The Deep Zone

He hesitated, and Hallie could see the struggle. A tormented man, she thought. All those years. Needing so much, having so little. Like a thirst with no way to slake it.

Finally he said, in a voice that sounded more exhausted than exultant, “I don’t suppose there’s any harm in it now.”

“In what?”

“Telling you what was really going on.” He paused, and she watched his expression change again. It was like seeing the tumblers move in a lock after the key had been inserted and turned. “It began not long after you came back with that first sample of moonmilk. Do you remember?”

“Sort of.”

“At first it was no big deal. Then your work with moonmilk began to attract a lot of attention.”

She waited for him to go on.

“I’d been unhappy with… call it a lack of proper recognition at BARDA, for some time. Did I mention that they passed me over for promotion three times?”

He had mentioned it fairly often, actually, but she thought better of saying so.

“At some point I put out feelers to private enterprise. I was thinking about making a move, but in my fifties, I wasn’t the most marketable prospect. I needed something special, a bargaining chip. And then the moonmilk came along.”

They had been conversing casually for a while now, so Hallie decided to test the water. “These ropes are really hurting my wrists. Do you think you could take them off? Or maybe just loosen them. It’s not like there’s any place for me to run to.”

“No, I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. We’ve gone beyond such niceties, unfortunately.”

His answer infuriated her, but she knew it was important not to show it. Build rapport in every way possible. “Okay, I can understand that. I just thought I’d ask.”

“So the moonmilk was my bargaining chip. Not just for a job, though. A job, they can take away from you. No, this was for a future. Something no one could ever take away.”

“What did you do, Al?”

He reddened. At first she thought it was anger. Then, as he spoke, she understood that it was something else: shame. He was almost whispering. “I had to get you out of the way, first. You were leading the research. I needed to get closer to it myself.”

“What did you do?”

“I hacked into your home computer and made it send messages to a man from BioChem. Offering to sell certain proprietary information related to moonmilk.”

“That was you?”

“I know—amazing, isn’t it? Nobody suspected shy, quirky old Al Cahner.”

“But… they must have investigated your BioChem connection. Why didn’t they blow your cover?”

“They couldn’t find him because he didn’t exist. He was an avatar. BioChem, of course, denied everything. They really were as mystified as BARDA. Neither side wanted scandal, so they just let it drop. Well, that’s not entirely right. They got rid of you.”

He hesitated, then went on: “It’s amazing how easy computer systems are to manipulate, Hallie. Pimply high school dropouts compromise Department of Defense computers all the time. It’s no big thing, if you have a certain level of knowledge and sufficient interest.”

“So you got me fired?” She was still having trouble believing it.

“Well, technically it was BARDA’s doing, but I maneuvered them into a position where they had no choice. They weren’t very nice about it, were they?”

“How could you do that?”

“It wasn’t the easiest decision, believe me, given how I felt about you. Of course, I had no way of knowing we would come together again. When I learned that Barnard was planning this expedition, I made sure that he put me on the team. I would get the moonmilk. And you. Or so I thought.”

Hallie had been exaggerating before about the discomfort of her bonds, but now they really were becoming painful. She shifted, pushed herself to a standing position, where she could move her arms just enough to relieve some of the pressure.

“Sit down!” Suddenly he had the Taser in his hand. She lowered herself quickly to the cave floor, the boulder’s rough surface cutting into her back. Cahner said, “Do you know, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you look really afraid, Hallie.”

“So you got me fired. Thinking you would take over the research work.”

“Exactly right. And so I did. But watching you do it was one thing. Tackling it myself turned out to be quite another.”

“It was some of the most complex work I’d ever done.”

“Indeed. At first I tried using your initial hypothesis. But that turned out to be a dead end, I’m sorry to report. I had to come up with new experimental directions, and I did. Some were more promising than others. But they all failed in the end. Every single one.”

“And you ran out of moonmilk.”

“Yes. And Barnard didn’t think I’d showed enough progress to justify another expedition to retrieve more moonmilk. Goddamn him. If he had had the vision to see how close I was, all of this could have been avoided.”

“But then the ACE emergency came along.”

“Thank God for small favors.” He put his hands together in mock prayer, the Taser pressed between them. “Not that an ACE pandemic will be a small thing. But the bacteria that cause it certainly are.”

She understood that the ACE mutation, wherever it had come from, antigenic shift or enemy biowar, had given him exactly the opportunity he’d needed.

“What did you mean when you said ‘all of this could have been avoided’?”

For several seconds he hesitated. Then, finally: “Well, those men would still be alive, for one thing.”

“Would still be—did you have something to do with their deaths?”

He nodded absently. “Honestly, I didn’t know if I could do such things. But they turned out to be easier than I’d expected. I think it has something to do with the darkness, and being so isolated from everything else on earth. As you said back at the river camp, anything is possible in a cave like this.”

“How?”

“In the sump I waited around that sharp turn. When Haight came along, I smashed his faceplate with a rock. Arguello was easier. I pretended to be frozen with fear on that ledge above the acid lake. I reached out a hand and asked for help, and he responded like the good man he was. I just gave a little yank and off he went.”

“My God.”

“And as for your big friend…”

“Bowman?”

“I knew that when the two of you had finished… doing what you were doing… he would go to the river. He was far too proper a man to piss right there at the sleeping spots. There was so much noise from the river it was easy to follow him. I went right down to where he was. He said, ‘You too, eh?’ And I said, ‘Yes, me, too,’ and moved off as though finding a little privacy. One quick shove from behind was all it took.”

Hallie’s mind shuddered. For a moment, she could form no response. Then, her voice steady: “I’m alive, Al.”

He remained silent for a while, then said, “Do those ropes still hurt?”

“A lot.”

“Stand up and I’ll take them off. But please do remember the Taser.”

“I’ll never forget that thing.”

“All right. Stand up and don’t move.”

She struggled to her feet, saw him holding the Taser in his right hand. He came very close to her then, so close that she could feel his breath on her face.

“You understand that I could do anything I want with you now, don’t you?”

He stared into her eyes and she held his gaze, saying nothing. The moment stretched.

“You’re not that kind of man,” Hallie said.