Starting the Slowpocalypse (Books 1-3 Omnibus)

by James Litherland

  Caroline had high hopes of winning the support of both the good doctor and Jeffrey. They wanted to do right by the community and could be persuaded. Verity would surely support Dean Kittner in a bid to be First Councilor, to keep the FURC run by a block of administrators. But while Dr. Harker was part of that bureaucracy, she didn’t always align with them. That left whoever was chosen to replace Radley and the student representative, who was surely the wildest card of them all. Caroline liked her chances.

  After having calculated those odds for the umpteenth time, she checked her watch, then tapped on the table with her nails. “Ladies and gentleman, it’s five minutes after the half hour. Perhaps we should start. We’re two down, but if any of you haven’t yet heard, George Radley won’t be coming. And I don’t think we need to wait on Sara.” The girl was habitually late, and had thus managed to irritate the rest of her fellow councilors. “Are there any objections?”

  Dean Kittner was the only one who hesitated to proceed. “I don’t know. We’re supposed to finalize our negotiations with the administration today, and so this will be a particularly important session.”

  Caroline sighed. “We can save that business for last, by which time hopefully Sara will have shown.” She turned to Dr. Harker. “Before we begin with old business from our last meeting, perhaps you would give us a report on this flu outbreak. I understand it is the flu, and not some sort of sabotage?”

  Amita set down her workpad and nodded. “It’s the flu, alright, but I’m classifying it as an outbreak. There are unusual aspects that concern me, and we are working hard to contain the spread. So I should be at the clinic now, doing my job, rather than here for this…” She trailed off with a shrug.

  “We appreciate your being here with us, and we know how important your work is, but you have the responsibility to help us with these tasks as well. I’ll try to keep today’s session as short as possible.” Fat chance of her having any success in that today. “So you can get back to the clinic and your work there.”

  The doctor didn’t look like she had much expectation it could be a short session either. “Anyway, it is a mild strain, and we’ve only seen one severe case so far, so there’s no reason to worry.”

  Caroline nodded and glanced around at the other councilors again. “Dean Kittner mentioned that we hope to hammer out the details of precisely what authority the director is relinquishing to the council in toto—and I’m sure Deputy Director Belue is more than capable of doing that on his behalf—as well as what exact powers our new leader will have.” They also needed to decide on the job title. Caroline had pretty much settled on ‘First Councilor’ but she still had to nudge them into accepting the suggestion.

  Alice sat straighter in her chair and glared. “We said we were going to wait for Sara before we began those negotiations.”

  “And we will. I only wanted to remind everyone that at our next session we’ll formally nominate the candidates for the election. So we should all consider carefully who would best lead not only this council but the community. Who we would support, or if any of us feels ready for such responsibility.”

  Only council members themselves could run, as the position was supposed to be analogous to prime minister. Surely Sara wouldn’t put herself forward. But if she did, it was hard to imagine who would second her nomination. And George Radley’s eventual replacement, even if he’d been chosen by the next session, would still be too new to the council to run. Neither Jeffrey nor Dr. Harker had the ambition for it, and Verity was disqualified due to her position as deputy director. So Caroline already knew who her opponent would be. The nominations would be but a formality.

  “Now I’m sure there must be some old business we can get out of the way while we wait for Sara.”

  Before they could proceed with that though, the girl bounded into the room with a non-apology. “I’m not even a half hour late, so you needn’t bother saying anything to me about it.”

  Dean Kittner turned around in her chair to give the girl an irritated glare. “This is an especially important—”

  Sara waved her hands at the woman and cut her off. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve got evening classes and work nights. Surely you wouldn’t want me to show up for such an important session without having gotten some sleep. Otherwise what use would it be for me to come at all?”

  Caroline bit back a reply that there wasn’t much use anyway. She needed to be on her best behavior, at least for the time being, and always remembering she was on camera. The rest of them seemed to forget that, perhaps because the video wasn’t transmitted live. Or maybe they assumed no one watched.

  She smiled at Sara. “I’m sure we all understand you have commitments.” As did every one of them, but everyone else managed to make it on time. “We hadn’t gotten around to any vital business yet, as it happens, and you’re here now.” Surely Sara would not be late for Wednesday’s meeting.

  Alice swiveled her head so she could continue to glare as Sara casually took the seat between her and the doctor. As soon as the girl had settled herself in, Dean Kittner turned that basilisk stare on Caroline. “We need to discuss the implications of the news we saw revealed this morning. George should really be the one here explaining, but since he didn’t stay and see things through—” She didn’t get to finish whatever she’d been trying to say, for every eye suddenly looked past her.

  Caroline had been the first to notice a figure appearing in the doorway behind Alice. Ms. Belue had been just as quick to see the new arrival, but Kittner was the last to find out when she swiveled around to discover what everyone else was staring at. And the focus of all that attention was Alvin Fox.

  Having effected the kind of grand entrance that Caroline had denied herself, Mr. Fox sauntered into the room with a wide grin on his face. Tall and skinny, he was wearing an impeccably tailored suit.

  “My apologies for arriving late, ladies. And Jeffrey.” He nodded at the landscaper before focusing on Caroline. “The FURCSnet just finished confirming the votes and making me George’s replacement on the council.”

  Alice spluttered. “But Radley just resigned this morning. They can’t possibly have decided this fast who should represent them.”

  He shook his head in sadness. “I’m sure you’re used to taking days to deliberate every little thing in administration, but businessmen don’t like to waste time. The business leaders in this community especially disliked the idea of going without representation on the council in the present situation. So here I am.”

  Now that the full council was in session, Jeffrey stuck a bookmark in his place and began paying attention. Dean Kittner kept frowning, and Sara continued to lounge in her chair. Alvin Fox could have chosen to sit between Alice and Verity, but he opted to sit between Dr. Harker and Caroline. Smiling all around he leaned forward in his chair. “So what did I miss?”

  Caroline smiled back warmly. “Dr. Harker just reported on the flu bug that’s going around, making sure we know there’s nothing to worry about. Then I suggested everyone carefully consider who should receive their support for leading the council and the community as First Councilor. I’m sure you’ll want to think about that yourself.”

  Mr. Fox dismissed all of that with a wave of his hand. “Do you go over old business first, or can we start right in on discussing why my predecessor had to resign?”

  Dean Kittner jumped on that right away. “That is exactly what I was trying to bring up when you interrupted. The safety of our food supply and state of our food stores is of the upmost concern, and needs to be dealt with immediately—”

  Caroline held her palm in the air and somehow stopped Alice’s incipient speech. “I don’t think anything is so urgent that we can’t proceed in an orderly fashion.” She turned to Fox, sitting on her right. “To address your first question—you’re new and we want you to understand how these sessions are conducted. As you’re aware, every meeting is recorded and available for viewing on the FURCSnet.”

  He nodded. “I
know. I wish I’d had the chance to watch the last few and catch up before I came, but I didn’t have enough time.”

  Caroline smiled. “I’m sure you’re a fast learner and will figure out all you need to know about us by the next meeting.” Unfortunately. “Anyway, we all expect each other to familiarize ourselves with any outstanding issues that might need to be addressed at the next session. And we open meetings with an offer to bring up those existing questions before we move on to any new business.”

  “Very efficient. I’ll make sure to study the video of those previous sessions quite carefully.”

  Caroline was rather certain he meant that. And though the new council hadn’t existed for very long, she was sure there would be more than enough footage for Mr. Fox to get a good read on them all. She’d seen the gleam of cunning in his eyes and knew. He would be studying her, and she had no way to get a similar handle on him. For now. That made him an even wilder card than Sara. Squinting across at her, Caroline wished the girl would at least bother to pay attention to these sessions while they were going on around her. There was no point hoping Sara would study the issues.

  Glancing at her fellow councilors in turn, Caroline asked the question. “Alright, does anyone want to bring up any old business to resolve?” Everyone sat in silence for a long moment. So she dipped her head toward Mr. Fox. “Then we can proceed to the new business, the first of which must be welcoming Alvin Fox as our newest member. I’m sure you will take the responsibility seriously, Mr. Fox.”

  “Oh, I intend to. And you should call me Alvin, since I’m going to be working with you so closely.” He turned and smiled at the rest of his fellow councilors. “Of course that goes for all of you.”

  The rest mumbled their welcomes. Once they’d finished, Verity leaned forward and spoke. “As this issue has already been raised, and I’ve no doubt the questions are foremost in all of your minds, I think I should go ahead and make the administration’s position clear. While we always intended to reveal the details surrounding the sabotage done as part of the last aborted attack on the compound, we had hoped to have this conversation at some later date. When it would be easier for the residents to keep calm and engage in reasonable dialogue.”

  In her head, Caroline translated that meandering explanation to mean Miles had hoped to keep it secret until it was all ancient history—when nobody cared anymore. Typical of the way he ran things.

  Verity continued. “But since the news leaked, it has become imperative to inform the community so that gossip and half-truths don’t cause a lot of people to become upset unnecessarily.”

  Alvin arched an eyebrow at her. “Unnecessarily upset? Years worth of wheat was contaminated and then destroyed, and you kept that secret. So all this time our supplies of flour have been running out on us, and we didn’t know about it. We’ve got a right to be mad.”

  Caroline needed to trump that only too effective speech. “Of course we’re angry.” Her husband had never told her any of this, so she had a right to get in on the outrage. “I don’t condone the administration withholding these things from us.”

  Dean Kittner snorted. “Are you daring to claim you knew none of this?”

  Keeping her posture erect and putting ice in her voice, Caroline responded. “If I had found out, you should know the first thing I’d have done would’ve been to reveal it on my show. And if you don’t know that, I’m sure everyone else does.”

  Verity leaned forward again. “The main thing is to make sure everyone understands that, even if we run out of bread and pasta and such, we are not going to run out of food. We still have plenty of nutritious provisions for the future—”

  Caroline hated to interrupt the woman, but she had to stop that kind of talk. Relegating donuts and muffins and crackers and cookies to ‘and such’ was a good way to get them all lynched. “The real problem is finding a remedy to replace all the foods people love. Meanwhile we need to make sure they can feel free to vent their feelings in the right way, without resorting to violence. They need to know we’re working on a solution, and we should invite them to help us.”

  This time it was Sara who spoke as soon as she’d finished, and not to help. “This is the worst possible time for Chief Nelson to be out sick. There have already been increasing incidents of violence, as all of you well know, and we’ve had a difficult time trying to deal with them as it is. Not that I’m blaming anyone,” she added. “It’s just that there are so few of us in Security. We need more officers.”

  Caroline found her lips twitching. Sara had not mentioned Ms. Belue’s son being out sick as a difficulty, implying that it wasn’t. She’d also spoken as if she were an officer herself, rather than still nothing but a trainee.

  Alice pounced on Sara’s comments then to issue a gloomy pronouncement. “As the situation inevitably deteriorates, Security won’t be able to keep control. That’s what it sounds like you’re saying. How will we maintain order?”

  Caroline bared her teeth in a transparently fake smile. “I’m sure Chief Nelson didn’t choose to come down with the flu right now. We need to do our job and support Security in doing theirs. And if we can get on top of this flour situation, then hopefully people won’t get so upset they become violent. Let’s not borrow trouble, but rather focus on what we should do right now.”

  Verity nodded in agreement. “And while we let Security get on with its job of stopping and catching violent offenders, part of our job is figuring out how to deal with them afterwards. Right now, these people are simply being taken to the new detention center, but as for what to do with them then—that’s one of the points Director Miles considers should be addressed by this council, not the administration.”

  Still slouched in her chair, Sara interjected. “It certainly hasn’t done a good job so far. That Lacey Petrovich who was working with our enemies—they not only released her, they gave her a job working as a guard, protecting us from the kind of attack she’d been party to.” Though speaking to Verity, Sara had stared at Caroline. That had been a none too subtle dig at Katherine, who had requested Lacey’s parole.

  Ms. Belue answered for the administration. “As Lacey Petrovich was simply a mercenary hired to do a job, and since she cooperated fully with the investigation, the administration felt, upon reviewing the facts of her case…”

  Tuning out the rest of Verity’s comments, Caroline stifled the impulse to massage her temples in an attempt to relieve an oncoming headache. This was obviously going to be a long and contentious council session. Even Dr. Harker could see that—the woman was already getting fidgety. She could just get up and go back to the clinic if she really wanted, but the doctor continued to sit and pay attention.

  Caroline couldn’t just up and leave, not without a better excuse than a headache. But neither should she have to listen to it all.

  Chapter 5

  Setting an Example

  9:55 p.m. Tuesday, May 20th

  KAT felt a stranger in a strange land as she stalked into Security HQ. For a long time she had been too busy learning her Guard duties to spend much time hanging around here. Then when she’d really needed to come around, Tony would try to avoid her, and she’d refused to visit only to be rebuffed by his new attitude. But she was still a security officer at heart, and they were two officers down with Tony and David both out sick. They would want her help, as she had more experience than all the junior officers put together. Much more in some ways.

  At least Hope still sat behind the duty desk and beamed at everyone who walked into the lobby. Kat gave the girl a wide, genuine smile. How could anyone not respond in kind to Hope? “Evening. Is Salazar around?” Michael Salazar was supervising this shift, but he could easily be out patrolling.

  Unusual for her, Hope cast a worried glance behind her. “He’s in the chief’s office, having an argument with Sara.”

  Knowing she had to look pretty grim herself, Kat nodded her thanks as she crossed the lobby and was buzzed through the gate. With Tony away, the mice wi
ll play. The sheer effrontery of the man—Salazar might be in charge of this shift while Tony was unavailable, but it wasn’t like he was the acting chief or anything. And yet it sounded as if he had appropriated Tony’s office in the interim. Or maybe Kat was jumping to conclusions.

  On the other hand, the man might know something she didn’t. If they really just had mild cases of the flu, why were they being isolated? This virus going around might be a lot more dangerous than anyone was letting on. If Tony were deathly ill, he likely still wouldn’t tell her, and her father and the administration would want to keep it quiet—their security chief at death’s door, and possibly the director himself seriously ill? And the risk of an epidemic? They would want to avoid creating a panic.

  Tony certainly hadn’t looked too good when she had seen him in the clinic yesterday. But Kat had to stop thinking about him. It wasn’t doing any good, so she should focus her thoughts on something else. Chief Cameron had come on duty this morning with one of those paper masks over his nose and mouth, and he’d avoided getting too close to anyone, and he was the last person to take unnecessary precautions about a little thing like the flu. That’s probably what had put this notion in her head—the outbreak could be much more serious than they’d said. Already Kat had heard of several new flu victims being sent over to the clinic today. Security was fortunate to only be down two officers. So far.

  Noticing her friend Susan sitting and munching on a sandwich as she filled out one of the daily logs, Kat paused at the break room door. “I notice you’re enjoying the bread while it lasts. Busy shift?”