The Aegis Solution (55 page)

"It is also a fact that somewhere on Earth a man, as I described a moment ago, no doubt weary and
disturbed by the daily, inexorable signs that our species was disintegrating, and following a pernicious
path, was presented with the possible solution: a microbe, a pathogen so deadly that no one on Earth
could survive it. Coupled with the presentation of this pathogen was the antidote, the vaccine – an
inoculation, or perhaps a pill – which could be administered to those of his choosing. To that man, this
must have seemed like providence. It would have been as if he, and those he believed should survive,
were on a sinking ship and there, before him, was offered a lifeboat, a lifeboat known only to him, a
salvation which was exclusively his to dispense. The prospect would have been intoxicating.

"His plan was set in motion. Men and women of his choosing would be invited to participate. If
you think about it, who could possibly refuse the offer to survive after the destruction of the species?
I am certain the minutiae of generating the list of survivors would have taken substantial time to
complete and would have been fraught with drama and betrayal. Any such action, which by its very
nature bestows power, would be. Men or women, offered the vaccine, would have it left to them to
determine whether their spouses, their children, their children's spouses would be added to the list, or
whether they would take advantage of the impending cataclysm to resolve their own petty disputes. It
is indeed a rare individual who would not be corrupted by this opportunity to decide who lives and who
dies."

The picture, painted by Wilson to his small audience, held them in thrall. No one dared speak.

"The two facts we have thus far discussed, the creation of Aegis and the development of the
microbe and vaccine, would appear to be unrelated and proceeding on independent courses. Most likely,
those involved in the doomsday plot never gave this institution a thought.

"To return to Aegis now, we have observed and pondered the evolution of the societal microcosm
within these walls for some time. At its inception, Aegis appeared to be utilized primarily for its stated
purpose. The vast majority of the entrants were those who chose coming to this place rather than
consummating the act of suicide. It was at said time, when nearly all of the residents were of this
inclination, that the so-called riot occurred, an ugly and base visceral manifestation of the mental state
of the group.

"However, over the past few years, we have noticed a change. Fewer and fewer of the new arrivals
were of this nihilistic nature. More and more of them were, as I was, refugees from a society gone awry,
either eager to hide from the outside world or inclined to create a better society in Aegis. Many of us,
including some who stand here with me now" – he glanced meaningfully at Sweezea, Crabill, and
Hutson – "shared the vision of mankind held by the perpetrators of the doomsday plot, without sharing
a desire for the horrendous solution."

The three men nodded slightly, indicating their agreement with Wilson's assessment.

"As the newer arrivals became the predominant population of Aegis, something strange began to
take shape. The suicidal segment seemed to require a progressively more subtle trigger. Their number
rapidly diminished by their own hand, leaving the newer occupants free to construct a more viable
system.

"Yet, this natural course of events was not sufficient in and of itself. The anti-social and the
sociopaths in ZooCity showed no inclination to move out of the way on their own. Intervention was
needed, and intervention was provided in the form of one of Mister Faulk's lieutenants, Doctor Boehn,
a petty and shallow man, someone ripe to fall victim to the power granted to him by the impending
calamity. His initial and transitory urge was to utilize the habitants of ZooCity as foot soldiers and
procurers. I suspect, however, that this utilitarian exploitation was a convenient mechanism to justify
the act of eradicating them. His action in doing so was either part of the script of man's seemingly
idiopathic destruction of man, or an incredible, and I use that term literally, coincidence. I am certain
that he would have seen it as ironic that he inadvertently increased the safety inside Aegis."

"Wilson," Elias interrupted, "are you saying that Boehn was manipulated into killing off all of the
ZooCity residents? And, if so, by whom?"

Wilson smiled at Elias. "Manipulated? That implies the presence of a person. I would opt to say
guided by the inevitable script I mentioned; however, the answer to that question, once the facts are all
presented, is for you to decide."

"Present away!" Tillie urged.

"And so I shall. We believed that Mister Faulk possessed a viable vaccine. Our ignorance of the
truth would have propelled us outward, beyond the walls of Aegis. Had we obtained the vaccine from
his vehicle and administered it to ourselves, we would have traveled away from Aegis and met our
deaths. Yet, as we tried to leave, we found that the exit at the end of this hallway was made to be
unusable by the falling debris from the roof. I ask you, Mr. Clements, as you circled the perimeter of
Aegis, were the shattered remnants of the solar panels heaped everywhere along the wall, or only in the
proximity of the exit door?"

His voice hushed, Clements answered, "Just the exit."

"Another coincidence? Then there is the secret subterranean exit, of which only Tillie was aware.
It was, by coincidence, rendered useless by bats and snakes, even though it had been easily accessible
on her last exploratory venture."

Wilson stopped for a moment and surveyed the faces of his friends. Their minds, in various stages,
were absorbing his message, as he could see expressions both awed and confounded.

"Mister Faulk's presence itself is peculiar. Why, in this eleventh hour of the plan in which he was
immersed, did he feel a need to visit Aegis? And yet, if he had not, we would not have discovered the
reality of what is transpiring outside these walls. We would have overpowered Boehn and his men, and
we would have left to meet our certain fates.

"The arrival of Mister Faulk also necessitated the switching off of the communications blanket,
which has enshrouded this facility, as he did not want to be out of touch with his superiors and
underlings on this final day of their plan. The end result of this coincidence is that we now have access
to the news of what is happening out there.

"And at the time when the microbe is multiplying and spreading around the globe, as is the news
of this unspeakable event, there are those already infected, or soon to be, who will decide that Aegis
might be a suitable place to run, as did Mister Clements and his family. It must be yet another
coincidence that the entrance to Aegis, only in the past few hours, has been destroyed, preventing
anyone, who might carry the disease, from entering and infecting those of us on the inside. And even
that fact, that event, has yet another coincidence wrapped within. The ostensibly chaotic wind, the
downdraft centered on Aegis, is not quite powerful enough to bring down Aegis itself. But, on the day
of the infectious release, after years of steadily gaining momentum, it happens to reach the force needed
to bring down the new concrete walls Mr. Clements had erected at the entrance."

Clements leaned forward. "Yes. If you think about it that way, it was incredible that the government
decided to add the new entrance structure when it did. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a
convenient arrangement of tilt-up panels close to the entrance, only temporarily braced and not tied in
and finished, providing the weaker link for the wind to knock down."

Wilson nodded to indicate his concurrence. "And your decision to erect those specific panels first."

"That's spooky," responded Clements. "I could have started anywhere. There was no real reason
to begin adjacent to the entrance. And we were able to erect just a few before the wind intensified,
preventing us from standing the perpendicular panels which would have tied them together, making the
new structure almost as strong as Aegis."

Tillie spoke. "Wilson, this is all amazing. But you still haven't explained why you think we are safe
from the pathogen."

"Let us review the facts at hand about that. According to Mister Faulk, the microbe is susceptible
to extreme heat and cold. Not only can it survive in our atmosphere, it thrives, as long as the
temperature range is moderate. This precludes the possibility that the airborne malignancy will be truly
one hundred percent effective across the globe. It would be my guess that the occupants of the outposts
and scientific stations on Antarctica and the Arctic will survive the spreading terror. I am certain that
there are other pockets, the beneficiaries of climatic flukes or extremes, which will also provide a
survivable habitat for man in the coming days, weeks, or months. There is one other place, other than
the poles, where the temperature of the air is always frigid, a place where the microbe cannot multiply,
cannot even survive…and that is our upper atmosphere."

"The wind!" Elias almost shouted, the final piece of the puzzle falling in place for him.

Wilson awarded Elias with a smile and continued, "Precisely. For a very long time now, we have
been witnesses to an unexplainable phenomenon. Beginning as a gentle breeze, steadily building and
intensifying, the wind has buffeted Aegis – but not a conventional wind, not a predictable by-product
of some mundane regional weather pattern. Aegis has been the epicenter of an impossible vertical draft,
coming down to us from directly above and then blowing outward in all directions. There is only one
place where this downdraft could originate and that is the upper atmosphere, an environment which,
because of the coldness of the layer, is deadly to the microbe. And that fact, this impossible wind from
above blowing outward upon its arrival at Aegis, pushing away and holding at bay the airborne
pathogens before they can reach us, is the answer to your question. We are safe from the microbe
because we are being kept safe from it, as we have been at every incremental step along the way; hence,
the second script, the second pattern.

"As outrageous as it may seem, as contrary to what you know or believe, I cannot see an alternative
explanation other than the obvious…Aegis is an Ark."



Elias and Leah sat on the floor in the hallway, both still trying to grasp the magnitude of Wilson's
words. It had been decided that it was necessary to secure Aegis and, therefore, the door; but Tillie had
suggested that Matt's satellite radio could come in handy, at least for a while. Sweezea, unable to obtain
from Faulk the code for the keypad on the exit, shot off the lock. Crabill, a mechanic, volunteered to
remove the radio, and Clements was outside helping him as Sweezea stood watch at the rear of the
truck. Hutson and Tillie had gone into the utility room to clear some of the shelves for the purpose of
breaking down the modular steel units. They planned to use the vertical steel angles from the units as
braces for the exit door once it was closed. Lisa and Sam were helping.

Wilson was standing alone in the open doorway, staring off into the distance. Elias thought that
he was probably imagining the chaos rapidly spreading throughout the world.

"Elias, do you think he's right?"

He turned to look at his wife. "I hope so. After all this time thinking you were gone and now
having you back, I don't want to…."

She kissed him, the contact fanning a fire which had never gone out over the last two years, but had
remained smoldering in his heart. He reached up as they kissed and buried his fingers in her hair, pulling
her closer. The veil around them, created by their intense love and passion, was pierced by the sound
of a crash from the utility room.

Elias jumped up and was running to the door, when Hutson, with a sheepish look on his face,
poked his head out and assured him, "It's nothing. One of the storage units collapsed."

"Anyone hurt?" Elias asked, coming to a stop.

"Just Faulk. It fell right on him," he answered with a chuckle. "We're moving him to another spot."

Flashing instantly on the years of training that he and Leah had received, Elias knew that Faulk had
gone through the same training. "Mike, no! Wait!"

Before Hutson could respond, they both heard a scream coming from behind him. He spun around
into the utility room, with Elias arriving only seconds after. As Elias charged through the doorway, he
ran into Hutson, who was frozen, his hands up. As they both tumbled to the floor, the roar of the
shotgun filled the room, the buckshot slicing into the wall behind the spot where they had stood a
moment before. Elias, disentangling himself from Hutson, rolled to the side and saw that Faulk was
holding Lisa Clements with his left arm around her neck, while brandishing the shotgun with his right.
In a smooth action following the shot, he performed a one-handed pump, filling the chamber with
another round, and brought the barrel around, poking it harshly into Lisa's side.

His eyes sweeping the rest of the room, Elias saw Tillie lying facedown on the floor next to a heap
of parts and shelving brackets. Sam Clements was several feet away, a look of abject terror on her face,
her back pressed against the far wall of the room.

"DROP IT!" The shouted command came from the doorway. Elias saw Sweezea pointing his
AK-47 directly at Faulk, using the door frame to shield as much of his body as possible. On the
opposite side of the opening, Crabill had taken position, his rifle also pointing at Faulk. Clements was
behind them, staring worriedly at his wife but displaying the good sense to remain quiet.