The Deadliest Strain

Chapter Twenty-Two

Standing at the railing, David could actually see the outline of the squall to the west.

The rain was moving toward them quickly, and the edges of the storm — a single patch of low dark clouds — were distinct against the clear blue sky beyond. To the right and left of the squall, he could see sunlight glistening on the ocean surface. There was no question in his mind that the rain was going to sweep right over them. He shook the folds out of his waterproof parka and pulled it over his head.

This was the first sign of any disagreeable weather since they'd boarded the ship. Everything about this trip had been perfect. Everyone's mood, especially the children's, was riding high. The staff couldn't be more helpful. There'd been no emergencies.

Once again, he wished that Sally, his wife, could be here. She would have loved to see this. David didn't remember seeing Josh this happy and consumed by any activity… ever. The teenager was already campaigning to come on this trip again next year. David knew that Josh had been resisting any thoughts or planning about anything down the road since learning of his cancer. This was a huge breakthrough.

More than anyone, he thought wistfully, Sally should have been here to hear it.

"You got the word, I take it, that our esteemed program director wants to talk to us here," Craig said, joining David at the railing.

"It's going to be pouring any minute now."

The other man looked out at the approaching storm. "Looks like it." He shrugged. "He wants to keep us informed about the news, without bothering the kids."

Parents were beginning to approach them. The kids were all below decks, busy doing lab work with the samples they'd dredged up from a couple of test sites earlier this morning. David had a good idea what Philip Carver's "talk" was going to be about. No television, radios or cell phones were allowed on this trip. In fact, no electronic equipment of any sort, including iPods and laptops, were to be brought on board the Harmony.

A few times since the beginning of their trip, however, David and Craig had gone up onto the bridge to chat with the ship's skipper. It was during one of those visits this morning that they'd heard a Coast Guard report over the ship's radio warning all vessels, commercial and private, that river traffic on the Potomac and Anacostia was banned north of Alexandria, Virginia. Another weird case of flesh-eating disease had been discovered, apparently — this time in Washington, D.C. David had said nothing about it to Josh.

He looked out again at the water, watching the dark cloud moving in closer. It looked as if it was raining sideways.

Having worked in pharmaceuticals for his entire career, and with a background in chemistry, David wasn't terrified by these kinds of things the way the average person might be. There were many instances of people dying across the country of unusual causes. This could be one of those. A rare disease that would have never caused a stir if the media hadn't gotten hold of some pictures and blown the whole thing out of proportion.

David turned around to see the program director joining the group. All ten parents and caregivers had assembled on deck.

"I'm going to make this quick," Philip announced as they all formed a circle around him. "I have just two things to say." He took a handkerchief out of a pocket and blew his nose.

"I don't want to create hysteria, but some of you might have already heard whispers. Now, I know nobody here is from Washington, but I want to keep you all up-to-date. So this is what we know…. There's been another outbreak of this flesh-eating disease, this time just a few blocks from the White House. I just talked to the Coast Guard station at Indian River, and they said there's been only one fatality. Now, I believe our young crew downstairs has been exposed to enough stress and bad news in their short lives, so that's why I wanted to keep the news of this to the adults for the remainder of the trip. How you handle this with your children is, of course, your own business."

There were some nods. No one seemed horribly shocked by the news. David figured word of what was happening had reached all the adults.

"Now, the reason for this get-together…" Philip paused. It sounded as if he was losing his voice. He took a long sip from a water bottle — blew his nose again.

David wondered if the young man had taken any of the medicine he and Craig had passed on to him. Although he kept his spirits up, every day Philip's cold or flu or whatever it was seemed to be getting worse. It definitely wasn't allergies. They were lucky none of the kids were showing similar symptoms.

"Where was I?" the program director asked.

"The reason for the get-together…" someone repeated.

"Oh, yeah. I wanted to get a feel from everyone as far as what our next step should be," Philip explained. "My crew and I are perfectly content to continue with this excursion as originally planned. But if there is any consensus that we should get back to port right away, then I'd like to hear it. This is your trip."

The members of the group were silent for a moment, and then a few people began to comment.

"This is probably the safest place we could be…." one of the parents noted.

"It's not as if our families are infected with the disease. It seems to be rare," was one woman's opinion.

"And isolated," someone added.

"My feeling exactly." David had to put his two cents in. "There's no epidemic to speak of. We don't have entire communities of people coming down with this disease as far as I know."

"I can't think of anything more stressful for our children than to have them exposed to the hoopla that the news people are creating about this," a young mother told Philip. "I was glad to get away from the business in Arizona or New Mexico or wherever that was. My vote is to stay on course. I'm sure the crisis will have passed by the time we get back."

There were many nods of agreement.

"Perhaps you could just continue to keep us in the loop of any other news that comes by way of the radio," Craig suggested. Philip was fine with that.

Like a slap in the face, the first drops of rain hit them, carried on a sudden gust of wind.

"Then it seems that we do have a consensus," Craig summarized, looking around at the circle of people. "So, if you can tolerate your cold and put up with us for a couple of more days, we should continue the trip as we originally planned."

Philip gave a satisfied nod before saying, hoarsely, "That's all I needed to hear. Now we'd better get under cover before the rain really starts."

Harmony rocked against the buffeting winds. As if taking its cue, the rain began to come down in sheets. People cut in front of one another in their rush to get out of the weather. Craig and David brought up the rear of the line with Philip.

"How are you feeling?" David asked the young researcher.

"Hanging in there." He blew his nose. "I'm usually better at kicking this kind of thing, but having to dive every day doesn't help."

As one of the two divers on the research vessel, Philip went into the water every morning to collect samples and take photos of different sites. The other diver was also a grad student.

"Do you have enough medicine to get you through?" Craig asked.

"I used some of those throat lozenges you gave me. They taste horrible but they sure work."

"My wife swears by them," Craig told the young man.

Philip made no mention of the bag of stuff David had given him. David started down the ladder ahead of the other two men, feeling very annoyed.

Don't be defensive, he told himself, trying to shake it off. He should be used to this new wave of homeopathic, all-natural, tree-hugging crap. It all went back to Al Gore and company. Synthetic drugs were bad. Drug companies were evil. Those who worked for them were the spawn of Satan. He should have known that Philip Carver, grad student and program director of the Ocean Research team, would be one of those. Go ahead, Philip, be a jerk. Go ahead and brew up some tree bark, he thought. There's a reason why Americans are enjoying longer, healthier lives. And Josh and the other kids on this boat are a testament to the success of modern medicine, critics be damned.

He descended the steps and turned to watch the other two men come down. Craig was giving advice to Philip on some vitamin-packed powder he'd given him.

"Dad… Dad!" Josh ran over and gave him a big hug. "Hey, you're wet."

"It's raining up there." He hugged the twelve-year-old back, happy that Josh still didn't find anything wrong with showing affection, especially with him.

"Guess what?"

"Tell me."

"My shrimp is pregnant," Josh said excitedly.

"No kidding!" A hundred different options ran through David's mind as to what the correct response should be.

Congratulations?

When will the joyous event take place?

Hasn't anyone talked to you about using condoms?

Or something equally inappropriate. The almost comical thing was that, as the father of a nineteen-year-old and a twenty-two-year-old daughter, pregnancy was one of the announcements that he'd most worried about.

David's mood was starting to improve.

"That's wonderful news, Josh," Philip said hoarsely, stepping down from the bottom rung of the ladder. "Do you know what this means?"

"That means the site isn't dead," Josh answered. "In fact, there's going to be a tomorrow."

"Exactly." Philip put a hand on the boy's shoulder, and they started for the lab area. "We got the samples today from that ocean disposal site. Now we'll constantly monitor those areas to make sure humans aren't destroying the…"

"I take it all back," David whispered under his breath.

"Take what back?" Craig asked, standing next to him.

"The stuff I was thinking about Philip. He's not a jerk. In fact, he's okay."

As David turned away, he realized Craig was looking at him as if he'd sprouted two heads.