The White Iris

by Susanne Matthews

Julie didn’t hate him. Other than a quick flash of fury, she’d been unemotional. He could’ve lived with her hatred, but not this. Hate was just as strong an emotion as love, the flip side of the coin that went around and around in many relationships. No, the end of love was apathy. There’d been no emotion in her voice when she’d said they’d gotten lucky finding out they didn’t suit before the marriage took place.

  How many times had he imagined this meeting? In his dreams, she’d been her old self, friendly and forgiving, but today, she’d been indifferent, and when she’d given him an opening to tell her the truth, he’d frozen up again, just like he’d always done.

  He might’ve lied to her in the past, but not today. He’d come to Atlanta hoping to see her. Knowing she rarely worked all day on the weekends, he’d considered dropping by Vitelli’s, where she and Ellie always ate on Saturday nights.

  That was another thing about Julie he could count on. She was predictable—no surprises—never deviating from her chosen path. At times, it had driven him crazy, since the word spontaneous simply wasn’t in her vocabulary. Sometimes you needed to fly by the seat of your pants, but the thought of doing something without hypothesizing and analyzing the damn thing to death was sacrilegious to her. Just once, he’d have liked to see her take a leap of faith. Obviously that aspect of her character hadn’t changed. He and their relationship had been categorized and filed away—hell, he was probably nothing more than a failed experiment to her.

  Turning around, he handed the guest badge to the security guard at the door and exited the building. The rental car he’d picked up at the airport was like an oven inside. Removing his suit jacket and tie, he placed them on the backseat and got behind the wheel. His flight back to Boston wasn’t until tomorrow. On a whim, he decided to drive over to Stone Mountain, one of their favorite hiking places. It was only twenty miles away, and while he wasn’t dressed for exercise, he could get coffee and enjoy the quiet surroundings. He’d proposed to her there three years ago today. It had been the happiest day of his life; now it was a bittersweet memory of what could’ve been.

  As he drove, he contemplated the various attack scenarios Julie had described. The task force had considered a dirty bomb based on the hype surrounding the idea of one. Released in a major city, they’d figured it would destroy millions.

  Looks like you’re not as smart as you think you are. No wonder the Prophet makes a fool of you, his conscience prodded.

  The idea that his nemesis could have someone as deranged as Josef Mengele working for him was a frightening one. That monster had justified his horrors in the name of scientific research. Thinking someone else could see the Great Burning the same way … Trevor would talk this over with the others as soon as he got back to Boston—and as far as the end of his relationship with Julie went, like the ulcer he’d been nursing for months, he’d just have to continue to live with it.

  If the Prophet made good on his threat, he’d have to work with her, but it would be on his turf and on his terms. She’d have to learn to follow protocol and think with her gut, not only her brain. She wouldn’t like it, but damn it, she’d have to learn to adapt. Police work often involved going out on a limb and guessing, not relying only on proven scientific data.

  He wasn’t a hero, but saving lives and protecting others wasn’t a hero’s job. It was a team effort, based on good police work, following clues, and putting the bad guys away where they belonged. Stopping the Prophet was Trevor’s primary goal, and he’d use whatever means he had at his disposal to do it. If that meant working closely with Julie once more, so be it.

  • • •

  “Ellie, I’m telling you, there are two virus samples missing,” Julie whispered into her phone. “I came down here to secure a new specimen, and they’re gone. I checked the sign-out sheet. No one’s working with them. They should be here.”

  “Be reasonable, Jules, there’s absolutely no way two virus samples can walk out of the CDC, and you know it, especially since we got that terrorist alert from the FBI two weeks ago. It would be easier to carry a gold ingot out of Fort Knox. It wouldn’t be the first time someone skipped protocol because they were in a hurry. Hell, we’ve both done it. It’s probably one of your own team members. Look, I’ll be back within the hour, and Brad should be back by then, too. If you feel this strongly about it, take it to him. Someone needs their knuckles rapped. I’ll back you up.”

  “But I can’t go to him,” Julie wailed. “I’m logged in here under your name.”

  “My name?” Ellie yelled loudly enough that Julie pulled the phone away from her ear. “Why on earth are you logged in under my name? How is that even possible?”

  “When you left my office to go to the dentist, you grabbed my badge instead of yours. They were side by side on my desk. I didn’t realize it until that Ebola specimen arrived, and I had to sign for it. I couldn’t just leave it lying around. I expected to be in and out without a problem. This is what happens when I act on impulse.”

  “Breathe, Julie. Exactly what’s missing?”

  “Two influenza A samples: an H1N1 derivative, not the one the team and I used for this year’s vaccine, and an H5N1. I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “For Pete’s sake, settle down. The FBI directive was a heads-up, not an imminent threat warning. Brad’s been like a cat on a hot tin roof for the last couple of weeks, ever since you two met with Trevor. What the hell did he tell you?

  “Nothing that has any bearing on this,” Julie said, hoping Ellie couldn’t hear the lie in her voice. “You’re right. I’m making a mountain out of a molehill.”

  “Not you. If there’s one thing you don’t do, it’s jump to conclusions, so if this scares you, I’ll tell Brad I found them missing. Take a picture, and I’ll show it to him. Good enough?”

  Julie sighed. “Yes, thanks. See you in an hour or so.”

  Using the camera on her cell phone, Julie took a picture of the two empty slots, making sure the photograph was clear enough to see the sample numbers. Three days ago, there’d been a power outage in this part of the city. The authorities had blamed it on one of the many suicidal squirrels responsible for such things each year, and from what she’d learned, Georgia had more of the idiotic rodents than a lot of other states.

  What if it hadn’t been a squirrel, but a carefully organized theft? She couldn’t get Trevor’s prophet out of her head. The two missing flu viruses were among the most dangerous because they killed healthy people, not just the sick and infirm like most flu viruses did. Delivering them might be a problem since both were spread by direct contact, but if the man was determined to kill millions, releasing either one of these pathogens would do the trick.

  As soon as Ellie returned from her appointment, Julie went straight to her with the picture she’d taken as proof, and exchanged swipe cards again. Ellie swore her to secrecy about the card mix-up. Better no one knew they’d broken one of the lab’s strictest rules, especially now. Brad was on the verge of popping the question, and Julie wouldn’t do anything to mess that up for Ellie.

  “I’ll take it to him right away.”

  Julie nodded, returned to her office, and tried to get back to the report she’d been working on before the Ebola sample had arrived, but every sound in the hall grabbed her attention. A knock on her door made her jump.

  “Come in,” she called, trying to slow her breathing before it brought on a stress-induced asthma attack, the last thing she needed today. Ever since Trevor’s visit, her sleep had been plagued with nightmares of bodies strewn like rags in the street, the product of her own vivid imagination, with zombies rising out of those rags courtesy of too many Hollywood doomsday movies, along with a mad scientist rubbing his hands gleefully in the background. If Nana were alive, she’d light into her for letting her “fancy” run wild.

  “Julie,” Dalton Rush said, opening the door.

  She smiled and exhaled forcefully. “Hello. I didn’t know you were back.”

  “I got back la
te last night. While I was in Nevada, I spoke to my superiors about our potential collaboration. They’re interested, so just say the word. Is this a good time for a coffee break?”

  Julie shook her head. “As much as I’d love a cuppa right now, I have to finish the update on this year’s flu vaccine. Brad wants to send it out next week. He’s hoping inoculations will start in October.”

  “Another time then, but I need your answer soon. My superiors won’t wait forever. This is a great opportunity for you.”

  “I know, Dalton, and I appreciate the time to think it through, but I’ve been swamped with this project, Now that it’s done, I’ve got room to breathe.”

  “I heard your team came up with a quadrivalent vaccine.”

  “We have. I’m confident this year’s vaccine will be the most effective to date. We’ve checked the variables, and it seems like our best bet—of course, we can’t predict mutations…”

  “That, as they say in Nevada, is a crapshoot, isn’t it? Which A strains did you go with?”

  “A variation of H1N1 and H3N2.”

  “I’m sure you’ve nailed it,” he said and smiled knowingly. “If you weren’t good at your job, I wouldn’t have asked you to work with me. Do you know where Ellie is? I had a question for her about West Nile.”

  “She’s with Brad. I’ll tell her you’re looking for her.”

  “Thanks. I won’t keep you. We can do coffee later this week.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “I’ll give you my decision about that project in a couple of weeks.”

  “Sounds good.” He closed the door, and Julie let out a deep breath.

  Dalton was gorgeous, with dark brown hair and unusual, intense aqua eyes, but there were times like this when he was overbearing and a little too intense. She resumed her seat and tried to complete the document she’d been working on. Twenty minutes later, Ellie returned.

  “You can relax,” she said, closing the door behind her. “It was just as I thought. Someone had the samples and put them back.”

  “Who had them? They need to be disciplined.”

  “I don’t know who, but Brad and I went down for an eyes-on check, and both vials are back where they should be.”

  “How’s that possible?”

  “Don’t ask me. Only a couple of people were in that area today, and apparently one of them wasn’t you, being me.”

  “But I was there, or rather, you were.”

  “The card reader isn’t registering properly. According to the log, Dr. Rush was the only one in Lab A.”

  “What was Dalton doing in there?”

  “He wasn’t in there. Apparently, he was in Lab B getting mammary tissue for something.”

  “Then how did his swipe card register him in Lab A?”

  “Brad thinks it could be malware in the system or a computer virus. How ironic is that? The log showed I’d accessed Lab C. The power failure could be responsible. He’s having someone look at it right now, and he’s going to mention it in his biweekly briefing next week with his contact at the White House. He told me to relax and forget about it. He’s got this.”

  Julie’s analytical mind didn’t believe in coincidences, and a malfunctioning card reader seemed awfully convenient. The idea that someone could waltz in and out of the CDC’s most secure rooms undetected terrified her. Cyberterrorism was alive and well now, and if the power failure had been a well-orchestrated cyber-attack … She’d only seen two missing vials, but what if this wasn’t the first time samples had gone missing? What about the lethal gases? Sarin was kept under the same protocols. It could be the perfect theft—take what you need and put the rest back. A talented microbiologist wouldn’t need a huge sample to be able to grow his own pathogens.

  She shivered and tried to suppress her reaction. “Okay. I’m glad that’s over. By the way, Dalton wants to talk to you about West Nile.”

  “Great. I don’t know what you see in him. He makes me feel like one of my bugs on a slide.”

  “That’s just your guilt eating at you for your wholesale slaughter of mosquitoes, but you won’t hear me complaining. Other than providing food for bats, I can’t think of a decent reason why God would’ve created the little bloodsuckers. So, what are we doing for supper tonight?”

  “Vitelli’s would be nice. I have a craving for their seafood pasta, and Brad has a supper meeting. We’ve got our monthly university luncheon tomorrow, and you know how I hate eating two big meals on the same day. By the way, Brad told me not to mention those vials to anyone until he gets this all sorted out, so you’d better not say anything.”

  Julie nodded. “Right, and I can live with Italian a day early. I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” she said and hugged Ellie.

  “What was that for?” Ellie asked.

  “No reason. I got a message from Lenore Singer, my roommate at graduate school.”

  “She’s the British one, right?”

  “Yeah, she was here three years ago for a symposium on ancient artifacts. You were in Colorado visiting Nana at the time. Anyway, she’s guest lecturing at the university here in Atlanta for the fall semester. I’ve offered her the use of my spare room. She’ll arrive at the end of the month. It’ll be good to have someone around to talk to.”

  “Are you complaining because I spend so much time with Brad?”

  “No, I’m happy for you, but it does get lonely.”

  “I can always let you borrow Patches. She loves a good cuddle.”

  “Hey, you know me and cats—we agree to disagree. I might be close to becoming a cougar, but I will not become one of those crazy cat ladies.”

  Ellie laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind when the kittens come next week, but you’d better get on it. You aren’t getting any younger. I’ll go see Dalton, impart my wisdom about mosquitoes, and see you later. You know, he’s not too bad—just not my type.”

  She closed the door on her way out.

  Julie leaned back in her chair, no longer sure what her type was.

  The disappearing-reappearing vials bothered her. She’d like to ask Trevor whether his prophet was still a credible threat. But if she did call him, what could she say? “Hi, there’s a rumor two deadly viruses left the CDC, but found their way back. The problem is, no one knows where they’ve been.” At best, he’d think she was crazy; at worst, he’d see it as a desperate attempt to keep in touch. Either way, it wouldn’t happen. She’d let Brad follow the chain of command, inform his superiors on the Hill, and they could relay the message to the task force. It was all about process and order. Everything worked so much better when things were done correctly.

  Right now, she’d finish this damn report and then rethink her next step. She was jumping at shadows, letting her imagination conjure up all kinds of problems, and that wasn’t like her. Maybe she should put in for a few days of vacation. She’d hardly taken any time off lately and she had scads of time coming her way, but where could she go?

  Someplace warm where gorgeous men give massages and serve drinks in coconut shells with fancy-colored umbrellas might be nice, Ellie’s voice echoed in her head.

  The other night they’d talked about going to Aruba after the hurricane season. That was fine and dandy, but it was weeks away, and she needed a break now. Maybe she could talk Ellie into a spa day.

  • • •

  By mid-August, Julie was as wired if not more so than she’d been after finding the missing viruses. Brad had gone to Washington to meet with his superiors for a regularly scheduled briefing. After the visit from Trevor and with the active, constant threat of bioterrorism, anything unusual would have to be reported. Virus samples that did a magic act certainly qualified, and she assumed he’d fill them in on what had happened. He’d been close-lipped about what the technicians had discovered about the card reader, but new devices were in place, and all they’d been told was that it was a security upgrade. Since she wasn’t supposed to know about the card readers or the vials, she couldn’t ask him, and Ellie was out of town
this week.

  Last week, she’d tried to do a little more digging into the missing vials, but Ellie had begged her to stop, and she had, afraid her cousin would get into almost as much trouble as she would if the truth got out. Instead, she’d spent the time doing online research and learning everything she possibly could about the pathogens.

  It was almost midnight when the phone rang, startling her awake. She reached for the handset, noting it was Ellie.

  “Hello?”

  “Did I wake you?”

  “What do you think?” Julie asked sarcastically. “I know I told you to call me when you got in, but I assumed that would be at a normal hour.”

  “I’m sorry, but I just got off the phone with Brad. He spoke to the president’s advisor on national security a little while ago. The president of the United States is as concerned about those vials as you are, Julie. He’s declared the power outage, the malfunctioning card reader, and those misbehaving vials as matters of national security.”

  Holy shit! What rabbit hole had she fallen down? Maybe she was dreaming.

  “Jules, are you there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “Listen, the president has issued a gag order. Neither Brad nor I are allowed to breathe a word of this to anyone, so you absolutely can’t say anything. It’s treason if you do.”

  “Ellie, if someone took cells out of those vials, we have to start work on a vaccine to control a potential epidemic.”

  “We don’t,” she answered. “Someone with a much higher security clearance than ours will be working on that at a top-secret facility. It’s in their hands now.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “Whether you like it or not doesn’t matter. Technically, you entered the restricted area with false credentials. You could easily be accused of taking the samples yourself, and if that happened, everything you’ve worked so hard for is gone.”

  “I understand. I’ll keep my mouth shut,” she said grimly, realizing the enormity of the mess she was in.

  This is what I get for trying to think outside the box.

  “Look, it’s probably nothing. Everybody is just so hypervigilant right now. Do you want us to pick you up for the luncheon tomorrow?”