happened. I know I am very lucky."
Jan went to reply and her phone began to ring.
"I'll leave you to it." Rae raised her hand in a wave and headed back up to her own desk. Steve was still in the Captain's office, and she knew that there was nothing for it but to just sit and wait.
"Lieutenant, you are one of my best officers, I do not want to have to put this on your permanent record. So what I suggest is this. I am concerned about you returning to work so soon after contracting a genetically engineered disease. I would much rather that you didn't come back for another week. I would also suggest that you attend the next anger management course at Community General. If you do both these things, and also return to me the items that you have conveniently removed, I will consider ending the matter." The Captain paused for a minute while his words sank in. "Lieutenant, from what I understand, your young lady will face no charges for what she did."
Steve couldn't belief the amount of relief that flooded through his body. He looked over the desk at his Captain. He had always admired him, and now it appeared that the feeling was mutual. He got to his feet. "Thank you, Sir, I will let Miss Walters know that, and I appreciate your faith in me." Steve moved towards the door.
"Oh, and, Lieutenant, a quiet word in Detective Yeager's ear about breaking and bending the rules, would be a good idea too."
"Yes Sir." Steve left the room, and walked over to his partner. "I think now would be a good time to leave."
Steve and Rae sat together two hours later looking out at the beach, drinking cold soda on the deck. Rae looked over at her partner and began to speak.
"I can't believe that anyone would make something like that, would invent something that could kill everybody on this planet one way or another.
"This time the good guys won. The monster was vanquished. But that's just one pathogen of all those made at Worthington, and Worthington is just one lab of, I don't know hundreds or thousands making these things." Steve leant over and put a hand on her shoulder as he saw her shudder.
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better!"
Then he continued speaking. "I think that Joseph Donovan is a very dangerous man. In fact I don't think he realises just how powerful he had the ability to become. He seemed to be almost Svengali like in the hold he had over these people. They were like a group within a group."
"Dani Barlow was completely infatuated and dominated by him until he moved away from her once the murder and abduction had taken place." Rae shook her head. "You know she joined the 'bloody rabbits' because she really did care about what was happening to the animals in research laboratories. She wasn't a violent person, and yet she will go down for first-degree murder, abduction, and whatever you get charged with for injecting someone with a synthetic pathogen. I wonder if it will help her cause that she told us where they made the pathogen, and where the money was."
The details that Dani Barlow had given them had matched up with the address found at Donovan's place. When it had been raided the remainder of the discs had been found, along with all sorts of experiments in various stages of completion. The money had been split up and deposited in various accounts around the city, but almost all of it had now been recovered.
"Twenty-eight years old, and she will probably spend the rest of her life behind bars because of that monster. We stand the chance now of getting all the others put away, thanks to her, but no I don't think it will make much difference to her sentence. What they did to Mrs Worthington isn't going to inspire leniency in anyone." Steve leant back in his seat, the sun was warm on his face and he was, he realised very tired.
Rae looked across at him. "I'm gonna head back home, Steve. You look like you could do with an early night. I'll see you at the station in a week, ok?"
Steve stood up and looked over at her. "Yeah, ok, I think you're right." They walked back into the house together. "Rae, you know where I am if you need me, don't you?"
"Yeah, I know." She smiled and then Rae went out of the front door and Steve continued down into his own apartment.