by Mark Kelly
Simmons looked down the road in the direction the man had come from. Whatever was down there was worth protecting and these people had gone to a great deal of trouble to do exactly that, and they used science, he thought, glancing at the steel drums and the vial of Molybdenum-99. That made him extremely curious.
He decided to be somewhat forthright. “When I was at Georgetown, my area of expertise was bacterial genetics. I studied the strain of bacteria that’s responsible for the pandemic. To the extent I’m able, I want to continue that research.”
“Why?”
Simmons shrugged. “Because that’s what I do. I’m a scientist. Maybe, I’ll be able to uncover something that will help us combat it.”
The man nodded as if that were an entirely reasonable answer.
“Why here?” he asked Simmons. “What is it, about seven hundred miles to Washington? Seems to me you could have found what you’re looking for a lot closer to home.”
“This is home,” Simmons said. “We live on a farm outside Douglas. We came north to escape the chaos in the States. By the way, I’m Tony, and this is Emma.”
“Robert Langdon,” the man said, introducing himself. “And you’ve met my son, Greg.”
Langdon glanced at the trailer out of the corner of his eye. “For the sake of argument, let’s say I’m interested in trading and might be able to help you. What do you have?”
Simmons listed out the items they had brought, sensing as he talked that most of them weren’t of any interest. When he mentioned the vegetable seeds McNee had given him, Langdon perked up.
“Are they hybrid or heirloom?”
“Bit of both, I think.”
“The hybrids are no good,” Langdon said. “They won’t reproduce properly, but I’m interested in the heirlooms and a few of the other things you have.” He pointed to the list in Simmons’s hand. “How badly do you want those items?”
“Let’s just say, I’m very motivated.”
“I can get most of it for you, but it will take four or five days. Are you still interested?”
Simmons winced. He and Emma shared a glance. They had told the others they would only be gone a few days, and it had been two already. Mei and Lucia would be worried sick, but this was the first hopeful sign on the entire trip.
“Why will it take so long?” he asked.
“That’s just what it’s going to take,” Langdon replied, “and you’ll have to wait here while I get them. Are you interested, or not?”
Simmons peered down the road in the direction Langdon had come from. “I’m interested, but we aren’t staying here. We’ll come with you.”
“Then we don’t have a deal,” Langdon said. “I hope you understand. It’s nothing personal, but we’ve gone to a lot of trouble to stay safe.”
Simmons didn’t blame the other man one bit, but he needed to know what was so important that it was worth going to all this trouble for. He decided to share a little more information in the hope of enticing the other man.
“The equipment I’m looking for isn’t just for research. I want to build a bioreactor because it may be possible to produce a type of medicine that cures people who are infected.”
Langdon gave him a skeptical look.
“Have you heard of a medical procedure called FMT?” Simmons asked, and when Langdon said no, Simmons explained in general terms what it was.
“And you think that will work?”
“Yes, I have good reason to believe it will,” Simmons answered vaguely.
Langdon hesitated and then said, “Get on your motorcycle and follow me.” He pivoted and walked back to his car.
“You better go before he changes his mind,” the boy said as his father climbed into the car. “He never invites anyone inside. You’re the first. Hurry, I’ll move the drums for you.”
Inside what? Simmons wondered as he watched the boy move the drums without even breaking a sweat.
They were all empty. He wondered what other surprises they would find down the road.
15
Quarantine
They followed Langdon’s car down a worn two-lane asphalt road that cut a path through the rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield. For the first ten minutes, there was nothing to see but wetlands and stunted white pines struggling to grow in the nutrient-deficient soil. A few miles later, they saw the first signs of something other than wilderness.
Off to the right, in a large empty space of broken pavement and concrete, a row of two-storey storage tanks that were once white, but now were a dirty gray-color and streaked with rust, sat by themselves casting shadows over the weeds sprouting from cracks in the pavement.
Simmons felt Emma elbow him. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
This is a nuclear research lab? It looked more like an abandoned industrial lot.
He had just finished the thought when the road curved one last time and abruptly ended in a large parking lot. To his surprise, the lot was filled with cars, most of them parked in an orderly fashion.
A ten-foot high chainlink fence with a guarded gate separated the lot from a sprawling research complex. There were dozens of people on the other side of the fence working and walking about. No one wore a mask. It was as if the pandemic never happened, and Simmons briefly wondered if they all were immune.
But that was impossible.
Langdon parked his car and motioned at Simmons to pull in beside him. “I’m sure you have questions,” he said when he saw the bewildered look on Simmons’s face. “I’ll explain in a minute. Let’s go over there and sit.” He led Simmons and Emma to a picnic table on a small patch of grass. A group of giggling children saw them and waved from the other side of the fence.
“Shouldn’t you be in school?” Langdon asked the kids in a friendly voice.
Two girls wearing identical yellow sun dresses stepped out of the group and spoke in a single voice. “It’s recess now.”
Langdon glanced at his watch. “You’re right, it is. Where’s Ms. Belinda?”
“Up there,” they said and pointed to a woman with shoulder-length brown hair standing at the top of a shallow hill.
The woman froze when she saw Simmons and Emma. Langdon waved to her and shouted, “I’ll explain later.”
She nodded tentatively and yelled at the children, telling them to stay away from the fence.
“What is this place?” Emma asked wide-eyed.
“This is the Chalk River Laboratories,” Langdon replied. “The lab was built at the end of the second world war to support Canadian nuclear research. You might be surprised to know the first reactor ever built outside of the United States was located here and for a number of years, the lab supplied plutonium to the US Department of Defense’s nuclear weapons program. But that was all a long time ago. Until the pandemic, we were producing isotopes for nuclear medicine.”
Emma bobbed her head up and down like she didn’t care about any of that. “Yeah, but where did all those people come from?” she asked, pointing at the small crowd that had gathered on the other side of the fence.
“Most of them were employees before the pandemic,” Landon said. “Those with families brought them here just before things got bad. There are one-hundred and seventy-three people on the campus right now. Trust me, they’re as surprised to see you as you are to see them. You probably noticed at the gate that we do our best to stop people from visiting.”
“It almost worked with us,” Simmons said, awestruck. He reached into his pocket to retrieve the dosimeter and placed it on the picnic table. “If it weren’t for this, I would never have known the radiation threat was all a facade.”
Langdon grunted. “We’re quite a way off the beaten path, so not very many people make it to the main gate, and those that do don’t generally have dosimeters with them. Where did you get yours?”
Simmons described their encounter with Abrams and the soldiers at the roadblock.
“I’ll have to have a word with General Leduc,” Langdon said angrily
. “His men are supposed to keep people away, not help them get closer.”
“In their defense, they warned us the area around the lab was contaminated with radiation,” Simmons replied. “If they were lying, they were convincing because I believed every word.”
“I doubt they were lying,” Langdon said. “Only a select few of Leduc’s soldiers know the truth about the lab. It’s just my bad luck that Sergeant Abrams was at the roadblock when you passed through it.”
“Is he one of the ones in the know?” Simmons asked.
“No, I don’t think so, but I’m told he spends a lot of time off the base. If he thought there was a radiation danger, it makes sense he would have a dosimeter with him, but I’m surprised he gave it to you.”
“Well, he didn’t really give it to us. It was more like a trade,” Simmons said wryly. “It cost me all the moonshine I had and the promise to come and see him when I had more.”
“From what General Leduc has told me, that sounds like something Abrams would do,” Langdon said with a resigned sigh. “He’s in charge of the general’s scavenging missions. I guess he’s a bit of a wheeler and dealer.”
Sitting three feet apart and close enough to touch him, Simmons realized he hadn’t asked the other man about the fact that no one; not the kids, nor their teacher, nor the people on the top of the hill; not even the man sitting across the table from him, were wearing masks.
“Aren’t you worried about us infecting you?”
“I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind,” Langdon replied, “but I could ask you the same question.”
Simmons smiled, but said nothing.
Langdon glanced at the children who were playing a few feet away from the fence. “We operate under a very simple philosophy here. Everyone on the inside of that fence is disease-free, and we keep it that way by assuming everyone on the outside isn’t. The two are never allowed to meet.”
“But you’re on the outside,” Simmons said with a frown.
“Yes, I am,” Langdon agreed. “And so are you. And we’ll stay here until I’m one hundred percent certain neither of us is infected.”
“Is that why you told me at the guardhouse it would take four or five days to get the supplies I’m looking for?”
Langdon nodded. “We’ll spend the next three days in the quarantine building. If we’re symptom-free after that, we’ll be allowed into the complex.”
“Where’s the quarantine building?” Emma asked, joining the conversation and looking around.
Langdon pointed to an aluminum garden shed on the pavement behind them.
“Geez, you’ve got to be kidding,” she said, “That’s smaller than my bedroom closet back home. I’ve got to go take a look at this.”
Langdon grinned at her. “It’s not so bad. A little boring though, I hope you brought something to read or know how to play cards.”
“You sound like you’ve done it before,” Simmons said.
“Every one who goes outside the fence has done it,” Langdon replied. “In my case, seven times in the last five months. Twenty-one days of my life that I’ll never get back, but that’s the price of keeping the facility disease-free.”
“What about your son?”
“He’ll do it as well when his shift at the gate ends in a couple of days.”
Langdon stretched his arm across the table and said, “Can I see that list of yours?”
Simmons placed it on the table and waited while Langdon browsed it without picking it up. “I think we can help you with most of this,” Landon said after asking a few basic questions. “Do you honestly think this bioreactor you’re planning on building will—”
“I got you, now it’s your turn!”
Both men turned.
The two girls from earlier—twins, Simmons realized as he looked at them—were playing a game at the fence with Emma. As Emma poked her finger through a hole in the fence, the girls would try to grab it. When one of them succeeded, the other broke out in laughter.
Langdon’s eyes widened in panic. The veins in his neck bulged as he jumped to his feet. “What are you doing? Get away from them,” he yelled at Emma.
Startled by his shouts, the two girls froze and began to cry. Tears ran down their cheeks as their sobs grew louder.
Langdon ran to the fence and grabbed Emma by the arm. She stumbled and fell to her knees, sliding on the grass as he pulled her away.
Frightened by his yelling and the sudden violence, the girls turned and ran up the hill towards a building at the top. Simmons watched two men with rifles leave the gate they were guarding and jog towards the commotion.
“Stop them,” Langdon yelled at the guards. “Don’t let them near anyone.”
Slack-jawed, the men stared at him.
“Now!” Langdon yelled. “They may have been infected.”
The men turned and gave chase. As they ran, they moved up the hill at an angle cutting the girls off before they could reach the top. The girls stopped when they saw their path blocked by the guards who held their rifles out cross-wise to their bodies to form a barricade.
Belinda, the teacher from earlier, rounded the corner of the building. She froze when she saw the two men. The girls ran towards her, their faces streaked with tears, and she held out her arms.
“Stop, Belinda!” Langdon yelled at her. “Get back and don’t touch them.”
What’s this all about, Robert?” Belinda asked as one of the guards moved sideways, blocking the girls from reaching her.
“They might be infected,” he replied. He pointed angrily at Emma. “She touched them.”
The two girls began to sob uncontrollably. Emma pushed herself up off the grass and stomped toward him. Her eyes blazed with anger as she put her hands on his chest and pushed him backward.
“What are you doing?” she shouted. “They’re just little kids. You’re scaring them.”
“Do you know what you’ve done?” he yelled back. “You’ve put everyone at risk—the entire community, including the girls.”
“Don’t be stupid. I didn’t infect anybody, I don’t have the bug. I’m immune and so is Professor Simmons.” Realizing what she had just said, Emma brought her hand to her mouth. She looked like she was about to cry. “I’m sorry, Professor Simmons, it just came out.”
“What’s she talking about?” Langdon asked.
Simmons stared at the two frightened girls, who were sitting alone on the hill, sobbing hysterically. None of this was their fault. “Emma’s right,” he said to Langdon. “We’re immune.”
“How is that possible?”
“One of the people in our group back home has natural immunity,” Simmons replied. “It’s transferable, but we can only treat a few people at a time. I’m trying to improve the process. That’s what the equipment is for.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then why haven’t I heard about it?” Langdon asked.
“Because we’ve kept it a secret. Can you imagine what would happen if word got out?”
Langdon put his hands on his hips. “Prove it.”
“I can prove it…just not here and not now,” Simmons said.
“That’s not good enough.” Langdon looked over his shoulder at the two girls. “They’ll have to join us in quarantine. I can’t put the rest of the community at risk.” He motioned to the guards and said, “Move them to the gate, but don’t touch them.”
“Robert, please don’t. They’re just children,” Belinda cried out.
“Professor Simmons is right,” Emma said. “I’m not lying. We really are immune. Please don’t hurt them.”
Langdon seethed as he spoke. “I’m not going to hurt them, but you’ve given them a death sentence if you’re infected.”
“Geez, I told you all ready that I’m not infected.”
Langdon ignored her and stepped towards the fence. He knelt down and called the girls over. “Hailey, Tai, come closer. I wan
t to talk to you.”
The girls looked at Belinda, who wiped at a tear and nodded. They took a hesitant step towards Langdon and he said, “You’re going to come and stay with me out here for a few days, okay?”
Both girls shook their heads. “It’s dangerous outside,” one of them said. “You told us to never go past the fence.”
“I know I did, but you’ll be safe.”
Emma squatted beside him and spoke to the girls. “I’m sorry. This is my fault, but everything will be all right. It’ll be just like camping. Have you ever been on a camping trip?”
They nodded in unison.
“You can sleep with me in my tent,” she said. “Maybe, we’ll even have a campfire. What do you think? Does that sound like fun?”
“Yes,” the girls said together.
Langdon stood and spoke to Belinda. “Go and tell their parents what’s happened. Tell them the girls will have to stay in quarantine with me for a few days.”
When she lingered, worry on her face, he added, “Tell them they’re probably okay, but we have to be certain.”
"What do you want us to do?” a guard asked Langdon.
“Open the gate and let the girls out. Don’t touch them and keep everyone away.”
“Come on, you two. Let’s go,” the guard said to the girls.
They hesitated and Emma stuck her finger through the fence. “Come on…let’s have a race,” she said playfully. “You have to grab my fingers before I make it to the gate—1…2…3…Go!”
Emma scurried away with one hand on the fence. The two girls paused and then chased after her, giggling.
Simmons walked over to stand beside Landon. “I wasn’t lying,” he said. “We are immune. They’ll be fine.”
“You’d better be right. For their sake and yours,” Langdon said.
16
The Facility
“It’s time to go,” Langdon said, getting up from the picnic table.
Three days and a few hours had passed since their arrival at the lab. Simmons put the book he was reading down. He watched a figure garbed in a containment suit and carrying a hand-pressurized sprayer and a stuffed green garbage bag pass through the lab’s gate and walk towards them.
