“But you say with the Psycho, they maybe turn very evil.”
“That’s just a guess. We have no evidence or proof of how any of this works. I just know we have to give him a chance. What you do is on your own conscience.”
He looked at Daniel’s face for a few more seconds. Searching. For what, Daniel didn’t know; certainty perhaps, but he wouldn’t find it. Spooky swallowed, then bowed, formally. “Goodbye, Daniel Markis. I think you are the Colonel Zeke now.”
Daniel bowed to him in return, shaken. Master Sergeants don’t become Colonels overnight. He guessed now he had no choice. He sure didn’t feel ready. Pushing the thought aside he watched Spooky walk down toward the motor pool.
Good luck, Spooky.
***
A week of being buried alive here in Sosthenes made Daniel realize the idea about quarantining himself wasn’t going to work. Physically he was not limited; it was the oppression of the mountain above him, the damp cold air anywhere not heated by machinery, and the lack of open spaces that was getting to him.
He drove himself hard, to keep the oppression and the black thoughts of Zeke’s fate away. He spent as much time with Elise as he could spare, and with Millie and Cassie and Ricky, trying to make up for the Zeke-shaped hole in their lives.
Cassie bore up well, and she quickly established herself as the master of their intel field work, what is called tradecraft by those in the business. She spent long hours with Vinh, who ate up the knowledge and reveled in his job as gopher, supply specialist and intelligence operative. She soon had him taking trucks to various towns and cities, never the same place twice, selling currency and coins to private collectors and shops and jewelers, buying loads of electronics, spare parts, cabling, fresh food, everything that the bunker needed.
Vinny and Daniel set up several satellite and microwave dishes and other antennas on the mountaintop, under cover of the trees and some extra radar-scattering netting strategically placed to mask any overhead surveillance. The bunker entrance nearby was one of a dozen or so that led to various points on the mountain, providing access or escape for people on foot. By midweek everyone was taking sunlight breaks at least once a day at the nearest hatchway.
They also got all the internal telephones working, at each entrance and in all of the main rooms and offices. The phones weren’t connected to the outside world but were still useful for their work.
By the end of the week the lab equipment started arriving. Daniel risked going outside driving one of two trucks, following Vinh to pick up several large crates in Richmond. It was a great relief just to be up in the sunlight and out in the open, bouncing along the country roads down to the freeway feeders to the Virginia capital and back. He thought if he could do that once a week he might be all right.
Larry had taken off on his own the day after Zeke died, heading back to Atlanta. That gave Cassie enough time to set up a rudimentary anonymous webmail system with him, using free accounts for communication. As long as everyone stayed away from certain keywords like ‘Eden’ or ‘Plague’ or ‘Markis,’ everything should be fine. Computers might be able to look at every e-mail in America, but people couldn’t: they could only see what the software flagged. That was how to stay below the radar of the creeping Big Brother that America’s government had become since 9-11.
They decided to keep to a more or less similar week to the outside world, work five or six days but for sure take Sunday off. Everyone was pushing too hard. So it was on a Sunday afternoon right after the barbecue outside their best hatch that Daniel found Elise.
She had been sitting against the mountainside a couple of hundred yards up on a granite ledge. He must have remembered she liked it there. She gave a little wave when she saw him hiking up, but he didn’t smile.
“Elise…I need to talk to you.” Awkwardly.
It seemed like he had been a bit standoffish for the last week or so. She thought she knew why. “I know. I mean, okay. Let’s talk.”
He took a deep breath, then sat down beside her, not touching. Staring out into space. “I need to know something first.”
“Sure.” She didn’t sound sure, even to herself.
“Can the EP be fixed? Really? Can the conscience-enhancing portion be overcome?”
Now where did that come from? She did a kind of double-take, since he had asked her a completely unexpected question. She could see him wondering what she had thought he would say. He-thought, she-thought, she thought.
So she thought about the question for a minute. “Not easily. Not soon. It repairs cells. It repairs a lot of things. It balances processes. If you told it not to repair brain cells or processes – theoretically, I mean – then it wouldn’t repair nerve cells either. That would preclude a lot of other injuries getting fixed. But it’s more than just brain cells or neurons or axons or whatever. It’s the regulation of hormones and a thousand delicate neurological processes. The fact this thing works at all is a miracle, testimony to the creators’ work. They did amazing things with primitive technology.”
Daniel nodded. “If the Russians really did it. I’m still wondering about alien influence.” He let a long breath out. “So the improvement in, well, let’s call it ‘virtue,’ is intrinsic. Impossible to separate from the advantages. That’s good, I think.”
Elise replied, “I’m not so sure it’s good, if we can’t defend ourselves. I think this imperfect Eden Plague will push some people into being puritans and pacifists and Pharisees. It’s falling off the horse the opposite way. You feel it yourself, don’t you? You risked lives back there on the island because you used nonlethal ammo, when one shot to the brain would have put Karl down for good. But you couldn’t do it. Is that good or bad? What’s the lesser of the evils?”
“I don’t know. I’m glad I didn’t have to kill him, and I’m glad he didn’t kill anyone else. I don’t have any easy answers. We have to operate within the parameters we have right now. Maybe later you can tweak the virus to keep the reluctance-to-kill virtue without making it a vice.”
She shrugged. “Maybe.” Or maybe we’re just screwing ourselves.
He rubbed his eyes, thinking. “Okay, then what about the hunger? The food needs? The excessive fertility?”
She let out a breath, as if she had been holding it. “That can be improved a lot easier, I think. Just time and money and research.”
He nodded, and she could see him thinking. They sat back against the granite, watching the puffy clouds, feeling the breeze through their jackets, smelling the sweet pine.
He opened up a bag of trail mix and M&Ms, what backpackers called “gorp,” and set it on the rock between their thighs. A handful went into his mouth with a practiced flick. He took a deep breath. “Elise…” his voice trailed off.
“Yes. Go on, it’s okay.” Her tone was gentle, she could see the worry in his eyes. If it’s what I think it is, she thought, this is a moment every man fears, before he commits and risks rejection.
“Elise,” he started again, “I care for you. I could call it something else but maybe it’s too soon. I think you care for me. But I think I’m in charge of this whole thing now and I need to think about bigger issues than just the two of us. That means I need to…to put aside at least that much turmoil. Oh, I’m not saying this very well, I’m making it sound like it’s a coldblooded decision.” He turned to her, to look in her eyes. “I just mean –”
She reached for him then, her lips for his. She could feel him respond, feel relief flood through his body, relief that she had not rejected him. She knew she never would, but she also knew that he didn’t know that.
The kiss was magical, electric. She felt connected to him in a physical way, like there was a joining of their nervous systems.
For his part, he knew in that moment that he could reach out his hands to her body right there on that breezy chilly mountainside, and it would be wonderful. But something stopped him, the thing that had begun to get in the way between them. A desire to do things better, or mor
e righteously or something like that. To not screw this up the way he had screwed up his other relationships. He hadn’t given "them" nearly as much thought as he had about the world-shaking implications of the EP, and he felt embarrassed to have put her in second place. But dammit, wasn’t all of mankind more important than any two people? He gently broke the embrace, still holding her head in his hands. “Elise, we need to –”
“Shut up, Dan, and take me here,” she whispered huskily. “Right here and now. I can’t think of a more glorious place.”
He groaned, eyes squeezed together. “Elise, I want you too, so much. But I want to do it right.”
“Oh, we’re going to do it right all right.” She stared at him wide-eyed when he only chuckled, pained. “Okay. Do what?”
“You know. I mean…if we’re in love…if we love each other…”
“I do love you,” she said.
“I know. I mean, I mean, we should…make a commitment. Make it official.”
She sat back, stunned but suffused with confused joy. Every girl’s dream? But what timing! Wasn’t that supposed to be my speech? “You mean like, uh, married? Sure, I assumed we would, eventually. But a moment like this only comes along once in a while. Let’s take it while we can.” She reached for him again.
He held her gently away. “Elise, I…I…I made a deal with God. To be a better person. I keep my deals. And I mean, I’m not a real religious guy or anything but I just think…I want to be married to you before we…you know.” His voice dropped to a miserable whisper. “So maybe I won’t screw it up this time.”
She reached up to take his hand in both of hers. It felt warm, his flesh surrounded by hers. Like things to come. “Oh, you dear sweet, virtue-ridden man.”
“It’s not just the Eden Plague! That would mean it’s not really me. But after my divorce…I promised God I’d do everything I could right with the next woman in my life.” His face begged her to understand.
She shook his hand between hers. “Well, I have to admire and respect you for sticking to your beliefs and promises.” Her eyes crossed slightly as she thought it through, thought of a way around Daniel’s dilemma. “There won’t be any official marriage certificates or anything like that, right? We’re off the grid. So a marriage is just our commitment to each other.”
“It’s a commitment in front of witnesses.”
Damn. She sat back in defeat. “Damn you, I was going to construct a nice little argument for saying our vows right here and now and then doing it like bunnies.”
He laughed, a great belly laugh of relief that lasted a long time, leaving his eyes and nose running. “I love you too, you know.” He reached for her embrace and they basked in the shared warmth of their bodies.
“Okay, mister goody-two-shoes. Let’s go get married. Today.” She leapt to her feet, pulling him with her down the trail.
They tried. It turned out that the rest wouldn’t let them. After the girlish shrieking from Cass and Millie, the backslapping from the men, and confused looks from Ricky, everyone made them wait until the next day. But Daniel and Elise insisted on having the wedding outdoors in the sunlight, in the sight of God and everyone.
It was a short, moving ceremony. After “You May Kiss The Bride” Elise whispered in Daniel’s ear, “Now let’s go up to our ledge and do it like bunnies.”
And so they did.
More precisely, they shared the kind of intimacy that only two people who are completely committed to each other can share. No doubts remained in either of them as he took her in his arms and their bodies melded together, nothing between them anymore, with the blessings of their friends and, Daniel knew, of God. Time suspended itself as they wrapped themselves in each other.
We’re a new Adam and a new Eve in a new Eden, Elise thought, then laughed at herself. I don’t even believe in that, but here I am quoting it to myself. Maybe some stories are truer than science. “Stick that in your image enhancers, satellite-watchers,” she muttered as she stared up at the twilight sky from inside the double sleeping bag.
Daniel laughed and buried his face in his wife’s long sweet hair. If this love was the EP’s doing, he’d given up on his doubts, and on fighting biology, and just accepted things as they were.
-20-
It was days later, after bouts of dreamy pleasure and sessions of hard work for the both of them, that they finally made time for the conversation they had been trying to have before. Daniel dragged Elise back up to their ledge with a picnic dinner and sleeping bags as twilight fell she took his licentious look with good cheer and eagerness. But once they’d gotten there and set out the food, he said, “I need to talk to you about something.”
She looked worried for a moment, then sat back, picking up an apple and taking a crunchy bite. Her freckles danced as her strong jaw worked. “Uh-oh. When the man says that it’s always bad,” she teased, knowing full well it was usually the other way around.
He pushed aside the distraction of her simple natural beauty and plowed on. “Remember what we were talking about here before? When we had the conversation?”
“About doing it like bunnies?”
They laughed.
“Okay, yes. About the Eden Plague and fixing it?” she asked.
“Yes. I’ve decided something. I’m sorry if it sounds like I left you out of the decision, I don’t mean to,” he put on his most determined expression, “but I really believe it’s the right thing to do.”
“Do what?”
He licked his lips. “To start the Plague going. As soon as we can.”
She sat back, still chewing apple, crossing her eyes slightly as she always did when thinking deeply. She ate the whole fruit, including the core, except that little stem they always leave on to ensure everyone knows it’s really from a tree. No digestive upsets with EP, and she always felt like she needed every calorie.
He sat and let her think.
Eventually she responded. “You know, if we had a few months, we could probably make it airborne. Graft in some highly infectious influenza. One good thing is, it appears the virus is designed to survive in all sorts of media – blood, saliva, salt water, even chlorinated water doesn’t faze it. And once it’s ingested, it’s very infectious. Kind of like Ebola.”
“That’s good news. You know, they’re going to be watching for people pulling research off the web.”
“I’ll work with Vinny and Cass to make sure we don’t get traced.”
“So…you agree with my plan?”
“Sounds more like a goal than a plan, but yes…I always did.” She smiled reassuringly, supportively.
“Even if it causes chaos.” His tone of voice made it a statement, not a question.
She sighed. “Yes. Horrible as it might be, it will make a better world.” I hope.
He felt a twisting in his gut. Where have I heard that phrase ‘A Better World’ before? “I bet Oppenheimer said the same thing.”
“Wasn’t he right? After Japan, has there been another use of atomic weapons?” Her gaze was intense as she thought, he likes it when I argue with him…to a point. All men do. They like to be challenged, and then they like to win. Do that and they’ll love and respect you forever.
“No. But a couple weeks ago you were arguing that assassinating enemy scientists was wrong.” he said.
“I didn’t say I had it all figured out. I don’t think there are real parallels anyway. This isn’t a weapon. It’s just goodness that this evil world won’t be able to cope with.”
“Like the Second Coming…”
“What?”
“Never mind, just something I thought of. But it won’t be just those who accept it that get…well, saved. Cured. Whatever. If you make it contagious, it will be indiscriminate.” He looked at her for approval.
“Good. The faster the better.” I agree with him, she thought, but even if I didn’t I’d have to support him, because I can see he’s already talked himself into it.
“I think so too. But let me pl
ay devil’s advocate for a minute. Aren’t we making that decision for all people? Shouldn’t they decide for themselves? And what if five years down the line we all turn into aliens or zombies or something? What if it does something completely unexpected and wipes out the human race?”
“Come on, Daniel,” she said with exasperation. “I thought you were the risk-taker and adventurer.”
“I’m also the one who took the Hippocratic Oath. First, do no harm. I’m not sure I’m not violating it.”
She shook her head. “If you do surgery, you have to cut. You have to harm to save. But…whatever you decide, I’m with you. I’m your life partner.”
“You’re my wife.”
A wonderful thrill shot through her again at those simple words, a feeling that she hoped would never wear off. “Okay mister old-fashioned, yes I’m your wife and you’re my husband. But if I disagree I’m going to let you know. So now you have my views. Let’s practice making the next generation of Markises. Less talk, more do.” She reached for him with abandon, feeling the play of muscles across his chest as he crushed her to himself and their lips fused. If she ever had any doubts, they were long gone, drowned in the feel of his body against her, and as they lay naked and unashamed in the sleeping bags as man and wife, she knew deep down that he was right. It is better this way, much deeper. I just never knew. Then the waves of pleasure dragged her under, and she drowned in the rolling surf of his love.
***
The next day Daniel called a council of war. He termed it “war,” not because they were going to make war on anyone, but because he thought their actions would start one.
Against them.
He prepared to explain it all the best he could in the conference room, with computer-projected slides and diagrams. Military briefing habits die hard.
Larry was back, with a whole group of his family members. Daniel wasn’t sure what he had told them but there were about twenty of them, and they were not invited to the council. They were too new and he wasn’t going to risk some kind of schism or budding political dispute in their little community.
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