A Heartbeat Away

CHAPTER 31

General Paul Egan has nothing to do with this package. We used his name to be sure the security monitors took the delivery seriously and brought it to you. The members of Genesis believe that you are someone fit to lead this country. Reply to this message if you agree and would like to learn more. The code to open our messages will be the security login password of your Bank of Virginia online banking account.

Ellis took in a sharp breath as she read the text on the display screen of a handheld messaging device that had been carefully enclosed in protective wrap. It was as thin as a BlackBerry, but somewhat larger. The display on the screen was sharp.

Password?

Impossible, she thought. There was no way Genesis could have gotten ahold of her personal banking password. She purposely typed in an incorrect code, and the device immediately refused to proceed. She then typed in the correct numbers and was directed to two typed sheets, carefully hidden between the bubble wrap of the envelope and its manila outer shell. Printed on the first sheet were the words GENESIS DEMANDS.

Ellis took the package into a stall and secured the door. On first reading, the demands—radically antiestablishment—bordered on the absurd. But Ellis pushed aside her initial impression by reminding herself of the brilliance the organization had displayed thus far, as well as their unbridled ruthlessness.

Who is behind Genesis?

The response appeared less than a minute after she pressed Send.

We represent everybody who values true freedom. That is all you need to know. These messages are encrypted and secure. These transmissions cannot be detected. Have you read our demands?

Ellis reviewed the sheet of demands again, and then sent a message, which read simply:

I have.

The device buzzed in her hand after Genesis returned a reply.

We have communicated these demands to the president and he has ignored us. The virus you have been exposed to is real and lethal. We alone have the treatment that will save your lives. The president, by not responding to our demands, has sealed your fates.

Ellis typed:

What do you want from me?

If Allaire wasn’t behind this, then why were they reaching out specifically to her?

Ellis warned herself to tread softly until the picture became clearer. If the message were really from Genesis, then Allaire had not only ignored their communications, but kept them secret as well. If so, he had placed everyone in the Capitol in mortal danger. Suddenly, the device buzzed in her hand.

See to it that legislation is passed that will make our demands law. Do so and we will give you and you alone the antiviral treatment. You will be responsible for saving the lives of seven hundred of the most important people in America.

Ellis did not need Genesis to explain the potential impact of her being the one to end this crisis. She was more than fit to lead the country. It was her destiny to do so. What Genesis was offering was the path to that inevitability. She thought of William Jennings Bryan, who wrote: Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. At that moment, her choice was to prove that the opportunity indeed was for real.

What is this virus?

WRX3883.

What is that?

Ask your president. He’ll know. He made it.

Interesting, Ellis thought. But the exchange proved nothing. Were she to confront Allaire with specifics about the virus, it might only confirm that she had taken his bait. She needed more certainty than that to proceed.

Ellis typed:

The president has brought in a virologist and tasked him to develop an antiviral drug. He may succeed before I get your bill passed, in which case, you have no leverage.

She wondered how Allaire, assuming he was behind this sham, would respond.

The virologist is dead. Killed when we blew up his transport helicopter. You have no other option.

Not only was that an interesting response, but a most unexpected one as well. Ellis knew all about the helicopter disaster. The explosion shook the chamber walls and incited some panic among an already jittery group.

“Nothing about the explosion will derail our plans for a rapid resolution to this challenge,” Allaire had told a meeting of the leaders of Congress.

Ellis wouldn’t believe him until she had questioned Sean O’Neil. It took a little prodding, but finally the agent revealed that the explosion had killed a pilot, copilot, and a decoy of the virologist who had been chosen to develop an effective treatment for the virus that was threatening them.

Clearly, the president had nothing. His iron-fisted quarantine was born out of panic, which meant that Harlan Mackey’s death was no accident.

Ellis tensed. This was Genesis who was contacting her. She felt absolutely certain of it. If they were to provide her with the cure, she would assume the stature of a savior.

Destiny.

Ellis studied the sheet of demands again. They were ridiculous—over the top. Under normal circumstances, any lawmaker championing a bill with these provisions would be committing political suicide. But these were hardly normal circumstances.

Genesis had organized the legislative demands into three broad categories: national security, immigrant rights, and privacy.

The national security mandates called for the immediate cessation of unchecked spying on ordinary Americans, as well as the abolishment of the Patriot Act, and a rewrite of the ECPA, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The impact of such a bill would be profound. It would make it illegal to monitor communication on the Internet. Wiretapping, in all but the most extreme cases, would be abolished. And the legislation currently in committee to establish a national ID program would be scrapped.

Who are these people? Ellis wondered again.

In addition to the security demands, they called for the dismantling of the immigration and naturalization service, ending all discrimination against immigrants, along with sweeping changes that would essentially erase our borders with Mexico and Canada. They also insisted on the installation of consumer privacy protections, which would make surveillance camera footage a civil rights violation unless it was related to preventing robbery.

This was truly toxic legislation.

But what we have all been exposed to was equally toxic as well.

These demands were coming from Genesis, Ellis concluded. And although she did not personally support any of their proposals, given the circumstances and the stakes she could champion the effort nonetheless. Flexibility was at the very heart of good politics. Once she was sworn in as president, the country would see only a hero—a hero who had done what their elected leader could not.

Even if I were to succeed in passing this legislation, Ellis typed, you could not meet your obligation. I am not the POTUS and therefore, not elected to lead the country, or sign this bill into law.

You are third in the succession order, came the reply. With our help, there will be no one for you to succeed.

Ellis felt another jolt of adrenaline. Her mind danced with images of her taking the presidential oath—images of such vivid and glorious detail that she believed, for just a moment, they had actually occurred. Genesis sounded as if they had the resources to make it happen. She had to take the ride. There was, however, one glaring problem that still needed to be addressed.

It must be me who secures the treatment,

The exchange that followed occurred in rapid succession.

Genesis:

Your job is to get the legislation passed. We’ll provide the drug. You can decide how to explain where it came from.

Ellis:

But this will take work. What if Allaire’s virologist succeeds before my legislative work concludes.

Genesis:

We told you, the virologist is dead. We saw to that.

Ellis:

That is incorrect. He is very much alive. You succeeded in blowing up a helicopter. But with a decoy on board, not him.

Genesis:

Interesting. In that case, we know the man’s location. The matter will be resolved. And you will become the president. Bank on it.