Ben jumped to his feet.
“Three days, sir. First twelve hours brings a fever and coughing. Next twelve hours brings pneumonia, bloody phlegm spraying everybody close. Then huge sores in the groin and armpits, running with pus. High fever, blackouts. Unconsciousness—death.”
“You should have been a writer, doctor,” Ben told him. “I don’t recall anything quite so graphic.”
“Or deadly,” Harrison said.
Ben buzzed his secretary. “Cancel all appointments for the rest of the day. Tell the people I’m not feeling well. Get Cecil in here.”
“Mr. President? Where is the washroom? I’ve been up all night and my eyes feel like they are full of sand.”
Ben pointed. When the bathroom door had closed, he jerked up the phone and dialed the emergency number in the Tri-States. Somebody manned that constantly since Ben took over as president.
“Yes, sir?” the voice two thousand miles away said.
“This is General Raines. Don’t talk, just listen. Close the borders immediately. Start a rodent eradication program
“On tape, sir.”
Ben hung up just as Doctor Lane walked into the room. Cecil opened the office door just as Lane was sitting down.
“Tell Cecil what you just told me,” Ben said. “I’ve got some calls to make from the outer office.”
The Joint Chiefs were meeting when Ben called. General Rimel was on the phone in seconds. “Yes, sir, Mr. President?”
Ben put it on the line for the men, knowing his voice was on the table speaker. “I want all airline flights canceled immediately. Ground every plane in America except military and emergency medical flights. Inoculate your people and have them cordon off the cities. Nobody gets through. Understood—
“Get your people inoculated and have every available medic ready to go assist the private sector by 0600 in the morning.”
Then he told him about the bomb threat.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” General Franklin roared. “What kind of shit are these people trying to pull?”
“I don’t know what they want or what they represent,” Ben told the JCs. “And I don’t have time to worry about it. You people get rolling and stay in contact with this office.”
He hung up and walked back into his office. Cecil looked shaken by the news. Harrison looked up at Ben.
“I got a phone call, Mr. President. Six more cases confirmed in the past hour. So far it’s confined east of the Mississippi River.”
“Don’t count on it remaining so.”
“I’m not, sir.”
Ben told the men what he had ordered done.
“But…” Harrison sputtered. “I thought Congress had to be consulted before something like that was done?”
“I don’t have time to consult Congress and have them jaw about it for two weeks. Those people would blither and blather and waste precious time arguing about ten dozen things before they made up their minds to do anything about it.”
A doctor from the joint military hospital located just outside Richmond walked in.
“I called him,” Harrison said, responding to the unspoken questions in Ben’s eyes.
“Roll up your sleeves,” the doctor said. “This is going to hurt you more than it does me, I assure you.”
“You’re not related to Lamar Chase, are you?” Ben grinned.
PART FOUR
ONE
“I demand an explanation for this!” Senator Carlise burst into the crowded Oval Office. He was waving a piece of copy from the AP. “This is the most blatant violation of…”
“Sit down and shut up,” Ben told him. “If you’d been in your office this morning you’d have known I’ve called for an emergency session of Congress this evening to deal with this crisis.”
“What crisis?” the senator from Colorado yelled.
“You’ll know this evening,” Cecil said, trying to calm the man. He knew, as well as Ben, that as soon as the plague news touched the men and women of Congress it would hit the streets fast.
But for now, all they were trying to do was buy a little time. Time. Time to get the troops in place. Time to set up roadblocks. Time to airship the medicine all over the nation. Time to let the drug companies roll 24 hours a day, mass-producing the life-saving drugs.
But they all knew they were quickly running out of time.
More cases of the plague were cropping up. The press was screaming for information. Worse, the press was speculating, and the people were getting jumpy because of it.
The airlines were shrieking to the heavens about the money they were losing—same with the bus companies. A few wildcat truck drivers decided to ignore the presidential order and roll their rigs anyway.
After two had been killed while attempting to roll through a Marine roadblock and the rest of them tossed in jail, the truckers wisely decided it would be in their best interest not to fuck around with Ben Raines.
Man meant exactly what he said. No give to him at all.
Ben looked at Cecil. “Handle it for a few minutes, Cec. I’ve got to make a call.”
Cecil nodded. He knew who Ben was calling.
“How’s it looking, Lamar?” Ben asked over the long lines.
“We’re clean, Ben,” Doctor Chase said. “I’m shooting everyone with enough chloramphenicol and streptomycin to cause ears to ring. A few cases of deafness, but I think it’s temporary—reaction to the drug. Have you been popped?”
“In both arms and the butt.” He told his friend what he was doing to combat the situation.
“It’ll save some, Ben. But I spoke with our man at the CDC and this stuff scares me.”
“Is there a vaccine for this, Lamar?”
“Yes, for the plague. Have to use it broadside, but it’s a puny weapon against this stuff. I would recommend staying with what we’re using. This isn’t ordinary plague, Ben. It’s moving much too fast for that. I believe it’s a… well, to keep it in language you’d understand, a wild mutant; probably undergone a forced genetic alteration from
