“None that I’ve heard of,” Middleton said. “But I am not responsible for that building. That was Aram Jurie’s domain. He and Pickman were part of Trask’s inner circle.”
“Pickman and Jurie said the specials should be kept separate,” DeWitt added. “Something about mental disease being additive in SHEVA children. I think they were interested in the effects of madness and stress.”
Viral triggers, Dicken thought. He was torn between disgust and elation. He might find all the clues he needed, after all. “Who’s there now?”
“There are six nurses left, I think.” Middleton looked away, tears brimming.
“I’ll need specimens from those nurses in particular. Nose swabs, fingernail scrapings, sputum, and blood. I think we should do that now.”
“Christopher is the point man,” Augustine said. “Do whatever he asks.”
“I can take you,” DeWitt said. She squeezed Middleton’s arm supportively. “Yolanda wants to get back to the kids. They need her. I’m baggage for now.”
“Let’s go,” Dicken said. He walked over to Toby. “Thank you, Toby. You’ve been very helpful.”
36
PENNSYLVANIA
George Mackenzie shook Mitch’s shoulder. Mitch lurched up in the bed. The pastel walls of the tidy bedroom swam around him; he did not feel at all rested. He had fallen asleep without pulling back the covers on the bed, still dressed in his rumpled Mr. Smith suit.
“Where’s Kaye? How long have I been asleep?”
“She’s with your daughter,” George said. He looked miserable. “You’ve been out about an hour. Sorry to wake you. Come take a look at the TV.”
Mitch walked into the next room first. Kaye sat on the side of the bed, hands folded between her knees, head bowed. She looked up as Mitch checked Stella, now under the covers. He felt Stella’s forehead. “Fever’s down.”
“Broke about an hour ago. I think. Iris brought some tea and we just sat with her.”
Mitch stared at his daughter’s sleeping face, so pale on the sky blue pillow, topped by a damp, matted thatch of hair. Her breath came in ragged puffs. “What’s with that?”
“She’s been breathing that way since the fever broke. She’s not badly congested. I don’t know what it means. The doctor said he’d be back…” She checked the clock on the nightstand. “By now.”
“He hasn’t come,” George said. “I don’t think he’s going to.”
“George wants me to watch the news,” Mitch said.
Kaye nodded and waved her hand; she would stay.
George led Mitch down the hall to the den and the flat wall-mounted screen. Huge faces sat behind a fancy rosewood desk, talking… Mitch tried to focus.
“I am as liberal as the next fellow, but this scares me,” said a middle-aged male sporting a crew cut. Mitch did not watch much television and did not know who this was.
“Brent Tucker, commentator for Fox Broadband,” George explained. “He’s interviewing a school doctor from Indiana. That’s where our son, Kelly, is.”
“Haven’t we been expecting this?” Tucker was asking. “Isn’t this why we’ve agreed to put the children in these special schools?”
“The footage you’ve just shown, of parents dropping off their children, finally coming forward and cooperating, is very encouraging—” the doctor said.
Tucker interrupted with a stern expression. “You left your post this morning. Were you afraid?”
“I’ve been helping explain the situation to the president’s staff. I’m going back this afternoon to resume my duties.”
“The scientists we’ve interviewed on this show insist that the children could pose a severe risk to the population at large if allowed to roam free. And there are still tens of thousands of them out there, even now. Isn’t it—”
“I cannot agree with that characterization,” the doctor said.
“Yes, well, you left your school, and that says it all, don’t you think?”
The doctor opened and closed his mouth. Tucker moved in, eyes wide, sensing a kill. “The public can’t be fooled. They know what this is about. Let’s look at our forum instant messages and what the public is telling us right now.”
The figures came up on the screen.
“Ten to one, they want you to arrest parents who don’t cooperate, get all the children where we can watch them, and do it now. Ten to one.”
“I do not think that is even practicable. We don’t have the facilities.”
“We built the schools and support your work with taxpayer dollars. You are a public servant, Dr. Levine. These children are the result of a hideous disease. What if it spreads to all of us, and there are no more normal children born, ever?”
“Do you advocate we should exterminate them, for the public good?” Levine asked.
Mitch watched with grim fascination, jaw clamped, as if witnessing a car crash.
“Nobody wants that,” Tucker said with an expression of affronted reason. “But there is an imminent health risk. It’s a matter of survival.”
The doctor put his hands on the rosewood counter. “No illness has spread to staff in any of the schools I’m aware of.”
“Then why aren’t you in the school now, Dr. Levine?”
“They are children, Mr. Tucker. I will be going back to them.”
Mitch clenched his fists until his fingernails dug into his palms.
Tucker smiled, showing perfect white teeth, and turned to the camera, which zoomed to a close shot. “I believe in the people and what they have to say. That is the strength of this nation, and it is also the Fox Media philosophy, fair and balanced, and I am not ashamed to agree with it. I believe there is an instinct for preservation at work among the people, and that is news. That is survival. You’ll catch more details here, Fox Multicast, and touch your screen to check our expanded coverage on the Web—”
George turned off the TV. His voice was thin and choked. “Neighbor must have seen you arrive. He told me he’s going to turn us in for harboring a virus child. A sick child.” He held up and jangled three keys on a ring. “Iris and I have a cabin. It’s about two hours from here, up in the mountains. On a small lake. Real nice, away from everybody. There’s food for at least a week. You can mail back the keys. Your girl is doing better. I’m sure of it. The crisis is past.”
Mitch tried to figure out what their options were—and how adamant Mackenzie was. “She’s not breathing right,” he said.
“I’ve been out of work for five months,” George said. “We’re running out of money. Iris is on the edge of a breakdown. We can’t be a safe house anymore. This neighborhood is like Sun City for the wealthy. They’re old and scared and mean.” George looked up. “If the feds come here and find you, they’ll put your daughter someplace where the care is worse than you can imagine. That’s where our child is, Mitch.”
Kaye stood behind Mitch and touched his elbow, startling him. “Take the keys,” she said.
George suddenly fell back into a chair and shook his head. “Stay here until dawn,” he said. “The neighbors are asleep. I hope to God everybody is asleep. Get some rest. Then, I’m sorry, you have to leave.”
37
OHIO
The Special Treatment center occupied a long, flat, single-story building with reinforced concrete walls. Dicken and DeWitt walked around the empty school trailers and crossed the asphalt square in the brilliant glow of a dozen intense white security lights.
The door to the center hung open. A tangle of sheets and rubber mats had been tossed out like a filthy, lolling tongue. Two iron-barred and wire-reinforced windows gleamed like flat, blank eyes on either side. The building looked dead.