Phoenix (11 page)

That can’t be right,
he
thought
. It can’t be.

Suddenly
the
moans
increased
in
volume
.
They
surrounded
him
,
making
his
ears
hurt
.
He
covered
them
and
spun
around
.
He
was
standing
in
the
field
now
,
at
the
edge
of
the
light
.
The
fence
was
directly
in
front
of
him
.
It
had
barbed
wire
along
the
top
.
On
the
other
side
were
dead
bodies
.
Thousands
of
corpses
,
pressing
against
the
wire
.

* * *

It was dusk the next day by the time Brad
woke up. He was groggy and his mouth held that faint, after-puke
taste. He checked himself and the bed. No vomit. After a few
attempts at sitting up, he swung his legs around and found the
floor. No vomit. He groaned as he stood, thinking he heard voices
downstairs. He stumbled into the adjacent bathroom and took care of
business, then splashed some water on his face and stared at
himself in the mirror.

"That was real, wasn’t it? This is really
going to happen."

His reflection didn’t have an answer.

"That suited bastard is in on it. Who’s he
working for? He can’t be doing this on his own. There’s no
way."

The haggard man looking back had nothing to
say. He was weary, fed up.

Brad gripped the sink. "But why? Why watch
us?"

No
,
it
can’t
be
just
us
, he thought.

"Right, that wouldn’t make any sense. We’re
not anything special. Has to be
all
of us."

Only
thing
that
makes
sense
.

"And they would only watch us because they
thought we were a threat."

Brad smiled at his reflection.

So
who
is
Old
Suit
working
for
...

He padded downstairs, his socked feet hiding
his entrance. There was no one in the living room, but several
voices were coming from the dining room. He recognized all of
them.

"Apparently this new strain has spread
outside their borders, and judging from their response, it doesn’t
seem man-made," Adams said from his corner of the computer screen.
"But I don’t care what it
seems
like." He tapped his head.
"It was entirely man-made. Go ahead, ask me if this virus was
created."

"Calm down," Mort replied.

"Fuck that, I won’t calm down. Ask me if it
was released on purpose."

"Adams, we believe you. We do. But you really
need to get a hold of yourself."

Adams sighed and slammed back in his
seat.

What
a
nut
, Brad
thought, stepping around the corner. Laura sat in her usual spot
next to Mort at the dining room table with the laptop facing them,
and Jonah sat in the corner of the room, unconcerned and
smoking.

"And PhoenTek is all over it," Izzy said,
then she noticed Brad. "Brad! Hey!"

"Hey, Izzy." Brad gave her a smile and kept
moving toward the kitchen. He knew all eyes had turned on him, but
he was only interested in coffee.

Mort cleared his throat. "Yes, they are."

"Hold on," Laura said. She leafed through
several pages of notes, pausing every page or so and muttering to
herself. "I’ve taken everything we’ve found and put them all
together chronologically. This is the hard copy," she waved the
notebook so those on Skype could see, "but I’ve got it all
organized into one file on my computer. I’ve searched key terms and
found some alarming things." She flipped back a few pages, then
looked up at Mort. "I’ve went through this a dozen times, triple
checked and cross referenced everything. One name keeps popping up
in connection to almost every single piece of information or crazy
event we’ve uncovered."

"PhoenTek," Adams said.

Laura nodded. "PhoenTek."

Brad listened to the conversation while
pouring a cup of coffee. He knew the others of the Club had used
their specific gifts to help them track down all the information
Laura was talking about. Were his dreams in her file? Probably so.
He’d never spoken with Izzy about it, but from what Mort had told
him she had the same types of dreams. If Laura was coming to this
conclusion about this thing called PhoenTek based off the evidence,
and his dreams were indeed a part of this evidence…

"Hey, Laura?" Brad asked. He stopped in the
archway between the kitchen and dining room.

Everyone turned to him, even the computer
faces.

"Are my dreams in there?" He motioned to her
notebook with his coffee cup.

"Of course. Why?"

"Izzy, still there?" He moved around the
table until the hyper girl came into view.

"Yep, I’m here!"

He smiled at her little Skype box. "I assume
you’ve had the same dreams as me, so have you ever seen anyone in
suits?"

"Well, yes. Why?"

Brad ignored her question. "Have you all seen
guys in suits? Or felt them, sensed them, whatever it is you
do?"

Adams jumped all over this. "Yes! And thank
you, by the way, for phrasing that in the preferred manner."

"Uh huh." Brad turned back to Izzy. "Who did
you see? Specifically?"

"A young gentleman, quite dapper if I must
say, that’s right I know a few words, so anyway a younger
gentleman, and his suit was always really smooth like it was just
ironed? Perfect tie, perfect hair, beautiful eyes, and really broad
shoulders."

Brad needed to take a breath just listening
to the girl talk. "Okay. Was he ever with someone else, also in a
suit?"

"No but he was talking to someone one time on
the phone. And he was in this facility. I’m not sure what it was,
but there were a lot of uniformed guards standing around, might
have been military."

"Okay, okay." He waved her off and faced
Laura. "You got her dreams in there too?"

Laura glanced at Mort, then answered,
"…Yes?"

"What do you mean?" Brad’s forehead wrinkled.
"Do you have them or not?"

Mort waved one hand and interrupted. "What
are you getting at, boy?"

Brad sighed. "Well, you’ve been jumping to
some wild conclusions about this PhoenTek based off of what she has
in there." He pointed to Laura’s notebook. "So I’m wondering, since
our dreams are in there, too, if you can do your thing," he flapped
his hands, "and tell me who the Suits work for."

Laura stared back at him.

"Is this guy for real?" Adams asked. Then he
got up and left his desk, leaving his small Skype box empty.

The others seemed embarrassed, except for
Mort. "They’re agents for PhoenTek. And PhoenTek is a huge company
controlled by a group like us, and according to Laura’s data,
they’re connected to everything we’ve found. If you’d been coming
to meetings and involving yourself a little more, you’d already
know that." Mort glanced at Jonah, who gave him a firm nod.

Brad blanched. "Oh." He swallowed. "Okay
then. I’ll, uh…" He pointed toward the door. "Right." He took his
coffee and left the room.

Mort watched him leave. Izzy went on to
discuss the Suits and how most of what she’d seen seemed to be out
of time, somewhere ahead of where they were now. Mort let it go on
for a few minutes before calling for quiet again.

"We need to get back on topic. Shouldn’t stay
together for too long a time." He glanced at Jonah again. "So
they’re calling it a new strain of bird flu, correct?"

"Yes. At least, that’s what’s being
reported," Laura answered.

"Alright. And now it’s beyond North Korea’s
borders, correct?"

"Yes."

"And we’re pretty sure it was intentional.
Make sure you understand what that means, folks. If it was
intentional, that says this thing has been weaponized."

Adams’ face popped back up on the screen.
"It’s not the bird flu."

"I’m not sure it makes a difference." Mort
leaned against the table and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It’s
a virus of some sort, and it’s been weaponized. North Korea was
working on something maybe, decided to test it on its own people.
Is this sounding right to you?" he asked Adams.

"Yes."

"Alright. So they tested it, it got out of
control, and now it’s spread. I don’t think it takes a rocket
scientist to figure out what they were going to use it for. But
then again, was PhoenTek responsible for that, or is this a
separate issue? Laura?"

She checked her notes. "They’re making
statements left and right, saying they have a vaccine and are
increasing production of it. Trying to beat this thing before it
becomes a pandemic."

"Sounds like they’re trying to help. So why
does PhoenTek
feel
wrong?" Mort asked. "And why can’t we see
past what they’re saying? Other than the precogs’ dreams and
Jonah’s insights, we can’t figure out a damn thing about them, not
using our extra senses."

"Your agent is invisible. So are they. Those
folks are stronger than the bunch of you." Jonah tapped ashes into
his shirt pocket. "They’re hidin’ themselves and what they’re
doing. Maybe you need to start lookin’ where you
can
see,
instead of where you
can’t
."

"Yeah. You can just ask me. See if I’m
blocked too," Adams said. He was a viewer, like Laura, except he
had somehow developed an oddly compulsive habit over the years of
only being able to answer yes or no questions. In that way he was
extremely reliable, but the downside to that was if he asked the
questions
himself
, or asked anything that couldn’t be
answered with a simple yes or no, he became violently ill to the
point of being useless.

"Alright." Mort leaned back and thought a
moment. "Is PhoenTek connected in some way to North Korea?"

"Yes."

Mort turned to Laura. "Take notes on all
this, please." Then to Adams, he asked, "Is this vaccine for the
Korean bug?"

"Yes."

Laura raised a finger. "I’d like to note that
last year, after all those cases of cannibalism, each one was found
to have received a vaccination one week prior to going crazy and
eating people."

Mort asked, "What vaccinations?"

Laura shook her head and found that page in
her notes. "Different things. None of them were the same. The only
thing in common was the manufacturer."

"PhoenTek," Mort said.

Laura nodded.

Mort turned back to Adams. "What Laura just
mentioned, those cannibals, was that the same thing that’s going on
now? Has the Korean flu already spread and everyone is being lied
to? Has it been popping up all over, for the past year, and no one
knew about it? Were those cases last year actually test runs by
PhoenTek?"

Adams was pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Seriously, one question at a time, man."

"Sorry. Okay," Mort started over. "Is the
Korean flu what turned those people into cannibals last year?"

"Yes."

"Oh, Christ." Mort covered his face. The room
fell dead quiet.

Brad appeared in the doorway and leaned
against it. "So, Adams was right. It’s not just the flu. It’s a bug
that turns people into cannibals. Either that shit last year was
incidents of it being tested, or it spread but was so sporadic that
no one’s making the connection now. Or they have and it’s just
being buried."

"PhoenTek’s connected to North Korea," Mort
whispered. "This sickness is rolling out of that country full
force. Last year, PhoenTek’s vaccines were connected to the
cannibalism shit." Mort held his head.

"Sounds like that vaccine is the cause,"
Laura said. She looked around the room. "What do we do?"

"Destroy the vaccines," Izzy said. "Or at
least disrupt distribution."

"Adams," Mort said, "would stopping the
vaccine make a difference?"

"Yes."

Mort rubbed his chin. "So we need to find out
where they’re making it or where they’re shipping it from. Then
decide which would be the best place to hit, given our
resources."

"Wait a second." Adams held up a hand. "Why
is it our job to stop this? We’re only, what, six people? And
that’s counting the cowboy and the dumbass over there that’s never
wanted anything to do with us."

Brad slid around the doorway and stepped up
to the table. "Isn’t that why you’re here? To
do
something
to stop what me and Izzy have been dreaming about?"

"Yes," Adams growled.

Brad continued, "Correct me if I’m wrong, but
I was under the impression this wasn’t a
real
Book Club.
Because if it is, you guys really suck at it."

"That’s enough." Mort shot Brad a stern look
before turning back to the table. "Yes, we have to try."

"Well," Adams sighed, "I suppose I can talk
Laura through the steps if she can ask the right questions."

"And I can try to fill in any gaps. Between
the two of us, we should be able to lay out a solid plan for the
vaccine," Laura answered.

Mort watched Brad throughout the exchange,
leaving it to the others to hammer out the details. He pulled him
aside and made sure no one was watching.

"You okay?"

"No," Brad croaked.

"They’re right, you know. We have to act
based off of the evidence, Adams’ ability, and your dreams of the
future."

Brad shrugged.