'Your Operational Parameters Document, gentlemen. Please do not lose it. That would be a grave breach of national security. It outlines the powers you will assume and the tools and equipment you may requisition in the defense of freedom.'
'It's like the Shaper Image catalog,' the Civilian gleamed, 'except with more nerve gas.'
Clark flipped to the back of the document. A hefty chapter covered when he was and was not justified in using lethal force against healthy civilians. Basically whenever he wanted, he gathered. He just needed to know which code to use when he filled out his after-action reports later. Clark placed it neatly on the table, square with the edge.
He cleared his throat. 'Thank you very much for that presentation, Agent Dunnstreet,' he said, rising from his chair. 'I have some information I'd like to show you myself.' He clicked open the latches of his briefcase and took out the papers Vikram had prepared for him.
'I do so love raw data,' Dunnstreet announced, writhing her fingers together at her shoulder until they flew apart with a dry snap.
Monster Nation
Chapter Twelve
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Re: Mom's Okay, just Scared
So stop calling all the time, k? No word from dad/step-whore but will let you know. Don't come here, coz Ohio is bad, according to the tv. Stay put and safe, bro.
Peace out
ted
[Undeliverable email stored on server [email protected], 4/12/05]
Clark laid a sheet of 11x17 paper on the table. It showed a map of the United States with Vikram's spiderweb superimposed on top in various colors. 'Our epidemiology studies produced this. A woman lost her life for it.' He met Dunnstreet's gaze, then the Civilian's. They had to listen to this very, very closely. It could change everything. 'Originally we were working on an infectious disease hypothesis. That is, that the Epidemic is a pathogen spread by close contact with infected bodily fluids. We believed it began in the prison at Florence, then spread to California by way of a vacationing staff member. The chain of evidence looked good and we believed we understood how this thing works.'
Of course he had looked for a pathogen. It was what he was trained for: biological terrorism. He remembered how he had upbraided Assistant Warden Glynne for letting the prison riot go three days before calling it in. Glynne had assumed he was looking at a new and especially pernicious drug. Drugs were a major problem at the prison, so drugs were what he looked for.
Shame pushed up out of Clark's collar and spread across his cheeks. He should have been more flexible, more open to other possibilities. Countless people had died because he had assumed the Epidemic had to be a disease.
'Then some very smart people thought to actually put the data into a spreadsheet and see what came out. What we see now is that this isn't an infectious disease at all. Whatever it may be instead is spreading in a radial pattern, something no biological agent ever does. Instead it propagates like sound waves or radio waves, only far, far slower.' He pointed at some blotches on the map, places separated by hundreds of miles but which had been overrun by the infected on the same day, the same hour. 'It's emanating from somewhere here in the Rocky Mountains and spreading outward in every direction like a ripple on a pond. Nothing stops it, nothing can protect against it. Wherever the leading edge of this wave arrives, the dead come back to life and attack the living.'
'The dead?' the Civilian asked, glee lighting up his face.
'The dead.' Time to face facts. Desiree Sanchez had finally proved her point to Clark, and all it cost her was everything she had. Enough! Guilt wasn't going to get him what he needed. 'I don't know what's here.' He stuck his finger on the spot in the mountains that had to be the epicenter of the apocalypse. 'But I know it's causing this' disaster to happen. And I believe that given the right opportunity,' he stiffened his spine and stared into the middle distance. 'Well. If something can be turned on, perhaps it can be switched off.'