Extinction Level Event
Page 20
Albuquerque, NM
Racing through the sun scorched desert of New Mexico, a small Fiat exits a highway ramp to merge with lane road traffic heading into the state's largest city. Albuquerque, a small metropolis of gleaming mix of pueblo and postmodern architecture, is the first major city after Oklahoma for Krishnan's drive west. Finally, a city after driving through cactus land! Needing a rest, nourishment, refreshment, and anonymous internet access he heads to downtown, soon finding a strip mall that looks busy enough to serve his needs.
Finding one, he gets lunch before finding a store with available internet-for-hire. He checks his e-mail and finds what he is looking for: McCarthy's response. 'There may be a case pending here. If your innocence is proven in court you will be free to go. Working with SecAgr to get to the bottom of this. Until finished, stay low. PS could take a month.' Krishnan reads it over. A month? I'm not going to jail, but jJust how am I supposed to stay on the run for a month? Or longer? Krishnan starts rethinking his plan over in his head. Firstly, it would be difficult to stay hidden in Los Angeles as too many people would recognize him if they saw him. He would have to hide somewhere where very few people would recognize him, where he knows very few people, and a place with a small police presence.
Or, where would an Indian-American look non-conspicuous? Hmmm. He quickly thinks up of a radical idea. One that would place him far away from the pursuing federal agents. It would require some risk, but once past the initial screening he should be home free for a while. Soon, he finds a phone booth to call a close relative to buy himself a special ticket. A few minutes later, the transaction is complete. Krishnan pays the bill and walks out for some fresh air. Seeing two police officers walking casually across the street, he walks towards into a Deli to buy a newspaper. Buying it, he sits down in a small park to begin reading the day's news: cases of a war for uncontaminated soil started in Central America, several demonstrations violently dispersed in Central Asia, massive refugee crises throughout eastern and southeast Asia. Almost no governments try to work together or cooperate even though they are facing the same exact problem. The Opinion section blames the FAO for not doing enough to combat the spread, yet names a Manjak for spearheading efforts at getting some sort of 'natural barriers' up against the virus. Scorched earth against EWK-1? There's an idea. Seeing the idea as more than just a strange, disrupting but potentially useful afterthought he rushes back into the cafe to forward the online-article to several key people in California.
After doing do he returns to the car to drive himself to the sea. This time on the eastern seaboard, to board a month-long world cruise that his nearly identical first cousin purchased himself a boarding pass for.