The size of the rabbit hole Ash had fallen into was cavernous. If he were to believe they had a man on the inside, it would mean he had to accept the idea that what had been done to his family and his neighbors was perpetrated by this Dr. Karp, an Army employee, and that all the families had been moved to Barker Flats specifically for the purpose of testing this virus. It was ridiculous. Completely unbelievable. Yet, if he didn’t believe there was a man on the inside, then how did they get him out?
Finally, he said, “If you did have someone there, how did he let this happen? How could he stand by and watch all those people die? My family? Our neighbors?”
“He wasn’t aware there was going to be a live test until it was too late,” Matt said. “But don’t read too much into that. Even if he had known, he couldn’t have done anything anyway. He would have been killed, and stopped nothing. At least this way he was able to get you out before he died.”
“Died?” Ash said, surprised. Then he remembered. “The guy who stayed behind so we could get away. The one who got caught in the explosion — he was your inside man.”
“Yes. But the explosion didn’t get him. He fled before it was set off, so he could get us one last report. Only…” Matt paused. “He said he was sick, and that he didn’t have long. The phone he called from was thirty miles from…from Sage Springs.”
Ash’s eyes widened. “The outbreak. He’s responsible?”
“It would seem so.”
“Then I must be contagious,” Ash said. “How else could he have gotten infected?”
Billy shifted in his chair. “Your immunity was of great interest to those running the test. The entire time you were in that cell, they were bombarding you with the virus, trying to see if it could break through your system.”
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely. Our man reported that when the power came back on in the building, the system spraying the virus into your cell started up again, and the bug leaked into the main corridor.”
Ash finally sat back down, the weight of everything too much.
“Under the circumstances,” Matt said, “I think we’re going to have to insist you stay.”
“You mean you will stop me.”
“No. But we won’t help you either. And we’re a long way from anywhere out here.”
Rachel took her seat beside Ash, shifting her body so they were facing each other. “You’re a fugitive now, Captain, and the whole country knows it. Within twenty-four hours, they will finger you as one of those responsible. I guarantee it. You won’t be able to go anywhere without someone recognizing you. You won’t be able to talk to anyone. Here, you’re safe.”
“I don’t care about my safety. I only care about making those who did this to my family pay.”
“That’s a goal we would be more than happy to help you achieve,” she said. “But you can’t just blunder off and think you’ll be able to deal with this on your own. Information is power, and at the moment, there’s a lot going on that you don’t understand.”
He was quiet for a moment. “You’ll help me understand?”
“We’ll give you what you need,” she said.
He looked at the others, and they all nodded.
“Okay. I’ll stay for now. But the minute you deny me anything I think I need to know, I’m gone.”
“Fair enough,” she said.
“Then let’s get started,” he said.
Rachel exchanged a look with Matt, then focused once more on Ash. “The first thing you need to know is about your children.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “What about them?”
“They’re alive.”
18
Tamara Costello was getting frustrated. The only new information she’d been able to find was that a food truck would be serving lunch about a mile back along the highway. Not very broadcast-worthy stuff.
Without anything new, her network, and all the other twenty-four-hour news channels, would just keep playing the same crap over and over, eventually venturing into areas of wild conjecture. It’s what always happened, and even though she was a part of the system, she hated that. This was supposed to be the age of information, not recycled garbage.
That’s why, after she completed her update with the brain-dead Catherine Minor at 11:10 a.m., she found a quiet spot and called her brother in San Francisco.
“Look at you getting all that air time,” he said as soon as he answered.
She couldn’t help but smile. “You’ve been watching?”
“Riveted. So, really, how bad is it?”
“No way to know for sure. They’ve got the whole town blocked off. I’ve tried to call people who live there, but all I get are busy signals. Even the cell towers are down. Thank God for my sat phone.” The network gave all its field reporters satellite phones in case they found themselves in areas that weren’t covered by mobile phone companies despite those fancy maps they were always bragging about.
“The whole town? Man, it must be bad. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it.”
She snickered and shook her head. “What are you? Ten?”
“Seriously, Tam. Think about it. Something so small you can’t even see can kill you just like that.”
She thought she heard his fingers snap. “Look, Gavin,” she said, trying to get back on track. “I was wondering if you could do a little research for me.”
“Ha! I knew that’s why you called. You want to know more about the flu? The town? Give me five minutes and I can pull together enough info to fill up an entire hour.”
While Tamara had chosen a life in the spotlight, Gavin preferred one that was more private, and spent most of his time in his apartment doing freelance software programming.
“No. The network can find that stuff out on its own. I’m interested in this Daniel Ash guy.”
“The man the CDC’s looking for?”
“Yeah. Who is he? Why is he important? Where are some of the places he’d go? If you can actually find him, I’ll owe you big for the rest of the year. An exclusive interview would be incredible.”
“From a distance, though.”
“What?”
“From a distance. I mean, if he’s infected, you don’t want to get anywhere near him.”
“Right. From a distance.” She paused. “Think you can dig up a phone number?”
“If he’s got one, I’ll find it,” Gavin said.
“And anything else you can learn?”
“Sure, sis. I’m waiting to hear back from a client, so I’ve got some time.”
“Thanks, Gavin. You’re my secret weapon.”
Gavin Costello hung up with his sister then sat back down at his desk. Most of his non-computer geek friends were surprised by his setup. They expected multiple monitors, couple of high-end tower computers, and peripheral hard drives and gadgets stacked to the ceiling. What he really had was a 13-inch PC laptop and a backup hard drive that ran automatically in the background over his Wi-Fi network. This gave him mobility on those rare occasions he worked away from his apartment.
Deciding to go the easy route first, he pulled up his current favorite search engine and typed in the name Daniel Ash. Not surprisingly, there was more than one. From the picture he’d seen on TV, the Ash his sister was looking for couldn’t have been more than thirty-four or thirty-five, so that helped eliminate several of the possibilities. Then he tried to see if any of the remaining had a California connection. Two did, but the picture on the Facebook page that one of the links led to was definitely not the guy. The other lived clear up in Eureka and appeared to own a plumbing business. What would he be doing in the middle of the desert involved in a flu outbreak?
Gavin heard his sister’s voice from his TV. The screen was placed so that all he had to do was swivel his chair around to see it. It looked like she’d moved to the opposite side of the highway, but what she was saying was pretty much the same thing she’d been saying most of the morning. Still, it always gave him a kick to see her work.