by Bill Ransom
Sonja’s face was swollen and bruised from its impact with the B/M-3’s control panel, and the fresh dressing across her forehead had begun to unravel. The major wished she could put an arm around the girl, tuck in the loose ends and make everything all right.
Everything will never be all right.
Harry lay on his back on his bunk with his forearm over his eyes, unmoving, as he had lain since entering the cubicle twelve hours ago. He was sullen and uncooperative, unresponsive to everyone except Sonja Bartlett and Marte Chang.
A small group of visitors, including Major Scholz, sat in a Plexiglas enclosure about five meters from the isolettes. This enclosure served as an observation post and briefing room, with data channels, voice and visuals piped into each isolette.
Solaris, Ambassador Simpson, President Garcia and his four bodyguards—all looked straight ahead and shifted in their seats.
President Garcia spoke first, addressing the major.
“It is my understanding that you have captured that traitor, Rico Toledo, is that correct?”
“My dad is alive?” Harry asked. “My dad is alive and you didn’t tell me? You bastards are as bad as those Gardener bastards. . . .”
The major felt her face flush with anger. She raised a hand to Harry, asking him to wait. Her anger was an uncharacteristic loss of composure, and that discomfort made her flush all the more. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Harry fist the wall of his isolette. The major glanced at Solaris, and he nodded his approval.
“Colonel Toledo has been rescued’’ she said, “that is correct. Fortunately for the Colonel, and for us, a SEAL team was laying over at the airport on its way to Tegucigalpa when we intercepted that SOS sent out by Harry and Sonja. Your people, though on the scene, chose to shoot these three down rather than assist them in their escape attempt. The SEALs found Colonel Toledo entangled in a logjam five kilometers from the site.”
“Will your government be prosecuting Mr. Toledo?” President Garcia interrupted.
Solaris, seeing the major’s difficulty controlling her emotional state, stood to reply for her. The four bodyguards shifted and the one nearest Solaris unbuttoned his coat and reached inside.
“I do not need to harm this man,” Solaris told the bodyguard. “Besides, by the time the day’s over, you’ll probably kill him yourself.”
Solaris turned his attention to an indignant President Garcia.
“We will not prosecute Colonel Toledo,” Solaris announced. “As of this morning he has been reinstated with full rank and privileges. If this man survives he will receive a commendation, sir, for his persistence in this most timely, most horrifying matter and I promise you that you will not prosecute him, either.”
“This is not the United States,” Garcia said, performing his famous sneer. “You have no authority here.”
“Obviously, Mr. Garcia, you have learned nothing this morning,” Solaris said. “Bartlett set up his computer to automatically intercept every communication between Dajaj Mishwe and Joshua Casey. Thanks to the quick thinking of Colonel Toledo’s son, here, you saw a few of those memos for yourself—including Casey’s reprimand of Mishwe for ‘engineering that embassy incident.’ I can’t imagine what charges you could bring against the Colonel, even if you remained in office long enough to do it. I brought you here, sir, to show you what we are about to disclose around the world. I suggest you listen carefully, then return to your office and pack your bags.”
Solaris accepted Garcia’s glare with a curt nod, then returned to his seat. All four bodyguards had begun to sweat profusely, in spite of the air-conditioning.
“You have nothing,” Garcia said. “Anyone could write those memos and place them on a screen. The boy himself could have written them. My people say that Toledo bombed the embassy, trying to kill his ex-wife, then conspired with the guerrillas to destroy ViraVax to execute an old vendetta against the Children of Eden. Mr. Toledo is a Catholic. The bomb was in his car. . . .”
“And nearly killed Toledo himself,” Ambassador Simpson said.
She dismissed the President’s accusations with a wave of her hand.
“Surely an experienced agent could do better than that, without threat to himself.”
“An experienced agent in his right mind, perhaps,” Garcia countered. “Your people have had to clean up after him for years. You did not let him go because of his domestic problems. You let him go because he was worthless.”
A tone sounded from Marte’s Sidekick, then a gasp from Marte herself caught everyone’s attention.
“Major,” she said, “I think we have a problem.”
Marte’s voice was soft, deathly serious.
Sonja had stopped crying and Harry, his face pasty with anger, snapped, “What is it?”
“Sonja told us in last night’s debriefing that Mishwe had bragged about them being his Adam and Eve. He also bragged that the Angel of the Lord would purify the Garden, readying it for their use.”
“Yes. Go on.”
“Well, the monthly shipment of vaccines went out yesterday, just before the Sabbath shutdown.”
The major felt the uneasy prickle of fear on her arms and the back of her neck.
“Yes?”
“They are shipped to the World Health Organization, signed out by Mishwe himself,” Marte said. “Enough vaccine for a half million infants, to be distributed in every country of the world. I think his Meltdown agent is in that shipment.”
“A half million. . . ?”
“What makes you think it’s there?” Solaris asked.
Marte continued to scan the readout on her Sidekick. She made another entry, then leaned back in her chair.
“He’s altered the artificial viral agent,” she said. “The structural change shows up in Mishwe’s log. An earlier version was included in one of the bursts I sent your Agency. I didn’t have time to analyze everything I sent. I don’t know what that particular alteration will do without a lot more equipment than this, but I can guess.”
“What’s your guess, Dr. Chang?” Ambassador Simpson asked.
“He’s engineered it to spread on its own, without an inoculation or ingestion,” she said.
Marte’s voice trembled on the verge of tears, and the major thought that Marte Chang was one who did not cry easily.
“How would it spread?” Solaris asked.
“Probably by contact with infected tissue or by-products. Based on what he told Harry and Sonja, I think he intends to wipe out every last human being on this planet who is not sealed into the bottom level of ViraVax.”
“Can you be sure?” Solaris asked.
“Only by analyzing a sample, and that would have to be under strictest precautions,” Marte said. “But the risk, the possibility, is too great to waste time. We’ll have to account for every last drop of that shipment. If he’s changed it the way I think he has, even one Meltdown could eventually kill us all.”
“Can we stop it at the airport?” Solaris asked.
“Too late,” Marte said. “It’s already in Mexico City for breakdown and distribution. The Children of Eden has its own facilities there, and a network of meeting places and storage units throughout the city.”
“Notify WHO and Mexico’s airport security,” Solaris ordered Major Scholz. “Get our people out to the airport immediately. Nobody opens anything, nobody lets any part of this shipment move.”
“What if it’s already broken up and shipped?” Harry asked.
Solaris rubbed the back of his neck with his death-white hand, and addressed the major.
“Find it,” he said. “And get it back. I don’t care if it takes a nuclear strike.”
“Yes, sir,” the major said.
She relayed the appropriate orders via her Sidekick. President Garcia rose to leave and his guards took up their escort positions.
“You are making a big mistake,” Garcia said. “Toledo is guilty. The rest is a sham, a persecution of a peaceful, religious people. My administration wil
l not cooperate with what you call a witch-hunt.”
“You won’t have a choice,” Ambassador Simpson said, and smiled. “By this time tomorrow, you and your goons won’t be calling the shots here anymore.”
“What do you mean, threatening the President of the Confederation of Costa Brava? This is my country, not yours.”
“It’s not a threat,” the ambassador said, “and you forget who handed you that presidency. We have released the information about Project Labor to the press, along with details of the millions of involuntary sterilizations you have authorized and the related trade in transplantable organs. That information has been documented. Harry, Sonja and Dr. Chang have documented the spontaneous combustion of the personnel of the ViraVax facility. If ViraVax and the Children of Eden are found guilty of nothing else, if this vaccine turns up untainted, you are still the ex-President of the Confederation of Costa Brava. You will be lucky to escape execution.”
Garcia’s face was livid and his hands trembled at his sides. He clenched and unclenched his fists to gain control, then signaled his men and left without a word.
“What an asshole,” Harry hissed.
“Hear, hear,” the ambassador replied.
A message beep sounded for Major Scholz. She glanced at her Sidekick and bit her lip.
“Your father is conscious,” she told Harry.
“Will he make it?” he asked. “Can I talk to him?”
The major shook her head.
“Still critical,” she said. “Our people are with him now. Perhaps he can help us with this vaccine problem. I’ll find out how soon you can see him.”
“What about Garcia’s men?” Harry asked. “They’ve killed people back home on the White House lawn.”
“You won’t have to worry about Garcia anymore,” the ambassador said. “Besides, we brought in a Night School team to baby-sit your father, just in case.”
“I’ll make preparations so that you can communicate, Harry,” Solaris promised.
The albino’s glance met the major’s, and she felt relieved.
“I’d like to talk privately with you,” he added, “if you don’t mind.”
“What about Sonja?” Harry asked. “We’re kind of a set, if you know what I mean. We won’t give each other anything we don’t already have. And after all this, we don’t have any secrets left, either. No sense starting them now.”
Solaris smiled.
“We will see,” he said. “What I have to say, Sonja should hear as well. Please give us a private channel, Major, and we will let you all be about your business.”
Chapter 43
Rico Toledo woke up inside a bubble of Plexiglas. He had IV lines in both arms, a tube down his nose, several machines beeping out of sync and a body that felt like it was skinned. He could only see out of his left eye, and that one was blurry. Rico tried to lift his head to get a look at his body, but he was restrained. If pain was any indicator, all of his parts were still attached.
“Relax, Colonel,” a deep voice said. “We’ll be here a while.”
A black man in fatigues loomed into view, the name “Clyde, J.” stitched over his pocket. He wore SEAL and corpsman insignia on his fatigues.
“Where?”
“Joe Clyde Memorial Hospital,” the medic said with a chuckle. “We’re in the back end of a warehouse in beautiful La Libertad, Colonel. Pearl of the Pacific.”
“I’m not a colonel.”
“You’re reinstated, sir.”
“Harry? What about Harry?”
“I’ll ask the questions, Colonel, if you please.”
The voice came from a speaker above his head and was not the deep voice of Joe Clyde. This was the effete voice of a career bureaucrat.
Rico turned his head slowly and saw his jowly, damp-handed replacement at a console outside the glass. He wore a telephone operator’s headset and an expression of complete disgust.
“Okay, Colonel. Please tell us the last thing you remember doing today.”
“You tell me about Harry, and I’ll tell you whatever I damned well please whenever I damned well please. Clear?”
Something had taken the skin off the inside of Rico’s throat, and talking felt like hot sandpaper in his larynx.
“Your son’s okay,” Clyde said. “The girl, too.”
“Mr. Clyde,” the bureaucrat snapped, “I’ll speak to your superior about this. I’m conducting this interview. And I decide when, or whether, you get out of there.”
“No, you don’t, Major,” another voice said. “You’re relieved. Do not leave the building. I’ll speak to you when I’m through.”
Rico tried to remember that voice. So familiar, and his mind was so unwilling. . . .
“It’s Trenton Solaris, Colonel, do you remember me?”
Rico smiled in spite of his torn lips.
“Yes, sir. Vividly, sir.”
“Fine. Then I’ll brief you if you’ll brief me.”
“Fair.”
“Harry, Sonja and the Chang woman are safe. Grace and Nancy Bartlett are still at the embassy for precautions, but they have talked with Harry and Sonja by phone. You are all in quarantine. We don’t know what you may have picked up. How much do you remember?”
Images flashed through Rico’s mind, like a stack of transparencies dropped into a whirlpool. He could pick out a melting face here, a burning building there, but nothing made sense. Solaris must have guessed his dilemma.
“Okay, Colonel, what’s the last thing you remember clearly?”
“Cleaning out my desk,” Rico croaked. “Turning in my keys.”
“That was quite a while ago, Colonel. A lot has happened since then. You went on vacation. The embassy blew up, the Jaguar Mountain Dam blew up.”
“I remember the dam,” Rico said. “The water. . . I was smashed against the fence.”
“Do you remember which fence?”
“ViraVax,” he said, and the memories started flooding back.
“ViraVax, south fence,” he said. “I opened the access hatch covers to let the water in. That prick Garcia shot down Harry and Sonja.”
“Very good,” Solaris said, and his voice sounded relieved.
“Now, what did you see there at ViraVax? Anything unusual?”
Rico started to laugh, but it hurt too much.
“Unusual?” He coughed as gently as he could. “Unusual? People melting off their bones and burning up by themselves, charges shutting down every available entry and exit. Guerrillas blowing up the dam . . . ”
“It wasn’t the Peace and Freedom people,” Solaris interrupted. “The charges were planted and timers set before they got there. The squad leader says they tried to warn you, but you didn’t receive the message.”
Rico felt relieved. He remembered that moment of doubt before blackness, when he’d thought that El Indio and Yolanda had betrayed him.
“ViraVax, then,” Rico said. “Whoever went into shutdown.”
“Exactly. And the man who did it is the one who killed Red Bartlett. He also set up the incident at the embassy to turn our people against you. He kidnapped Harry and Sonja to lure you in. You were a loose end that needed tying up.”
“How do you know this?”
“Harry rescued a data block that Red Bartlett set up. It was full of product that the Chang woman couldn’t find. You should be proud of Harry. He could have fled and we would never know what we’re facing.”
Rico’s flickering memory focused on Harry, bent over him at ViraVax, helping him to his feet.
“I am very proud of Harry,” Rico said. “But I don’t understand why I’m so important to ViraVax. I was out of their hair. Why go to all this trouble over me?”
Solaris was silent for a moment.
“I’d rather get into that later, Colonel. Right now, it’s important that we find something that was shipped out of ViraVax to Mexico City, for distribution elsewhere. We need to know the locations of all Children of Eden clandestine operations in Mexico City. Do you
have that information?”
Rico tried to remember, but nothing came up. He couldn’t tell whether he simply didn’t remember, or whether he had never known at all.
“I don’t remember. . . I don’t know,” he said.
“How about your contacts?” Solaris pressed. “This is something big, something that could take out every human on the planet. We don’t have the luxury of playing sides.”
“Try Mariposa,” Rico said. “She has several hundred people in Mexico City. It’s their job to keep track of everything and everybody related to this country. She could do it.”
“Who is Mariposa?” Solaris asked. “How do we find her?”
“Get on the webs and ask,” Rico said. “She’ll contact you.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
“Then get me a priest.” Rico said. “And get these restraints off me. It’s bad enough I have to be locked up, I don’t have to be tied up, too.”
Solaris must have okayed the request. Clyde unsnapped the restraints right away.
“Why a priest?” Solaris asked.
“Because I still don’t trust anybody,” Rico said. “Make it somebody from the Archbishop’s office, somebody I know. I’ll tell him how to find Mariposa.”
With Clyde’s help and a lot of pain, he scooted himself up to a sitting position. Rico’s mind, the string of images that made his mind, felt shuffled and misdealt. He did not want to give away someone as precious as Yolanda or El Indio because of a basic miscaution. His superior should understand that better than anyone.
“What are you doing out at ViraVax?” Rico asked. “Are you going to dig it out, find out what happened?”
More of a probe than a question. Rico didn’t want to take any chances on releasing whatever it was that holed itself up underground.
“Not a chance,” Solaris replied. “The Corps of Engineers has already diverted the stream. After what Dr. Chang revealed about their operations, we’re going to cement over the whole thing and see to it that nothing and no one ever gets out.”
Rico weighed this for a moment. He had never known Solaris to be anything but sincere and direct. He found that refreshing in a superior.