Better in the Dark (30 page)

“You’ve certainly caused some excitement back in Washington,” McChesney said as if Harry should be pleased. “We’ve been in conference all morning about you.”

Harry cut through the man’s effusiveness. “When do we start back to Stockton?” he demanded. He thought of Natalie. She was expecting him. He had to get back. And the Van Dreyter house would have to be evacuated. He tried to organize his thoughts in order to talk to McChesney. In the clean pullover he still felt stuffy and hot.

“Oh, that will be taken care of,” McChesney assured him. “That’s all behind you.” He shuffled the stack of printouts by his left hand. “We’ve been running some of Dr. Justin’s information through the computers here. It seems you people really came up with something. We’re trying to work out a new policy for the treatment of this polio varietal that’s developed here.”

“Polio varietal,” Harry snapped. “You make it sound like a new kind of wine. It’s a disease, mister, a deadly, ugly disease.” He fingered the collar of the pullover.

“It certainly sounds like it is,” McChesney agreed smoothly. “And your group certainly deserves recognition for your work on it.”

Harry’s mind drifted back to the terrible days at the Van Dreyter house. “You could say that.”

Aaron McChesney seemed somewhat put off by Harry’s manner. “Um. Yes. Well, you can see then, why we’ve decided to send you back to Washington to speak to the special closed session of the Cabinet.”

“What?” Harry winced as he pushed himself to his feet. He steadied himself against McChesney’s desk. “Do they have to have me? In person?”

“Yes. It’s all arranged. You leave at five. The Cabinet meeting is the day after tomorrow. That should give you sufficient time to organize your report, and we will send verification for your discoveries.”

“No,” Harry objected. “Look, Justin’s back there, and Ernest. There are patients in the house. And Natalie’s with Tristam. If we don’t get back to them. I told her I’d be back. We can leave now, and I’ll still get to that damned meeting day after tomorrow.” He leaned forward and blinked to clear his swimming vision.

McChesney rose and put a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Dr. Smith, you’re exhausted. You’ve been through a harrowing experience. Certainly we’ll have to do our best for the poor people left behind. And just as soon as we have a full evaluation, you can be certain we’ll go and get them.”

Harry shook the hand off. “We go now!” he said. “They’ll die, don’t you understand? Natalie will die.” He turned away from McChesney. “Tell them I won’t come to Washington until I know Natalie’s safe.”

“Dr. Smith,” McChesney said, his exasperation making his tone less smooth.

Harry reeled, his eyes blinded with pain.

“Here, here,” McChesney said, becoming concerned. “Let me get you something. Apparently you aren’t over the effects of your ordeal. I’ll be back in a moment...” He left by a side door.

Harry let himself sag against the wall, feeling bitter laughter rise in his throat. The ache in his swelling joints racked him, but he found now he could smile. He knew now that what he felt was not the effects of fatigue or hunger or stress. “I’ve got it,” he said to the neat, colorless walls. He had the polio, the new polio. He rubbed his forehead and accepted the ache there for the token it was. By now, he realized, even his handshake would be deadly.

He could not go back. He thought he had got out of the plague, but there was no escape, not now, not for him. He forced himself to breathe slowly, and felt the strain beginning.

“Here, Dr. Smith,” McChesney said as he came back into the office. He held a glass of water and a medicine packet. “This should help. I’m sorry. I certainly should have realized that you aren’t quite yourself.”

Harry took the glass. “I’ll be all right now,” he said. He drank the water and swallowed half of the medicine packet. Then he put the glass down and turned to Aaron McChesney. “I think you said something about a Cabinet meeting? Will you go over that again?”

The small jet lunged down the short runway, then pointed into the sky. Harry shut his teeth against the nausea as the plane rose. In a few minutes the pilot began to level off, and Harry let himself relax. He thought over the talk he had had with the others before he left, and he knew that Ted Lincoln and Maria Pantopolos would make every effort to see that the patients at the Van Dreyter house were evacuated. He had done as much as they would let him do there.

The Cabinet meeting was less than forty-eight hours away. He knew that he could hold out that long, long enough to tell those powerful men what they had created, what they had done, and then to tell them what he had done.

The incubation period for the new polio was about five weeks. They would have that long to find a cure, or they would face paralysis or death, as Harry was doing now. He would give them the choice they were unwilling to give others.

Now the plane banked, and Harry could see the land below, lit by the long golden fingers of afternoon. Far away the fire in Stockton shone like a torch, and as Harry watched it, he thought of the brightness he had seen in Natalie’s eyes, and he felt himself grow cold.

And then the mountains rose between them as the plane sped eastward into the night.

TK scanned and proofed. (v1.0) (html) NOV 2011.