Encrypted (14 page)

Ronnie abandoned her post and dug around behind the towers.

“Holy Batman!” Quirk said as the symbols accelerated to lightning speeds
.
“It’s a self-propagating program
,
and it’s got a foothold
.
We can’t let it get into the core.”

“And you would suggest?”
she asked,
pulling cords as fast as she could
.

He sounded downright panicked
.
“I don’t know
,
but put the pedal to the metal.”

The processor lights blinked faster and faster
.
They had
dozens of interlinking cables
—e
ach one screwed in as if its life depended on it
.
She would never make it in time
.
There was only one thing left to do
.
Taking a kni
fe out of her boot, she sliced
away
.
Sparks showered and smoke b
i
llowed from the secondary towers, but the main processor went down and stayed down
—
safe from prying eyes.

Crawling out from under the equipment, Ronnie looked up
.
All the screens had stopped their incessant scrolling, but each blazed with a single symbol
.
But how could that be
?
She had just cut the wiring
.
The screens should be blank.

Before she could investigate further, Quirk recovered from his shock
.
“Okay, seriously, I am taking away your hacker’s membership card.”

“It worked
,
didn’t it?” She nodded to
ward
the angelic symbols
.
“Get a screenshot of that, would you?”

With great showmanship, Quirk hammered away at his now
-
defunct keyboard
.
Oh
,
yeah
.
S
he’d cut those cables as well.

“Maybe we should just pack up
for
tonight
,” she conceded.

“
Ya
think?”

Contrite, Ronnie tugged on the free ends of the cables to see what they attached to, but Quirk slapped her shoulder as hard as a card
-
carrying member of the
R
ainbow
Alliance
could
.
“Just go home.”

“But I
—
”

“You’ve done enough damage
.
Go!” That tone was about as close to
blowing his
top as Quirk ever came, so Ronnie
obeyed, grabbing
her Hello Kitty bag and hit
ting
the road.

Time to go home and soak out the intellectual defeat with a nice
,
long
,
bubbly, bubbly, bubbly bath.
Anything to wash away the sight of all those symbols.

* * *

Francois ignored the medic cleaning his wounds.
They fretted and lectured.
What would they know of his duty to God? They thought him mad. Most did. Yet
,
being graced with the language of t
he angels, Francois did not bother
with
what others thought.

Each symbol, fresh to his flesh
,
sang to him. The script burned in his blood reminding him of his duty.
A duty to stop the Hidden Hand at any cost.
They had already targeted Europe. That continent
was more than likely lost. Just
like
t
he last time
,
the Hidden Hand decided to make the world over in their hideous image.

That was why
,
upon hearing of the first case of the Black Death in Venice, Francois left his homeland and trekked to the Americas. He had failed to predict the Hidden Hand’s bold move. Now his last hope was to stop the spread across the Atlantic Ocean.

Which was why he sought the Picasso. Yet
,
even in that
,
he was thwarted. How he wished to see the script of the angels. To have them talk to him in their purity. Then
,
he could mark the oc
casion upon his flesh. Dug in there to forever be at his avail.

If only the agent had listened to him. If only he could have broken through the man’s stubborn denial. He could see the compassion in the man’s eyes. He could feel the worry through his grip. How many other agents had passed by the cell
,
not even giving Francois the least
regard
?

But now
,
the agent was gone. Off to live his life, not knowing how incredibly short
lived it was going to be.

* * *

Jennifer nudged her again
. Amanda had shut out the endless interdepartmental bickering
and gone back into the only safe place she knew
.
Numbers
.
Facts
.
Science
.

So clean
.
So neat
.
So precise
.
So unlike human nature
.

She looked
at
Jennifer
.
W
hy had she disturbed her? Why had her assistant reminded her that she was in a room full of her betters?

Henderson cleared his throat
,
and then Amanda knew why her assistant had given her a heads
-
up
.
The director looked ready to make a call
.
How to handle the current situation given this new, potentially devastating information?

“Unless we have anything else, I am going to brief the
p
resident.”

Attendees
answered with a quiet rumbling
,
signaling
that
they were unwilling to commit to anything yet
.
Amanda squirmed in her seat
,
trying to keep her feet out from under Jennifer’s abusive heel.

“Yes, Dr.
Rolph
?”

She was on the spot
.
No sense in missing this opportunity
.
“What is your recommendation going to be
, sir
?”

Henderson rattled them off
.
“In addition to the current measures, we should step up surveillance on incoming international flights
. We’ll d
o postflight temperature checks
,
and quarantine all those with elevated temps.” Amanda didn’t even realize
that
she was shaking her head until the director
responded.

“You disagree?”
he asked.

She fidgeted under his cool gaze
.
He wasn’t necessarily challenging
.
But he wasn’t exactly being supportive
,
either.

Finally, Amanda let out her breath and straightened her shoulders
.
“Sir, we need to discontinue all incoming European flights and ships.”

It was Henderson’s turn to shake his head
.
H
owever
,
Devlin
spoke first
.
“We don’t want to create a panic.”

Thank
G
od it was
Devlin. She
could snap back at
him.
“Um, with all due respect,
yes
, I think we do.”

The director looked
at
his assistant
.
“She
is
a member of my staff, right?”

“Sir,” Amanda
said,
beginning to
feel her face flush. “The risk is
—
”

This time, Henderson wasn’t joking at all
.
“As I said, we will quarantine anyone, and I mean
anyone
, with a ninety-eight point nine degree temperature.”

“But
—
”

MacVetti
overrode her
.
“Fever is the first and best indicator for the early contagious phase.”

While Amanda appreciated her supervisor trying to protect
her
, even from herself, in this she could hold her own
.
Well, at least she hoped
so.

“In a sick patient, yes.” She paused before she really shook the room
.
What if she
were
wrong
?
But this was too important
.
More important than even her nearly paralyzing social phobia.

“But in a carrier?” Amand
a
pressed. “No. In a carrier state, temperature monitoring is useless.”

The room held a quizzical breath
.
What she spoke of was beyond unreasonable
.
It was unheard of.

Devlin
just seemed confused
,
though
.
“Um, it was my impression
that
there was no carrier state with the plague.”

“Naturally
?
There isn’t.”

It was clear
by
his tone that
MacVetti
was tiring of her theories
.
“Then why
—
?
”

Amanda hurried on
.
“But someone who is vaccinated and physically carrying the virus on their person
?
On their clothes
?
That person will walk right through your screening.”

Devlin
snorted loudly, seeming to convey the entire room’s
disdain.
Yet, somehow Henderson kept his tone civil
.

“That would require someone to actually have a vaccine for the Black Plague.”

Amanda shrugged
,
trying not to reveal her innards quivering
.
“It’s bacterial
.
It can be done.”

MacVetti
looked her square in the eye
.
Each
glance told
her to sit down and shut up
.
“Do you have any idea
of
the resources it would take to develop a human
-
quality vaccine
?
And do it under
our
radar?”

Amanda couldn’t stand the mix of disappointment and anger brewing in
MacVetti’s
eyes
.
She look
ed
down at her hands to keep from crying
—
right there in front of everyone
.
Why couldn’t someone with a backbone think of this
?
Why did it have to be her?

Henderson stood
.
“My recommendations stand.”

The director was almost out of the room when Amanda finally spoke up
.
“They already have it.”

MacVetti’s
head snapped around to face her
.
“What
are
you talking about?”

“The vaccine…” She gulped not once, but twice
.
“I think they already have one.”

Devlin
rolled
his
eyes
.
“Okay, now
I’m
ready to check her credentials.”

But, yet again, Jennifer
rose
to the rescue by providing visual aids
.
This new map showed the original spread of the plague
,
but
it
centered on areas untouched by the incredibly high death count.