Authors: Carla Lee Suson

Independence Day Plague (38 page)

Sherrie snuggled closer, her naked body fitting tightly along the curve of his bare back. Trying to move as little as possible, he retrieved the TV remote from the headboard and thumbed on the news, volume set to low.

The captioning flowed across the screen.
The Chinese Delegation leaves by noon today with no settlement reached. One American delegate said that an accord might be possible with continued future talks. Meanwhile, communications businesses are gearing up for a redistribution of satellite orbits and China continues to threaten to destroy any non-Chinese object passing over their airspace.

In other news, President Davison remains bedridden today after his collapse during the funeral of three-star general, Jefferson Talbot. The doctors for the President state that he seems to be in reasonable health, having only a small fever and headaches brought on by stress and the flu.

Sherrie took the remote from him and thumbed it off. He rolled over and she laid her head on his chest. The rain beat out a tinny cadence against the window.

He stroked her hair. “You okay? You’re shivering.”

She sighed, “I've been doing a lot of thinking about what if.”

“
What if what?”

“
What if the world tottered on the edge of oblivion? What if the Chinese and Talbot had the same idea? What if the talks didn’t go anywhere because they weren’t supposed to? The Chinese only needed an excuse to visit. I mean, here we are in this perfect moment together, listening to the world spin out of control. It's like stories from the 1950s with the nuclear bomb scare.”

“
Kind of a large leap, don’t you think?”

She rolled over, placing her hand and chin on his chest. Dorado, for the hundredth time, noted the deep blueness of her eyes. “Did you know that about half the delegates on both sides have come down sick?”

Dorado frowned, “No.”

“
CNN mentioned it in one of the newsfeeds yesterday. It’s why the talks ended. The feed described them as being treated for mild flu symptoms. The Chinese delegates toured a lot while here. Turns out, they visited four other cities on the way to DC. Most folks ignored that fact because the news focused primarily on the peace talks. It seems somewhat unusual for delegates to come for talks and spend a lot of time hitting the nightlife and doing museums. That’s rarely ever done, because the Chinese handlers usually don’t allow it.”

“
Show them a good time and it greases the way for agreement.”

“
Yes, that’s one theory. It also allows them to contact people all over the city.”

“
You’re saying that the Chinese came here to purposely infect people?”

“
I’m not sure what I’m saying.” She kissed his chest. “I know that in the first three cities they visited, hospitals report signs of a flu epidemic. It wasn’t a predicted flu so CDC is starting to investigate.”

"You're jumping to conclusions based on circumstantial evidence."

"Do you think I'm wrong?"

Dorado sighed, "Not necessarily."

"We may not know for sure until it's too late. What do you want to do about it?'

Dorado didn’t answer. The silence flowed quietly between them for a while until Sherrie shifted her body flat against the mattress. “I have four weeks of vacation built up. You have about six.” She said.

“
You changed the subject.”

“
Not really. You haven’t taken any time off in about three years.”

“
How do you know?”

“
I hacked your personnel files. Our system has only minimal security. It wasn’t hard.”

“
It’s not a great time to take a vacation.” He turned on his side and stroked her hair with one finger.

“
You’re a hero right now. The department will grant you anything you want. How do you feel about sail boats?”

“
Boats?”

“
Yeah, let’s rent a large boat out of Annapolis. We can stock it up with lots of supplies and then head out tomorrow.”

“
Okay, Sounds romantic but where do we go?”

“
An island, probably in the Caribbean. I'll have to do some research but we'll want some place small, not easily reachable by airplane. The place should have resources for food and fresh water.”

Dorado turned towards her. “What are you talking about?”

"A safe haven. I'd want a place where the Chinese haven't visited and we can camp out for a while."

"You're worried that the epidemic Mitchell predicted is coming."

She stared into his eyes, unblinking. “In four weeks, we’ll know one way or another. We'll need to sail for about a week to reach the Caribbean. We stay on an island and listen for reports for a while. The news will cover any reports put out by the CDC. If it sounds safe, then we head back after two weeks. That is three weeks going out and one week coming back, four weeks total. Otherwise we should consider other options.”

She laid her head back against his chest and more moments of silence passed between them. Dorado spoke again. “I want to tell my team. Quietly. Give them the same chance to survive.”

She shifted against them. “We can make the phone calls right away. We'll have them come here for lunch and bring their wives as well. I think we should stay out of public spaces as much as possible.”

He stroked her hair. “When do we leave?”

“
We’ll take today to arrange things. How's middle of tomorrow for you?”

THE END

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