Outbreak

by Davis Bunn

  “Leave us alone, please.” Amelia walked over and hugged him. Tightly. “I’m so glad you came.”

  She seated him at the kitchen table, planted a mug of hot coffee in front of him, and went back to preparing a large breakfast. Waffle mix for her two boys, a large skillet frittata for Theo and the sentries. “I can’t order the boys to ignore the guards. It’s hard enough to explain how we need to be careful what we say on the phone. I try to make them understand the guards are like temporary friends. They’re here to help us until Daddy gets back.”

  Amelia was much like he remembered, a trim woman with dark honey blond hair and eyes like an emerald rain forest. She wore an oversized Demon Deacons sweatshirt and jeans that suited her long legs. When everything was ready to go on the stove, she refilled her own mug and joined him at the table. “You look good, Theo.”

  “I was just thinking the same about you.”

  “We don’t have much time before the boys wake up. How much do you want to know?”

  He leaned back in his chair. “Now that is an interesting question.”

  “I was worried when Kenny said he wanted to send you to Africa. But he was certain it was the right move. Now, I’m glad he did it. He needs a friend he can trust. Someone—”

  “Off the grid.”

  “Exactly.” She cocked her head to one side. “You’ve figured out a lot of this already, haven’t you?”

  “Some. Will you tell me what happened to my brother? I mean, the changes he’s been through, they’re . . .”

  “I know what you mean.” She sipped from her mug. “That’s the one question I can’t answer.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because Kenny asked me not to tell you. He said either you saw the answer in him, or the answer wasn’t real enough.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “We can argue about this or we can talk about the crisis issue. But when the kids show up, this conversation is over. I don’t want you to mention any of this in front of the boys.”

  Theo heard steel in her voice, which he had never noticed before. Perhaps it had been there all along; perhaps she had even shown him. Here, in the light of a growing new day, he saw lines of weariness and worry radiating out from those lovely, intelligent eyes. The first strands of gray she did not bother to hide. The determination and willpower in her expression and her tone. She was her own woman. “Let’s focus on Lupa.”

  She nodded. Satisfied. “When he started receiving concrete evidence of the outbreak, Kenny talked to as many of the frontline doctors and scientists as he could. Which was how he got wind of the opposition. At first he didn’t want to believe that others would want to keep the truth hidden away. Then one of the Nigerian researchers he used as a primary resource disappeared. Kenny blames himself.”

  “Does he know who the opposition is?”

  “No idea. But he’s certain the answer to what causes Lupa is somehow linked to their determination that it all stays under wraps. . . .” She cocked her head, listening. “The boys are getting up.”

  “Quick. Tell me what he knows about the disease itself.”

  “Not enough. It’s airborne. That much is certain. And one crucial element of the disease’s life cycle is tied to some change the region’s ocean is undergoing. Kenny suspects it is a new pollutant. Algae and seaweed both feed on waterborne pollution. But that is only a suspicion, nothing more. All of this has happened so fast.”

  Theo heard a happy yell from upstairs, followed by the thumping of feet striking the floor. He sorted through his myriad questions, knowing his time was drawing to a close. “He has to have a reason for thinking it’s so critical. I mean—”

  “I know what you mean.” She leaned forward. “What happens with the advent of summer?”

  “I don’t . . .”

  “Come on, Theo.” Like she was preparing one of her boys for an exam. “The ocean currents. They shift. And with the ocean currents . . .”

  “Of course.” He felt himself clench with the force of realization. “Hurricanes.”

  “The storms begin as westerly winds off the African coast. They blow across the Atlantic, gathering force as they move toward us. One of the most recent outbreaks was right where these currents originate.”

  “So he moves you away from the Eastern Seaboard,” he said. “To your family’s hometown.”

  “The center of America has a different weather system from the Atlantic Seaboard. The Appalachians are the starting point for the opposing winds.”

  He nodded. “Smart.”

  “Is it?” Her lines turned bitter. “I didn’t want to come. We fought. For days.”

  “You did it for the kids.”

  “And for Kenny. He couldn’t do what was necessary and worry about us as well.”

  He heard more thumping on the stairs. Amelia straightened and smoothed the concern from her features.

  “Here they come. Theo, there’s something you need to understand. Kenny doesn’t have any answers. What he needed was someone he could trust, isolated from his organization, who started asking the same questions.”

  “That actually makes sense.”

  “If you convinced me that you’d reached this point, Kenny gave me two messages to pass on. First, don’t try to contact him. It’s too dangerous. They’ll be looking for a chance to—”

  Theo nodded emphatically, cutting her off. He didn’t need her to stress over finishing that particular sentence. “I don’t like it, but I understand.”

  “Nobody likes this less than me. He will probably be released, but it will be only a brief moment of freedom. He’s putting things into motion that will force their hand. Preston has watchers in place. They’ll try to track backward and identify who is behind this attempt to hide the truth.” She rose, opened a drawer by the sink, took out a satellite phone and an envelope and set them on the table in front of him. “Call Preston whenever you need something. A safe number to use is in that envelope. Leave a message and he’ll call you back as soon as he can. Kenny’s money and connections will only take you so far. But they are both there if you need them.”

  Theo stared at the two items placed before him, gradually digesting the fact that Kenny and now Amelia had been preparing for this moment. For when he returned from Africa and joined in their quest. “How long do we have?” he asked.

  “Not long. The hurricane season started three weeks ago.” She turned and showed a smile at the opening door. “Good morning, darlings. Look who’s come to join us for breakfast.”

  twenty-two

  Until it was swallowed by the University of North Carolina system, the region’s finest school had been known as Appalachian State. The original buildings dated from when the town had served as the granite and marble capital of the Carolinas. Tombstones and building façades throughout the Southeast were sourced through Asheville suppliers. Since becoming part of the UNC system, all the central buildings had been renovated inside and out. They gleamed their welcome as Theo drove to the gym.

  While he changed into his suit in the faculty locker room, Theo reflected on his time with Amelia. There was a clear sense of change in the stale gym air. Her path and his had reconnected, and they were forging a new relationship. Allies in something greater. Bonded together by her husband, the brother Theo needed to get to know. If they still had time.

  Amelia and Kenny’s two boys were a treasure. They had been very quiet at first, two sleepy fellows aged seven and five. Amelia nurtured them with the steady strength of a woman made to be a good mother. When breakfast was almost ready, she had called in the guards. Two had come, two more had stayed on duty. The pair had joined hands with Theo and the family and bowed their heads to pray. The little boys had prayed first and last, as was clearly their practice. They prayed for the meal and the day and their father. Theo had no idea what the two security agents thought of all this, beyond knowing that if they sat at Amelia’s table, they were obliged to join in this moment.

  Nor coul
d Theo say for certain how he felt about this religious element to his brother’s life. Church had been a component of their growing-up years, but Theo had discarded it when he started college. Going home again, his family had never discussed it. Theo had the impression his parents felt as though they had done their bit. The rest was up to him.

  If Kenny had ever shown any interest in church or faith, Theo could not recall it.

  The sentries ate quickly and then left, thanking Amelia as they departed. Afterward the boys opened up a little. Clint, the younger one, asked his mother, “Why are we talking to him now when you said don’t talk if he calls?”

  His brother, Josh, replied, “Because the bad guys are listening to our phones, doofus.”

  “I’m not a doofus.”

  Josh said to Theo, “Mom and Dad planned to stop having kids after me. Because I’m perfect. But they goofed and had little Mr. Doofus.”

  Clint replied, “I heard Dad say they put you together with spare parts.”

  “Dad thinks I’m perfect. He says that a lot.”

  “Daddy says they did such a bad job with you, they didn’t have to worry with me. It could only get better.”

  “Doofus.”

  “Spare Parts.”

  Amelia took a damp kitchen towel and wiped their syrupy mouths a little harder than necessary. “There. That should clean the air around here a little bit.”

  “Ow!”

  “Yeah, ow. A spare part might fall off if you don’t watch it. Now, both of you say good-bye to your uncle and go get ready for school.”

  The younger one shouted a farewell over his shoulder while Josh offered his hand and asked, “Will we see you again?”

  “Count on it.”

  Josh clearly did not believe him. “Why do you have to go?”

  “Your dad needs help fighting the bad guys.”

  “Will you tell him to come home?”

  Theo found it necessary to hug the little man. “I’m sure he’s working on that just as hard as he can.”

  Avery’s call came in while Theo was walking to the main administrative building. The scientist appeared remarkably calm for the news he had, which was that investigators from the FDA and DEA were trolling through his lab and asking uncomfortable questions of his associates. About his work and his direct connection to Kenneth Bishop. And his possible connection to the opioid industry. Enough questions to spook everyone except, apparently, Avery himself. Theo outlined what he thought their next step should be, and in response, Avery supplied him with a list of items he had been working on since dawn. As Theo scribbled down Avery’s list, he saw the sunlight begin to knit itself into a clearly definable path ahead.

  He was fifteen minutes early for his meeting with the university president. Harper had not arrived yet, so Theo stepped back into the hallway and used the sat phone Amelia had given him to call the Washington lawyer.

  Preston Borders answered with, “Give me three minutes.” The attorney returned in ninety seconds. “Am I correct in assuming this call means you and your colleagues are fully engaged?”

  “To the hilt,” Theo replied.

  Preston sighed. “You, sir, have just brightened my morning. And this news will make your brother’s day.”

  “How is Kenny?”

  “Holding up. For a man as active as he is, incarceration is an immense burden.”

  “Can’t you get him out?”

  “I’m working on it. But federal statutes grant the authorities considerable latitude with certain types of cases. Your involvement will greatly cheer him, however. Now then. What do you need?”

  Harper arrived while Theo ran through his plans. He accepted her hug and pointed Harper into the president’s office. When Theo was finished, the Washington attorney replied, “I see nothing out of the ordinary here.”

  “Don’t you need to pass this by Kenny?”

  “No, sir, I do not.”

  “I’m about to go into a meeting with the university president. Not to mention how Avery—”

  “Your brother’s instructions were explicit. Once you became involved, I was to facilitate your every need.”

  “I haven’t had time to cost it out. But we’re talking about basically stripping a million dollars’ worth of equipment out of Bishop Pharma and handing it over—”

  “Look, Dr. Bishop . . .”

  “Call me Theo.”

  “Thank you. Let me try and clarify your position. Mr. Kenneth is serving as the public face to what is bound to become a very brutal fight. Who the opposition actually is, we still don’t know. The situation appears to be growing worse by the minute, which makes your role here absolutely vital. Whatever you need, I was given free rein to make it happen.”

  The only response that came to Theo’s mind was, “I’ve never had money available like that.”

  “You’ll get used to it. I will forward your instructions to the lab and get things moving at that end. Whenever you need cash, just let me know where to send the funds. The Bishop Trust will serve as the conduit. If the university has any questions, have them phone my office. And Theo?”

  “Yes?”

  “Good luck, sir. Your brother wants you to know that he has every confidence in your success.”

  “What you’re suggesting, Dr. Bishop, is most unusual. To be frank, I’m not clear on why you feel we should even be discussing it.”

  Theo had very little contact with the new university president. Gloria Wyatt had been appointed nine months earlier by the UNC Board of Regents. She was a handsome woman in her late sixties, a former state secretary of commerce and retired CEO of a Research Triangle Park company. She was also a woman who clearly liked to operate her organization on a steady course. Theo’s request had unsettled her. She turned to the academic dean seated beside her and asked, “What do you know of this?”

  “This meeting is the first I’ve heard of it.” Dean Andrew Knorr nodded toward Harper. “Harper Phillips is a local attorney. We’ve dealt with her on a number of occasions. She called me last night and requested an urgent meeting with the two of us. There was a new donor interested in our university, and the matter was extremely time sensitive. She said nothing about Theo being involved.”

  Andrew Knorr often served as the board of trustees’ blade. He was a slender and bespectacled man who had entered academia after a career in banking. Many of Theo’s colleagues despised and feared Knorr. He had little patience for petty academic squabbles. Knorr regularly axed overblown funding requests and travel budgets. Theo, on the other hand, had found Knorr both honest and fair, so long as he dealt straight with the man. Which was why he had asked for Harper to go through him in setting up this meeting. But today Knorr’s scowl mirrored the president’s. “Frankly, Theo, I’m very disappointed that you would waste our time with this.”

  Harper replied, “It would be in your and the university’s best interests to allow my client to explain.”

  Theo pointed out, “You hire out accommodation and classrooms to summer programs every year. It’s a major source of revenue.”

  “This is not what you’re proposing, though, is it? Instead, you want us to hand over one of the university’s new science labs. In its entirety. And you won’t even tell us why?” Dean Knorr shook his head. “Out of the question.”

  But Theo was undeterred. “My company will pay for use of the lab, just like any other summer program taking over university space.”

  Dean Knorr showed interest for the first time. “Such an unusual agreement would carry a considerable charge.”

  “My company will pay whatever is reasonable.”

  The president was shaking her head before Theo finished responding. But Knorr asked, “Didn’t I hear that your firm is in trouble?”

  Harper cleared his throat. “I can confirm that the earlier financial difficulties have been cleared up. What is more, the company is now debt free.”

  Knorr looked from one to the other. “Why can’t your scientist do whatever it is that nee
ds doing in his own lab?”

  “I’m afraid that must remain confidential,” Theo replied.

  “Simply outrageous,” the president said. “Frankly I’ve heard enough.”

  Yet the dean seemed reluctant to move on. “I’ve come to know Theo quite well. He’s never been known to waste my time before.”

  “There’s always a first occasion.” The president pushed her chair away from the conference table. “If that’s quite all—”

  “My brother is keenly interested in seeing this project move forward,” Theo said.

  “Your brother being . . . ?”

  “Kenneth Bishop. CEO of Bishop Pharmaceuticals.”

  Dean Knorr squinted. “Why have you never mentioned this relationship before?”

  “Kenneth and I are not close. We’ve been out of touch for years.”

  “What precisely is his role in this matter?”

  “Interested third party.” Theo paused, then added, “And potential benefactor.”

  The president moved back closer to the table. “‘Potential’ covers far too much gray area for this to be taken seriously.”

  Theo passed over the handwritten sheet he had drafted while speaking with Avery. “My visiting associate will require these thirty items of equipment to complete his work. He is bringing these from his corporate lab. He assures me they are all absolutely top quality. When his work is completed, they will be donated to the biology department.”

  The two administrators were fully engaged now. The president shifted her seat closer to Knorr and together they scanned the list.

  Hot air sterilization oven, autoclave, drying oven, microbiological incubator, low temperature incubator, four sub-zero pressurized sample repositories, Plexiglas hazmat unit, electronic top-pan and analytical balances . . . on and on the list went. The longer they studied the pages, the more intent they became.

  Finally, they reached the last item, a portable electron microscope.

  Dean Knorr said, “The microscope alone will cost—”

  “Bishop Pharma is donating the Zeiss Gemini used in my associate’s lab,” Theo cut in. “The most powerful desktop subatomic microscope on the market. It will be delivered this afternoon. Along with everything else on the list.”