Torch

by Tricia Copeland

My heart sunk. Nave wasn’t safe, and she wasn’t going to be safe—ever. “Is that why Owen took Nave, to keep her safe?”

  Her head swished from side to side. “Yes, and no. We can keep her titer down, test to make sure her embryos aren’t compromised, but she was cure patient one. She has the cure coursing through her veins. If something happened to our labs, we’d need her. She had a good life, was happy at the capitol with Owen, she and your mom. She had no clue she was a hostage. She believed her dad sent her there to keep them safe. They told her you were killed in a hunting accident. She missed you, but she was happy otherwise. That is…” Her mouth turning up on one side, her face formed a sneer. “That is until you tried to rescue her. Then all was exposed. She saw you that day, saw all, everything that was happening for what it was, and her childhood ended.”

  Stomach twisting, I crossed to the wall. How could all this happen? By trying to save her, I’d gotten my father killed. She’d been happy, or as content as she could knowing her sister was dead. I ruined all that too. But I’d known this. I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but I did. I’d seen the recognition in her eyes. The horror in her face as she realized she’d been a hostage and I hadn’t come for her until then. And I’d failed, failed in my attempt to rescue her. How she must hate me, Mother, and Owen. She had no one to trust.

  Troy matched Dena’s slow sing-song voice. “Why would Zhou or someone like him do that to their own people? Isn’t it more likely that someone from the UNS or Europe created the virus?”

  “You would think.” Her eyelids closed and opened again. “But who knows? The only thing I know is that it was my vector. I made it, and it was perfect. That’s the first time I ever told anyone that. Owen doesn’t even know. I couldn’t face him knowing, kept it to myself this whole time. Like that Dr. Germ woman from Iraq so long ago, I’m her, or like Dr. Teller who created the H bomb. They didn’t mean to, or maybe the woman did, but I didn’t. Someone took my vector, my perfect vehicle, put that deadly virus on it, just like they did with Dr. Teller’s work, turned it into a bomb.”

  Dena’s eyes closed, and she appeared to have fallen asleep. I stared at her. Then I shook her arms, repeating her name over and over. “Dena, Dena, who took it? Someone from Biosism?”

  “It had to be someone from Biosism.” Troy paced away from me. “Or someone who bought it from Biosism.”

  My mind swam. Face flushing, beads of sweat formed on my forehead. Owen? Could Owen have made the virus?

  Dena’s body shook, and her eyes popped open. “Still want to deliver me to Zhou? Have me help him develop his own cure? What if it was him that started this whole thing? You think joining him will help get a cure to everyone faster. It won’t. He’ll hide you away just like Owen wanted to do.”

  “Why did Owen do all this? Why can’t he just share the vaccine formula, the cure? I don’t get it.”

  “You wouldn’t. You’re a child. Have you ever flown before?” Drool ran down her cheek, but I was past having enough empathy to clear it away. “It’s like they tell you on an airplane when describing how to use the oxygen. Secure your mask first and then help others in your care. Owen believes that to his core. Take care of yourself, your family, your country first. Then, if there’s time or means, help others. It’s the way of the world.”

  “Jema. Troy.” River poked his head into the room. “You have to see this.”

  Shooter slid into the room and stood in front of Dena, rifle held ready. We followed River to the vehicle where Amelie and Mace sat hunched in front of a laptop. I squinted to make out the words and picture on the screen. Mace clicked a button to start the video. A scene of ships lined up across the sea like a caravan appeared. “Earlier today, the UNS received notice that the EC has initiated an embargo on our country. No air or sea travel or trade will be allowed. Citizens are reminded that we are a resilient, self-sufficient, and united country, and that life will proceed as normal. Cmdr. Butler expects through diplomatic negotiations to have the embargo lifted soon.”

  I hopped from the vehicle. “Do we have everything we need from Dena?”

  Miles closed the laptop. “We may have enough, especially with the stuff she said about Biosism and the vaccine and cure.”

  “If I talk to this woman much longer, I’m going to deck her.” I trudged back to the building.

  As Troy and I entered, Shooter relaxed his position and backed to the wall.

  Dena lifted her head and smiled at me. “What’s going on? You know I’m right. You think Zhou won’t come for all of us? He’ll probably take you and Nave first. I predict it will be worse than with Owen. People take care of their own. It’s a fact.”

  “We can share. All you have to do is give them the formula. They can make it themselves.”

  “Give the monsters the formula, so they can make better killing machines, that sounds like such a good idea.” She coughed as drool pooled in her mouth.

  Gripping the edge of the chair, I leaned over her. “You. You poisoned his thinking, made him believe your whole conspiracy theory. To cover your own mistake. You leaked the vector to the Chinese. It was you all along, and now you’re trying to fix your wrongs, go back in time. Well, it’s too late.”

  “We may only have twenty years till we’re living on a planet covered in water.” Her eyes rolled back, and her head swayed to one side and then to face me. “He, everything he did was for you. To save you. Because he loves you, so much. This was the only way his family legacy could go on. You think he didn’t want kids. He was irradiated during research. Who knows what genetic torture lay waiting for his own children if they could even be viable? He wanted a family… we wanted a family. Together. If the UNS keeps the cure, you live, you and Nave. And maybe when this is all over, we get a family.”

  My fingers felt numb, as cold as ice, the room darkened, and a hum grew in my ears. Owen released the virus? Pushing off the wall, I grabbed my water and downed the rest of the flask. No, Owen was younger than my dad, too young during the first flu wave. But could he have engineered the second?

  I wouldn’t believe it. Crossing to Dena, I leaned down so we were eye to eye. “What about Zhou’s threats? Do those even phase Owen?”

  “They won’t follow through. There’s as much risk for global radioactive contamination for them as there is for us, maybe more. The winds will blow it straight across the ocean to their country. You’ll see. It will be a non-issue in six months. The virus will run its course.”

  “Run its course? After how many people die? You’re telling me he’s doing the wrong thing for the right reason? That he loves me? After all he’s done to Nave, my mother, me, my fath—” I couldn’t finish that word “Had me hunted like an animal.”

  Her eyes bore into mine. “Yes, hunted to be found, delivered to him. So you would be safe. He’s a loyalist, loyal to his family, his country.”

  I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. What if it were true? “You’re lying. Lying, to make me the bad guy.” My mind swam with the information she’d unloaded on us. I swallowed, fighting off a wave of nausea. What would Owen do to Nave and Mom when he found out what I’d done? I looked to Troy. “I think we’re done. It’s time.”

  “Yes, it’s time.” His chin dropped to his chest.

  “Time for what? More fun juice?” Dena laughed.

  “No.” I fit the bandana back over her mouth. “To take you and the tapes”—I pointed at the laptop resting on a table across the room—“to the WHO. They’ll have to figure out how to deal with you.”

  Her eyes bugged out, and she thrashed about, yelling behind the cloth in her mouth. Rolling his eyes, Turner untied the knot, holding the bandana on her head. “Last words?”

  “You’ve signed our death sentences. All of us. We won’t survive the climate change that’s coming. Not with so many humans to feed. The virus is the only way.”

  “You failed the human population. We’re all that’s left of the real Lovelock now.” I couldn’t look at her anymore or think about wheth
er we’d done the right thing.

  I stood in the doorway, staring out beyond the next hill to the ocean. It didn’t matter anymore. We were on this path. What she said might never come true. Who knows how advances may provide for people left on the planet if it warms more? But they had to be there, be alive, and inspired to save themselves, find new ways to adapt. If what she said was coming, we all needed each other. It was not the time to isolate. What if the next virus started here and the rest of the world were immune? No one would help. How would we feel then? Butler would be begging for help and no one would care, because we were a nation not capable of empathy. That would not be my legacy.

  “Don’t they need you here? Aren’t you the face of the rebellion?” Her voice rose an octave.

  “Someone will figure out how to fix the UNS. That’s not our job. Our job is to deliver a cure to the world.”

  Leaving River and Shooter to guard her, we reviewed the footage with Amelie and Mace, deciding which parts to use. We chose a short section when she talked about working at Biosism and the vaccine and cure. She’d mentioned Troy, but he wasn’t in the shots, didn’t speak in the two-minute clip.

  “Do you know what I did at Biosism? My work saved our race.” Mace garbled her next sentence. “Made you who you are.”

  I crossed to her chair. “Wait, you couldn’t have worked on that project. It was years before—”

  “Aye, you think you know how old I am, but you don’t. If I could make Troy, I could make myself stop aging. All of us did it back then. I’ll probably live to be three hundred.”

  Lowering my head to her face, I studied her skin. “How old are you?”

  “Sixty-seven. I’ve seen it all. More people die than you can count.” She chuckled. “You’re so worried about them dying. It’s them living that you should be worried about. Why do you think we focused on disseminating the vaccine over the cure?”

  “What do you mean?” My shoulders shook.

  “Sure, you can cure someone, get their titer levels to nearly zero. But the virus implants itself in their DNA, waiting to be reactivated, or worse passed to the next generation. There’s no predicting what will happen. Why do you think we’ve had the second wave? A new virus? No. It’s the one that mutated from the first. Mutated by someone, on purpose.”

  Washing my face and running a brush through my hair, I dressed in a UNS camouflage army jacket Sadie gave me, the UNS flag and name patches having been ripped off by her months before. Sitting in front of the video camera, I read the script we agreed upon.

  “Hello, WHO and EC officials. I am Jema Walker, daughter of Douglas and Kimo Walker of Port Orford and niece to Owen Walker, the man you know as Commander Butler, de facto President of the UNS. My comrades and I have obtained a person who has firsthand knowledge of and the ability to produce the vaccine and cure for the deadly virus plaguing your countries. I only know her as Dena. She led the team at Lovelock Caverns that developed the vaccine and cure. I will play a short video of part of my conversations with her recorded earlier today. We wish to trade her in exchange for lifting Zhou’s threat to our country. We believe this is the best solution for all people.”

  Stopping the recording, we waited for it to upload to the prior communication string. Then we packed our gear in the truck and folded up the last solar panel. Amelie and I retrieved Dena. As we dragged her out the door, she hooked her feet on the inside of the door frame. “Don’t do it. There are too many people on this planet. If you want to survive, the virus is the only way.”

  Telling Amelie to grab Dena’s torso, I picked up her feet. “If I find out you released this virus, I will kill you myself.”

  Taking our seats in the vehicle, we stayed on our southwest course, bound for the city of Mazatlán, with Troy at the wheel and Mace monitoring our communications links. I laid my head on the seat back, praying for sleep and escape from my spiraling thoughts.

  I felt a hand on my leg and opened my eyes to see Amelie looking at me. “It’s not true. She’s just messing with you, trying to break your resolve. It’s a classic hostage strategy, attack the psyche of the captor. Just stay strong. This is the final lap, and we’re in first place.”

  “Since when do you use race references?”

  “I think Mace is wearing off on me.”

  “That’s a good thing.” Clasping her hand in mine, I gazed at the darkening sky, trying to relax, and took in a full breath.

  Wondering what chaos ensued following the embargo announcement didn’t help, and for once I was glad Nave and Mom were with Owen. Above all, Dena insisted that Owen was doing everything to keep Nave and me safe, and I prayed that continued. Nine days, we had nine days to get Zhou to abandon his edict.

  As darkness enveloped us and the hours ticked by, I fought to control my anxiety. Small things—smoothing my pants down my outstretched legs, taking deep breaths, willing my stomach acid to stay in its place—helped. Beside me, Amelie’s leg bounced on the seat, and she shifted her weight, tucking her legs back and then kicking them out. I guessed we wondered the same thing. Were we going to be blown to smithereens? Would Zhou accept our offer? Why would he not, and what was taking so long?

  Amelie leaned up, inserting her head between Mace and Troy. “We’ve got to stretch our legs, run or something. We’ve been driving for four hours. I’m going nuts.”

  Mace shook his head. “We have to take advantage of these satellite holes. Our windows are shortening. Just half an hour more and we can stop.”

  I bounced my legs on the seat cushion. Now we had an even better chance of being detected by Owen, Zhou, and whoever else lay out there waiting to nab us.

  Troy handed Amelie the laptop, and he slid in beside me. “Remember when we had to drive those families from California to Nevada?”

  “That feels like child’s play compared to this. Owen is going to blow us up if he finds us.”

  “If he thinks we have Dena, we’re probably safe. You came up with the perfect target, the best solution for everyone involved. This is going to work.”

  Thinking of the consequences of our coup attempt on the capitol, I dug my nails into my legs to stop tears from forming. “Des Moines was a success?”

  “No, but that wasn’t our fault. It was a risk, and the odds beat us. This is the best solution. The EC will force Zhou to agree. We’ll have Dena on a boat in less than twenty-four hours, you’ll see.”

  My watch dinged midnight, and my brain registered our time clock again. T minus eight days. As we lamented the deadline, the laptop resting on Amelie’s lap lit up. Words on the screen read: Incoming Transmission. Scanning ahead, I noticed a dark image and pointed it out to Mace. Slowing, we approached what we found to be a grouping of trees and stopped underneath. Tapping on the keyboard, Mace brought up the stream.

  General Zhou’s image appeared on the screen. “…offer of the woman you call Dena. We have verified her credentials using facial recognition technologies.”

  “We what the offer of? Accept? Deny?” Amelie yelled at the screen as he took a breath.

  “On one condition,” Zhou continued. “Jema Walker and Troy Masterson must accompany the scientist onto our EC vessel. Coordinates will follow this message. The scientist, Jema Walker, and Troy Masterson must be at those coordinates by 2000 hours on March 4th. They must be alone. Any attempt to intersect or track these persons or our vessel will be viewed as an act of war. You have two hours to reply to this message.”

  “No. We can’t do that. You can’t do that.” Amelie gripped my shoulders.

  “Guys, if we want to make that 2000-hour deadline, we’ve got to move. We have no idea what the satellite pattern will be.” Mace tapped on the keys. “The satellite switched, and we’re wide open to drive. Do you want to reply now?”

  “No. Let’s go.” Troy slapped the seat cushion and motioned for Mace to move from the driver’s seat.

  Troy took the wheel and gunned the engine. I wanted to talk to Troy. I would do it. I had nothing else left. Nowhere
to go. But his mom was out there somewhere, maybe, hopefully. Amelie and Mace could be free to find their families. It would be the best for everyone if I could talk Zhou into just taking Dena and me.

  “Can you send a message while we drive?” Troy asked Mace.

  “Text, yes. Video, probably not.” Mace glanced at me and back to Troy.

  Troy’s eyes appeared in the rearview mirror. “What are we doing, Jema? This is our Hail Mary. I don’t see any other option.”

  “What about your mom? Maybe I can talk Zhou into just taking me.”

  His gaze cut to the road ahead and back to the mirror. “We don’t even know if she’s alive. Zhou was very clear. Both of us plus Dena or no deal.”

  Amelie grabbed my hand. “Jema, you don’t know what they’ll do to you, what your life will be like. It could be worse than with Butler.”

  “Zhou agreed to rescind the ninety-day edict. If we don’t do this, he may launch a bomb.”

  “If Owen knows, he’ll give in. He won’t let Dena and you end up with Zhou.” Tears streamed down her face.

  “He hasn’t given in yet. You heard Dena. He believes that these people dying is for the best.”

  Water pooled in my eyelids, and I wrapped my arm around her. “I don’t want to leave you, but I don’t see any other option. I’ll be okay, and you and Mace will have River and Shooter to get you back.”

  “Back to where?” Her chest heaved with sobs.

  “Amelie, I’m so sorry. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can. You won’t be alone long, I promise.” I held her tight as water streamed down my cheeks.

  Looking into the mirror, I nodded to Troy.

  He glanced at Mace. “Do it. Tell them we say yes.”

  We stopped and drove, as the satellite gaps allowed, reaching the cover of an old gas station near the pickup coordinates on the coast of Mexico by 1600. No one spoke, and I didn’t have any more words to express how sorry I was to Amelie. This was a win. We should celebrate. Grabbing the seatback in front of me I heaved myself up and over the side of the truck.