“We can take care of the German. Come in and help us now.” Benedict had to try to get her to surrender, even though he knew she wouldn’t.
She shook her head. “You have no idea what he’s capable of. He will kill you all if it suits his need or his fancy, and you have a better chance of stopping me than him.”
The video camera exploded as Amanda dropped the radio receiver and walked away.
Chapter 29
“So all this is about a book written by a discredited author more than half a century ago. Excuse my sarcasm, Doctor, but I find that a little hard to believe,” General McDaniels said as their Suburban screamed down the dark streets of Washington.
“It’s not about The Population Bomb per se. It’s the theory behind the book: Paul Ehrlich theorized that the earth can sustain a finite number of human beings before a series of events was initiated that would ultimate lead to our extinction. He made a number of dire predictions if worldwide conditions weren’t changed. All of them proved to be inaccurate, but that didn’t stop his ideas from entering the consciousness of scientific thought. People were influenced by his theories.”
“So Avanti was a disciple.”
“Disciple is too strong a word. Ehrlich believed something and shaped facts to fit that belief; Jaime would never accept that intellectual dishonesty,” Martin said.
“So you are saying that there are facts to back this outlandish theory?” McDaniels was finally surrendering to the laws of momentum by bracing himself within the careening vehicle.
“I don’t think you fully understand Avanti, General. He’s not insane, or some nut with an idea. He is a true believer and not because he blindly accepts what he has been told or has read.” The car suddenly swerved around a corner throwing Martin against the window. “To tell you the truth, I’m not entirely convinced that he’s wrong. In many ways, our species is in as much danger as you and I are right now.”
“Sergeant, I told you to get us there quickly, but I did mean alive,” McDaniels yelled to the driver.
“Sorry sir, but we are being followed. Fairly sophisticated but not aggressive.” The sergeant answered without emotion or taking his eyes off of the road.
Martin wheeled around to look out the rear window but was blinded by the headlights of the trailing Suburban. “Who would be following us?”
“Any number of people, some good, some not so good. It will be handled.” McDaniels didn’t bother turning around and gave Martin a moment to return to his seat.” So you are a believer in this pseudoscience as well?”
“I wouldn’t label it as a pseudoscience,” Martin said nervously as he slid back into his seat.
“It’s become one. When I hear the same facts quoted by radical environmentalists and gun-toting isolationists, I have a tendency to discount them.”
“Wow, with a philosophy like that, how did you ever get through your confirmation hearings?” Martin scoffed. “People basically suck; excuse my French. They will use any tool at their disposal to advance their own personal agenda. Facts don’t lie, people do, and when you pull all those facts together, the future becomes a very scary place. I’m not just talking about global warming; I’m talking about the loss of species diversity, deforestation, the depletion of natural resources — the list is as long as your arm, and each one of those inconvenient facts has an impact on human survival, whether we believe them or not.”
“I believe in our ability to survive; it is the thing that we do best,” McDaniels answered simply.
“Then you must stink at what you do, because your job is to make sure our enemies don’t survive,” Martin laughed sarcastically again.
“My job is not to kill; my job is to protect the United States.”
“Then how are you going to protect it from the seven billion incubators that inhabit this planet and the tendency of pathogens to mutate?”
“That’s your job.”
“Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I stink at my job. We have almost no natural defenses, and what little science can do will be too little too late. HIV, Bird-flu, SARS, NIM, and all the others that came before them matured within human tissue. The greater the mass of human tissue, the greater the probability that something really nasty will develop. There are some very serious-minded people who believe that we are on the verge of a massive natural pandemic, the results of which would be death tolls in the billions. And with the way societies and economies have become so interdependent, such a disruption would lead to famines and wars severe enough to finish the rest of us off.”
“Which brings us back to Avanti. He told you that he was working outside the wishes and desires of Jeser. Do you believe him?”
“I do; I doubt he’d lie to me — that’s not his style. In some ways, he’s a lot like he was twenty years ago, he wants me to know that he was the one who engineered this virus and is personally responsible for its dissemination. He wants to be remembered as someone who had the courage to do what others were afraid to do. It’s so insane,” Nathan said softly. “He twisted the knife by telling me that he used my computer models to convince Jeser that the outbreak could be controlled. He stole them, which means that someone in my department is working for him, or them.” Martin said sadly. “The outbreak in Colorado is supposed to get the world’s attention so that the rest of the world will close their borders to the United States. That’s supposed to limit the spread of the infection.” Martin shook his head. ”They’re going to issue some demands so that they appear reasonable and then release the original virus no matter what we do.”
A moment of thoughtful silence followed. “Avanti wants you to reproduce that vaccine to slow or stop the outbreak,” McDaniels motioned towards the small vial in Martin’s hand. “To save just enough so that humanity survives, but society doesn’t.”
“One thousand doses, if he’s correct.” He gripped the bottle tighter. “I know what you’re wondering: is there time to mass-produce this? The answer is no. It would take several months to maybe a year before we could produce any reasonable quantity, and I’m guessing that if things go as Avanti thinks they will, we have two maybe three months before worldwide dissemination. At that point, there’s no stopping it.”
Chapter 30
Reisch slept with the television on and a commercial full of screaming children awakened him. He suffered through thirty seconds of it before finally finding the remote control and turning the TV off. The sounds of the screaming and squealing children still rattled inside his painful head. American television was reason enough to condemn humanity.
The bedside clock said that it was exactly six o’clock, and to Klaus’s great relief, he found that his hand had recovered most of its function. His thinking was still a little thick, but it had improved enough that he could defend himself; at least against humans.
He began to stretch, but then stiffened; a hint of something foreign drifted across his mind. He tried to seize the trace of mental energy, but it was gone, or perhaps it had never been there at all. He was still on guard after his encounter with Amanda, and his control over his emotions was erratic. She had planted a seed of doubt in his mind, and for the first time in years he felt vulnerable. Suddenly, he took the remote control and threw it against the wall. It shattered into a hundred pieces, and after an instant of delight, he rebuked himself. He needed to stay in control; he couldn’t afford any more self-indulgent displays.
He swung his legs off the side of the bed, anxious to be up and moving, but as soon as his feet touched the floor, he knew something was wrong. There was activity all around him. Dozens and dozens of minds were awake and active.