The Susquehanna Virus Box Set

by Steve McEllistrem

  “You don’t believe it,” Dr. Poole said.

  “I have no reason to doubt it,” Lendra replied, while doubt spun a web among her thoughts.

  “Other than the fact that you don’t want to believe it.” Dr. Poole shook her head. “You won’t believe it until you see his body. Even then you might not believe it.”

  “It doesn’t matter what I think,” Lendra replied. It took all her strength to say: “He’s gone.”

  “And the Elite Ops are coming,” Ned spoke softly. “Time for me to retire again.”

  “You mean, run away?” Dr. Poole said.

  Ned smiled. “It’s the logical move.”

  Eli said, “I agree. Ned should leave now.”

  Lendra said, “You’re here to help us find Jeremiah. I suggest you concentrate on that task.”

  Eli shook his head. “I never believed in God. But this character is so far beyond our abilities that maybe he is some sort of deity or alien or supercomputer that’s figured out how to amaze us. Come on, we’ve all seen the vid multiple times. We all saw Jeremiah fall. He’s dead.”

  “Then where is his body?”

  “If this God is serious about wanting to keep it from us, it’s likely been incinerated.”

  “You paint a lovely picture,” Dr. Poole said.

  Eli snorted. “You think I don’t miss him? I considered him a son.”

  “You used him,” Lendra said.

  “So? I used everyone. I’m sure that’s what you’ve been doing too. I had a mission to accomplish, furthering the interests of this country in every way possible, using any means to attain that goal. Jeremiah was my greatest asset so, yes, I used him, just as I used all of you. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t love him.”

  Jay-Edgar broke in: “Incoming call from the President.”

  Lendra gestured to Ned. “Go now. Take Hannah with you. Get out of the building, out of the city, somewhere safe. Bring the emergency backup data cubes and arm yourselves. I’ve sent analytical a directive to give you complete cooperation.” Lendra looked at Taditha. “Agreed?”

  Dr. Poole nodded. “Things do appear grim.”

  After Ned and Hannah departed, Lendra told Jay-Edgar to connect the President.

  “Madam President,” Lendra said when Angelica Hope appeared via holo-projection. President Hope stared at her, eyes narrowed, nose slightly pinched. As was often the case, General Horowitz sat beside her, glaring into the camera.

  “Have you found any sign of Jeremiah Jones?” the President asked.

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Is that Elias I see?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Lendra said, gesturing for Eli to move more into the camera pickup. “We thought he might be able to help us track Jeremiah.”

  “And yet you still haven’t found him. Some are suggesting that you have.” She turned a few degrees and said, “Dr. Poole?”

  “Lendra is right, Madam President. We’ve found no sign of him.”

  “What about this God hacker? Have you figured out who’s behind these attacks?”

  Lendra shook her head, noticing Taditha doing the same. “No, ma’am,” Dr. Poole replied. “Whatever technology they’re using, it’s beyond us.”

  “It’s interesting that these God hacker attacks have stopped since Devereaux destroyed himself.”

  Lendra said, “You haven’t had any hacks since Devereaux’s death?” She immediately regretted the question.

  “You have, obviously,” President Hope said. “What have you experienced?”

  “He hasn’t contacted us. But he contacted two of our people.” Lendra glanced at Dr. Poole for support.

  “Who did he contact?”

  “Curtik and Zora,” Dr. Poole said. “Although Curtik was poisoned by Fowler, as you know, and has been experiencing hallucinatory episodes. Also, Zora was wounded by an Inferno and has been drifting in and out of consciousness, so we can’t be certain the contact was real.”

  President Hope nodded slowly. She glanced at General Horowitz, then said, “I assume you’ve seen the civil unrest, the riots, the calls for governments around the world to step down.”

  Lendra said, “We’ve seen it.”

  “All because of Jones, because he felt the need to tell the planet about our efforts to save people from the virus.”

  Eli cleared his throat and said, “Some would say people have the right to know.”

  President Hope scoffed. “You would not have been one of them.”

  “I never would have condoned infecting humanity with modified strains without their consent, particularly when those strains allow for greater control of the population.”

  General Horowitz clenched his hands into fists and said, “Does it look like we’re in greater control? The Elite Ops have been deployed along with the National Guard and even the Army just to maintain a fragile peace. Other countries are faring even worse.”

  “The virus hasn’t been deployed yet,” Lendra said, “or has it?”

  “No, it hasn’t,” President Hope replied. “We’re still in the testing phases. Preliminary releases only, to a few volunteers.”

  “But you plan a larger release.”

  “The alternative, Ms. Riley,” President Hope said, “is extinction for humanity. Is that preferable?”

  “Not everyone would die.”

  “When more than ninety-nine percent of the population is wiped out, that’s essentially extinction. Would a few people wandering the Earth searching for fellow survivors be preferable to maintaining our societies, our cultures?”

  “We should be given the choice,” Eli said.

  “You know that wouldn’t work,” President Hope said. “Debates would slow down the process. Countries would opt out and then be decimated by lethal strains of the virus. Some countries would become stronger as a result of doing this, some countries weaker.”

  “I’d have thought,” said Lendra, “you wanted it that way: America leading the way once again. Nations like China and Russia refusing to accede to our request to infect their populations due to fear of our true agenda and as a result they would be weakened while we grew stronger. But we still wouldn’t have been able to infect our population. There would never have been a strong enough consensus.”

  “There would have if a large part of the country had been infected with a lethal strain and most of the people in that area had died,” Eli said.

  “Ah,” President Hope smiled. “There’s the evil genius I remember. Which part of the country would you infect? The south? The northeast? The west coast?”

  “I never said I would infect anyone. I’m merely speculating.”

  “So you’re angry at the way we planned it, not the fact that we’re planning it?”

  Eli shook his head. “I’m not angry, Madam President. I merely wished to point out that the whole project lacks a certain . . . elegance.”

  “Your deviousness knows no bounds. Which brings me to the reason for my call. CINTEP is to be shut down. All employees will be vetted and, where possible, people will be transferred to appropriate government agencies. You will cease working on finding the God hackers and any remnants of the original strains of the virus.”

  Lendra said, “May I ask why?”

  “We’ve lost faith in your ability to do the job you were entrusted to perform. And some believe you’ve found Jones’s body. We will be conducting a full search of the premises.” President Hope looked beyond the camera as Jay-Edgar pulled up a holo-projection of the front door, where a squad of Elite Ops troopers stood. The President said, “Please open the door now.”

  Jay-Edgar displayed another holo-projection, this time of the roof, where a jet-copter landed and another squad of Elite Ops troopers disembarked and made their way inside the building.

  “I’m sorry it had to come to this,” President Ho
pe said, “but Jeremiah brought it upon you by his treasonous actions.” The holo-projection went dark, the President and General Horowitz vanishing.

  Lendra nodded to Jay-Edgar. “Open the door,” she said. “We have nothing to hide.”

  She wondered where Ned and Hannah were, if they’d gotten out. She hoped so. Would she be offered a government job? Unlikely. She would have to be made a scapegoat, as Eli had been scapegoated after he’d planned to attack Earth. But this disaster hadn’t been her fault. Well, a little. She’d assisted Jeremiah in releasing the truth. Maybe that counted as treason but it had also been the morally correct action.

  At any rate, she didn’t think she’d mind. Now she might get the chance to spend some quality time with Sophie. She turned to Taditha, who removed her interface and placed it on her desk.

  “Shall we head to the nursery?” Dr. Poole asked.

  “My very thought,” Lendra replied. She too removed her interface and set it on her desk.

  “What about us?” Jay-Edgar asked, gesturing to include Eli.

  “They’ll be here shortly,” Lendra said. “I suggest you wait for them. I’m sorry.”

  Chapter 45

  Curtik sat on the bed watching the Elite Ops swarm the CINTEP building from above and below while the gray robot adjusted the flow of drugs and genetic alterations into his body. He felt close to a hundred percent, only a little tired, which Dr. Poole had said was normal. Mostly he felt depression at the loss of Jeremiah.

  He suddenly recalled Sienna, the cutie-pie he’d crushed on last year, and felt a twinge of guilt over failing to stay in touch, though it wasn’t entirely his fault. She’d been kept in isolation for a time and her visitors had been restricted ever since. Plus, Curtik wasn’t exactly beloved in London or, for that matter, anywhere else on Earth after his actions on the Moon a couple years ago, so the British government wasn’t keen on him entering the country. He wondered how she was doing.

  He also wondered how Zora was doing and contemplated pinging her interface when the room began to waver in front of his eyes and he found himself standing beside her, holding her hand. He startled, noticing the surprise on her face as well. Another visit from God.

  This time, however, the image that appeared wasn’t Devereaux. It was Jeremiah.

  “Hello, Curtik. Hello, Zora,” Jeremiah said. He looked healthy, in the prime of his life, carrying no pain in his movements as he stepped toward them.

  Zora began to weep. Curtik wanted to cry too. Somehow he knew that because Jeremiah was here, he was dead. Even though God had appeared as Jeremiah once before and even as Angelica Hope, he had mostly appeared as dead people, or Devereaux, whatever Devereaux had been inside his robotic shell. Curtik thought he had already accepted Jeremiah’s death, but apparently he hadn’t for he felt the loss now as a jolting hollowness in his chest, a painful emptiness that spread, expanding to fill him with nothingness.

  Jeremiah opened his arms and collected them in a hug.

  “I’m sorry,” he said as Curtik hugged him back, smelling his almost animal muskiness, pressing against the corded muscles in Jeremiah’s arms and back. Curtik released Zora’s hand and included her in the hug, the three of them together again. He wanted to hold onto them forever.

  All too soon Jeremiah released them, gently pushing them away as he stepped back.

  “Thank you,” Zora said, “for coming as Jeremiah.”

  “I am Jeremiah. I am Devereaux and all the dead who came before. And I am all the ones who have yet to come. I am light and darkness, hope and despair, love and indifference. But I am also here to help you. These Elite Ops troopers will attempt to take you away. They want my body and they believe you can help them find it.”

  “Are you going to teleport us out?” Curtik asked.

  Jeremiah shook his head. “You’re going to have to try to save yourselves. Devereaux’s robots are currently injecting you with a concoction similar to what I received. It’s not as potent. Your systems couldn’t handle that. And it’s only temporary. It may last only a few hours. But it will give you enhanced healing abilities in addition to strength, endurance and speed. It is a drastic measure, but these are drastic times.”

  “I thought you weren’t going to help us. You said, or Devereaux said, you wouldn’t cure me.”

  Jeremiah smiled. “The part of me that is Jeremiah convinced God to get you back onto a level playing field. But that’s as much as I can do. You’ll have to rely on each other now. You have been given tremendous gifts but you’re up against a determined enemy.”

  “Wilson,” Curtik said, feeling a powerful urge to lash out, “and White Knight Security.”

  “Not just them: the President too, as well as the corporations that run this country. Every one of them wants the status quo upheld. I disrupted that.”

  Zora said, “But you didn’t disclose all their secrets. You didn’t get Wilson’s.”

  Jeremiah nodded. “His may prove the most damaging. No doubt they involve controlling the population in new and more efficient ways.”

  “If you’re God,” Curtik said, “don’t you know already?”

  “The part of me that is God knows,” Jeremiah said, “but I’m here now as Jeremiah Jones, the man, and I do not have access to that information.”

  “Do you know you’re dead?” Zora asked.

  Curtik noticed she was no longer weepy; she wore a grim countenance, her jaw muscles rigid as she stared at Jeremiah.

  “I am at peace,” Jeremiah replied. “I can no longer interfere in the workings of this world. All I can do is visit you occasionally, when God permits.”

  “You didn’t used to believe in God,” Curtik said.

  “I still don’t know the truth. It might be God or some advanced power that’s alien or computer-based. All I know is I am subject to its dictates. My earthly shell has been incinerated.”

  “So God is using you,” Zora said, her eyes flashing, “just like Lendra and Eli and President Hope.”

  “I imagine so,” Jeremiah said. He turned, as if hearing something behind him. “Time for me to go. Remember, your bodies have been enhanced to a point, but you are no more invincible than I was. Less, even. Good luck.”

  Jeremiah vanished and then Zora, leaving Curtik alone in his bed, the gray robot standing over him, disconnecting the machines that had been treating him.

  “How do you feel?” the robot asked.

  Curtik realized he felt better than he ever had in his life. No soreness. No pain. Even his joints, which had been stiff due to his infection with the Susquehanna Virus, felt fantastic. He launched himself out of bed and laughed at the sheer joy of movement. The robot held out his clothes.

  “You’d better get dressed,” the robot said. “They’ll be here any minute.”

  “What about Zora?” Curtik asked as he began to change.

  “Robot One is preparing her.”

  “Do we have a plan?”

  “I am a research robot, designed by Devereaux to assist with medical issues.”

  “Right.” Curtik dressed as fast as he could, put on his shoes and let himself out the door. He entered Zora’s room without knocking, closing the door behind him, noting that she was just putting on her shoes.

  “Feeling okay?” Curtik asked.

  “I haven’t felt this good since the Moon,” Zora said, “when I got a transfusion of Jeremiah’s blood. I bet I could punch a hole through the wall.”

  The ivory robot said, “The Elite Ops are in the corridor.”

  “Let’s take ‘em down,” Curtik said.

  “Not yet,” Zora said as the door swung open and the space filled with an armored Elite Ops trooper, the mirrored helmet making it impossible to see the trooper’s face. But Curtik smiled when he saw the Las-rifle pointed at his chest. He longed to dodge sideways, like Jeremiah had done, slip inside the trooper�
�s defenses and hit him with a fist to the throat. It seemed simple. He could visualize it succeeding with only the slightest exertion.

  Zora put a hand on his forearm.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “You will come with us,” the trooper said.

  “Where are we going?” Curtik asked, wondering why Zora cautioned patience. Better to take them now while the Elite Ops weren’t expecting an attack. On the other hand, it might be fun to see what he could do against a trooper who knew his capabilities.

  The trooper gestured with the Las-rifle and Zora headed for the door. With a shrug, Curtik followed.

  “You too,” the trooper said to the robot.

  They marched down the hall to the office Lendra shared with Dr. Poole. Dozens of people stood inside, most of them strangers. Probably analysts, Curtik thought. Lendra held Sophie while Dr. Poole hugged little Jack. Eli and Jay-Edgar stood beside the control board. Curtik didn’t see Ned or Hannah. As Zora headed for Lendra, the ivory robot walked over to the gray one, which stood against the wall, and stopped beside it, turning to face the center of the room.

  “All secure,” one of the troopers said.

  A few seconds later, Scott Wilson entered the room.

  Chapter 46

  Zora studied Scott Wilson. He was a little taller than Curtik, but a lot heavier, with graying hair. He wore a dark suit with a white shirt and a shimmer cloth tie that changed color as the light hit it from different angles and he carried himself with a kind of smugness, an air of superiority that made her instantly dislike him. The interface decorating his left temple was gold and bigger than necessary. He wanted people to know how connected he was.

  How’d you know he’d be here? Curtik sent.

  “It seemed likely,” she replied subvocally via her interface.

  Should we take him now?

  Zora looked at the Elite Ops troopers guarding the door: four massive soldiers wearing full armor, Las-rifles aimed chest-high at the room. One of them carried a particle beam cannon in addition to his Las-rifle. Zora, filled with energy, felt as if she might explode at any moment if she didn’t move. Every muscle coiled in anticipation. Curtik obviously felt the same way because he was bouncing in that way he had right before he attacked. But she didn’t know how many troopers were out in the hall or in other parts of the building.