Chapter 98: Following the Trail

Angela was on the phone talking with Chief Campbell about the BOW attack the previous night. More than that, she was asking for transport. The mutated wolves needed to be repatriated back into Mackenzie to be properly disposed of and she and Rick didn’t have the time for that. They needed to follow the beasts’ trail to see if others were around.

Rick was using a clean branch to stir the pot for their breakfast with one hand while with the other had was talking to O’Brian on the phone.

“I’m of the opinion to keep the leopard for observation, sir. It’s a new type and I’m sure Becca or Annette could tell us a lot about it if we don’t find data on it in the lab.”

“Then keep it in the freezer until you’re sure.”

“As for the other BOW…” Rick sighed, not liking what he was about to say. “We need more people. Who knows how many animals fed on the infected victims? I doubt the pack or the leopard left anything alive and in position to be brought back but—”

Clive spoke up to put an end to the request. “I still don’t have anyone available. Not anyone field-ready at least.”

“Then send paper pushers that can help the police.” Rick frowned in protest. “Angela and I are too busy for that. It’s not like they won’t be there snooping around once we’re done, sir. They would just act earlier.”

A sigh escaped O’Brian. “I can send Chambers with a few recruits who have not yet been vetted for the field, she’ll lead them until you and Miller are done, you’ll stay longer.”

It wasn’t something Rick liked nor wanted but it was better than nothing. The recruits weren’t as green as the police. They may not have encountered bio-organic weapons yet but they did know the diverse protocols and what to do in this situation. Provided no more experiments escaped the lab and no animals too big had been infected, they’d do fine.

“We’ll take it. When?”

“Tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. Maybe earlier if I can convince Vancouver’s police to land us a helicopter.”

“Good. I’ll warn the authorities on our side.”

O’Brian wished him and Angela good luck and ended the call. Rick put back his phone inside the pocket of his winter coat and tapped the branch on the edge of the pot. Angela finished her own conversation and got closer.

“Chief Campbell said he’d send some people within an hour, maybe two. It’s still early and not an emergency.”

“You don’t seem happy about it.” Rick remarked,

A frown marred her face as she grabbed her bowl to serve herself breakfast. “Aren’t you? We’re being delayed.”

He simply shrugged while he took his own serving. “It doesn’t matter, the wolves won’t go anywhere, the trail won’t either unless it’s already gone. O’Brian is sending people to help the police deal with possible other mutated animals.”

Sitting down in the tent to enjoy the warmth, Angela lifted her spoon to her lips. “I thought nobody would be free before the end of the week?”

“No agents like us. He’s sending rookies who have yet to be certified for the field. The investigation is still ours, their job will be to limit a perimeter, and possible herd animals. I doubt they would find any but better safe than sorry.” He joined her in the tent.

“I still feel like we’re being slowed down.”

Rick exhaled in amusement, almost a huff. “We are but you need to take into consideration the speed we moved since we arrived yesterday. Investigations rarely go that fast. I’m just a restless guy.”

“So… What? We’re at a normal pace, now?” She was genuinely curious.

“Yes. Outside of outbreaks which obviously need to be dealt with promptly, this is a normal pace. We were lucky with the leopard and the discovery of Gallagher. We could have very well been there for weeks.”

Angela didn’t seem unhappy by the revelation. She was still discontent with slowing down but not quite as much. Finishing her bowl, she went to take another serving. In the meantime, Rick put aside his own and began to check on their gear to see if everything was in order. Most notably Angela’s P90. While at the naked eye the firearm only seemed to have deep scratches it might be worse. He was relieved to see it wasn’t the case.

Breakfast over, the pair fetched the wolves’s corpses and dragged them all together to facilitate the police work. From the size and the weight of the mutated beasts, the officers will have to make multiple trips, perhaps more than half the morning. Afterwards they packed up the camp and left everything on site. They couldn’t go hunting while being burdened by the camping gear.

Scouting the surrounding area to determine when the wolves split up and when they were grouped took a bit of time, the area being quite large. Especially when Rick let Angela do it to gain some actual experience, putting to the test what he had taught her. Since it hadn’t snowed during the night and nothing came to disturb the white powder on the ground, it wasn’t a difficult thing to do.

Losing sight of their camp made them stop and go back to it. They patiently waited for the Mackenzie police to show up. To pass the time Rick gave Angela the ultimate quiz on BOW. Something he knew she would ace, like every other test before, but it never hurt to review what they were and could do.

To say they were both surprised when Robert and Nicole showed up dragging a huge sleigh behind them was an understatement. It wasn’t big enough to transport all the wolves. One or two at least with how big the beasts were. They didn’t seem to mind having to do multiple trips.

Robert was more than happy to answer that particular question. “It beats being at the station behind my desk for sure.”

“True.” His colleague agreed while dragging a wolf by its hind legs. “We weren’t lucky enough to be posted at the North exit of the town to keep an eye out.”

“The con of living in a very small town when you’re a cop. Nothing much happens. But it’s home. We know plenty of people better than we would in a big city and in return people know us better. It’s easier to create a connection and to appease a situation when one arises.” Robert argued.

Something that Rick quite agreed with. “You’ll have no arguments from me about it. The moment I’m retiring, I’m fucking off away from any city with more than five thousand people.”

Finishing loading the second wolf next to the first one, Nicole dusted her hands. “What now for you guys? The Captain didn’t say a thing.”

“We’re following the wolves’ trail.” Angela was putting her gear back on. “To check if they infected other animals though it’s unlikely.”

“How about Collins’ cabin?” Robert asked.

Rick shared a glance with Angela. “If we get to the heart of the wolves’ territory, find nothing and still have time, we’ll check it out. Otherwise we’ll do that tomorrow after briefing the others.”

Nicole blinked blankly, her confusion obvious. “The others?”

“The BSAA is sending more people. They’re supposed to help you guys delimiting a perimeter and enforcing it. They’re not quite field agents like Angela and I, so we can’t take them with us. They are experienced though, just not… accredited, so if something happens they can handle themselves.”

“Accredited?” The word confused Nicole even more.

It was Angela who gave the woman an explanation. “The BSAA makes a distinction between soldiers who know how to fight and deal with BOW and agents who investigate. If an outbreak occurs, agents are in a leadership position and take command.”

“Think of it like…” Rick took a moment to consider his metaphor. “They’re regular patrol police officers and Angela and I are the FBI. To shift from patrol to FBI you need to pass multiple tests which most of the recruits are on the verge of doing. Until they pass them, they’re not allowed to do anything more than logistics or things like that which aren’t going out there and taking BOW on, despite having the experience to do so. It’s an inconvenience but a minor one to ensure that they do their job properly and in regulations imposed by the BSAA.”

Angela explained some more. “It’s also about more than just firing a gun to kill BOW. It’s first and foremost about certain skills in survival. Skills needed to be agents who go into the field deep into hostile territory without much back up and little gear wise while soldiers are in teams and units with everything they would need and just have to fight head on. It is agents who get information on BOW and bio-terrorism.”

“So you guys are a bit like… super spies?”

Rick showed his amusement with a smile. “Without the cool gadgets and the whole secrecy thing but yes, more or less. Most often than not we’re working on cases like this one but sometimes we do have to lay very low.”

“There is one thing that bothers me,” Robert was frowning but not in discontent, just lack of understanding. He turned to Angela. “You’re an agent but, I mean no offence, sorry, but you look like a rookie, ma’am. You know your stuff but it’s clear you’re not calling the shots so I think my question is: how did you become an agent?”

“That’s a fair question. There is one way to be promoted to agent directly and it’s surviving an outbreak on your own or a small group. That’s what I went through and since it’s the basics of what an agent needs, I’ve immediately been recruited as an agent, everything else I’ve been taught.”

Rick expanded on that, not liking her modesty. “And it’s not like you were a civilian before. You were part of a police task force.” He turned to Robert. “Those two factors are why she’s an agent because the BSAA knows she can handle herself like any other agent who became agents themselves the same way. What Angela needed was the knowledge about BOW themselves and how to properly and better deal with them. A simple triviality.”

Nicole looked apprehensive. “That’s both simple and complex.”

“Yes. You can ask more to the guys when they’re here. They should be in town either tonight or tomorrow.”

After finishing the conversation like this, Rick and Angela went back to the wolves tracks. With all the recent fallen snow it was easy to follow it. It took some time however. It took them two hours to find the den, deeper into the mountain. It worried him a bit to know how vast the wolves’ territory was.

Thankfully, there were just those six they had killed earlier. Had there been more, the pair would have been attacked by now as wolves are very territorial and defensive when it is invaded. They found small animal bones and remains but nothing reanimated by the T-Virus. The corpses were too mingled and destroyed for that.

Angela checked their relative position on the map, to mark it and get their approximative coordinates. After calling Campbell and giving them the information, walked back, with Rick, to their camp where they noticed that all the wolves’ bodies were gone. They returned to their SUV, leaving behind the camp as it was and Rick checked the time.

“It’s 10:23.”

“The cabin is roughly forty five minutes away from our position.” Angela was thinking aloud. “I say we go investigate then come back to town even if we find something.”

He simply tossed her the keys of the car and rode shotgun. While the gesture surprised her, it hadn’t been to the point she missed catching them. Failing like she was trusted and suggested something right, it was with a barely concealed smile she got behind the wheels. None of them uttered a single word during the whole ride. The only source of sound in the car came from the radio airing Canadian singers all around the trip.

The path, while covered in snow, had been worked on enough for vehicles to take it. It wasn’t unexpected as Collins had to haul lots of stuff to the cabin. It turned out that it was a misnomer. The building wasn’t small by any means and looked definitely more like a cottage with the usual two stories. Not only did it look bigger than Collins’ house but it looked a bit more modern. At least modern for the 90s. The cover story that the man inherited a small fortune from a relative certainly helped in justifying its appearance. There was even a huge garage to the side.

Closing the door of the SUV as silently as possible, Rick drew his gun from his thigh, aiming it low at the ground. As far as they both knew, the place was supposed to be empty, Collins being the only known person living there on a regular basis but with BOW and Umbrella in the mix, there was no way he was taking any risks.

Inwardly cursing the snow for crackling under his and Angela’s weight, he reached the entrance door. Closing his eyes, he ignored the heartbeats he heard from himself, his partner and her breathing to focus on listening to any familiar sounds and noises zombies made or other bow although the former was more probable.

“I don't hear anything but—”

“It might just be inactive.” Angela cut him off, understanding Rick talked about a potential zombie.”

Going for the handle, it wasn’t without surprise from Rick that he found it locked. Angela, after receiving a look, stepped forward, put back her gun in her holster and brought out her lockpicking tools. Jill had been more than enthusiastic at the idea of teaching her how to deal with most locks. That too was some kind of test from Rick but Angela didn’t mind.

The low sound of the lock moving told them Angela had been successful. Exchanging a glance, she grabbed the door handle, pushed it down and entered their greatest lead in their investigation.