When, to Quinn Martell’s alarm, a grainy head shot of Sophie filled the screen. Vice Admiral Reed tapped the table to get their attention and the men turned to look at the screen. “This is from CCTV on top of a mobile unit parked down the street from the hotel just before the airplane was used as a mobile bomb to attack the Four Points Hotel,” he informed the gathered personnel, the murmuring stopped as everyone in the room fell silent. The screens showed a poorly lit video of an aircraft trundling by. “If you look at the top right hand corner of the screen,” he froze the image. “You can see that the escape-hatch opens, the chute deploys, and the terrorists jump from the plane.” He moved the images on a few frames and Sophie’s face filled the screen.
Hamilton Parker over-rode the footage and his face replaced Sophie’s on their monitors, and was back to his cocky self. “Well, well, well, look who it is? Anything to say, Quinn?”
All eyes swiveled to the surgeon general. “I’m telling you—”
“I remember you telling us before—” cut in the President, he prowled the Oval Office, fully back in charge. “- That she wasn’t involved in releasing the virus at the hospital, that she wasn’t involved in the former President’s murder, and now, I suppose that she’s not involved in this atrocity? How gullible are you? Let us examine the facts, she was seen sneaking away from the island, the very hospital where this plague started—”
“We don’t yet know where it started,” Quinn Martell argued back.
Hamilton was on the attack, he held up his index finger to emphasize the point. “Yet, there she is right there in the thick of it, right at the very start. Next the former President is assassinated and who appears on his security cameras fleeing the scene in a stolen vehicle in her bid to escape?” He held up a second finger. “And now an audacious attack on our premier command post in the danger zone, driving an airplane into the building no less, and who appears on nearby CCTV cameras?” He held up a third finger.
Quinn was on the ropes but defended his protégé. “There will be an explanation, if—”
“I think we’ve all heard enough from you, Quinn. We’ve delayed action because of you and your procrastinating and it cost General Malloy his life. I’ve been discussing this with my advisors—”
“His advisors?” mouthed Vice Admiral Reed to Quinn Martell. “What advisors? Surely we’re his advisors?”
“We’re going to Defcon two—”
“Defcon two?” Queried Reed, “The country has only ever been at Defcon two once, that was during the Cuban missile crisis. We did not do that even after 9/11.”
“This terrorist threat is far worse—”
“It’s not terrorists, for Pete’s sake—”
“We estimate that five million people are already dead from the chemical attack. And if any of these carriers break through the blockade, it will run into hundreds of millions dead,” he paused and ran his fingers through his hair. “Now my advisors figure that the suspect identified as Doctor Sophia Garcia — foreign born I should add — is not working alone, but at the moment she is the only one we can identify for sure. She obviously has an antidote and is able to move freely amongst the carriers. So she, and more importantly her antidote, is the most essential element to the survival of the United States of America.”
“But,” started the Vice Admiral cautiously, “Hasn’t she escaped… again?”
“Yes. We figure she has a network of followers aiding her, but as we speak we have operatives on the ground infiltrating these groups and sending out the message that there is an extraordinary reward for anyone assisting with her capture — something irresistible.”
A murmur quickly started in the room, and the consensus was that this was an excellent plan. They all agreed — except Quinn. “Your plan is solid, Mister President, except for a couple of things,” he said. “The fact that she is NOT a terrorist, and has NOT developed this new strain of the Bubonic plague, therefore, and more importantly has NOT invented an antidote.”
He looked around the faces of the military personnel gathered around the large conference table but no one looked at all interested.
Hamilton Parker grinned. “Their silence speaks volumes, Quinn. I think we’ve all heard more than enough from you. Your function here as the Surgeon General was as an expert on communicable diseases… but your expertise has come up short, you have come up short. Your services are no longer required.”
“But I…” stammered Quinn in shock. “I have a wealth of—”
“Don’t embarrass yourself, Martell, you’re dismissed,” the President said firmly.
Quinn gazed around the table at the gathered men and woman of the armed forces, none of whom would even look him in the eye. He stood and gathered his belongings and left the room with as much dignity as he could muster.
Vice Admiral Reed cleared his throat. “We have also isolated this man, as another person of interest, he was seen at the hospital with Doctor Garcia, and we’ve taken this image from the same CCTV camera near the Four Points.” A grainy headshot of Luke filled the screens. “He’s been identified as Luke Spencer.”
CHAPTER 25
12:00 MIDDAY
The noonday sun scorched the street. Richie Carpenter could see a vapor haze trailing up from the pavement surface, making the building opposite shimmer like an oasis. He was on the corner of Sunrise and 48th Street, in Fort Lauderdale. The heat as intolerable as ever, had sapped his energy. He lit a cigarette and stayed in the shadows as a military truck zipped past him. He headed to a huddle of people hanging near the edge of a park. All had scarves covering their noses and mouths in a vain attempt to protect them from the virus.
Carpenter, flicked away the cigarette, pulled up his neckerchief, and waved to them in friendly greeting.
Jake, the surfer dude, spotted him and raised his hand slightly in welcome. “Hey, Dude, you clean?”
“I ain’t a darkie; I’m good, take a look.” He twirled as if on a fashion catwalk and lifted his shirt. He smiled knowing that he would pass their test, as he didn’t have buboes or darkening of the skin.
Jake ginned. “He’s clean, welcome to our gang.” The others eyed him nervously and nodded to him. “How did you find us?”
“I’ve been tailing you for a while, making sure you guys were clean. How come you ain’t gone to the refugee camp?” Carpenter asked.
“Don’t trust the government, if you get my drift.”
“I hear you loud and clear, partner.” They slapped hands in their newfound bond. “I thought I could be more use in a partisan gang, than on my own.”
“We ain’t no uprising,” said Winnie who had stuck with Jake after they’d escaped prior to the gas-attack at the stadium. “We just trying to survive and get out of this hell-hole.”
“I hear you, sister,” he said, noticing Winnie bristle at this remark. “So; you guys ain’t behind the attack on HQ?”
“HQ?” Winnie asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow.
Carpenter gulped and quickly covered his error. “The Four Points Hotel, has been turned into the military HQ for South Florida, I thought everybody knew? I’ve been watching and reconnoitering looking for a chink in their armor—”
“You a one-man resistance unit?” Winnie asked with a sneer in her voice.
“I’m trying to be. I assumed anyone not escaping or going to the refugee camps must be resistance fighters,” Carpenter replied.