The Leaves in Winter (32 page)

Janis stood firm. “From where I stand, you wouldn’t believe any of that.”

“You’re going to have to believe something. Simply believing that’s not possible won’t be enough.”

“I have every reason to think I’m being used. Why else get you to do this?”

“I know.” Faye turned away and approached the border of the playground. “We both have a problem believing people. Maybe that’s why we majored in science. In the lab, we’re able to leave behind the hidden agendas for experimental fact.”

“But you have no facts. Is that what you’re telling me?”

“Wrong. I have no proof; none I can show you today.”

“How did I know…”

“The facts speak for themselves.”

“Go on…”

Faye clenched her fists around the top bar of a waist-high iron fence. “What I’m about to tell you, you must not repeat to anyone – ever.”

Janis said nothing; her tacit approval was understood.

“I don’t know how else to explain it except to say it flat out.” Faye looked Janis in the eye. “Every child under the age of 14 is going to be sterile at puberty…”

The shock of it passed between them.

“…If this problem is not solved, the world is producing its last generation.”

The playground came into focus. Janis’ field of vision filled with it.

Faye leaned closer and moved a hand across herself below the navel.

“My child will be sterile. Anyone infected by Ghyvir-C will produce sterile children. Worst of all, I’m certain of it now – this whole thing was engineered.”

A flash of memory and confusion came over Janis. “No…that’s not right.”

“I’ve checked the DNA. I’ve traced the markers. My God, I’ve seen it; there are millions of cases.”

Janis shook her head. “It’s not sterility.”

“Of course it is! I didn’t believe it at first. I know, it’s too much to fathom.”

“But that’s not right…”

To Faye, it sounded like denial. “You wanted an explanation for the funhouse. This is it. They’ll do anything to keep news of this from getting out. Can you imagine how people would react if they knew?”

“What if you’re wrong?” Janis seized Faye by the shoulders. “I spoke with someone…he explained all of this. He also told me it was engineered. He said it’s called 1st Protocol. It may look like sterility at first but it’s not.”

“Wait a minute; somebody already told you about this?” Faye was stunned.

“He worked with Malcolm…” Just then, Janis realized the trap she might have fallen into. Was talk of sterility just a ploy to get her to admit more about what he knew? She never told anyone about Knockout Mouse; it wasn’t in her deposition. Were they using Faye to extract details of that from her any way they could?

Janis stepped back. “What’s going on here? Are you setting me up?”

“Oh, come on, don’t get paranoid on me again?”

Janis filled in the blanks as best she could. “You already know about delayed fertility. Of course,
Manhattan
,
Kansas
!”

“I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’ve proven sterility exists in the lab.”

“I’ll have to take that on faith, I suppose.”

“Like I said, the facts speak for themselves. If you want proof, then you’re going to have to join me in the lab. We can be there tomorrow. You’ll have all the proof you need!”

Janis soaked in Faye’s frankness and raw passion. She doubted it was an act.

Janis paced into the playground with Faye following.

“It doesn’t line up. I was told people wanted to delay fertility until age 25.”

“You’re missing the point. This is about Ghyvir-C. That’s the reason they need both of us in the lab.”

“I know,” said Janis. “I was told weeks ago that Ghyvir-C was engineered. The people behind it expected concern when teenage pregnancies started dropping to zero; that’s why they prepared studies to release at just the right time to explain it.”

“Like now…” Faye entertained a glimmer of her own doubt.

Janis marched back to Faye to confront her. “So what about Alyssa being special? What does she have to do with this?”

A snarl of what-ifs dashing away, Faye came back to the task at hand.

“The Project’s been protecting Alyssa.”

Janis didn’t have to say anything. Faye could see she didn’t believe her.

“Of all the children whose parents got infected with Ghyvir-C, she’s the only one who isn’t sterile. The DNA markers are different with Alyssa. They’re unique..”

Janis was interested but little impressed. If sterility didn’t exist and delayed fertility was happening instead, then talk of Alyssa not being sterile only reaffirmed what Janis already supposed to be true. Janis changed the subject.

“What about Eugene Mass and 3rd Protocol?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of that.”

“Why not? Why are they bending over backwards to make it seem like nothing is going on? They flat-out lied about evidence that proves the connection between Mass, Oliver Ross, and 3rd Protocol.”

“What is 3rd Protocol?”

“A special agent to start a pandemic. He wants to collapse the population!”

“But why?” The insanity of it left Faye without a clue.

“He thinks it’s going to save the planet. Who knows.”

“You think there’s evidence of this?”

“I saw the evidence! They have it on the laptop!”

“The Senate hearing is closed-door; all they told me was that you’d be having a rough time.”

“I don’t trust them. What if they’re cooperating with Mass? We can’t let them cover this up. Maybe they want him to release a plague.”

“How can you believe that! Anyway, that’s not what the hearings are about. What’s that have to do with Oliver Ross? He had a poultry virus; that’s confirmed.”

“I’m not sure. It tied in somehow. They called it a trigger.”

Faye contended with a swirl of thoughts. “The guy you said worked with Malcolm…what did you say he called Ghyvir-C?”

“1st Protocol.”

“And you say Mass calls his pandemic 3rd Protocol.”

Janis followed the line of thought. “You’re right. The Group behind this is working on a 2nd Protocol too. This Group split with Mass years ago.”

“According to this source of yours…what is 2nd Protocol supposed to do?”

“It puts a cap on lifespan – 70 years.”

Faye had her own doubts. “Incredible. But that hasn’t been done, has it?”

“No, not yet. But I was told they’re getting it ready.”

Faye shivered against the permeating cold but trembled at the thought of wilder possibilities. Her expectations about explaining The Project to Janis had given way to outrageous suggestions in return. Faye was unprepared to process what they might mean. As far as she could see, Janis had no reason to make all of this up. But if true, she could see how certain people in the government might want to conceal it. No matter how a panic might start – out of fear of global sterility or concern about a worldwide epidemic, it’d be better if something so major was handled in secret.

For Janis, the prospect of global sterility was the wild card of worry. Faye seemed so sure of it, even claimed to have worked in the lab to prove it. And yet Knockout Mouse was also convincing. The thought of someone engineering a delay to fertility made more sense than engineering the extinction of the human race. But that was assuming the mastermind wasn’t a madman. Given what she knew about Mass’ plans for 3rd Protocol, anything was possible.

Faye couldn’t stand any more of the cold. Hugging herself, she approached Janis. “It comes down to this. I was told The Project’s goal is finding a fix for the sterility problem. We think Alyssa is the key. No matter who’s at fault, we know the sputnik inside Ghyvir-C did the damage. You might think it caused delayed fertility – we know we're dealing with permanent sterility. Either way, we need to get to the bottom of what’s happening. Both you and I have worked with Ghyvir-C. I need your help going forward.”

“You know me. I won’t work without knowing the motives behind it.”

“Then how about this – the motive is getting to the truth. I don’t care who’s proven right or wrong. I need to know for myself – and my baby.”

A nagging doubt came over Janis. “You don’t need me.”

“Yes I do! If nothing else, I need to study you.”

“Study me!”

“You were pregnant when you contracted Ghyvir-C. But the virus wasn’t what we thought – the payload was taken out of the sputnik. That gave you a special type of immunity to pass onto Alyssa. That’s why we think she’s not sterile.”

Janis thought back through a jumble of memories to make it all fit.

Faye added, “You were right all along! They didn’t tell us the truth about what we were working on. They hid their own attempt to sabotage this 1st Protocol thing, whatever it was.”

“They knew about 1st Protocol? I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to, not now. Just say you’ll join me. I need your help.”

“I don’t know…doing what?” Suspicion fought an impulse to say yes.

“Help me find out what’s really going on.”

“You think they’ll let you do that?”

“We can try! What if sterility is real? We have to do something!”

Janis shook her head. Fidgeting, she started for the car.

Faye had had enough. “For no other reason, do it for Alyssa! If you come with me, I promise you can see her, be with her.”

Janis halted and looked back. An idea occurred to her. “Promise?”

Faye nodded and waited. The response she got was brusque.

“All right.” Janis held her gaze. “But first I need to visit my mother.”

Chapter 31

Bright Hope Farms

South Hero Island
,
Vermont

Clear skies and good omens were never farther apart. One could be seen, the other hardly felt. A day after leaving
Stanton
Park
with a fragile understanding fashioned between them, Janis Insworth and Faye Gardner took a flight north, and then a drive back in time.

Nothing could come closer to bygone days of spring break and shared summer fun than being together again at Bright Hope Farms. While neither one believed a single visit would close the gap between them, a bright sky tested that belief with a late afternoon offering of pastel colors and positive wonder.

Assumptions about hardened hearts or clashes over personal histories aside, they couldn’t help but question how much this trip might affect them. It was a question as unnerving as persistent, at the surface yet unspoken.

Once they drove onto the island, it didn’t matter if they were old friends with new reasons to doubt each other or ex-friends with old reasons to resist getting close. Traveling the last mile to the house left them with very little to say. A leisurely cruise along sunny
West Shore Road
had a way of saying it all.

Tempering the mood was the ever-present reality of what they were facing. The tracking bracelet around Janis’ ankle was gone but federal charges against her had only been suspended, not dropped. Their itinerary had been logged by nameless authorities who put a two-day time limit on their stay. Janis had been released into Faye’s custody while Faye’s every move was supervised to fit into a larger plan.

Both conceded there was far too much to catch up on, and not enough clarity on what was in store. If they were going to be able to work together, somehow they must reconcile an awareness of their bitter past with the looming prospect of a darkening future. Each wanted separate things but needed one another to get them.

They parked the car and climbed the weathered steps to the porch.

The welcome by Janis’ mother was warm but self-conscious. The moment was a mosaic of sentiment, discovery, and awkwardness inlaid by all of them. Sara Rushton knew they were coming, had an early dinner ready, but first there had to be hugs and tears, then small talk about their trip up from D.C.

Sara busied herself in the kitchen while the girls meandered upstairs to settle in. Entering the bedroom, Janis paused to find that Sara had set up an extra bed; it was just the way they had always insisted on sharing the room during summers past.

Faye reserved comment as Janis found things to do. Her mother’s action was transparent, a too-literal attempt to get the two of them together. If nothing else, it embarrassed them. Whether they’d become friends again was a question unspoken. Having it externalized in a way neither could avoid only made the adjustment to being back at the lake house that much more difficult. They commented here and there on remembered things in the room. Ignoring their shared discomfort, they mentioned nothing about the beds and retreated downstairs for dinner.

Far from the escape they thought dinner might be, Sara’s conversation invariably settled on gilded times past. Neither Faye nor Janis needed to hear how good the old times had been, especially from someone prone to romanticize them. Knowing glances between them confirmed this fact. The only way to avoid any of it was to take over and steer the conversation themselves. Doing so became their first collaborated project. As such, it also became their test.

By the time dessert was served, all of them had loosened up. Even a bit of laughter came more easily, along with a relaxed willingness to share college stories.

“I thought about dropping out lots of times,” confessed Janis.

“Oh, like when?” challenged Faye.

Janis chuckled, “Usually, the week before finals.”

“That’s what I thought. You like to make a big deal out of it but tell the truth; you breezed through most of your classes.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Janis’ protest was hollow.

“For one thing, you had much more time to study.”

“And whose fault was that? You didn’t have to accept a lab internship while holding down a part-time job.”

For Sara’s sake, Faye held back from the answer on the tip of her tongue. Janis never had to work during college; her parents paid for everything. The story was different in Faye’s case but putting too strong a point on that would do no good.

“The job paid for books and food. The internship was good on a resume.”

“We
both
got into USAMRIID. Obviously, you didn’t need it to get the job.”

“Maybe not. It’s easy to come to that conclusion now.”

Sara watched mostly amused but sometimes concerned as the two of them bantered. The topic was casual but a rising undercurrent of tension was not.

Janis stuck to her point, smiling all the way. “It was overkill, admit it.”

Faye felt pressured. Janis’ unwillingness to let it go tested her reserve.

“I did what I could to be prepared. I wasn’t like you; not everything came so
easily
to me.”

“Just because I took things in stride and didn’t sweat the small stuff, that doesn’t mean everything was easy.”

“Yeah, like senior project. Look how that turned out.”

Janis threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, my, don’t go there.”

Sara was curious. “I don’t think I heard about that.”

“And you shouldn’t!” laughed Janis.

“It’s perfect,” Faye shot back. “It’s exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Just because you spent sleepless nights coming up with some lame idea…”

“It wasn’t lame!”

“You’re the only one that says so. It got rejected, didn’t it?”

Sara interrupted, “So what happened?”

“It’s no big deal,” started Janis.

“Let me tell it,” Faye demanded; she turned to Sara. “Senior term paper was half of our grade; we had all semester to work on it. Miss Easy-Going, here, lollygags weeks away getting nothing done. Days before the paper’s due, she saw me arguing with a visiting professor from another class and wanted to know what’s going on. I told her I asked him to read my paper, you know, to get feedback on it before turning it in. To my surprise, he detested it, ripped the idea to shreds. Was Janis concerned? No. Instead, the whole episode came in handy for her. It was a reminder she needed to get started on her own paper. She had forgotten all about it.”

“Not so!”

“Oh, yeah…I’m sure. The best part is the scandalous way she did her research.”

“Don’t exaggerate! You’re just jealous.”

“She shamelessly flirted with a TA, even plotted ways to bump into him. In return, he gave her detailed suggestions on topics, told her about high-scoring past papers; gave her tips.”

Sara gasped in fun, “You didn’t!”

“She led the poor guy on and got him to practically write the thing for her.”

Janis protested, “He did no such thing!”

“So what happened?” asked Sara.

“What do you think? In four days she wrote her paper and got a top score. I turned in the paper I slaved over, something original and challenging. My score was barely a score at all. In fact, they suggested I rewrite it.”

Janis shrugged. “You have to admit, no matter what grade it got, your paper was a classic.” Her tone was derisive.

“What does that mean?” An old argument reopened.

Sara noted the friction and jumped into the conversation between them. “Sounds like a lot of thought went into it.”

Janis was feeling her third glass of wine. She giggled, “Come on now…
Programmed Species Death
? Did you really expect them to buy
that
as your senior project?” Underneath the mockery was something else eating away.

“Why not?” Having avoided the wine, Faye’s seriousness became defensive.

Janis was startled wide-eyed. “My God! You
still
think it was a good idea!”

“Don’t act so surprised. I expected something condescending.”

“I don’t care how original it was. Maybe it was
too
original.”

Sara tried to intervene. “What is it?
Programmed Species Death
?”

Faye preempted Janis from getting in a quick answer. “It was the topic of my paper, a theory I came up with.”

“Admit it; it was science fiction; good science fiction, but fiction nonetheless.”

Faye glanced at Janis but continued to answer Sara. “The premise was taken from a reasonable inference. In cellular biology, there’s something called Programmed
Cell
Death. It’s a known fact. At various times, certain cells in the body commit suicide.”

“Suicide?” Sara sat back. “That sounds strange.”

“Not at all,” added Faye. “It’s by design, other times it happens in reaction to disease; Programmed Cell Death is a natural fact. Either way, it’s useful.”

Smiling, Janis butted in. “Yeah, if it wasn’t for PCD, humans would have webbed feet and fingers and much worse oddities.”

“PCD is great at getting rid of unwanted or damaged cells. If this didn’t happen, they’d reproduce and create defective tissue and organs.”

“All true, very true,” added Janis, “but where you took it was a big jump.”

“Why? If a system like PCD operates in the body, why is it such a stretch to think something similar might operate in nature, regulating species?”

“It’s a perfectly good idea – for science fiction, but there’s absolutely no evidence that anything of the sort is going on.”

“Maybe because no one’s looking for it.”

“They were teaching us
science;
it wasn’t a speculation class.”

“And how does science come about?”

“Observations and experiments on something
real
.”

“Millions of species have come and gone. What if there’s more to it than natural selection? When cells get old or damaged, or when they don’t form right in utero, apoptosis is triggered. All I was suggesting is that the same thing could happen to whole genomes. There might be a natural process that genetically triggers the extinction of species – for the good of nature, in the same way.”

Janis nodded, “And that’s the leap of faith that makes it science fiction.”

Sara gathered up the empty dessert plates. “There’s no sense arguing about it.”

Under breath, Janis muttered, “There’s little sense to it at all.”

Faye leaned across the table, getting in Janis’ face. “Go on, sit there, you know so much.”

“I know fact from fiction.”

“What if
Programmed Species Death
is extremely rare?”

“Like unicorns?”

“What if nature has only used it once or twice in three billion years? You think there might be a chance we missed it?”

“Next you’ll be claiming it killed off the dinosaurs.”

“OK, even if you’re right and there’s no evidence it’s ever happened. Maybe it’s a natural process that’s
never
been used before. It’s always been there but Nature holds it in reserve, just in case it’s needed for its own survival.”

“Oh, I get it; you wanted your senior paper to be on the mysteries of Gaia.”

“The human body has all kinds of autonomic systems. Are they mysterious to you? Why do white blood cells rush to defend the body? Who told them to? Why do some kinds of T-cells keep a memory of past diseases you’ve had? Is there a ghost in the machine? Why can’t nature do the same thing? We already know that patterns in nature repeat.”

“Anything’s possible in the land of what-if.”

“Don’t look now but we’re all living there.” With so much flooding to mind, Faye was driven to a darker, harder edge to cut through Janis’ dismissive attitude. “You think those things I told you in the park in D.C. were made up just to get you to do something. You’ve convinced yourself this whole thing was orchestrated to manipulate you – I know, because if you really believed it, you’d understand how close we are to a real
Programmed Species Death
.”