ARIA (44 page)

“Do you have transport?”

“Probably. There’s supposed to be a pickup with the keys under the mudguard down in the lane. I haven’t looked today, though I might have done yesterday and found it had changed into a Cadillac.”

“Manuel, I am with a small group of friends in an airplane over the Atlantic.”

“Good for you. I could do with a trip to a warm country. Are the trolley dollies pretty?”

Ryder looked at Jena and Abdul. Manuel’s brain assumed flights were a normal event. “Do you know about ARIA?”

“I’ve just been told about it by my cabin-mate. Oh, I get you. There haven’t been international flights for several months, have there? Where are you flying to?”

“Our destination, Manuel, is one of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, but we need a refuelling stop halfway. Guess who lives under our flight path?”

“Not me?”

“There’s an airfield near you at Banff. We’ll reach it at eleven a.m. your time.”

“Good God, man. Are you crazy? According to our notes, we’re lucky to have got out of Banff alive on at least two occasions.”

Ryder fell silent. The roar of the engines occupied his head for a while. He had made the assumption that his friend would be willing and eager to help. He had not taken into account the alarming effects of losing memory combined with the trashing of everyone’s life. How could he expect anyone, even a warm-hearted guy like Manuel, to leave a sanctuary from the madness to help forgotten acquaintances.

He tried a bargaining tool. “Manuel, we have something that might stop you losing any more memory.”

“Just a minute,” Jena said. “We know nothing for sure about what the second case will do.”

“I know that,” Ryder said. “That’s why I said ‘might.’”

“Ingenuous, aren’t you?” Abdul said. “But on the other hand, we’ve exposed people in Conwy, same logic applies.”

“Can you explain what you are saying to my friend?” Manuel said, over the debate and engine noise.

“Okay, Manuel,” Ryder said, and waited a moment before a woman appeared on the screen. Ryder staggered back, recovered, and then leant forward to study the woman. “Julia?”

The redhead tilted her head. “Do we know each other—er, Ryder?”

“Yes, we do. You are Julia Tyndall who worked at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Nutritional Science.”

“Hey, you’re better than my diary. Did we have a thing going, Ryder?”

“What? No, no, Julia. Is Karen with you? No, of course she isn’t. And you won’t remember her, let alone know where she is.”

“Manuel says you have some news about ARIA?”

“A second case was found in orbit. It might stop memory loss getting worse and you can remember new things after exposure to it. But we have a biologist here, Teresa Stanwick? She has all your old computer-notes about ARIA and the new virus. In the meantime, I need Manuel to go to Banff and ensure the runway is clear for us to land in seven hours.”

“Just a minute,” Abdul said. “I’ve been checking the flight computer. It says Banff airport was decommissioned years ago. We might be able to land if they haven’t built on it, but there won’t be any fuel.”

“Shit. Where’s the nearest airport?” Ryder said.

“Calgary,” said Abdul. “Sixty miles from Manuel.”

Julia came back on. “I corroborate that Calgary is the nearest international airport according to our maps. We’ll leave soon. I’ll make sure of it. How do we talk to you and Teresa en route?”

“Take your NoteCom with you. Do you realize, Julia, that you should be famous?”

“Why? Have I invented a man with brains?”

“You discovered the alien virus that causes ARIA.”

“But if people have lost their memory, they won’t remember me, and if they hadn’t lost their memory, there would have been nothing special about it for me to become famous over.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Ryder said. “It’s a kind of Catch-22 paradox.”

“What’s a Catch-22?” she said.

F
IGHTING
THE
TEMPTATION
TO
CALL
M
ANUEL
, Ryder waited until the airplane was an hour away from Calgary. The landscape glided past close enough to see individual trees on the mountain slopes, buildings in previously well-ordered towns, mighty rivers flowing into mirrors of lakes carrying their unseen reflection.

A bizarre thought hit Ryder. If he looked out of a log-cabin window and saw an airplane flying overhead, having not seen one for months, he might have rushed out to gawp in wonder at the novelty. But to an ARIA victim, born seeing airplanes, it meant nothing unusual.

“We’re there.” Manuel’s voice interrupted Ryder’s musings. “I’d like to tell you of the nightmare journey. Mostly plain sailing but with some scary shocks. Passed through a township on fire. Groups of idiots running around demented. They threw empty bottles at us. No doubt you can imagine.”

“Only too well, Manuel,” Ryder said. “Is the runway clear?”

“Not bad, but the main east-to-west runway will be clear for you by the time you get here. We’ll get busy now. By the way, do any of you guys know how to get rid of a pesky woodpecker? Woke me up this morning.”

“Is it called Woody?” called Abdul.

“Now you’re back in my memory zone,” Manuel said and laughed. “Yeah, the only way to stop Woody Woodpecker was to chop down his tree. More firewood for next week. See ya.”

“How are we going to organise this?” Jena said. “We can’t invite Manuel on board.”

“Teresa’s been comparing notes with Julia for the last hour, I’ll get her to come up here.”

“And I thought she was busy making big holes in my parachute.”

Teresa wore the face she reserved for encountering a putrid tramp on her doorstep.

“We lower the sealed case onto the ground and re-close the door while they open the case for five minutes, seal it, and leave to a safe distance. We refuel using a tanker they’ve checked out and have ready. They have some questions though.”

“I’ve a few hundred,” Ryder said.

“They want to know if they could keep one of the blocks in the case.”

“No. Next question.”

“Hey, come on,” Abdul said. “Is it greedy for us to keep six?”

“It’s possible,” Jena said, “that the six work together. We might find subtle differences between them once they are examined in the labs on Rarotonga.”

Teresa tapped her NoteCom, making Ryder think she’d already worked that one out. “What’s the chances of them coming with us?”

“No way,” Jena said. “We can’t hang around for a few days for the effects of the second case to work. We could get ARIA—or worse. As non-ARIA, then exposed to ARIA-2 people, we could end up like Antonio.”

“That’s what I told them,” Teresa said.

“How did they take it?” Ryder said.

“They expected it. They didn’t mind. I think they enjoy their life in the cabin. Then they asked if we had any Huperzine we could spare. It’s an enzyme preparation that affects memory. They find it helps them to learn quicker each day and maybe slows the rate of amnesia. I told them we didn’t have any but they were welcome to all our ginkgo biloba.”

“Hopefully, they won’t need the Huperzine once exposed to the second case,” Jena said.

“There is evidence we might not get ARIA even if we did get near Manuel and Julia,” Ryder said.

“Dogs,” Teresa said.

“You thought it through?” Ryder said.

“According to your own harsh rules,” Teresa said, “we should have shot you, along with the dogs in that tunnel.”

“Now that would have been a shame,” said Abdul. “So we might all have some resistance to ARIA, from our contact with Antonio.”

“Only if we assume those dogs were infected,” Ryder said.

Jena said, “Anyway, the GPS navigation tells me it’s time for auxiliary pumps to go on and passengers to get belted up.”

F
IVE
MINUTES
LATER
,
THEY
APPROACHED
THE
AIRFIELD
.

Jena said to Ryder, “We are coming in from the north into the wind. The main runway is north to south so we’ll land on our first approach.”

“I’d rather we had a fly-past to spot potential trouble.”

“So would I, but the airport is on the northeast of the city and I don’t fancy showing ourselves to all and sundry who might be curious enough to come along.”

“Their loss of memory would make a flight into an international airport appear normal.”

“Even so, I’d rather minimise our risks, and I’m the captain of this plane, Ryder. Or do
you
want to land it? Thought not. We’ve asked Manuel to keep the fuel truck at the main buildings while he and Julia hang out at the end of the runway. We drop off the case with them so they can open it and breathe in its heavenly aroma while we taxi back to the fuel truck. By the time we finish, they should have resealed the case and brought it to the plane for us to take it on with the rope and net we lowered it with.”

“Why don’t we taxi back to them and take off north, away from the city?” Ryder was thinking of attracting unwanted attention to the two on the ground if they flew over the city.

“We need to head into the wind to take off,” Abdul said. “But suppose they don’t give back the case?”

“I’ve told them we have to take it on to the scientists at Rarotonga. We’d have to suit up and chase them, shoot them if necessary,” Ryder said. “I’d hate that to happen.”

“It’s another reason for having them at the isolated southern end of the runway,” Jena said.

The Rocky Mountains jutted up into the sky to the west as the plane dropped towards the airport. Ryder counted two parallel runways at an oblique angle to the main one, north to south. Vehicles and assorted debris littered the airport just like in Britain. The detail grew clearer each second.

Ryder’s worry cell came up with another thought. “I know it’s a fine time to ask, Jena, but have you landed one of these without ground navigational aids?”

Abdul and Jena glanced at each other. In Ryder’s opinion, they looked scared. He decided he shouldn’t bother them anymore.

“What about airbrakes?” he said, breaking his own silence rule. They ignored him. He sat back, double-checked his seat belt, and waited. He could hear the two pilots utter warnings and give sharp replies, but he couldn’t tell what they were saying. Doubtless in pilot-speak.

Their exchanges turned to sharp intakes of breath then a loud bang. Ryder thought there had been an explosion rather than just a heavy landing. His stomach lurched as the plane jumped back into the air. Then another bang as the wheels once more hit the runway, skewed off to the right and the engines screamed as they went into reverse-thrust. Ryder heard swearing and shouting from the passengers behind, but the pilots stayed silent, focussing all their energy into stopping the plane. Another minute and it had.

Ryder unbuckled and stood to look for Manuel. “Have we hopped runways? I can’t see him.”

“A ‘well done, pilots’ would have gone down well,” Abdul said. “We are still in one piece, after all.”

“Sorry, yes, a bit scary, but people pay for that at a funfair. Are we on the agreed runway?”

“We’ve left the runway, but there’s no vehicle at this end of the airport. You’d better call him,” Jena said, as she and Abdul went through post-landing checks and prepared to taxi back to the other end of the main runway.

“There you are, Manuel,” Ryder said, getting through after three attempts. “In fact, where are you, Manuel?”

“Sorry, Ryder. We’re not used to being punctual. There’s no TV or radio programs, or work schedules. Moreover, although we don’t remember what we do day-to-day, our bodies get into, or out of, habits. We don’t even wear watches.”

“Manuel, where the fuck are you?”

“Well, we had a bit of trouble with dogs here at the airport. But I brought an electronic bear-scarer I found at the cabin. Worked a treat.”

“So are you both on your way to us, now? At the other end of the runway?”

“As soon as Julia’s finished shopping.”

“What?” Ryder couldn’t believe his ears.

“We found the airport store intact. Marvellous range of whiskies, and Julia found a whole rack of gowns in her size. Here she is...”

Jena said, “You know, I thought people losing their memory would also lose the rest of their marbles. The glue holding their lives together comes apart along with their grip on reality. Tell your friends to haul ass out of the store and meet us halfway down the runway.”

Manuel assured them they were heading for their pickup to meet them. Gustav and Teresa put the case in a cargo net and made ready to lower it out of a door.

Two minutes later, Gustav, suited up, let an orange nylon rope go hand over hand down with the second case in a net. Manuel caught it, carried it a few metres away and placed it on the ground. He waved to Gustav, who waved back from the cargo door before closing it, as an extra precaution. Jena taxied to a fuel tanker.

Risking not wearing suits but with antiseptic facemasks, Jena and Abdul prepared the fuel intake at the plane while Gustav and Ryder ran to the fuel truck and drove it back.

Ryder was relieved their journey had gone well, so far. At least in that they were still alive, intact, and running hard to reach their destination. He had to admire how Abdul and Jena examined unseen machinery, such as the refuelling nozzle assembly, and its electronic control panel, and sorted it within moments. Nevertheless, the constant threat of discovery or schedule hitches kept his pulse racing merrily along. He groaned when he spotted Megan coming down the stairs from the plane.

“I’m going to the shop,” she said.

“Bloody hell, Megan, things are frantic enough as it is, don’t give us more hassle. See if Bronwyn needs anything.”

She stomped back up the staircase.

Jena and Abdul completed the refuel and exterior plane inspection while Ryder, Teresa and Gustav prepared to retrieve the case. They looked up the runway and saw Manuel’s pickup driving towards them.

Jena raised her hand as if to stop them. “Damn, they’re either coming for a chat or running off with the case. We’ll have to shoot them if you don’t stop them, Ryder.”