Project Reunion (29 page)

Jen skewered the audience with a Look. “The use of aircraft, and attacking another state, are both blatant violations of the Calm Act. Later in the broadcast, we’ll be speaking with Homeland Security about what they’ve learned from Penn’s POWs.” Video of prisoners on their knees, hands on their heads. “We’ll also hear from Lieutenant Colonel Emmett MacLaren, commander of Project Reunion –” Great video there of Emmett cheering with the crowd at the after-party last night. “– And the commanders of the New York and New England borders, General Sean Cullen and General Ivan Link.” Cullen was shown in field helmet, listening grimly to an aide’s report, while he stroked the altar Bible in the shattered West Point chapel. Link and his staff debated at a huge screen, showing a schematic of the attack’s approach path and origin in Pennsylvania.

“– And others. And we
will
cover the most
important
event of yesterday. Project Reunion’s Thanksgiving dinner in the Apple Core of New York City!” Jen smiled proudly. “But before we do,” Jen hushed and looked grim, “there was also an address broadcast at 7 a.m. eastern this morning, putatively from President O’Donnell. From Raven Rock Mountain,
Pennsylvania
. The President claimed that
he
ordered this attack. And that he’d done it to stop
New England
insurgents
, stealing
from New York City.”

Cut to General Link, belligerent: “Well, that’s a crock. Pennsylvania knew what we were doing on Project Reunion, from day one.”

General Cullen, sad and pitying: “If the President believes that, he has been misinformed by bad advisers. As the military governor of New York, I bless Emmett MacLaren for proposing Project Reunion. The Apple welcomes help from New England, upstate New York, and New Jersey, with open arms. The military governors – we were in complete agreement about this.”

Admiral Huyck, Navy of the Northeast (first time I’d read that phrase!): “Do we even know that was President O’Donnell? I’m sorry, but if he were my Commander-in-Chief, wouldn’t he be commanding the Navy, General Cullen, General Link – all of us? Not just –
Pennsylvania
. At no point did the Commander-in-Chief tell
us
that he took issue with Project Reunion. It’s not as though we did this in secret. This is a vast humanitarian relief mission. Millions of people are involved.”

Emmett, soggy and smudged with soot: “Uh-huh. Look, we knew we had a problem with Pennsylvania. And this wasn’t their first attack on Project Reunion. We have a lot more to talk about there. But the question was – do we give up on the survivors of New York? Heroes like the Manhattan survivors we shared Thanksgiving dinner with yesterday? No.”

Karl Abramson, New York director of Homeland Security: “Say
what?
Humanitarian relief doesn’t violate the Calm Act. Bombing your fellow Americans, without warning or provocation? That’s treason. With or without the Calm Act.”

Prefaced by
that
, Amenac played O’Donnell’s speech, edited ever so subtly. Illustrating his remarks – we only had audio, after all – Amenac played video from the attack on West Point. The wounded. Then the starving people of the Apple receiving food yesterday. The first broadcast images of Ty Jefferson and his band under white flags at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Volunteer survivors, and hazmat-suited service men and women, carrying emaciated children to be taken into quarantine. The donation trains, as the people of the Northeast contributed their own food to support the quarantines and Project Reunion. The volunteer trains. We’d never shown any of that footage before. And we didn’t explain it now.

People this morning on the dock had seemed a little confused, dismayed and defensive when we listened to O’Donnell. There was none of that in Tom’s office tonight. Only outrage. We weren’t very close to the garrison troops, where they watched. But I could hear the growl of their reaction.

More sound-bites crowded onto the end of O’Donnell’s speech, without preamble.

Prime Minister Durand of Canada: “That speech betrays a dangerous level of ignorance on the part of the American President. All of Canada – the world – knows the truth of Project Reunion. Why doesn’t he?”

General Charles Schwabacher, military governor of Ohio and West Virginia: “The President is misinformed. Ohio, the Virginias, Maryland and Delaware – we are fully apprised of Pennsylvania’s...
actions
.”

Cam sat up ramrod-straight when Schwabacher came on. His face glowed. “Was that your play, Emmett?” he breathed. We all looked to him to explain. But Cam shook his head, focused on the screen.

Amiri Baz, Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondent: “Doctor Aoyama, I’m told this was actually Pennsylvania’s second attack on Project Reunion.”

Dr. Tom Aoyama, lead epidemiologist for Project Reunion: “Yes. Pennsylvania infiltrated our pilot quarantine on Long Island. They suborned my assistant, Dr. Clarke Whitfield. We were very fortunate to uncover the plot before any damage was done. Aside from discrediting me, their plan was to release weaponized typhoid into Connecticut, via refugees released from the Camp Yankee quarantine. And thus discredit all of Project Reunion.”

Amiri: “My God. That’s a terrorist plot.”

Tom, nodding: “It certainly would have spread terror. There are millions of good people in Connecticut. Trying very hard to help their neighbors in New York.”

We all shot Tom a thumb’s-up, and he happily grinned like a fool.

Amiri: “Director Abramson, do you believe Homeland Security has prevented this bio-terrorism attack on the Northeast?”

Abramson, New York Homeland Security: “I believe so. You have to understand, there are tens of thousands of volunteers and armed service personnel involved in Project Reunion. But we have procedures in place. We also... We have evidence, that this wasn’t the first bio-terrorist attack on New York. We have evidence that the initial, overwhelming, Ebola outbreaks in New York – those were an intentional attack. By elements in Pennsylvania.”

Jennifer Alvarez, Amenac narrator: “A program note. Amenac will be airing a special report from Homeland Security later in the week. Among the topics will be the case against Pennsylvania. But now, on a happier note,” Jennifer broke into a beatific smile, tears of pride standing in her eyes, “let’s turn to the Project Reunion Thanksgiving dinner, in New York City.”

Amiri Baz: “I’m speaking with Navy Captain Gil Flores, the officer charged with coordinating what must be one of the largest single-day soup kitchen operations ever attempted. Captain Flores, it’s the night before Thanksgiving. Are you ready?”

Captain Flores: “Ready or not! Yes, we’re ready. We’ve done test runs. We have dinner stations set up throughout the Apple Core and North Jersey. Tables and supplies and troops for crowd control. Everything but the food, and that’s cooking as we speak.”

Amiri Baz: “How many people do you hope to feed tomorrow?”

Captain Flores: “Half a million. Yeah. It’s amazing. The outpouring of food donations across the Northeast has been...amazing.”

That went on for a while, Flores and Baz outlining what the Thanksgiving operation entailed, how much food, a map of the dinner stations. Video clips of the donation stations, the food trains. The cameras caught Emmett and me looking around the harbor before dawn, with Amiri’s hushed voice-over, ‘three hours to first dinner.’

I was as rapt as anyone at the video coverage on the ground, showing the guests at Soho, Chelsea piers, Midtown. The interviews, asking thin guests what this dinner meant to them.

A quick sample from other boats, taken with phones. Adam: “Happy Thanksgiving from the Coast Guard, in Hoboken New Jersey!” His houseboat-mate: “Happy Thanksgiving from the Merchant Marine, in Queens!” Another: “Happy Thanksgiving from the Navy, in Brooklyn!” Another: “Happy Thanksgiving from the Army National Guard, in the Bronx!”

Emmett and I grinning, with our masks temporarily down around our necks. “Happy Thanksgiving from the Army, and Amenac!” said he. “From the Midtown Ferry Terminal in Manhattan!” said I.

Baz zeroed in for an in-depth interview with us, about our relationship and role in Project Reunion. Then photo opportunities with our leadership table. The voice-over continued with Emmett sharing about his hero-worship of the leaders he’d met in New York. How he hoped Project Reunion could leave them stronger, as well as take refugees out. Baz asked if he was worried about disease spread, from all this. Emmett said they had their procedures, and so far, illness levels were similar to a winter Army garrison.

And more. Including Adam’s after-party in Staten Island. Emmett and I showed up in several video clips there. Including the moment of impact. Someone was filming us as Emmett got the call about the attack on West Point, and kissed me good-bye.

“On a lighter note,” Baz shared with a grin, the camera back on him in some destroyer-based conference room today. “Dee Baker, Colonel MacLaren’s partner and a co-founder of Amenac, was stranded at Staten Island last night, when MacLaren took his destroyer up the Hudson River to West Point. Fortunately Baker’s ex-fiancé was also at the party –”

“No...” I groaned.

“– so she spent the night with him, on his houseboat moored at Staten Island. The teasing today has been merciless, in New York Harbor.”

Jen Alvarez laughed at me from the screen. “And that’s our report. From all of us here at Amenac and Project Reunion, we hope your Thanksgiving was overflowing with gratitude. Good night.”

“I’m going to kill Carlos Mora,” I groaned.

“Well, like I said, Dee,” Cam offered, in mocking consolation. “We’re your friends regardless of your relationship with Emmett.”

“Now, which one did you sleep with last night?” Dwayne inquired. “Was he shown?”

“The Coast Guard officer,” Tom supplied with a grin. “The male model, Adam Lacey.”

“Ooh! Oh, honey, he’s much better looking than Emmett,” Dwayne assured me. “Is he as good in bed?”

I glared at Dwayne, as Cam’s phone rang. “Hey, Emmett! Yeah, she’s right here. We were just watching the.. Yeah.” He handed me the phone, and hustled up the others. “We’ll just leave Dee alone to talk to Emmett,” Cam said.

“But I want to stay!” Dwayne objected.

Cam hauled him out of his chair, and the three of them exited the office, still laughing.

“Hi, honey,” I said tentatively.

“Don’t call me ‘honey’!”
Emmett yelled in my ear.

Chapter 23

Interesting fact: Dr. Clarke Whitfield was eventually executed for crimes against humanity. Homeland Security strung her along for several months, giving her extra days of life in exchange for further information. But her fate was non-negotiable after she admitted her role in weaponizing Ebola for use in New York City, and then abusing her position in Long Island to cover her tracks. The lead scientists on the Ebola weapon project escaped to South America. They were never found.

Voilà! My apologetic, groveling demeanor vanished in the blink of an eye. “Don’t be an asshole, Emmett. Look, I apologize on purely PR grounds. Not for anything I
did
. You left me stranded in the middle of New York. Fair enough. You were busy. So I slept on Adam’s boat. Also,
fair enough.”

“That’s not – Gah!” Emmett blew out slowly.

Screw it, if he was going to do his southern torture 15-second pause thing, I needed a pastime. I shifted over to Tom’s desk, spawned an anonymous browser window to sign in, and brought up Project Reunion broadcast traffic reports on the monitor.

Strange. They must have limited the broadcast to the Northeast – minus Pennsylvania – to prevent any pesky server load issues. Yikes. It seemed like half the Northeast had watched already, or was still watching. Traffic there was still rising. Oh, there it went. The mirror servers across the U.S. completed replication and started to stream the broadcast.

“– ex-wife used to call me ‘honey’,” Emmett was saying, when I guiltily recalled we were in the middle of something. “That was a knee-jerk reaction.”

“So? Apologize.”

“...Uh-huh,” he growled. “I apologize for barking at you.”

“Cool, so here’s the desensitization round,
honey.
Honey, honey, honey, honey with jam, peanut butter bananas and honey sandwich, honey ham, honey pot, honey trap, land of milk and honey –”

“Uh-huh. Enough, Dee.”

“Ooh,” I said. “The broadcast just went out to Canada and Mexico. Zooming out... Yeah, Europe, Asia, world-wide.”

“You’re watching Amenac traffic? While we’re talking on the phone?”

“You pissed me off.
Honey.
”
Cool it,
I warned myself.
You love this man. This conversation is important.
Like I ever listened to myself. “Sorry, Emmett. It’s kind of a big moment for the media side of Project Reunion. And I was offline being seasick down the length of Long Island today. They did all this without me. You paused to think. That gave me time to wonder...”

“Uh-huh. So how’s it going?”