But they were all pointing their arrows at the wrong target.
When the story of Vice President Bill Collins’s suicide broke—a story intentionally delayed because of the national emergency and while his wife was being notified—there was a moment during which all the screaming, yelling, and finger-pointing ground to a halt. The press and the congressional witch-finders were like a pack of bloodhounds that suddenly had to decide which trail to follow.
As for the president … he addressed the nation again that night with a speech that was perhaps the most eloquent I’ve ever heard. The press, of course, cynical as ever, tore the speech apart and nitpicked the soul out of it.
I was genuinely surprised, though, that over the next few days several of the more intelligent politicians from both sides of the aisle stepped up to support the president. Perhaps they realized that to continue tearing him down would weaken the nation as a whole and likely crash the stock market. And perhaps they had some quiet coercion from people behind the scenes. Mr. Church comes to mind.
But I’d like to think that it was evidence that, as fractured and flawed as our system is, there are still some good people working to keep the ship of state sailing and to steer her out of dangerous waters. Maybe that makes me naïve and idealistic. If so, that’s fine with me. I need something to believe in, something to fight for.
Deep into the heart of the third day after the battle in Atlanta, Junie finally addressed the thing that neither of us had dared talk about.
The baby.
“Joe—?”
I turned to see that Junie was awake. I kissed her tenderly on the forehead and on her lips.
“Joe,” she whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“No,” I told her. “No.”
Then I knelt beside her bed, laid my head on her chest, and we both wept for a long time. My broken sternum hurt so bad; my broken heart hurt so damn much worse.
Later. So much later, she said, “Maybe … we can adopt.”
She said those four words in a small and fragile voice. My breath caught in my throat and for a moment I dared not reply for fear of saying the wrong thing. At times like these even well-intentioned words can destroy.
So I said, “Is that what you want to do?”
Junie was a long time answering. “You’ve never once said anything about wanting kids.”
I said nothing. Waiting.
“I mean … we’re not even married. I’m being so presumptuous. This would never have even come up if…”
She didn’t say it. How do you say “if an assassin’s bullet hadn’t killed our baby and robbed us of ever having our own kids”? How do those words fit into your mouth?
I got up from my chair and sat on the edge of the bed and looked into her eyes. I brushed away a tear, looked at the wetness on my thumb, pressed it into the flesh over my heart.
“I love you,” I said.
It was the first time I’d spoken those words to her. It was not the first time I’d thought them.
“Oh, God, Joe,” she said, “I love you.”
It was all I said. For that moment, though, it was enough. There would be time for the rest, for anything else. For now, this was the firm ground beneath our feet.
It was the only safe place to stand.
4
On an unseasonably cold afternoon in late September, I went to an Orioles game with Rudy Sanchez. I’d barely seen him since Atlanta. As a specialist in postviolence trauma, he was in high demand. When I called to ask if he wanted to help me watch the Orioles spank the Red Sox, he surprised me by leaping at it.
I had season tickets right behind home plate. A gift from Mr. Church, who has a friend in the industry. Rudy and I got there early. Ghost was allowed in because he was dressed like a service dog and pretended to help Rudy with his one eye and bad leg. In truth, Ghost likes baseball as much as any sane American. Being a canine doesn’t change that fact. We bought hot dogs and big cups of beer and for a while it was just the three of us in the box. Ghost dismantled his hot dog the way he does, eating each side of the bun first, then licking off the mustard and relish in turn, and finally eating the hot dog. He wasn’t even finished before he began eyeing mine.
Rudy looked older than his years, and worn to a brittle thinness.
“How are you doing, brother?” I asked him.
He took a bite of the hot dog, chewed it thoughtfully, sipped some beer. Finally, he said, “It’s not just the statistics, you know.”
I said, “What?”
“This thing, Joe … it’s not just about how many crimes were committed, how many bombs went off, or how many died. It’s not about that.”
I nodded.
“This has done something fundamental to the American people,” he continued. “In some ways it’s completed a process that began with the fall of the Towers. It’s like the gradually stripping away of innocence as the result of a pattern of abuse. We’ve lost so much of our optimism, so much of the belief that we can survive anything.”
He sighed and drank more beer. People were drifting into the stadium now, walking in ones and twos, dads with kids, groups of friends. There was a lot of laughter.
“I hear what you’re saying, Rude, I do, but I think you’re saying that because you’re worn out. You’ve been at this twenty-four/seven. But you’re standing so close to it, all you can see is the pain. I think you’ve gotten yourself a nice dose of PTSD.”
He started to object, then raised his head as if listening to something, and gave me a small shrug. “Maybe. I’ll consider that. However, I do think that it’s partly true. We have lost some innocence.” He nibbled his hot dog. “I remember reading articles in psychology journals about similar losses of innocence after Kennedy was killed. And Martin Luther King. And after John Lennon.”
“Violence always leaves a mark,” I reminded him. “A pretty smart guy told me that once upon a time.”
“And now we are all badly marked.” He shook his head. “I don’t know, Joe, but I’m afraid that I’m beginning to lose faith that the good guys will actually win in the end.”
I set my beer cup down—well away from Ghost’s inquisitive snout—and placed my hand on Rudy’s shoulder.
“Sometimes they do,” I said.
He kept shaking his head.
I leaned close and very quietly said, “Junie got the results of her last panels.”
He winced, preparing for the worst.
“She’s totally cancer-free.”
I don’t know what reaction I expected. Laughter, shouts, a bromance hug. Instead Rudy put his hot dog and beer down, placed his face in his hands, and his shoulders shook with silent tears.
“Hey, man, I said … don’t, it’s cool…”
And then I realized that he wasn’t crying.
He was laughing.
It was the kind of laughter that comes from way down deep on the cellular level. On the soul level. A laughter that has to brew a long time before it bubbles to the surface. Sure, there were some tears mixed in with it, but there was also a lot of relief. A lot of hope renewed.
Corny?
Sure, fuck it.
But under the September sun in a Baltimore ballpark, with my dog drinking Rudy’s beer and the stands filling up with people, Rudy Sanchez and I laughed and laughed and laughed. Soon, without understanding anything about who we were or why we were laughing, the people around us started laughing, too.
Oh, yeah … and the Orioles kicked serious ass.
Also by Jonathan Maberry
Novels
Extinction Machine
Assassin’s Code
King of Plagues
The Dragon Factory
Patient Zero
Dead of Night
The Wolfman
Fire & Ash
Flesh & Bone
Dust & Decay
Rot & Ruin
Bad Moon Rising
Dead Man’s Song
Ghost Road Blues
&n
bsp; V-Wars (editor)
Redneck Zombies from Outer Space (editor)
Out of Tune (editor)
Nonfiction
Wanted Undead or Alive
They Bite
Zombie CSU
The Cryptopedia
Vampire Universe
Vampire Slayer’s Field Guide to the Undead (as Shane MacDougall)
Ultimate Jujutsu
Ultimate Sparring
The Martial Arts Student Logbook
Judo and You
Graphic Novels
Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine
Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher
Marvel Universe vs. The Avengers
Captain America: Hail Hydra
Klaws of the Panther
Doomwar
Black Panther: Power
Marvel Zombies Return
Bad Blood
Punisher: Naked Kills
Wolverine: Flies to a Spider
About the Author
Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestseller and the multiple Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Patient Zero, the Pine Deep Trilogy, The Wolfman, Zombie CSU, and They Bite. His work for Marvel Comics includes The Punisher, Wolverine, DoomWar, Marvel Zombies Return, and Black Panther. His Joe Ledger series has been optioned for television.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CODE ZERO. Copyright © 2014 by Jonathan Maberry. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Rob Grom
Cover photograph © Rob Grom and Steve Gardner
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-03343-7 (trade paperback)
ISBN 978-1-250-03342-0 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250033420
First Edition: March 2014
Jonathan Maberry, Code Zero
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