s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

couldn't help but grin his appreciation.
"You look great."
"Thank you. June glanced down, as if reassuring herself that it was her he was talking about, then smiled
back at him and took his arm.
The under-worked hostess showed them to a table in the corner. No one else was seated near, which
was puzzling to Doug, despite the dearth of customers. He looked around, wondering why that was while
he pulled out the chair for June and held it until she was seated.
June's laugh tinkled with her explanation.  I tipped the hostess to get us a table away from everyone else
in case we talked business. She won't seat anyone near us unless it gets crowded."
"Good thinking. I really wanted to leave the CDC behind for awhile, but I doubt that we'll be able to
avoid it."
"That's what I thought, too."
Service was quick. They agreed on a carafe of the house chablis and it appeared a moment later. Doug
asked for a little time to examine the menu before they ordered, though he already knew what he wanted.
A medium seafood platter and baked potato always satisfied.
"I want the seafood platter and baked potato, June said, laying the menu down.
Doug laughed.  Great minds. That's what I'm having. I've only eaten here once and that was a couple of
years ago. I hope it's still as good."
"Me, too. Don't you get out often?"
He picked up his wine glass and sipped reflectively.  It's taken me a long time to get over Doris death. I
more or less buried myself in work for a while and didn't go anywhere, even though I really didn't have to
work, what with the insurance settlement. I moped around the house for a few weeks, then sold it and
took a little apartment. Most of the time I don't bother with it, though. The quarters at the security
building are all right."
June could appreciate his actions as well as the faraway look on his face.  We picked different ways to
grieve, she said.  I just went home and stayed with my parents and helped them some with my two little
sisters. I'm like you; I don't really have to work either, but after a while I couldn't stand the idleness.
Staying home so much just kept the sadness working. She grinned as if sharing a guilty secret, then let it
out.  Then last year I tried to write a novel, but I guess I don't have the talent. No matter how much I
worked on it, it still didn't sound readable to me. I finally abandoned it."
Doug had to laugh, then quickly explained when he saw the pained expression on her face.  I've written a
few short stories and tried to sell them. No luck, or probably more accurately, no talent."
"I guess anyone who likes to read a lot has thought about writing, June said.
"Uh huh. It's harder than it looks, though, isn't it?"
"Tell me about it!"
Appetizers arrived, a platter of cold crab claws intermingled with small boiled shrimp.
Doug dipped a shrimp in sauce and looked around the almost empty restaurant.  I wonder what the
people in Washington are thinking right now?"
"Nothing constructive, I'll warrant, June said.
* * * *
Mary Hedgrade's face was lined with worry. It was never comfortable to be the bearer of bad tidings. In
some countries, she thought she might be executed for bringing such news to the head of state, especially
with the blunt concluding statement that not only did the CDC not have a cure or vaccine for the
Harcourt virus, but there were no prospects for either in the immediate future.
President Marshall shifted his gaze uneasily around the conference table, trying to find a way to deflect
the onus of Mary's words to someone else. She was telling him things he didn't want to hear.
"I didn't know, the President of the United States said.  I swear I didn't know! His voice came out
muffled. He raked his hands through his hair and looked accusingly at Edgar Tomlin, the National
Security Director.  Why the hell wasn't the FBI after those people? God knows they've been trying to
force blacks back to secondary citizen status for fifty years! How come you let them start a goddamned
epidemic before arresting them?"
"Because the bastards got smart. They took off to South Africa and helped the white supremacists there
with money, and took that crazy geneticist from Sweden with them, Conrad Seigler said.  We'll get
them, though. We've tracked them back to America and we still have agents looking for the Swede. We
think he stayed in South Africa. Seigler was the current head of the CIA and for a change this one
looked the part, or at least as popular culture depicted spies, with dark hair and eyes that shifted
constantly.
"We believe you, Mr. President. How would you have known? You don't have any scientific
background, Secretary of State Joshua Brenham said. That was true in a sense, he thought. The
capability for creating man-made epidemics had been included in presidential briefings ever since 9/11
but hardly anyone really believed it would ever happen. Certainly not the president. He barely
understood the rudiments of science. He'd even made political hay of his lack until this came up. He
probably had forgotten he even had an official science adviser. Now it was coming back to haunt him.
President Marshall Marshall dropped his hand from his hair to the table and twined the fingers of both
hands together. They squirmed there like small animals trying to escape a trap.  How bad is it? Isn't there
anything we can do to stop it? Anything at all? He looked bleakly around the table with wounded eyes,
red-rimmed from lack of sleep.
Conrad Seigler shook his head, while shifting his gaze around the table.  There's nothing to do except
work on drugs that might help and try to develop a vaccine to prevent future outbreaks. According to
Mary, the virus has already infected damn near every one on earth. Isn't that right, Mary?"
"Maybe. Probably not. No virus gets everyone. Anyway, it's too soon to predict exact numbers. I can
tell you that it will infect a huge number of people, given enough time, simply by the lack of a vaccine and
the fact that it's been tampered with so that we have no natural immunity to it. Let me run through what
we know. The Harcourt virus almost certainly was originally released into the population in Nigeria..."
"To throw us off the trail, Edgar Tomlin interjected, wanting to make it clear why none of the homeland
security agencies had discovered what was going on until far too late. He couldn't afford for his agency to
be blamed.
"Yes, Mary Hedgrade agreed, concealing her irritation at being interrupted behind the new worry lines
creasing her face.  Then, from Nigeria they went back to South Africa and made sure it got started there
to repay their friends for their help. After that, they traveled to Europe, then to the major hubs of air
traffic into and out of the United States and on to other big cities of the world. According to Edgar, this
all happened two years ago."
"Then why is it just now starting? Why didn't blacks begin dying then?"
Mary wanted to roll her eyes and look to heaven for understanding. Unable to do that, and knowing that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]