Plague (28 page)

Sam sighed. She sat down on one of the seats that was bolted to the walls and put her face in her hands, rubbing her eyes before leaning back and staring at the ceiling.

“You doing okay?” Duncan asked.

“What am I doing here, Duncan? My mother’s in Atlanta with Alz
h
eimer
’
s. I don’t know how long she has left and I’m running off to the jungle with some crazy hippie.”

“Hey, I’m not a hippie.”

“Not you,” she said with a grin
.
“Benjamin. I agree with you
:
he’s clearly nuts but I really want to go down to Peru. I can’t tell if it’s
out of altruism
or just
curiosity
. I mean this thing came out of nowhere and nearly destroyed an entire state. Aren’t you dying to find out what it is?”

“No,” Duncan said, sitting in the seat next to her. “Nature’s
a forest of horrors. I don’t need to know what new way it devised to kill me.”

Benjamin and Cami came inside and collapsed onto a sofa in the corridor. They began giggling about something and Benjamin tickled her; only then did Sam realize they were in a relationship, or at least sleeping together.

“You ever been to South America?” Duncan asked.

“No, you?”

“
Sort of
. I went down to
Mexico
for a couple of years on my mission. It’s like a Mormon
pros
el
y
t
izing campaign. You go on it when you’re nineteen.”

“That must’ve been a
wake-
up call.”

“Yeah, I didn’t even know how to do my laundry and now I was pretty much on my own with just a few weeks
’
Spanish lessons. It was interesting, but it wasn’t like here. There’s no law there, not really. We saw someone flick a cigarette onto the street once and it bounced and hit the tire of this car that was parked at the curb. The driver of the car got out and he was on his cell phone. He stayed on his cell phone the whole time
,
even when he got the shotgun out of his trunk and shot the other guy in the chest. Never saw anybody die until then.”

Samantha wanted to tell him about the first time she saw someone die, but hesitated. It was when she was seven years old. A friend of hers had been hit by a car when they were playing near the street. The body of the little boy flew up at least twenty feet and landed with a dull thud, a twisted mesh of bones and sinew
s
and organs. Sam had been sprayed with blood and she stood frozen in the street, staring at the body.

“Ladies and gents,” Agent Do
nner said, “our cabs are
here.”

They loaded up into two separate cabs, Sam riding with Duncan as the other three rode together in a separate vehicle. The cabs hopped onto a long stretch of highway. They were surrounded by everglade forest
:
thick vegetation with swampy land surrounding it. It looked like the kind of place someone
could
easily get lost in.

There were few other cars on the road as they sped do
wn the highway and turned off
an exit that appeared to just lead into the forest. But they veered left and
saw
a small motel tucked away in a small clearing.

“Wow,” Duncan said, “I’ve seen less creepy motels in horror movies.”

“We won’t be here long.”

They parked and got out of the cabs as Agent Donner paid and then
went to
the front desk. Sam and Cami were put into one room and
Cami
said something about taking a
piss
and ran into the bathroom, stripping down before she was
even there
. Samantha collapsed on the bed, and closed her eyes.

It was four hours later that Sam was woken by the sensation of her cell phone buzzing in her pocket. She clicked it off without looking
at
who it was. Turning to the bed next to her, she saw Cami fast asleep, nude with a blanket loosely thrown on her.

Samantha rose and headed for the shower. She was in there so long that the water began to grow cool and she turned it off and stepped out, changing into a fresh pair of jeans and a zip-up Calvin Klein hoodie. When she got out of the shower, Benjamin was in the room and Cami was dressing in shorts and sandals.

“So Billy’s got someone flying us into Mexico and then we’re heading down
to Peru with no stops,
” Benjamin said, hopping on the bed and mani
a
cally tapping his hand against the nightstand. “Should be a blast.”

“Why don’t we just take a commercial flight straight to Lima?” Sam asked.

“Billy thinks Ralph’s trying to quarantine us and I agree with him.
”

Agent Donner poked his head in. “Let’s go
,
guys
. Our
ride’s here.”

CHAPTER 37

Samantha thought they
couldn’t have found a worse
pilot if they had put out an a
d for one. He had the smell of alcohol on his breath and the cabin had the distinct odor of marijuana. The
pilot concentrated only long enough to get
in the air and then lit a joint and took
a few puffs.

Agent Donner was sitting behind her and she turned to him and saw that he was a few words away from completing the
New York Times
crossword. “Is this plane used for drug smuggling?”

“Probably not anymore. Too many busts, too much product lost. But it most certainly was a while ago. Now they have tunnels underneath San Diego and they just bring the drugs up that way.” He looked to the pilot. “Don’t worry about him
,
though. He’s got a few ghosts in his skull but he’s one of the best pilots I’ve ever met. Well, that’s not true, but he’s competent enough to get us there.” He returned to his crossword.

Duncan glanced to her and then the pilot as the plane dipped down. The pilot was itching his leg. He took back the controls and the plane leveled out.

“I think we’ll die from him before the virus,” Duncan said.

“Unless you know how to fly this thing, I think we’re stuck with him.”

“He looks like he’s nodding off. I think I’ll go keep him company.”

“Good idea.”

Sam watched as he went up to the cockpit and then she pulled out her iPad. She opened Facebook and ran through a few status updates. She realized she hadn’t logged on since almost a month ago.

She read for over twenty minutes
and as she was about to log off, her instant messenger dinged. It was Ralph Wilson.

What the hell do you think you’re doing, Sam?

She hesitated, and then replied,
Still with Agent Donner and the r
est. Heading to Peru as planned
.

Why weren’t you on your flight to Fort Lauderdale?

Long story
.
She hesitated again and glanced around to see if anyone could see what she was typing. Once she felt safe no one could, she wrote,
Were you going to quarantine us?

There was a long pause and then,
Yes
.

Why lie about it? If you would’ve asked me I would have gladly self-quarantined.

I didn’t know that. You don’t really know anyone until you encounter a crisis situation. I didn’t know how you would react and whether Donner would pull rank. Cornell most certainly would have called friends and gotten my order overturned.

You didn’t have to do this.

Yes I did. Where are you right now?

Left
Mexico
several hours ago. Somewhere over South America
.

Sam, I highly recommend you turn around right now. One of you may be contagious.

No one showing any symptoms. Will keep an eye out. I don’t think I could get anybody to turn around if I tried.

Understood.
Have to run, someone in my office.
One more thing, Agent Donner does not work for the FBI. I don’t know who he is
,
Sam. Please be careful. I’m urging you again to take the next flight back to the
S
tates
the second you get a chance. Good luck.

Wait, Ralph? You there? Ralph? You there???????

There was no
response and the green icon had
turned off. She switched off Facebook and glanced back to Donner who had completed his crossword and was resting his head on the seat, his eyes closed.

The plane jerked hard to the right and Sam was flung against the cabin wall. She looked to the cockpit and saw that the pilot had nodded off for a second and Duncan had grabbed the controls. The pilot was up now and apologizing.

“He’s okay,” Duncan said, “just a little tired is all. We’ll be okay.”

He looked to Sam, and blew out a nervous breath. Mouthing the words,
Pray now
, to her as the plane began its decent to a runway just outside of Lima, Peru.

CHAPTER 38

Samantha had always been interested in visiting Lima. Ever since she had studied the Inca culture and their mysterious disappearance. But she didn’t get to experience
Peru
now other than through the
window of a rickety cab, driven
by a man that was drunker than their pilot. The architecture of the buildings was magnificent; the people appeared lively, the older ones wearing traditional Peruvian clothing. Handmade and colorful. The young ones dressing as any twenty-something would dress on the streets of London or New York.

But watching a city pass by through the window of a cab was the same as watching it on television. She was removed from it; an observer. She wanted to go out, eat the food, talk to the people, walk the
streets
. But that was impossible, Benjamin assured her. The next flight to Iquitos was leaving in less than an hour and there wouldn’t be another one for five days.

They
had exited the cabs at the airport and were waiting for the plane to refuel. She stepped away from the others with Duncan and they sat on worn seats and watched the tarmac of the small airport outside.

“Ralph told me something weird,” she said. “He said that Billy Donner doesn’t work for the FBI and he doesn’t know who he is.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and I believe him.”

“Well, one of the things I’ve found
working for the
military is that those secretive guys—CIA, FBI, NSA—they never say what agency they’re actually with
. Delta Force
agents
tell people they’re
mechanics and janitors. They use a lot of deception to make sure no one can track them. He seems like a
G-
man to me. Maybe he’s a spook. Best cover would be law enforcement. People wouldn’t ask too many questions.”

The humidity and heat were nearly unbearable. Sam felt the heat coming off the walls and pouring through the windows. It felt like
a sauna
. She stood up and went to the bathroom. Standing over the sink, she splashed cold water on her face and down her neck, over her arms and chest. There were no paper towels so she wiped her skin with her fingers as best she could and then headed outside again. Agent Donner was standing by the windows by himself, staring out at the crystal blue sky.

“It’s beautiful here,” she said, coming up from behind.

“Yes,” he said, not turning around. “I came out here on
c
e before, a long time ago. It hasn’t changed at all. I like having that consistency. If you leave New York or DC for a decade and go back, you’d think you stepped into a new city.”

She walked next to the glass, looking out a
t a
plane that was getting ready for takeoff. “So what made you want to join the Feds?”

“Duty, I guess. If there is such a thing. Maybe it’s real, or maybe it just means doing something without any rational reason
behind it
. I don’t know. I’m too old to figure it out I guess.”

“How old are you if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Fifty-eight.”

“What? Really? You don’t look a day over forty.”

“I appreciate that, but don’t ever let the exterior fool you about what the landscape’s like on the interior.”

“So how long have you been with the FBI?”

“Nineteen years. I was law enforcement before that, and Army before that.”

“What’d you do in the Army?”

“This and that. Nothing too exciting.” He turned and looked at her. “Can I ask you something now?”