Reckless Creed Read online

  “Were you able to find anything on Izzy Donner?”

  “The easily available stuff that you might already know. She was nineteen years old. Enrolled at University of West Florida.”

  “That’s in Pensacola, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. But her last home address is Crestview, Florida, where her parents reside. Now, according to her checking account she recently purchased an airline ticket for Atlanta. Didn’t find any credit cards, just the checking account. There were no other major expenditures. Nothing out of the ordinary. No major deposits. However, if you go back to last summer on August twenty-fifth there was a deposit by electronic transfer of three thousand dollars. I’m still working on where that deposit came from.”

  “Summer employment?”

  “Unlikely they would pay one lump sum.”

  “How about Tony Briggs?”

  “A three-thousand-dollar deposit on September fourth. Electronic transfer.”

  “He was back from Afghanistan. Any chance that deposit was military related?”

  “No. I can see those deposits and they’re different.”

  Her phone was vibrating.

  “I have another call coming in,” she told Agent Alonzo. “If you find out anything more, let me know.”

  “Sure thing.”

  She ended the call and clicked the incoming one.

  “This is Agent O’Dell.”

  “Maggie, it’s Amee Rief. I left you a couple of messages. I figured you were still in the air.”

  “Just landed in Atlanta. What’s up?”

  “I just talked to a woman who said she may have the bird flu.”

  “What? Wait a minute, why would she call you?”

  “She said she saw me on TV last night. That’s where she got my name and phone number. She told me she has information that says that flock of snow geese had the bird flu.”

  “But we don’t even know for sure—”

  “Actually we do. I just got the results back.”

  “Couldn’t it be a lucky guess on her part?” O’Dell asked.

  “She told me the exact strain. And she believes they infected her with it, too.”

  O’Dell ran her fingers through her hair, trying to keep steady. So it was true. There were more test subjects. Ben was right.

  There was an announcement over the intercom. A flight was boarding at one of the gates nearby. She stood up and dragged her roller bag to find a quieter area.

  “She actually said that? That someone infected her?”

  “She claims they gave it to her as a part of an experiment.”

  “Did she say who?”

  “No, said she wouldn’t do that over the phone. But she claims she has proof. She wants to give it to me, but only me.”

  “Are you okay with that?” O’Dell reminded herself that even though she dealt with stuff like this every day, Rief was more used to birds falling from the skies than mad scientists releasing deadly viruses.

  “I guess so. I’m not sure what to do.”

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  “But she knows what I look like. She’s expecting me. She said they have people watching her. She kept calling them soldiers.”

  O’Dell thought immediately of Lawrence Tabor and the dangerous bullying tactic he had tried to use with Hannah and Creed. His crew had stormed the medical examiner’s office and taken Izzy Donner’s body. His travel expenses were being paid by DARPA. No way he’d gone rogue. She could feel the familiar panic . . . and anger. And suddenly she was feeling duped again.

  Technically Rief was a federal employee, but still, O’Dell wasn’t comfortable putting her at risk.

  “I can’t ask you to do this,” she told Rief.

  “You don’t need to ask. I’d never forgive myself if something happens to this woman after she reached out specifically to me.”

  “I can meet you. I’ll be right alongside you. If she saw the newscast she won’t be surprised to see me. She’ll think we’re colleagues. There’s a Detective Jacks already working on the case in Chicago. She can provide us with backup.”

  “This woman’s not in Chicago,” Rief said.

  “She’s not?”

  “No, she said she’s in New York City. There’s one other thing. She said I need to meet her today. She’s afraid she’ll be dead by tomorrow.”

  49

  FLORIDA PANHANDLE

  Creed didn’t like that Colonel Benjamin Platt had insisted on accompanying the first samples. Then he saw the relief on Dr. Avelyn’s face. He didn’t realize that having the director of an infectious-disease-control facility—namely one of the top ones in the country, maybe the world—could be a tremendous advantage. As long as the colonel didn’t think he could order everyone else around.

  Yes, perhaps Creed had a chip on his shoulder like Jason when it came to military officers. Top brass always seemed to come in expecting to make life-and-death decisions after never being in the field or on the ground. Creed wouldn’t allow Platt to do that with his staff and his dogs.

  But that wasn’t the sole cause of the rift between Creed and Colonel Platt. Of course it gnawed on Creed that this guy seemed to hold a piece of Maggie O’Dell’s heart, enough so that she didn’t feel free to move on. Creed didn’t know exactly what the relationship was between Platt and Maggie, but he knew he had to back off. And that was exactly what he’d done since North Carolina. A part of him hated that Platt had the upper hand with Maggie. He certainly wouldn’t give him the upper hand here at his own facility.

  “Roger Bix with the CDC is continuing to get more samples,” Platt told Creed and Dr. Avelyn.

  “Does every sample have the patient information we need?” Creed asked.

  Platt pulled out a sheaf of papers with grid lines, what Creed suspected was an impressive spreadsheet, hopefully with all the information he had asked for.

  “We have the basics on everyone as far as age, gender, and ethnicity. Some were too sick to divulge past medical history. Those who shared about smoking and alcohol use are noted, as well as any current medical conditions. I believe one has diabetes. Another is a breast cancer survivor.”

  “How recent?” Creed wanted to know.

  Platt stared at him for a second or two, and Creed thought it looked like the colonel was trying to decide if Creed was simply busting his chops or if having that additional knowledge was necessary. Then he started flipping through the other papers before finding something.

  “She did share that,” he said, reading the form. “She’s been cancer-free for five years.” Then he looked up at Creed to see if that was good news or bad.

  “We’ll make a note on her sample. If we use a couple of my dogs that are already trained in detecting cancer, we’ll need to make sure they’re alerting to only the virus.”

  “But she’s been cancer-free for five years,” Platt said.

  “I’d feel better if it was seven.”

  “You’re saying that your dogs might be able to detect if her cancer has returned when her oncologist obviously is saying she’s cancer-free?”

  Creed heard the challenge in Platt’s voice, and with a glance at Dr. Avelyn to see her sudden discomfort, he realized he wasn’t just imagining it.

  “Yes. Dogs have been known to detect certain cancers—breast, prostate, lung, ovarian—at an earlier stage than any current lab test is able to detect it.”

  “Special breeds?”

  Creed didn’t have time for this. It didn’t matter to him whether Platt believed him.

  “No special breeds. And medical alert dogs don’t usually have the stamina or endurance requirements that a search-and-rescue dog needs to have for working a disaster site. A lot of the successful tests have been done with a variety of mutts and purebreds from beagles and cocker spaniels to Yorkshire terriers. The most important fa
ctors are a good sniffer, high energy, and the urge to please.”

  Platt stared at him again. Creed was about to thank him and send him on his way when Dr. Avelyn stepped between them.

  “Why don’t I show you around, Colonel Platt? We could use your help trying to figure out how to keep our staff and dogs from catching this virus while we work with it.”

  They had set up a room in their training facility as a sterile environment in order to receive, store, and prepare the samples. The breath samples that Platt had brought were taken or released onto fiber cloths that were then placed in sealed plastic tubes.

  Dr. Avelyn explained the setup process to Platt.

  “We don’t use glass tubes. Too many opportunities to break,” she told him.

  The tubes, instead, were made of PVC with caps that could be screwed on and off at both ends. The sample was placed inside. When they were ready to present them to the dogs, they would replace one cap with a cheesecloth that allowed the dogs to sniff the scent inside. The PVC tubes would then be placed in a stainless steel workstation.

  Dr. Avelyn showed Platt the metal box and explained that most of their boxes had nine circular holes deep enough for the tube to sit inside without being disturbed by the dogs. Only one of the nine tubes would hold the target odor. The other eight would contain control samples.

  “That’s one of the reasons we wanted as much information about the patients before we use their samples,” Dr. Avelyn said. “Whenever possible we try to match at least gender and age. We’re successfully training dogs to detect C. diff, and early on we realized our control samples needed to be a close match at least in age.

  “But here’s my challenge,” she told Platt. “I can take care of the dog handlers with protective gear, to reduce their risks of catching this virus. But how do I protect the dogs?”

  “We have no evidence that dogs can catch the bird flu.”

  “You keep saying that,” Creed told him. “Saying it over and over doesn’t make it true. Is there any evidence to prove they cannot catch it?”

  “Look, I understand the concern,” Platt said, and he was addressing both of them as though this subject had already been discussed many times and he was impatiently telling them again. “I think we need to think of these dogs like we would military dogs.”

  Creed couldn’t believe Platt was using Wurth’s poorly conceived argument. “We send those dogs out first into combat,” Platt said, “and into minefields knowing the risk that they’ll take a bullet for us, so to speak. This is really no different.”

  Creed had to cross his arms and clench his jaw to keep quiet. He had already explained to Wurth and to Platt that this was not the same thing.

  “I actually don’t agree with that assessment, Colonel,” Dr. Avelyn said. “There’s a major difference. Military dogs are not trained with live ammo or live explosives. In this case you’re asking us to train these dogs in an environment where they need to learn by sniffing and possibly inhaling these samples into their respiratory systems. They are at extreme risk during their training.”

  Platt shot Creed a look. And this was the same argument Creed had made. The man wasn’t just frustrated and impatient but bordering on anger. Did he really think he might convince the veterinarian otherwise? Creed kept quiet.

  “That’s partly why Deputy Director Wurth suggested getting high-risk dogs from shelters,” Platt told Dr. Avelyn. “He’s paying a premium price for these dogs.”

  “That doesn’t really matter,” she said in a calm voice that made Creed proud to have her on his side. “Whether these dogs would have been euthanized anyway is hardly the point. If any of the dogs are infected with the virus during training, they’re worthless to all of us. Have you thought of that?”

  She waited for him to grasp what she was saying, then continued, “If the dogs become infected they won’t be able to go out and work in airports. They won’t be able to go anywhere. They’ll be too sick. And they also might be contagious.”

  50

  HARTSFIELD-JACKSON ATLANTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

  GEORGIA

  O’Dell waited for Platt or Wurth to return her phone calls. In the meantime she had her laptop out, searching for flights with available seats, not just for herself but for Rief as well. She was getting frustrated. The ticket agent had already told her the earliest flight from Atlanta to New York didn’t leave until that night at 8:45 PM unless she wanted to be on a standby list. O’Dell put herself on the list, then started searching on her own.

  Omaha to New York was equally difficult. There was a flight that left at 5:05 PM but with a connection in Chicago that would put Rief in New York later than O’Dell’s 8:45 PM nonstop flight from Atlanta. She was beginning to believe that neither of them would be able to meet this woman any sooner than midnight.

  Her panic had kicked up a notch just as Charlie Wurth called.

  She tried to move to an area with fewer people until she realized that no one was paying attention to her. They were all on their own cell phones, engaged in their own conversations. She told Wurth everything that Rief had shared, but she didn’t stop there.

  “Charlie, if you suspect that DARPA is somehow involved in this, you need to tell me now or I swear I’m calling Kunze and having him take me off this case.”

  “Believe me, Maggie, if I knew that was a possibility I’d be back in D.C. and be up in Colonel Hess’s business like he’s never had anybody in his business. But here’s the thing—Hess has actually been helping us.”

  “How has he been helping?”

  “He’s sent a couple of his DARPA scientists to the CDC to assist with a possible vaccine.”

  “What about Lawrence Tabor?”

  “I have no idea who this Tabor guy is.”

  “He works for DARPA,” O’Dell told him.

  “So what if he does?”

  That silenced her.

  “Seriously,” Wurth said. “Look, Maggie, I understand Hess is like a raw nerve for you ever since North Carolina. But Dr. Shaw escaped with property that belonged to his research facility. I wouldn’t be surprised if the man’s going to be overly sensitive to this whole thing. She took a virus that she created while she was under his employment.

  “Come on, Maggie, the guy’s a war hero. A living legend. Under his direction, DARPA’s research and technology has saved hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers’ lives. If he’s sending out his people to try to contain this outbreak, is that such a bad thing?”

  “Without telling us. You’re forgetting that part. And that’s okay with you, Charlie?”

  “No, it’s not okay with me. I just have more important issues to take care of right now.”

  “He’s done it before,” she said. She parked her roller bag and sank into a seat at a boarding gate that was empty.

  “Ben seems to trust the man.”

  “Ben is blinded by this guy,” O’Dell told him. “He’s some big important mentor and influence in his life. Hess took matters into his hands last time and almost got me killed, so forgive me if I don’t trust the man.”

  “You’re forgetting something, O’Dell. Hess is on our side. He wants Dr. Clare Shaw caught and stopped just as much as we do.”

  “I hope you’re right, Charlie, because these watchers that Christina Lomax claims are following her around New York remind me an awful lot of Lawrence Tabor and the other henchmen that Hess is used to sending out.”

  She could hear his deep sigh on the other end before he said, “Let me find some flights for you and Ms. Rief. I’ll meet the two of you in New York. I’ll see if I can get someone with the CDC to take care of Ms. Lomax.”

  “Ben isn’t coming with you?”

  “He’d probably rather be with me, but he’s working with your dogman.”

  With all the emotions running their course, O’Dell wasn’t sure how she felt about Benjamin Pl
att and Ryder Creed—the two men who confused her head as much as her heart—spending time together.

  51

  FLORIDA PANHANDLE

  Creed left Platt and Dr. Avelyn to figure out the details.

  He saw that Penelope Clemence was early. She’d already pulled up in front of the kennels and was talking to Jason.

  He and Jason had spent about an hour sectioning off a space for the new recruits, a special holding area. After hearing that Platt couldn’t guarantee the risk this virus posed to the dogs, Creed realized that he would need to figure out a way to keep these dogs away from his for their entire training.

  He and Jason had already set up separate crates for each in the back room. The crates would protect them from one another and duplicate the shelter environment that they were used to. Hopefully the extra planning would reduce their stress from being moved.

  Penelope was grinning at Creed when he got to the vehicle. He glanced at the crates in the back of her Jeep Wrangler.

  “I have a friend bringing the others,” she told him. “I could only fit three. She’s bringing four more in her van.”

  He nodded. The conversation with Platt had unnerved Creed. He kept telling himself that in seven years of eating, sleeping, thinking dogs, he had never heard of any dog contracting the bird flu. But then the virus hadn’t hit the United States until 2013. If there were any incidents of dogs being infected, they would have had to happen in China or other parts of Asia. He wondered if the Chinese would even care about reporting such a thing.

  “This is a good thing you’re doing,” Penelope said when she noticed his reticence.

  “I hope so.” He didn’t mean to sound so doubtful.

  “You just saved seven dogs’ lives. Actually, more than that.” And she smiled again. Her southern drawl made the words sing. “It was such a pleasure telling the Alpaloose folks that they could change their status to a no-kill shelter. I can’t wait to hear how you managed that, Ryder.”