Chapter 13
This is What it Sounds Like
After a few minutes, of laying on the bed, Jackson sits up on his elbow and looks over at me.
"I love you so much."
"I love you too."
He smiles that ever so charming smile as I laugh softly, thinking back to this morning.
"Did you call me your wife this morning?"
Jackson turns red and nods, scratching the back of his head.
"Yeah, uh I did. It just has a more of a kick behind it when I say it."
"Ah.. I thought so."
"But there is something."
He gets up and starts to go through his bags. Before coming back to me. I look at him rather confused as he gets down on to one knee.
"Katherine , will you do me the honour of making me THE HAPPIEST man on the face of the earth?"
I look at him surprised and extremely happy.
"Where is this coming from?"
"Well, I was gonna wait until we fixed whatever is going on with the animals, but since this morning I've been thinking, we may not live to see that, so if I am going to be killed by some animal, I want to be married to you when it happens. Yeah, that sounded better in my head."
I laugh softly.
"I would love to be Mrs. Oz. But we are getting married back home in Africa."
Jackson nods, as he slides the ring on to my finger.
"Agreed."
Once the rings in on my finger, Jackson crawls back into bed and I look down at my ring.
It is so beautiful, it is everything I have ever wanted in a ring.
"We should probably get up and try to find Evan Lee."
"Yeah, you're probably right, but I just wanna lay here, We haven't gotten to have time just to us like this in a long time."
Jackson complains.
"Yes, but we have a job to do."
I lean over and kiss his forehead, before I get up and start getting dressed, thankfully Jackson does as well, because soon after we are dressed Jamie knocks on the door. When I open the door for her she looks very excited.
"What's up?"
"Finding Evan Lee. Or at least trying."
Jackson kind of tilts his head as Jamie walks in, having heard her last comment.
"The FBI can't, but you can?"
"You know how many Law Enforcement officers there are in this country? About a million. But do you know how many dog lovers there are?"
I shake my head.
"We have no idea what you're talking about."
Jamie starts to go through her phone.
"Eighty-five million, look. I posted this on every social media site and local app I could find. 'Looking for the man who killed my golden retriever and drove off in a green pickup. Louisiana plates start with KLL. Mobile, Alabama."
"Wow, you work fast and smart."
"I'm not waiting for the FBI to find Evan Lee Hartley's truck. That son of a bitch nearly killed you."
Jackson nods in approval.
"You are one clever cookie."
"You find anything in Leo's ledger?"
"Uh yeah, this morning before finding out this one was in a car accident. The dates and locations where Reiden's Mother Cell product were used are consistent with pretty much all the infected animals we've seen. Louisiana. L.A. Slovenia, Brazil."
I take a deep breath.
"What if there's nothing we can do about it?"
"If there's nothing that we can do about it, then uh, there's nothing that anyone can do about it, and my father was right, and the whole world goes to hell."
Jamie and I look at each other and then back to Jackson, terrified. Before Jamie's phone goes off.
"Someone spotted Evan Lee."
The three of us jump up and run down stairs into the lobby, where we see Agent Shafter. Jamie starts ahead of Jackson and I who have had enough of Shafter for one day.
"Hey Shafter, Hey! Why didn't you return my text?"
"Oh, sorry, there's nothing to report yet. We haven't found Evan Lee."
"We did,"
Jamie shows Shafter the picture of the truck that had rammed Leo and I in a shopping outlet parking lot. Shafter nods and the four of us head out. Piling into Shafter's vehicle and racing to the shopping outlet in the picture, when we get there I step out of the car and see the green truck, which doesn't really look like it's been in an accident due to the cage on the grill and front bumper.
"That's it. That's his truck."
"Alright, I want the three of you to go back to the hotel."
I step toward Shafter,
"No, the answer is no."
"Then stay back, all of you."
Jamie, Jackson, and I stay at the car as Shafter walks toward the truck. Jackson sighs and shakes his head.
"Evan Lee has every cop in the country after him. What would he be doing here in the middle of town?"
Jamie looks over to him.
"He told his victim's widow that he was looking for a cure."
I shrug.
"In Mobile?"
Jackson shakes his head and looks around before seeing an eye doctor's office.
"We know that his eye changed. We also know that he worked for my father who cut out the eyes of infected animals."
I look at Jackson confused.
"He's gonna cut out his own eyes?"
"I don't know, but i'm sure gonna find out."
Jackson starts jogging toward the building, Jamie and I sigh and glance at each other, before taking off after Jackson. When we get to the doors of the eye doctor's office, they are locked, but we can hear screams coming from inside. Jackson turns his face away and elbows the glass door, breaking the glass. Jamie and I, who are a few feet away throw up our hands, as Shafter runs up behind us.
"Hey!"
Upon hearing the screams Shafter runs in, gun drawn. He heads back into the office to an exam room. When we get there Evan Lee is clearly in a lot of pain and the doctor has a very long needle in hand.
"He made me do it!"
The doctor cries out as Shafter and Jackson burst into the room.
"FBI! Back up."
Shafter directs the Doctor, pointing his gun at Evan Lee.
Jackson runs up to Evan Lee, who is holding the sides of his head in pain, blood coming out of his left eye.
"My name is Jackson Oz. Listen to me. You knew my father.."
"Get away from me!"
Evan Lee yells.
"Why'd you think this would cure you? You thought this this would cure you?! Did my father think it would cure animals?"
Jackson starts firing questions at Evan Lee, who appears to be growing weaker and weaker by the second. Shafter tries to keep Jamie and I in the hallway, but I break past him, running up to the small table next to Evan Lee to see the Mother Cell. I quickly put it in the container it had been in before.
"Your father did this to me."
Evan Lee goes limp and Jackson looks at him and is almost completely shattered. As Shafter sighs.
"He's gone. I'm sorry."
Jamie walks up next to Jackson and places a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry, Jackson."
I step toward the two of them.
"But we got it. This could be the answer."
Shafter shakes his head and starts to push us from the room.
"I got to call this into the field office. Go. GO! I got this. Go!"
He shuts the door behind us and the three of us run back to the car.
Jamie looks between Jackson and I.
"Should we had back to the hotel?"
I nod.
"In a few minutes this place will be crawling with FBI agents, so we should go."
Jackson nods in agreement and the three of us head out to get a cab. Making our way back to the hotel and our respective rooms. Once we are back in the room I fall onto the bed as Jackson looks around.
"We should get packing."
"Why do you say that?"
I sit up on my elbows.
"Because as soon as something like this happens we are rushed off to some other destination."
I nod.
"Yeah, you are probably right."
"I better call and let the others know that we found the Mother Cell."
Jackson pulls out his phone and calls Chloe.
"Chloe, it's me. We found him, so as soon as you get this…"
I flip on the tv and it comes up to a news station, showing pictures from outside the eye doctor's office so I turn up the volume.
"Live at the crime scene. Police Refuse to comment, but the possibility of a murder-suicide has not been ruled out."
"Call me."
Jackson says hanging up the phone as he gently takes the remote out of my hand and flips through the other news channels, but the report stays the same.
"Authorities have yet to identify the body of one man, but the second is confirmed to be Dr Humboldt Swinney. Apparently, the bodies were discovered when a customer noticed broken glass outside of Dr. Swinney's door and called 911."
Jackson turns me and says in a very worried and rushed tone.
"We have to go. now."
Jackson pulls out his phone, making a call.
"Jamie, listen to me. Ben killed the optometrist. Okay? He didn't call it into the field office. He killed him."
Jackson looks down at his phone frustrated as the call drops. He turns back to me.
"Stay here, Pack the bags and Don't do anything else."
He cups my cheeks and gives me a deep kiss before running out of the room, giving me no time to protest. I start running around the room packing all of our things, thankfully we don't have that much stuff since we keep jumping from place to place. It takes me a matter of minutes to get everything packed and I pace back and forth in the room, waiting for Jackson and Jamie.
Before long Jackson comes back into the room.
"We gotta leave now. Go check out and meet Jamie and I at the car."
I nod and head out meeting Jamie in the hall. As she opens her door she hands me her key and goes into pack her things as I head down to turn in the keys and check out, before heading out to the car. Meeting Jamie and Jackson there.
"I got a message from Chloe they are in Washington DC."
"Then let's go."