Death and The Divide (26 page)

The soldiers did most of clearing the litter, while she, Linc and Minlo inspected equipment and computer files. Fortunately, the mad scientist hadn’t erased any of his previous work before taking his life.

“Do you think we should follow the theory of how the oil spill and dispersants might have affected the parasites, or is that a moot point now that we know the virus was manmade?” She swiped the computer screen, studying the files.

“Unfortunately, yes. We have to start over with this new knowledge.” Linc found the white nutrient cube where Manson had placed their budding embryo. No bigger than an inch square, it seemed strange to think of it holding the beginning of a baby. He stared at it a moment, resting in the palm of his hand, then slipped it into his shirt pocket. His action broke her heart.

“We should focus on disarming the replication.” She averted her gaze and placed a tray of memory chips on a shelf above the computer.

“I agree,” he said. “Let’s analyze the progression of mutations. That might give us a clue.”

A soldier cleared his throat. “Ma’am, do you need anything from us?”

She faced him, one hand on her hip. “Yes, bring the tech devices you took from us when we arrived. My wrist-comm and tech-pad. Min’s too. We’ll also need food and water brought so we can continue to work. Make sure you keep hot coffee available at all times.”

“Yes, Ma’am. At once.” He turned smartly and marched from the lab.

By the time he returned, they’d managed to arrange the equipment and data into a semblance of order. The man placed her wrist-comm and pad on the counter beside the micro-viewer and handed Minlo his. She stared at the reordered lab, forcing aside thoughts of Louis. The cure was up to them now.

“I’ve set the sequencer to provide a timeline of the mutations,” Linc said. “It should finish in a few minutes. Min, give us some idea of what’s going on outside.”

“It looks bad,” he said in a subdued voice. “The cities with shields are the only ones really safe. Others are under attack. The cannibals have organized into military-like units. The armies of the North and South are hindered by riots and demonstrations from citizens protesting government takeovers.

“Across the pond, European and Asian countries are reporting outbreaks. Armies are using everything they have to repel the infected from cities where the people in rural areas have fled. Massive loss of sea life, as well. Mounds of whales, dolphins, seagulls, you name it, are piled on beaches everywhere.”

The news was so disheartening it almost overwhelmed her. Could they still stop the spread in time to preserve the remaining life on Earth? It was moving too fast.

Linc scratched the three-day growth of beard on his face. “What a disaster.”

Ria shook off her despair and pointed to the young man. “Min, can you do some math and figure out how much time we have as this escalates?”

His brows went up. “You mean until everyone is dead?”

She ran her tongue over her dry lips, hating to say the words. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Linc rested his head against a shelf beside the desk where he worked. His eyes burned, and he seemed to yawn every ten minutes. Minlo had his head down in front of a computer screen, dead asleep. Ria made adjustments to the sequencer and re-entered data they’d been working on. The first round had an error, and they had to wade through quite a few computations before they found it. A big waste of precious time.

“What did they bring us to eat?” she asked, making the final entry and sliding the port closed.

“Looks like something wrapped in bread.” He leaned over to inspect the tray on the table beside him. “There might be a fruit mash up of some kind, too.”

She glanced at him with a half-smile. “You don’t understand Northern food yet, do you?”

“No. Looks a lot like my idea of Mexican, Italian, French, and Japanese rolled into one.” He poked one of the bread rolls with a finger. “I’ll try it though. I’m hungry.”

She picked one up. “It’s called Jicbamba. It’s dough on the outside and a mix of peppers, honey and beef on the inside. The fruit dish is Sweet Malay.”

“I’ve eaten raw squid, so I’ll try just about anything as long as it’s not shrimp,” he said, taking a bite of the roll. The blend of hot, sweet, and savory actually tasted good. “Hmm, not bad.”

She shook Minlo’s shoulder. “Wake up and eat.”

He slowly raised his head, blinking against the lab’s bright lights. “Are we home yet?”

“Keep dreaming, Binky.” Linc snorted. “This is hell.”

“Oh, yeah. Now I remember,” he said, rubbing his face. “And it’s not a good memory.”

“Back to work,” Ria said. “Give us a news update.”

“I’m still working on your doomsday countdown,” he grumbled. “I’ll take a look at the world, though.”

Linc tried the fruit dish, also not bad, while the young man scrolled the news.

“Uh-oh,” Min said, munching on his roll.

“What did you find?” Ria asked.

“Before I dozed off, I broke through the security of the military headquarters in the two capitals. The data coming in isn’t good. The north is talking about bombing the South, saying the bulk of the cannibals are there and need to be eliminated. This alleged attempt to stop the spread of the virus is a thinly veiled attempt to wipe out a bunch of Southerners that’s not fooling anyone.

“Meanwhile, the South caught wind of the North’s stupid plan and is mounting a major initiative to attack The Divide and invade the North. Nobody anywhere, other than the dumb-ass leaders, thinks this is a bright idea. The people continue to riot. Security forces are hunting and killing cannibals, and really have no time to spare for a war across The Divide. The prisons are filled to overflowing with the living infected, and the international community thinks both of our countries are idiots and want to nuke us.” He looked up. “That’s it in a nutshell, folks. Stay tuned for an update on news at eleven.”

“All this stupid politics! Why can’t they do the right thing for the people?” Linc felt as though he’d been shot. Frustration, anger, despair all rolled into a bullet of white hot heat that seared into him. And here he was, stuck in bunker unable to help. He shook his head at the insanity. What would he do if he wasn’t here? Probably nothing that would stop these actions, but at least he could try. At least he could yell at someone and tell them to stop being idiots.

“What are we going to do?” Ria asked.

“I vote we lock this place down and stay for a few years until this mess is over,” Min said. “We have plenty of supplies, and I’m dying to take a dip in that pool.”

“Be serious,” she retorted.

“If we had a cure, we’d have leverage,” Linc mused, searching for some way to make a difference in outside events. He scratched his chin, wishing he could at least take a break and shave. His beard itched the hell out of his face.

“To do what, exactly?” She reached for another roll.

“I’ve been thinking. Even if we have a cure, the deployment will be the key. Right now, it appears neither side has the focus needed to make this a priority. If things continue to degrade, they won’t have the resources, either.”

Min’s features lifted as the preverbal light went on above his head. “Blackmail. I love it!”

“Are you still talking about withholding the cure from one side?” Ria wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“No. Both.” He crossed his arms. “The only way they’ll make proper use of a cure is to revert to the previous regimes. We also have to settle the protests. So we have the people in charge issue public statements that they will allow the original government officials to resume their posts and that any change in government has to be approved by popular vote on both sides.”

She pursed her lips and motioned for him to keep going.

“We’ll give them one hour to make their statement and begin transitions. Then we send the information only to the members of the previous governments. There’s a catch there, too.” He warmed to his idea and the burning in his gut eased. “The North and South have to also agree to begin working together and sharing of information.”

“What about your group, the IPP, and their desire to have more equity in the government? That was important to you.” Ria handed him and Min packs of water.

“It is, but that can come in time after the governments are re-established and the virus is remedied. Too many changes at one time won’t work. That’s why we have the current mess.”

“There will be some who oppose this enough to try and kill us, too,” she said. “Remember our T.M. who was almost assassinated?”

“At least for a while we’ll have the bunker to protect us. Then we can follow Min to Norway and hide.” He grinned hoping she appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood. They had no choice really. Their lives were worth it if this plan saved millions and stabilized their countries.

“Very funny,” she said, unsuccessfully trying to force the quirk from one side of her mouth.

“It’s a great idea,” Minlo said. “I vote yes.”

“Is this going to be based on votes?” she asked, raising one brow.

“No,” Linc said. “It has to be a unanimous decision.”

The atmosphere hung heavy in their silence as they finished their meals and contemplated this plan.

He’d been brought up on the words of historical leaders his father found inspiring. Some of that inspiration and hope of the worthiness of man must have rubbed off on him. If they’d believed in a better future and the willingness of people to fight for the greater good, then he did, too. He wanted to see the two countries develop in a better way and have a possibility of coming together again.

“Your reasoning is sound, I suppose,” Ria said after a while.

“Let me give you another of my father’s favorite Lincoln quotes. He said, ‘
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves’
.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Minlo said, serious.

“All right. I agree.” She threw up her hands. “Now we just need a cure.”

Linc’s heart pumped elation through him. They had to do it. They had to save their countries. “Let’s look at that last mutation again on the micro-viewer. Maybe we’re missing something in its structure.”

She retrieved a chip from the insulated container on a shelf, and inserted it in the slot. The clear specimen square was drawn in, and the light of the screen glowed blue then green. The clear focus on the sample appeared. This came from the live batch of parasites he and Ria had brought from Deltaville. The little devils slowly moved in the limited space of the life-slide, hugely magnified.

He entered a command to provide an analysis of any new changes. They had none. No new mutations, at least in these captured specimens.

The sequencer completed its job, and she transferred the report to the computer screens. “There’s no evidence that using the DNA will make any difference. Louis was wrong.”

Her wristband vibrated on the table beside the sequencer, and she moved to pick it up. “It’s my parents. Should I answer it?”

“No. I don’t want to take a chance they can track us in some way.” He looked over his shoulder at Minlo. “Is that possible?”

“Who knows? They may have placed a tracking program in it after they confiscated it. I’d have to analyze it.”

“It doesn’t matter. They’re already worried. I don’t have time to talk and explain anything, anyway.” She removed her hand from the metal band with a wistful gaze.

He hated that she worried about them but they had no room for distraction at this point. He returned to his study of the parasites and noticed something seemed different. “Did you change the magnification?”

“No. Why?”

“There’s, uh…Ria! What happened? They’re not moving.” He left his chair to stand before the piece of equipment. “Looks like they’re squashed.”

She hurried to his side, and Min joined them.

Ria keyed in a command to analyze, and a red light blinked. “Linc. They’re dead.”

***

She couldn’t believe her eyes and hit the command link again. Nothing. The red light continued to blink. “How is that possible?”

“The specimen should be secure in the life-slide,” Linc said. “They were fine just seconds ago.”

“Uh, Dopes, something killed them. You need to find out what it was,” Min said in a low voice.

The parasites had died instantaneously, as far as she could tell. As Linc said, seconds ago they had thrived. A fluttering in her stomach set in. “So an event occurred and they died. We need to trace everything that happened in the past minute. What could it have been?”

Linc covered his mouth with one hand, his eyes wide and shining with hope. “We need to retrace every moment and action. If we can determine the cause, then we have a way to kill the buggers. It’s the key.”

Her chest tightened as her blood pumped wildly at the thought they might have the solution. “I’ll test the integrity of the slide to make sure nothing got to them from the outside.”

Linc tapped his finger on the desk, waiting.

“All completely secure,” she said after testing each slide. “The temperature of the feed duct is stable. I-I don’t understand…”

“Recreate recent events,” Min suggested. “What were you guys doing right before they died? Let’s walk through it.”

She twisted her fingers together, trying to remember. “I had entered new orders for the sequencer, we ate, Linc suggested looking at the latest mutation again, and I inserted a life-slide.”

“Wait.” Linc held up a hand. “Had the oxygen additive expired?”

She checked the date on the slide. “No, it’s good. Let me check the others. There are five more. These have the same date.”

“Place one in the viewer,” Min said. “See if they died, too.”

She placed the next slide in the feed, and it seemed like an hour instead of seconds for the blue-green light sequence. The specimen came into view.

“They’re moving,” Linc said. His voice held excitement. “Watch them carefully.”

“After you put the other slide in, what did you do?” Min asked.

“Um.” She chewed on her fingernail. “Let’s see. Oh, I know, the sequencer finished and I transferred the report to the computer.”

“Can you do that again?”

“Yes.”

“Linc and I will keep an eye on the parasites while you repeat the action.”

She went to that equipment and set the end. When it went off, she glanced at them and performed the transfer. “Did anything happen?”

“Not yet,” Linc said.

She returned to the Micro-viewer. The little creatures continued their wiggling process in the life-slide goo. They waited at least two minutes. Nothing. Her bubble of eager anticipation deflated. Nothing.

“There has to be something else,” Min said. “What happened after you completed the sequencer event?”

She searched her memory. “I can’t remember. We were just talking.”

“No, you got the call on your wrist-comm,” Linc said, pointing to the unit lying on the counter beside the viewer.

“That’s right. It vibrated. I picked it up, saw it was my parents, and put it back down.” She looked at Minlo. “What could that do?”

“We have to recreate the event,” he said. “Is it positioned where it was before?”

She moved it a few inches to the right. “There. That’s approximately where it was.”

“I’ll call it from my handheld. What’s your link code?” He punched it in as she told him.

They held their breaths, waiting. The comm vibrated, and she stared at the parasites. She tried not to blink. It only took a couple seconds after the vibration for the parasites to stop moving. Then they exploded. Ria met Linc’s eyes then Min’s. Her heart nearly burst with joy and relief. Somehow they’d killed the monster, not once, but twice. It couldn’t be a fluke. She gasped, and they all jumped up and down, yelling.

When their initial jubilant celebration ended, she panted. Spent and relieved, she wiped tears of happiness from her cheeks.