Torn (39 page)

“Yes.”

“Well, tell me how it’s my fault, so I can fix it and make you either stop throwing up or p
u
t a mute button on you.”

“Like you vomit quietly?” she asked.

“Yes.” He nodded.

“Prove it.”

“What?”

“Prove it.”

“How am I gonna prove I vomit quietly.”

“Take a dose of ipecac.”

“Huh!” Darius laughed. “You’re out of your mind.”

“So now I’m loud, old and crazy.”

“I give up,” Darius said.

“So you’re not gonna argue. You’re gonna agree that you think I’m loud, old, and crazy.”

“Yes.”

Another gasp, Bret grabbed her crackers and stormed from the room.

When the door slammed, Darius smiled. “Ah, silence.” And went back to work.

Seventeen thousand bunk mattresses arrived at the GEP complex about the same time as the email from a Stephanie Mann. Stephanie, the wife of a soldier working the borders in London, emailed Martin at her husband
’
s request because he couldn’t
leave
the lines.

‘Some sort of illness has broken out amongst the ferry refuges from France
. Thousands ill. Suspected diphtheria or t
yphoid,’ the email said. She went on to explain who she was and where her husband was posted guard.

Down the chain of command, they were
determining
what to do with the mattresses that arrived four days earlier than they should
have
, while Martin was tracing the e
mail, trying to determine if in
deed Ms. Mann was correct in her information.

First he called her. She told him that her husband
placed
a call to her. The
n
Martin got hold of the post and spoke directly to Sgt. Mann. Sgt. Mann confirmed he had seen the illnesses, he was currently required to wear a respirator, and the health ministry was there.

Outbreaks were to be expected, especially with refugees and dealing with large
-
scale major
catastrophes
.

Martin was
s
urprised
he hadn’t heard of illness sooner. Into the new computer program, he logged the location and
marked
it as a biologic
occurrence
.

He needed a cigarette
,
and while he could go to his office and smoke in the c
ompound, he opted for fresh air, e
ven though it took time to walk outside. Keeping his cellular phone with him, Martin
made his way from the mountain
side compound.

Lighting his smoke, he stepped out into the bright sun.
He probably wouldn’t
have thought twice about it had he not received the email
from
Stephanie
Mann.

“No
,
you go on,” the
construction
supervisor said to one of his crew. “Get some rest. Get well.”

After a long hit, Martin exhaled
and
walked over to the supervisor. “
Everything
okay
with your man?”

“Yeah. Yeah, j
ust a bit of a cold that got him down.”

Martin nodded. “Anyone else sick on the crew.”

“No, not at all, General.”

Paranoia, Martin thought. He guessed he was just paranoid after hearing about the thousands ill in London. Walking back over to his smoking spot, Martin
brought
his hand to his mouth. It was as he was about to take a hit of his
cigarette
that he saw it perched on his index finger.

Usually a bug on him would cause him to shuck his hand or smash the insect, but not this one. Not yet.

Moving more into the sun, Martin
brough
t
his hand closer. Sure enough, it was the type of insect he suspected.

What baffled him was the fact, that this particular insect wasn’t usually
prevalent
after June. And that worried Martin
. Most people wouldn’t think twice about the insect. Most people
wouldn’t
know. It wasn’t just the matter of it being the insect oddly prevalent, the insect made something else
prevalent
.

He stared at the insect, the
flea, or rather,
Siphonaptera
which perched arrogantly upon his skin. Bold, ready to attack, bite, take in some bl
ood. Martin wouldn’t allow that, e
specially knowing that the
Siphonaptera
was the numbe
r one carrier and cause of the b
ubonic plague.

He didn’t look like a scientist, and Darius figured he’d have to do something about that bef
ore they went to the conference;
Darius
needed Mark Pyle to be there. He
had
never met someone with so much knowledge of nuclear science.

But those at the conference would and could be somewhat ignorant of scientific knowledge, considering most
were
congressman
.

Mark Pyle sounded as if he w
ent to the Luke School of Linguistics, u
sing words like, ‘dude’, ‘whoa’, ‘sweet’, and ‘snap’.

He wasn’t
a young
man, but he wasn’t old either
; m
aybe thirty, a boy genius, accelerated through his schooling. His hair was rock
star
long. Not eighties rock star; it was
shoulder length, dark. He was thin. Any more weight loss
and
he’d look like an addict.

Darius had a week to add weight to him.

And the
tattoos
.
Of course he didn’t have normal tattoos.
He had
Einstein
equations
all
over
him.

“What about a
P
ower
P
oint demonstration?” Darius asked, overlooking Mark’s laptop.

“Power
P
oint?”

“It’s a program that
. . .
”

“Dude, I know
PowerPoint
,” Mark said, “b
ut why?”

“We need
something
effective.”

“I can make effective,” Mark stated. “Seriously. I can.”

“But the Army really likes
its
P
ower
Point, s
o I would assume so would
C
ongress.”

“If we do
F
lash or a mini
-
movie.” Mark nodded and winked. “It
can hit home. Add a little back
ground soundtrack.”

Darius smiled. “From
Armageddon
, maybe?”

“Yeah. We’l
l take shots from my simulation
.”

“You have a simulation program?”

“Sort of, it’s almost finished. Will be tomorrow.”

“Excellent.”
Darius
clenched his fist,
excitedly
.

“Dude, wait until you see the results.
I’ll
show the ice age, the blasts, the stopping, y
ou
name it.”

“Can you show what will happen if we let the magnetic reversals continue?”

Mark nodded. “Absolutely.”

“This is going to be so cool. Are
you
. . .
are you s
ure we can’t
be
more effective using
P
ower
P
oint
?
”

“More effective than a movie with a soundtrack.” Mark fanned out his
hand
.
“Imagine the faces when the
y
see the facts, hear the strong background
music, then see
. . .
the destruction.
They may puke.”

Across the room, Bret’s voice
entered
the room.
“Oh
my God, are you talking about c
holera?”

After shifting his eyes to Mark, Darius looked up.
“What are you talking about?”

“Cholera,”
Bret
answered
.
“You’re talking about w
hat’s sweeping Europe
,
right?”

Mark looked
up
inquisitively. “Cholera is sweeping
Europe
?”

Nonchalantly
, Darius nodded.
“Yeah, and typhoid, and
. . .
um
. . . .
"
he snapped his finger
s
. “
What the fuck did they just
discover
a
couple
hours
ago?
”

Aghast
, Bret answered, “
Diphtheria
.”

Another snap of his finger
s
and Darius nodded. “
Yeah
, diphtheria.”

“God
,
you’re so
insensitive
,” Bret said.

“How am I being insensitive?” Darius asked.

Smug
ly
Bret imitated Darius, and snapped her fingers dramatically. “What’s that disease? Oh, yeah, diphtheria.”

“It doesn’t
a
ffect me,” Darius claimed.

“It might. Wha
t if
. . .
”

“Bret, sweetie, I’m busy,” Darius said.

Bret gasped.
“Remind me not to come to y
ou
the next time I’m fearful that something is wrong with me.”

“What?”
Darius asked. “Is something wrong?”

“I think I have c
holera," Bret said.

Darius
stared, nodd
ed once, said, ‘Uh
huh
,’ exhaled and looked
down
to the computer.

“You dick.”

Mark
laughed
.

“Bret
,
you’re pregnant,
” Darius said. “You don’t have cholera. If you’re fearful, c
all the
doctor
.”

“I will.”

“Let me know what he says.”
Darius
chuckled when she stormed out.

Mark
snickered
. “Congrats on the baby.”

“Thanks. I can’t wait.”

“
Check
this out,” Mark said.
“I made a mini
-
presentation for the day of the ice age coming.
See what you think.” He clicked the mouse and the movie window opened up.

The music
began
to play, softly. Then the words read. ‘Fifty thousand years ago, the earth went silent.’

The music stopped and a howling
wind
eerily echoed though the speakers.

Darius
grinned
. “Oh this is good. Really good.”

“
Has
impact, huh?” Mark asked.

“Fucking right. We’re
gonna
blow them away.”

Darius watched with excitement,
snickering
and grinning
over
the
grizzly
computerized image of the world freezing over.

The second the mov
i
e stopped, Colin announced his presence with a verbal,
“Knock-k
nock.”

Darius
rose
from his
leaning
position. “Oh
hey
,
Colin. How’s
everything
.”

“Good. Got a pizza. Want some?” Colin asked.

“Yeah, in a second,” Darius answered “Hey
,
you know Mark.”