The Cloud Atlas (22 page)

At the mention of
bomb
, I moved a little closer. But I couldn't see those charred fingers. Just the feet, or the toes, really, which were also black. Sergeant Redes had never taught us how to defuse anything with our toes.

“Well,” said the major, scanning the crowd for a sympathetic face, and finding Gurley's. Only Gurley appreciated the art of performance, and how much the oafish Swift was screwing up this one. We all waited for the major to speak again, but I think Gurley and I were the only ones who saw the major give up:
what the hell, out with it
, his slumping shoulders said. But Swift interrupted yet again.

“Look, if you don't know, you don't know,” said Swift, and while he looked around the room to collect smiles, I watched the major prepare to let him have it. He spun around, and I actually flinched, so familiar was I with Gurley's theatrical roundhouse punch.

But instead of swinging at Swift, the major swept the sheet off the second subject.

I could see this body much better, which was much worse.

He was lying on his stomach. His fingers and the whole of his toes were a shiny, brittle black. And black, too-unlike a burn, unlike paint, unlike anything human-was the giant lesion that covered much of his back. What wasn't black was purple.

“I
know”
the major thundered, and I would have smiled at how the drama had so quickly resumed, with such hysterics, except, like everyone else, I felt nauseous. “I know what
fustinian
knew. I know what medieval
Europe
knew. I know what a dozen spies and intercepted cables know is
true
.” He turned to the inhuman corpse and then back to Gurley who did something inexcusable: Gurley stole his line, the best line. But he did it with the panache of a fellow professional, and the major could not help but smile.

“The Black Death,” Gurley said softly, “is among us once more.”

As we onlookers slowly recovered, or simply found other places to look, the major found ways to draw our eyes back to the cadavers, pointing out various telltale signs of the disease. It was when he'd got ten to the men's almost egg-sized lymph nodes that Swift decided to strike again. The major was giving us the Latin etymology behind the technical term for the swollen nodes-buboes,
bubo
meaning groin, meaning swelling, hence the Black Death's actual name, bubonic plague

“Squirrels get bubonic plague,” said Swift. “Rats, I think. Maybe deer. Hell, when I hunt, I-”

“And humans,” said the major.

“Maybe civilians,” said Swift, businesslike and dismissive. “But I got vaccinated. We all got a plague vaccine. Standard army issue.” He looked at the major. “Maybe you're too far back from the front lines, I don't know-”

“I have been vaccinated,” said the major. “And what's more, one imagines these men, given the nature of their mission, were vaccinated, too. Which means we may have reason for concern.”

Not a sound in the room. Everyone had stopped talking; most, like me, had stopped breathing as well.

But Swift was undeterred. “Or that you got your diagnosis wrong.”

The major didn't answer. He looked at Swift, he looked at Gurley and then he looked down, studying with great interest the fingers of his own right hand, which were rosy and pink.

THE TWO “FISHERMEN” had been discovered adrift two hundred miles west-southwest of Nome, Alaska. Their fishing trawler was small, barely big enough for ocean travel. But it was big enough to hold the both of them-one lying on the floor of the bridge, the other slumped over the tiny galley table belowdecks-and their gear, which included almost nothing for fishing.

Instead, there were four wire cages, the size of milk crates-all empty. Two porcelain canisters the size of flour jars; both empty, both broken. Two large cylinders of hydrogen. And a long, bulky roll of material that the sailors who'd first found it mistook for a sail.

It was, rather, a balloon.

After we'd gratefully moved back into the conference room, there was a brief period of debate as to whether the fishermen had launched any other balloons before succumbing. But it was difficult to reach any conclusions; unfortunately, the fishing vessel had sunk not long after the boarding party had retrieved the bodies, books, and a few other items. Already waterlogged when it was discovered, the ship had given little notice before slipping completely beneath the waves.

“There is a possibility,” the major said, “that this was
not
some dastardly plot, that plague-carrying rats just happened to be aboard their vessel already-this, after all, is how the plague has traveled the world for years-and that they were merely bitten by the infected fleas the rats hosted.” The major shook his head. “We'll know more once we've opened them up; secondary pneumonia is supposedly a sign of… manufactured plague, if you want to call it that.” He drew himself up. “But frankly, gentlemen, with the way the war is going, with the desperate, bizarre reports we are hearing from Okinawa, with the sickening intelligence that continues to come in about this Unit 731's medical ‘experiments’ in Manchuria-”

“Yeah, sure,” said Swift, undeterred. “Experiments are one thing. Figuring out how to bomb people with it is another. Which, given the experience of those two”-he couldn't help but pause-“doesn't look like they've figured out yet.”

“Nineteen forty,” said the major crisply. “October. China. Chekiang Province, Jap plane flies over city of Ningpo dropping rice, some paper. Two days later, first plague cases ever to appear in that city.”

“But-” Swift began again, but he was already ceding the point.

“Nineteen forty-one, Hunan province. Plane flies over Changteh-”

“All right,” said Swift.

“Believe what you want,” said the major. “I believe it was Doubting Thomas who needed to probe Christ's wounds with his own hand before he'd believe. You're welcome to stick a finger in…”

Swift waved a hand in surrender.

“Gentlemen,” the major said, obviously satisfied he'd managed to salvage some of his theater, “I don't need much more evidence to know what I believe.”

Neither did Gurley: the cages had been for the rats, the rats had been for the balloons, the balloons had been for Alaska, for America, for him, and he could hardly contain himself. He stole looks at me the entire meeting-
Pay attention! How about that? Isn't this something? Isn't this wonderful? I was right! I told you so!
-looks that I found hard to bear, not because of their content, but because his eye had started bleeding again. I pointed to it, and he dabbed at it with a handkerchief, annoyed.

The meeting broke up with plans to reconvene in five days. Gurley was incredulous at the hiatus and said so, but he was brushed aside. It would take at least that long, if not longer, to decode the materials found on board. And as much as the major had enjoyed the little bit of fear-mongering that he'd done, he was clearheaded enough to know that, in the near term, there was relatively little they could do. The Navy ship that had made the discovery had been quarantined and sprayed with insecticide. The crew, all of whom had been vaccinated previously, were being monitored; nothing yet.

Moreover, it had simply been a stroke of luck that the vessel had drifted so far north. There was almost no chance the plague would somehow have found its way from the boat to the mainland, and even if it had, it would have encountered one of America's most unpopulated regions-the western coast of Alaska. The suspect fishermen presumably had been making for much farther south- Vancouver, or Seattle, possibly San Francisco -when something had gone wrong.

So, then: five days. Authorities across the region would be notified, discreetly, and told to keep watch-for mysterious illnesses or deaths among animals or people, and, of course, for spies. And at the end of those five days, if all agreed it was necessary, a search of the region would be mounted. Though the arrangements for this, too, would take time; the Army had few resources in the area and knowledge of the terrain was scant.

“We do have a base in Nome, and another at Bethel, primarily occupied with lend-lease planes,” the major said in closing. “And ATG- Alaska Territorial Guard-volunteer Eskimo units in a number of remote locations. I suppose we could call on them.” The officers, all white, hardly even registered the comment. “But given the sensitivity of the task and what's at stake, well-five days, gentlemen?” Heads nodded, save Gurley's: five days.

The meeting broke up and the men dispersed. I saw Swift look toward Gurley and mutter something to a companion on the way out. But Gurley didn't catch it. He was busy buttonholing the major, asking for a final favor before heading back to Anchorage. I kept a discreet distance while they spoke. I could see that, while the major was reluctant, Gurley had earned his respect, even gratitude for his performance at the postmortem.

Sure enough, when the room was clear and it was just three of us, the major gave Gurley a quick nod and ducked through the door. Gurley waved me over.

“What time's the flight back?” he asked.

“Wheels up at 1600,” I said, looking at my watch. “Less than ten minutes.”

Gurley looked at the door the major went through. “Well, I told him we'd only look at it for a minute.”

“At what?” My stomach started to turn; I was sure Gurley had asked to see some even viler piece of evidence, like a flyblown rat.

“Their little book,” Gurley said. “A ‘unique code,’ I'm sure,” he said. “Ninety percent of these Nobel laureates think the Japanese language is a unique code.”

The major reappeared. He gave me a suspicious look, but Gurley reassured him with a quick nod of his head. The major produced the book. He didn't allow Gurley to touch it, but he flipped through a few pages, slowly. The major was right; Gurley was wrong: even I could tell that it was a strange code, it wasn't Japanese.

But Gurley was right about something else, something he didn't tell the major, something he didn't have to tell me. The little journal, with its distinctive paper and soft, scuffed green leather cover, was a relative-perhaps the twin-of another book, a beautiful book, one we kept in a safe, back in Anchorage.

WE MADE THE 4 P.M. flight, but were diverted to a lonely airstrip down the Kenai Peninsula due to weather. It was hours before we were airborne again, and by the time Gurley and I arrived back in Anchorage, it was close to midnight. He was spent. Adrenaline had powered him through much of the day, I realized, and excited as he was, he'd have to turn in. I was relieved; I'd imagined he'd drag me into the office for an all-night session poring over our little map book with newfound intensity.

I'd been studying his eye as well. There were no new signs of bleeding, but he looked extremely pale, and had difficulty making it off the plane.

Once on the tarmac, he just stood there and looked around. I stood with him and watched the ground crew attend to its duties.

After a minute or two, he looked at me. “Sergeant?” he asked. “Are we to stand here all night?”

“No, sir,” I said. “If you don't need me, I'll be heading off to-”

“Of course I need you, Sergeant. Do you think I'm going to drive myself downtown? Find us a damn jeep.”

“It's close to midnight, sir,” I said. “Standing orders are-unofficial traffic is restricted to-”

“A jeep, Sergeant.
That
is an order.”

On the pretext of speeding Gurley to medical care, I commandeered a jeep. I actually did drive toward the base hospital, but as soon as Gurley realized what I was doing, he redirected me toward the main gate. He waved off the gate sentry and then we were bouncing along the road downtown, headlights out, with only the stars and half a moon to light the way.

Without my asking or his saying, we drove straight to the Starhope. I pulled up and turned off the engine. I tried not to look up, but couldn't help it. Lily's office window was dark; I couldn't even see a sliver of light that might indicate she merely had the blackout shade pulled.

“Oh my God.” She'd materialized beside Gurley while I'd been staring up at the window. After all this time, it seemed fitting that the first time we'd see each other would be like this: a sudden apparition. I gripped the steering wheel, worried now that I'd be the one to black out, not Gurley. She gave me half a look that wasn't angry or accusatory or even wistful, just concerned. Then she turned to Gurley, and I saw what I'd missed all these weeks.

They'd fallen in love. Maybe Gurley had cared for her before- cared enough to shop for that ring-maybe she had cared for Gurley. But something had happened. I checked her hand: no ring, but there was a married familiarity to their movements (or so it appeared to this wise teen).

I watched, in awe, aghast, as she put a hand to his cheek, while Gurley feebly attempted to stop her. I watched as he relented, sank back in his seat, and closed his eyes. And then I watched her hands move lightly around his face, his hair, his head, examining, comforting-and maybe, healing. I knew, or remembered, that magic.

I had to look away. But I kept turning back, mystified, horrified. I might as well have been watching them make love. She was too beautiful, her hands too gentle, and Gurley impossibly peaceful.

She helped him from the car. Gurley hadn't said a word since we'd left the base, and now he only grunted a bit, sucked in a rapid breath or two. It finally occurred to me that it couldn't just have been his eye; his uniform was likely concealing a dozen more injuries. I sat and watched her walk him to the entrance. Then she stopped, turned around. I looked up: yes, yes? She carefully lowered Gurley until he was seated on the stoop, and then walked back to me.

Later
, I let myself think. I tried to send the words to her, invisibly from my forehead to hers:
I'll come back later, okay?

But Lily said, “What happened?”

I sighed and said I didn't know; Gurley had said something about a fight last night in a bar. “You know, the Franklin bouts,” I said, but she shook her head.

She looked back at Gurley, and then back at me. “Where were you?”

“Today? In Fairbanks,” I said, excited just to be talking to her. And a day like today: this was the kind of day I missed her most, when such strange things had happened, and I had no one to tell them to. Secrets? I just needed another chance.