Dreamspinner Press Year Nine Greatest Hits

by Michael Murphy

  “We don’t know yet what it is. I’ve got samples to test so we can identify the cause and get everyone affected started on treatment if necessary. The odds are, though, that most people won’t need any treatment of any sort unless you’ve had direct contact with one of the sick passengers, and then it’s not even certain. If it’s what I suspect, it cannot be transmitted by just being near the person—you would need to have direct contact with the bodily fluids of one of the sick passengers. But I need to get these samples out to the lab fast.”

  “There’s a treatment?” she asked, looking hopeful, still holding on to his arm.

  “We can do something for just about everything,” David told her with a smile, trying his best to sound upbeat and positive. “Please, I’ve got to get these samples to the lab so we know what we’re dealing with and can get everyone on board the care you need. We’ll be back as quick as we can with information. We’ll get everyone moved as soon as they’re set up to decontaminate everyone. I know it’s impossible, but try not to be too upset. You’re in good hands now.”

  They made it the rest of the way to the front of the plane without further interference. David got the samples down the stairs as quickly as possible given his bulky suit, and passed them off to another person, who was by then also encased in a biocontainment suit.

  “I need these tested stat,” David said.

  “We have a portable lab all set up. We’ll start the analysis immediately.”

  David walked with the technician, his shadow still with him. With David watching anxiously over his shoulder, the lab tech ran the samples through a series of tests. Some tests took more than a few minutes, but a quick and dirty test revealed on the attached computer screen the results David had anticipated. Switching on his radio, David said, “Lab results of the first patient are positive for Marburg. There is no question. The other samples will run next, but I would be seriously surprised if they are any different.”

  The area around the plane had turned into a beehive of activity with well over one hundred people actively working on a wide variety of tasks required to get the passengers moved off the airplane.

  “David?” He heard Gray’s anxious voice over the radio. “We could see the computer monitor you were just looking at. You’re sure it’s Marburg?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Is it… what’s the word? Does the virus ever mutate and do something new?”

  “It can, I suppose, but the results here are absolutely classic Marburg. It will take more time, but initial results do not suggest any mutation. While we’ve been talking, the technician has finished running a sample from the second patient and that is also positive for Marburg.”

  “Will it kill all of them?” Gray asked him.

  “The patients? Given the condition we observed, it is likely.”

  “And all the others on the airplane?”

  “No, it shouldn’t. It should only impact those who had direct contact with bodily fluids of the sick. If they haven’t had contact with bodily fluids, then they should be okay. Marburg is not aerosolized.”

  David’s job finished, he stood around, still encased in his hazmat suit, and watched ever more medical personnel arrive and move onboard the plane. He watched the military and medical personnel efficiently move passengers off the airplane and into decontamination showers once they were set up. He couldn’t see it, but he knew that everyone would be given disposable hospital scrubs to wear and then would start to be questioned by the medical personnel. David was happy beyond words that he wasn’t in charge of such a monster job.

  As the last of the passengers and crew exited the aircraft, David suddenly realized he was exhausted, not just from a very long day, but also from the surge of adrenaline that had kept him moving. He had no clue what time it was, but the sun had been down for quite a few hours. For all he knew, it could be closer to rising than it had been since it set.

  When the last of the passengers had been decontaminated, David and his Secret Service agent were hosed off with a strong chlorine spray that would kill any virus they had inadvertently carried out with them. They were each helped out of their hazmat suits.

  “Wow, does that ever feel good,” David said.

  “You better believe it,” his agent confirmed. “I don’t think I’ve sweat that much in years. I think my clothes weigh twice their normal weight because of all the sweat they’ve absorbed. Are hazmat suits always that hot?”

  “Ideally, no, but these were not ideal conditions. I feel disgusting,” he said to the equally uncomfortable-looking agent. They stripped out of their outer clothes as well, tossing them into another trash bag that they would take with them. The shower, even though it was basically just a hose attached to a hook above a tent, felt refreshing and wonderful. As the sweat and grime rinsed away, David actually moaned.

  “Do you need a moment?” his agent smiled over at him.

  “This is the best thing I think I have ever felt,” David said.

  “Can’t argue with that at the moment. Feels pretty fucking spectacular,” his agent concurred.

  They were given their own disposable scrubs to put on, and then they were free.

  “Let’s go home,” David said to his agent.

  “Sure. Your place or mine?” he joked, one of the rare times when a Secret Service agent joked. That told David just how tired the man was and that his fatigue matched David’s.

  David laughed. “Mine is closer.”

  The agent directed him through the huge crowd of support personnel now on the scene. They walked a fair distance before boarding a different helicopter for their return flight to the White House.

  Between the adrenaline, the fear, and the sheer number of hours he’d been awake, he was absolutely falling over with fatigue. Had he not been so tired, he would have noticed earlier that something wasn’t right. Their helicopter took off as usual and flew, just as any number of helicopter flights he’d been on had done. Because it was predictable, David sat back and closed his eyes. This particular helicopter was not as spacious or comfortable as Marine One, but David was too tired to care. When they started to descend, he roused a bit, assuming they were landing at the White House, but when he opened his eyes and glanced out the window, expecting to see familiar sights, he saw none of what he expected.

  “What the fuck?” David practically shouted.

  Because he was as exhausted as David was, his agent hadn’t been paying any more attention than David had. But all it took was that simple three-word sentence and the man was on full alert, quickly looking at David to figure out what had elicited his comment.

  The two of them looked out the cabin window. They were not at the White House. They were not anywhere either of them recognized.

  “I’m not sure, sir. My radio ran out of power, so I’m not plugged in to hear what’s going on. Stay behind me until I see what’s up,” he ordered, automatically checking his weapon.

  David was suddenly sweating with anxiety. He was supposed to be hugging Gray about now before falling into bed for some much-needed sleep. Instead, it looked like they were at an old airstrip of some sort. Looking closer, it might have been an airport at one time, but from the grass growing in the cracks of the tarmac, he was guessing that it hadn’t been an active airport in quite a while. At least the part where they had landed wasn’t currently maintained.

  “Shit, are we being hijacked?” David asked loudly, close to panic. “Have we been kidnapped?”

  From his seat, David watched his agent pick up a cabin telephone and call someone to find out what was happening. His weapon never left his hand as he made the call. It didn’t take an expert to figure out that he wasn’t happy with what he heard. When he hung up the receiver of the telephone, he shook his head in disbelief.

  “What’s happening?” David asked. “Where the fuck are we?”

  His agent got to be the bearer of the bad news. “You’re not going to like this. I know I don’t. I can’t believe they’re pull
ing this shit without telling us.”

  “What?” David asked anxiously.

  “We’re at a decommissioned military base in Northern Maryland… where we are to be held in quarantine, in complete isolation, for twenty-one days because we had contact with patients with a deadly virus.”

  “What?” David shouted. “That’s ridiculous. Quarantine? Why? We’re not infectious. We didn’t have direct contact with patients.”

  “And it’s worse,” his agent continued.

  “How?” David asked.

  His agent sighed. “They’re not set up yet. They’re not remotely ready for us, so we have to sit here until they’ve got everything set up. All personnel and a lot of the equipment in the area went to Andrews to get the facilities set up there, so the folks here are having to bring in people and equipment from quite a distance away. The equipment and the people they need are not here yet to even think about getting set up.”

  “We could just have stayed there,” David observed.

  “No. They didn’t want you exposed to all of those people.”

  “How long are we looking at?” David asked suspiciously.

  “Several hours at least.”

  Now it was David’s turn to make a phone call. When he got the White House, he said, “Connect me with the President immediately.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. The President has retired for the night. I can take a message for his staff to handle, or you can call back in the morning.”

  “This is Dr. Hammond, his husband. I’m not calling back in the morning. I’m calling him right now and you are going to put me through to him immediately. Something tells me he’s expecting my call.”

  “Very well, sir,” the operator responded with a clear note of reluctance in her voice.

  David wasn’t surprised when Gray answered on the first ring.

  “David?”

  “Explain,” David ordered sharply.

  “So you… you’re there?”

  “What the fuck is this all about, Gray?” Without waiting for an answer to his question, David just launched into his argument. “There is absolutely no medical reason for us to be quarantined. We followed established protocols to the letter and beyond. There was no breach of protocol. There is absolutely zero chance of us being infectious. And since when are you such a nutless wonder that you can’t talk to me and tell me something like this? You do not just spring this on someone with no warning.”

  “I’ve been overruled on this one, babe. There is so little known about this that my senior staff felt it was a risk that we couldn’t take.”

  “Risk? What risk? What do you want to know? All you had to do was ask. I could have told you anything you needed to know. It’s classic Marburg. No question. No mutations. I drew the samples myself, and I examined the lab results. We tested all of the samples right there on site, and I went over all of the results. It was crystal clear what we were dealing with. It was classic Marburg.”

  Gray hesitated for a moment. “You and I are very close… every day. They feared… that is, they were afraid that you’d… unknowingly… bring something back with you… and I’d become infected.”

  “You’re fucking kidding me, right?” David demanded angrily.

  “No, I’m sorry. I was advised that this was the only course of action open to us.”

  “That’s not correct. Why didn’t you think to talk to me about this?” David asked angrily. “Was this the plan from the beginning? To send me off to that plane and then stick me away somewhere out of sight for a couple of weeks afterward? Why did you need me out of sight, Gray? Huh? You got some other man you want to spend time with and you needed me out of the picture for a while so you can have him in to be with you?”

  “David! No,” Gray protested. “Of course not. Why would you even think such a thing?”

  “Then why else would you need me out of the way for several weeks? Back to my first question, please: why didn’t you talk to me about this before making a unilateral decision that impacts me and not you?”

  “It was the unanimous decision of my key advisers. There wasn’t a single dissenting vote. I had no choice. I had to do it.”

  “Don’t give me that crap, Gray. You’re the fucking President. You make these decisions every goddamned day. Those people work for you. You can hire and fire them. No one overrules you, so don’t try giving me that line of bullshit,” David shouted into the phone.

  “I can’t,” Gray said weakly.

  “Gray, I knew before setting foot on the plane what I was likely walking into. We took universal precautions that went above and well beyond standard operating procedures. We didn’t cut any corners. This is lunacy. Gray, I’m tired and I want to come home.”

  “We all saw that one passenger grab your arm,” Gray suddenly said.

  “Yeah? So?”

  “She touched you!” Gray repeated.

  “No. She touched my hazmat suit. She did not touch me.”

  “She might have punctured your suit and passed the virus to you.”

  “You’re kidding me, right? Those suits don’t tear or puncture that easily. They’re not tissue paper. If a suit was so easily damaged, it wouldn’t be of much value. And the woman who touched my suit was not showing any signs of the disease. It is not possible to transmit the virus until the patient has symptoms indicating that the virus is active in their body.”

  “You must be exhausted. I wish I could help—”

  “You can. You’re the President. You get to make these decisions. I’ve watched you do it dozens of times. I’ve seen more people than I can count come to you on evenings and weekends to bring you these tough decisions. So don’t try to tell me you can’t. This is precisely what you do. We are not a risk to anyone, and we want to come home.”

  “David, I can’t,” Gray practically pleaded.

  “Don’t lie to me—you can. What you’re telling me is that you will not. There’s a big difference there, and you and I are both extremely aware of that difference. I know that I am.”

  “David, I can’t.” Gray’s voice shook a little, presumably because he knew how unpopular his decision would be with David. “This could be a threat to my health, and therefore it’s been ruled to be a national-security issue.”

  “Gray—”

  “They told me that they’d make you as comfortable as possible, give you first-class accommodations, and take excellent care of you. So is it nice? Is it comfortable? Do you need anything?”

  “How the fuck should I know? We’re still on the goddamned helicopter sitting on the tarmac,” David yelled at Gray. “They’re not ready for us. We’ve been told that we will be sitting here for at least a couple of hours while they get set up.”

  “They told me that it would be a seamless transfer,” Gray protested.

  “‘Seamless’ is about the last word I would use to describe this situation. Whatever the opposite of ‘seamless’ is, that word would be a more accurate description of the situation you’ve forced us into.”

  “David, I’m going to make some phone calls and see why this isn’t working out as I was told it would. I’ll call you right back.”

  “Yeah, you do that. See if you can make yourself useful. And while you’re at it, have the pilot fly us back to the White House.”

  They disconnected their call. David was furious. He wanted to grab something, throw something, kick something. This was such total bullshit.

  When the telephone buzzed a few minutes later, David immediately picked it up. “Yes?”

  “I… I’ve tried….”

  “You’ve tried to what, Gray? Say it,” David said tiredly.

  “I’ve tried to light a fire under them.” Gray stopped, drew a deep breath, which told David something he didn’t want to hear was coming next. “But they told me that some of the equipment they need to set up isn’t there yet, so there is an unavoidable delay.”

  “Unavoidable delay. No, that’s the wrong term to use with me right now.”

/>   “David, please—”

  “Please what?” David snapped at his husband. “This is your fucking mess, Gray, so get off your goddamned ass and fix it. Do you hear me?”

  There was silence on the call for a moment. When Gray didn’t say anything, David continued.

  “It sounds like your advisers, the people you’ve decided to listen to rather than to me, have been feeding you a line of complete bullshit. It really is unfortunate you didn’t consult with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about—like me.” David’s last two words were shouted into the telephone. “Too bad you apparently don’t know me enough to trust my judgment. I guess I was good enough to send into a dangerous situation, but not good enough to trust after I’d served my function.”

  “You’re mad, I know.”

  “No! What ever gave you that idea? And for the record, ‘mad’ doesn’t begin to describe what I’m feeling right now. Do you understand me, Grayson Alexander?” David asked, enunciating each of the words of his question very carefully and speaking slowly. “Do you hear me? I’m so far beyond mad that I don’t even have words to describe how I’m feeling about this mess, and especially about you. I thought I knew you, but today I see I don’t have the first clue who you are anymore.” The venom that dripped from the world “you” was obvious to anyone.

  “I’m sorry, David. I didn’t want it to play out this way.”

  “What way is that? Huh?”

  When Gray didn’t answer, David took a breath and tried to calm himself down. “I went there tonight because you called me to your Situation Room and told me about a crisis. I went there tonight not because I wanted to, but because the men in that room asked me to go. I had already worked all day long. The minute I got home I was summoned down to that room and sent flying off to Maryland. You put me in that room where your top people called on me to go do something. I didn’t want to do it, but I agreed. I went. I did it for you. And this is the way you pay me back? This is what happens when I do something above and beyond for you?”