by Jenifer Ruff
“But we don’t know how or where he contracted the disease,” Stephanie said.
“The CDC is working on that,” Quinn said. “We need to find out what both of those men were doing abroad.”
The door flew open and Rashid hurried into the conference room, wrinkled shirt untucked and skin flushed, looking like he would bust if he didn’t soon share what he had learned. “I’m late. Sorry. BIG news. And it’s not good. You know how Rick thought there was something up with the football ticket?”
Rick leaned forward and gave Ken an I-told-you-so look.
“Spitz had a ticket too. For the Patriots. I got the info from the Boston CDC examiner’s assistant, the one who searched his house.”
“Fifty thousand or more men in Boston have that same ticket in their house. You would know if you followed sports, Rashid,” Ken said.
“Maybe, but…I used the identification numbers on the tickets to track their purchase. Get this, both were bought online from the same ticket broker. At the same time.”
“Excellent work. An indisputable connection,” said Quinn.
“So, they were going to go to the NFL games and spread the virus through the crowds,” said Rick.
“That’s certainly what it looks like,” said Rashid.
“But were they terrorists? Did they even know they were infected? If someone gave me the most expensive seat to an NFL game, I’d use it no matter who was playing. Wouldn’t you?” Stephanie said.
“You have a point,” said Rashid. “With both men dead, we may never know if they were aware they were infected.”
“Average attendance for the Chargers is 67,000 per game toward the end of the season. Can you imagine the number of people who might have become sick if they walked around coughing, running their hands along all the banisters?” Rick said.
Ken and Stephanie responded at the same time. Rashid finally managed to interrupt them. “Wait. There’s more. The credit card was only used for a single transaction, the tickets, and tracing the card was a dead end. But, there weren’t just two tickets purchased. There were four.”
“Four?”
“The Patriots in Boston, the Chargers in LA—”
“We know where they play,” Ken said, popping his knuckles.
“And two for the Panthers, in Charlotte, North Carolina.”
The silence that followed added gravity to the situation.
“All four tickets are for games held on the same day—Sunday, November 6. They’re the most expensive seats available for purchase,” Rashid said.
“That’s great,” Rick said. “If we have their ticket numbers, we can find them at their seats.”
“Rick, what the hell is wrong with you?” said Ken. “If they make it to their seats, it’s too late to prevent this thing from spreading.”
“I just meant—”
Quinn interrupted. “Did someone pick up the tickets? Were they mailed?”
“All four were mailed to a company called the Yoga Institute of Paris, which has a Paris address,” Rashid said.
“Yes!” Rick said. “That’s the same—”
“We found an envelope with the same return address in Pivani’s trash,” Ken spoke over Rick. “I sent the envelope to be tested for fingerprints.”
“So, someone at the Yoga Institute of Paris mailed tickets to Los Angeles and Boston. It’s most likely a dummy company,” Stephanie said.
“Send the address to our agents in Paris,” Quinn said to Rashid.
“I already have.”
Quinn turned to Jayla. “Get Charlotte’s Special Agent in Charge on the phone. Tell him it’s urgent. We need to find whoever has those two Panther’s tickets.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Charlotte, NC
November 5th
Amin woke up feeling disoriented. The sound of running water came from the bathroom. Who else was there? It took a few seconds for his head to clear, for the pieces of his world to settle into place. He got up and headed to the kitchen, peering into the bathroom as he walked down the hallway. With the door ajar, he saw Kareem standing in front of the sink with a towel wrapped around his waist. Kareem took something small out of his hand, placed it on his tongue, and swallowed. Looking into the mirror, Kareem caught Amin spying on him. Kareem looked startled, but recovered quickly. “Hey, good morning. I’m taking advantage of your luxury accommodations.”
“Pffff. Hardly luxury,” said Amin. “Your parent’s house was much nicer when you lived in Detroit.” He immediately regretted mentioning his aunt and uncle and stirring up sad thoughts, but Kareem’s grin never faltered.
“How are you feeling?” Kareem asked.
“Me? Fine. Over my jet lag. But you looked pretty worn out last night.”
Kareem took a deep breath and puffed out his chest. “I might be coming down with a cold. Hey, I’d like to see Charlotte. Can you show me around?”
“It might be like the blind leading the blind. Let’s eat breakfast. It will give me time to figure out where to take you.”
“Sounds good. Morning prayers first.”
The cousins kneeled in the direction Amin indicated and fell silent. Acutely aware of Kareem breathing beside him, inhaling slowly through his nose and exhaling through his mouth, Amin called forth his personal list of important issues. He prayed he and Isa would soon be a couple, that his spiritual enlightenment wouldn’t take a nosedive now that he was back in Charlotte, and for his new job to have an office instead of a cube. Pausing, he took a quick sideways glance at Kareem and noticed deep lines of concentration across his forehead, his eyes focused into slits, and his hands pressed so tightly into a steeple that his fingertips were white. Amin added an extra intention. Please Allah, let Kareem’s thoughts be peaceful. Please guide him down the right path.
When finished, Amin said, “I’m going to scramble some eggs and make some toast. I’ve got eggs and bread. A small miracle.”
“Sounds good. How far are we from downtown? Can we walk from here?”
“Downtown is called uptown here. Long walk, but less than a fifteen-minute drive. There’s a Panther’s football game tomorrow. Traffic will be bad around game time.”
“I’d like to see the stadium.”
“How come?”
“I hear it’s impressive. And I guess I miss all the American sports hype.”
“I don’t know if we can get inside.” Amin cracked the first of four eggs into a pan. “We can walk around it.”
Kareem nodded. “That’s fine. Do you go to many games?”
“I’ve been to a few football games and one or two Hornet’s basketball games, all work-related, you know, with colleagues.”
“You’re not much of a sports fan, huh?”
“Never have been.”
Kareem looked suddenly downcast. “I guess I should have known that about you.”
Amin shrugged. He stared into the frying pan and resisted the urge to apologize.
“Just don’t plan anything for tomorrow. That’s when we’re doing my surprise.”
Amin rubbed the back of his neck. “What kind of surprise?”
Kareem laughed. “You’ll find out in the morning. I guess it won’t be as good a surprise as I thought. But we’re still going.”
Amin tried to smile.
“Let me tell you what I did the night before I left.” Kareem’s mischievous grin appeared in full force.
“What?” Amin suddenly felt nervous and took a drink of water.
“I had sex with a very, very pretty girl.”
Amin almost choked on his water. He set his glass down, wondering if he’d heard correctly. “You did what?”
Kareem was still grinning. “You heard me.”
“I’m just…surprised. I thought you said an unmarried woman can be stoned to death for having premarital sex.”
“Only if someone finds out.”
“Then I hope for her sake that no one ever finds out.”
Kareem’s smile disappeared. �
�Don’t worry. If they find out the way I think they might, there won’t be much anyone in the compound can do about it.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Los Angeles
November 5th
Quinn sent a classified message with Threat of Immediate National Concern in the subject line. Since 9/11, communication between federal agencies had greatly improved and extensive communication protocols existed for national emergencies. This new threat warranted all command and communication centers be notified. Department heads would demand additional information to pass on to cabinet members. The names, faces, and titles of the many people who needed to be informed flew through Quinn’s mind and were mentally sorted into categories: yes—now, yes—not yet, and no. The Governor of North Carolina. DHS. The U.S. Embassy in Paris. The CIA. The military. French Intelligence Services. Maybe the NFL commissioner. He hoped he didn’t miss any key agency. Before he racked his brain any further, he dialed Madeline’s encrypted secure line.
“Maddie, Hi. Have a minute?”
“Hi, Quinn. Yes.”
“Everything okay?”
“We’ve raised our response level to green so we have assistance from the agency’s Emergency Operations Centers.”
“Good. You still have classified clearance, right?”
“Yes.
“Okay. Here’s what we’ve got. Both Spitz and Pivani were in possession of NFL tickets for November 6th games. The tickets were purchased with the same credit card, used exclusively for the one purchase, and mailed to a company in Paris. We believe Pivani and Spitz were infected with the intent of spreading the disease in the stadiums.” After an extra beat of silence, he said, “Maddie, did you hear me?”
“Yes, I’m just trying to—this is worse than I thought. Can you imagine how many thousands fill a stadium? My God!” A soft whistling noise escaped her lips.
“We believe there are two more carriers. Two additional tickets were purchased with the tickets we already found. The other two are for a game in Charlotte, North Carolina.”
“Wow. At least you know to look for them. Make sure anyone who might get close is protected. I’m praying you find both long dead.”
“You’ll be the first one called when we find them. I mean, you know, to identify the viral samples.”
“There’s something I’m curious about. Both the carriers isolated themselves after their return from Paris. Thank God. But, why would they do that? Why didn’t they do the opposite and walk around spreading the disease, if infecting people was their objective?”
“Two scenarios I can think of. The first—they weren’t intentional carriers. They might not have known they were infected. Doesn’t mean they’re completely innocent, although maybe they are innocent victims, but perhaps they didn’t understand what they got themselves into.”
“Evidence against the theory is neither called a doctor or an ambulance when they became ill. Not even when they were violently ill. Makes me believe they were expecting it to happen,” Madeline said.
“Good point.”
“Although, if the onset was as quick as it appeared, it’s possible they were delirious and not able to think clearly to call for help. Not likely, but possible.”
“Maybe,” said Quinn. “The second scenario—they knew they were infected. Volunteered for it. They were told to wait for the November 6th games for maximum effect, to spread the disease so the greatest number of people would be stricken at once. But the symptoms came on too early and were so incapacitating, they didn’t get the chance. They died before they could cause an outbreak.”
“That’s terrifying. Of course, with both dead, we’re just making logical guesses. And with an engineered virus, there’s no way of knowing how it’s going to affect people—onset, intensity, and duration—unless they’ve already tried it out.”
“Wouldn’t you have heard about an outbreak of this nature, regardless of where it happened in the world?” said Quinn.
“Yes, of course, animal outbreak or human, unless it happened in a military-like setting and could be kept quiet and contained.”
Quinn shuddered as images of the Nazi concentration camps crossed his mind. “Like a controlled experiment.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. Did you find anything on the computers of Pivani and Spitz to help us track down their recent whereabouts?”
“Nothing,” Quinn said. “Not yet.”
“Nothing relevant in their emails? How were they communicating? How did they make plans to go to Paris, or wherever they went after that?” Madeline’s voice rose. “Do you know where they stayed when they were there? Who they stayed with? Shouldn’t you have leads and connections by now?”
Quinn dropped his head, rubbed his temples. “Whoa, Maddie.” His stress level forced out a nervous laugh. “You just asked me five or six questions. Look, our only lead is the address where the tickets were sent. We should have intelligence coming in from Paris agents any time now.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just frustrated, and concerned, as I’m sure you are too. Every minute matters here.”
“I know,” Quinn said. “The other two carriers isolated themselves in their apartments. They got sick and died sooner than expected. Like you said, best case scenario, we find the next two have met the same fate and they too stayed isolated.”
“Agree.”
“I didn’t mention this to you before, but the entire defense system just busted their asses around the clock for weeks to prevent several ISIS-planned attacks. We were successful, but now I think those attacks were decoys, meant to wear us out before the main event.”
“Really?”
“Unfortunately, yes. ISIS literally spends every minute of their waking day and all of their energy planning ways to screw with us.”
“Thank you, Quinn, for all you’re doing behind the scenes.”
“I have a great team.”
“Can you send me the Paris address? I’ll alert my counterparts there.”
“I’ll send it now.”
“This is all classified info? I mean, you’re not alerting the public to any of this yet, correct?” said Madeline.
“God, no. The only way this ends well is if the public doesn’t have to find out about any of it.”
“That’s what I thought. The CDC is operating under the same opinion.”
“Okay. I’ve got to go.”
“Good luck, Quinn.”
Chapter Forty
November 5th
Charlotte, NC
The day was dark, damp, and chilly in uptown Charlotte. The sky threatened to dump torrents of rain at any moment. Amin led his cousin through the most interesting uptown streets, past giant sculptures and into connecting glass-tunnel walkways. Kareem acted like a manic-depressive fitting a year of bipolar behavior into one day. He prayed fervently, his behavior alternating between intense and morose, yet he also made Amin laugh by bringing the expression “taking it all in” to a new level. He explored the uptown buildings and hotels as if he’d had one too many drinks and didn’t have a care in the world. He turned heads by tottering across a fountain and climbing onto a sculpture, in general, acting younger than his years.
“That’s the Continental Bank building where I used to work.” Amin pointed upward when they were near the skyscraper.
Kareem tilted his head back to stare up at the tallest building in Charlotte. “Let’s go inside and meet your former boss.”
Amin snorted. “Doug. Why?”
“I want to meet the man who fired you so I can thank him. Otherwise you would never have come to Syria.”
“I’m probably going back to work there.”
Kareem stared.
“What?” said Amin.
“I just want to meet him. Shake his hand.”
“We can’t access the elevators without passing through the retina scanner. There are turnstiles to keep people out.”
“We can vault over them. Let’s do it.”
“There are also security
guards. Besides, it’s Saturday. Doug won’t even be there.”
The sky darkened and a heavy rain began to fall. Amin moved under an awning to stay dry, but Kareem stayed in the rain, tilting his head up to the sky.
“There’s a theater over there. Let’s see what’s playing,” said Amin.
Kareem chewed on the inside of his cheek before agreeing. They bought tickets to see a movie that had started five minutes earlier.
“This movie sucks,” said Kareem, after twenty minutes inside the theater.
“Eh, it’s not the best.”
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
“It might get better. It’s only just started.”
“I don’t want to waste any more time on it.” Kareem stood up and Amin followed him out of the theater and onto the sidewalk. The rain had stopped.
“I want to go in here,” Kareem said, gazing into the Mexican restaurant next to the theater.
Amin laughed and shook his head at his cousin’s eagerness. “It’s not even five and we’ve already stopped twice for food, and you hardly ate any of what you ordered. Save a restaurant or two for the next few days.”
Kareem went in anyway. “Seat us by the window, please,” he said to the hostess.
At Amin’s suggestion, Kareem ordered a sweet tea. He gulped it down, chasing two pills.
“What are the pills for?” Amin asked.
“My back,” said Kareem, staring out the window at the wide variety of people passing by.
“You never mentioned you had back issues before.”
Kareem shrugged. “There’s a lot we don’t know about each other.”
Long before dinner, Amin was glad Kareem had come to Charlotte. They were having fun. It hadn’t been that way in Syria, with Kareem spending so many hours in his lab and Amin feeling like a suspicious outsider. Amin set his mind to finding more things they could do together over the next few days, or weeks, however long Kareem planned to stay. If things continued like they had today, the longer the better.