Mitch stood under the blue-black sky for a few minutes, wondering how many wish-thinks he had left in him before he lost it completely. Another door closing.
He could head north. Drop off and visit Stella along the way—if they let him. You could never find out in advance.
He called Eileen's number.
8
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Gianelli entered at the back of the chamber, carrying a stack of papers. Thomasen looked up. Augustine glanced over his shoulder. The last senator on the committee was followed by a Secret Service agent, who took a position with another agent by the door, and then by a small, intense-looking woman. Augustine recognized Laura Bloch. She was the main reason Gianelli was a senator, and she was a formidable political mind.
Augustine had also heard that Bloch was a bit of a spymaster.
“Glad you could make it, Dick,” Chase called out across the chamber. “We were worried.”
Gianelli smiled foxily. “Allergies,” he said.
Kaye Lang Rafelson entered after Bloch. Her presence surprised Augustine. He recognized a setup and suspected that the current director of EMAC would regret not arriving on time.
Kaye moved up to the witness table. A chair and microphone awaited her. She was introduced to the committee, all of whom knew her by name and reputation.
Senator Percy looked disconcerted. He, too, could smell a setup. “Dr. Rafelson is not on our list, Dick,” he said as Bloch helped Gianelli settle himself at the dais.
“She brings important news,” Gianelli said brusquely.
Kaye was sworn in. Not once did she look at Augustine, though he sat fewer than five feet away.
Senator Thomasen stifled a yawn. She seemed perfectly happy to take her cues from Gianelli. There was some procedural wrangling, more interruptions by Percy and counterarguments by Chase, and finally Percy held up his hands and let her testimony proceed. He was clearly unhappy that the director was still not present.
“You work at Americol, correct, Dr. Rafelson?” Thomasen said, reading from the witness sheet handed to her by Gianelli.
“Yes, Senator.”
“And what is your group doing?”
“We're studying ERV knockout techniques in mice and chimpanzees, Senator,” Kaye said.
“Bravo,” Senator Percy said. “A worthy effort, to rid the world of viruses.”
“We're working to understand the roles viruses play in our genome and in our everyday lives,” Kaye corrected. The distinction seemed lost on Percy.
“You also work with the Centers for Disease Control,” Thomasen continued. “Serving as a go-between for Marge Cross and Fern Ridpath, the director of SHEVA affairs at the CDC?”
“Occasionally, but Dr. Ridpath spends more time with our PI.”
“PI?”
“Principal Investigator.”
“And that is?”
“Dr. Robert Jackson,” Kaye said.
Thomasen looked up, as did the others, at the sound of the door at the back of the chamber opening once more. Rachel Browning marched down the aisle, wearing a black dress with a wide red belt. She glanced at Augustine, then looked over the senators on the dais with what she meant to be a puzzled smile. To Kaye, the smile appeared predatory. Two steps behind walked her counsel, a small, gray-haired woman in a beige cotton summer suit.
“You're late, Ms. Browning,” Senator Thomasen said.
“It was my understanding Dr. Browning was to be testifying alone to the committee, in closed session,” the counsel said, her voice commanding.
“The hearing isclosed,” Gianelli said with another sniff. “Senator Percy invited Dr. Augustine, and I invited Dr. Rafelson.”
Browning sat at the end of the table and smiled calmly as her counsel leaned over to set up a small laptop on the desk. The counsel then unfolded blinders, to prevent the computer display from being visible to either side, and took her seat on Browning's left.
“Dr. Rafelson was interrupted,” Senator Gianelli reminded the chair.
Thomasen smirked. “I'm not sure which tune we're supposed to be dancing to. Who's the fiddler?”
“You are, as always, Madam Chair,” Gianelli said.
“I sincerely doubt that,” Thomasen said. “All right, go ahead, Dr. Rafelson.”
Kaye did not like going up against the director of Emergency Action in this way, but she clearly had no choice. She was being squeezed between lines of scrimmage in a game far rougher than football.
“Yesterday evening, a meeting was held in Baltimore to discuss the results of a proprietary Americol health survey. You were present,” Gianelli said. “Tell us what's happening, Kaye.”
Browning's look was a warning.
Kaye ignored her. “We have conclusive evidence there have been new first-stage SHEVA deliveries, Senator,” she said. “Expulsion or abortion of interim daughters.”
A hush fell over the chamber. All the senators looked up and around, as if a strange bird had flown into the room.
“I beg your pardon?” Chase said.
“There will be new SHEVA births. We are now in our third wave.”
“Is there not a security protocol?” Percy asked, regarding his fellow senators on the committee with a look of astonishment. “This committee is not known for its discretion. I ask you to consider the political and social fallout—”
“Madam Chair,” the senator from Arizona demanded, exasperated.
“Dr. Rafelson, please explain,” Gianelli said, ignoring the ruckus.
“Blood samples from more than fifty thousand males in committed relationships are again producing SHEVA retroviruses. Current CDC estimates are that more than twenty thousand women will give birth to second-stage SHEVA infants over the next eight to twelve months in the United States. In the next three years, we may have as many as a hundred thousand SHEVA births.”
“My God,” Percy called out, “Will it never end?” His voice made the sound system ring.
“The big ball rolls again,” Gianelli said.
“Is this true, Ms. Browning?” Senator Percy demanded.
Browning drew herself up. “Thank you, Senator. Emergency Action is well aware of these cases, and we have prepared a special plan to counteract their effect. True, there have been miscarriages. Subsequent pregnancies have been reported. There is no proof that these children will have the same kind of virally induced mutations. In fact, the retrovirus being shed by males is not homologous to the SHEVA viruses we are familiar with. We may be witnessing a novel resurgence of the disease, with new complications.”
Senator Percy moved in. “This is awesome and awful news. Ms. Browning, don't you think it is high time that we free ourselves of these invaders?”
Browning arranged her papers. “I do, Senator Percy. A vaccine has been developed that confers substantial resistance to transmission of SHEVA and many other retroviruses.”
Kaye held onto the edge of the table to keep her hands from shaking. There was no new vaccine; she knew that for a fact. This was the purest scientific bullshit. But now was certainly not the time to call Browning to account. Let her spin her web.
“We expect to be able to stop this new viral phase in its tracks,” Browning continued. She slipped on granny reading glasses and read from notes on her data phone. “We are also recommending quarantine and GPS-chipping and tracking of all infected mothers, to prevent further outbreaks of Shiver. We hope to eventually get court permission to chip all SHEVA children.”
Kaye looked along the row of faces behind the dais, seeing only fear, and then turned to Browning again.
Browning held Kaye's gaze for a long moment, eyes square and forthright over the granny glasses. “Emergency Action has the authority, under Presidential Decision Directives 298 and 341, and the authority conferred by Congress in our original charter, to announce a full quarantine of all affected mothers. We are ordering separate house arrest for males shedding the new retrovirus, removing them from households where they may infect their partners. The bottom line is we do not want any more SHEVA-affected children to be born.”