VAN ASSEN: Not at all, Director. It would be an honor to serve you.
DIRECTOR: Then I would say you have a very bright future in the Project.
__________
“YOU CAN STOP now,” Ilse said.
As the image paused, Ash said, “Is there more?”
“They talk for another few minutes. Details that I can translate and write down, but the main focus of the conversation ends here.”
Ash looked back at the screen. Director was a term used at many different levels within Project Eden—department directors, facility directors, division directors, to name a few. The woman could have been any of these. But from the way she and this van Assen were talking, and the scant description of Director Mahajan, Ash had the sense the woman was much higher up in the organization. Wanting to keep tabs on another director not stationed anywhere near where she was could mean her position was right near the top, if not within the innermost circle itself.
Since the death of the previous principal director in the destruction of NB219, Project Eden would have quickly moved to fill the leadership vacuum. But without access to Matt’s contacts within the Project, the Resistance had yet to learn who or what filled that vacuum. Was this conversation a clue to that?
Ash looked over at Mya. “Can we bring up our database in here? I want to see what we have on this Parkash Mahajan.”
She scanned the room, but before she could answer, Devin said, “I can bring it up on my laptop.”
“Do it.”
Less than a minute later, Ash, Chloe, and the others were huddled behind Devin. On the computer screen was the Resistance’s information sheet on Parkash Mahajan. There weren’t as many details as Ash would have liked, but enough to show Mahajan was indeed high up within the Project Eden leadership structure. The most recent information listed him as possible regional director of Southern and Southeast Asia.
“If he’s a regional director, then the woman must be at least that level, too,” Ash said. “Is there a way to bring up a list of other presumed regional directors?”
“Let me see,” Devin said.
He ended up having to cobble it together, so it took him a few minutes, but when he finished, he had a list of eleven names.
“That can’t be all of them,” Chloe said.
“It isn’t,” Devin said. “But it’s as complete as I can get.”
There were several regions not listed but must have had directors: western Africa, the Middle East through the area around the Black Sea, Northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands area, though the last may have been covered in full or in part by the western South America director or the East Asia director.
Ash scanned the list and zeroed in on two names—Marlene Lee, who was thought to be in charge of the southern Africa region, and Celeste Johnson, in charge of the eastern half of North America. Both were names that could have easily been found in the States.
“Are there any photos of these people?” he asked.
“I doubt it,” Devin said.
“Can you check? I’m interested in Marlene Lee and Celeste Johnson.”
Devin set up the search, then shook his head. “Nothing on Celeste Johnson.” He switched the parameters to Marlene Lee and studied the results. “This might be something.” He clicked on the link.
Ash stared, surprised, when the picture appeared on the screen. It was a candid shot of a group coming out of what appeared to be a conference room. Most of those in the image were men Ash had seen before, though they were not as old as when he had been in their presence.
“The pre-flu directorate,” he said.
He could feel Chloe tensing next to him, and knew she recognized the men, too. These were some of the Project Eden leaders who had died at Bluebird, the Project’s base on Yanok Island, from where the pandemic had been initiated.
Devin pointed at the screen. “According to the photo tag, that’s Marlene Lee.”
The woman he indicated was half turned away from the camera, and mostly blocked from view by the others. But there was enough detail to see she was Asian, not Caucasian like the woman on the video call.
“All right. At least we know the woman’s not Marlene Lee,” Chloe said.
“Doesn’t tell us if she’s Celeste Johnson, though,” Devin said.
“No, it doesn’t,” Ash said. “But I’m willing to bet it’s her. Do we have a location on Ms. Johnson?”
Devin checked the database and shook his head. “It says here that she is probably located at one of the Project’s facilities on the East Coast, but it doesn’t say which one.”
“Van Assen said New York,” Mya said.
“That might be as close to a confirmation as we can get,” Chloe said.
Ash leaned back, thinking.
After he’s gone, we’ll go after the next set of leaders and the next and the next. Each time we succeed, the Project becomes more unbalanced.
Matt’s words, said after he’d told Ash and Chloe he was going after Principal Director Perez. A keep-knocking-them-down-until-they-stay-down strategy. It was as sound a plan as the Resistance could hope for.
“Maybe there’s someone who can pinpoint where Director Johnson is for sure,” Ash said. “We can look into that in a bit. In the meantime, we do know where Mahajan is. NB551 in Jaipur.” He looked around. “Do we have anyone near there?”
He was greeted with blank faces.
“We don’t handle that,” Caleb said. “Operations would know, or the comm center.”
Ash looked around at all the equipment. “I assume you can connect me from here.”
Twenty seconds later, he was talking to Crystal.
“The closest people we have are in Thailand and Singapore,” she said, her voice coming out of the speaker on Caleb’s computer. “But they’re pretty tied up.”
“There’s no one in India?”
“We had three teams there. But two had to be diverted to help out in southern China, and the third’s been sent to deal with a sizable group of survivors in Sri Lanka.”
Ash pressed his lips together, annoyed.
“I’m open to suggestions,” he said.
“I would have to check on statuses, but I might be able to free up someone in a few days.”
Ash didn’t like the delay, but it was better than not sending anyone at all. “All right. See what you—”
Mya said, “What about Sanjay’s people?”
Ash looked over at her.
“I mean, they’re in India already,” she said. “I don’t know how far Jaipur is from where they are, but they’ve got to be able to get there sooner than a few days, right?”
She had a point.
“Can someone tell me how far it is?”
“Checking,” Devin said. “Um, it’s not exactly close. Seven hundred thirty-five miles or thereabouts. Maybe sixteen hours of driving?”
As Mya said, still sooner than a few days.
“Can we get Sanjay on the phone?” Ash asked Crystal.
“Actually,” Caleb said, “we can do it from here. If he’s not at the Mumbai survival station yet, he should be soon.”
“Get him on the line.”
17
MUMBAI, INDIA
7:45 AM IST
LOCAL DATE: JANUARY 7TH
A LOUD RING jerked Arjun awake. He blinked and looked around, surprised to find he was sitting in the communications room chair. He had meant to stretch out on the blanket he’d spread on the floor, but he seemed to have fallen asleep right there at the desk. No wonder, though. It had been a long night.
A ring again, off to his left. As he twisted to see where it was coming from, he winced. His less-than-optimal sleeping posture had left a kink in his neck. As he rubbed the sore muscle, there was another ring.
The sat phone.
Answering it, he said, “This is Arjun.”
“It’s Crystal,” the woman said. “Has Sanjay arrived yet?”
“Uh, I am not sure. I have n
ot seen him yet. Give me a moment and I will check. If he is here, I will have him call you.”
“Thank you. As soon as possible.”
Arjun made the journey down from the rooftop room into the main building, and hunted around until he heard voices coming from the dining hall on the ground floor. There he found Darshana, Sanjay, Kusum, and Prabal drinking tea.
“Ah,” Sanjay said. “You are awake.”
“Awake? I was…working,” Arjun said. “I was not asleep.”
“So you have mastered the art of working with your eyes closed?” Darshana said, an eyebrow raised.
Apparently someone had paid him a visit while he napped. “Okay, okay,” he said. “Perhaps I was asleep for a little while.”
Sanjay smiled. “You should not worry. You have to sleep sometime, my friend. Come, have some tea.”
“Actually, Sanjay, I have—” Arjun stopped as he accidentally turned his head a millimeter the wrong way, sending a shockwave of pain down his neck.
Darshana stood up. “Are you all right?”
He held up a hand. “I am fine. Just a muscle pull.”
“May I suggest you use a bed next time you want to sleep?” Kusum said.
There were smiles all around and a few chuckles.
Arjun glared at all of them before allowing himself a small grin. “I would laugh with you, but it would hurt too much.” He pulled the sat phone out of his back pocket. “Sanjay, the Americans would like to talk to you.”
“About what?” Sanjay asked as he took the phone.
“I did not ask.”
Sanjay pressed the preset they’d assigned to the Americans’ number, then put the call on speaker so his friends could all hear.
The voice that answered belonged to the woman named Crystal.
“I understand you are looking for me,” Sanjay said.
“Oh, Sanjay. Great. Hold on.”
The line went silence for well over a minute before a new voice said, “Sanjay, it’s Daniel Ash.”
“Hello, Captain Ash,” Sanjay said.
“Good morning, I guess. It is morning there?”
“Yes. It is.”
There was a pause. “First, I want to thank you and your friends. What you’ve found there and helped us gain access to is vitally important. We’ve already learned quite a bit.”
“I am pleased to hear that.”
“There’s something we’ve discovered that…well, we could use your help on.”
“Of course. We are not technicians, but we will do what we can.”
“This actually has nothing to do with the equipment or anything there in Mumbai.”
Sanjay exchanged a surprised look with his friends.
“Then what does it have to do with?” he asked.
“Something that involves a trip.” Ash told them about the intercepted message and learning about a potential Project Eden leader working out of Jaipur. “What we would like—if you’re willing, of course—is for one or two of your people to go there and quietly survey the area so we can determine if there’s a way to exploit the situation.”
“You want us to find this Director Mahajan?”
“We haven’t been able to obtain a picture of him yet. Besides, he’s likely to stay inside the base, out of sight. You might, however, have the opportunity to spot the man whose conversation we overheard. He’s lower level, so he might venture outside on occasion. From the information we have here, the base is located within blocks of the Jaipur survival station. Unfortunately, we don’t have the exact coordinates of the base. But there will likely be some back and forth between the two facilities, so if you spot this guy at the station, he should be able to lead you to the base. He’s Caucasian, and I couldn’t tell for sure from the video, but think he’s about five ten, maybe six feet.” Ash’s voice became muffled as he asked a question to someone on his end. When he came back on, he said, “That’s a hundred eighty or a hundred eighty-two centimeters, or thereabouts. We’re all but positive he’s Dutch. I’ll have someone grab an image from the video and send it to you.”
“What happens after we find this man or the director?” Sanjay asked.
“Good question. The way we see things is that if we can keep them off balance, we might have a chance to defeat them. So, depending on the situation you find there, if there’s a chance we can take the director out, we’ll send some people over to do that. That isn’t a problem for you, is it?”
“Absolutely not.”
__________
IF SANJAY HAD his way, he would undertake the spy mission on his own, but Kusum was not about to let him go off alone.
“All right, all right,” he said, knowing it was an argument he would never win. “I’ll take Arjun with me.”
“Arjun has been working with the Americans the most. He should stay.”
“Okay,” he said, knowing she was right. “You and I.”
“And Darshana,” she said.
“Why Darshana?”
“It is a long trip, so I assume we will take a car and not our motorbikes. With three drivers we will not need to rest. Or, if you prefer, we could take Prabal instead of Darshana,” she suggested.
“No, no. Darshana is fine.”
Prabal had made quite a mess of things here in Mumbai before the survival station was abandoned, and while he’d been trying hard to rectify his actions—actions which, admittedly, worked out for the better in the end—Prabal was a bit of a walking disaster, so taking him along was not an option Sanjay wanted to consider.
Sanjay located a Toyota dealer on Lal Bahadur Shastri Road, picked out a brand new Land Cruiser, and returned to the survival station, where he, Kusum, and Darshana loaded enough supplies into the back to sustain them for several days. When they were done, they went inside to let Arjun and Prabal know they were leaving.
Both men were up in the communications room, so Sanjay called up the stairwell, “We are all set. Our satellite phone will be on if you need to reach us.”
“Wait!” Arjun said.
He climbed down the ladder, still clearly bothered by the pulled muscle in his neck. When he reached the bottom, he pulled a smartphone out of his pocket.
“Here,” he said, handing it to Sanjay.
“What do I need this for?” The regular cellular system had gone out of commission only a few days after the outbreak started.
“The picture. I put it on there.”
“What picture?”
“From Mr. Ash. Of the Dutchman.”
Right. In his rush to leave, Sanjay had forgotten. He put the phone in his pocket and held out his hand to his friend. “If you have any problems, let us know.”
“Same for you,” Arjun said. “And whatever you do, do not let them see you.”
18
LOS ANGELES SURVIVAL STATION
DODGER STADIUM
6:01 PM PST
DR. LAWRENCE RAN the test a second time, but the results were exactly the same. She hurried over to the lab door and stuck her head out into the main medical room.
“Dr. Rivera, can you come here for a moment?”
Not waiting for a response, she returned to the workstation, where the results of the two separate tests run on Ben Bowerman’s blood were displayed side by side on the computer monitor. As she checked them again, she heard Dr. Rivera enter the room.
“What is it?” he asked. “Is he sick?”
There was no need to indentify the detainee he was talking about. Bowerman was the only intake they’d had all day.
“Not sick,” Dr. Lawrence said. “Immune.”
“Are you sure?”
“He has the antibodies. He’s had KV-27a.”
“But he doesn’t look like he just got over it,” Rivera said. “He looks fine.”
She locked eyes with him. “I don’t think he had it recently.”
The corner of his mouth rose as he realized what she meant. “Another one?”
“Yes.”
“Incredible.”
<
br /> “Isn’t it?”
__________
THE STADIUM LIGHTS lit up the field, holding back the night.
Outside, a whistle sounded twice.
“Finally!” Diego said.
“What’s that mean?” Ben asked.
“Dinner,” Melody told him.
They walked outside into the cool but not uncomfortable evening.
“We wait here,” Diego said, after taking only a few steps from the building.
“Why?” Ben asked.
“It’s what we’re supposed to do.”
It wasn’t much of an answer, but before Ben could pursue it further, the gate on the other side of their yard opened, and a guard entered, his rifle held high against his chest. He was followed by two men, each carrying a pair of individually wrapped trays. They set them on the ground, exited, and then one returned with an additional tray.
As soon as they had all left and the gate was closed, Diego said, “Okay.”
They retrieved their food and took it back into the building, taking seats around the tables in the central area. The sound of crinkling aluminum foil filled the room for a moment as they removed the covers from their food.
Dinner consisted of salad, fried rice with chicken, and sliced fruit. There was also a bottle of water and a small piece of cherry pie. Ben picked up the plastic fork and wondered if those in the sick holding area received the same food.
He froze, a forkful of rice inches from his mouth.
The other holding areas.
He dropped the utensil on his plate and shot out of his chair.
“Where you going?” Ava asked.
Without answering, he ran outside. If he hadn’t already missed it, he thought this might be his opportunity to see into the tarp-covered area, when the guards opened the gate to deliver dinner.
He hustled around to the back corner of the fence. The third enclosure looked unchanged from the last time he’d checked it out. Had dinner been delivered?
He studied the fence, and then groaned. Of course. There was no break in the fence that he could see, so the gate must have been on the backside, out of his view. He pushed away from the fence and headed back around to the dorm entrance.
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