Encrypted (8 page)

Halbaucher
stepped up next to him
.
“But protocol states that
—
”

Zach shook his head and looked away from the sky and his fellow agents before anyone could see the hot tears springing to his eyes
.

“She’s probably not even in the country…”

CHAPTER 3

CDC Animal Research Facility

Plum Island

9:48
p
.
m
.
,
MST

Dr. Amanda
Rolph
squirmed in her seat
.
The
1950s-
style conference room with its peeling paint and probable asbestos
-
filled
ceiling
only exasperated her claustrophobia
. Especially as anoth
er dozen people entered
the cramped room
.

Fighting the urge to jump up and run from the
room, Amanda looked out the
window.
Moonlight illuminated acres of green farmland rolling
out from the laboratory complex. Sheep lazily grazed, oblivious to the dire threat looming from the east.

Yet even
amongst this pastoral scene,
signs of this once
-
proud institution’s decline showed in broken f
ences and rusted machinery
left to become part of the scenery. As newer and
much more modern level-
four disease research facilities sprang up around the world, Plum Island became obs
olete. Their facility
was
slated
for
decommission
,
to be
replaced by a brand
-
spanking
-
new facility in Kansas
—
u
ntil now.

Now that
the plague
was
making a resurgence?
Plum Island was once again the jewel in the CDC’s crown. Who else would be researching the bubonic plague but a bunch of silly animal researchers out in that old, decrepit facility?
Since the plague had been treatable with a very high success rate with antibiotics for over a half century
,
the amount of funding that went into bubonic research was 0.0092
percent
of the total CDC budget. The Black Death was a thing of the past
—
accounting for less than a thousand cases and only a handful of deaths per year. Compared to Malaria with its 225 million people infected each year? The plague’s
research
had been relegated to this
crumbling facility.

Only
now
it looked
as though
the Black Death had just been taking a break.

Guess the joke was on the naysayers.
Unfortunately
,
all those naysayers were arriving
on Plum Island
in droves
.
It was one of those awkward mountain
-
com
ing-
to
-
Mohammed moments. They couldn’t move Amanda’s
zoonotic
research to the mainland without a literal act of Congress.
The pathogens she studied were some of the most lethal in the world.
Therefore
,
al
l the CDC brass had to come to the island
.
And not just
the
CDC
,
either
.
Beyond their normal
complement
of Homeland Security
staff
,
Plum Island
now
hosted
agents from nearly every U
.
S
.
law enforcement agency.

Which was fine and all, but seriously
,
w
hy
did they need ATF agents? This was the
plague
.
Nevertheless
,
that forced
a
conference room meant to hold thirty
to somehow cram in
over seventy people.

At least Amanda was already seated next to her assistant, Jennifer
Neffer
, rather than
coming in late
, trying to find a place
,
like the stragglers who entered now
.
Plus
,
her grad student was somehow able to transmute her anxiety into a type of excitement
.
Her hands were shaking, but not from fear
,
like Amanda’s
.

This was her very first
agency
-wide briefing
,
and the only thing she hoped for was to be passed over
.
Just don’t call on me
, she chanted in her mind, making sure
that
the fates had plenty of warning
.
But how could she
not
be called on
?
She was the only one in the room whose sole research subject was the plague and since well, the Black Death
was
making a comeback
, s
he was going to get tapped
—
no doubt about it
.

Before Amanda
could formulate a plan to divert any questions, Dr. Art Henderson,
the
recent
ly appointed
head of
Plum Island’s languishing facility
, rushed into the room
,
with
three assistants hot on his heels
.
What should have
been a nice pre-retirement position
had become a lightning
-
rod
post
.

“Hello, all,” the silver-haired Southern gentleman said as he set a stack of papers on the end of the table with a thud
.

Was it the sudden noise
,
or his stature
,
that made Amanda cringe
?
Sure
,
she had seen her boss around the building over the last few days, but never this close
.

E
very time she had almost crossed paths with him, she had ducked into someone’s office,
the
bathroom, or even just turned around and gone back the way she came
.
Amanda knew her intimidation was silly
.
He wasn’t that tall
.
Maybe six
feet
three inches, but he towered over her
.
He wasn’t that fat
.
Well, for a physician
,
he was way too overweight
.
It was even rumored that he snuck out onto the
roof
and smoked a few cigarettes
.
Quite the scandal
.

But it wasn’t even that
.
No, every time she was about to pass him, she knew he’d look down and say, “Who is this uneducated imp
?
Get her from my sight.”

Or something
akin to
that
.

He had the look of a man who could figure out in an instant that Amanda was out of her depth
.
So what
if
she carried a
4.25
grade point average throughout college
?
Who cared
that
she had gotten into med school at the age of twenty
?
Who cared
that
she finished a doctoral program at the same time
?
Who cared that her doctoral thesis on atypical disease transmission routes had gotten her a keynote speaker position at the AMA pathogens conference
?

That
was research
.
That was all accomplished within the incredibly safe confines of college campuses
.
This
was
the real world
.
The big, fat, overwhelming real world.

Amanda took a deep breath
.
This was all happening too fast
.
The sudden change of directors
.
Her promotion to primary
researcher
.
And now the damn plague
,
and all that it implied
.
Her head swam, and she tried to slow her breathing
.
Now would not be a good time to have a panic attack
.
Or an asthma attack
.
Or faint
.
No, none of those would be impressive to the audience here today.

Henderson abandoned his attempt to find the report
.
He
looked
at
the dozen or so doctors sitting around the table, anxiously awaiting his first remarks
.

“As you all know, this is only my fourth day on the job, and I’m basically relying on security to make sure you are actually on my staff
,
so feel free to chime in if I ask a question in your field of expertise.”

Somehow
,
hearing her new boss’ own admission
that
he was overwhelmed helped Amanda get a grip on her own growing anxiety
.
Maybe he wasn’t the ogre
that
she thought.

The large man dove back into the stack of papers, obviously intent on a certain page, but quickly gave up again
.
“The nationwide bulletin has been issued?”

“The fax went out to all
FBI
and Home
l
and Security offices,”
the scientist next to Amanda spoke up.

Dr. Henderson search
ed
the room for the person who spoke
.
“I’m sorry
.
Y
ou are?”

“Dr. Vincent
MacVetti
…”
the scientist
paused, apparently waiting for a glimpse of recognition from the director, but when he got none,
MacVetti
continued
.
“Besides being head of our
d
omestic branch, I’m also the point person for all upper
-
echelon law enforcement communications.”

“Right,” Henderson said
,
then looked
at
the rest of the group
.
“How about everyone just shout out your name if we’ve never met…
Or
even if we have
?
” Henderson turned back to
MacVetti
.
“Emergency rooms?”

A voice came from the other side of the table
.
“Dr.
Ev
ylin
Tarmel
, Head of Medical Coordination.” Once Henderson found the tall woman, she continued
,
“And y
es, an alert has been distributed to all emergency rooms with populations above one hundred thousand citizens.”

“And no group has taken credit for the outbreak?” Henderson asked of everyone and no one in particular.

“No,” came the answer from the one man in the room without a white coat
.
“Sorry
.
Andrew Devlin
, your CIA liaison.”

“So no one is jumping out of their skin to take responsibility for the return of the Black Death?”

The shorter man shrugged
.
“As a matter of fact, the hot-listed groups are going out of their way to make sure
that
we know it’s
not
them.”

Henderson nodded, obviously processing the information
.
His eyes scanned the table
.
“Who’s the
lead on the
Yersin
i
a
p
estis
bacterium
?”