“Okay then. If anyone asks, that’s my title. Chairman. Like a town council, not like Mao.” Daniel laughed, then put on his most earnest expression. “But here’s a serious subject. Very serious. We’ve just been drifting from crisis to crisis, doing what has to be done, but ignoring the main issues. So here’s the first one, and the biggest.”
He swept the room with his eyes. “I think we need to spread the Plague. Come what may.”
A babble broke out, then calmed down after a minute. Daniel held up his hand for quiet.
“Most of what I just heard was, ‘why now?’ I’ll tell you why. First, Jenkins isn’t going to forget I killed his son. He will hunt us down.”
“So why not just turn yourself in?” asked Roger.
Daniel smiled at his brazen lack of couth, and waved back the glares directed toward the man. “It’s a fair question. The main answer is, that won’t stop them. Yes, he blames me personally, but he also can’t lose control of the power of the Eden Plague, so he will be do everything he can to find us before turning it over to his superiors and being cut out. So that’s the second thing. They will be researching. Jenkins will figure a way to pour resources into labs and scientists and within a year or two will probably be ahead of us. If he figures out how to inoculate against it, or how to get rid of the virtue effect, we lose all our leverage.”
Elise cried, “But then we won’t be a threat to him!”
Daniel shook his head. “Honey, we’ll always be a threat. We’re an uncontrolled power bloc with the potential to destabilize the world. And that leads to the third thing. They will find this place eventually. Despite all we can do, unless we seal up completely and never leave, something will happen. They will locate us, and they will come and disappear us. We have to move soon. We have to blow it open so wide it can’t be suppressed.”
“So why not just put it out to the media?” Vinny asked. “I can make it go viral worldwide.”
“Without proof, that won’t mean a thing. It will just alert Jenkins to our plans. We will go to the media, but only after we have acted.”
“You are starting to sound like a terrorist, DJ,” Larry said with a smile, but Daniel could tell he was uneasy.
“Terrorists bring death and destruction as a way to get what they want,” Daniel disagreed. “I am proposing we bring life to millions – billions – of people. Call it insurgency, or a freedom fight. I don’t think there’s ever been anything quite like this before, but the closest I can think of is a war for independence. Spreading freedom and liberty, even though it upsets the established order.”
“So now we’re revolutionaries?” Larry said.
Daniel nodded, undeterred. “We have to be. I have thought long and hard about this and I am willing to accept that responsibility. I can’t let the fear I am making a horrible mistake deter me from doing what I think is right. ‘That Others May Live’ has been my code my whole adult life. I know there will be unintended consequences. Like any vaccination, the Eden Plague will save a lot more lives than it loses.”
Silence prevailed for a time as everyone thought about what he had said.
“So how are we going to do it?” Roger asked, always the scientist.
Daniel held up a hand. “First, we have to agree to do it at all. To impose a solution on the world. To spread the Eden Plague against their will. Sure, a lot of sick people will welcome it. But a lot of people will get it without a choice – from us spreading it deliberately. From birth, even, as soon as pregnant carriers start having babies.” He looked over at Elise and smiled. “So I’m going to leave this room right now. I’ll be at the nearest hatch, enjoying the breeze. I’ll come back in at sundown or when someone calls for me. But you all have to talk it out and reach a consensus, without me to impose it. Because it might be the most important decision ever made.”
Daniel turned on his heel and left the conference room, hearing the voices rising as soon as the door shut. He walked with a measured, fatalistic tread toward the nearest opening on the mountainside.
Daniel knew he should have just pushed it through. That’s what a military leader would have done. But this wasn’t a military operation anymore. He was leading a bunch of civilians, and they had to make their own decisions. Besides, Daniel thought there were enough in there that agreed with him to sway the rest. If not…he’d figure something out.
Jogging up flights of steps just to burn off energy, once he got to the hatch he opened it and sat down on a nearby log, within easy hearing distance of the telephone in the box just inside. He stared out over the low hazy West Virginia mountains, smelling the pine in the air, hearing the rustle of leaves in the breeze, wondering about the future.
It was less than a half hour before the phone rang. He took that as a good sign.
The conference room was silent as Daniel reentered. He sat down in the empty chair at the head of the table, and deliberately did not look at Elise. He didn’t want people thinking he was politicking with his wife.
Spooky cleared his throat. “Mister Chairman,” he said softly, “I believe we are of accord together. We are willing to bear responsibility with you. We will spread the Plague.”
Daniel released the breath he’d been holding and smiled. Spontaneous applause broke out, a relaxation of their nervous tension. He took the breath back in, deeply. Now for the first test of their resolve and unity. “All right, that’s talking the talk. Can we all walk the walk?”
“Meaning what?” asked Vinny.
“Meaning…we have to infect everyone here to start.” Daniel reached over to a side table where a small bag rested, unnoticed until now. Pulling out a cloth, he unrolled it to reveal five small syringes.
He didn’t think they expected him to throw it in their faces like that – to take concrete action after an abstract decision. But as it slowly sank in, he could see the acceptance form on every face, most especially those who were not yet infected: Spooky, Vinny, Cassandra, Roger and Arthur.
Cassandra spoke first. “I’m in. I’m fine with it. I’ve seen what it can do. Shoot me up, doc.” She rolled up her sleeve.
Daniel took the first needle and walked over to her. Looking in her eyes for a moment and seeing no uncertainty, he plunged it in. She smiled, a little strained, but determined.
The rest rolled up their sleeves as well, and he got it done as quickly as he could, before anyone got cold feet. “Everyone’s seen the effects. Be prepared for the appetite. We have no shortage of food. Just eat what you feel like. And keep an eye on each other, in case of anything strange. But now that that’s done, we have to give it to everyone else in the bunker.”
“What, against their will?”
Daniel stared at Vinny, who had spoken. “We’re talking about doing it to the whole planet. If we can’t do it to our own people, our own families, how can we justify doing it to everyone else in the world?”
There came another exchange of shocked glances. It was all becoming real to them, and fast. He’d had days and days to think it over and settle it in his mind, but they were getting steamrolled in real time. He had to do it this way, though, or the consensus might collapse.
“So what I propose doing, and you will need to ratify, is this. We start putting it in the drinks at our meals, and keep doing it until everyone is in. Nobody gets to opt out.” Daniel could tell some were very uncomfortable with this idea. The values of individual liberty and self-determination ran deep in American culture. He stamped on his own misgivings and forced the issue. “So that’s my first formal motion. I move the Bunker Council approve infecting everyone here, without their express permission.”