April 6: And What Goes Around

by Mackey Chandler

  Jon's eyebrows shot up in surprise."That isn't something to speak of lightly. We depend on outside supplies to eat. The move from LEO to L2 has made everything just a little more expensive. People would resist any such action for good reason. It might ruin some of them economically. It would require an extraordinary level of proof and danger to warrant such an extreme response. I'd be fired by the Assembly if I did such a thing and it turned out to be a false alarm. And rightly so."

  April was nodding agreeing with everything. "That's why I want your help and quickly. If this disease gets here before we can determine the risk it will be too late. You know the Earthies cover up and deny serious problems until way past the point everybody on the street knows the cover up is all a lie. But then it's too late. In this case it may hit us much harder than the general public down below."

  "OK, be specific. What is the nature of this special danger. Tell me the details," Jon demanded.

  Margaret passed a carafe and cups in over Gunny's shoulder.

  April recounted the news stories and how this epidemic seemed to hit the rich while Jon poured.

  "I'm with you so far. We're relatively high income people, because it's so expensive to live here. But correlation does not prove causation. Perhaps the high income Earthies are susceptible to it for a reason that high income people on Home don't share," Jon suggested.

  "That's entirely possible," April said. She made a restraining motion at Gunny, who seemed ready to jump in. "But Gunny here pointed out another common factor between the two populations. And it's bad because it will give them incentive to keep the real nature of the epidemic secret longer. Increasing the chances of it spreading everywhere including here. Go ahead," she invited Gunny who seemed ready to burst.

  "The rich are the only ones on Earth who can afford life extension therapy, but it has to be kept secret so many places. Even places that allow other medical gene mods. China is the only place you can have it openly with no legal restrictions and no back-lash from religious leaders," Gunny said.

  "And China is still in turmoil. We can't get any dependable news from there," Jon said.

  "Exactly. Everywhere else it will be denied as long as possible. Also flu doesn't usually spread in this pattern. It's always in the old and the young first. In schools and crowded military barracks and retirement or nursing homes. I knew that without reading April's book," Gunny said. "Consider, if it started differently, among the rich, it may have been started among them on purpose. I'd submit this has all the markers for a deliberately propagated bio warfare attack instead of a natural seasonal outbreak."

  Jon sat silently digesting all that.

  "The next shuttle from ISSII docks at 1400. Backtracking, could a sick person from Europe have made a connection through ISSII in the last, say three days?" April asked.

  All three of them considered the problem, checking public data. Jon finished and spoke first.

  "No. Not without extreme difficulty. There was an Indian shuttle to ISSII forty seven hours ago. But it would have required a flight in a very limited time frame from Europe. That's a great deal of trouble rather than taking a European shuttle. I'm developing a passenger list from those flights to compare to the shuttle manifest.

  "There is a Larson Line freight shuttle due in two hours. The new dedicated route vessel Larson recently added to consolidate freight in LEO and transfer it to Home. It carries no passengers and two crew. The crew are both Home citizens. They could have been exposed to travelers from the French habitat in theory, if not likely. The French had a vessel dock from the Canaries fifty hours ago. I can't get a passenger list for it though." Jon said.

  "We each need to call our people and get them to filter news and start calling up contacts and asking questions," April suggested. "We could easily know what to do with them in two hours. If not, I will ask Jeff to call Ted Larkin and ask him to keep his pilots out of the general population. I think he has enough influence to do that."

  "It will take time to explain it all to Jeff too," Jon said.

  "I have to outline it to Jeff because I want him to direct... his people, to drop everything and pursue this. I think they'd do it for me, but I know he will. He'll do so on my word without the full details."

  "OK, let's do that," Jon agreed, turning to his com and issuing orders. He hated to wake people up off their shift, but he roused a couple.

  April called Jeff alone, and suggested Chen and Eddie, but left it up to Jeff to decide what resources he needed to marshal.

  Gunny felt good to be able to contribute. His associates in security work had an interest in this. Anyone who lived on Home did after all. And they had talents and contacts useful to the problem. He called Otis Duggan, Eric Brockman, Isaac Friedman, Chris Mackay and Dan Holt. He knew April would be calling Chen. That was typical for Home. There was a lot of overlap in professions. So he called to implore them to investigate as Jon and April were.

  "I'll have security in bio-gear at the north dock to meet the freight shuttle. They'll put one suited agent in the lock and test them for flu virus before they are allowed on station," Jon said.

  "How long does the test take?" Gunny asked Jon.

  "They take a swab and wipe in on a screen. It gets laser scanned and reports if flu is present and types it if it's a known variety in a couple seconds. You close the top like a pad and another laser heats a film on the screen and vaporizes any organic residue, then it's ready to use again."

  "And if they test positive?" April asked.

  "That would be a problem... I better call Dr. Lee and see if he can improvise an isolation suite if we need one. I hadn't thought of it yet, but we should consult him anyway," Jon said. If either tests positive they will be asked to wear a bio-isolation suit to their quarters or stay on ship."

  "You might ask Dr. Ames to consult too," April suggested. She knew Ames, AKA Jelly, intended to build an isolation suite for his patients. She didn't know if he had yet, but she wasn't going to ask or say anything to Jon about that. If he wanted to speak up that would be his to decide.

  "Ames? He's not with the clinic. Is there a doctor here in private practice?" Jon asked.

  "Gerald Ames. He isn't an MD. He has a limited practice but it's offering Life Extension Therapy and other gene mods. I know him because I'm a customer. He might have knowledge specific to this problem. He might even have been unintentionally involved with provoking it." April immediately regretted saying anything seeing Jon's expression.

  "I think you need to expand on that," Jon said.

  "A couple of Dr. Ames patients returned home to Spain and may have accidentally broken their quarantine for a therapeutic infection. He uses a viral carrier for some of the easier parts of Life Extension Therapy. It was politically destabilizing. It was the sort of thing that might have pushed somebody opposing LET over the edge to retaliate," April said.

  "These patients... I assume if they could afford to come up here for treatment they are well to do and of the upper class like the other people getting infected on Earth?" Jon asked.

  "Yeah," April agreed, volunteering nothing further.

  "Might you... might we ask them if they or their friends and associates in Spain have been hit with this new strain of flu, and shine some light on how valid our speculations are?"

  "No, because all of them who I know have been on Home before any of this started down below."

  "I just run security," Jon said. "It's not like I actually have any idea what's happening on Home."

  "It not like that. If they were a problem you needed to know about don't you think I'd say something? Just like I'm am now?"

  "They're good people," Gunny chimed in.

  "All of them. That means more than just a couple," Jon belatedly figured out.

  "What interest do you have?" Gunny asked. He seemed to be getting irritated. "They are refugees from the Mud Ball like so many. Like me. I'm hearing security risk. I don't see that."

  "Not, security risk," Jon held up a placating hand.
"I used to know almost everybody on Home. If I didn't know them on sight I knew where they worked or with who they worked. There are too many people new now and I can't do that. It bothers me."

  "I'm glad you don't collect face pix and keep files on people," April said.

  "I'd love to. But once you create such a thing somebody is going to misuse it. It never fails. I'll finish getting Dr. Lee and my security set up for the shuttle. I'll drop a message on both of you if they test positive. You both might do some more data searching if you have time. But I think we should go to bed and get some sleep. I suspect we'll have much more to consider tomorrow and be glad of the rest. Did your guys have any immediate feedback?" Jon asked Gunny.

  "No, but they are calling contacts on Earth and other habs. I also expect they'll have much more for us by morning," Gunny said of his people. April nodded too.

  "OK, I'll be up by 0600. Why don't we get back together?" Jon said.

  "Why not at my place?" April suggested. "It's bigger and we can split up my big wall screen to see what each of us is getting in a mosaic."

  "OK," Jon agreed. He didn't like his cramped office any better than they did.

  * * *

  April woke up in the night and had to resist the urge to get up and check for news. She'd never get back to bed and she knew it. After turning her pillow and throwing the covers off she adjusted the bed harder and softer, raised first the head and then her knees, put it back flat and tried the temperature up a couple degrees and then back. Somewhere along the way she stopped fidgeting and fell asleep again without any memory of it, but she still woke up before her alarm.

  She ground fresh coffee, using the best beans straight. Put it to brew and another load of beans on to grind for later before showering. It might be a long day so she put on loose stretchy pants and a long sleeved T. A very small squirt of honey was probably sacrilege given what the Kona beans cost, but Gunny wasn't up to harass her about it. Finally she allowed herself to check her overnight messages, mug in hand. Breakfast could wait for that and until she had some company.

  There were forty two messages queued up. She disposed of twelve of them in less than a minute. There was a tap * tap * tap that distracted her, and then she realized it was someone knocking at the door instead of using com or the buzzer. She'd had a horrible obnoxious door alarm when she moved in and changed that quickly. There wasn't a camera on the door, something she needed to correct. She walked back to her bedroom and got her Singh pistol and returned. From the side and well back she ordered the door to unlock. "It's open," she called.

  Seeing the pistol Jon quickly lifted both hands even though it was pointed at the deck.. It lost some of its dramatic effect with a thermo-pack in one hand from the cafeteria. He looked amused which just irritated April. "Come in, there's coffee made," she said.

  "I got a variety pack of breakfast sandwiches and a few cold ones for later too," Jon told her. "I thought you might be up."

  April looked at the com screen. It was 0534. She expected Jon at 0600 but it wasn't any big deal. He had to have been up really early to clean up, go to the cafeteria and wait for a special order already . If anything he was more anxious to continue investigating than her. "Make yourself at home," she said, giving an encompassing wave. "The kitchen is right there, help yourself to coffee."

  Jon was looking around. He'd never been to April's place. He had the oddest expression and she wondered if it was a bigger place than he expected. She had no idea what his living quarters were like in comparison. Most people lived in apartments that made a cheap Earthie hotel room seem spacious.

  The norm for most people was a living room about the size of a walk-in closet on Earth. A kitchen with a table that stowed flat to the bulkhead and folded down when you needed it. Chairs were fabric slings on folding frames you could collapse and hang on a hook. Bathrooms were mostly all-in-one stalls with the whole tiny room being the shower too. Gunny told her that was something they did in motor homes or travel trailers on Earth.

  Jon was standing still holding the food, staring at the large Lindsey Pennington drawing opposite the couches. It was a huge drawing full of detail in Lindsey's distinctive style. The focus of the piece was rendered almost photorealistic with vivid color and the background was less detailed and the colors muted the further your eye strayed from the center. The subject was Lt. Moore of the USNA, who had been captured after the post war attack on Home. He'd been taken off a rail gun satellite before they were all destroyed by Home militia.

  The attack killed several Home citizens and forced their decision to move from Low Earth Orbit out to L2 beyond the moon. The assembly had deferred acting against him to anyone who lost blood relatives. One man had passed on exacting retribution for his brother, but Mrs. Hu had lost her husband and made Moore kneel and then asked the loan of April's Japanese sword.

  In the drawing Moore has his back to the raised speakers platform. Mrs. Hu is holding the sword with both hands, laying the flat of the blade across his neck. She asked if he admitted being an accessory to murder and he tearfully admitted it. April was certain if he's tried to lay the blame off on his commander Hu would have hacked his head off in a stroke. The sword was a genuine antique Japanese sword and a family treasure. April had no doubt even the diminutive Mrs. Hu could have beheaded him with that weapon.

  Instead she had removed the threatening blade and consigned him to the nonexistent mercy of his masters. The man had fainted away, sure he was doomed.

  Jon was looking at the raised platform behind the two theme characters. He was drawn sitting there along with Mr. Muños, April's father, and several other of what most might regard as Home's founding fathers. Being in the immediate background to the main subjects their detail and color were still quite good. Even April sitting further to the side just off the platform was still quite recognizable.

  "Let me take that," April insisted, relieving him of the food carrier.

  "I've seen prints by Lindsey," Jon said. "I didn't know she did anything this big."

  "It's not a print. That's an original drawing. She did it to spec and on commission so there won't be any prints of it out floating around."

  Jon nodded acknowledgment. April was pretty sure he liked it. She put the food by the com console instead of the kitchen, laid her pistol there as she hadn't brought its holster and went to get Jon a coffee. If he was going to take his time with the drawing he might as well have a mug.

  She poured herself a mug too, gave Jon his, and started setting up the bigger wall screen to display their searches. When the screen was configured she looked at the sandwiches and got a hot ham, cheese and egg on a grilled Italian roll. It still steamed when she unwrapped it. Jon by then was looking at the Tongan tapas. The mat was displayed as a wall hanging.

  "Thanks for the breakfast," April said between bites. Jon waved an acknowledgment over his shoulder. He'd moved on to her smaller Lindsey drawing. The one of hands around a coffee cup. He was contemplating it hands clasped behind his back.

  It looked like he'd brought a dozen hot sandwiches so April started on another. One didn't hack it at all. She wanted to start looking at what they'd received overnight. She decided not to say anything to hurry Jon. He was her guest after all. She'd just start and he could join in when he wanted. Gunny wasn't up either. Maybe Jon was waiting for him to join them.

  Jeff's agents were very efficient. Each report had a time-stamped header and a few key words. Then a short one paragraph synopsis. April examined a few. They seemed to understand what they were looking for and the abbreviated form seemed quite sufficient to her purposes. She started sorting significant ones to share with her partners,

  There was a medical conference in Hawaii canceled three days before the scheduled start. Five speakers were unavailable at the last minute without explanation.

  The head of a large Canadian investment firm died suddenly yesterday with no previous history of health problems. He'd was in his fifties and had returned two days ago from a Europea
n vacation in apparent good health. The obituary said, "After a sudden illness."

  Late night talk show host Bernie McKinsey who had a large following in Canada and New England states took ill in the middle of his show and had to be walked off the set towards the end. The audience that night got a surprise substitution rushed in to record the entire show from the start. One guest had to leave but they added a few musical selections to pad out the time.

  Gunny came out dressed with wet hair, but moving slow and beady eyed. He went to get coffee without any conversation. Jon took that as a signal to get down to business. He sat on the end of the couch next to the com console and took his pad out. April had divided the screen in thirds and started using the left side. Jon keyed the number in from the right window and had his pad talk to the screen.

  That left Gunny the middle section which he activated with a bit bigger computer than a common belt pad. He sat side-ways in the opposite corner of the couch from Jon and stretched his legs out straight across the middle. The table between the two couches was just in reach to park his coffee.

  April took him a couple breakfast sandwiches, leaving them on some napkins by his coffee. He didn't look ready to make executive decisions yet so she didn't bother him with chit-chat about what sort of sandwich he'd like. She'd been with him long enough to know he wasn't a fussy eater. She got a muttered thanks as he looked at his messages.

  "This is interesting," Gunny told them. "Overhead shots of China show decreased conflict. It isn't really two sides in conflict there, more like three large factions and two smaller regional ones. But except for the faction in Xinjiang things have quieted down and the fighters have drawn back from seeking to engage the others."

  "Decapitation." Jon suggested. Then when Gunny just lifted an eyebrow he elaborated. "If they lost their very highest leadership they may be regrouping and establishing who is running things. They can be busy enough with that to neglect field operations."