“Or what?” Pitt asked.
“Or they got to him,” Sheila said. “By now he could be one of them.”
“That’s a happy thought,” Pitt said.
“We have to deal with reality,” Sheila said.
“Wait a second,” Pitt said. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” Sheila asked. “The screen door?”
“No, it was something else,” Pitt said. “A scraping noise.”
Jonathan reached up and felt the top of his head. “Something’s fallen on me. Dust or something.” He looked up. “Uh oh, there’s someone up there.”
Everyone looked up. Only now did they appreciate that there was no ceiling. Above the rafters it was darker than below in the room. But now that their eyes had adjusted to the low level of illumination they could just make out a figure in the attic space, standing on the joists.
Pitt reached down and snatched up a tire iron from the debris on the floor.
“Drop it,” a raspy voice called down. With surprising speed the figure dropped out of the attic by swinging down on one hand. In his other hand he held an impressive Colt .45. He studied his visitors with a steady eye. He was a man in his early sixties with ruddy skin, curly gray hair, and a wiry frame.
“Drop the club,” the man repeated.
Pitt abandoned the tire iron by tossing it noisily onto the floor and held up his hands.
“I’m Jumpin Jack Flash,” Jonathan said excitedly while repeatedly tapping his chest. “It was my name on the Internet. Are you Dr. M?”
“I might be,” the man said.
“My real name is Jonathan. Jonathan Sellers.”
“I’m Dr. Sheila Miller.”
“And I’m Pitt Henderson.”
“Were you checking us out?” Jonathan asked. “Is that why you were hiding up in the rafters?”
“Maybe,” the man said. Then he motioned for his three guests to move into the storeroom.
Pitt was hesitant. “We’re friends. Really we are. We’re normal people.”
“Get!” the man said while extending the pistol toward Pitt’s face.
Pitt had never seen a .45 before, particularly not from the point of view of looking directly down the dark, threatening barrel.
“I’m going,” Pitt said.
“All of you,” the man said.
Reluctantly everyone crowded into the dark storeroom.
“Turn around and face me,” the man said.
Fearful about what was going to happen, everyone did as he was told. With throats that had gone completely dry they eyed this sinewy man who’d literally dropped in on them. The man returned their stare. There was a moment of silence.
“I know what you are doing,” Pitt said. “You’re checking our eyes. You’re looking to see if our eyes glow!”
The man nodded finally. “You’re right,” he said. “And I’m pleased to report, they don’t shine at all. Good!” He holstered his .45. “My name’s McCay. Dr. Harlan McCay. And I guess we’ll be working together. I’m glad to see you people, really I am.”
With great relief Pitt and Jonathan shadowed the man out into the sunlight where they shook hands enthusiastically. Sheila followed but seemed irritated over the initial reception. She complained that he’d terrified her.
“Sorry,” Harlan said. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but being careful is a product of the times. But that’s all behind us now. Let’s get you over to where you’ll be working. I’m afraid we don’t have a lot of time if we’re going to have any effect whatsoever.”
“You have a lab or someplace to work?” Sheila questioned. Her mood brightened.
“Yeah,” Harlan said. “I got a little lab. But we need to drive a ways. It’ll take about twenty minutes.” He opened the van’s slider and climbed in. Pitt got behind the wheel. Sheila took the front passenger seat, and Jonathan joined Harlan.
Pitt started the van. “Where to?” he asked.
“Straight on,” Harlan said. “I’ll let you know when to turn.”
“Were you in private practice before all this trouble?” Sheila asked as the van pulled out into the road.
“Yes and no,” Harlan said. “The first part of my professional life was spent at UCLA in an academic position. I was trained in internal medicine with a subspecialty in immunology. But about five years ago I realized I was burned out, so I came out here and started a general practice in a little town called Paswell. It’s just a blip on the map. I worked a lot with Native Americans on the surrounding reservations.”
“Immunology!” Sheila commented. She was impressed. “No wonder you were sending us such interesting stuff.”
“I could say the same to you,” Harlan said. “What’s your training?”
“Unfortunately mostly emergency medicine,” Sheila admitted. “I did do an internal medicine residency, though.”
“Emergency medicine!” Harlan commented. “Then I’m even more impressed with the sophistication of your data. I thought I was communicating with a fellow immunologist.”
“I’m afraid I can’t take the credit,” Sheila said. “Jonathan’s mother was with us then, and she was a virologist. She did most of the work.”
“Sounds like I shouldn’t be asking where she is now,” Harlan said.
“We don’t know where she is,” Jonathan said quickly. “She went to a pharmacy last night to get some drugs and didn’t come back.”
“I’m sorry,” Harlan said.
“She’ll contact me on the Internet,” Jonathan said, not about to give up hope.
They drove for a few minutes in silence. No one wanted to contradict Jonathan.
“Are we heading for Paswell now?” Sheila asked. The idea of being in a town had a lot of appeal. She wanted a shower and a bed.
“Heavens no,” Harlan said. “Everybody’s infected there.”
“How did you manage to avoid being infected yourself?” Pitt asked.
“Dumb luck at first,” Harlan said. “I happened to be with a friend at the moment he got stung by one of those black discs, so I avoided them like the plague. Then when I got an inkling of what was happening and that there wasn’t anything I could do, I took to the desert. I’ve been out here ever since.”
“How does being out here in the desert account for the data you were requesting and sending?” Sheila asked.
“I told you,” Harlan said. “I got a little lab.”
Sheila looked out her side of the van. The featureless desert stretched off toward distant mountains. There weren’t any buildings, much less a biological laboratory. She began to worry about how many marbles Harlan McCay was dealing with beneath his shock of gray hair.
“I do have a bit of encouraging news,” Harlan said. “Once you were able to give me the amino acid sequence of the enabling protein, and I was able to make some, I’ve developed a rather crude monoclonal antibody.”
Sheila’s head spun around. She studied the leathery-faced, blue-eyed, stubbled desert man with disbelief. “Are you sure?” she asked.
“Sure I’m sure,” Harlan said. “But don’t get bent out of shape, because it’s not as specific as I’d like. But it works. The main point is that I’ve proven the protein is antigenic enough to elicit an antibody response in a mouse. I just have to select out a better B lymphocyte to make my hybridoma cell.”
Pitt hazarded a quick glance at Sheila. Despite having had a number of advanced biology courses, Pitt had no idea what Harlan was talking about or even whether he was making sense. Yet Sheila was obviously extraordinarily impressed.
“To make a monoclonal antibody you need sophisticated reagents and materials, like a source of myeloma cells,” Sheila said.
“No doubt,” Harlan said. “Take a right up here, Pitt, just beyond that cactus.”
“But there’s no road,” Pitt said.
“A mere technicality,” Harlan said. “Turn anyway.”
CASSY AWOKE FROM A SHORT NAP, GOT UP FROM THE BED, and went to the large, multipaned window. She
was in a guest room on the second floor of the mansion facing south. To the left she could see a line of pedestrian traffic coming and going on the driveway. Directly ahead, her view of the grounds was limited by a tall, leafy tree. To the right she could see the tip of the terrace that surrounded the pool as well as about a hundred yards of lawn before it butted up against a pine forest.
She looked at her watch. She wondered when she would start feeling ill. She tried to remember the interval that Beau had experienced between being stung and his first symptoms, but she couldn’t. All he’d told her was that he’d been in class. She didn’t know which class.
Returning to the door, she gave the knob another twist. It was still locked as securely as when she’d been put in the room. Turning around, she leaned against the door and surveyed her surroundings. It was a generous bedroom with a high ceiling, but except for the bed, it was completely empty. And the bed itself consisted of a bare mattress on a box spring.
The short nap had revived Cassy to a point. She felt a mixture of depression and anger. She thought about lying back on the bed but didn’t think she could sleep. Instead she returned to the window.
Noticing there was no lock, she tried the sash. To her surprise it opened with ease. Leaning out the window, she looked down. About twenty feet below was a flagstone walkway that connected the back terrace with the front. It was edged with a limestone balustrade. It would be a very hard landing if she tried to jump, but she gave the idea serious thought. Death might be preferable to becoming one of them. The problem was, a twenty-foot fall would probably only maim, not kill.
Cassy raised her eyes and looked more carefully at the tree. One stout branch in particular caught her attention. It grew out of the main trunk, arched directly toward the window, then angled off to the right. Her interest was directed at a short horizontal section that was about six or seven feet away from where she was standing.
The question went through Cassy’s mind whether she could leap from the window, catch the branch, and hold on. She didn’t know. She’d never done anything like it in her life and was surprised the idea even occurred to her. Yet these were hardly normal circumstances, and she quickly became intrigued. After all it seemed possible, especially with all the working out with weights she’d been doing over the last six months with Beau’s encouragement.
Besides, Cassy thought, what if she missed? Her present prospects were dismal. Dashing herself against the balustrade didn’t seem much worse and might do more than injure.
Climbing up on the windowsill, Cassy pushed the sash up to its full height to create an opening about five feet square. From that position the ground looked dramatically farther away.
She closed her eyes. Her heart was pounding, and she was breathing rapidly. Her courage vacillated. She recalled going to a circus as a child and seeing the trapeze artists and thinking she could never do anything like that. But then she thought of Eugene and Jesse and what Beau was becoming. She thought of the horror of losing her identity.
With sudden resolve, Cassy opened her eyes and leapt out into the air.
It seemed forever before she made contact. Perhaps drawing on some arboreal instincts she didn’t realize she possessed, Cassy had judged the distance perfectly. Her hands made proper contact with the branch, and she grabbed on. Now the question became whether she could hold on as her legs swung beneath her.
There were a few moments of terror before her swinging came to a halt. She’d done it! But it wasn’t over. She was still twenty feet off the ground, although now she was suspended over lawn, not flagstone.
Swinging her legs to help her, Cassy moved along the branch until she came to a point where she could get her right foot on a lower branch. From there it was relatively easy to work her way down the tree and eventually jump onto the grass.
The moment her feet touched the ground, Cassy was up and walking. She resisted the temptation to run out across the expansive lawn, knowing full well that it would only draw attention to herself. Instead she forced herself to assume a leisurely pace after climbing over the low balustrade. She followed the walkway to the front of the house.
Mimicking the smiles, the blank staring into the middle distance, and the relaxed walk, Cassy melded into the crowd of infected people heading out the driveway. Her heart was in her throat and she was terrified, but it worked. No one paid her any attention. The hardest part was forcing herself not to look around her, especially not at the dogs.
“HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE WE ARE GOING?” PITT ASKED. They had traveled miles on a track that in places was barely discernable from the desert itself.
“We’re almost there,” Harlan said.
“Oh, please!” Sheila said impatiently. “We’re in the middle of the damned desert. Without the paved road this is more Godforsaken than the area around that deserted gas station. Is this some kind of joke?”
“No joke,” Harlan said. “Be patient! I’m giving you all a chance to help save the human race.”
Sheila glanced over at Pitt, but his attention was glued to the track. Sheila sighed loudly. Just when she’d started feeling good about Harlan, it was becoming apparent he was taking them on a wild-goose chase. There was no lab out there in the desert. The whole situation was absurd.
“Okay,” Harlan said. “Stop up there next to that flowering cactus.”
Pitt did as he was told. He pulled on the brake and cut the engine.
“All right,” Harlan said. “Everybody out,” He opened the slider and stepped out onto the sand. Jonathan followed at his heels.
“Come on,” Harlan encouraged the others.
Sheila and Pitt rolled their eyes for each other’s benefit. They were parked in the middle of the desert. Except for a few scattered boulders, a handful of cacti, and some low rolling sand hills, there was nothing around them.
Harlan had walked about twenty feet away before turning back. He was surprised no one was following him. Jonathan had gotten out of the van, but since the others hadn’t, he’d hesitated.
“For chrissake!” Harlan complained. “What d’ya need, a special invitation?”
Sheila sighed and alighted from the vehicle. Pitt followed suit. Then all three trudged after Harlan, who was striking out into nowhere land.
Sheila wiped her brow. “I don’t know what to make of this,” she whispered. “One minute this guy seems like a godsend, the next like a crackpot. And on top of that it’s hotter than Hades.”
Harlan stopped and waited for the others to catch up to him. He pointed down to the ground and said: “Welcome to the Washburn-Kraft Biological Warfare Reaction Laboratory.”
Before anyone could respond to this preposterous statement, Harlan bent down and grasped a camouflaged ring. He pulled up and a circular portion of the desert floor lifted up. Beneath was a round opening lined with stainless steel. Just the tip of a ladder was visible.
Harlan made a sweeping gesture with his hand. “This whole area around here all the way to within a few miles of Paswell is honeycombed with underground facilities. It was supposed to be a big secret, but the Native Americans knew about it.”
“It’s an operational lab?” Sheila questioned. This indeed was too good to be true.
“It had been mothballed in kind of suspended animation,” Harlan said. “It was built back at the height of the cold war but then deemed superfluous when the threat of germ warfare coming to the USA diminished. Except for a few bureaucrats who kept the thing stocked, it was pretty much forgotten about; at least that’s my take on the situation. Anyway, after all this trouble started, I got into it and cranked it up to speed. So to answer your question: yes, it is an operational lab.”
“And this is the entrance?” Sheila questioned. She leaned out over the rim of the opening and looked down. There were lights below. The ladder went straight down about thirty feet.
“No, this is an emergency exit plus an air vent,” Harlan said. “The real entrance is closer to Paswell, but I’m afraid to use that lest I be seen by
some of my former patients.”
“Can we go inside?” Sheila asked.
“Hey, that’s what we’re here for,” Harlan said. “But before a tour I want to cover the van with a camouflage tarp.”
They all climbed down the ladder to a white, high-tech corridor illuminated by banks of fluorescent lights. From a storage locker at the base of the ladder, Harlan got out the tarp he’d mentioned. Pitt returned topside with Harlan to give him a hand.
“Pretty cool,” Jonathan said to Sheila while they waited. The corridor seemed to stretch off in either direction to infinity.
“Better than cool,” Sheila said. “It’s a godsend. And to think it was built to help thwart a germ-warfare attack by the Russians and instead is to be used to do the same thing for aliens is truly ironic.”
When Harlan and Pitt returned back down, Harlan led them off in what he said was a northerly direction.
“It will take you a while to orient yourselves,” he said. “Until then I recommend you stick together.”
“Where are the people that kept this place up?” Sheila asked.
“They came in shifts like the guys that used to man the underground missile silos,” Harlan said. “But after they got infected, I guess they either forgot about it or went off someplace. The talk in Paswell was that a lot of people were going to Santa Fe for some reason. Anyway they’re not around, and by now I don’t expect them.”
They came to an air lock. Harlan opened it and had everybody climb into a chamber. Inside the chamber were showers and blue jump suits. Harlan closed the door, then twisted some dials. Air was heard entering the lock.
“This was to make sure none of the biological warfare agents got into the lab except in biohazard containers,” Harlan said. “Obviously that’s not our worry now.”
“Where does the power come from?” Sheila asked.
“Nuclear,” Harlan said. “It’s kinda like a nuclear submarine. The whole place is independent of what’s going on topside.”
Everybody had to clear their ears as the pressure built up. When it was equalized with the interior of the lab, Harlan opened the inner door.
Sheila was flabbergasted. She’d never seen such a laboratory in her entire life. It was a series of three large rooms with walk-in incubators and freezers. Adding to her astonishment was the fact that all the equipment was state-of-the-art.