Minutes to Burn

Chapter 53

Samantha hadn't called to check in on her children in sixteen hours. Every time she picked up the phone, she got hit with something new-a chart, a micrograph, PCR results, Szabla calling in with news of the mutiny and the human infection on Sangre de Dios. Though Saman-tha had spoken to Donald on a few occasions, this was the first time she'd worked with him in person. He was an amusing, pleasant-looking man, his wrinkled linen shirt spotted with sweat. They'd quickly formed a partnership of sorts; he sat right beside the slammer window so that they could confer. Their opinion of how to rectify the situation on the island would be key-Cameron and the other troops now in control were in firm opposition to Diego and Derek, with Rex leaning heavily toward the dominant party.

Samantha sighed. "Jesus, if something like this hit the mainland…"

"How do we know it's isolated to Sangre de Dios?" Donald cleaned the lenses of his spectacles on his shirt.

"We don't. But don't underestimate how difficult it is for a virus to spread. Viruses are fragile, subject to the harsh laws of natural selection like everything else. We only hear about the ones that make it- Machupo, Sin Nombre, Ebola. For every virus we've heard of, there are untold millions that die away, disappear."

Donald raised a silver eyebrow, amused. "Viruses are people, too?"

Samantha did not return his smile. "The Darwin virus is not going to be able to infect everything it comes in contact with. It's never shown up in water samples from any of the other islands in the archipelago, and only once in a sample from Sangre de Dios. But now we have a problem.

We have a virus present in a stable life form without any natural preda-tors. It needs the host organisms to survive, and it will spread further when the hosts reproduce."

"The animals are effectively quarantined on the island." Donald shook his head. "I just don't know that killing them off is the right choice."

"The larvae appear to be amphibious, Donald. And the adults are winged. All we need is for one to get taken by a pregnant shark, or fly- unlikely as that seems-from one island to the next in search of food."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, we can never account for when, where, and how a virus will come out of hiding and threaten us. But if there was an island some-where teeming with rats carrying the bubonic plague, what would you do? Wait and observe?"

"If the rats were evolutionarily unique, maybe." He sighed, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "Are you suggesting we support Szabla and Cameron's decision?"

"The accountable virus reservoir needs to be exterminated. We're extraordinarily fortunate here; the ootheca chambers indicate the exact number of disease carriers to be found and killed, at least for this line of descent." She sighed, leaning against the glass. "For all we know, the drill hole off Sangre de Dios only shed the virus for a limited time. Rex claims that the dinos now present on the island appear normal, at least under a standard lens."

She looked at Donald, the sadness etching itself into the lines of his face. "The longer we sit on this thing, the greater chance it will spin out of control," she continued. "The spring months are coming on, and a whole new wave of reproductive activity from the island animals. Diatom bloom, red tides, increased seaborne pathogens as the ocean surface temp rises, El Nino breaking up the inversion layer and drawing rain down on the island. There'll be an explosion of life. With all the heat and reproductive activity, the virus could flourish. And if it gets into mosquitoes or maggots, forget it. Think about when eastern-equine-encephalitis-infected Asian tiger mosquitoes turned up in Florida." She grimaced. "You want to talk about a problematic intro-duced species."

Donald lowered his shiny forehead into a hand. Samantha softened her voice."If this thing hits the mainland…it would spread like an STD. The results would be…" She shuddered, imagining a new generation of grotesquely altered babies. "The effects on humans could be horrid- and now we know it could be a reality."

Donald mumbled something and raised his hands in exasperation.

"We have this virus pinned down," Samantha said. "For this brief opportunity, on this island. Imagine if we ever had this for AIDS, how many lives would have been saved." Samantha's eyes seemed to glow with fearful intensity. "I don't want this virus crawling around that island."

Colonel Douglas Strickland walked down the hallway toward the slammer, and the group around the desks to Donald's right quieted. He approached the glass, addressing Samantha only, as if the others did not exist. "We've had a breakdown in chain-of-command which, apparently, can't be rectified long distance."

"We know," Samantha said. "We heard."

"That's not even the biggest concern," he continued. "We can straighten that out back here. However, the latest developments regarding the Darwin virus…" He grimaced his stern grimace. "We're debating what degree of force the crisis necessitates."

Samantha frowned. "Degree of force?" she repeated.

"All the life on that island is potentially dangerous. We have to assume a worst-case scenario."

"But the rest of the fauna appear to be normal," Donald broke in. "We're even questioning if the dinoflagellates are still infected."

"But we don't know for sure."

"We never know for sure," Samantha said. "That's why we should do this in a limited way to preserve the island life. Euthanize the animals we know are infected, and then run tests on the plants, animals, and water to make sure they're clean."

Strickland laughed, a loud, hearty laugh. Samantha realized she had never even seen him smile before. His laughter had no element of spon-taneity. "Oh yes," he said, once his laughter died down. "I'll just commit another squad of men to this endeavor from our copious resources. Per-haps pull them from Quito where they're de facto running the nation."

Strickland's smile dropped from his face. "I want those drill holes closed over and the island sterilized."

Donald stood up. "That doesn't make any-"

Strickland stared at him, pushing him back down into his seat with his eyes.

Samantha rose, pressing her hands against the window. "What if we could guarantee that the virus reservoir was exterminated? Would you spare the island?"

"Top brass are flying in tomorrow afternoon. We'll decide our plan of action then."

"What about my request to get that crew off the island?" Donald asked.

"If memory serves, Dr. Denton," Strickland said, "you were the one so anxious to get those men on the island." He turned on his heel. "We're having air asset complications, but we'll be able to get a helo to your men by 2200 on the thirty-first."

"That may not be soon enough."

"Well, Dr. Denton," Strickland said. "In light of the amount of shit in which we would appear to have landed, it'll have to be."

Derek had temporarily deactivated his transmitter, so the page from Samantha defaulted to Cameron, as his buddy. She'd been gathering fire-wood at the forest's edge, alone. The others were around the base. Cameron could see from their posture they were all uncomfortably aware of Cameron and Derek's tent. She didn't blame them. The flap was zipped, and Derek hadn't made a sound since retiring; she'd been tempted to peek inside to make sure he was still there.

When she clicked on, she heard Samantha's loud voice ring through the crackle. "Samantha here. Dr. Everett. Who's this?"

"Cameron Kates."

"You the one asking all the sensible questions earlier?"

"Yes," Cameron said. "I suppose so." I've got higher stakes, she thought.

"I have some tough news," Samantha said. Something in her voice was immensely comforting without being condescending. Cameron lis-tened carefully as Samantha filled her in on her conversations with Strickland and Donald.

Cameron took a deep breath. "As you already know, we sort of reached that conclusion on our end as well."

"Donald took it heavy," Samantha said. "It won't be easy with the sci-entists. And you're going to need their help. If need be, I can bottom-line them on the decisions of my ever-astute superiors."

"I don't think that'll be necessary. I can handle it."

"Page me if you need anything."

"Thank you. But I won't."

There was a long pause. And then, "Cameron?"

"Yes?"

"Good luck." Samantha clicked off, and Cameron took a moment to collect herself before returning to the others. They'd noticed her talking but had given her space. She walked back with an armful of branches, and the others watched her expectantly. The fire was almost out, a glowing heap of embers. She caught Diego's eye. "Samantha and Donald back our decision to take out the remaining larvae."

Diego took the news calmly, with an air of mournfulness. "Why?" he asked.

She dropped the wood. "Because they're pretty sure that if we can't exterminate the virus reservoir and provide damn good evidence that the water samples are virus-clear by 2200 on Monday, there's not gonna be an island left to argue over."

Rex exhaled in a sharp sigh. Diego eased himself down onto a log.

When Savage looked up, his eyes were flat and dark like water-smooth stones. "Sometimes you have to destroy a village to save it," he said.