Blackout

GEORGIA: Thirty-three

Despite Becks’s dire predictions, no one shot us out of the sky. The computerized voice of the autopilot came on over the intercom as the plane touched down on the main runway of the Montgomery County Airpark, saying, “Welcome to Montgomery County, Maryland, where the local time is nine fifty-seven P.M. Thank you for flying with the Epidemic Intelligence Service. Please remain seated while the sterilization crew secures the plane. Any attempts to get up and move about the cabin will result in the immediate activation of security measure Alpha-16.”

“Meaning what?” asked Shaun.

“Meaning the plane fills with knockout gas and we stay unconscious until somebody comes along and shoots us full of the counteragent,” said Alaric. We all turned to stare at him. He shrugged. “While some people were taking naps and fucking around with their guns, I was reading the security information card. Well. Security information booklet. They take security seriously around here.”

“They are the EIS,” said Becks.

“Which has meant basically jack shit for the last twenty years,” said Shaun.

“They saved me,” I said. “They can secure us as much as they want.”

That killed the discussion. We looked at each other, then toward the front of the plane. There was still no sign of Dr. Shoji.

“You know, if he was planning to double-cross us, this would be the best time to do it,” said Shaun.

“If he was planning to double-cross us, wouldn’t he have just crashed the plane somewhere over Iowa?” asked Alaric.

“Not if he wanted to live,” said Becks. “And not if he wanted to dissect us. I mean, Shaun’s immune, Georgia’s a clone…”

“And I’m an asshole,” said Alaric helpfully.

Everyone laughed nervously. There was a soft “thump” as the plane stopped rolling down the runway, followed by the sound of clamps affixing to the wheels and windows. This was one plane that wouldn’t be flying anywhere until it was certified infection free. Blue antibacterial foam began cascading down the windows, blocking our view of the airfield.

“The foam they use to sterilize planes costs eight dollars a gallon,” said Alaric. “It takes approximately two thousand gallons to sterilize a plane this size.”

Becks gave him a sidelong look. “Why do you know these things? What inspires you to learn them?”

“It impresses the ladies,” said Alaric. They both laughed. Shaun didn’t. I turned to look toward the front of the plane, and waited.

The blue foam slowed from a torrent to drips and drabs, finally stopping altogether. A steady stream of bleach followed it, washing away both the remains of the foam and any biological agents foolish enough to think that hitching a ride on an EIS plane was a good idea.

“Overkill much?” muttered Shaun. I surreptitiously reached over and squeezed his knee.

Alaric must have heard him, because he held up the security information booklet and said, “If they had any reason to believe we’d flown through or over an active outbreak, they’d be rinsing the whole plane down with formalin. Twice. And we’d be praying the plane was properly sealed, since otherwise, we’d probably melt.”

“It’s just our way of saying ‘thank you for flying EIS Air,’ ” said Dr. Shoji, shrugging on a lab coat as he emerged from the cockpit. His black T-shirt and shorts were gone, replaced by khaki pants and a loudly patterned Hawaiian shirt covered with purple and yellow flowers. I raised an eyebrow. He shrugged. “It’s camouflage. I’m supposed to be the visiting director of the Kauai Institute of Virology—which is technically true, even if I’m not here on the business of the Institute—and this is what they expect. I’d wear shorts if I thought I could get away with it, but the CDC dress code forbids exposed legs. Something about caustic chemicals.” He waved a hand, clearly unconcerned.

“Why are you up and moving about the cabin?” asked Shaun. “Not in the mood to get gassed because you had a cramp, thanks.”

“Ah—sorry.” Dr. Shoji produced a small remote from his pocket and pressed a button.

The “fasten seat belts” sign turned off, and the voice of the autopilot said, “We have finished external decontamination. Please rise and collect all personal belongings. An EIS representative will be waiting on the jet bridge to confirm your current medical condition and offer any assistance that may be required. Once again, thank you for flying with EIS Air. We appreciate that you have many choices in government-owned health services, and would like you to know that the EIS has always been dedicated to the preservation of the public health, above and beyond all other goals.”

“Wow. Even the private planes have to say that shit,” said Shaun.

Alaric stood, snagging his laptop bag from the overhead compartment as he asked, “By ‘offer any assistance,’ do they mean bandages or bullets?”

“I don’t know.” I stood, stretching, before retrieving my jacket from the overhead bin. I shrugged it on, checking to be sure my holster was covered. I probably wasn’t legally allowed to carry a concealed weapon—my field license almost certainly expired after I died—but I wasn’t going to tell unless someone asked me. “It probably depends on your test results.”

“You are a ray of sunshine and I don’t know how we got by without you,” said Becks.

I nodded sympathetically. “I’m sure it was hard. But it’s all right. I’m here now.” Inwardly, I was ecstatic. She was acknowledging me in the present tense. She was admitting that, real Georgia or not, I was the one they had. And it felt wonderful.

“If you’re done squabbling with each other, please follow me,” said Dr. Shoji. He walked back to the plane door, where he opened the control panel next to the lock and pressed a button. There was a hiss as the hydraulics released, and the door slid open, revealing an airlock. I closed my eyes, shuddering.

We were going into an EIS facility. An endless succession of white halls and people dressed in medical attire rose behind my eyes. I pushed them aside. It wasn’t like I had a choice. If I wanted to develop fun new phobias, however justified, I was going to deal with them. However I had to.

Shaun’s hand was a welcome weight on my shoulder. “Hey,” he said. “It’s cool.”

I opened my eyes and forced a smile, glad that my sunglasses kept him from seeing my eyes. He knew how scared I was if anyone did—I was still enough of the woman I’d been programmed to be to react in ways he recognized—but that didn’t mean I needed to shove it in his face. “Cool,” I echoed, and followed him into the airlock.

I was expecting to find men in cleanroom suits waiting for us with blood tests in one hand and guns in the other, ready to shoot if our results were anything other than perfect. It was a little odd that the EIS had a manned jet bridge, rather than using one of the safer, more convenient automated systems, but it was possible they hadn’t wanted to attract the attention a major renovation would draw. They were trying to keep the CDC from taking them seriously, and being the kind of small, unassuming organization that still needs to process incoming passengers by hand would help with that.

I wasn’t expecting to find a smiling woman with ice-blonde hair loose around her shoulders, wearing a lab coat over a blue tank top and jeans. She smiled when she saw us, the expression lighting up her face in a way that would have seemed impossible when I thought her name was Dr. Shaw and she was dancing to the CDC’s tune.

“Hello, Georgia,” said Dr. Kimberley. She looked to the rest of the group, assessing them each in turn. “Who are your friends?”

“Dr. Kimberley.” I had the sudden urge to hug her—another point of deviation, as my memories were quick to inform me. I stiffened instead, rejecting the alien urge. “You made it out of the building.”

“I did, barely; we were able to delay the cleansing sequence long enough to get into one of the incinerator shafts, and climb from there to the roof,” she said. “Gregory is safe as well. We’re both hopelessly compromised, but we’ll find a way around that. We always do.”

“Such is the life of the epidemiological spy,” I said. I half turned to the others, gesturing to each in turn as I said, “Rebecca Atherton, Shaun Mason, and Alaric Kwong. The staff of After the End Times. This is Dr. Danika Kimberley. She saved my life.”

“I’d say she was exaggerating, but she’s not,” said Dr. Kimberley. She looked toward Dr. Shoji, who was hanging back, waiting for us to finish. “Were there any issues?”

“None. Our flight plan was approved without a hitch. No mechanical troubles, and the plane was swept for transmitters before we left and three times during flight. We’re clean.”

“Thank God for that,” she said fervently. She rummaged through the bag she had slung over one shoulder, producing five slim-bodied testing kits with the words EIS OFFICIAL USE ONLY stenciled on their sides. She handed one to each of us and said, “We use these for internal testing, which means they don’t upload to any servers but our own. If any of you come up positive, you’ll be isolated for six hours before we make a final determination.”

Becks paused in the act of opening her test kit. “What does that mean?” she asked.

“It means that if you have any chance of recovering from the Kellis-Amberlee amplification process, you’ll have started to show signs by the end of that time. If you haven’t shown any signs, we can either decommission you or retain you for further testing. We’d prefer to keep you, of course—undamaged live subjects are difficult to come by—but the choice would be yours, providing you made it before you finished amplifying.”

“You should absolutely be on the Maryland tourism board,” said Becks, and slipped her thumb into the kit.

There was a moment of quiet as everyone waited for confirmation that we were still among the legally living. Shaun watched the ceiling rather than watching the lights blinking on the test kits. Each set of lights blinked at its own tempo, analyzing the blood sample the kit had taken, looking for signs of seroconversion. One by one, they settled on a steady green. Clean. All of us were clean.

I elbowed Shaun in the side. “It’s good,” I said. “You can come down now.”

“Huh?” He looked down, eyes fixing on the green-lit test kit in his hand. “Oh.” He cast a quick sideways glance at my kit and visibly relaxed, some of the tension going out of his jaw.

Dr. Kimberley plucked the kit from his hand, sticking it into a small biohazard bag, which she then made disappear into the bag on her shoulder. The other kits went into a separate, larger biohazard bag, which she pushed into a chute in the side of the jet bridge. Then she smiled, not quite as brightly as when we first deplaned, and said, “Well. I suppose we’d best be moving along. Follow me.”

She turned and walked away. I was almost disappointed to see that she was wearing sensible sneakers instead of the impractical heels she’d sported at the Seattle CDC. The heels must have been one more part of her cover as Dr. Shaw, and sneakers would be a lot easier to run in if there was an outbreak. Still, it was odd to hear her walking without the gunshot clatter of her shoes hitting the floor.

The jet bridge let out on a small pre-Rising room painted a merciful shade of yellow-beige. I’d never considered beige the color of mercy before, but anything was better than that dreaded medicinal white. Chairs lined the windowed walls, presumably to give passengers a view of the airfield. There was no one there, and the air smelled like disinfectant and dust. We might have been the only things alive in the entire building.

Alaric was the last into the room. The door closed behind him, locks engaging with a loud beep. Dr. Shoji moved to the front of the group, waving for the rest of us to follow. “Come along,” he said. “The decontamination fumes can cause severe irritation if you stand too close.”

“And of course a door that actually sealed would look too much like competence,” muttered Alaric, and started walking faster.

Dr. Kimberley stepped back so that she was walking on my right. Shaun cast a suspicious look her way. She ignored it. “How do you feel?” she asked. “Any unusual pain or strange sensations in your hands or feet?”

“Hold on,” said Shaun. There was a tightly controlled note in his voice that I recognized as dawning alarm. “What are you asking her that for?”

“It’s okay, Shaun.” I put a hand on his arm as we walked, trying to soothe him. Looking back to Dr. Kimberley, I said, “I’m tired a lot. I ache. Everything feels pretty much normal.”

“You’re achy because you’re getting proper exercise, rather than the illusion of it,” she said, nodding. “That will fade as your body comes into alignment with your idea of what it’s capable of. I’d like to do a full physical, which there simply isn’t time for, but if that’s all you’re experiencing that seems out of the ordinary, I’d say that you’re entirely fine. Better than fine, really. You’re alive.”

“And she’s going to stay that way,” said Shaun.

Dr. Kimberley flashed a rueful smile his way. It was odd seeing her this emotive. Adjusting to her accent had been easier. “Let’s hope you’re the prophet in this scenario, rather than anyone with a more dire view of what’s to come.”

The hall ended at a pair of old-fashioned swinging doors. I frowned, studying them, but couldn’t see anything that looked even remotely like modern security upgrades. They were just doors, unsecured, with no scanners or test units installed beside them. We stopped in a ragged line, all of us looking at those doors—all of us looking for the catch. There had to be a catch.

There was always a catch.

Dr. Shoji didn’t seem to notice our dismay, and neither did Dr. Kimberley. They kept on walking, pushing those unsecured doors open to reveal an underground parking garage, and the big black SUV that was waiting at the curb.

There’s a certain shape of car that just screams “I belong to a private security force.” They’re always big and black and solid-looking, with run-flat tires and bulletproof glass in the windows. And then there are the cars that belong to the Secret Service. The differences are subtle, but you can see them if you know what to look for. Wireless relay webbing built into the rear window, for those times when cell service is compromised. Thin copper lines through the rest of the glass, ready to be turned on and cut off all service, cellular or otherwise. The glass in a Secret Service car isn’t just bulletproof, it’s damn near indestructible. A group of Irwins who modeled themselves after a pre-Rising TV show called MythBusters managed to get hold of a decommissioned Secret Service vehicle a few years ago. They set off six grenades inside the main cabin. The explosions didn’t even scratch the glass.

I once asked a member of Senator Ryman’s security crew whether the Secret Service had a sign on the wall somewhere counting off the number of years since a sitting president had been eaten on their watch. He laughed, but he didn’t look happy about it. I think I was right.

“I miss Steve,” I said quietly, looking at the car.

“Me, too,” said Shaun.

The passenger-side door of the SUV opened, and a big blond mountain of a man unfolded himself, straightening until his head and shoulders were higher than the car’s roof. “It’s good to be remembered,” he said. “Shaun. Georgia.”

Shaun’s mouth fell open as a grin spread across his face. “Steve, my man! What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Last time I saw you, you were in no condition to be causing this much trouble.” Steve turned his face toward me, expression unreadable behind his government-issue sunglasses. I hate it when people use my own tricks on me. “You, on the other hand, were in an urn. Because it was your funeral.” His tone telegraphed what his expression didn’t: He was deeply uncomfortable about my presence.

I shrugged. “Sorry. I guess I was just too stubborn to stay dead for long.”

“Mad science,” said Alaric. “What can’t it do?”

Shaun shook his head, snapping out of his delight over Steve’s appearance. “Sorry, man, I got distracted. Steve, this is Alaric Kwong, one of the site Newsies, and this is Rebecca Atherton, one of our Irwins.”

“Call me Becks,” said Becks. “Everyone else does.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” rumbled Steve. “If you’d all get in the car, please? I have instructions regarding your destination.”

“I’m afraid this is where we leave you,” said Dr. Shoji. “I’ll see you again, but I can’t arrive with you. That would be suspicious.”

“And I’m on house arrest,” said Dr. Kimberley. She smiled at Steve. “I couldn’t even have come this far if we hadn’t been sure of who was going to be coming to collect you.”

“Always glad to help, Dr. Kimberley,” said Steve. He opened the rear passenger door. “We need to get moving. The security changes at midnight, and it will be best if we’re past the checkpoints before that happens.”

“Where are we going?” asked Becks.

Steve didn’t answer. He just folded his arms, and waited.

“Come on,” I said, and started for the car. Working with Steve during the Ryman campaign taught me a lot of things about professional security. Chief among them was that once Steve made up his mind about something, that was the way things were going to go. He’d explain where we were going on the way.

Becks and Shaun followed me. Alaric stayed where he was, looking unsure. I waited until the others were in the car before turning on my heel and crossing back to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“This seems a bit… convenient, don’t you think?”

I surprised us both by laughing, a single, sharp expression of both amusement and regret. “This has all been ‘convenient,’ Alaric. They’ve been herding us since Seattle. Maybe before, I don’t know. I wasn’t with you to see the signs. At this point, what’s one more leap of faith between friends?”

“Seems like it might be a long fucking way to the bottom,” he said.

“So what?” I shrugged. “If we’re going to fall, let’s do it with style. Now come on. That’s an order.”

He blinked, and then smiled. “You’re not my boss anymore, you know.”

“Alaric Kwong, I will always be your boss. Now get in the damn car.”

I followed Alaric to the SUV. He climbed in ahead of me, and I paused to wave to Dr. Shoji and Dr. Kimberley before getting in. Steve closed the door as soon as I was inside, and the locks engaged automatically. There were no handles inside. We wouldn’t be getting out unless someone decided to let us out. Becks and Alaric had gravitated to the far back, leaving Shaun and me closer to the partition that separated us from the driver’s cabin.

“Isn’t this cozy?” said Becks. “If they fill this thing with gas and kill us before we know what’s happening, I swear, the first thing my reanimated corpse eats will be your face, Mason.”

“I’m pretty sure I could kick your ass even if we were all dead,” said Shaun.

Becks shrugged. “You won’t reanimate. It won’t be a contest.”

The two of them continued teasing each other, using sharp comments and verbal barbs as a way to keep calm. Irwins. They all have a few basic personality traits in common, and one of them is a strong dislike for being pinned in small spaces that they don’t control. That sort of thing is a death trap most of the time, and Shaun and Becks were both well trained enough to know it. I ignored the bickering as much as I could, squinting at the black glass divider between us and the front of the car.

If I had still had retinal Kellis-Amberlee, I would have been able to see through that glass and tell who was driving the car. I would have had at least a little more information to use in determining whether or not we were being driven to our deaths. If you’d asked me before I died whether I liked my eyes, I would have looked at you like you were insane. Now that I was someone different, I missed their familiar limits and capabilities. Maybe it was just a matter of firsthand experience—Georgia Mason had it, and I didn’t. Regardless of what it was, or wasn’t, I kept squinting at the glass, wishing I could see what was on the other side.

I was still squinting at the glass when it slid smoothly downward, revealing the shoulders of Steve and our driver. Shaun and Becks immediately stopped sniping at each other, straightening. My shoulders locked, going so tense that it hurt. Shaun grabbed my hand where it was resting against the seat, squeezing until my fingers hurt worse than my shoulders did.

Steve twisted to look at us. “We’re almost there,” he said. There was an odd tightness in his voice, like he wanted to say something, but knew he couldn’t get away with it. That tightness hadn’t been there before, when we were at the EIS—when we weren’t in the car.

Lowering my sunglasses enough to let him see where I was looking, I glanced toward the window. He shook his head. I tried again, this time slanting my gaze toward the dome covering the overhead light. Steve nodded marginally. We were bugged. I looked to Shaun, and saw him nodding, too. Everyone who’d come with me was a trained journalist. They all knew what that exchange had meant.

“Going to tell us where ‘there’ is, big guy, or do we get to try and guess?” Listening to Shaun trying to pretend that he was still the careless thrill seeker who’d signed up to follow the Ryman campaign was almost painful. That man was dead. As dead as the real Georgia Mason.

We were both pretending. We were just doing it in different ways.

“You’ll know it when you see it,” said Steve. “There are a few ground rules I need you to understand. I advise listening closely. Anyone violating the terms will be shot. Your bodies will never be found.”

“Wow. That’s… direct,” said Becks. “What are they?”

“First, you will not broadcast or record anything that happens after leaving this car.”

Yeah, right. “Will there be an EMP shield up to prevent it?”

“Yes, for broadcast, but we’re trusting you on the recording.” He smirked a little. “I managed to convince my superiors that you didn’t need to be searched for recording devices, mostly by showing them the list of what we never managed to take off you when we were on the campaign trail. I suppose they don’t want to be here taking your transmitters off until dawn.”

“Got it, no recording,” said Shaun. “What else?”

“Second, you will not in any way initiate physical contact with anyone who does not initiate physical contact with you.”

“Shake a hand, get shot?” asked Alaric. When Steve nodded, he looked faintly ill. “This gets better and better with every day that passes.”

From the look that crossed Steve’s face, Alaric had no idea just how bad things had gotten. I filed the expression away for later. Whatever was happening here, Steve didn’t like it. That could be useful.

“Third, you will ask questions only when given permission to do so.”

We all stared at him. Telling a carload of reporters not to ask questions was like telling a volcano not to erupt; not only was it pointless, it was likely to end with someone getting hurt. Steve sighed heavily.

“These rules weren’t my idea. I know better. Then again, you coming here wasn’t my idea.” He shook his head. “This is going to end badly. Please try to postpone that as long as possible.” Steve pulled back, and the divider slid upward again, blocking the cabin from view.

“I want to punch someone,” said Shaun conversationally.

“Do it with the hand that’s currently crushing my fingers,” I suggested. “You’re endangering my ability to type.”

Shaun let go of my hand, grimacing. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just be ready for whatever’s coming.”

“He didn’t say anything about weapons,” said Becks. “Bets that they’re going to take our weapons away?”

“No bet,” said Alaric. “These pig-fucking sons of diseased dock workers aren’t going to let us out of this car armed.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re really enjoying the possibilities of the English language today, aren’t you?”

“Just wait,” said Becks. “When he gets really worked up, he swears in Cantonese. It’s like listening to a macaw having a seizure.”

Alaric glared at her. She grinned at him. And the car stopped moving.

All levity fled, the four of us assuming wary positions that made our earlier tension look like nothing. Shaun put one hand on my shoulder; the other, I knew, would be going to his gun. We’d started out among friends. Now we had no idea where we were.

The car door swung open, revealing the bulky shape of Steve. He stepped aside, letting us see the man who was standing behind him.

“Hello, Georgia,” said Rick, smiling as he offered me his hands. “I know we’ve never actually met before, but I have to tell you… it’s been a long time.”