The Mind Virus

Chapter 12 - Part 4

The next event surprised her. The white car slowed way down at an intersection, stood still at a green light for a moment, then made a U-turn. As he and Harriett passed one another, going in opposite directions, she tried to get a good look at him. The lighting still wasn't spectacular and – is this guy wearing sunglasses? At this time of night? What a douche. He must have been wearing them out of douchiness, certainly. That can't have been an attempt at a disguise, although to give credit where credit was due, Harriett couldn't really see his face with the sunglasses covering the top half of it. The bottom half of his face, though, looked very familiar. It was hard to gauge, between the low light and the brevity of the glimpse, but she was sure she knew him from somewhere. The car, on the other hand, she didn't recognize – not before today anyway. It didn't matter much. She had the license plate number down. It was only a matter of time before she could track it down and get a nice, clear view of the situation.

A moment of time was given to the consideration of whether to follow Eddie or the white car, but the choice was easy. Even with the tracker attached to Eddie's car, she was better off seeing where he was going than following the mystery man who was up until very recently following him. She went straight through the intersection.

The rest of the drive was pleasant. They'd left the urban and suburban areas and were traveling through quiet countryside. Harriett had also used the opportunity to pull back a bit, relying more on the tracker's position as it was being shown on her tablet. She'd breathed a big sigh of relief when she could make that move. This was more what she was used to. The comfort of familiarity enveloped her like the soothing water of a hot bath, and it relaxed her about as much too.

Freeways turned to country roads, country roads turned to side streets, and finally, the side streets turned to dirt roads. The red dot on the tablet screen came to a stop once more. Harriett was glad she had chosen to follow Eddie this night – the dirt roads he'd taken weren't even present on the GPS' software. She would have had quite a hard time finding this final destination after the fact.

Turning off her headlights so as to not catch Eddie's attention if she accidentally got too close, Harriett stumbled almost blindly between the trees. It's not that bad, she thought. Once her eyes adapted, the light from the moon was just enough to illuminate the dirt road in front of her.

As her own dot on the tablet's screen closed in on the red dot that represented Eddie's tracker, his car came into view. It was parked up against a little walking trail. A stream of light in the distance cut through the darkness, but it never turned toward Harriett. Eddie was walking around with a flashlight.

She sat in her car for a while, watching the light getting more and more obscured behind trees before eventually fading into the distance. It was too much of a risk to follow him on foot. Even if she could hide in the plentiful shadows and avoid detection on his way back, he would see her car, and she highly doubted that he wouldn't find the presence of another car suspicious here in the middle of nowhere at this time of night. It wasn't necessary anyway – she knew why he was here. Eddie had always liked nighttime walks. It had been a point of contention in their relationship. He would always try to drag her out with him, and she would refuse, only to hound him about where he had been when he'd get back. Stupid girl, Harriett reflected as she sifted through her memories. She had been so insecure in the past. Even after she had joined the military, she would put on a brave face most of the time, but she hadn't yet ceased to be a scared little girl on the inside. Maybe it's for the best, she considered. After all, her insecurity was probably a big factor behind her aversion to risk, which was in turn the single biggest factor behind her continued success in her current career. Had she been more brash and loud, she'd probably have been arrested a hundred times by now and sent to swim with the fish while wearing cement boots about as many times as well. Of course, it would only take one of either to ruin or finish a person's life.

The ribbon of light was coming back. It was time to leave. She looked at the clock before firing up the engine. An hour had passed while she was lost in her thoughts. That's perfect, she thought darkly. Assuming this was a regular thing for him, there would be no witnesses for miles and hours when the time would come to snuff out his life.