Victor Methos - Plague

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Let’s go.”

As Sam was climbing into Benjamin’s car, Duncan ran over and got into the backseat. “I’m coming, but I’d like to make it official that I think this is a mistake.”

“Duly noted,” Benjamin said, starting the car and pulling away.

They pulled to a stop in front of what had been a massive grocery store, something like Wal-Mart but with a name Sam had never heard before, and parked near the front in handicap parking. Benjamin stepped out without saying anything.

“You sure you want to do this?” Duncan said when they were alone in the car.

“Rather than just sit at home and read about what’s going on on Twitter? Yes.”

They got out and followed Benjamin inside through the automatic doors. The grocery store had been rearranged in a way that all the goods were up against the walls. The floors were cluttered with desks and cubicles but they weren’t staffed with more than half a dozen people. Samantha recognized one of them as the FBI agent she had met earlier.

“You know he’s with the FBI, right?”

“Who, Billy? Yeah we know. He’s one of the good ones, though. He’s been helping out now here and there. Damn good at everything too if you ask me. Isn’t that right, Billy?”

He came over, a smile on his face as he bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement of the compliment. “Glad I could be of service.”

“What’s a federal agent doing helping these people out?” Duncan said.

“I suppose I could say the same thing about a military scientist.” He looked to Sam. “Or a CDC field agent. You didn’t like the thought of being shipped off and leaving everyone here, huh? Me neither. But if you’ll excuse me I have a couple of things I need to follow up on in our itinerary.”

“Our itinerary? You’re coming to Peru as well?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said, a wide grin on his face.

“Don’t worry about him. I want to introduce you to everyone else. I’m heading down with you guys as is Cami over there-wave hi, Cami-yeah, her right there. So it’ll be the five of us.”

“And what exactly is the plan?” Duncan asked.

“We’re going to find this woman and bring her back to the States. We have a few physicians in DC that are ready to analyze why she survived when no one else did. If we can do that, we can save a lot of lives.” He looked to Duncan. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. But if you do, you gotta pay your own way. I’ll be covering the ticket for Dr. Bower.”

“No,” Duncan said, “I don’t want her in debt to you for anything. I’ll pay for both our flights. Sam, I need to talk to you a sec.” He took her by the arm and they stepped aside out of earshot. “This is crazy.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Yes, let the pros handle it.”

“I’m a pro. I’m a field agent. This is something I was actually planning on doing until they decided that it would be better to let everybody die.”

“Sam, look at these people. They’re nutballs. That girl over there can’t be more than eighteen. These are the people that think the CIA killed Kennedy or that the moon landing happened at a set in Hollywood.”

“That might be true, but all they want to do now is find a patient that could help us come up with a vaccine.”

“We might not have needed another vaccine if these guys hadn’t destroyed the shipments we got!”

“There’s no proof they did that. Besides, Pushkin said it’s unlikely the standard smallpox vaccine was going to do anything anyway.”

“But we won’t know that because they destroyed it.”

“I didn’t do that,” Benjamin said.

Duncan turned to him. “I don’t believe you.”

“Believe what you want. We’re all going to LA on that plane and then we have a flight chartered for Mexico. You can come if you want to. We could use your expertise. That girl that you said was eighteen is a doctor from John Hopkins who’s risking her life and her job to come with us and investigate this survivor. Show a little respect before you start criticizing.”

Duncan looked to the young girl. He saw the screen of the mac she was working on: it was a computer model of the smallpox virus. A program was molding and sculpting the virus into different mutations.

“She may be noble, but you’re not. I know you, Ben. I know people like you. Your type. Your motives are pure and your means destructive. I’m coming, but the only reason I’m doing it is so Sam isn’t alone with you.”

He smiled. “The more the merrier.”

Samantha stepped on the plane and turned around to get one last look at Honolulu. Even at night it was beautiful. At one in the morning, the moon was a crescent slit in the black sky and the tips of the palm trees shimmered under its light. The night air was warm and salty and she inhaled deep lungfuls before turning and sitting down in her seat.

It was early morning in Atlanta but she knew that Pushkin tended to answer his phone at any time. She took out her phone, fully charged thanks to Benjamin’s charger, and called him.

“This is Dr. Pushkin,” he said on the third ring, sleep still in his voice.

“This is Samantha Bower, Doctor.”

“Sam, how are you? Are you on your way back to the States with everybody else?”

She glanced around at the twenty-five or so people on the plane with her. “Yes.” She wasn’t quite lying. They were heading back to the States before going to Peru, as there’d be no way to get a straight flight to South America from Hawaii. “I have a favor to ask.”

“Anything.”

“The girl in Peru, the survivor, I may be shipping some tissue and blood samples back to you for analysis. We need to figure out what made her unique.”

“I thought that operation was cancelled?” She didn’t say anything. “Oh, I see. Well, I don’t like doing things off the radar but this seems sufficiently warranted. Send them through the normal biohazard but have them labeled for me instead of Infectious Diseases. I’ll keep my eyes open.”

“Thank you. And thanks for not asking questions.”

“I’ve been here a long time, Sam. And I’ll be here long after you’re gone. You’re not the first field agent to go against policy. But this time I agree with you. The smallpox vaccines were ineffective. We’re completely exposed to this agent and they won’t even go down and interview this woman much less examine her. Just do me a favor and be careful; we don’t know how the initial transmission occurred. It could’ve been something as simple as a mosquito. You won’t know until it’s too late.”

“Thanks, I’ll be careful.”

She hung up and glanced next to her. Billy Donner sat next to her reading a copy of Tropic of Cancer .

“You wouldn’t just lose your job for disobeying orders,” she said. “They’d bring criminal charges against a law enforcement officer.”

“I know. But the bureau’s not as efficient as all that. I’ll be back before they miss me.”

She glanced back at Benjamin who was already asleep with headphones poking out of his ears. “What made a man like you put your trust in him?”

“He’s sincere. That’s a rare quality. And unlike most people in the government, and major corporations helping us out, he actually cares about curing this disease, not just avoiding blame.”

There was a bottle of water tucked into the back of the seat in front of her and she took it out and opened it, taking a sip. “They’re going to fire me for this. Pushkin’s unique; they can’t get rid of him. They’ll put all the blame on me and I’ll be the scapegoat.”