An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (47 page)

Sonya stepped around the puddles
and the one large hole
on the decrepit stage
,
bearing
dark lines in her cheeks and creases in her brow
.
The ripped flatie screen behind her bore graffiti
on top of other graffiti
from several generations
of tag artists
.
As she called the meeting to
order
,
the team sat not in little knots as usual but spread wide, with no fewer than two seats between
each listener
.
Tony found himself making a point to sit right next to Augustine in the front row
as a show of
confidence
.
Unfortunately for him
,
the seat upholstery held a vast quantity of water
from the leaking roof
and the
moisture
wicked up through
his
pants
.
He
show
ed
his solidarity
by
suffering
the minor discomfort
and not changing seats
.

“I have two topics for our agenda
,
and then I’ll open it up for new business
,” began Sonya. “
First, Suet is doing as well as can be expected
.
Her seizures abated last night but
she’s still
running an excessively high fever.

“The other three aren’t doing as well.” What few smiles Suet’s condition prompted disappeared with the speed of a candle in a glass furnace
.
“Because of his high fever, Linc’s kidneys shut down yesterday and
he’s
being forced to suffer dialysis along with other treatments
.
I won’t trouble you with describing Tolly and Jonah’s symptoms
.
Just say
they’re
dis
similar and life
–
threatening
, and leave it at that
.

“Additionally we have four other cases of people coming down with mysterious ailments over the last week
.
While we
aren’t sure they’re
connected in any
way
,
we’ve
drawn blood from everyone in this room
.
The testing we’ve done thus far is inconclusive
.
As I know more, I’ll let you know
.”
The group murmured
.
While she couldn’t hear
their words
, Sonya felt their fear even more than when she
had
entered
.
“Are there any questions?”

“Are the symptoms at all similar?”
someone called out.

“
No, as I said earlier
.
The only common
thing
among all of them seems to be a fever
.
However
,
this is one of our body’s standard defense mechanisms to most illnesses.”

“Anyone outside of our group getting ill?”

“There
’
s no evidence of any
others, associated or not with our group,
getting ill in larger numbers
or with similar pathologies
.”

“If
they’re
so dissimilar, is there any reason to believe these illnesses are connected?”

“The statistical probability that
this number
of a small group should come down with seriously debilitating disease within the same timeframe is
vanishingly
small
.
In fact
,
‘
small
’
is giving it too much credit
.
That
they’re
dissimilar actually makes it less likely
,
not more likely
.
When all factors are added in
,
the correct descript
ive
might be infinitesimal
.
If I covered this flattie screen behind me with zeros
,
it might not be enough
.
Any more questions
?”

Sonya paused for just a few moments before moving on
.
“Item two: We have an opportunity for a coup in tapping into the corps
’
executive data nets
.
This isn’t your standard
icebreaker
job
,
but rather a physical tap
.
Additionally
,
the data we may be obtaining could possibly be falsified
,
leading us into more than one trap.
Any questions?”

“How did we find out about it?”

“
We’re
keeping
that
tight to our vest at the moment
.
Let us just say
our
source gave us other information that allowed us to successfully complete
seven
other very profitable missions with zero losses.”

“Why kind
s
of information are we likely to get?”

Augustine fielded this one
.
“Any new net we tackle
gives us
scads of useless information and a handful of gems
.
We feel this net will be
the inverse
, with a majority of the information truly valuable
.
Specifically what that information is
, well,
we can’t tell right now
.”
The auditorium fell silent except for the drips from
the
ubiquitous
leaks
from the ceiling
.

“Normally
,
this type of decision
would’ve
remained at the executive action committee
,” explained Sonya,
“
but that committee is down by four members and this kind of action could decimate our action member
ranks
.”

“Fuck that,
we’re
being decimated now,” someone called out from the back.

“In all good
faith
,” Tony threw in
,
“I should let you know the executive action committee did discuss this
.
They recognized the risks and the potential benefits
.
We agreed to bring it to the membership as a whole
,
but we also took our own vote
.
Seventy-five percent
felt it should be done, the lowest of any action taken by the committee in nearly its entire existence.”

“
OK
, if
there’s
no more discussion
,
I will call for a vote
.
All those in favor of continuing with this action
.”
A mass of hands flew up into the air, covering most occupied seats
.
“Those opposed
?”
Exactly eleven hands went into the air, less than ten percent of the assembly.

“Passed
.
We’ll
go ahead with this
mission
.
To do so
,
we need some help from you
.
We’re
in need of some specialized equipment
.
As I said, t
his isn’t yo
ur standard
icebreaker
mission, nor is it a simple breaking and entering
.
Please avail yourself should you be called upon by the
team
doing the job.
With that
,
I’ll close the meeting
.
”

For the next thirty minutes Sonya did the
meet
-
and
-
greet thing
.
Tony watched from his seat as people came up to talk with her, but never too closely
.
Sonya slumped
s
lightly between each new face
and then stood up straight in alternation, like someone catching themselves just before falling asleep in class
.
Not only that
,
but her hair had lost its black luster
,
like the
faded look
of a billboard out during one too many rainstorms
.
As she disengaged from her final conversation
,
her right hand twitched nervously
.
She dropped unceremoniously into the seat next to Tony wearing a frown of concentration.

“You look exhausted.”

“More than you can imagine.”

“I’ve been doing some research on witchcraft.”

“Research
?
The library, right?”

“Yeah.
I read that some witches can draw energy from those around
them
.
I’d like to volunteer
.”

Sonya didn’t laugh
,
but the corners of her mouth did manage to go up.
“Well, in this case your book learning didn’t do you one whit of good
.
That one
’
s a fable
.”

“It was worth a try.”

“The only way you can help me is to carry me home.”

“I will if you want
.
Not like
you’re
large enough to make more than an armful.”

“Thanks, but no
.
Besides
,
we have something else to do.”

“Oh
?”

Sonya scanned
the room
briefly, but no one lingered
.
“I dissembled when I said I didn’t have any more information about the disease
.
I do.
The blood
work shows a common base virus in each of those affected
.
The same base virus is in the vast majority of those in the audience.”

“Shit.”

“In
that
you’ve
mastered the understatement, Tony.”

“So what’s next
?
Who do you know in the influenza game?”

“Our organization is missing medical people
.
For whatever reason
,
we’ve never been able to recruit anyone
significant
in that field
.
I’m the closest
.
However
,
I personally have someone who owes me a favor
.
His Shih Tzu nearly died of a respiratory infection
.
I think
it’s
time to call in that marker.”

“I can’t think of a better time,” Tony said, his damp ass reminding him
of another issue
.
”But can we stop by my place first
?
I have a wardrobe problem.”

* * *
 

“It’s a two,” the tiny
Korean
said
,
looking at the virus projection on the wall
.
He flicked to yet another picture that bore similarities.

“Come again, Doc
?”
Tony said, sitting on the padded examination table
.

“Sorry
.
Common name for
one of the
genetically engineered war virus
es
.”

“A war virus
?
I don’t think I ever heard of that.”

“Probably not
.
It was a failed experiment in the ABC teams back some
hundred
years or so ago
.
The bio warfare folks were trying to create a plague that wouldn’t wipe out the entire population, but rather stop after causing a bunch of damage.
Best they came up with was a strain of influenza that would only be passed on by two generations of hosts, hence the name.”