The Nirvana Plague (39 page)

The police lieutenant led them over to a small panel truck directly opposite the Purple Pony. In the back of the truck, a sleepy, fat young officer sat jammed like a beetle inside a thick black shell of electronics. A thick hand emerged from within the shell and handed a tablet to Benford.

“Video,” said a voice from within.

“We’re tapped into the surveillance cameras inside the tavern,” said Lieutenant Robinson.

Benford showed it to Marley and Delacourt. Onscreen they saw Roger sitting alone halfway down a long bar, drinking a cup of coffee.

“We need another headset, Jake,” the lieutenant said into the shell. “And two plugs.”

The hand emerged again and presented Benford with a headset. Then a third time with the two little brown bugs in its palm.

Robinson plucked the two tiny earplugs from the hand and gave them to Marley and Delacourt. “They’re practically invisible,” he said.

“Test,” said the voice from inside the shell.

They attached their headsets and plugs. The lieutenant had a headset as well.

The beetle voice appeared inside Marley’s ear: “Do you hear me?”

Everyone nodded.

“Out loud,” said the voice.

“Yes,” Marley said. “I hear you.”

The earplug picked up the sound of his voice through the bones of his skull.

“Function confirmed,” said the beetle.

“Who all is on comm?” Marley said.

“I don’t know,” Benford said.

“We’ve hooked in Washington as requested,” Lieutenant Robinson said. “I don’t know who all is on there.”

“This is General Harden,” said another voice on comm. “Secretary Pritzker is also still here, as well as a number of our staff. I believe the CDC is also monitoring.”

“I’d like to have as little chatter on comm as possible,” Marley said.

Benford asked that only her mike be channeled through to Marley and Delacourt. But everyone would hear everything the two of them said.

“Jimmy, set it up,” the lieutenant said into the beetle’s nest. “Just like she said.”

“Thanks,” Marley said.

“All right,” Benford said. “Let’s go.”

Marley and Delacourt crossed the street to the tavern — “The Purple Pony” was painted in florid gold script above a purple door flanked by large violet-tinted windows.

“Christ,” Marley said. “Roger picked some spot for breakfast. This place looks like a cartoon.”

“Nervous?” Delacourt said.

“Aren’t you?”

Then he pulled the door open and followed her inside.

The decor inside fulfilled the threat the outside had posed. The whole place was done in shades of purple, blue, and gold. A diner dressed up like somebody’s fantasy of a Klondike saloon, de-brothelized for the family-values tourist.

Roger, in orange scrubs, was sitting in a tall chair at the middle of the long bar. He was facing the door when they came in, like he had just been waiting for them to show up. His bare feet were hooked over the rungs of his chair. A pair of disposable slippers lay on the floor below. A mug of coffee sat by his elbow.

“Good morning, Roger,” Marley said.

“Good morning, Mr. Sturgeon,” Delacourt said.

“I’m not going back to the hospital,” he said. “I want to go home.”

“I know,” Marley said. “That’s what we’re here to talk about. May we join you?”

“There’s no service,” Roger said. “Everyone recently found a reason to leave. I’ve already eaten.”

“Let’s move to a booth, shall we? Easier to talk.”

Roger slid off his chair and wiggled his feet back into his flimsy slippers. Marley and Delacourt slid into one side of the nearest booth. Roger brought his coffee with him to the other side.

“You look well,” Marley said.

Roger offered no response. Just sat there watching the two doctors. Waiting for something.

Indifference to social small talk, Marley thought. Characteristic. Cut to the chase.

“Listen, Roger, here’s the situation. We—”

“I want you to send me home.”

“Well, you see—”

“But you won’t. So I want you to let me talk to Karen.”

“Roger, I realiz—”

“But you won’t do that either. So I want you to leave me alone.”

This time Marley didn’t try to respond.

“But you won’t do that either,” Roger said.

“No,” Marley said. “They won’t.”

Roger shook his head slowly. “You have a problem,” he said.

“
We
have a problem.”

“You want me to return to the hospital. But I won’t. So you’ll have to take me by force. But you’re afraid I’ll give you IDD if you try. But you’re afraid I’ll infect others if you don’t. What a quandary.”

Marley seized the common ground. This is where we start. “Yes. Isn’t it.”

“You’re all afraid of many things.”

Keep the focus on the patient. “What are you afraid of?”

“Your mind has made you afraid of something that’s never harmed you. Your
mind
is what you should fear.”

“What about you, Roger? What are you afrai—”

Roger slapped the table hard, making a terrific bang.

Marley and Delacourt jumped back.

“Pay attention!” Roger said.

Marley was more than startled. There was something frightening about the intensity of Roger’s awareness. He was so stunned he couldn’t think of anything to say. And he felt acutely aware of the fact that half the civilized world was eavesdropping. The bug in his ear itched.

After a few seconds of uncertain silence, Delacourt ventured to speak: “In fact, we are afraid. But we’re not afraid of our minds. We’re afraid of you.”

“You’re afraid of your invention.”

Suddenly Benford’s voice barked inside Marley’s ear:
“Get control of this situation, Carl.”

Roger saw it somehow. Before Marley could speak, Roger zeroed in on him again: “What do the voices tell you, Carl?”

How did he know? The ear bugs were undetectable. He’d read it in his face. — And he’d called him by his first name. In all the years he’d known him, Roger had never called him by his first name. Everything he said seemed calculated to be disconcerting. It was almost dizzying. The three of them were just sitting here quietly in an empty diner, yet the whole situation seemed to be spinning rapidly out of control. Marley had to say something, anything. The world was watching and listening, waiting to crush—

“I remember the voices,” Roger said.

“Yes, you’ve had auditory hallucinations for many years, Roger.”

“The voices of old. The ancient voices. The alien gods.”

“Do you still hear them?”

“I saw myself and yourself on the news.”

There were screens behind the bar, muted and captioned, playing Newsline.

“Yes,” Marley said. “I’m sorry about that.”

“You’re not sorry,” Roger said. “Now your self is famous.”

That was partly true, and he was partly angry about it, but he wasn’t sorry. “I wasn’t identified,” he said. “Neither were you.”

“And now your self is the famous discoverer of the IDD disease.”

“I didn’t really discover it.”

“It isn’t really a disease.”

“What is it then?”

Roger lowered his head, spoke in a whisper: “Let me go home, and I will tell you.”

Then he sat up quickly, cupped his hand to his right ear, and shouted in a loud voice: “Did you get that? Did you get that? Hello? Hello?” Then he started cackling with laughter.

Delacourt smiled despite herself. His humor at least was infectious.

Marley waited patiently for the fit to pass, his sense of dread pressing in on him.
Get control of this situation.
Finally, when Roger’s laughter subsided, he said in the firmest voice he could manage: “How did you give IDD to the orderly and the guard?”

“I gave them nothing.”

“Your escape was recorded by surveillance cameras. We watched it. We saw you give it to them. Both men are now confined to—”

Roger dismissed him with a wave of his hand. “No, I gave them nothing.”

“What did you do then?”

“They didn’t know what they already were,” Roger said. “I just tipped them over.”

“We don’t have time to waste on double-talk, Roger. Say what you mean.”

“A long time ago things on this planet began to be alive. The rest is inevitable.”

“What’s the rest?”

“If I tell you what it is, will you leave me alone?”

“No. You must return to the hospital.”

“Then why should I tell you? Eventually you’ll run out of drugs and find out for yourself.”

Benford burst in on comm again:
“You’re getting nowhere. Tell him he can call his wife. Come to the door for a phone.”

Again Roger saw it immediately. “What do the voices have to offer you now?”

“I’ll go,” Delacourt said.

“No,”
Benford said.
“Dr. Marley, please.”

“I’m just going to go to the door and speak to someone,” Marley said. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Benford met him on the sidewalk outside the purple door. She handed him a heavy military-style phone.

“We’re off comm,” Benford said.

“Thank God.”

“Just for a moment. So we could talk privately.”

“Fine.”

“I don’t like the way this is going.”

“He’s talking, anyway.”

“Get him to make the call.”

“All right.”

“His wife has gone missing.”

Marley looked at her quickly. “Gone missing?”

“Chicago police went to her apartment. She was gone. But she turned up on a police report in Wisconsin. She was stopped by a highway patrol officer yesterday.”

“Wisconsin?”

“Yes. I presume she’s on her way here.”

“When did you find this out?”

“Just now.”

“While I was inside?”

“Yes.”

“Something is wrong.”

“No kidding.”

“No, there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“Calm down, Carl. Focus.”

“What makes you think Karen is on her way here?”

“Why else would she be driving across Wisconsin the day after she found out her husband is here in Alaska?”

Marley’s sense of confusion was growing. He felt like the real world was getting further out of reach every moment. He shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

Benford pressed the clumsy piece of equipment into his hand.

“I want you to let Sturgeon make the call with this phone. It’ll help us track her down.”

“But you said she’s under arrest.”

“I said the highway police stopped her. They didn’t detain her. That was yesterday. Before any of this happened.”

“I don’t understand. Why do you care where she is or whether she drives up here? Why is it important to stop her?”

“I said we’re trying to find her, not stop her.”

“But you are.”

Benford was beginning to look annoyed. “What if she finds out about this? Have you thought about that? She’s already run off like a damn fool. What if she finds out about this?”

But her irritation had a hollow ring to it.

“Seems to me,” Marley said, “we have bigger problems to worry about just now. Why don’t you just try calling Karen yourself?”

“Jesus, Carl, don’t you think we have been? If she’s on the run, she’s probably avoiding answering the phone. But she will answer if it’s from Roger.”

“How could she know it was him calling unless she answered it first? She knows that his own phone is in her apartment in Chicago.”

“Because we configured
this
phone to fake his caller ID code!”

“You’re trying to make her think Roger has been returned to Chicago all of a sudden?”

“It’s worth a try. If she sees it’s Roger calling her, she’ll answer it, whether it makes sense or not. Now can we stop arguing about bullshit and get on with the job?”

“But there is something else. Something you’re not telling me.”

Benford hesitated.

“Right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what is it?”

“We’ve located a tranquilizer gun and a shooter. Turns out the city has someone on staff for dealing with the bears and moose that wander into town all the time. He’s on his way here now. But don’t bring Sturgeon out before I give you the word. Then try to stay clear, so the shooter has a clear shot. I suppose he’ll want to get him where there’s plenty of muscle. In the thigh or buttocks. I expect Sturgeon will go down in just a few seconds, but you never know.”

Marley felt the dread pressing in on him again. “This is really getting to be surreal, colonel.”

“You know what Sturgeon can do. You saw it. We can’t take any chances.”

“What chance are we taking if he agrees to come out? We just put him in the back of a truck and drive him to the hospital.”

“After what happened last night, we’re not taking any chances at all. I don’t want anyone making physical contact with him. He could decide to infect the driver. Or he could decide to make a run for it before we get him to the vehicle.”

“Run where? There are people everywhere.”

The crowd had grown noticeably larger and denser since he’d been inside.

“That’s just it,” Benford said. “Don’t look up, because Sturgeon will see you do it, but there’s snipers on the roof opposite. If your patient runs, they’ll take him out. If he gets into the crowd, who knows what he could do?”