David couldn't help but wonder if feelings for the dead researcher might have been the real reason. The two of them, he heard, went to school together and worked on this project and others during the summer. If there was a romance going on between them, they'd kept everything professional in front of the children. But romance or no romance, Philip's death must be a difficult blow for her.
"I wish I'd paid closer attention to everything on TV about this disease before we came on this trip," Craig said. "I don't remember hearing anything about incubation times when they reported finding those five bodies in Arizona. Did they all die at the same time?"
Maybe it was because of what he'd gone through with Josh, but David had no fear about what was going to happen to him today, so long as Josh didn't get it. That's all he cared about. He shook his head at his new friend. "I don't really remember anything specific about that, either."
Josh took a picture of them from near the stairs. David zipped up the suit and made a face at his son. It was fine with him that their boys had decided to stay on deck, as long as they didn't come close to them. No one knew what place was safe or how Philip had contracted this thing. There was nothing saying that something he'd touched or eaten downstairs wasn't responsible for it. At the same time, he'd gone diving at an ocean disposal site. The most likely scenario was that something down there had caused the immediate infection. But Kirk hadn't been affected by it.
Josh took another picture, and David thought the cameras were a great distraction for all of them.
Sharon, the RN, was communicating with the rescue vessels surrounding the Harmony. David thought the young mother had done an excellent job of regaining her composure after the initial discovery. She'd been clear in telling all of them what they had to do. She walked toward them now.
"This is how they want to evacuate everyone," she began, motioning Rene to come closer, too.
The young grad student wiped her face and came over. She had already changed into her space suit.
"The smaller coast guard boat will approach and the children will go off first. Then the parents and crew… with the exception of us. They'll take the other parents and crew to the cutter. The coast guard boat will come back for us, but they won't transport us to the cutter. On one of the Department of the Interior boats, there is a special group that will board the vessel to see Philip. I think they're going to use one of the choppers to airlift him out. Less chance of spreading contamination."
All of them glanced in the direction of the dead researcher. The tarp had been a good choice. David didn't want to know how bad the scientist's wounds were getting. He'd heard something about an incredibly quick rate of decomposition.
And to think how skeptical he'd been of everything they'd heard on the news. He'd blamed media of making too much out of it. What a fool, he thought.
"Okay, I guess they're getting started," Sharon told them.
The designated boat was approaching the Harmony.
"Josh and Dan, why don't you tell everyone downstairs to come up," Sharon called to the two boys.
"Do we know where they're going to take them?" David asked, suddenly realizing he was about to be separated from his son. "I want to be sure they contact my wife right away."
"I'm sure they'll contact everyone," Sharon told him.
David had to remind himself that he wasn't the only parent there.
The teenagers, the parents and the crew all came up. The boat approached and the two vessels lined up side by side. The transfer began very smoothly. David saw Josh working his way toward them. A couple of the coast guard personnel blocked his path.
"I need to tell my dad something," he told them.
David took a step closer. "What is it?" he asked.
"Philip had strep, Dad. His Strep-Tester was blue. I saw it. He tested positive."
David tried to make some sense of the significance of Josh's news. Josh thought he had what Philip had. So did this mean that Josh thought he had strep, too? Or something worse?
No. Josh was obviously fine.
"They'll take care of you when you get ashore," he called out. "If your mom is not waiting for you, make sure you call her right away "
David frowned, watching his son move toward the line of kids transferring onto the other vessel.
So what if Philip had strep? He obviously had something worse. And if Josh had strep, he'd survive it.
Yes, he'd survive it.
"You'll be fine," he murmured as Josh waved to him.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ashraf Banaz and her colleague shared a newly repaired five-room house in an old neighborhood of Halabja. Clara Hearne was a physician at San Francisco General Hospital. She was in her thirties and eager to tell another American about everything she was involved in here.
Austyn had already heard about the collaboration between the American and Kurdish doctors from Fahimah. As the young physician repeated some of what he already knew, he found his mind drifting back to the moment when Fahimah and her cousin met earlier.
There had been laughter, tears, a million questions, while neither would stay quiet long enough to give the other one a chance to answer. Then the two of them had escaped to one of the rooms off the living room where Clara and Austyn were sitting. There had to be so much the two wanted to catch up on.
"Would you like another beer?" she asked.
Austyn looked down at the half-full bottle in his hand and shook his head. "No, thanks. I'm fine."
Clara had told him before that strict Islamic laws were enforced in Halabja, but only in public. People did what they wanted in their homes. He was also told that the two women bought the beer in Ankawa, a Christian town near Erbil.
"Where was I?" she asked.
Austyn couldn't remember, but he figured Dr. Hearne was the type that never forgot anything. He was right.
"Oh, yes, I was telling you… this work in Halabja is showing me one of the basic differences between American and Kurdish doctors. In New York City, research is a foundational feature of medical education. In the aftermath of September 11, doctors enrolled 60,000 patients from the city in prospective trials. Everything that happens to them is being recorded, and additional data will be collected on them as they age." She took a sip of her own beer. "In Kurdistan, there is no such research infrastructure. Medical education is antiquated. Skill sets like research that are considered an essential part of modern medical education have not yet entered the curriculum at the universities here. The result is a group of intelligent, clinically skilled doctors who are ill-equipped to collect data and publish their findings about the patient population."
He didn't entirely agree with this, as both Fahimah and Rahaf had published. But he remembered she was talking about the medical profession in this little corner of Iraq. Considering what these people had gone through, compared with the environment Clara was most likely from… well, there was no comparison. Austyn told himself that he didn't have to get defensive. He took a long swig from the bottle, amused by his own reaction.
Austyn decided to change the subject. "So, Clare… I'm curious. You two don't mind living in this house when two-thirds of the houses on the street are in ruins?"
"Not at all." Clare shook her head adamantly. "The manager at the hospital didn't want me to stay in Halabja. He claimed he couldn't guarantee the safety of an American woman. He wanted me to stay at Sulaimaniyah, where there are hot showers and clean drinking water. He said he'd have me be escorted here a couple of days a week to check on the data the nurses are collecting. But I said, no way."