“That’s right,” the president said into the phone. “Absolutely agree.”
Gilford walked all the way to the desk. “Mr. President, we don’t have time to wait.”
The president turned to Gilford, then said, “Prime Minister, I apologize, but I have a briefing I need to attend. Let’s plan on reconnecting in a couple of hours…Yes, very important…okay.” He hung up and looked at Gilford. “What is it?”
“It’s time to get you out of here, sir. The staff is preparing Rollout right now.”
“Call it off,” the president said.
“Sir, it’s not safe here anymore. We’ve confirmed there’s been at least one infected person in the White House within the last day. It’ll be safer to get you out of here.”
“No, it won’t.”
The president’s stubbornness was admirable, but this wasn’t a budget fight on Capitol Hill. “Lark River would be best,” Gilford said, “but, at the very least, Camp David would—”
“I’m not leaving.”
“But, sir, if you stay, there’s an excellent chance you’ll be infected.”
The president stared at him for a moment, his eyes looking more tired than Gilford had ever seen them. “Gil, I’m already infected.”
It took Gilford a moment to register what the president had said. “Sir?”
“My eyes hurt. My throat’s tender. And my sinuses are throbbing. I already have it.”
Gilford froze, unable to speak.
“Let everyone leave who wants to,” the president said. “In fact, you should encourage them to do so. I’m staying.”
“The first lady? Your son?”
“Already on the way to Camp David. But I was with them this morning. Given the rate of transmission of this thing, they’re most likely infected, too.”
“Dear God.”
“Go on, Gil. Let the staff go home to their families, then check the line of succession. Find out who’s uninfected, get them to Lark River. Whoever’s highest among them, tell them I’ll be handing over my job soon.”
Gilford walked out of the Oval Office, numb.
“When do we leave, sir?” the secret service agent asked.
Gilford blinked twice. “We don’t,” he said. He looked at Ms. Bennett. “Can you have everyone gather in the conference room? I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Of course,” she said. “Gil, what’s going on?”
Not even realizing she’d asked a question, Chief of Staff Gilford walked out of the room and down the hall to the private restroom just off his office, where he kneeled in front of the toilet and threw up.
9
Despite the best efforts of the men on the helicopter, Brandon remained silent. Though the markings on the outside of the craft claimed it belonged to the US Army, he was reluctant to believe it. The Project Eden people could have easily painted the same markings on their helicopters, he thought.
It wasn’t until the craft touched down at a military base that he had to admit maybe the markings were genuine. There were several other aircraft around, though most seemed to belong to the air force, not the army.
Brandon was hustled across the tarmac into a warm, nearby building.
“Who we got here?” a man in uniform, also wearing a mask that covered his whole face, asked one of Brandon’s escorts.
“Don’t know. He’s not talking. Found him walking down the middle of a road north of here. As far as we could tell, there was nothing else around him.”
“All right, I’ll take him.”
One of the two escorts set Brandon’s pack on the floor, while the other gave Brandon a pat on the back before they left.
“So, you going to tell us your name?” the new man said.
Brandon hesitated, but finally decided it might be okay. “Brandon. Brandon Ash.”
“Okay, Brandon Ash. Where are you from?”
“Um, Iowa.”
“Iowa? I’m guessing you didn’t walk from there. Where’s your family?”
“I don’t know,” Brandon said.
“You got separated?”
Brandon wasn’t sure how he should handle things. If he told the man the truth, it would lead to other questions that he didn’t know the answers to. And, knowing adults, he didn’t think the man and his friends would believe him anyway.
He decided to answer the man’s question with a nod.
“So what happened?”
Brandon thought quickly. “We…we went out for a drive and got stuck in the snow. My dad went out to try and find help. When he didn’t come back, I went to look for him.”
“When was this?”
“Yesterday.”
“You’ve been wandering around on your own since yesterday?”
A nod, though it had actually been longer than that.
“I imagine you’re probably pretty hungry.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’ll get you some chow in a second. A couple more questions, all right?”
“Sure.”
“How you feeling? Any fever? Sniffles? Sore throat?”
“No, sir.”
“Headaches? Muscle ache?”
While his muscles did ache from his prolonged hike, he knew that wasn’t what the man was concerned about, so he shook his head.
“Okay, good. I need to take a blood sample. You’re not going to get all squeamish on me, are you?”
“No. I’m not scared of needles.”
“Glad to hear it. Can you take off your jacket?”
Brandon pulled the zipper down and removed his right arm, but left his left in its sleeve. He then pulled the shirt and sweater he was wearing up past his elbow and held out his arm.
“You’ve done this before,” the man said.
“A couple times.”
“Come on over here.”
The man led him to a table that had a kit on top containing syringes and other medical supplies.
“What you got in there?” the man asked, nodding at the pack Brandon had carried over with him.
Brandon shrugged. “Some food, camping stuff.”
“Were you guys going out for a hike?”
Brandon went back to simply nodding.
“Kind of a bad time of year for hiking.”
“Christmas hike,” Brandon said, hoping that would be enough of an answer.
It seemed to do the trick. “I get it. Tradition, right?”
“Yeah.”
The man took two vials of blood from Brandon’s arm, then said, “We have just enough time to get you something hot to eat before your plane leaves. Sound good to you?”
“Plane?”
“Can’t keep you here, little man. Not enough room or staff.”
“Where am I going?”
“Colorado.”
There were five other passengers on the airplane — three more children and two men. All of them, including Brandon, had been issued full facial masks like the soldiers had been wearing, and were assigned seats in separate rows. The other children looked scared, while the men looked pissed off.
Seven soldiers were also scattered throughout the cabin. Unlike the one who’d questioned Brandon, they were hard-faced and said very little.
The plane was in the air for over an hour and a half. As they came in for a landing, Brandon looked out the window. Not too far away was a tall mountain range, similar to the mountains in Montana, and between it and where they were landing, rolling hills. There was snow on the ground surrounding the runway, though not nearly as much as he’d experienced farther north. Two or three inches at most.
As they rolled down the taxiway, Brandon saw many more military planes and trucks and helicopters parked off to the side, and figured this must be another base. Once the plane finally stopped, the soldier in the front stood up.
“When the door opens, you will get out one by one as we point to you,” he said. “Outside will be two transport vehicles. You four kids will get into the one on the left.” He looked at the two men. “Gentlemen, yours will be the one on the right. Everyone understand?”