His voice dry and tentative, Bobby asked, “It’s happened?”
“No. But if it does, it will be soon.”
“How soon?” Tamara asked.
A pause. “Days. Maybe a week. Not much more than that.”
“Are you sure?”
“About as sure as we can be. How soon can you have it ready?”
“We’ll get right on it,” she said, glancing at Bobby.
“A day or two, no more than that,” Bobby added.
“When it’s finished, I want you to close everything up and go to your backup safe house,” Matt ordered. The safe house was a location not even Matt knew, just Tamara and Bobby. “If it looks like things are going to shit and you can’t reach me, upload it. Don’t wait for me to give you the go-ahead.”
“Do you think…do you think we’ll have to upload it?” Tamara said.
The silence stretched out for what seemed like minutes. “Yes.”
The line went dead.
Tamara put her hand on Bobby’s, wrapping it around the side and squeezing tight. He looked at her, the reality of what appeared to be coming reflected on his face.
Then he nodded. “We’d better get to work.”
21
I.D. MINUS 87 HOURS
Ash had been sure they would have crossed the Arctic Circle and been homing in on Bluebird’s location by now, but the imaginary line was still several hundred miles to the north.
Their intent had been to fly from San Diego to Baker Lake in the middle of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, with a quick fueling stop in Winnipeg, just north of the US-Canada border in Manitoba. The weather, though, had a different idea.
Instead of lifting off from Winnipeg within an hour of landing, they ended up staying in the provincial capital for four nights, waiting out first a storm that passed through Manitoba, then one further north, cutting off their ability to get to Baker Lake.
Finally, the weather cleared enough for them to attempt the next leg of the journey. The flight was rough, but they were able to get into Baker Lake with only a few minor bumps and bruises. Waiting at the house that had been arranged for them to stay in were Gagnon and Wright, the two last members of their team.
Ash called everyone together for a meeting in the dining room, where he spread a map of northern Nunavut out on the table.
“The plan is for us to-”
“Excuse me, Captain,” Pax said. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but before we get started, I’ve been in contact with the Ranch and have some news I should share.”
“Of course. Go ahead.”
They all looked expectantly at the oldest member of the team.
“There’s no easy way to put this,” Pax began, “so I’ll just say it straight. There’s been a new outbreak.”
Voices over voices:
“It’s started?”
“Already?”
“Where?”
“When?”
“Should we go back?
Pax gave everyone a few seconds, then held up a hand, silencing them. “The outbreak’s in St. Louis. The good news is, it looks like it’s both isolated and contained.”
“So no cases anywhere else?” Chloe said.
“Not that anyone knows of. What Matt thinks happened is that there was accidental exposure, and that the so-called Implementation Day hasn’t taken place yet.”
“So we’re still on mission here?” Browne asked.
“As far as I’m concerned.” Pax looked at Ash. “Captain?”
“Absolutely. We keep going.”
“If the snow ever lets up,” someone threw in.
Ash pointed at a spot near the southern edge of the map. “This is where we are right now. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we fly to Grise Fiord.” He touched the spot on the map where the small village was. “After that, Mr. Gagnon will fly us out to our first location in a specially modified plane he has there.”
“What is the first location?” Chloe asked.
Ash looked down at the map. “Technically, we have three choices. Here, here, and here.” He pointed first at Ellef Ringnes Island, then Yanok Island, then Amund Ringnes Island.
“That’s a lot of ground to cover. We don’t have a lot of time. Any way to rule out any of them?”
Ash studied the map for a second. “The wreckage of the boat was found right about here, correct?” He pointed at a spot south of Ellef Ringes, and looked at Gagnon.
The pilot nodded. “Yeah. Close enough.”
“All right. If it was a setup and they were just trying to fool you, then I’d be inclined to rule out Ellef Ringnes. They wouldn’t set up the crash that close to Bluebird.”
“Unless they were trying to outthink us,” Pax said.
“I’m not going down that road. Rachel was also sure it wasn’t Ellef Ringnes.” Ash moved his finger along the map. “Which would mean it’s either Amund Ringnes or Yanok Island. That cuts away a third of where we need to check. Happy to hear anyone else’s thoughts.”
“Sounds right to me,” Pax said.
“Me, too,” Chloe added.
The others chimed in their agreement.
“So which one do you want to check first?” Gagnon asked.
Ash frowned. “I don’t know. If I guess wrong, we might not have time to adjust.”
Pax put a hand on Ash’s back. “No matter what we do, it’s going to be a coin toss.”
Pax was right, but it didn’t make Ash’s choice any easier.
“It’s still a lot of ground to cover,” Chloe said. “What if we split up? One group to Amund Ringnes, one to Yanok. Once one of us decides our location either is or is not Bluebird, we can regroup.”
“We’re already too small as it is,” Pax pointed out.
“That may be,” she said, “but do we have the time to check them one after the other?”
They went back and forth, neither fully able to convince the other they were right.
Finally, Ash said, “I’m reluctant to split up a group this size, but Chloe’s idea has merit. I’d like to think about it for a bit so let’s table it for now, and I’ll make a decision when we get closer.” He checked the time. “I want to head out as early as the weather will let us tomorrow. Let’s eat up and get some sleep. We’ve got long days ahead.”
22
I.D. MINUS 80 HOURS
MUMBAI, INDIA
Sanjay had been working from daybreak until nearly ten p.m. every day for the last three days. According to the Pishon Chem managers, the schedule for everyone was likely to stay that way until they finished dispensing the anti-malaria spray. Thankfully, Pishon had thought ahead, and set up a dormitory complex on the grounds of the old factory they were renting so that the workers could stay there instead of going home each night.
The main reason things had become busy was due to the dozens and dozens of shipping containers that had begun arriving daily at the factory. Each was packed full with barrels of the chemical that was to be sprayed throughout the city. Sanjay and several dozen other temporary employees had been given the responsibility of unpacking the containers, and loading pre-determined numbers of barrels onto trucks that would take them south to Goa, north to Ahmedabad, and several locations right there in Mumbai.
The managers had assured everyone that working with the barrels was completely safe, but had also gone ahead and issued special gloves and paper surgical masks so that Sanjay and the others would feel even more at ease. While the gloves came in handy, most chose not to wear the masks, as they were more a hindrance in the humidity than a help.
Sanjay was supervising two teams of ten men each. Their job was to load the trucks with however many containers were assigned to each, so he was nowhere near the container drop-off zone when the accident occurred.
By all accounts, it was just a minor mishap, a truck hauling away an empty container scraping against another truck whose container was still full. Similar kinds of accidents happened in the city countless times a day. It was so minor, in fact, that Ayush, who was in charge of the delivery area, didn’t even report the incident to the Pishon Chem managers. Not at first, anyway.