“He has another vial. .” said the Homeland Security officer.
“I know exactly what he has,” Amanda responded sharply. “He’s alone in the desert, and very much alert. If any of you got within fifty miles of him, he would know it in an instant. He would destroy your missiles in the air, or worse, redirect them.”
“Do you have any suggestions?” Greg asked, subtly shifting his weight and inserting himself between Amanda and the men behind him.
“Send Phil in,” she answered. ”Alone.”
Chapter 59
It had been the most agonizing week of Klaus’s life, and now his hosts were beginning to get on his nerves as well. The Theimes didn’t believe in creature comforts, but they did supply him with a television; and with their satellite connection, he had been able to experience the twenty-four-hour news cycle for the first time. He was amazed at how many different ways the announcers could repackage what little they knew and then represent it as ”news.”
There was little news, however. At this point, if everything had gone according to plan, the American government would have to admit to the growing death toll; it would have been impossible for them to hide the deaths of millions of its citizens. And even if they had managed to completely stifle the domestic sources, there were still international news organizations that would jump at the chance to report on another American tragedy. And then there was the Internet. Certainly, someone, somewhere in the world, would have caught a whiff of what was going on.
Reisch covered his nose; he was going to have to deal with Elmer and Rose Theimes. He had managed to restrain himself for almost two days; it was his way of repaying them for taking him in. But his patience had its limits.
He turned the television off with the remote. CNN was replaying the American president’s speech; Klaus had already listened to it three times and didn’t want to hear his cautious, but triumphant, tone again. Jeser had failed, and he was beginning to accept that fact. Avanti had anticipated the quarantine and had been certain that it would have only a modest short-term effect, but no lasting impact. Once the virus had been complexed with the microcapsules, it was incredibly stable, and would disperse on the wind, dust particles, or even droplets of water; it would find almost everyone, no matter where they hid. What he hadn’t anticipated was that the Americans would find the eleven before they had a chance to disperse their virus.
He carefully put the remote down; the desire to throw and smash things was under control, and he began to feel like his old self. He got up and bumped his head on the exposed wooden beam. Mr. and Mrs. Theimes lived in what some would call a modest house; Reisch called it something different. It was tidy, but cluttered with so many pictures and mementos that he was convinced that they were the main structural support for the ancient house. It had been the family home for five generations, but all eight of their children had moved away. Rose Theimes had assaulted Reisch with stories and photographs of her children for nearly two full days, but now, she was silent. Her silence would force him to leave soon; the curfew was lifting in a matter of hours, and at least one family member would be checking in to see why Elmer and Rose had stopped answering their phone.
Despite the fact that the president’s speech referred to him indirectly, he was still pleased with his decision to stay in the United States; he probably could have slipped into Mexico without alerting Amanda or anyone else, but then he would have missed the perfect opportunity to reverse Jeser’s error. They hadn’t failed entirely; they had created the right conditions for Reisch to succeed. The world had closed its borders to the United States, and after a week locked inside their houses, the populace was eager to get outside. For a while, suspicion would be running high, but it would take a good deal more than suspicion to stop him.
It had started to rain and the sky crept closer to the desert floor; the late afternoon started to look more like dusk and Klaus wondered if he should leave under the cover of the rare thunderstorm. He had planned on waiting until it was fully dark, but if he left now he could stick to the back roads and still be in Dallas for the morning commute.
The experts said that it would take less than a thousand infections in six major cities to create a self-sustaining epidemic; Dallas would be the first. New York, Chicago, and L.A. would be next. He would spend one to two days in each place and then disappear like a ghost. He hadn’t yet decided on his last two cities, but he would before he finished in Los Angeles; right now, he was toying with the idea of Washington DC, followed by Miami. Then, at least he could find a boat and make it to Cuba.
He stretched his long arms and listened as the rain pelted the metal roof. He yawned and made the decision to take the small risk and leave before it was dark. The back roads would be patrolled by the local or state police, not by the military, and would be relatively easy to handle. He gathered his things and carried them into the small-attached garage. The Theimes owned a Ford F150 pickup that was made in the last century, but despite its age, was in excellent condition. The thirty-gallon gas tank was always filled, a fact that Elmer had shared with Reisch the day before he died, so his range was easily five hundred miles. More than enough. He opened the single garage door, bid Elmer and Rose a final farewell, and backed their truck onto the gravel driveway. The rain was coming down in sheets, which presented Klaus with a dilemma; leaving the garage door open would be a sign to anyone who happened along that something was wrong. Closing the garage door meant that he would be soaked and driving for hours in wet clothes, something that was very unappealing to the fastidious German. He looked around the small cab for an umbrella and found nothing. He waited a minute for the rain to ease up, but the steady drumming continued. It wasn’t a small point; someone, either the sheriff or a family member would be checking on the Theimes soon, and if they found the garage door open and their truck missing, they would be rightly suspicious. However, if they knocked, and no one answered they would check the garage, see that the truck was gone and would have an explanation as to why Elmer and Rose hadn’t been answering their phone. He looked at his watch and decided that he would give the rain exactly three minutes to let up and then he would be forced to close the door.
“We have a heat signature,” the analyst announced. The keyhole satellite platform had just cleared the horizon and turned every instrument it had on a twenty-five mile radius of eastern New Mexico; its infrared sensors had found a small gap in the cloud cover and downloaded the images to a ground station in North Carolina. “Small engine, probably a car. Give the computers a few more minutes and we’ll have a better image.” The senior analyst reviewed the live feed and agreed. It took less than a minute to relay the message to Ron Benedict.
“It’s either house nine or ten, that’s as precise as the techies can be,” he relayed to the agent on the scene. “Have him start there.” It had only taken two hours to transport Phil, Amanda, Greg, and an entire field support team to Clayton, New Mexico. Reisch was a hundred miles to the west, and everyone was hoping that he still had his claws retracted.
“The roads are clear,” the agent briefed Phil. “There’s a thunderstorm about seventy miles from here, but it’s moving north at twenty miles an hour, I doubt you’ll even see it, but it left the roads wet. Drive fast, but get there safely. We think that he may be in one of these two houses, and on the move,” he gave Phil a map with two red circles. “If he is, then he has to drive north along this road before he reaches Highway 58. If we’re right about Dallas, he should turn east and come right at you.”