James Tabor: The Deep Zone

“Fourteen soldiers dead at this point. And three nurses.”

“What about that doctor?”

“She contracted ACE herself. It was a virtual certainty, with her not wearing a biosuit. But she refused. Said she couldn’t treat the soldiers with one on. For five days she was the only physician at the COP. All the others were dealing with battle casualties. That’s a brave woman.”

“What’s her name?”

“Lenora Stilwell.”

“Say again?”

“Lenora Stilwell. She’s a major with the Florida—”

“I know who she is, Don. Mary’s older sister.”

“Mary who runs the dive shop? Your college friend?”

“My best friend. My God. Don, is Lenora dead?”

“Not yet. Soon, though. She got bad enough that they had to bring her stateside. She’s here at Reed, as a matter of fact.”

“Why would they bring her all this way?”

“Better palliative care, basically. And with an outbreak, you have two options. Contain each cluster individually—put out the small fires. Or aggregate cases. There’s a tipping point after which aggregation becomes safer.”

“Are there others here?”

“About fifty. The worst cases. All in the big iso ward downstairs.”

She yawned, despite herself. Barnard headed for the door.

“I’ll come back tomorrow. I hung a fresh change of clothes in your closet.”

Barnard left, closing the door behind himself, and Hallie and Bowman were alone. The meds were reaching for her, pulling her down, but she would not leave him again.

“How is your arm? And your side?”

He stepped back and took his right arm out of the sling. He snapped off three fast jabs, took a quarter out of his jeans pocket, tossed it in the air, and caught it.

She could do nothing but gape. “How did you do that? I saw your bullet wounds.”

He grinned. “Recall I mentioned that DARPA was working on a way to speed up the body’s healing process? Something called Superheal?”

“Yes. Okay. But why the sling?”

“It’s just for show. DARPA’s not ready to go public with this yet.” He was smiling down at her, eyes alight. He touched her face, just his fingertips, careful of her injuries. “You’re a sight, Doctor.”

“We almost died back there.”

“As close as I’ve ever come.”

“Given what you do, I’d guess that’s saying something.”

“Yes, ma’am. It is. You know, I would have kissed you already except for the bruises. I know love can hurt, but kissing shouldn’t.”

Love? A blossoming in her chest, hot and beautiful.

“Get me some of that fast-healing stuff. Then…”

“Would if I could, believe me. I only got it because…” He trailed off.

“Because?”

“They like to keep me functional.”

“Wil, I have so many questions.”

“You deserve answers. Shoot.”

“Were those paramilitaries working for the same people as Al Cahner?”

“Unclear.”

“Did we find out who Cahner was working for?”

“Possibly. A very shadowy network, multinational, no discernible tracks. But good people are working hard on it right now.”

She yawned again, could feel herself drifting. “I want to hear how you got out. Of the cave. You said you’d tell me later.”

He hesitated, and she saw something behind his eyes, quickly there and gone but sharp enough to wake her up. “What?”

Bowman shifted on his feet, then sat on the edge of her bed. She could tell he was having an internal debate of some kind, and wondered if he had used more DARPA black magic to get himself out. He sighed, pursed his lips, rubbed his face. Made some kind of decision.

“Okay. Cahner shoved me into the river. You know about that.” Shook his head. “I still cannot believe he suckered me so badly.”

“Suckered us . I worked with the man for almost two years, Wil. And he had me fooled completely. You can’t blame yourself for not suspecting him. None of us did. Not even Don Barnard.”

“Yeah. The guy could act, I’ll give him that. So anyway, the river flowed down into a sump for about a hundred yards. There was some air space in the middle where I got a couple of breaths. Then it spit me out like a watermelon seed into a huge room.”

“But you were still by yourself, without a light, no food…”

“I had a light, thanks to you.” He reached out for her hand, held it gently. “Without that, I was a dead man.”

“So that room you were in reconnected with the main route we had followed the whole time?”

“Well, no.”

“But if not, how did you get out? Were you able to follow some air currents?”

“No.” He rubbed his nose, looked perplexed, more uncertain than she had ever seen him.

“Well, what then?”

“The watercourse had a nice, sandy beach in that big chamber. It looked so inviting. Near drowning can beat you up. I basically passed out.”

“And?”

“And I had the strangest dream.” She stared.

“What kind of dream?”

“There was nothing in it but light. As if I had been awake, seeing this incredible light. Nothing else. Just light.” He shook his head, continued. “By my watch, I slept for a couple of hours.”

“And?”

“When I woke up, I knew how to get out of the cave.”

She stared, open-mouthed.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I know it sounds crazy, but… I got out. So something happened.” He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the door was still closed. She could see that he was disturbed by the way she was staring at him, as if afraid that she suspected him of lying to cover up for DARPA—or for some other, unsuspected reason. He backtracked: “Look, I’m sorry I said anything. But you have to promise me you won’t mention this to anyone . Okay? Promise?”

She was laughing by then. He frowned. She held up her good hand. “I’m not laughing at you, Wil.” And then she told him: “I got lost. I still don’t know how, but completely lost. I was going to try to relocate the route, but it would have been impossible, really. I needed to rest, first. So I curled up and slept. And I had the same dream. As though I were floating in a cloud of light. And when I woke up… I knew how to get out.”

He stared at her as she had been staring at him a moment earlier. “What in God’s name?”

“I think it was in Chi Con Gui-Jao’s name.”

“Arguello’s cave spirit.” Disdain in his voice, disbelief on his face. “No. There must have been some moving air we followed. Or…” His words trailed off. Out of ideas.

“You said, ‘I knew how to get out of the cave.’ When you woke up. It wasn’t moving air, Wil.”

“It was like there was a map in my brain.”

“Exactly.” She thought of something. “Is it still there?”

He concentrated for a moment. “No. Gone. You?”

“No.”

“But… you believe me?”

“Yes.” She nodded, squeezed his hand. “Absolutely.”

“And I believe you. I think I do, anyway. But I also think we might be better off keeping it between ourselves. People who haven’t experienced something like this…”

“Exactly right. We know the truth. That’s enough for me.”

“Me, too.”

She had one more question. “How did you manage to find me and those narcos ?”

“I didn’t come out of the cave at the main entrance. Another, a mile or so west. I made it back to the meadow just as they were marching you away. Watched the big one for a while and then dealt with him. You know the rest.”

“I know you saved my life.”

“And you saved mine. We’re even there.” He paused, smiled. “I have never met anyone like you, Hallie.”

That feels good , she thought. Now tell him how you feel about him. “Wil… I…” Her mind lunged, grabbing for the words, but they eluded her like bubbles blown on the wind. She felt the sleep closing over her. She looked up, saw him watching her, grinning. He knows. I can see it. Don’t need words .