Exposed (29 page)

The Slammer

It was long past breakfast by the time they brought in a tray for Maggie. By now food was the last thing on her mind. She picked at the eggs, ate half the wheat toast, took two sips of orange juice and left the rest. There was a weight on her chest making it uncomfortable to breathe, like something heavy was sitting on top of her, pressing hard against her rib cage. Even swallowing became a conscious effort. She caught herself listening to her own heartbeat. She put two fingers on the pulse point at her throat. Did she expect to feel or hear the virus multiplying inside her? Is that what the extra weight was?

Colonel Platt had asked if there was anyone she wanted to call or perhaps anyone she needed him to call for her. Off the top of her head she couldn’t think of a single person. Maybe Gwen. Certainly not Nick Morrelli. Probably not her stepbrother who she had only just met within the last year. How would that conversation go?

“Hey, bro, guess what? I’ve been quarantined with a highly infectious virus. Might not be able to do that first Thanksgiving get-together after all.”

And she wouldn’t call her mother. Somehow her mother would find a way to make this about her with little or no regard about the impact it had on Maggie.

“But Mom,” Maggie could hear the exchange in her mind, “I’m the one dying from a deadly virus.”

“And how am I supposed to explain that to anyone?” That would be her mother’s response but only after first asking if it was contagious.

No, Maggie had no one. No close family members. No significant other. No one on her first-to-call list. And no one for whom she was a first-to-call. When she divorced Greg the exhaustion of that relationship had left her with more relief than regret. They had gotten married in college. He had been a sort of security blanket for her, an attempt at normalcy, a chance to have a real family. That was until he wanted to tear her away from the one thing, the only thing that had ever given her a true sense of being—her identity, her career at the FBI.

She left that relationship, bruised but relieved. But she also left believing she’d never find anyone who would accept what she did for a living or, more importantly, that it would always be her first priority. Adam Bonzado and Nick Morrelli included. Of course, through no fault of their own. Maggie hadn’t quite let anyone into her life long enough or deep enough to give them a real chance. She knew that she was to blame, not them. Maybe she had taken that lesson from her mentor, from A.D. Cunningham, a bit too far. It wasn’t something she wanted to share with Colonel Platt. So when he offered to call someone, she simply shook her head.

Colonel Platt had gone on to tell her a number of things. Some of them now a blur. He explained that the virus had not shown up in her blood…
yet.
He added that last word like a lead anchor. He told her about an incubation period. He wasn’t gentle with her. He gave it to her straight just like she’d asked.

Be careful what you ask for,
she reminded herself.

She knew a little about these viruses. She knew that even if she didn’t show any signs now, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t already in her system, lying dormant, silently waiting.

When Colonel Platt left, Maggie sat staring at the wall of glass, watching the monitors on the other side, listening to their hums and beeps. It all seemed unreal, something totally out of
The Twilight Zone,
indeed. She wasn’t sure how long she had sat like that when finally she pulled herself together.

She kept hearing Platt’s explanation. He had afforded her too many details, probably thinking that her medical background provided her some sort of safety net of understanding. Knowledge did not necessarily always equal power or control. Instead, it sometimes had the opposite effect. Especially in this case where the more she understood about the virus, how absolutely powerful and unstoppable it was, the more vulnerable she began to feel.

Platt had left her with just enough details to keep her heart racing. And his questions ran on a loop through her brain:

“Did you touch Ms. Kellerman? Did you come in contact with any of her blood? Her bedsheets? Did you touch Mary Louise? Did she take your hand? Did her vomit get on your face? Your eyes? Your mouth?”

Maggie knew some of the little girl’s vomit had splattered her jacket, but she didn’t think it had gotten on her face. But Cunningham? Maggie remembered him wiping his face. He was holding Mary Louise when she threw up. Cunningham had taken the little girl to the bathroom to help her wash up, ordering Maggie to stay put.

And what about Mary Louise, that beautiful little girl, crawling onto her mother’s bloody bedsheets, living amongst the ruins for how many days?

That’s when Maggie remembered the line from the note: YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT SAFE ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME.

The words fit his purpose just as Mary Louise and her mother did by sharing the same name and partial address as one of the victims in the Tylenol case. But Maggie knew these particular words were not his. She suspected they had been copied, too. He had pulled that line from somewhere else but where?

She went back to the computer. She sat down but hesitated. She ran her fingers through her hair and realized her hands were shaking. She sat and waited for them to settle, for the sudden nausea to pass, for the pounding in her head to quiet. None of it did. She needed to ignore the swelling panic, push it aside. She had done it before. She could do it again, at least long enough to retreat, to escape, to work.

She went back to Google, and with fingers still a bit unsteady she typed in the phrase, exactly as she remembered it: YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT SAFE ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME.

Immediately her answer came up in a dozen different sites. She couldn’t believe it. There on her computer screen, staring right back at her were the exact same words. They had also been used as a postscript on another note. Why hadn’t she recognized it earlier?

There were other phrases, other duplicates: “I AM GOD” and “CALL ME GOD.” Instead of “MR. F.B.I. MAN” was a close substitute: “FOR YOU MR. POLICE.”

And just as she suspected, the phrases had all been lifted from notes and messages of another killer, actually a pair of killers. They were phrases used by the Beltway Snipers, John Muhammad and Lee Malvo in October 2002.

USAMRIID

Platt would have preferred to put off talking to Janklow until Monday. The commander had put him in charge of this mission and yet he appeared to be watching over Platt’s shoulder every step of the way. How else could he explain yet another message, another order this soon? Platt had barely checked in on his four patients and already the commander was summoning him to his office. He suspected McCathy probably alerted Janklow the minute he saw worms through the microscope, probably even before he had called Platt.

The commander’s office door was left open, his secretary gone, reminding Platt that it was Saturday. He found Janklow in his office, standing at the window, looking out. Only then did Platt see that it was raining. The window framed a dreary gray day punctuated by gold and red splotches of swirling color. When had the leaves started to turn? In the last twenty-four hours he had lost all sense of time, of season.

“Colonel Platt.” Janklow glanced at him then back out the window, as if not quite ready.

“Yes, sir,” Platt said then simply waited.

He had been running on adrenaline for the last several hours. Janklow had the benefit of a night’s sleep. Platt had been through this sort of thing with other superior officers. He expected Janklow to remind him that he had entrusted him with this very important mission and he was counting on him not just to take care of it but to take responsibility for it, as well. In other words make sure Platt understood that if and when something went wrong or leaked to the media, Platt alone would be the one to take the fall.

He kept his hands at his sides when instinct told him to dig the exhaustion out of his eyes. He wiped at his jaw to make sure there wasn’t any leftover milk. He had convinced Mary Louise Kellerman to eat her breakfast only after making a special event of it, an event that included him joining her for Froot Loops.

Despite the glass wall separating them the little girl insisted they count out and eat all the yellow ones first. It had actually been a welcome reprieve—though a bit of a surreal one. One minute he was in a hot zone staring at twisted loops and ropes of virus, one of the deadliest viruses on earth, and the next minute he was eating Froot Loops with a five-year-old. He couldn’t help thinking of Alice in Wonderland sitting down to tea with the Mad Hatter.

“So it’s much worse,” Janklow said suddenly without turning or looking at Platt. A good thing. His voice startled Platt back to attention. Strange as it might be, he’d give anything to be back with Mary Louise, playing the Mad Hatter and eating cereal with milk than here explaining any of this to Janklow.

“Yes, sir,” he said. He figured Janklow was expecting a summary of Platt’s strategy, so he started with the basics. “We still have the Kellerman home contained and under guard.”

“Plainclothes guard?”

“Yes, sir. Construction crew with public-utility vehicles. CDC can handle contacting anyone who may have come in contact with the Kellermans. We can start administering the vaccine immediately. I ordered—”

“You haven’t already contacted the CDC, have you?” Janklow spun all the way around to look at Platt.

“No, not yet.”

The commander nodded and placed his hands behind his back. Platt recognized the gesture as guarded satisfaction. Janklow walked to his desk in the middle of the room, hands still clasped at his lower back, chin tucked down on his chest. Platt knew to wait. Janklow would instruct him to continue when he was ready again.

“Right now these four people you have here in the Slammer are the only ones we know of who have been exposed. Is that correct?” Janklow asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“A mother, a child and two government employees, correct?”

“FBI Assistant Director Cunningham and one of his special agents.”

“I understand the mother is in the final stages?”

Platt hated to admit it but said, “Yes, it looks that way. Her kidneys have begun to fail. We have her on—”

Janklow held up a hand to stop him. Platt hated the gesture but hesitated as ordered. “She won’t make it,” Janklow said as matter-of-factly as though they were talking about the stock market. “Isn’t that correct?”

Platt had spent the night doing everything possible. As a doctor he wasn’t ready to admit failure.

“Most likely that’s correct,” he agreed. “However, I have seen cases—”

The hand went up again. This time Platt had to stifle a frustrated sigh.

Janklow paced from his desk to the window, hands clasped, chin still resting on his chest, perhaps his own version of Rodin’s
The Thinker
. From what Platt knew of Janklow’s career, this was bigger than anything he had faced and probably the most pivotal battle he’d ever face. The man didn’t look panicked or tortured by the challenge. Instead, Platt thought he looked calm, too calm, like a man calculating whether to buy, sell or hold his investments.

“McCathy tells me that this virus jumps easily from host to host,” Janklow said, continuing his leisurely pace without looking at Platt, almost as if he were presenting a lecture on the topic. “That it’s been known to destroy entire villages in Africa.”

So Platt’s suspicions were correct. McCathy and Janklow had spent time chatting about all this. So much for chain of command.

“McCathy says it would take as little as a microscopic piece, preserved, sealed and delivered, perhaps even through the mail, to start an epidemic. Something like this,” Janklow said, “could start a mass panic.”

Platt didn’t disagree and waited for what he expected to be instructions on media containment. He didn’t, however, expect what Commander Janklow said next.

“What if they all disappeared?”

At first he wasn’t sure he had heard the commander right.

“Excuse me?”

“There’s only four now. Two are most likely doomed,” Janklow said, stopping now in front of Platt. “You said so yourself that the mother won’t make it. The daughter certainly couldn’t have spent that many days in the same house and not have the virus.”

Platt tried to conceal his surprise. Janklow mistook it for confusion, because he continued, “We make them comfortable, give them supportive care. Let the virus burn itself out.”

“What about the vaccine?”

“It’s never been proven to be a deterrent let alone a cure. Why risk it not working?”

“How can we afford not to take that risk, sir?”

“You’re thinking like a doctor, Colonel Platt. When you must think like a soldier. Must I remind you your mission is to contain and isolate? You let this virus burn itself out so there’s no possibility of it lying dormant, hidden by the guise of a vaccine that may or may not work.” He avoided looking at Platt when he added, “No one even knows they’re here.”

“We’re talking about the FBI,” Platt said, swallowing hard over a lump that seemed to appear inside his throat. He still couldn’t believe what Janklow was suggesting. Platt was tired. The adrenaline rush had left his body drained and his mind foggy. Perhaps he misunderstood what the commander was proposing.

“The FBI,” Janklow snorted like it made no difference. His chin was back on his chest in his best thinking spot. “FBI—they’re government employees, same as us. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made…” He glanced back at Platt. “For the greater good. In war zones…and hot zones.”

Then he marched to the window and took up his stance, exactly where and how Platt had found him.

Platt waited, hoping if he was patient enough Janklow would retract what he had just suggested. What he was suggesting was that they let the virus run its course inside Ms. Kellerman and her daughter as well as A.D. Cunningham and Agent O’Dell.

In other words, Commander Janklow was proposing they allow them all to crash and bleed out.