speak.
In the end, the medics just gave up. An air cast was put on Doug’s arm to immobilize it, a few stitches were taken to pull his wounds together temporarily and his leg bandaged tightly enough to prevent any more bleeding. All the while it was going on, Doug kept telling them to speed things up. When he left, riding a gurney, the nurse accompanied him. She was carrying pain medicine and another IV bag to use when the one dripping fluids into his good arm was exhausted. He was past his self-imposed time limit by the time the gurney was rolling along the walkway between buildings, but the blacks were becoming accustomed to the white flags by now.
Surprisingly, Fridge was outside to greet him as he returned.
“I heard you caught a ride back, Doug. What in hell you been doing, trying to feed yourself with your left hand again? You know you ain’t got that much coordination.” He eyed the nurse tagging along with him.
“How bad you hurt?”
“I’ll live, but we’ve got more problems than a broken arm or a shot up leg. Let’s go.”
“Yeah, the preacher’s getting impatient. Come on, we’ll go in through the lobby.”
Doug was searching the room the moment the big front doors opened. He didn’t have far to look. June had been alerted by Fridge and was waiting just inside the entrance.
“Doug! Oh, sweetheart, what happened? Are you hurt? Oh God, stupid question,” she added as she leaned her head near his and kissed him.
Doug raised up enough to meet her lips. “I’m fine. Or maybe not so fine, but I can’t take time off to be sick. I’m glad you’re not hurt. I was so worried that…” He saw the untreated wound at the neckline of an overlarge white tee shirt, apparently borrowed from a man. “What happened to you?”
“It’s all right, this man here saved me from anything bad.”
“June, baby, we’re going to have to talk later. I’ve got a situation waiting that may be the most important thing in the world right now. Fridge? Can she come?”
Fridge shook his head. “Not a good idea. Mrs. Craddock, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait here.”
“Fridge, thank you for taking care of her, but I think she could join us. She may know something that has a bearing on the information I’m going to give you.”
“How so?”
Doug hadn’t wanted to bring her into the danger of the negotiations, nor let Taylor know his wife was anywhere close, but this was bigger than both of them.
“June’s been acting as administrative assistant to the CDC Director. I’ll tell you more inside. It’s not good, but maybe we can make something out of it.”
“All right,” Fridge conceded. He was getting impatient with the preacher himself.
Fridge escorted Doug back to the same room he had left an eternity ago, it seemed like. June and the nurse, one on each side, accompanied him, with Fridge leading the way.
“Who these bitches?” Qualluf demanded as Fridge began moving chairs aside to make room for the medical cart.
“Good God, what happened to you?” Colonel Christian asked, fearful that the fragile truce had somehow been broken.
“I’ll get into it with all of you in minute.” He turned to his nurse. “Ma’am if you would, give me an injection of pain medicine, but only half a dose. Then you’ll have to leave us alone for a little while. You can wait out in the lobby.” Doug knew he had to have something to alleviate his pain, but wasn’t going to take enough to muddle his senses.
“Your pain medicine is in the I.V. All I can do is speed the drip up a little.” She adjusted the flow, then said,” I have to stay with you to monitor your vital signs,” Doug was insistent that she go, but she left only after he told her June was a nurse. What he had on his mind was too vital to get out in casual conversation. Not before he had a chance to use it. Once the nurse closed the door on them, he got down to business.
“Have you two made any progress while I was gone?” Doug looked at Christian, then Taylor. Taylor glowered and didn’t answer. The colonel shook his head. “Only so far as allowing me to send my aide back to tell my deputy that I’m in no danger here, and to respect the truce.”
Doug spotted a carafe that was an addition to the room. “Is that coffee?” he asked, pointing with his good arm. “If it is, I need some to help keep me awake long enough to get through what I need to tell you.”
June brought the coffee to Doug without asking permission. Qualluf stared balefully at her, but said nothing. Despite himself, he was curious over how Doug had gotten his wounds and what he was up to now.
June helped him to raise the upper portion of his body enough to gulp some of the hot coffee and make good eye contact with the others, then he began. “Mr. Taylor, I may owe you an apology,” he said, then waited on the reaction. It wasn’t exactly what he would have hoped for, but given the man’s fixation on mistreatment of blacks from the age of exploration until now, he wasn’t surprised.
“Huh! Every motherfucking white in America and Europe owe us an apology. Damn little good that do now.”
“I told you before, I’m not responsible for anyone else’s actions, only my own and the men I command. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never agreed with the way blacks have been treated, but that’s neither here nor there. What I wanted to apologize for is that I found out I might have been wrong. There is a possibility you may have been right about the government being involved with instigating the Harcourt virus. Or some people in government, at least.”
“Doug, no!” June exclaimed. “Our government couldn’t have done this!”
Doug was watching Fridge’s reaction rather than Qualluf’s. He sensed that he was going to have to depend on his old friend to hold things together until he had a better grasp of exactly what had actually happened with Johannsen. And he needed the Colonel, too.
Qualluf stood up. “Just like I said. We can’t trust any of you sorry motherfuckers. That’s it, conference over.” He started toward the door.
“Fridge, stop him. There’s more!” Doug winced as he tried reflexively to reach his arm out to stop him—the wrong arm.
Fridge was nearer the door than Qualluf. He moved in front of it. “Preacher, let’s hear it all before we decide anything. Go ahead, Doug. I hope you got more than this, though.”
“I do.” Doug sipped more of the coffee. He could feel the effects of the pain killer lessening his hurt, but it was also making him groggy. “June, stop the pain medicine. I have to stay awake.”
Qualluf moved back to his chair, knowing he had reacted too quickly. What else did this man know?
How had he been hurt? How could he be used? Was there maybe a cure after all? Better to wait and see.
After Qualluf had reseated himself, Doug continued, encouraged by June’s hand slipping into his after he downed the last of the coffee. “Let me tell you what happened when I went back to talk to Amelia. She told me that some CIA agents had brought in that crazy scientist, Johannsen, who created the Harcourt virus. He arrived right before the airport was closed, so Amelia and her scientific staff haven’t finished questioning him about whether he knows how to stop the virus or not. About the time Amelia was giving me this information, she had to be taken to surgery to repair internal injuries as a result of the beating she got while here. If it hadn’t been for that I might have had more for you.”
Doug saw that Qualluf’s perpetual glare faded from his face for once, telling him plainer than words who had been responsible for Amelia’s torment. He thought the man might even have been in on it, but he didn’t want to know. It would only prejudice him in the hours to come.
“We want that man,” Qualluf said.
Doug had been hoping for that reaction. “I may give him to you, but not before we drag every bit of what he knows about the Harcourt virus out of him. He suggested there was evidence of his contacts in government in some papers he told me about. That was after I rescued him from what I think were government agents intent on silencing him. That’s how I got hurt.” He tapped the air cast on his arm to emphasize the point. “Now here’s what I want us to do.” He explained his ideas as clearly as he could.
He had been thinking furiously ever since learning of Johannsen’s presence and the possibility of government involvement.
