“That’s very dangerous. They could get—”
“They are very careful. They know what they are doing.”
Maybe, maybe not, but there wasn’t much Leon could do to help them at the moment. “What made Sanjay think they were lying?”
“The UN people are using the same location as the company that spread the disease through our city,” she began.
When she finished telling him about Pishon Chem and the “miracle mosquito spray” Sanjay and others had been hired to douse the city with, Leon realized that maybe the vaccine Jabala’s brother-in-law had given everyone was the real thing after all.
“I definitely need to talk to Sanjay as soon as he comes back.”
“I could send someone to bring him back.”
“No!” he said quickly. “You shouldn’t send anyone else to the city. It’s too dangerous. The most important thing you can do right now is to stay alive, and that means you and your people should stay where you are. Do you understand?”
“Of course. Staying alive is what we are doing already.”
“We’re happy to count you among our new friends, Jabala. We can definitely help each other.” Leon gave her a number that would connect her directly to the comm center. “Call that number anytime you want to talk to us. Someone will always be here to answer. And I’ll definitely check back with you later.”
“Okay. Thank you, Leon. It is good to have you as a new friend, too. Good-bye.”
“Good-bye, Jabala.”
Leon disconnected the call. After staring at his keyboard for a second, he looked over at Crystal, eyes wide.
“What?” she asked.
Jeeval whimpered, wanting to be lifted up, as Jabala set down the satellite phone.
“You are fine where you are,” Jabala said. She wasn’t as fond of the dog as her sister was, but while Kusum was away, Jeeval had become her responsibility.
“Well?” Naresh asked. He had been the one who’d figured out how to work the shortwave radio, and had taken to broadcasting a few times a day the number of the satellite phone Sanjay had found in a building the next town over.
“The man said the same thing Sanjay told us, that the UN is not the UN,” she said.
“Sanjay did not tell us that. He said maybe not.”
“Well, the man on the phone did not say maybe, so I think Sanjay’s instincts were correct.”
“Based on a conversation with someone you have never met,” Naresh pointed out.
“I feel that he spoke the truth. You do not believe him?”
“I could not hear what he said, but if this is what he told you…” Naresh paused, and shrugged. “I believe him, too.”
“Then why did you fight me?”
“I did not fight you. I merely pointed out something that needed to be taken into consideration.”
Grunting in annoyance, Jabala looked away.
While she had been concerned when Kusum, Sanjay, and the others had left, she was extremely worried now. What if they ran into trouble with these people claiming to be with the UN? What if they needed help?
What if they needed help right now?
Ap, ap, ap, Jeeval barked, pawing at Jabala’s leg.
“Jeeval, not now!”
She pushed the dog away harder than she meant to, sending Jeeval tumbling backward into Naresh’s chair. Jeeval yelped as she scrambled back to her feet.
Jabala immediately knelt down and stroked the dog’s head. “I am sorry. Are you okay?”
A whimper, followed by ap, ap.
She picked up the dog. “Good dog,” she said. With her free hand, she picked up the satellite phone and looked at Naresh. “How does this work?”
“A signal comes down, and—”
“No. That is not what I meant. Does this have to stay in one place, or can it move around like a mobile phone?”
“Of course it can move around. Do you see any wires?”
“Why are you being difficult? Does it have other equipment that needs to travel with it, or is this it?”
“What other equipment would it need?”
She bit back her frustration. “I will assume that the answer is no.”
“Well, it does have a charger,” he said. “The battery does not last forever.”
“And where is that?”
13
“My Dad was right,” Rick said, his eyes narrowed to slits. “All you want to do is take what’s ours.”
The teenager was sitting on the bed of the motel room he and Ginny had been put in after the previous evening’s events. Matt was surprised they hadn’t tried to get away. Of course, if they had, they would have found one of Matt’s men stationed outside.
“All we want to do,” Matt said, “is get out of town. But the only way that’s going to happen is if we clear the roads.”
“So you’re going to just take one of our snowplows.” It was amazing how little the kid’s lips moved as he spoke.
“Two of your plows,” Matt corrected him. “And one of your cargo trucks to haul gas in.”
Rick’s uninjured hand unconsciously rolled into a fist. “They don’t belong to you.”
“That’s why I’m asking.”
“And if I say no?”
“That would be disappointing.”
“You’ll still take them, won’t you?”
Matt stared at him, his expression neutral. “Rick, do you realize what’s going on?”
“I know you’re going to steal our stuff.”
“I mean, the bigger picture?”
Rick glared at Matt for a moment before looking over at his cousin by the window.
“I asked a question,” Matt said.
“Lot of crazy things going on.”
“That’s one way to put it.” Matt adjusted his position on the end of the bed. “The human race is dying. There’s not a lot of people left. If we’re all going to survive, we’re going to need to work together. So, yes, we will take those vehicles, but they will still technically be yours because the two of you are coming with us.”
“Like hell we are,” Rick said.
Matt leaned back. “So you’d rather stay here? What happens when you run out of food? Or don’t have anything left to burn to stay warm? Maybe you make it through this winter, but what about the next? Any prepackaged food you’ll find will have gone bad by then. You’ll have to spend your entire summer growing food for when things get cold again. Do you know how to farm? Do you know how to store food so it will last the winter? Do you really want to bet your cousin’s life on that?”
“We can take care of ourselves!”
“Can you?” Matt looked down at Rick’s bandaged hand. “You’re lucky we have medical personnel with us to take care of that. What happens when you’re out in the field, using a piece of equipment you’ve never used before, and you slice open your leg? Or what if you get sick? I’m not talking Sage Flu. Out here, by yourself, pretty much anything could kill you.”
Silence.
“Rick,” Ginny said. “I think we should go with them.”
“Shut up,” Rick told her.
“I don’t want to die,” she went on. “He’s right. We will if we stay.”
“I said, be quiet!”
She took a couple steps toward the bed. “What if no one else comes by? This might be our only chance to get away.”
“We’ll be fine on our own!”
Ginny bit her lip, clearly not agreeing with him, but Matt could see the will to argue with her cousin — someone she’d been putting all her faith in up to this point — draining away.
“You won’t be fine,” Matt said. “Ginny knows it, and you do, too.” He stood up. “But I’ll tell you what. If you want to stay, you can stay.”