Sarah sat back up. “Or, he’s going to let her die, or worse, kill her, so that she’s not left alone when he’s gone. He’s going to do something back in the States, something bad, and my guess is he won’t survive whatever it is. And if he’s leaving soon, he can’t wait for her to die. I wonder…” She paused for a moment, thinking back on her conversation with him.
Then I will have a decision to make.
“He said he’d have a decision to make if she tested positive,” she murmured, her eyes meeting Tanya’s with a look of horror.
“You don’t think…” Tanya’s voice trailed off in shock as her eyes opened wide, her jaw dropping. “You don’t think he’d kill her, do you?”
It had to be what he had meant. What other possible kind of decision could he have been referring to? The very thought was inconceivable to her, but from her experience, she knew it was possible. “I’ve seen enough murder-suicides in my life to know that some people, in a moment of weakness, will kill their children before they kill themselves so they won’t be left alone with no one to take care of them. We don’t know this man, we don’t know if he’s mentally unbalanced, but I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
“My God, what have I done?” cried Tanya, gripping her hair and pulling at it viciously.
Sarah felt her chest tighten, a sense of foreboding crawling up her spine. “What do you mean?” she asked, terrified of what the answer might be.
“It never occurred to me, I never thought he’d kill her! I mean, what kind of maniac does that?”
Sarah’s chest was like a vise and she felt herself going cold. She gripped the arms of the chair as her mouth filled with bile. “You switched the samples!”
The words smacked Tanya like a two-by-four to the chest, the distraught woman shoving herself back in her chair, her eyes, red and wide, staring at Sarah as she let go of her hair and began to beat her thighs with balled up fists. “It was the only way to save us!”
Sarah turned in her chair, unable to look at Tanya. She swallowed the saliva quickly building in her mouth and jammed a thumb in the pressure point on her left wrist, slowly massaging it, trying to fight off the urge to vomit. What her friend—and could she even call her that anymore?—had done was unbelievable. Inexcusable. Unimaginable. To risk the life of a little girl to save your own?
“How could you?” she murmured, still not looking at Tanya.
“I-I—” No more was forthcoming, instead sobs filled the room eventually accompanied by pleas to God for forgiveness. As Sarah listened, she thought of her own rationalizations when she had been doing the testing, and couldn’t help but realize that she had been secretly happy that the little girl had tested positive as her illness would most likely lead to their survival.
“We have to get her out of there,” she finally said, pushing herself to her feet. “Now!”
Tanya reached out and grabbed her arm. “But she’s been exposed now. We can’t take her out.”
“We don’t know that. I put her behind a curtain and nobody has touched her.”
“But how will we explain it? If he finds out what I’ve done, he’ll kill me!”
Sarah wanted to tell her she deserved to die for what she had done, but couldn’t. She knew deep down that she herself had debated what she would do if the blood test had been negative, and a small part of her had decided she would claim it was positive just so they’d have this poor, innocent child to use as leverage in their struggle to survive.
But she hadn’t had to make that decision. She had been saved from that by Tanya switching the samples.
A thought dawned on her.
“Do we know for sure she was negative?”
Tanya’s sobs stopped for a moment. “Wh-what?”
“You switched the samples but we tested her because she was symptomatic. What did you do with her real sample? Did you test it?”
Tanya shook her head, a sudden look of hope appearing. “No, I mean, I just—” She stopped, the look of hope replaced by one of shame. “Oh God, I’m doing it again.” She stood and picked up her gloves, pulling them on as she walked over to one of the desks. Opening a drawer, she reached inside then held up a vial. “This is hers.”
Sarah rushed over to the electron microscope, flicking the switch to turn it on, this building one of the few actually with power, solar panels and batteries making it by far the most modern structure she had seen here. The microscope hummed to life as she pulled the chair out from the desk. “Test it.”
Tanya nodded and quickly donned her head gear then sat down and prepared the sample. Sarah felt like she was holding her breath the entire time. She kept eyeing the door, terrified someone would come in to wonder where they had gone. They were supposed to only come here for a few minutes so she could brief Tanya on Koroma’s daughter. It had never occurred to her that this woman, this mother, would risk the life of another child just to save her own.
Yet she couldn’t condemn her and she found herself placing her hands on Tanya’s shoulders, squeezing them gently. Tanya looked up at her through the goggles and facemask, smiling tentatively.
The machine beeped and they both looked at the display then each other.
“Oh no,” they echoed.
Embassy of the United States, Freetown, Sierra Leone
“How sure are you of this?”
Dawson sat with the rest of his team in a small conference room provided to them after their arrival. It had been decided there was no point in remaining at the clinic and risking continued exposure since the FBI forensics team were the needed expertise, not Spec Ops. Right now they were in a holding pattern until additional intel came in, and by the sounds of it, it was finally arriving.
“Not a hundred percent, but it’s highly probable that these are the trucks we’ve been looking for.”
Dawson recognized the voice of the CIA Analyst he had dealt with on several occasions, but hadn’t been certain for the first few minutes since the voice seemed to sound slightly different, as if there was something there that hadn’t been before.
Confidence?
If so he was happy for the kid. Kid! He wasn’t that much younger than Dawson, certainly not anywhere near young enough to be his son, but his demeanor, the way he carried himself, had always suggested insecure teenager. How he had ever managed to land the honey he was dating he’d never know, but he obviously had some confidence somewhere in order to hold on to her. And now it sounded like the young man might have finally found where it had been hiding.
“Two short Caucasians accompanied by two black taller people in a truck heading north. That’s all you’ve got?”
There was a pause filled with quiet white noise coming from the speaker. “Yes.”
“Sounds good to me. Have we got eyes in the sky there?”
“UAVs should be starting overflights shortly but it’s a huge area,” replied Leroux. “We’re concentrating on the area where all of our suspects have come from which might help narrow the search.”
“Okay, we’ll make arrangements to head into that area. Any word on the outbreak there?”
“Only that it’s bad, but the population is sparse. There’s hardly any medical facilities in the area so we suspect most of the sick have moved away. There’s really nothing beyond a three month old report from the World Health Organization so you’re going in pretty much blind.”
Niner elbowed Atlas. “We’re used to that.”
“Not with this kind of enemy,” boomed Atlas. And he was right. Heading into a situation blind with an unknown number of hostiles in unknown locations wasn’t the preferred option, but wasn’t unheard of if it were absolutely necessary. But a disease? It was just something they hadn’t encountered before. They trained for it, though rarely for viral outbreaks like Ebola. It was more for biological, radiological or chemical warfare situations.
Not a pissed off Mother Nature.
“We’ll arrange transport through our liaison here. As soon as you have something from those U
AVs, let us know. I’d prefer to not be going in completely blind.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Leroux. “Another piece of intel has just come through that suggests the northern connection is more plausible. We’ve linked one of the Norfolk hostage takers to Major Koroma. He’s his brother.”
Niner slammed a fist on the table. “Now that’s simply too much of a coincidence!”
“That pretty much settles it,” agreed Jimmy. “Even Vegas bookies wouldn’t touch those odds.”
Dawson had to agree. There was no way these two events weren’t connected now that they had this familial link. Cousins were one thing. Brothers? No way.
Leroux continued. “There’s one more thing I’ve been asked to warn you about.”
Dawson glanced at the others, leaning in. “What?”
“You’re still secure?”
Dawson knew they were, but glanced about regardless. “Yes.”
“The intel you were provided indicating they had gone south, well, we could find nothing to corroborate it, and the fact that we found them going north suggests an intentional false flag.”
Dawson’s head bobbed slowly. He had already picked up on that little discrepancy, but what he didn’t know yet was who was responsible. Their liaison Margai had told them of the southerly sightings, but had he made it up, or had he been provided the bad or false intel? Either way it didn’t matter. All that he could say for certain was that any intel provided by Margai, or the Sierra Leoneans, couldn’t be relied upon.
Now he had to determine what side Margai was playing for.
“Understood. I want you to dig a little deeper into our contact here. See if there’s any connection with Koroma or any of his men from Norfolk.”
“Will do.”
“Good. Keep us posted, Freetown, out.” He hit the button killing the call then turned to his men. “What do you think?”
Atlas cleared his throat. “The intel sending them south never made sense to me—almost intentionally opposite of what was to be expected with all the connections pointing north. If you really wanted to throw us off, why not east? An exact one-eighty just seemed too convenient.”
“Not to mention I don’t trust anyone in a suit,” added Niner. “That guy just came off as too slick. I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, and he’s a big bastard so that wouldn’t be far.”
“Pussy!” coughed Jimmy who was rewarded with a none-too-gentle punch to the shoulder from Niner.
“Agreed,” said Dawson.
“What, that I’m a pussy?”
Dawson deadpanned Niner for a moment, saying nothing. “I don’t think we can trust any intel provided by the locals until we determine the source of the bad intel.”
“He thinks I’m a pussy,” hissed Niner as an exaggerated aside to Jimmy who was still massaging his shoulder.
“Agreed,” said Jimmy in response to Dawson, quickly leaning out of reach of Niner’s fist. “Do we trust this guy to make our transportation arrangements?”
“We don’t really have a choice.” Dawson tapped the table. “That doesn’t mean we don’t take precautions, though.”
Somewhere in Sierra Leone
Sarah woke to the sounds of a car horn honking. She looked at her watch and frowned, her shift not due to begin for another two hours. She lay her head back down and tried to will herself back to sleep, but some excited shouts from outside had her curious and a bit afraid.
To hell with it!
Wiping the sleep out of her eyes with some well-placed knuckles, she rose from her makeshift bed, looking around to make sure she was alone. Satisfied, she pulled her hair back, tying it with a rubber band she had found in the administration office, then slipped into her shoes, stepping out of the room given to them in Koroma’s home and heading toward the noise of gathering people.
Idiots. Don’t they know crowds are how this disease is spread?
Stepping into the morning sunlight she squinted, letting her eyes adjust for a moment as she shielded them with her hand. She spotted Tanya standing in the rear doorway to the clinic as she was hosed down by one of Koroma’s men. She waved, Sarah smiling at her as she walked toward the road that passed in front of the community center.
Several cars and trucks were present, including one large black Mercedes with Sierra Leonean flags flying from the front corners of the hood.
Government?
Her heart leapt with hope as she realized they might be here to rescue them, armed soldiers and men in suits with dark glasses in abundance, none of whom she recognized from Koroma’s cadre. She began to walk toward one of them when she stopped, spotting Koroma shaking hands and laughing with a large, rotund man in what appeared to be an expensive Italian suit.
The way ass was getting kissed here, it was clear Koroma thought this man was important, and the size of the security detail certainly suggested it. A briefcase was handed over to one of the new arrivals by Koroma’s letch of a driver, unfamiliar words in Krio exchanged with some laughter then suddenly silence, somber expressions replacing the jovial ones. Hugs were exchanged, foolish in this epidemic, but if these men were friends, she had no sympathy for either of them.
The man glanced in her direction, pausing. He said something to Koroma who looked at her before replying. He seemed completely unconcerned that she had been spotted, which proved her suspicions that this man was in on whatever Koroma was planning.
And this man was government.
Which meant whatever was going on appeared to be far bigger than one major betraying his country.
For if his actions involved this obviously important man, who seemed to be a member of the government, then perhaps he wasn’t betraying his government at all.
Perhaps he was acting under their orders.
Which means there’s no way they’re helping find us.
The man climbed into the back of his Mercedes as the security detail quickly loaded into their own vehicles, most of the procession leaving within moments, leaving nothing but a cloud of dust and shattered hopes.
And two vehicles with four men standing in front of each.
I wonder why they stayed behind.
Koroma walked over to her, his expression grim.
“Why aren’t you working?”
Sarah’s mouth went dry. “I’m not due for another couple of hours. A horn woke me up then I heard a crowd gathering. I thought I should remind whoever was gathering that they should avoid contact.”
Koroma stared at her for a moment then motioned for the new arrivals to join them.
“I have a job for you.”
Tanya stood near the far corner of the building and watched as Sarah was led away by Koroma, the new arrivals following. She was terrified for Sarah, images of gang rape filling her mind as her chest tightened. If it were to happen to her she knew she would try to kill herself, there no way she would want to live through an ordeal where in the end they were most likely going to kill her anyway. She had read enough horror stories of the Janjaweed and other like-minded Muslim groups raping and pillaging their way across Africa, repeatedly sexually assaulting women and children until they were dead.
It was something she had said she’d never let happen to her.
Yet here she was.
Kidnapped by murderers with an unknown agenda who had already promised to kill them rather than let them go, and with at least one man among them that had already put his hands on her, and if Sarah were correct, spied on her in the shower.
She didn’t know why Sarah had been led away but she had to somehow tell her what she had overheard. It was the only ray of hope that she had felt since Koroma’s daughter had been admitted to Zone One with possible symptoms. She still felt sick to death with what she had done, but in a moment of weakness she had pictured her own child without his mother. It had overwhelmed her. She had switched the samples and had been sick with the knowledge ever since.
She knew Sarah well enough to know she would do whatever it took to make certain the
little girl was well treated and isolated. They had already discussed isolating the young children from the sights of the dying around them and the protocol they had developed also dictated that the newest arriving children would get the beds nearest Zone One to try and minimize what they would hear from Zone Three.
Which meant in her desperately confused mind she had felt even if the child was actually negative, she would have been reasonably protected from infection.
Reasonably!
It was probably the greatest regret of her life, a shame she would take to her grave, a decision she could never take back and right here, right now, if she could switch places with this innocent little girl she would, even if it meant her own death.
For Koroma’s daughter had tested negative.
The question now was whether or not she was still negative, something they couldn’t know for days, and with every minute she spent in that clinic, her chances of contracting the disease rose exponentially.
Yet they couldn’t move her.
Not without having to explain what they had done.
What she had done.
Which meant certain death.
But if what she had overheard was true, there might still be hope to save the little girl even if she had become infected.
The Americans are coming.
The man who had arrived in the Mercedes had told Koroma after he had arrived. And they had laughed. It was as if they had no concern over the news.
Which meant whatever they had planned didn’t rely on them being dead or alive.
Or they’re just suicidal like all those insane terrorists.
She wasn’t sure what was in the briefcase, but Koroma’s words had sent a chill racing up and down her spine.
She confirmed it would work just like we thought.
That was when all joviality had left the conversation, as if a darkness, pushed aside for the reunion, had reasserted itself, sucking all the joy out of the meeting. A foolish meeting.
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