Minutes to Burn

by Gregg Hurwitz

  Danny was emitting a long, steady moan, his voice garbling with each of Maricarmen's footsteps. He finally stopped and giggled explosively. Iggy reached the window first and banged on it. Samantha held her hand flat against the window, pressing it against the outline of his. "Hey, baby," she said. "I'm sorry I missed Christmas. But you have a ton of gifts to open the minute I get out."

  Down the hall, Kiera tumbled over. A passing soldier stopped to help, but Kiera got up herself, adjusting her prosthesis and picking her back-pack up off the floor.

  Maricarmen set Danny down and he ran to the window. Iggy had to pick him up so that he could see over the sill. Samantha kissed the glass, then realized that probably wasn't such a good idea and wiped her lips.

  "I brought the air ticktacktoe!" Iggy cried, setting Danny down. He unrolled a thin, transparent plastic board against the window, and it clung in place. He pulled out a magic marker and made an "X" in the middle. Samantha pointed to a slot, and he penned in an "O."

  "How are things going, Maricarmen?" Samantha asked.

  Maricarmen rolled her eyes and ruffled Danny's hair. "He's no eating," she said, with her distinctive accent. "I make him peanut butter, but he refuse. And Iggy's no brushing his teeth."

  Kiera reached the window and leaned against the glass. "So that's where my shirt went," she said.

  Samantha gazed down at the NVME T-shirt. "I think the blond one's a cutie."

  "Mom!" Kiera rolled her eyes. "You are so embarrassing."

  "You'll have to buy marshmallow fluff for the peanut butter," Saman-tha continued to Maricarmen, "or else he won't-"

  A lab technician approached and knocked on the glass. "Sorry to bother you, Sammy, but I wanted to let you know we finally got the shipment. Everything looks fine. Oh-and there's new gloves for the hood lines. Latex hands bonded to neoprene sleeves. Less slippery. Also, Tim's having problems with the Machupo rats. He can't get a safe handle on them."

  "No!" Samantha said. "You can't use those gloves. We had them once before-"

  "Mom!"

  Samantha pointed at a slot, and Iggy penned in another "O." "And the latex separates from the sleeves. They leak like hell. Send 'em back and tell admin that their insistence on lowest bidder is going to have someone vomiting blood."

  "Gross," Iggy said. "Your turn."

  Maricarmen picked up Danny again, and he yanked on her necklace. Samantha turned back to her. "Brush. And pick up that glittery kid's toothpaste that comes out shaped like an elongated star on the tooth-brush." She tapped the glass to get the lab tech's attention. "Tell Tim to grab the rats by the tail and lower them onto a wire cage. When they pull away, their necks are exposed and it's the perfect scruff-grabbing angle."

  Kiera pulled a folder out of her backpack. "I brought the flashcards. I'm sending them through the pass-through box," she said.

  Beside the window was an autoclave that could be opened from both inside and outside the slammer. One side always remained sealed. Inside, extremely strong UV killed off any germs. Before an object was moved out of the slammer, it first had to sit in the box under UV light for fif-teen minutes, then be sprayed down with disinfectant for further decon-tamination.

  Samantha grabbed Kiera's folder as Iggy cried, "Three in a row!" and wiped the marker off the board with his sleeve.

  "No, don't…" Samantha shook her head, looking at the black smudge on Iggy's sweatshirt. He started a new game, drawing another "X." "I'm sorry they're being difficult, Maricarmen," she said, pointing at the board to take her turn. She pulled out an enlarged photograph from the folder and pressed it against the glass. It was a fuzzy black-and-white enlargement of long slender threads that curved around them-selves.

  "Ea-sy," Kiera groaned. "Filovirus."

  "Good, baby," Samantha said. She waved at Danny with one finger. "How's my little blowfish?" she asked. He laughed and puffed out his cheeks. Samantha turned to Maricarmen with pleading eyes, holding another photograph to the window. "I should be out in a week. I've already contacted day care-they can take them days. Do you think you could…?"

  Kiera gazed at the photograph, which featured spaghetti-like rods curved in shepherd's crooks. "Marburg," she said. "Causes disseminated intravascular coagulation."

  Maricarmen waved her hand. "Of course. I will maybe have to reschedule some things, but if you are busy saving the world…"

  Iggy laughed. "My mom saves the world," he said.

  "Not quite, honey."

  Iggy banged into Kiera with his rear end, almost knocking her over. She leaned over, unstrapped her leg, and smacked him across the head with it.

  "Kiera!" Samantha said. "We talked about that kind of attention-getting!"

  "Well-"

  "No 'wells.' Are you going to act like that when you're a senator? Well? Are you?"

  "I'm not gonna be a senator. I'm gonna be a virologist."

  "You can be both if you stop whacking people over the head with your prosthetic limb. Now…" Samantha pulled out another enlarge-ment and pressed it to the glass. Round particles containing small grainy bits.

  Kiera bent over, strapping her leg back on. "Arenavirus," she said.

  "Excellent." Samantha tapped the glass and Iggy penned an "O." He blocked her move with an "X."

  The lab tech returned. "I took care of the gloves," he said. "And you got this from Donald Denton at the New Center." He pulled a test tube, containing the Sangre de Dios dinoflagellate DNA pellet, out of a padded box. "He thinks the plankton are virus-laden. I'm sending them through." Not wanting to damage the DNA, he clicked a switch to deac-tivate the heat and UV light inside the autoclave before placing the test tube inside. The precautions were only a necessity when moving materi-als from inside the slammer to out.

  Opening the autoclave from her side, Samantha pulled out the test tube and held it up, then glanced at her microscope on the counter. She looked back at the kids.

  "I know, I know," Kiera said. "You have to get to work now. I recog-nize when your mouth gets like that."

  Danny shook his head back and forth furiously. "I don't wanna go yet."

  "Honey, I'll be home soon," Samantha said. She tapped the window with a blunt fingernail. "I promise."

  "Yeah, right," Kiera said.

  "Honey, please. Give me a hand here."

  "Well, I can't spare a leg."

  Samantha set her hands on her hips. "Maricarmen, why don't you take the boys to the car? I'll send Kiera out in a moment."

  The boys kissed the window, and Samantha cringed but refrained from scolding them since she'd set the example. Maricarmen took the boys by their hands and led them out. Kiera played with a hole in her jeans.

  "What is going on with you?" Samantha asked.

  "Why are you in here?"

  "I just…I needed to…I got exposed to…"

  Kiera sighed. Loudly. "I read what you did in the newspaper. Maricar-men cut out the article, but I saw the blank square and knew it would be something good, so I dug it out of the garbage."

  "Don't dig in the garbage, honey."

  "That is not the point!" Kiera said, her nostrils flaring.

  "Honey, you know how my work is. We've talked about this. I some-times have to take risks to help other people."

  "Well, what am I supposed to tell Danny if you end up with… with hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or something? Then what?"

  Samantha pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. "How old are you again?"

  Kiera's face remained angry. "It's not just you anymore, you know," she said. "It's us too."

  Stunned, Samantha sat down slowly on a nearby chair. She felt as though she'd just had the breath knocked out of her. The test tube was cool in her hand. "I know," she said. "You're right."

  Kiera chewed her bottom lip. "Well… just don't let it happen again."

  "Okay," Samantha said. "I won't." She stood again and crossed to the window. She reached out to touch the glass, then lowered her hands in frustration. She'd never wanted to hold her child
so much. "Honey, you kids are the most important thing to me in the world. I hope you know that."

  Kiera's face softened. "I do." She looked up at her mother. "I'd better get going. Maricarmen's waiting."

  Samantha leaned against the glass, watching her daughter until she turned the corner at the end of the hall. She sat back down in the chair and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. She didn't move for a long time. Then she rose and walked over to the microscope.

  Chapter 21

  With all they had seen on their respective tours-men drinking cobra blood in Snake Alley in Taiwan, the diffuse orange sunset over Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, decapitated frogs still breathing in Vietnamese markets-the soldiers had never encountered a place like the Galapagos.

  The water was postcard-blue and calm, lapping against the panga. The soldiers sat up along the pontoons, the gear stacked between them. The panguero, who smelled of aguardiente and wore jeans cuffed in wide bands, navigated admirably, despite the fact that the outboard was straining under the load. Cameron leaned over the side, running her fingers through the clear water and praying the little boat wouldn't sink under the weight of their gear. She stole a look at Justin, who winked at her. His face was streaked with sunblock that needed to be rubbed in.

  The island of Santa Cruz loomed before them, a low-lying black bulge on the surface that sloped upward and lost itself in mist. Over-head, frigate birds circled, black streaks against the sky. When they caught the sun, they reflected a greenish sheen. Their tails deeply forked for maneuvering, they dipped and turned, their long slender wings spread wide. Rex pulled his Panama hat low over his eyes to cut the blazing sun.

  A white bird with gray wings and bright blue feet swept low over the stern, crying out in a nasal honk. It banked high and then folded its wings to its side, plummeting toward the water like an arrow. Cameron pointed and the other soldiers watched as the bird hit the water hard and vanished. Even Savage glanced over, though he pretended not to be interested. "The blue-footed booby," Juan said. "The great plunge diver of Galapagos. It can go up to ten meters beneath the water."

  After a few moments, the bird popped to the surface, then took to the air. One of the iridescent frigate birds chased her, closing quickly to attack her in flight. She squawked and flailed, disgorging the fish, and the frigate bird used its long hooked beak to snatch the fish from her mouth. With a defeated squawk, the booby headed for land.

  The panga approached the sleepy town of Puerto Ayora, which was stretched along a rocky inlet on the southern shore of Santa Cruz. Pulling into Academy Bay, a small anchorage split by a damaged cement pier, the panguero cut the engines, drifting until the boat nosed up against the massive black tires guarding the dock. The Bay was almost empty. A few dinghies floated despondently near a set of white buoys and a weathered rowboat, but there was only one boat of any size-El Pescador Rico. A number of bloated fish drifted on the surface, forced upward by a recent swell until their air bladders had exploded through their mouths. Cameron wrinkled her nose at the stench.

  A pelican skimmed low with its huge bill angled toward the water. It dipped, hitting the water with a splash, and surfaced with several gallons of water distending its pouch. As it began to drain its pouch, a brown noddy flew over, landing on its chestnut-brown head, waiting eagerly for fish scraps to wash out.

  The coastline was composed of thickets of red mangrove and jagged, low-lying lava rocks spotted with tide pools. Rusted and broken, aban-doned bicycles were chained on the railing that ran the length of the pier. Nailed to a kiosk was a cardboard Minutes to Burn sign. Crude num-bers hung on pegs beneath it-2:10.

  Avenida Charles Darwin, a road cobbled with red composite blocks and lined with shops and restaurants, curved parallel to the coastline heading east. Many stores had boards nailed across the doors and win-dows, but a few still remained open.

  The soldiers disembarked and stacked their gear on the dock. Derek stuffed a roll of sucres in the panguero's pocket and said, "Justin and Szabla-you guys stay here with the gear while we go find the Darwin Station. We'll rotate shifts later so you can grab a bite." He'd removed two of the unloaded Sigs from the weapons box; he tossed one to Szabla and stuffed the other in his belt. "In case you need to bluff."

  Szabla raised her index finger and twirled it in the air.

  Rex pointed at one of the boxes marked TELEMETRY. "We need that one."

  "Then carry it," Savage retorted.

  Tank stepped forward and grabbed both handles, hoisting it up with a grunt.

  The panguero was busy unmooring the boat from the pier. A swell lifted the panga suddenly, and he fell over. Szabla and Savage laughed, and Tucker looked down with a smile. The man glared at them, his mouth drawn tight with indignation, then shoved off.

  Leaving Justin and Szabla behind, the squad fell into line with Rex heading east along the road toward the Darwin Station. The effects of the earthquakes grew increasingly apparent. A few of the buildings had toppled over, leaving large blocks of space between standing shops. On one side of the road, a half-built boat had fallen off its blocks, the unfin-ished wood on the bow rent nearly in two. Up ahead, two sturdy boards were lain over a four-foot rift in the street, so that people could bicycle and walk across. A red Chevette had evidently tried to make it over as well; it lay smashed and angled into the split earth, its taillights sticking up into the air.

  Though almost all the scientists and visitors had fled the islands, many of the colonos had stubbornly remained. An old man had fallen asleep sitting in a wooden chair outside his store, one arm swinging at his side, his face tilted back and covered with a venerable Panama hat. Cameron watched nervously as a shirtless young boy jumped on the trunk of the Chevette, fanning his arms wide to keep his balance as he walked across.

  A few men were blasting a chunk of raised concrete that reared up from the sidewalk like an angry animal. They were arguing about where to set the TNT. The seal of the Ecuadorian army painted on its side, the crate of TNT sat open, revealing a tangle of assorted blasting caps and detonators.

  "The military dropped off explosives?" Cameron asked.

  Juan nodded. "The ejercito. For the roads and fallen buildings."

  Tucker stopped beside the men and pointed. "There," he said. "That's your stress point." They looked at him uncomprehending, so he took the red block and positioned it on the concrete. He made a sound like an explosion. The men stared at him as if he were psychotic. "You'll see," he said.

  Juan explained to them in Spanish, and one of them nodded. They backed up and blew the concrete. It severed almost perfectly at road level, crumbling onto the pavement. Tucker made a gun with his hand and blew the invisible smoke from the barrel of his finger. The men laughed and nodded their thanks as the soldiers headed up the road.

  Clusters of people sat at tables on the sidewalks, laughing and drinking from large brown bottles labeled Pilsener. They watched the squad as it passed but did not seem particularly interested or intimidated. A truck lumbered by, weaving expertly to avoid cracks and potholes. To the right, water sneaked through lava rocks to lap against the concrete sea wall protecting the street.

  Cameron nodded at a group of teenagers hanging out in the back of a diesel-guzzling blue truck, parked at the curb. A little girl sat in the dri-ver's seat, playing with a pair of handcuffs that had been decoratively hooked around the rearview mirror. The teenagers waved and smiled, calling out in Spanish, asking if they were movie stars.

  Eventually, the road forked into two dirt roads. Juan continued to the right, heading between a cemetery studded with raised white blocks of caskets and a bent sign featuring a smiling marine iguana wearing scuba gear. The others followed.

  Tucker stopped beneath a tall tree with small green fruit. He tugged on a dark green leaf and it snapped free, a drop of white fluid beading from the stem.

  The red dirt of the road dusted their boots, and their pants to the knees. Bushes and muyuyo trees lined the road on both sides. A mam-moth Opuntia gua
rded the front of a hay hut, its prickly beavertail pads protruding in clusters.

  Tucker suddenly cried out, dropping the leaf and rubbing his hand.

  "What?" Cameron asked. "What is it?"

  "I don't know," Tucker said. "Something stung me or something." He raised his hand to his mouth, but Rex grabbed him around the wrist.

  "Don't do that," Rex barked. Tucker tried to yank his arm away, but Rex held it tightly. "Calm down and let me look at it." Turning Tucker's hand, he examined the small red patch of dermatitis. He crouched and picked up the leaf that Tucker had dropped, careful not to touch the white fluid leaking from the broken stem. "Manzanillo," he said. "Poison apple tree." He snapped his fingers at Derek. "Give me your canteen."

  He poured water over Tucker's hand, smoothing it across the rash with his thumb. "It'll be fine," Rex said. He turned to the others. "Don't fondle the vegetation. You're not in a garden here."

  The Station was a wide grouping of buildings arranged around a loop at the end of the road. They approached a plain, cream-colored building, a wooden sign hammered into the flower box out front. Estacion Cienti-fica Charles Darwin.

  Rex walked inside the administration building, calling out in Spanish. The soldiers waited impatiently in the hot sun. Tank set down the telemetry box and sat on it. It creaked under his weight. Juan gazed ahead at the crumbling Plantas y Invertebrados and Proteccion buildings, his face coloring with concern. Odd-shaped and fronted with large stones and concrete, the buildings were shaded by a large, swooping strip of roof that dipped in the middle, giving it the appearance of a ramp. Wires and extension cords threaded out the shattered windows of both buildings and across a collapsed deck.

  Rex emerged from the administration building. "No one there," he said.

  Juan pointed at the complex ahead. "We'll check here and you head down to Bio Mar. That is where, I believe, the seismology people were working."