Redaction: Extinction Level Event (Part I) (13 page)

Already here. All those people on-line could already be exposed. Sunnie crumpled onto the table. The teak wood supported her upper body, propped up her limp arms, and cradled her head.

“That’s stupid. The East coast isn’t any safer than the West.” Aunt Mavis walked to the cabinet by the sink and yanked it open. Rows of clear glasses stared back. “What else have those Washington imbeciles decided?” She reached for the cup and pulled it out. It slipped from her fingers. “You’ve got to be kidding me. The survival of our race is at stake and they’re worried about profit margins and dividends?” After a loud pop, jagged pieces of glass scattered over the tile. “The people have a right to know. They can’t—”

Sunnie balanced her head on her chin. They can’t what?

“I’ve already written a press release.” Aunt Mavis carefully lowered her hand to the counter. “No, I’ve only sent you a copy.” Squeezing her eyes closed, she lowered her head. “I understand. But you should know I respectfully disagree with you.”

One press release. Sunnie’s thoughts raced as she connected the pieces. About the Redaction’s return. And the government was going to sit on it.

Her aunt was going to sit on it.

She jerked upright. Aunt Mavis wouldn’t do that, would she?

“Well, I didn’t agree with the government’s position in Kuwait either, and look what happened when that got out.” Her aunt scrubbed her hand down her face. “Yes, it’s perfectly clear.” Sucking on her bottom lip, she lowered the phone before sweeping her thumb over the off button.

“Aunt Mavis!” Heat flashed through her body, burning away her lethargy. Sunnie leapt from her chair. “You can’t mean to not tell people!”

“That’s a double negative.” Staring into the entryway, the older woman tapped the phone’s antennae against her chin.

English lessons. Now. Had her aunt’s mind snapped? Sunnie stormed toward the kitchen.

“Stop.” Aunt Mavis held the phone up like a crossing guard’s stop sign.

Sunnie slid to a halt on the tile. Of course, her aunt would tell people. She wasn’t a politician.

“There’s glass on the floor, and you’re not wearing shoes.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She stamped her foot. “I’m worried about Armageddon and you’re worried about a cut on my foot.”

Her aunt set the phone on the counter. “Cuts can be serious things, especially as medical care is risky.”

Sunnie’s arms flapped at her side. Now what was her aunt droning on about? “What? The hospitals are open.”

“What’s left of them.” The older woman opened the pantry and removed the broom hanging from a clip inside the door. “But that’s where the first wave of infected will head.” She unsnapped the dustpan from the broom’s handle. “That’s if they seek medical help at all.”

Sunnie backpedaled out of the kitchen. This new world sucked! Worse, it showed no sign of improving. “Maybe they wouldn’t go to the hospital if you issued that press release and let them know the Redaction is back.”

“I can’t do that.” Aunt Mavis lowered the broom’s bristles to the tiles and swept it back and forth in measured increments. “If we’re going to survive, I’m going to need all the information I can get. Through the Surgeon General I can access lots of data.”

Sunnie stared at the motion—slow and methodical. Shaking off the sweeping’s spell, she folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot. “You’re trading our lives for someone else’s?” Someone like chesshire8, catsin99 or nymetsfan1K.

“I’m making a choice to give us the best possibility to survive.” Her aunt bent over the pile of debris and picked up the bottom shell of the glass.

“But...” Sunnie scraped her hair into a ponytail. This couldn’t be happening. “Sending that press release could save one person’s life. Just one. Is that too much to ask?”

“Yes.” Aunt Mavis chucked the piece into the garbage then turned her back on Sunnie.

“God, why do you have to be so selfish?” She spun on her heel and stalked down the hall. Well, Aunt Mavis could let all those people die, but she most certainly would not. She bitch-slapped her bedroom door open and flopped into her chair.

Her cursor blinked next to the words: RDXON back.

She cracked her knuckles. Back to square one. No one would believe that without proof. She set her hands on the keyboard and worried the ridges on the f and g keys.

So what could she say?

She had to have overheard some tidbit that would prove her case. Where had the butt-headed officer said it had started? Asia?

She added: Outbr8k in Asia.

Picking up her soda, she chewed on the straw. Would it be enough? Asia was far away. More than an ocean. Maybe if she said where... The straw squeaked against the plastic cap.

From the kitchen, she heard the slam of a cabinet door. Aunt Mavis must be finished cleaning. Would she come down the hall and stop her from sending the information?

And what if Aunt Mavis lost her job?

Or her douche bag boss ordered her shot?

Ordered both of them shot? Sunnie’s leg twitched. Maybe she shouldn’t send it. She set her cup down, ice rattled. But could she live with herself if she didn’t even hint at it? She hit the backspace key until the cursor stood alone in the box.

“Did you chicken out?” Aunt Mavis murmured from behind Sunnie. “Or can’t you find the words to tell your friends that nineteen out of twenty of them won’t be here after this thing strikes?”

Sunnie straightened in her seat. “I’m not a chicken.”

“So you sent the announcement, then?”

“Not yet, but I will.” People had a right to know. And if she took a bullet for it... So be it.

“Good.” Aunt Mavis walked into the reflection on the computer screen. She carried a box under her arm.

Folding her arms across her chest, Sunnie spun in her chair. “You’re not going to talk me out of it.”

“I’m not the enemy here, Sunnie.” Aunt Mavis set the box on the desk.

“Yeah, well, with friends like you...” She eyed the black rectangle. Could that be some kind of mind-washing device? Could it make her forget what she’d heard?

Aunt Mavis chuckled and lifted the box’s lid. “Just because I’m not going to issue the press release doesn’t mean I’m not going to warn people.”

Leaning forward, Sunnie peered inside. “That’s a laptop.”

“Yep.” Aunt Mavis pressed the power button. “But this one runs off a satellite link that makes it virtually untraceable.”

Sunnie gritted her teeth as drives groaned to life. Her very first computer had made that noise. “It’s pretty ancient.”

“It’s six months old. Most of what you see is the encryption programs and other stuff Miles glommed onto it to make sure no one could trace its source.” Her aunt’s face glowed red as a Chinese flag filled the screen. “When the Department of Defense’s computers trace the message, it will lead them to someone in the basement of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.”

“China?” Duh, Sunnie. Do you know another Beijing? “But I thought your boss told you to kill the press release?”

“The President and the Republican Party did. And so we shall.” The desktop popped up on the screen. “But Miles sent this laptop to me before I’d been transferred to the military, so he must have known about China and guessed that the government would cover it up.”

She recognized some of the icons, but not the characters underneath. “Is that Chinese?”

“Of course.” Aunt Mavis hit an image of a globe. “The laptop came off a Chinese spy.”

Sunnie rubbed the wrinkles from her forehead. Her aunt could read Chinese and knew spies. “What will happen to the person on the computer in the basement in China?”

“Might be shot. Might be awarded a medal for all I know. Either way, he or she might be able to save thousands.” The web browser opened and a countdown appeared. Three minutes. Aunt Mavis snorted. “Seems this computer isn’t as clean as Miles thought.”

With a few key strokes, her aunt switched from Chinese characters to English letters.

“Miles is your boss, right? And he wants you to leak the information.” Sunnie gulped another mouthful of soda. Her head was beginning to hurt.

“He told me so when he mentioned Kuwait.” The Redaction in Action skeleton slowly populated the screen, and the clock lost another minute.

“Is it supposed to do that?”

“The government is spying on the website, looking for any hint of outbreaks being reported as well as doing damage control.” Aunt Mavis scratched her nose. “Chesshire8 is an FBI agent; nymetsfan1K is either NSA or some black ops thug even I can’t get info on.”

Cool air rushed into Sunnie’s mouth as her jaw dropped. “But, I’ve known them for months... Since the beginning almost.”

“That’s because they’ve been watching you, Sunnie Bright.” Aunt Mavis’s fingers flew over the laptop’s keys. “They’re monitoring me by monitoring you, in a six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon kind of way.”

Yeah, and that made sense on what planet?

Her aunt punched the enter key, and then continued typing.

“What did you say?”

“Check the boards under Did This Happen to Anyone Today?” Aunt Mavis continued to tap on the keys.

Sunnie opened the thread. “What’s your screen name?”

“Mongoose.”

She scrolled down until she found it.

Mongoose: UR lucky you got out. Freakish snow storm here today. Spent the day on Google Maps. WTF is with the smoke in China?”

catsin99: BN breathing that Sh** all month. Heard they were toasting the bodies.

Mongoose: B careful you don’t get sick. Smoke is bad for lungs.

Sunnie reread the message. Had she missed something? “I thought you were going to warn everyone about the Redaction, not second-hand smoke.”

“The Chinese Redaction is a sickness that starts in the lungs and it’s coming here.” Aunt Mavis hit the enter key, waited until the text appeared then touched a switch on the side of the black box. “Done and with five seconds to spare.” The computer died. “And everyone knows the smoke has hit the west coast, so they’ll know they’re in the most danger.”

“And people are supposed to get that how?” Sunnie scrolled up the messages. Sure lots of people were responding to Mongoose’s message, but that didn’t mean they understood the warning. She stopped on Mongoose’s last message.

Mongoose: Timer just went off. Got2 go cuz my goose is cooked. LOL

Nothing there either. Maybe her aunt wasn’t that great at this informant business.

“catsin99 is a reporter. One we’ve used before. She knows the shorthand and where to look.” Aunt Mavis closed the laptop. “Once she confirms the fires and their reasons, learns quarantines are still in effect for China, and that India is experiencing higher than expected casualties along their common boarder... News of a new Redaction outbreak will be the lead story on every network across the world. Catherine Sinclair might just win a Pulitzer Prize for her work.”

“But lots more people will be exposed in the next twenty-four hours.”

“It’s the best I can do, Sunnie.” Aunt Mavis tucked the black box under her arm. “My models show that early warnings won’t make a difference. Not even a single life. I’m just praying my sims are wrong.”

Chapter Twelve

Day 2

David stared at the ceiling of his tent. A light shower tapped on the canvas roof and the scent of wet asphalt and dirt drifted in through the open windows.

Extinction.

Placing his hands behind his head, he laced his fingers together and stared into the darkness. How was it possible that humanity was on the brink of going under?

People hunted other animals to oblivion.

They didn’t disappear from the face of the planet because of some damn superbug.

“Damn Big D,” Robertson groaned over the snores of the barracks five other occupants. “Why didn’t you get blown while you were visiting the CO’s new girlfriend? Did you piss him off again?”

The images of the bug doctor shuffled inside David’s head. Instead of her hunched, white-faced over her computer, she smiled at him from the side of her car. Then the pillow of her bed. A man had to have dreams. “Mavis isn’t the CO’s new hummer muffin.”

The cot to his right creaked.

“Mavis? Sounds a little too old to be a muffin of any kind.” Robertson chuckled. “But don’t count the old broads out. They know their shit or dick as the case may be. In Italy, I once picked up this prosti who—”

“Mavis isn’t a prostitute or selling herself for food.” Christ! David ran his fingers through his short hair. She’d probably shoot Colonel Asshole, if he even tried to blackmail her into paying for her rations with sex. That he’d love to see. Hell, he’d even supply her with ammunition. And she’d do it too. His chest swelled with pride. She’d damn near unmanned the CO with a phone call. Mavis Spanner was a near perfect mixture of brains, bravery and boobs. “She’s a doctor.”

Robertson whistled low. “Colonel Ass has a case of the drippy-burnies? That makes how many STDs this year? Five? Six? The man must be going for a personal best.”

David casually cupped himself. Oozing sores on the genitals were nothing to joke about. Except in the CO’s case. How the man could be so paranoid about getting sick, yet keep getting sexually transmitted diseases was a mystery. The asshole must not put on his raincoat before going into a downpour.

And to think of Mavis with that bastard.

David gripped the side of the cot until his arms shook. “Mavis isn’t that kind of doctor.”

“Guess it’s too much to ask him to stop fucking everything with legs.” Robertson swung his legs over the bed. His body was a wide shadow next to David’s cot. “What do you mean that kind of doctor? Why would he need to leave base and after dark if it wasn’t for sex?”

David clamped his lips together. Colonel Asshole had forbidden him to speak of the purpose of tonight’s drive to the remainder of his unit. Like his men didn’t have the right to know that the shit was about to hit the fan. Again.

“No!” Robertson hissed, springing to his feet. “Ah hell, no Big D! She’s one of them doctors.”

“Put a sock in it, Rubberman.” Their bunk mate grumbled before a pillow sailed through the air.