Revelations

by Mark Kelly

  “Show me the vials.”

  The sound of Goddard’s voice snapped Mei back to the present. She forced herself to look.

  Green…Negative.

  She heaved a sigh of relief and held the vials up as Goddard approached.

  Goddard sucked in a quick breath. “How is that possible?”

  “I’ll explain everything later,” Mei said, “But he needs surgery…Now.”

  Three hours later, Taxson lay in a bed in the base infirmary recovering, while the rest of them stood nervously in the lobby outside General Leduc’s office.

  Mei fidgeted with her hands as she glanced at Goddard and Baker. They seemed equally nervous. Only Lucia, and surprisingly Saanvi, appeared indifferent and worry-free.

  “This had better be worth the general’s time,” Leduc’s aide-de-camp, a sour-looking man named Cox grumbled at Goddard. He paused and looked curiously at Mei, Saanvi, and Lucia before knocking politely on the general’s office door.

  “What?” a voice barked from inside.

  “Captain Goddard and Warrant Officer Baker are here to see you, sir. They say it’s important and they have three civilians with them.”

  “Baker? Is he still hanging around like a bad cold?”

  “Apparently, yes, sir.”

  “Show them in.”

  Cox opened the door and waved them into the office. Aside from a couple of family photographs, and a framed map of Canada hanging on the wall, the office was spartan and functional. Leduc sat behind a tidy desk reading a report. “Shut the door,” he said to his aide without looking up. When the man didn’t move, Leduc added, “On your way out.”

  “Sir, Are you—”

  “Yes.”

  Cox clamped his lips together and scowled as he marched out of the office, leaving them alone with the man who nominally controlled Eastern Canada.

  When the door closed, Leduc lifted his head and inspected them. There was a brief flicker of curiosity in his eyes when he saw Saanvi, Mei, and Lucia, but it turned to mild irritation when Baker stiffened and saluted.

  Leduc spoke gruffly. “I told your people at MacDill Special Operations Command I would tolerate you and your partner in my territory for a very short period of time. That was over two months ago. What are you still doing here?”

  “Thank you, sir,” Baker said crisply. “We’re grateful for the support you provided. As you’re aware, we had information the man responsible for the pandemic was in this area.”

  Leduc nodded. “Yes, and you’ll recall I told you I thought that was the stupidest thing I had ever heard.”

  “I do recall that, sir. You were very clear.”

  “And?”

  Baker grinned for a fraction of a second. “We found him, sir. But he isn’t the one responsible for it, and there is a cure.”

  Leduc blinked.

  “It’s incredible, sir,” Goddard, the base doctor, said. “I’ve seen it myself…at least I think I have.”

  Leduc leaned forward in his chair and stared at them. “You have exactly five minutes to explain. Go.”

  Baker started to talk, followed by Goddard. It only took them a couple of minutes to brief the general. When they finished describing what they had seen, Leduc’s eyes narrowed.

  “Fully recovered?” he asked Goddard.

  “Aside from the intestinal perforation I repaired, yes.”

  “And you believe their story?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And you think I should?”

  Goddard nodded.

  “What about you?” he asked Baker.

  “I do, sir. Taxson was nearly dead.”

  Leduc said nothing for a moment. Then he turned his head slightly to examine Mei. She straightened her back and squared her shoulders as he peered down his nose at her. She felt like a little girl standing in front of the principal.

  “Are there others?” Leduc asked her.

  “Others?”

  “People you’ve cured?”

  “Twelve.”

  She knew the exact number. If he asked, she could even tell him their names. Aside from Kateri who was first, they were all local to Douglas. When she treated them, she had lied and said it was for cholera not pandemic C. diff. They had no idea how lucky they were.

  “Tell me about this Saanvi,” he said.

  “She’s the one with natural immunity.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “Standing in front of you.”

  He raised a skeptical eye at Lucia. “You?”

  Lucia frowned back at him. “I am Lucia. She is Saanvi.” Saanvi blushed and raised her hand. She gave Leduc a quick wave.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Leduc muttered. He leaned back in his chair and for the first time in the entire meeting appeared at a loss for words.

  “Where is this professor you were looking for?” he asked Baker.

  “I don’t know, sir,” Baker replied, glancing at Mei. “Supposedly he left a week ago on a scavenging mission.”

  “Scavenging mission to where?”

  Mei told Leduc about Simmons’s plan to travel to the lab and search for parts to build the bioreactor. As she spoke, Leduc smiled and said, “I think I know where your professor is. Last night, a fellow came down the river by boat. He showed up here ranting about a cure. We put him in lock-up before he could hurt himself or anyone else.”

  Mei felt her mouth drop open. “Tony’s in jail?”

  “No, the nut-job is. If your guy went to the lab, he’s probably still there.” Leduc pushed back his chair and bellowed, “Cox, get in here.”

  The words were barely out of his mouth when his office door swung open and Cox reappeared. “Yes, sir?”

  “Ready a convoy.”

  “Right away, sir. A convoy to where?”

  “To the lab,” Leduc said as he stood. “It’s time I paid Robert Langdon another visit.”

  22

  Missing

  It took Cox, Leduc’s aide, all of twenty minutes to make the arrangements. He poked his head in through the open office door and spoke.

  “Convoy’s ready, sir.”

  Leduc jumped up from his chair and rounded the corner of his desk. As they all turned to follow him, he stopped abruptly.

  “She’s not coming,” he said, looking at Saanvi, who stared back wide-eyed. “I’m sorry, miss, but if you’re half as important as they tell me you are, any soldier on this base would give their life for you. You’ll be safer here.”

  Mei hesitated. She had no doubts that Saanvi would be well protected at the base, but it didn’t seem right to leave her alone.

  “She can stay with me at the infirmary until you get back,” Doggard said, sensing Mei’s discomfort.

  Mei gave Saanvi an inquiring look. “Is that okay?”

  Saanvi nodded uncertainly and Mei said, “I don’t know how long we’ll be gone, probably the rest of the day, but if you need anything, ask Captain Doggard, all right?”

  Saanvi nodded again and Mei gave her a quick hug and then chased after Leduc and the others.

  A line of military vehicles led by a dark-green Mercedes G-wagon waited for them outside of the administration building. Leduc strode towards the lead vehicle with Baker, Mei, and Lucia a few steps behind him.

  “You drive,” Leduc said to Baker. Then he shot a quick glance at Mei and Lucia. “I suppose you two want to come as well. Get in the back.”

  To Mei’s surprise, the general’s vehicle, with its spartan metal interior, was as ugly and uncomfortable as the one they had climbed out of a few hours earlier. She slid across the olive-green seat to make room for Lucia. Unlike the seats in Baker’s G-wagon, the ones in the general’s vehicle thankfully had all their stuffing. Even so, every bump in the road would mean a bone-rattling jolt to the spine.

  Forty-five minutes later, they approached the checkpoint on the bridge over the river where she and the others had been delayed earlier.

  “Stop here,” Leduc said to Baker.

  When t
he G-wagon came to a halt, Leduc threw open the door, climbed out and strolled over to where the soldiers Mei knew as Dines and Abrams stood. As the general spoke, Mei could see a look of utter surprise form on their faces. After a brief but animated conversation, Leduc returned to the G-wagon, and the soldiers moved their vehicles opening up the checkpoint.

  “Your friends passed through here about a week ago,” Leduc said to Mei.

  “Did they say where they were going?”

  “To the lab, like you thought, but they were warned to stay away and redirected to a small town further up the highway.”

  Mei felt her heart sink. Tony and Emma might not be at the lab after all.

  “Why were they told to stay away,” she asked Leduc. “Is the lab dangerous?”

  “No. Next to the base, it’s one of the safest places around,” Leduc replied to her surprise.

  A little more than an hour later, the convoy turned down a side road and stopped in front of a gate blocked by dozens of steel drums. A group of soldiers jogged past the general’s vehicle and began to move the drums out of the way. Mei watched, flabbergasted, as a teenage boy in a hazmat suit ran out of the guardhouse and chased the soldiers around. When it became obvious to the boy he couldn’t stop them, he jabbered frantically into a handheld radio while the convoy passed through the gate.

  A few minutes later, they arrived at the lab. Mei stared out the window in disbelief.

  Emma?

  The college student stood in front of an open gate with her hands on her hips. Beside her was a young woman Mei mistook as a child until she saw the metal piercing in the girl’s cheek. Behind them, a crowd of people watched in wonder as the army vehicles came to a stop.

  Everyone was well-dressed and clean. It looks so normal, Mei thought as she climbed out of the vehicle. It was like she had travelled into the past to a time before the pandemic.

  When Emma saw her, she dropped her hands to her sides and bound across the parking lot with a wide grin plastered on her face.

  “Mei, you’re here,” she shouted. “Greg told us the army was coming, but I never expected to see you too.” She wrapped her arms around Mei and gave her a crushing hug. Then, perhaps without thinking, she turned to hug Lucia who went stiff as a board.

  Mei smiled. “Where’s Tony?” she asked, searching the crowd.

  “Professor Simmons is inside with Robert,” Emma said. “They’re building it, Mei, really building it! Isn’t that amazing? How did you get here? Where’s Saanvi? Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

  Then without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Mei’s hand and pulled her across the parking lot towards the young woman she had been standing beside.

  “This is Beth. She’s the librarian.”

  Librarian?

  Beth gave Mei a warm smile and waved hello. Then she smirked when Leduc approached them. “General, how nice of you to stop by. I’m sure you didn’t come all this way just to see me. Dad’s inside. I’ll take you to him.”

  “What happened to your quarantine?” Leduc asked the girl as he glanced at a utility shed by the side of the parking lot.

  “We don’t need it anymore. Isn’t that why you’re here?” She winked at him and turned and walked away.

  Emma grabbed Mei’s hand. “Come on, let’s go find Professor Simmons.”

  They found Simmons in the middle of a large empty maintenance garage. Mei watched as he and another man waved their hands, shouting directions to the driver of a flatbed truck with a gigantic stainless steel container shaped like a capsule strapped precariously to its bed. The truck’s air brakes hissed, and the vehicle jerked to a stop causing the capsule to rock back and forth for a few dangerous seconds. When Simmons noticed Mei, his mouth flew open with surprise. He ran over to greet her.

  “Mei, how on earth—”

  “It’s a long story, Tony,” she said and introduced the two men standing beside her. “This is General Leduc and Warrant Officer Sam Baker.”

  “So you’re the professor who will save us all,” Leduc said, sticking out his arm and shaking hands with Simmons.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Simmons said, hesitating. He gave Mei a worried look.

  “They know, Tony. No more secrets.”

  Simmons frowned. His eyes darted about. “Where is Saanvi?”

  “She’s safe. We left her at the general’s base. The soldiers there will protect her.”

  “What’s going on?” Simmons asked, shaking off his confusion. “How did you end up here?”

  “I’m the reason,” Baker said. He stepped forward and shook hands with Simmons. “My partner and I stopped by your house for a visit.”

  “For a visit? I don’t understand.”

  Baker grinned. “I wanted to see what you had done with my motorcycle. Seems you’re quite the mechanic. I hear you did a nice job fixing it.”

  “Your motorcycle?”

  Simmons’s eyes widened as he connected the dots. He tensed and backed away.

  Baker held out his hands in a non-threatening manner. “Relax, Professor, Mei filled me in on what happened at Fort Detrick. You have nothing to worry about from me, but I promise you, John Raine will pay dearly for what he did. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “What’s your relationship to Raine?” Simmons asked, still nervous.

  Baker’s tone turned grave. “My partner and I were one of the teams tasked with finding you.”

  Simmons went pale as a ghost. “Teams?”

  “I’m afraid so. There were about twenty men in total, but I have no idea if they’re all still out there. My sat-phone stopped working and even if it wasn’t broken, I doubt very much Special Ops Command is still operating. If it makes you feel any better, as far as I know, Taxson and I were the only ones sent to Canada.”

  “Can’t say it makes me feel any better,” Simmons said with a grim chuckle. “Who is Taxson?”

  “My partner. He became infected just after we found where you were living. He would have died if it weren’t for Mei and Saanvi. I owe them a debt that can never be repaid.” He smiled warmly at Mei.

  She returned his smile as the man who had been helping Simmons with the truck walked over and joined them.

  “This is Robert Langdon,” Simmons said introducing him. “He runs the lab. Robert and his daughter, Beth, have been helping me find the equipment I need.”

  Langdon shook hands with Baker and Mei. He nodded a greeting to General Leduc, who impatiently clapped his hands together and said, “Now that we have the introductions and thank yous out of the way, it’s time to get down to business.” He scrutinized Simmons. “Can you mass produce a vaccine, Professor?”

  “It’s not really a vaccine,” Simmons replied. “It’s more like a biological product that causes the body to produce proteins that force the bacteria to self-destruct.”

  “Call it whatever you like as long as it works. Does it work?”

  “We know we can cure people using material from Saanvi,” Simmons replied. “Whether we can replicate that capability in an artificial environment remains to be seen, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”

  “Do you believe him?” Leduc asked Langdon bluntly.

  “About the cure?” Langdon shrugged. “I’m not a biologist or a medical doctor, but based on what Tony has told me, it sounds reasonable.”

  Leduc scowled. “Sounds reasonable? That sounds like a big maybe to me.” He pointed at the large stainless steel container being lifted off the back of the truck. “I assume that has something to do with it?”

  “It does,” Langdon answered. “The research reactor containment vessel was scheduled to be replaced next year. We had that one specially built before the pandemic. With a few modifications, it will function perfectly as a chamber for the bioreactor Tony wants to build.”

  “What about the reactor?” Leduc asked with a frown.

  “Nothing to worry about in the short term. The existing vessel is good for another ten or fifteen years.
”

  Leduc stared at Simmons. “Assuming you get everything working, how much medicine can you produce, Professor?”

  “I’m still working the numbers,” Simmons replied, “but possibly up to five thousand doses per run.”

  “How often is a run?”

  “That’s hard to know without trial data, but probably one a month.”

  “So, sixty thousand doses per year.”

  “About that,” Simmons agreed. “But it’s all conditional on being able to replicate whatever is going on in Saanvi’s gastrointestinal tract. Without her, it’s game over—literally.”

  A sudden shout came from the road outside the garage. Mei turned to see a soldier with a radio pack strapped to his back scurrying towards them. As the soldier ran, the antennas jutting from the top of the pack whipped about in the air.

  Out of breath, he came to a stop in front of the general and said, “Sir, there’s an urgent message from the base!”

  “What is it?” Leduc barked into the mouthpiece he was handed. His face turned dark with anger as he listened. “Ready a search team and keep me posted. I want them both found.” With the handset still in his hand and a grave expression on his face, he turned to face them.

  “She’s gone.”

  “Who?”

  “Your girl.”

  Mei felt her heart stop. She pointed her finger at Leduc and shouted, “You promised me she would be safe.”

  “I’m sorry,” he replied with a pained expression. “We’ll find her, but he has a head-start.”

  “Who has a head start?” Simmons asked.

  “It was one of your people,” Leduc said to Langdon. “He arrived at the base by boat last night ranting about a scientist with a cure. At the time, we didn’t know anything about any of this. We just figured he was crazy and put him in a locked room in the infirmary. He must have overheard Captain Goddard talking about the girl and escaped.”

  Langdon’s face turned white. “It must be James O’Neal. We had a problem with him last night.”

  “What kind of problem?”

  Langdon exhaled. “He killed his girlfriend and accused me of keeping secrets when he found out Tony and Emma were immune.”