“We can’t do that,” Martin said, shaking his head wearily.
“Wells’s virus is already out there,” I said. “Spreading.”
Martin continued to slowly shake his head while I spoke.
“But we also need to figure out how Wells is planning on releasing his virus on a large scale,” I said. “And we need to stop him.”
“Dymphna’s orders were very clear,” Gary said. “She was emphatic that we don’t tip our hand and reveal to Wells that we know what he’s up to, that once he knew we were onto him, he would accelerate his plan, and release his flu before the immunity virus has adequately spread.”
“Yes,” I said, “but that was before that fax went out to all those news agencies and governments. The allegations are out there. The virus is, too, and—”
“She’s got a point,” interrupted a voice on the Holocon. Two other disembodied voices weighed in, one agreeing with me and one disagreeing.
“The allegations are out there because CLAD sent them out,” Gary said, sneering. “They’re probably to blame for her death.”
“No,” I said. “That was Howard Wells’s people.”
He snorted. “And are you sure they’re not one and the same?”
“Look, I know Dymphna suspected they might be getting funded by Wells, but I can assure you, if they were, they didn’t know it. Cronos, the leader of CLAD, he seems to hate Wells more than anyone.”
“We’re not about hate,” Audrey said quietly.
“And you know this Cronos pretty well, then, do you?” Gary said.
I rolled my eyes. “Since I only seem to have conversations with him when he’s trying to kidnap me, no, I wouldn’t say I know him especially well.”
Rex gave me a small smile.
“Look,” I continued, “none of that is important right now. Wells is probably already accelerating his plans. If this is for real, if Dypmhna was right, it’s probably happening right now, or about to. We need to stop him, and we need to try to head him off, to minimize the damage if we can’t stop him, and that means telling people they can get immunity from chimeras, that chimeras can save their lives, and their friends and family.” I looked them each in the eye, hoping they’d see reason.
Audrey looked semi-convinced, but Martin said, “No,” still shaking his head. “There is a lot we need to figure out in the wake of losing Dymphna, but this is clear. She was certain that this was essential, it was a priority she maintained right up until the day she died.”
“But the situation has changed since she died,” I shot back. “Drastically.”
“Jimi’s right,” Audrey said. “We need to bring it up with the full council. It should be our first priority when we meet next week.”
“No!” I said. “That’s too late. From what Dymphna said, a week from now could be too late.”
“Well, we can’t vote on anything without a quorum,” Audrey said, “And we can’t get the rest of the council together before then.”
“Then we need to act now, right now.”
“She’s right,” Rex said. “This can’t wait.”
Martin had just about stopped shaking his head, and now he started up again with renewed vigor. “It’s going to have to. Even when Dymphna was alive, this was a democratically run organization. We can’t abandon that now, so soon after her death and with so much at stake.”
“‘So much at stake’?” I said throwing it back at him. “Exactly! Now isn’t the time to be sitting here doing nothing. Everything is at stake.”
“Let’s vote,” said Audrey.
“We can’t vote,” Gary said. “We don’t have a quorum and there’s no motion.”
Audrey took a breath and gathered her patience. “Okay, then, in light of the special circumstances, I propose a motion that this partial meeting of the council should consider next steps, even without a quorum.”
“Second,” said a voice on the Holocon.
Gary looked at Martin and raised his hand. “I say we wait.”
Martin nodded, as if that was the only way he could stop shaking his head. “Me too,” he said, raising his hand, as well.
“Everyone else?” Audrey said, and three voices chimed in over the Holocon, two opposed and one in favor.
Audrey turned to me with a sad, resigned shrug. “I agree with Jimi, here. But I guess it’s four to two opposed.”
I looked at the rest of the faces—Sly and Dara and Jerry and Rex—apparently, they didn’t get a vote. They weren’t on the council.
“Sorry, kid,” Jerry said. “But they’re probably right.”
“So that’s it?” I said. “We’re going to let the end of the world happen, so once it’s too late, the full council can vote on what they should have done before it was too late? This is insane! Billions of lives are on the line.”
I looked at Sly, then Dara, but they were both looking at their feet, avoiding my gaze. The rest of them looked at Rex and me with the same condescending smile, like I couldn’t possibly grasp the complexities of what they were dealing with. And maybe they were right—lord knows Dymphna had held plenty of information back from me in the past. I was assuming she had told me everything, or everything relevant, but maybe there were more big secrets, secrets that, if I knew, would make all the difference and convince me of the wisdom of their inaction. But everything I knew told me they were wrong, that we needed to act quickly and decisively, and that if we waited, it would be too late.
Rex put his hand back on my shoulder. “Jimi, come on.” He held my gaze and said quietly, “We’re wasting our time here.” It seemed like he was trying to convey something with his stare, but I couldn’t decipher what.
“Okay,” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. Then I turned to the others. “Well, if there’s anyone other than Howard Wells left to write the history books when this is all over, there’s going to be a chapter about how Chimerica might have prevented the biggest mass murder in the history of the world, but instead they decided to wait a week.”
I felt hot tears threatening, tears of anger more than anything else, and I knew I needed to get out of there before they came. I wanted to storm out of that room, but it was so crowded the best I could do was to mutter a disgusted “Excuse me” and squeeze past Audrey and Martin so I could open the door and slip out. Rex came out after me a moment later, grabbing my hand and pulling me through the back door.
FORTY-THREE
So now what?” I asked as we walked toward the Lev station.
Rex turned to me and shrugged. “Now, I guess we talk to CLAD.”
I shook my head and growled, but out of frustration, not disagreement. As hard as I was trying to keep CLAD at a distance, circumstances kept leading us back to them. When I was done shaking my head, I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. We’re going to need a car to get to Ogden’s house. After what happened last time, and after just now, I doubt we can ask Jerry.”
Rex laughed wearily and shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s an option. Not just yet.”