CHAPTER 63
Somewhere off the coast of Ceuta
Mediterranean Sea
David led Kate up the stairs to the upper deck where the four men were waiting. Kamau and Shaw stood and paced impatiently; Chang and Janus sat, staring out the boat’s windows like nothing was amiss.
David focused on Kamau. “How much fuel do we have left?”
“Less than a quarter of total capacity.”
“Range?”
“Depends on our speed—”
“Can we make it to the coast?”
Kamau wavered. That made David nervous. “Assuming we fix the leak, I think so, but there is no guarantee that we will find fuel there.”
“We’re sitting ducks out here,” Shaw said. “This luxury liner is the juiciest bait on the Med. Pirates will be on us within hours, certainly by sunrise.”
David wanted to rebut the argument, but… it was true. In the post-plague world, for those that had survived the initial outbreak and avoided the Immari or the Orchid Districts, the seas were safer than the shore. A lot of people were waiting the plague out on boats scattered across the Mediterranean. Survivors could fish and catch rainwater—a lot of it on a boat this big. The one-hundred-thirty-foot-long motor yacht was irresistible bait, and it would draw pirates.
When David didn’t respond, Shaw continued. “Kate, I need to use your sat phone. I’ll have my government airlift us out of here within hours. You know we’re racing the clock here. We’ll be in London soon. You can continue your research there and hopefully save some lives.”
Chang and Janus both stood. “We’d like to join you—”
“Nobody’s going anywhere,” David said.
“We’ve been doing our own research,” Chang said.
“What sort of research?” Kate asked.
“Research on a cure,” Janus said. “We were close to a permanent cure, or at the very least, an Orchid alternative. We have worked in secret, withholding our findings from the Immari.”
“The treatment you gave Martin,” Kate said.
“Yes,” Chang said. “That was our latest prototype. It’s not one-hundred-percent effective, but it was worth a shot.”
Kate whispered in David’s ear. “Can I speak with you?”
Below deck, Kate turned to David and said flatly, “You know Shaw is right.”
David stared out the window. Shaw’s option was their best. David couldn’t take Kate back to Ceuta. Everyone would know who she was. The brunette look wouldn’t fool anyone. She wouldn’t be safe there. If word got out that she was in Ceuta, the entire world would storm the base.
David wanted to throw the other men off the boat, find a small island, escape there with Kate, and wait until the world was fit to live in again. Or better yet, stay there forever.
Is that my fear: losing her? Letting her go? Not seeing her again? He wondered what he would do in London. He was likely a wanted fugitive, but he could probably sort that out.
But… if Shaw had killed Martin, if he had cut the fuel line to set this up, David would be delivering Kate to him.
“Let me think about it,” David said, still not looking at Kate.
“David, what’s there to think about? Come with us.”
“Just… give me a few hours, Kate. Let us fix the boat.”
David thought Kate was going to press him, but she eyed him for a moment, then nodded. “While you do that, I want to work with Chang and Janus. I want to show them Martin’s notes. They’re written in a code I haven’t been able to break.”
David had to smile. In Jakarta, Martin had sent him a coded message that had set the entire chain of events of the past few months in motion. The old man had been trying to warn David, but he and his team hadn’t unraveled the message fast enough. “Martin did love his codes.” David considered the implications. It certainly helped his cause: Kate could be making progress on a cure while he stewed on what to do.
“Just make sure they don’t make any phone calls,” he said.
Kate had spent the last hour discussing Martin’s notes with Doctors Chang and Janus. Both men had listened intently, occasionally raising their hands and asking a question.
When Kate finished, they presented their own research, beginning with a bit of their personal backgrounds. Both men stood when they presented to the group.
Kate thought that Dr. Chang’s story was very much like Martin’s. Shen Chang was sixty-one and had joined Immari Research right out of medical school. He had been enamored with the research, with the possibilities, but had soon learned the truth about the Immari. He had spent his career trying to prevent the Immari’s worst atrocities, but ultimately, like Martin, he was trapped and had failed.
“There’s something I need to tell you, Dr. Warner. And I will completely understand if you no longer wish to work with me. I was the chief scientist as the Qino Immari facility. I was on site the day they put you in the Bell room.”
A long silence passed and finally Kate said, “We’re working on the same side now. Let’s focus on the work at hand. On finding the cure.”
“I’d like that very much. There is one other thing. You look… very familiar to me. I wonder if we’ve met.”
Kate studied his face. “I… don’t think so.”
“Ah, well, my memory isn’t what it used to be, Dr. Warner.”
“Call me Kate. Both of you.”
When Chang finished, Janus shared his story. Dr. Arthur Janus was an evolutionary biologist and virologist with an interest in viral evolution—the study of how viruses mutate and adapt.
“I was on assignment for the World Health Organization in Algiers when the plague hit,” Janus said. “I barely got out. I made my way to Ceuta. The Immari sorted me there, and I was placed on the plague barge, assigned to be Dr. Chang’s assistant.”
Dr. Chang laughed. “But it was I who has done the assisting since then. Dr. Janus is the genius on our team. He’s responsible for the breakthroughs.”
Each man tried to deflect the credit.
After that they described their research and their approach. Kate was blown away. The men had tackled the plague from another angle—looking for similarities to past outbreaks and trying to find someone with natural disease resistance who might have a genetic anomaly that provided immunity to the plague.
Janus made some tea and handed it out, and now they sat, sipping their tea and talking in turn. After each person spoke, they paused to consider the others’ assertions.
Disagreements were never direct. It was so nice, Kate thought. The relaxed environment and collegiality made it so much easier to focus on the work, the theories.
All their civility aside, the group was, however, making no progress on Martin’s notes.
Their work had now focused on one particular page that contained some sort of code:
PIE = Immaru?
535…1257 = Second Toba? New Delivery System?
Adam => Flood/A$ Falls => Toba 2 => KBW
Alpha => Missed Delta? => Delta => Omega
70K YA => 12.5K YA => 535…1257 => 1918…1979
Missing Alpha Leads to Treasure of Atlantis?
Theories had been thrown around, and collectively shot down. Kate had begun to fear they were out of ideas.
Periodically, she heard banging from the engine room below, which was inevitably followed by a bout of cursing, always Shaw and David at each other. It only ended when Kamau spoke up in his deep baritone voice, always the same refrain interrupting the chorus of cursing and clanging: “Gentlemen, please!”
Kate wondered if there would be anything of the engine left when they were done.
Overall it sounded like a bar brawl belowdecks and a book club up above.
After yet another bout of intense banging and a final “Gentlemen, please!” from Kamau, David emerged from below, covered in grease.
“We’re almost there,” he said. “But that’s all the good news. We don’t have enough fuel to make it to the coast.”
Kate nodded. She considered bringing up Shaw’s plan to call his government, but she decided now wasn’t the time. David still seemed wound up. What would they do if these “pirates” showed up? Race down to their room, pass out guns and hope they could repel them? And that whoever killed Martin didn’t take a shot at her or David in the crossfire?
David headed toward the galley, probably to wash himself up.
Janus set his teacup down. “The part that puzzles me most is PIE = Immaru? It seems almost a comedic reference. Perhaps it is meant to throw off any nefarious readers? A sort of camouflage. We should consider omitting it—”
“What did you say?” David was out of the galley.
“I—”
David picked up the page with Martin’s code with his greasy hand.
Kate tried to snatch it from him. “David, you’re smudging it…”
“You know what this means?” David asked Kate.
“No. Do you?”
“Yeah.”
“Which part?”
“All of it. I know what the whole thing means. These aren’t scientific notations. They’re historical references.”