Chapter Thirty-Five

Eli tried to ignore the fact that he was at thirty thousand feet in a tin box.

Again.

He was seated, still strapped into his seat belt, with his laptop on his knee. He opened the new message, his heart sinking as he read it. It was from his assistant with the news that the last lot of test results had come in and had given them absolutely nothing new.

Shit.

They needed a break.

He had a sense that he was missing some vital piece of information. There was something off about this outbreak. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was. The whole thing just felt more than a little…unnatural.

He suspected human intervention, but despite the tie-in with Operation Snowcap, he really didn’t think it was any sort of attack—the time and the place were just not right. So that left an accident. Like a plane crash. A plane maybe carrying vials of a man-made virus. That would explain why it was on the military database. But not why it had shown up in Mexico ten years later.

They’d spoken to Shelly after her meeting with the president. She’d said there was an element of skepticism from certain parties—and he could probably accurately guess who that had been—but they had agreed to implement an immediate state of martial law. Eli didn’t believe that would stop the spread, but it might give them a little more time. He was glad he’d gotten Amber out of the city. Once martial law was implemented, it was doubtful she would have been allowed to leave.

Military members were being issued with protective gear, as were other categories deemed “important”—medical staff, people who ran the power and communication systems, presumably the president and his close advisers. Adam had devised most of the strategy aiming to minimize panic and spread, to keep the country’s infrastructure functioning as long as possible.

Of course, there wasn’t enough protective gear to go around, but all manufacturing sites able to produce anything at all suitable were being pulled into production. It was too little, too late. These things should have been stockpiled and ready to go. WHO had been warning of the possibility of a global pandemic for years and very little had been done.

Now it was upon them.

If he’d been a believer, he would have presumed it was some sort of punishment, a divine apocalypse. The human race had certainly done enough to deserve it.

He was trying not to think about Henry. Because he couldn’t help. He couldn’t even take the time off to spend with his old mentor.

Henry had no doubt believed he could stave off death. Eli was aware he’d been investing heavily in antiaging research. Had he thought he could buy immortality? The sad thing was that in a few years, maybe he would have been able to. Much of the antiaging research was at the same standstill as his own. Developing a method of getting new genetic material into adults was tricky and ethically challenging. Now there was a good chance all the scientists would be dead soon.

He called Amber to get his mind away from the subject.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Hey, sweetheart.”

She was silent for a moment. “You’re going all sappy on me. That must mean things are very bad.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “No worse than they were. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m communing with nature.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Actually, it’s not too bad. When will I see you?”

“I don’t know. I’m following a lead right now.”

She snorted. “You sound more like a detective than a doctor. Where are you?”

He saw no reason not to tell her. “I’m on a plane heading for Alaska.”

“You hate flying.”

“I have Riley here to hold my hand.” He glanced across to where she lay bundled up on the floor in a sleeping bag she had found stashed in one of the lockers. Her eyes were closed, and she was deep asleep. He could tell by the even rise and fall of the bag. He wished he could sleep, but he had too much to do. He was setting up a coordination system among the various groups working on the virus, ensuring all the results were going into a database where they could be accessed by all and cross-referenced. That way they shouldn’t miss anything.

“I’m glad. I like her.”

He liked her, too. But in some ways, he wished they hadn’t slept together, that they had kept the relationship a little more…distant. Because he didn’t see how it could end well. One way or another, he was going to lose her. That only made it harder.

“Have you seen anyone else nearby?” he asked.

“Not a soul. Though I did see some smoke last night, so there are people around.”

“Well, stay away from them.”

“I will.”

“Good. I’ll try and head up there as soon as I get back. Oh, and martial law is being implemented, so I’d stay away from the main roads or you might get picked up.” She was silent for a moment. “Amber?”

“This is real, isn’t it?”

“As real as it gets, sweetheart.”

She sniffled. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you, too. Now, I have to go. I’ll talk to you when I can.”

He ended the call. As soon as he got something positive on the antiretrovirals, he’d get them to her. Just in case. So far they were proving ineffective, and he suspected the viral loads were too high. They needed to test on patients who were not yet showing symptoms before the levels rose. He sent a message to Shelly, asking if she could set it up.

Riley showed no signs of life. He thought about crawling into the sleeping bag with her and just trying to forget everything for a while, but she needed her sleep. He imagined she was exhausted and was taking the chance to switch off and catch up. There was no one else on the flight. Well, except for the pilots. At least he presumed there were pilots on board—he hadn’t actually seen them, but someone was flying the plane. He hoped.

Suddenly restless, he put his laptop on the chair beside him, unfastened his seat belt, and pushed himself to his feet. He stepped across the cabin and peered out the window. There was little to see. Beneath them was a dense mass of gray clouds—it looked thick enough to catch them if they fell.

Riley had picked up a couple of flasks of coffee and some sandwiches before they’d boarded. She said she’d been on these flights before—it was a plane intended for cargo rather than passengers, and if he was expecting any sort of service, he was going to be sorely disappointed. He poured himself a cup of coffee, took a sip—it was surprisingly good—and sat on the chair closest to her, legs stretched out.

They needed a plan. What to do when they arrived. Riley had already organized the onward transport. The actual crash site was about sixty miles from the closest airport and twenty miles from the nearest small town. Ferndale, with a population of less than a thousand.

He finished his coffee and got up for more. When he sat back down, Riley was awake, lying on her side and watching him.

“Hi there,” he said. “I was just working on a plan.”

She smiled. “The how-to-save-the-world plan?”

“That’s the one.”

She pushed herself up so she was sitting, pulled the band from her hair, ran her fingers through it, and tied it back up. Then she shoved the sleeping bag away and stood, stretching her arms over her head and bending from the waist. The movement pulled her white T-shirt taut against her breasts and exposed a little strip of tanned skin at her waist.

Maybe they should think about joining the mile high club. After all, they were alone—well, nearly alone… His gaze shifted to the door that led to the cockpit. Could they lock it? Probably not a good idea.

“What are you smiling at?” she asked.

“I was just considering joining the mile high club.”

She raised a brow, but her eyes narrowed as if thinking about the idea. “I thought you said we should back off for now. Not get in any deeper?”

“Hey, I was only fantasizing.” He glanced at the window. “Anyway, I’d hate to be indisposed if the plane decided to crash.”

“Planes don’t decide stuff, Eli.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I doubt we have time, even for a quickie. We’re going down.” Alarm must have flashed across his face, because she sniggered. “Not crashing. Just landing.”

“Oh. Good.”

She shook her head, then bent over and pulled on her boots. “I need to…” She waved her hand at the small bathroom at the rear of the cabin, and he watched her walk away. She was about the most self-assured woman he had ever met. He’d never seen her wear makeup or high heels. She didn’t carry a purse. He liked her. Maybe more than liked her, and this was the worst time to think of that.

He could hear the water running, and he got up and poured her a coffee, handed it to her as she came out of the bathroom, and she smiled her thanks.

“Any news?” she asked, sitting in the seat next to his laptop.

He could feel the angle of the plane now, and he tried to ignore the churning in his stomach. Picking up his laptop, he sat down and fastened his seat belt. “Nothing of any use. I did talk to Amber, and she’s fine. “

“Good.”

“And the joint database is set up. At least we can hack into what everyone else is doing. Coordinate results.”

“Time for you scientist people to earn your keep. Did you get any sleep?”

“Are you crazy? This far above the ground? Never going to happen.”

Her phone dinged, and she pulled it out of her pocket and read the screen. “Our guide is ready. He’s meeting us when the plane lands, so that’s one less thing to worry about. At least we might actually get to where we’re going.”

“Who is he?”

“A local. Lives in Ferndale. We might get some information out of him.”

“Yeah, like he saw someone walk away from the plane crash ten years ago, and he just happened to get their name and telephone number. That would be good.” He blew out a breath, trying to banish the sensation of defeat before they’d even started.

“There’s something here,” she said. “Some connection. Webber is working on it from the other end; maybe he’ll come up with an answer. In the meantime, we can’t ignore this. It’s where it all started.”

“Is it?” He shrugged. “Maybe the plane was carrying the virus. That doesn’t mean it was the only stuff out there. There could be a lab somewhere that we know nothing about hidden under so many layers of red tape that we might never find the location. Or even whether it exists.”

“Surely now that the president is involved, he’ll cut through the red tape.”

“Maybe. It depends how much someone wants it hidden. By the time they realize that this is it, it will be too late.”

She gave him a look. “You’re being a little pessimistic today.”

“Yeah. Sorry. This thing with Henry is playing on my mind. It all seems a little…futile.” He wiped his palms down his pants leg, straightened his shoulders. “Okay. So we go out there, we see what we can find, we interview anyone around who was involved in any way. We find the little bottle of antidote that’s been sitting in some sort of storage unit for the last ten years, and hey presto, we’re there. Everybody lives another day. Or obviously not everybody, but most of them.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

At that moment, the plane touched down, and his hands gripped the armrests. He closed his eyes and held on tight until they taxied to a standstill. Then he opened his eyes and turned his head. Riley was smiling, as if his anxiousness amused her. Somehow, he didn’t care. He was alive and he was on solid ground once more.