“And those ways are?”
“The version Vincenz’s brother died from was so virulent I’m quite frankly surprised more people didn’t get sick before they put him into quarantine. If what I’m reading is correct, it did infect two other people, both of whom ended up dead as well.” She paused to open a comm panel and sent an image to the screen at the head of the table and used the tip of her pen to point. “This is the adapted virus. You can see the differences here and here. It’s been spliced with a few other viruses. I can’t say with total certainty until I see the virus for myself, but if this data is reliable, what they’ve created is far heartier. And deadly.
“These notes say the incubation period is five to seven standard days and during that time the patient will not be contagious. Creating a false sense of calm. Apparently vomiting is a key side effect, which also sends contagion out in a fairly wide arc as well as serving to dehydrate an already deadly fever. Transmission is shockingly easy from person to person.”
Wilhelm leaned back scrubbing his hands over his face. “So the second virus is longer lasting, not as fragile and created in such a way as to spread to even more people.”
She nodded. “And to visit upon you a public health problem that would strain even the largest, healthiest government.”
“The portal-collapsing devices were bad. This is … this is something far worse.” Daniel spoke from his comm station back on Ravena.
“Daniel, work with our public health people there on some basic preventative measures and disaster plans. Liaise with Hannah. If this happens, we’ll need to be ready on the ground.” Wilhelm turned his attention back to the woman in question.
“You asked me … back on Mirage, what I think they wanted from my head. I believe this is what they think I saw.” She kept his gaze.
He tended to agree with that. She had a brilliant mind and clearly they didn’t want to waste it if they didn’t have to. “Have you seen it?”
“Not this one. But I’m an expert, so I’ve seen and have studied most catastrophic viral illnesses. It’s part of my specialty. There were some bouts with an illness from Earth called cholera, which is similar in some ways.”
“The rumors of it breaking out in some of the frontier Imperialist ’Verses are true then?” Daniel asked.
“I was …” She licked her lips and visibly pulled herself back together. “I was still captive at that time, but from the reports I’ve studied and this data, yes. But this … well, the second version of this virus has markers quite similar to an ancient contagion called smallpox. The second version of this virus here has the blisters, though they don’t show up until it’s far too late to treat. Smallpox was one of the main foci for my research when I was getting my degree. It’s why they brought me on at the Institute.”
“How can all this have happened and we didn’t know of it until now?” Daniel spoke again, his features hard, angry.
“We had some of the raw data. But we’re impeded by the difficulty in getting any real information from the Imperium. Their closed nature kept this a secret.” Wilhelm sighed and looked back to Hannah. “Am I correct?”
“Certainly the fact that the Imperialist ’Verses are closed and information is very closely guarded and censored would add to the levels of secrecy Fardelle’s administration has put into play.”
Wil knew there was more she wanted to say. Could see she held it back.
“Go on. Hard truths are truths nonetheless.”
“In my experience, which is admittedly limited, the military has a focus and sometimes it makes them blind to other things.” She paused and licked her lips. “What I mean is, there’s this old saying about how when you’re a carpenter every problem is solved with a hammer. Viruses aren’t plas-rockets. They’re imminently more dangerous. They’re a strain on local and national government. They’re difficult to treat once they hit the populace. They’re like wildfire in the outback or in an inner city where people are on top of each other. For instance, there were several fast-moving viruses that hit the edge ’Verses in the Imperium fifteen standard years ago. Killed a third of the population in three weeks. My father helped create a vaccine for it. If I can get his academic papers, I might be able to find more. They wouldn’t have destroyed them. Those papers would be in the University’s archives somewhere. But he was only allowed in because of my mother and her citizenship. They refused help from others.”
“So you think they knew this? That they kept you prisoner because of your father’s vaccine?”
“I don’t believe this is about my father. But I believe his work, and then my work, might have touched on some of this. At the Institute I refused to allow them to create a large amount of the virus I had been studying. The one related to version A, as it happens, though I had no idea at the time. I don’t know why they felt they should keep me alive or break me.”
He wished he knew. “Can Fardelle use this virus? The second version.”
“I think he can. And I think he will. What I’ve found seems to indicate they haven’t found the right way to release it.”
“Why not just send some infected people into a transport?”
“It will burn out that way. To achieve a true, totally effective blanket of the virus they’d need to mount a large, complicated plan all at once. If it burns out, that gives the medical personnel time to treat and quarantine. Some people will have immunity; they’ll make a vaccine. No, they have to find a way to launch it wide and at once. Cripple our systems with so many sick and not enough to treat them effectively. And they have to get it here, which isn’t as easy as it sounds.”
“How do you think we should deal with this then?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” The corner of her mouth tipped into a smile and she tapped the keys to show new data on the comm screens.
Julian couldn’t disguise his pride. She’d worked so hard on her presentation and totally nailed it. She had spent all her waking time on the research, calling some of her former professors and colleagues to get help on bits and pieces as she was allowed.
He’d been impressed by her tenacity. This was her arena. The thing she’d trained for for so much of her life. She’d been interested and helpful with their work. But with her work, her passion came through. She was sharp, focused, intent on answers. Her ease showed rather than the strain he knew she bore just making it through each day.
She’d come alive and he realized they were seeing part of the woman she was before. And felt the loss of her, even as he’d discussed with Vincenz that the woman she was now would be powerful in her own right.
But he thought about that loss a lot. Ached for her, even as he found himself irreparably changed by her presence in their lives.
Roman spoke via the screen from his office in Ravena. “Your data doesn’t include any real locations for this research? A lab or facility?”
Vincenz smoothly took over. “Somewhere in the Imperium. Most likely in one of their Edge ’Verses. A ’Verse that is secure, so probably not Silesia as they get more traffic than most. As to exact details? There are still some parts of the data that are encrypted.”
“The decryption program Vincenz already created will come in quite handy now.” Julian said this as he followed along on screen.
Vincenz sent a look that was only for him. Julian smiled and then his gaze shifted to Hannah. She watched him through her lashes and smiled so very sweetly. Which was funny given that just beneath all that sweetness there was such a dirty, dirty girl. He shivered and tried to focus, but he couldn’t get the mental picture from his head. The mental picture of the way she’d been just that morning, arms above her head, bound to the posts of the bed as he fucked her so hard all she could do was stutter out her moans of delight.
“How long?” Daniel interrupted.
Vincenz took a deep breath. “We’re working on it on three shifts. Soon I hope. Within the day or two. This is far more complicated than the last data we had to decrypt.”
“Is
this about the data or about how easily we broke their encryption the last time?” Daniel asked.
Hannah snorted and then blushed furiously when everyone looked to her. “I apologize. It’s just … easily seems an odd word to use. The program Vincenz wrote is pretty groundbreaking. Not an easy thing about it except probably when he hit the button to execute it.”
Wilhelm struggled to hold a smile back. “You’re correct, Ms. Black. We know how hard Operative Cuomo worked on the program. Why do you think I snatched him up the way I did? But the question was more referring to whether or not we were caught and they responded, or whether the data being protected was that much more integral that they locked it better.”
“Fardelle isn’t stupid. He’s shortsighted, clearly, but he has goals.” Daniel tapped his pen. “Carina has given us a great deal of information as to how his inner circle works back on Caelinus. Added to the new developments and the way his security has tightened, I think it’s safe to assume this is both very sensitive data and they know we cracked their program before.”
“Well, of course they do.”
“I want you to poke around a little with these revolutionaries. Figure out if it’s cloud talk or if they have a real plan.” Wilhelm sat back, clearly annoyed by the very idea.
Daniel appeared torn between amusement and agitation. Hannah simply looked at the screen, holding her eye contact with him. Julian didn’t move, content to watch her come into her own again after jumping at shadows for much of the last several months. She found her courage when it was them. That was something he never ceased to be touched by.
“So what I propose is that we head back that way and get some intel the old-fashioned way as well,” Daniel said at last.
Wilhelm sat back. “We’re sending multiple teams in. Andrei, Piper, Julian, Vincenz and Hannah, you’ll head to Asphodel. Use the private portals to head into the Imperium from there.”
Nodding, Julian thought it would be a good team. Now that Daniel had been promoted, he spent more time in Ravena handling strategy. It was a natural progression of his career and Julian believed no one better for that job. But in the wake of Marame’s death, it left two teams a few men down. Smart to put them together that way. Julian had worked with Piper before; the two of them would be able to collect intel as a team. Andrei would plan. Vincenz and Hannah could handle all the tech.
All in all, a smart choice. And he’d get to keep Hannah close by, which would make him and Vincenz feel better.
More talking. Roman was taking hits back home from those vocal opponents of the war with the Imperium. They wanted to collapse the portals in the Edge ’Verses to stop the ingress of any Imperialist traffic forever. But in doing that, it would also strand the farther-flung ’Verses because even at faster than light, a spacecraft would take years to get to any habitable ’Verses. It would be casting them adrift to sink or swim. Nearly two million Federation citizens suddenly abandoned.
Roman wouldn’t allow it. Julian knew it. Understood it and respected it. There was no way he’d abandon the Edge. Ever. The Edge ’Verses would know that and follow Roman anywhere. It was actually smart as well as principled.
“Do you have the time to meet now? Set up the basic plan?” Julian turned to Andrei.
Ellis rapped the table with his knuckles. “I’ll be part of this discussion if you don’t mind. I have a few ideas.”
Chapter 19
She’d never been to Asphodel except for a quick hop between public and rogue portals on the way to Silesia the last time. Now she had the time to take a closer look, and what a wonder it was.
Hannah couldn’t help but stare out the window of the zipper Piper flew out toward her family’s compound. “I’m glad you’re out here with us,” Piper murmured. Andrei sat in the nav seat at Piper’s right feeding her information here and there. The two moved like a single unit. Hannah loved to watch them work together. The silent, brooding male and the vivacious, energetic and beautiful woman he so clearly adored.
“I’ve never been here.” She pointed to a black gray swell in the sky off in the distance. “What’s that?”
“Storm. Big one looks like. We’ll set down and get inside. A storm like that isn’t something to see firsthand.” Julian had his leg resting against hers; she knew it was his way of touching her, calming her. She had no complaints about that. She wore his shirt beneath a sweater of her own. It felt good against her skin. Like him.
Piper spoke, interrupting them. “It’s about ten minutes away. We’re fine. You can tell when it has that reddish gray bloom at the bottom that it’ll be large. Most likely started out in the deep desert.”
Hannah had read about the storms, but it was a different thing entirely to see them firsthand. The descriptions she’d read had nothing on the reality. In the distance the sand swirled, large and alive.
“All right everyone, we’re touching down in just a moment.”
Effortlessly, Piper whipped the zipper around and set it in such a small spot on the ground if Hannah had been standing there, she wouldn’t have believed a plane could have fit.
Several people came out immediately and helped them out before pushing the zipper into a small outbuilding.
“They’ll tie it down. Cover all the places the sand can get in. It messes with the inner workings of everything,” Piper explained.
“I like it that you tell me things. Can I help?”
Piper smiled and took her hand. “Yes. Come on. I’ll show you what needs to be done.”
Piper never treated her as if she were fragile. Though, Hannah thought as she locked the tie into place, Piper had seen Hannah at the very worst. Had seen her that day when Vincenz had come to free her. Then again, Piper had been drowning in her own grief at the time. Still, Hannah liked just how utterly matter-of-fact Piper was. Hannah never felt as if she had to hold herself together so tightly when she was with the other woman. It was a relief to build a slow friendship with someone who never seemed to want to fix her or think she was about to fall apart at any moment.
She only had that with Julian and Vincenz, though they both worried for her.
“Nice job,” one of Piper’s people said to her as he checked over Hannah’s work. “Let’s get inside. There’s a feast waiting.”
Julian approached, his hand out, and she took it, smiling. “Food.”
“I know. You’ll like it.”
The air hummed against her skin as she turned her face up. There was so much chaos in the environment there. The shuss of sand and dirt sliding together off in the distance.
“Do you like how it feels here?” he asked as if she’d said it aloud instead of thinking it.
“It’s raw.” She licked her lips. There weren’t a thousand barriers between Hannah’s senses and the world around her. Not here. Here it was unvarnished. “What’s the smell in the air?”
“Ozone. The spark of the big storms. It builds up and around, like a tunnel of wind and earth. Sometimes so fast it can tear the flesh from bone. Not here, but out in the wild areas. There’s lightning in the center. Out in the wilderness there are patches of scorched earth turned to glass.”
“Really?” How thrilling to see nature do something like that.
“Would you like to see it? After the storm breaks and it’s all clear, of course.”
She squeezed his hand. “Yes. Yes, please. I’d love to see that.”
He pulled her toward the largest building. “Then that’s what we’ll do. Living quarters up here. Vin has taken our bags in already. Come on inside so they can lock down the rest of the house.”
She followed him, breathing in the strangeness in the air.
“Stirred up.”
He paused after he’d closed the door and latched it, setting a seal. “Me? Oh, yes, beautiful Hannah, you always stir me up.”
She smiled, flattered. “Oh. That’s nice. I meant the atmosphere here. It’s twisty and turny. Nothing knows what it wants. So it does it all. Churning. The air, the elements all chur
n against one another. Beautiful chaos.”
He leaned down and kissed her with so much gentleness it made her heart ache. “Your mind is so beautiful. That’s exactly what it is here. That’s why the storms are the way they are. The magnetic fields in the planet are unbalanced. Not in a catastrophic way. But not everyone could survive here.”
She shook her head. “No.” But she could. Maybe.
Inside the place was a happy sort of chaos. She knew Julian kept close, partly because he wanted to and partly because he was worried for her. But this sort of jostling, hugging, laughing reunion didn’t stir up bad feelings or make her uncomfortable.
It was beautiful to watch the people in the room light up at the sight of Piper. She’d built something out there in the middle of nowhere. A family of sorts complete with children running around underfoot.
“You’re Hannah.” An elderly man took her hand in his own, gnarled with age and wasting disease.
Disarmed, she smiled. “I am. And who are you then?”
“My name’s Arch Candless. Piper told me she was bringing you. Speaks highly of you.”
That warmed her insides. “That’s a lovely compliment. May I help?” She wrapped both her hands around his.
Surprised, he nodded. “With what, dear?”
She kneaded, gently, lightly, where she knew the muscles would be tightest, making his tendons brittle. “I can ease your pain. A little anyway.”
He blinked and held his other hand out. Julian moved to the side.
“Why don’t you sit?” She indicated the couch where she’d been about to plop down. He did and she joined him, Julian moved to her other side. “My landlady had Pendelton’s Disease. Do you take medicine for it?”
“Hard to come by out here.”
Not if she had anything to do with it. And she doubted Piper knew of this need, or he’d have his pills.
“The compound in the pills will help keep your tendons from becoming so brittle and painful.” She took his hand in hers again and began to knead, massage, press warmth into the fingers she was sure had spent a lifetime of toil. “Do you use heat with them? To ease the discomfort?”