ViraVax

by Bill Ransom

  “Do we have a phone in here?” he asked Clyde.

  “Phone, console, the works,” Clyde said. “Whatever you need, we’ve got.”

  Rico addressed Solaris.

  “If I get Mariposa for you, I want two things.”

  “Name them, Colonel.”

  “Amnesty for Mariposa. And I want to talk with my son.”

  “Done. You know I’ve always been good for my word.”

  “Yes,” Rico said. “I know. But before we do anything else, I want to talk with Harry.”

  “There’s a lot to tell you both, Colonel.”

  “It can wait,” Rico said. “This can’t. Put him on.”

  The connection was made through a speakerphone, and Rico hated speakerphones. He preferred to hold something, it gave him a better sense of control. The screen cleared and Harry appeared, looking rested and unafraid.

  He looks like me.

  Rico had had this thought before, but this time the resemblance was more than striking, it was frightening.

  “Hello, son,” he croaked. “Good job.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Harry said. “Same to you. Are you going to be okay?”

  “I think so,” Rico said. “Feels like I’ve been skinned, but I think everything’s here.”

  “Looks pretty rough,” Harry said.

  Silence.

  “Harry, I’m sorry about the shot. . . I had to do it; I couldn’t let you go back there.”

  “I know, Dad,” Harry said. “If I’d had the gun, I’d have done the same thing. Chill.”

  “Your mom’s okay, Nancy’s okay.”

  “Yeah, we just talked to them. They both say thanks, too.”

  “Colonel,” Solaris interrupted, “we have some pressing business.”

  “Yes,” Rico said, “we do. I’ll talk with you soon, son.”

  “Okay,” Harry said, “take care.”

  The screen went blank as he added, “I love you, too.”

  Chapter 44

  Harry listened in stunned silence as Major Scholz and Marte Chang finished explaining the known pathways of his genetic past. The information did not frighten him; he had lived in his body and felt comfortable there. But the implications of a lifetime of imprisonment frightened him, imprisonment for someone else’s crime.

  “The memory booster came out of Alzheimer’s research,” Marte was saying. “You and Sonja both have a subtle learning advantage, but it remains to be seen whether you keep it or not. Perhaps, with aging. . . ”

  “You mean, this thing that you say boosted our memories might give us that old folks’ disease?”

  “It’s an unknown,” Marte said. “Possible, but we can’t tell without further research. It hasn’t made you brilliant, you know. It simply gave you access to more detailed information within a beefed-up storage area.”

  She quoted him figures on “glial cell production” and “collateral access.”

  “Well, what does that mean?” Harry asked. “Is it congenital, like diabetes or something? Can we pass it on? Are we going to burn up like Red Bartlett?”

  “Red was a whole different matter,” Major Scholz said. “And so were the rest of those people at ViraVax. They all died the same day they were infected.”

  “You’re probably clear,” Marte said. “Our guerrilla friends intercepted the entire shipment in Mexico, so we’ll know by morning what our infection status is. We won’t be in isolation forever.”

  “You won’t be in isolation forever,” Harry said. “You aren’t one of the world’s only pair of living human clones. We got away from that dzee at ViraVax, but his accommodations weren’t any different than this. We’re still going to be freaks, locked up and poked at for the rest of our lives. I wish I’d died down there.”

  The major stood and pressed her hand against the glass.

  “I promise you that won’t happen,” she said.

  “Sorry, Major,” Harry said. “I don’t think you have much say in the matter.”

  “I promise you,” she repeated.

  Harry inhaled deeply and let it out slowly.

  “Chill,” he said. “We’ll take all the help we can get.”

  “Do you have questions?” Marte asked. “Anything to do with the science?”

  “We’re actually twins?” Harry asked. “Like, brothers?”

  Marte’s figure on his screen nodded.

  “Well, he’s your father, too,” she said. “That’s a role, a social position, as well as a biology. But genetically you’re actually identical twins, except for your memory boost. A generation apart, of course.”

  “What about Sonja?” Harry asked. “How could she be cloned through her dad, when she’s a twin of her mom? I don’t get it.”

  “Her dad’s sperm was the vector for the cloning agent,” she explained. “That’s how it was introduced into Nancy Bartlett. It is ingenious, I must say. It excluded all of Red Bartlett’s genetic material and triggered Nancy Bartlett’s ovum to duplicate its own nuclear material. The only material accepted from Sonja’s father was the memory enhancement. You are right, it would be most interesting to find out what each of you passes on, and whether the offspring of the two of you would be, as Mishwe must have thought, superhuman. Quite a lot to study, there. . . .”

  “Whoa,” Harry said. “Enough. Nobody studies this lab rat anymore. Not until we get some rights sorted out.”

  “I understand,” Marte said. “But you must admit, it’s very interesting. Surely you can see why Mishwe was tempted.”

  “Tempted to watch? Yes. Tempted to kill off everyone in the goddamn world? Not really. What I can see is this—the more of you scientists that know about this, the slimmer my chances of walking out of here alive. And what about Sonja? And my dad?”

  “Your father will never be as strong physically,” Major Scholz explained. “He has a lot of mind stuff to work out—most of it dealing with you and your mom, but plenty that doesn’t. Don’t give up on him. He thought he died a hero two days ago. Now he has to work out some old things before he can be on to a new life. Give him some time.”

  The peel in Harry’s isolette cleared, and the superpale face of Trenton Solaris replaced the major.

  “I see you have heard the news,” Solaris said.

  “Fuck the news,” Harry said. “I want some sunshine.”

  “And you’ll get it,” Solaris said. “Blood tests just came back, and none of you is infected with Mishwe’s Meltdown agent. You will be free to go within the hour. There is one condition.”

  “What’s that?” Harry asked. “Sign myself into some secret Agency research farm?”

  Solaris chuckled. “No, nothing like that,” he said. “Your anger at the violation you have experienced is normal, but it should not be ignored. You will all be given access to counseling for this most unusual situation, and I urge you to take advantage of it. You share your father’s genetics, but you make your own destiny. Dr. Chang has offered her services to rid him of the viral curse that Mishwe spun against him. Whatever you offer us for study, Harry, we will accept gratefully. If you want to disappear, we owe you that, too.”

  “Does Sonja know?”

  “I talked to her about an hour ago,” the major said. “She knows everything that we know.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “She said she wanted to see you. In person.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I don’t see why we can’t do that now,” Solaris said. “Both Grace Toledo and Nancy Bartlett are on their way. We have a surprise for Sonja that is not quite ready, so please bear with us.”

  Major Scholz tapped out a sequence in her gloveware and released the seals in their isolettes. Harry met Sonja in front of the conference chamber and they hugged long and hard without speaking. For once, Harry didn’t care who was watching.

  Chapter 45

  Sonja stood with Major Scholz at the double doors to a hangar adjacent to the warehouse. They waited for the surprise that Solaris promised, while Harr
y visited with his father. She would have to talk with her mother, too, about what she had learned this morning. She hoped it would not have to be today.

  The sun felt hotter than ever, and the brilliance of it hurt her eyes, but Sonja refused both hat and sunglasses. She wanted to feel her freedom through its twin messengers of sun and wind. The steady stream of planes taking off and landing nearby reminded her of the good times she’d had in Mariposa and of the little biplane’s sad end. The plane had been a big part of her life, but she felt guilty about grieving for a thing when she had seen so many innocent people die.

  “I’m so sad about all those deficientes,” she said. “They were. . . funny. You know, curious, and all they wanted was to please. Who could kill them all like that after living among them?”

  She couldn’t go on.

  “Yes,” the major agreed, “I understand. The best thing that could happen to him happened, and you don’t have to feel bad about that. You helped stop him, and I thank you personally. The research team says we would be dead now. . . I would be dead now. . . if you hadn’t.”

  Sonja sighed, and watched Harry exit the side door of the neighboring warehouse. He held his hand over his eyes for a moment. When he saw her, his face became one huge grin and he hurried over.

  “There’s the embassy limo,” the major said. “It’s your mother and Grace Toledo.”

  The major stepped aside as the four of them helped themselves to a tearful reunion. When Sonja hugged her mother and touched her face, her skin, it was as though she touched her for the first time.

  We are the same, she thought. The very same.

  Just then, two airmen rolled back the hangar doors and a small military band stumbled into her favorite Knuckleheads tune, “Skyborne.” The glare outside made it impossible for her to see inside the hangar, but she glimpsed something red. Sergeant Trethewey stepped out of the shadows and waved her forward.

  “Come on,” Major Scholz said, her hand between Sonja’s shoulder blades, urging her on. “Take a look.”

  A red-lacquered Gypsy Moth, a little bigger and more powerful than her Student Prince glowed in the shadow. Solaris stood beside the plane, out of the reach of the sunlight, and he was applauding. The others in the hangar—SEAL team, guerrilla squad, Marte Chang and a few airmen—joined him in his applause.

  “What is this?” Sonja asked.

  The major pressed her onward, and she sought out Harry’s hand for support. He gave it a squeeze and escorted her into the hangar.

  “This is a small token of our appreciation for your actions on our behalf,” Solaris announced. “Your Student Prince was unsalvageable after the flood. This aircraft is a replica, but I trust you will find some of the auxiliary equipment to your liking.”

  He handed her a set of keys.

  “An electric start,” he said. “And a full tank. Why don’t you fly it home?”

  “All the great women flew Gypsy Moths,” she mumbled.

  “No reason to break tradition,” the major said. “Go ahead, take it up.”

  “Harry?”

  “Chill, eh?” Harry said, running his hand over the fabric. “Sure is pretty.”

  “Shall we take her up?” she asked.

  “We? Shall we take her up? After what you did to me last time?”

  “When you fall off a horse, you’ve got to get back on and ride,” Sonja said. She knew it was a favorite saying of Harry’s father’s.

  “If you won’t, I will,” Sergeant Trethewey called out, and several of the other men yelled, “Take me!” “I’ll go!” “She can fly me anywhere.” “Anytime.” “In anything.”

  “I’m not as dumb as I look,” Harry said, and climbed into the passenger seat.

  “Good thing!” somebody yelled, and everyone laughed.

  “See you back home!” Nancy called. “Be careful!”

  “Oh, Mom!”

  Sonja ran through her checklist, called for “Clear,” and as she hit the starter she knew that her mother would always be her mother, no matter what their genetic details, and that was just fine with her.

  In a matter of minutes, Casa Canada spread out dead ahead. The Gypsy Moth, though bigger and more powerful, handled much more smoothly than Mariposa. Sonja flew a few laps around the city, getting the feel of the machine. She sensed Harry’s discomfort—he had never like flying, much—so she tried to be conservative. She fought to hold herself back when she had command of such a magnificent plane.

  On their flight back to Casa Canada she took one pass over the devastation that used to be ViraVax Valley. She spotted a flash of yellow sticking out of the muck at the bottom of the valley, and banked in to see what it was.

  “It’s Mariposa” she told Harry, “a piece of elevator.”

  He didn’t answer.

  Sonja waggled her wings in a farewell salute and set her heading home. At Casa Canada, charcoal cooking fires braided their plumes and unreeled their smoke west. Several of the coffee workers squinted up at them, pointing, then ran about rounding up others.

  “Perfect wind sock,” Sonja said, pointing out the smoke. She quartered, then quartered again to set their nose into it. The embassy limo turned into the drive just as she set the plane down, and she smiled at Harry’s sigh of relief in her headphones.

  “Glad to be down?” she asked.

  “Glad to be home,” he said.

  She taxied over to the hangar and shut down. Dozens of people had gathered along the airstrip and now they ran up to her, cheering.

  “Viva Sonja!” they cried. “Viva ‘arry! Gracias a Dios!”

  Already tarps were spread, food laid out, and as they climbed down from the plane a makeshift band struck up “Siempre la Tierra,” a forbidden song of the revolutionaries. Garcia was gone. Everything was possible, even music and joy.

  Chapter 46

  It was just an island breaking the flow of a small river now. A scattering of green broke up the monotony of concrete, but Rico Toledo could see that not even jungle would completely cover up ViraVax again. The people would not permit it. Already local rituals included personal vigils and pilgrimages, small offerings of incense and blood. Some gloated at the tomb of a mysterious enemy, others simply assured themselves that the cap still held the beast firmly in the bottle. Costa Brava was earthquake country, after all, and Rico knew as well as anyone that that seal would crack, sooner or later.

  “If he killed them all immediately, this Mishwe, killed anyone who might compete for anything. If he bred his own food out of his lab animals or his humans. If he killed any competition immediately upon recognizing it.” The major pondered for a moment and shuddered. “He’d be the one to do it. By our own design, oxygen generation remains unimpaired. Amusing as it seems, fresh water is available though not from the more obvious source. A series of wells and filters supplies the facility. If he’s smart, and lucky, and if he wasn’t killed outright. . . well, he could live to be a very old man.”

  “Fifty years?”

  The major smiled. “Maybe more. He was in excellent shape.”

  “And an earthquake big enough to spring him?”

  “Or drown him, Colonel,” she reminded him.

  “Drowning him doesn’t worry me,” he said. “Springing him, or any of his pets, worries me a great deal.”

  “An earthquake strong enough to open this thing hits this area every six to ten years. Every year ViraVax took enough damage to keep a repair crew busy full-time. Repairs have been a black hole in the cash flow all along, that’s why the Agency backed out. The Children of Eden got the profits and the Agency got the expenses—a good deal if you can swing it. With all the distractions back home, no problem. The Agency got lobbied into it by the Children of Eden and signed on the line, anyway, knowing that this was unstable ground.”

  “The last one was four years ago,” the Colonel said.

  “Five,” she countered. “That gives us about a year to wait, given the average.”

  “And him all the better chance
for survival.”

  “I’d much rather be me, Colonel,” she said. “I wouldn’t give you a córdoba for anybody’s chances down there.”

  “But he has a chance.”

  She answered with a shrug.

  The interim government, headed by the economics whiz Philip Rubia, and his reconciled wife, Yolanda, quickly dumped a few thousand tons of cement onto the site while it was flooded. Anything inside ViraVax was going to stay inside for a good, long time.

  “What about the Chang woman?” Rico asked.

  He was restless and wanted to walk, but his legs were not healed yet and the two canes were clumsy. He did not want to admit to the vanity that kept him from appearing unsteady in front of his staff.

  “So young and brilliant,” the major said. “Mariposa called her to our attention, as you know. Brilliant. . . well, no need for that now. She was the perfect detective for genocide. Those Sunspots that she cultivated and patented were her own design. The world owes her a debt for that as well as for stopping Mishwe’s bugs.

  “Casey was eager to make any deal to replace the dam, and the grace of God brought Marte Chang, ready with her Sunspots. As you know, the dam was seriously damaged in the quakes of ‘98, ‘02, ‘08, and nearly failed completely in the big one in ‘10. Casey had always hoped to perfect a cheap method of extracting hydrogen from water for his power source, but it never happened. Besides, the dam was three kilometers away and his most vulnerable point. At least, with the Sunspots, an attack on his power source wouldn’t flood the valley.

  “So, there was never a question that he would accept Chang’s project. He had tried to hire her before she developed the Sunspots. This project merely whetted his appetite. What was unknown to us was how she would operate for us once inside a hostile environment. She was untrained in any of the survival skills that many of us take for granted. She thought fast on her feet, and she abhorred the release of any unsanctioned genetics.”

  Rico already knew most of this, but he also knew that the major needed to talk about it. She had been in the thick of it all along, doing the dirty work for Rico and Solaris, taking no credit, voicing no complaint. The least he could do was hear her out.