White Read online

  “My work is my family, dear. I did manage to ingest dangerous levels of alcohol when the whole thing first sank in about a week ago. But I’ve since decided to spend my last days fussing over my first love.”

  “Psychology.”

  “I intend to die in her arms.”

  “Then let me give you a suggestion from one who’s seen beyond her own mind, Doctor. Talk to your priest. There’s more to all of this than your eyes can see or your instruments record.”

  “You’re a religious person?” he asked.

  “No. But Mikil is.”

  “Then maybe I should talk to this Mikil of yours.”

  Kara glanced at the bench where she remembered last seeing Thomas’s blood sample. It was gone.

  “Don’t worry; it’s safely stored.”

  “I . . . I need it.”

  “Not without a court order. It stays with me. You’re welcome here anytime. Which reminds me, Secretary Merton Gains called about an hour ago.”

  “Gains?” The nuclear crisis! “What did he say?”

  “He wanted to know if we had reached any conclusion here.”

  “What did you tell him? Why didn’t you wake me?”

  “I had to be sure. Some subjects require an unusual amount of time to enter REM. I woke you as soon as I was confident.”

  Kara started toward the door, suddenly frantic. She had to find Thomas or Monique, dead or alive. But how? And the blood . . .

  She turned back. “Doctor, please, you have to give me his blood. He’s my brother! The world is in a crisis here, and I—”

  “Gains was quite clear,” he said. “We can’t afford to lose control. He seemed to suggest that this was a possibility, a threat from the inside.”

  A mole?

  “In the White House?”

  “He didn’t say. I’m a psychologist, not an intelligence officer.”

  “Fine. What did you tell him about me?”

  “That you weren’t dreaming. Which probably means you were experiencing the same thing your brother did. He wants you to call him immediately.”

  She stared at him, then strode for the desk phone. “Now you tell me.”

  Bancroft shrugged. “Yes, well, I have a lot on my mind. I’m going to die in ten days, did I tell you?”

  Bright light stabbed her eyes. Sunlight. Or was it something else? Maybe that light from beyond. Maybe she’d died from the Raison Strain and was now floating above her body, drifting toward the great white light in the sky.

  She blinked. There was pressure on her chest, something biting into her collarbone. Her breathing came hard. No pain though.

  All of this she realized with her first blink.

  Then she realized that she was in an automobile at a precarious angle, hanging from her seat belt. She grabbed the steering wheel to support herself and sucked in a huge gulp of air.

  What had happened? Where was she? Panic edged into her mind. If she shifted her weight, the car might fall!

  Green foliage was plastered against the windows. A shaft of sunlight shot through a small triangular break in the leaves. She was in a tree?

  Monique blinked again and forced her mind to slow down. She remembered some things. She’d been working on the antivirus to the Raison Strain. Her solution had failed. The chances of finding any antivirus other than the one Svensson possessed were nil. She’d been on her way to Washington—an unscheduled trip of desperation. Kara had convinced her that Thomas might still be their only hope, and in the wake of her monumental failure, Monique intended to make the case to the president himself. Then she would go to Johns Hopkins, where Kara was going to attempt to connect with the other reality by using Thomas’s blood.

  She’d been driving down a side road at night, following the sign that said Gas—2 miles, when her vision suddenly clouded. That was all she could remember.

  Monique leaned to her right. The car didn’t budge. She leaned farther and peered out the side window. The car was on the ground, not in a tree. Shrubs crowded every side. The hood was wedged under a web of small branches. She must have fallen asleep and driven off the road. There was no sign of blood.

  She moved her legs and neck. Still no pain. Not even a headache.

  The car was resting at a thirty-degree angle—nothing short of a crane was going to budge it. She tried the door, found it unobstructed, and shoved it open. Released the shoulder harness.

  Her purse. It had Merton Gains’s card and her identification. She would need money. The black leather purse was on the floor, passenger side. Holding the steering wheel with her left hand, she lowered herself, grabbed the purse, and pulled herself back up.

  Monique eased out of the car and started crawling up the slope with the help of the surrounding shrubs. The road was just above her, maybe twenty-five yards, but several large trees blocked a clear view from the air.

  How much time had passed?

  The trip up the rocky slope did more damage to her than the car wreck. She tore her black slacks and smudged the front of her beige silk blouse with several falls. Her shoes were black flats, but they had slick soles. She kicked them off halfway up the slope, reached back for them, and muttered a curse when one slid ten feet down before stopping. She decided she was better off without them. Her soles had once favored bare earth over shoes anyway.

  When she finally clambered over the crest, she found a two-lane road with a solid yellow line down the middle. The sun was directly above—she’d been unconscious all night and half the day?

  To her right she could just see the highway. She stared about, still dis-oriented. Then she turned to her left and walked toward the small red Conoco sign a mile down the road. Or was it two miles? No, the sign had said 2 miles, but as near as she could see, she was halfway between the highway and the station. One mile. She would take her chances with a phone over thumbing a ride.

  Almost immediately she regretted having left her shoes. Fifty yards later she decided that she would thumb a ride to the station if at all possible. Assuming there was a ride to be thumbed. The road was deserted. For that matter, the Conoco station could be deserted as well. Last night she’d seen the lights from the highway—a hopeful sign that the station was open. Most she’d encountered along the road were closed.

  The hum of a big rig sounded behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. A large fuel truck with a yellow Shell sign on a chrome tank sped down the highway. The sight stopped her. What was a trucker doing driving fuel down the road, knowing that in ten days he would be dead unless the government managed to find a way to stop the Raison Strain? Did the driver really understand what was happening? The reports she’d heard suggested that most Americans were staying at home, glued to the news. The government was paying huge dividends to certain critical companies if they remained open. Mostly utilities, communications, trans-portation—the essentials.

  WHItE

  She assumed that traffic would be limited to people going home to be with their families. But a trucker? Maybe he was going home too.

  She headed back off the road, sticking to the grass shoulder. Not a single car drove by during the twenty minutes it took her to reach the Conoco sign.

  The station was closed.

  “Hello?”

  Her voice echoed under the canopy that covered the deserted fuel islands. She walked for the window. “Hello?”

  Nothing. She didn’t blame them—the last thing she would do with ten days to live is work at a gas station.

  The door was locked. No sign of looting. No need to loot when the looters themselves were also infected. Riots would be instigated by thrill seekers determined to take their fear out on others rather than to seize any goods. It would start soon enough.

  In fact, now was as good a time as any.

  She picked up the small steel drum that read Garbage, drew it back, and swung it with all her strength at the window. The horrendous crash of breaking glass was loud enough to wake the dead. Good. She needed to wake the dead.

  M
onique waited for a full minute, giving anyone who might have heard plenty of time to note that she wasn’t busy looting. Then she picked her way through the broken glass to the black phone on the counter.

  Dial tone.

  She dug out the card Gains had given her and stared at the number. What if he was the very mole she had warned him of? Maybe she should call the president himself. No, he was in New York today, speaking at the United Nations.

  She dialed the number, let the phone ring, and prayed that Gains, mole or not, would answer.

  7

  Thomas awoke on his back. The sheet was over his face. Odd. Although the desert night was cool at times, he wasn’t one to smother his breathing by burying his head under the covers like some. Covers also impaired hearing. At this moment he couldn’t hear his fellow prisoners breathing, though he knew they were sleeping to his right, chained at the ankles with him. He couldn’t even hear the sound of the horses near the camp. Nor the Scabs, talking over morning campfires. Nor the campfires themselves.

  He yanked the sheet from his face. It was still night. Dark. He still couldn’t hear anything other than his own heart, thumping lightly. No stars in the sky, no campfire, no sand dunes. Only this thin rubber mattress under him, and this cold sheet in his fingers.

  Thomas’s heart skipped a beat. He wasn’t in the desert! He was on a mattress in a dark room, and he’d awakened with a sheet over his face.

  He moved his feet. No chains. He’d fallen asleep as a prisoner in the desert and woken in the histories. Alive.

  He felt the edge of his bed. Cold steel tubes filled his hand. A gurney. Carlos had shot him, when? Three days ago, Kara had said. He hadn’t dreamed for thirteen months in the desert because there was no Thomas here to live the dream. They’d brought his body here, why? For examination? To keep the Americans guessing? And where was here?

  France.

  Thomas eased his legs from under the sheets and swung them to the cold concrete floor. A loud slap echoed in the room and he jumped. Nothing happened. Something had fallen on the floor.

  His eyes adjusted to the darkness. A wedge of light shone through the gap at the bottom of the door. He saw the square shape by his foot. Picked it up. A book. He felt its cover and froze.

  The blank Book of History, entitled The Story of History. His hands trembled. The Book had crossed over with him!

  A chill swept over his body. This Book—its story, its words—had brought him back to life. Here he stood, dressed in a torn jumpsuit, bare-footed on a concrete floor in France, holding a Book that could make history with a few strokes of the pen.

  Justin had called it dangerous and powerful. Now he knew why.

  His sole objective was immediately clear. He had to find a pen, a pencil, anything that could mark the Book, and write a new story. One that changed the outcome of the Raison Strain. And while he was at it, one that included his survival.

  Thomas paused at the unexpected thought that the Book wasn’t unlike the artifacts from Judeo-Christian history. The ark of the covenant with the power to conquer armies. The serpent in the desert with the power to heal. Say to this mountain, be thou removed and it shall be removed. Jesus Christ, AD 30. Words becoming flesh, Ronin had said.

  There were now officially four things that crossed between the realities. Knowledge, skills, blood, and this Book, these words becoming flesh.

  He could just barely see the outline of a door ten feet away. Thomas walked for the door, tested the knob, found it unlocked, and cracked it ever so slightly. The room beyond was also dark, but not black like this one. He could see a table, a couch. Another door edged by light. A fireplace . . .

  He knew this room! It was where he and Monique had met Armand Fortier! They’d brought him back to the farmhouse.

  Thomas slipped out, still gripping the Book in his right hand. He covered the room quickly, found nothing of benefit, and moved to the opposite door. Unlocked as well. He’d twisted the knob and cracked the door when the sound of echoing footsteps in the hall reached him.

  Thomas stood immobilized. Under no circumstances could he allow the Book to fall into their hands. His escape was no longer as important as the Book’s safety.

  He eased the door shut and ran on his toes for the cell. He slipped into the dark, shut the door, stepped toward the gurney, and shoved the Book under the thin mattress. Then he lay back down and pulled the sheet over his head.

  Relax. Breathe. Slow your heart.

  The door opened thirty seconds later. Light flooded the room. The footsteps walked across the floor, paused for a few seconds, then retreated. A man coughed, and Thomas knew it was Carlos. He’d come for something. Surely not to check on a dead body.

  The room went black.

  Thomas waited a full minute before rising again. He walked to the door, flipped the light on, and surveyed the room. Concrete all around. Except for the gurney and one bookshelf, the room was empty. A root cellar at one time, perhaps. They’d probably put his body here because it was cold and they wanted to preserve it for tests.

  He decided that the risk of being caught with the Book was too great. He would find something to write with and return.

  Thomas checked the adjoining room, found it clear, and stepped out. This time the hall was clear. He hurried past the same window he and Monique had climbed through just a few nights earlier. Sunlight filled the window well. He was about to mount the stairs that climbed to the next floor when a door across the hall caught his attention. A reinforced steel door, out of place in this ancient house.

  He stepped across the hall and opened it.

  No sound.

  He peered inside. Another long hall. Steel walls. They’d built a veritable fortress down here. This hall stretched far beyond the exterior wall and ended at yet another door.

  Now he was torn. He could either climb the stairs, which could lead to a guard station for all he knew, or he could examine the door at the end of this hall. Just as likely to find a guard there.

  Thomas eased into the hall and walked fast. Voices came to him while he was halfway down, and he paused. But they weren’t voices of alarm. He ran the last twenty paces and pulled up at the door. The voices were from the room beyond.

  “They’ve killed half the fish off our coast with these two detonations, but they won’t target our cities!”

  They were talking about nuclear detonations? Someone had launched nuclear weapons!

  “Then you don’t know the Israelis. They know we have no intention of delivering the antivirus, and they have nothing to lose.”

  “They’re still principled. They won’t take innocents down with them. Please, I beg you, the Negev desert was bad enough. We can’t target Tel Aviv. A power play to realign powers is one thing. Detonating nuclear weapons over densely populated targets is another. They’re bluffing. They know the world would turn against them if they targeted civilians. As it would turn against us if we did the same.”

  “You think that world opinion is still an element in this equation? Then you’re more naive than I imagined, Henri.” So the man protesting was Paul Henri Gaetan, the French president. “The only language that the Israelis understand is brute force.”

  A third voice spoke. “Give them the antivirus.”

  Armand Fortier.

  “Pardon me, sir, but I thought—”

  “The plan must be flexible,” Fortier said. “We’ve shown the world our resolve to use whatever force is required to enforce our terms. We’ve blown two massive holes in their desert, and they’ve blown two holes in our ocean. So what? The Israelis are snakes. Utterly unpredictable except in the defense of their land. If we fire again, they will retaliate. Two-thirds of the world’s combined nuclear arsenal is presently loaded on ships, steaming to our shores. Now isn’t the time to accelerate the conflict.”

  “You will leave Israel intact?”

  “We will give them the antivirus,” Fortier repeated. “In exchange for their weapons.”

  “What proof w
ill you offer them?” President Gaetan again.

  “A mutual exchange on the seas, five days from today.”

  The room went silent for a few moments. The next voice that spoke was one that Thomas recognized at the first word.

  “But you will destroy Israel,” Carlos Missirian said softly.

  “Yes.”

  “And the Americans?”

  “The Americans don’t have the Israelis’ backbone. They have no choice but to deliver their weapons, regardless of all their noise. We’re listening to everything they say. They’re acting out of total confusion now, but our contact assures us they won’t have a choice but to comply in the end.”

  “They might demand an open exchange as well,” the French president said.

  “Then we will call their bluff. I can afford to make Israel wait until the time of our choosing. The United States will no longer play a role in world politics.”

  Thomas felt his heart pound. He pulled his ear from the door. He’d heard enough.

  “And if Israel does launch in ten minutes as they’ve promised?”

  Thomas stopped. A long pause.

  “Then we take out Tel Aviv,” Fortier said.

  Thomas sprinted back down the hall toward the root cellar. The plan had changed. He had to get word to the United States before Israel had a chance to launch again. He needed a phone. But in searching for a phone, he might find a pen.

  Dangerous, Justin had said. Everything was dangerous now.

  Thomas ran for the cell door and twisted the knob. Locked.

  Locked? He’d opened it just a few minutes ago from this side. He cranked down on the handle. Heat spread down his neck. He stepped back, panicked. Carlos must have engaged the lock when he left.

  Thomas ran his hand through his hair and paced. This wasn’t good.

  He needed a phone!

  The meeting was still underway. Thomas sprinted up the stairs, took the steps two at a time, and burst through the door at the top. A single startled guard stared at him. He’d clearly never seen a dead man walking before.