Contact Us (18 page)

They both laughed. What an easy laugh she had. Too soon to laugh again? No, it felt right. He needed it. They needed it.

“Besides,” Jake continued, “didn’t you know that being sensitive about feminist issues is so 1980s? Like the joke.”

“Oh no, here it comes. Corby’s trademark joke for every situation.”

“What do you mean?” Jake frowned. “What, is that in my file or something?”

“You’d be amazed at what’s in your file, Corby.” After a pause, she asked, “Okay what’s the joke?”

“How many feminists does it take to change a lightb—
hey, that’s not funny!”

Charli punched Jake in the thigh. “But I’m not like that.”

“Not as much as before, maybe.” Jake said. The jet passed through a bit of turbulence.

“Before?”

“When we worked together. And I
know
you remember that.”

“And why do you
know
I remember that?” she asked.

“Let’s just say someone on that project had a C-R-U-S-H on me, and I don’t think it was Hallstrom.”

“Oh, right. In your dreams, Jake.” A blush crept into her cheeks. “Back then you were m—. Back then you were a serious little boy.”

Jake glanced at her when she hesitated. She’d almost said that he’d been married back then. He kept the smile on his face.
Let’s not bring down the mood.

“Of course, you never acted on your crush, as hard as that must have been.” Jake leaned over her and looked out the window.

“You’re right.” She snapped her fingers. “I had to handcuff myself to my chair at all those meetings. I remember now.”

“You probably had a cute little nickname for me.”

“Yeah, I did, now that you mention it.”

“You did, really?” Jake turned in his seat and looked directly at her.

“Yeah. ‘Asshole.’”

Jake chuckled. Then they both burst out laughing.
Was this really happening?

Hours later, Jake jerked awake. The copilot came back and announced their descent into DC. Charli had fallen asleep too and tilted over such that her head was resting on Jake’s arm. She quickly sat up and stole a glance at the copilot and then Jake.

Jake was getting up to go back to his seat next to Sophia, when Charli hesitated and put her hand on his arm. “Jake? I have to ask. Wasn’t it unethical of you to fake your death?”

“Charli, you don’t know the whole story.”
We’re not going to talk about this now.

“You faked your death and set up a fake identity. That doesn’t sound like you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“And you probably broke a bunch of laws.”

Jake stared.
What happened to the woman I’d been flirting with before?

“If you’re threatening me to make sure I stay on the project,” he said, “don’t worry, I’m already committed.”

Sophia had woken up, and the arguing seemed to upset her.

“No, Jake, not at all. I just … I’m sorry. I don’t know why I brought it up. Forgive me.” The light mood of earlier was gone, and no one spoke during the landing.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

June 12, 2018

In the Boundary Waters Wilderness in Northern Minesota, a noise woke Alex at six a.m.
Are those footsteps? Slow, deliberate footsteps?
He listened carefully and looked out of the tent. He jumped back when a bullfrog leaped against the screening.
Ah, that had been the source of the noise.

By six fifteen, still drowsy, the twins started across the lake in their raft. It was windy but doable. They had two paddles: one real and one fashioned from sticks and a plate. They hadn’t gone far, however, before the weather changed. The wind increased dramatically. Horizontal rain stung their faces.
Is this really happening?
The raft, made long and narrow for speed, had worked fine in calm water but now threatened to turn over with every large wave. It was more like being on an ocean than a lake.

They turned into the wind, but the gusts still drove them back. They tried lying on the logs and paddling with their hands to decrease their wind resistance. The only result was that Alex lost the good paddle. He jumped off and swam after it, but it disappeared among the white caps.

He fought his way back to the craft. The water sucked heat from his body. The easy trip had turned into a marathon. Soon they were simply hanging on. The gale blew them to a neighboring island. The waterproof bag with matches and emergency supplies was gone.
Even geniuses can screw up.

With no tent, no fire, and no dry clothing, the challenge was staying warm during the night. Alex located an overhanging rock, almost a cave. Gathering what dry leaves and needles they could find, they piled them into a thigh-high debris bed and stripped off their wet clothing. They hugged each other tightly in the middle of the pile, too tired to even make the predictable gay jokes. The rain stopped. They shivered uncontrollably for an hour.

After a night of fitful sleep, Alex woke first, and before opening his eyes, listened. There was no more wind and no more rain, just singing birds. It was dead calm and warmer than the day before.

Martin popped his head out of the leaves like a prairie dog and actually looked pretty chipper, considering what they’d gone through. “What’s the status, Lover Boy?”

“Looks like we should be able to paddle to the island. I’m not sure exactly where it is from here, but I’ll bet we’ll see it as soon as this fog lifts.” Alex looked up and squinted.

Their clothing was damp but wearable. The first task of the day was to fashion a new paddle to replace the one that had floated away. It was when Martin was searching for a branch, climbing up a muddy bank in front of Alex, that disaster struck.

His foot slipped and he slid down toward Alex. No big deal, except that on the way down his forearm slipped between two exposed roots. The double crack was loud enough to silence the birds. Alex surveyed the damage.
So much for Martin’s radius and ulna bones.

* * *

June 13, 2018

In the White House media room, Charli stared into her coffee. Her conversation with Jake played back in her head. Had she really been concerned about his ethics, or was she subconsciously putting the brakes on a potential relationship that would interfere with her work? Like a kid on the high dive for the first time, she’d made up her mind to jump, but when she got to the edge of the board …

Jake dragged into the room with his own coffee, and they exchanged wary smiles. He had a dimple on only one side—how had she missed that? His long sailing trips had given him a permanent weather-beaten look, or maybe that was just genetics.

Jake dropped into a chair with one empty seat between them. “Jet lag.”

Charli frowned and tilted her head. “Jet lag?”

Jake shrugged and drank from his cup.

“Yeah, it must be tough—we changed a whole time zone.” She caught the hint of a smile.

The screen came to life, and they both looked up at the feed from Hallstrom’s office in Ruby Mountain. Press conference time.

As in the Oval Office, the American and presidential flags were behind him, but instead of a window, the wall displayed the presidential seal against a blue curtain. He read from written notes instead of from a teleprompter. Charli had suggested that Hallstrom write three words across the top of each page: “Confident, Serious, Relaxed.” So much would ride on whether this speech could convince viewers not to panic.

“Good morning. Today I will talk to you about the terrible tragedy that has befallen everyone around the world. Before I begin, let us have a minute of silence for all our friends and loved ones who died in this horrible event.”

Hallstrom tilted his head down slightly and closed his eyes. At the end of the minute, he brought his head back up and looked directly into the camera. “I have a lot to cover today, and I know you will all listen carefully.”

The president reiterated his main points: check for orphaned children, keep calm, we can survive. He also brought the public up to date on what was known: Anyone who fell asleep after noon on June 10 had a seventy percent chance of dying. Anyone who has fallen asleep and woken up was home free.

“I know that many of you are attempting to stay awake, in case you are one of the unlucky ones who will not survive sleeping. I can’t tell you not to do that, but I will warn you that few people will be able to stay awake longer than seven to eleven days, and that hallucinations are a common side effect of prolonged sleep deprivation. Thus, you may be putting others, including your loved ones, at risk. This strategy will only postpone the inevitable. My scientists tell me that there is no way to find a cure much less distribute it within that short period.”

Hallstrom took a drink of water. “All, that is, one hundred percent, of our hospitals are open and accepting emergencies. All elective procedures have been canceled, of course, but we have enough doctors and nurses to go around. Their ranks will be supplemented with veterinarians.”

Jake said. “So, if you have worms or need to be neutered …”

“Hush.” Charli smiled and punched him in the shoulder.

Hallstrom continued. “Go to work. That is, go to your job. Once you’ve woken up and you know that you are safe, please go back to work, especially if you are in a critical industry. Of course it won’t be business as usual, but by keeping the economy going, we will be able to move to a new normal sooner.

“I will now take questions.”

Shawnette Randolph was the elderly pool reporter who’d accompanied the government to Ruby Mountain, and she read off the questions.

“Mr. President, what about the burial of the bodies?”

“Yes, thank you for reminding me of that. We are fortunate, I’m sorry, relatively fortunate that this disease or process completely dries out the remains. If the world had been covered with five billion rotting—” Hallstrom bit off the word. “I’m sorry, five billion decomposing bodies, this catastrophe would have been much worse. It may seem disrespectful to … to not attend to your loved one’s body right now, but first things first. Once we get our world back to normal, or to the new normal, we will attend to that. I know it seems grisly, but … we need to put that off for now. I have spoken with religious leaders of various faiths, and they inform me that given the unusual circumstances of this situation, you may postpone or forgo your religion’s normal end-of-life rituals.”

“Are you saying we should just live side-by-side with the bodies?” Shawnette asked.

“You may wish to move the body to an unoccupied room, or, if it’s feasible, bury it yourself. The bodies are not contagious. You may wish to cover the body respectfully with a sheet until you have a chance to deal with it. Funeral parlors will not take advantage of this situation.” Hallstrom stared into the camera. “Next question, please.”

“Why has Cronkite done this?”

“We do not know. We are working on it. Next question.”

She looked down at her list. “Is this related to the sneeze and pain event?”

“We do not know that either. Look, there are some fantastic things going on in our world, and it’s going to take us a little time to understand them. Personally, I expect that these two things are related, but it may be an indirect relationship.”

“Aren’t our cattle and livestock going to die?”

“Cows and pigs and chickens have been living fine without us for centuries—”

“But what about the ones that are concentrated in feedlots?”

“Yes, we are going to lose some of those. We are redistributing farmworkers to handle it, but please keep in mind that although supply may be reduced somewhat, demand is also being reduced.”

Shawnette followed up on her question. “Yes, demand for pork, for example, may be down seventy percent, but no pigs died. So we have a lot more pigs per person than we used to. Won’t that make it hard to manage?”

“Well, Shawnette, of course I’m not a pig expert, but even if many of the pigs that are concentrated in feedlots die, it will be manageable. We’ll get farmers redistributed soon. Let’s move on.”

“Okay.” Shawnette consulted her list again, “You talked about redistribution. Does that mean that someone from, say, New York might have to move to California, away from her family?”

“Short answer: yes. Long answer: we’re working hard to avoid long distance relocations, and we expect that they will be rare. But yes, workers may be asked to relocate hundreds of miles away. I hope that they will be able to accept this as a temporary inconvenience that will greatly benefit their country. I can take one more question.”

“Okay, back to Cronkite. Was this his attempt to exterminate us? Is he going to try again?”

“No and no. From what we’ve seen of his technology, he could easily have killed us all.”

“So why would he only kill some of us?”

“We have no idea.”

Jake and Charli looked at one another.

Hallstrom continued. “We are looking into this and trying to figure out what’s going on. In the meantime we have important, and solvable, issues to deal with. Let me repeat one more time: if we don’t panic, we can get through this. Stay tuned to the emergency alert system. If your power goes out, you can listen from the radio in your car.