by Damon Hunter
“Then why are you here?”
“Eric Vance and I go back a ways. I thought I would bring him the news myself. Why are you here?”
“Dr. Talbot and I go back some, too. I thought I would visit to offer some encouraging words.”
Barrington looked at Talbot, who shrugged, and then went to Vance, who was still standing on one leg next to the transport, holding his crying daughter.
Katelin stayed close to her father as she turned to look at Barrington.
“I have arranged quarters for all of you, including your friends,” Barrington told them. “You’ll still be segregated from the general checkpoint population but it will be comfortable.”
Vance nodded, but looked past him to the man in the flight suit and said, “Compton?”
“It’s Captain Compton to you,” the man said with a smile.
“I thought you retired.”
“I was, but chopper pilots with combat experience aren’t all that plentiful. As you know, the TMRT pays well.”
“Not well enough,” Vance told him.
Compton nodded. “I could see how you feel that way, being on the ground. It’s why I like the easy money of being in the air.”
Considering the times Vance had seen Compton bring a helicopter into harm’s way to pick up soldiers on the ground, Vance did not consider what he did ‘easy money’. Instead of disputing Compton’s statement, Vance said, “It’s good to see you, Compton. Have you met my daughter?”
“No, you talked about her so much when we were in the desert I feel like I already know her, but this is the first time I have ever seen her in person.”
“This is Katelin. Katelin, this is an old friend from my Marine days, Davis Compton, or should I say, Captain Davis Compton.”
“She can call me Compton,” he said as he shook Katelin’s hand. “Glad to finally meet you.”
“Glad to meet you, too. Did he really talk about me?”
“Yeah, he really did. A lot. I suppose I should let the brass debrief you. Barrington was kind enough to let me in the pen to say hello. I worried when I heard you and your family were trapped in the QZ. I’m glad to see you alive, my friend.”
“I’m glad to be seen alive,” Vance told him.
“Before you get out of this dump we should have a drink or ten.”
“I’m good for that,” Vance said.
Compton turned and left the holding pen as Barrington was saying, “Let me show you those quarters.”
“I’d prefer to just leave,” Vance told him. “I’m done being TMRT even if you still want me around.”
“That won’t be a problem.You defied a direct order leaving San Francisco. I think your career in this organization is done,” Barrington said with a bit of a smile.
“Had I stayed, I would be dead and so would she.”
“Among others,” Barrington said. “Including Dr. Talbot, who might be an asshole, but he is a brilliant asshole. Thus the reason you are not under arrest. There was a rumor you might have worked with a foreign agent while in the QZ against our interests.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Good. Keep it that way.”
“So, can we leave?”
“No one leaves our compound after being in the quarantine for at least seventy-two hours. I know, it’s not ideal, but remember, until Talbot called, the policy was no non-TMRT personnel came out of the quarantine at all.”
“That’s, like, three days,” Katelin said.
“It’s exactly three days,” Barrington told her. “Some wanted to keep you locked up in here for at least a week.”
“This sucks,” Katelin replied.
“Yes, but I have to think it is still better than where you were earlier today.”
Neither of them could argue with that. Vance was about to ask when they would be transferred out of the holding pen when his head began to swim. He would have fallen but Barrington and Katelin caught him.
Barrington saw how the field dressing on Vance’s leg had long ago come loose. He had lost a lot of blood. Seeing the mess on his leg, Barrington was amazed Vance had made it even this far.
“Medic,” Barrington yelled.
Vance found himself taken to the infirmary instead of private quarters.
Chapter 6
General Doctor Thompson’s Quarters - TMRT Checkpoint - Phoenix, Arizona
Thompson was not surprised to see the man he only knew as Agent Riley waiting for him when he returned to his room. As a General Doctor, even one who had failed as badly as him, he had deluxe quarters. These quarters included comfortable chairs and a stocked bar. Riley was sitting in one of those chairs sipping on a tumbler filled with single malt scotch over ice.
“Have you been here all day?” Thompson asked as he poured his own glass, neat instead of on the rocks, and took a seat across from Riley.
“No, I know your schedule. Did you learn anything from Talbot?”
“Only that he is still as single-minded as ever. He is still focused on his work, nothing else matters to him.”
“Makes sense, he is trying to stop the rot.”
“He would be the same way if it was boner pills or breast implants.”
“Nothing wrong with those either. I take it he will not be running his mouth then?”
“Not until he finds a cure. After that, who knows?”
“There will be no after that. We are monitoring his research. The moment we feel someone else can take over, he will be dealt with.”
“Dealt with?”
“Don’t worry, we won’t move too soon. He is a genius in his field but he isn’t the only one. It would be better for everybody if the public never found out about either of his forays into the Quarantine Zone.”
“I agree, but…”
“Don’t get soft, you knew what you signed up for. How about the others, Vance in particular?”
“Barrington ran interference. I didn’t get to talk to him. As I guess you already know, he collapsed and they rushed him to the infirmary.”
“Is he going to live?”
“Yes, though he may lose a leg.”
“Unfortunate on both counts.”
“I don’t believe you have to worry about him.”
“Why is that?”
“I suspect whatever he did or didn’t do in the QZ, he is still a patriot. He was a marine before he was TMRT. Even if he knows something, I suspect your secret is safe.”
“I’m going to need more than your suspicion.”
“I’ll work on it. Right now, he is the hero who brought back our top scientist. Since your mission didn’t officially exist, it will be hard to prosecute him for sabotaging it.”
“Who said prosecute?”
“I don’t like what you’re implying.”
“You seem to be missing what is going on here. Vance, and the others who came back with him, will be ‘dealt with.’ I just need you to find out what he and others know. Ideally, the location of the agent he aided and who else knows, so they can be dealt with too.”
“Still seems extreme.”
“Does it? He worked with a hostile foreign agent to undermine a covert operation. That’s treason.”
“So did we. Neither of us are dumb enough to think the target list for our retaliation after we bombed ourselves and blamed the Chinese did not include political enemies as well as areas taken over by the rot. Sounds like we both committed treason. If Talbot can do what he is claiming he can, it won’t matter.”
“It won’t matter anyway.”
“What does that mean?”
“We lost California, people are scared. We don’t need to drum up support anymore for a nuclear strike with some plot, people are ready for it. Look for the missiles to fly any day now.”
“Seriously?”
“The only real argument was there were population centers nearby where the strikes would take place. You losing the rest of the coast took care of that problem.”
“Wha
t about the reports the rot victims start dying off in a month?”
“Remember when that used to be two weeks? In a month, will it be two months?”
“There are reports out of Asia confirming that, though.”
“Even if they can be trusted, why wait?”
“It would give Talbot a chance.”
“It would also give the rot a chance,” Riley said as he stood up and drained his glass of Thompson’s good scotch.
Thompson, who had seen areas he believed to be secure fall to the rot, knew the agent had a point. He didn’t want to concede it, however, so he said nothing as he took a good gulp out of his own drink.
“You may have lost Escondido, and our mission was a bust, but I still like you, Thompson,” Riley told him.
“That’s good to know.”
“It is. That is the kind of information which can make you more confident I didn’t coat your glass with poison.”
Thompson quit drinking. And examined his glass.
Riley reached over and took it from him and then finished off the splash of the single malt.
“I like it better on ice,” he said. After he put down the glass, he said, “Make me keep liking you. Find out what they did.”
“The others are literally kids.”
“All but one is old enough to join the military, and they die all the time.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“There is too much at stake to get morally superior. In fact, I don’t really like morally superior. Do what needs to be done. Then get ready for some fireworks in the next couple days.”
Thompson poured another glass of scotch as Agent Riley let himself out of the room.
Chapter 7
Special Assistant Torrance’s Quarters - TMRT Checkpoint - Phoenix, Arizona
Torrance listened to the conversation between Thompson and Riley, lying on his bed. Since his quarters only had a bed, a desk and chair, no one would consider it to be comfortable. As a special assistant to the General Doctor, he did not get a stocked liquor cabinet either, he had to send out for the whiskey he was sipping as he eavesdropped on his boss’s conversation.
He planted the transmitter he used to listen under the easy chair the TMRT saw fit to give to General Doctors. The two men he was listening to were not the only ones working for foreign governments. Torrance never intended to be a double agent, but when he was approached and told what his boss was planning with forces within our intelligence services, he decided avoiding a nuclear war was important enough to risk it.
He already knew Vance and Ana had acted to stop the plot to trigger an exchange of nukes. He saw them as heroes. Even if the mysterious Agent Riley was correct and the United States had decided to bomb themselves, he thought it was a better solution than making it look like someone else had nuked us, so we could nuke them back.
His problem was that he did not want to see any of the small band of survivors who had beaten the odds and gotten themselves to the right side of the quarantine hurt. They did not know it, and ideally never would, but Torrance was their partner in accomplishing a task which may have saved the world.
His problem would be how to help them without exposing himself.
Chapter 8
Infirmary - TMRT Checkpoint - Phoenix, Arizona
“The good news is we are thinking he will be able to keep the leg,” the doctor told Katelin, who sat in the hallway outside the room where they treated her father.
Bo and Ana were not allowed to wait with her. General Doctor Barrington and Captain Compton had come to sit with her at different times, but they were still on the job and had only so much time to give.
It was weird listening to them talk about her father, a man she had spent much of the last few years hating for leaving her and her mother, with such reverence. It made sense, though, she had seen it herself over the previous days. He may have been a D-minus father, but he was an A-plus soldier. D-minus or not, he was the only parent she had left.
The chair was not very comfortable to sit in, let alone spend the night in, but she had done just that after they took Vance in for treatment.
“What’s the bad news?” she asked.
“His career as an Olympic sprinter is over.”
“Meaning?”
“He may never get full use of the leg back, but he will hardly be handicapped. Unless he has to sprint or jump, I suspect no one will be able to tell. It may mean the end of his military career, or at least change it. His days in combat should be over.”
“That might be a good thing.”“Yes, it certainly might. Otherwise, I expect a full recovery.”
“Is he awake?” she asked.
“No, and he won’t be for a while. As a medical professional, I strongly suggest you go back to the room they prepared for you and get some real rest.”
“I want to wait.”
“I will send for you just before he wakes up.”
Katelin saw the two armed TMRT grunts milling around, waiting to escort her back to her quarters. She had a feeling if the doctor couldn’t convince her to go on her own they would be taking her away against her will anyways. Barrington had to bust out his rank to get her permission to stay this long. He had long since retired to his room, so he would not be able to force them to let her stay. She had to admit the doctor was right. She needed some real rest, and the hard, stiff chair they gave her to wait was not ideal for that. A shower and some clean clothes wouldn’t hurt either.
She stood and said to the soldiers, “Lead the way.”
The way back to her quarters took them past the lab they had set up for Dr. Talbot. As they were going by, he was returning from the mess hall with his breakfast in a box. He nodded at her as he passed by.
“Up early?” she asked.
He stopped at the door and turned to face her. “I haven’t slept yet. I always have difficulty sleeping when I am this close to a breakthrough. Is your father alright?”
“He’ll live and get to keep his leg.”
“Good to hear,” he said.
“I want to ask you something.”“I need to get back to work and your escorts look impatient to get you to your room.”
“I think all of you can wait while I ask one question.”
“I suppose we can,” Talbot replied.
“Are you working on a vaccine or a cure?”
“Not the question I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“Some kind of timeline for when I would be done so you could have your turn kicking my ass.”
“I want to know that, too, but answer my first question.”
“Both, hopefully.”
“You said you were close to a breakthrough, which one are you close to?”
“Hard to say. It is too early to know, but if things go as I think they might, the agent I come up with could do both.”
“So, people with the rot can become themselves again?”
“Hard to say. Some are too far gone to be anything like they used to be. Maybe all of them. The rot could be eliminated, but the damage it has done to their body and mind would leave them husks of their former selves.”
“Then why do it?”
“Well, without the rot they wouldn’t be spreading the rot.”
“Are you sure they couldn’t come back to their normal selves?”
“I can’t know for sure until I try, but I have a hard time seeing it. The damage the rot does is extensive. I’ve given you more than one question, can I ask one?”
“Fire away.”
“Why do you want to know?”
Katelin did not answer.
“Are you hoping there is someone out there you can bring back? Your mother, perhaps?”
Katelin wiped a tear from her eye and said, “Yeah, among others.”
“I wish I could tell you different. I’m sorry, but I need to get back to work,” Talbot told her.
“I guess after finding out my dad would be more or less okay, I was hoping for m
ore good news.”
“I wish I could have given you some. I suppose the closest thing I can give you to good news is I feel close. That ass kicking you have planned for me could just be days, maybe even hours, away,” Talbot told her as he opened the door and went back into the lab.
Katelin stood for a second before one of the soldiers said, “Ma’am, we need to go.”
They brought her to her room, and while it looked more like a decent hotel than a prison cell, when they locked the door it felt more like a prison cell. The first thing she did was text Ana and give her the update on her dad’s condition. Both she and Bo wanted to wait in the hallway outside the infirmary with Katelin, but even Barrington pulling rank couldn’t get them permission to stay.
It was a prison cell with a shower and a phone to call to have food delivered from the mess hall. She took as long and as hot of a shower as she ever had in her short life and put on the loose-fitting TMRT fatigues they had provided for her to wear. Katelin considered calling in an order for breakfast, but found she was more tired than hungry and was soon sleeping on the surprisingly comfortable bed.
Chapter 9
Bo’s Quarters - TMRT Checkpoint - Phoenix, Arizona
Bo woke up with an empty pint of Old Crowe, a collection of empty cans of Coors Light on the floor, and a naked Ana laying on his bare shoulder. When he offered to get drunk together, this was not what he had in mind. Fact was, thoughts of his fiancée, the one he had to kill with his pocket knife when she tried to pass the rot onto him, had come to the surface hard. Once he decided to stay alive, he had been too busy doing that to think about the way he had to kill the woman he planned to marry.
He looked at the bite mark on his arm. If he had not been immune, they would have gotten to spend the rest of their lives together. They would have been brain dead zombies and oblivious to each other, but they would have been together.
Ana woke up as her phone buzzed. Even with his mind full of regret, Bo could not help but notice how good she looked naked as she went and grabbed her phone.