Luckily, I knew someone else with a car, and I needed to get in touch with her anyway to make sure she was okay. When we got to the Lev station, I called Claudia from a pay phone, but the lines were still down.
“Her phone’s still out,” I told Rex as I hung up the pay phone.
He looked concerned. “I don’t like this.”
“I know. It’s probably from the brush fires, but still.”
He took out his wallet and flicked through it. “I’ve got twenty-three bucks. You think that’s enough for a pod out there?”
Claudia’s house was in the exact opposite direction from the Ben Franklin Bridge and Ogden’s house. It seemed ridiculous to take a pod out there only to turn around and double back, but I couldn’t think of a better plan. “Yeah, I think so. Good idea.”
To save money, we took the Lev train to Chestnut Hill, figuring we could take a pod from the station. The sky was even thicker with drones and copters than it had been in the morning. As the train took us past the water department’s reservoir on Henry Avenue, a familiar-looking pale blue delivery van was pulling up in front of it. I nudged Rex and pointed.
“Wells Life Sciences,” he said, reading the side of it.
“Looks just like the vans on the news, leaving the chicken plant.”
As we watched, the van turned toward the entrance to the reservoir. The gate rose up and the van drove in.
“What do you think that’s about?” Rex said, as the reservoir disappeared behind us.
“Do you think it’s flu related? Like, that’s how they’re going to spread the virus?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, yeah, they could spread it in the water, and probably sicken a lot of people, but it can’t be enough for what Dymphna described. And who knows, maybe they’re just delivering water purification chemicals or something.”
“Maybe.”
When we got off the train in Chestnut Hill five minutes later, the air was thick with smoke. Most of the people getting off with us wore breathing masks, and I wondered if here, the masks had more to do with the air quality than the fear of contagions.
We ordered the pod from the pay phone, and by the time it arrived two minutes later our throats were already feeling scratchy. It was a four-person pod, but it was still a tight squeeze for Rex to get in. We told it Claudia’s address, which it repeated back, then Rex fed in a twenty and it took off.
As we drove, the smoke grew thicker. The pod seemed to be taking a roundabout route, and I wondered if maybe some of the nearby streets were closed off due to brush fires.
We passed one area that was actively burning, the dense smoke all but obscuring the orange flames on the ground and the blinking yellow lights of the drones dropping pink flame retardant. I was taken by surprise a few minutes later when we pulled into the Bembrys’ driveway. The smoke was so thick, I had totally lost my bearings.
I was relieved to see the house undamaged, and to see Chris’s car parked out front, meaning someone was home. The car was a sleek, dark blue Audi, more classy than sporty but still looking like it could go plenty fast. We pulled up next to it and the pod spat out Rex’s change. As soon as we got out, it spun on its center wheel and sped back down the driveway, disappearing into a swirl of smoke.
Rex looked at the house and whistled. “Nice place.”
“Yeah,” I said, stifling a cough. “A little close to the brushfire-action, though.”
As we walked up to the front door, it opened and Chris came out, carrying a briefcase and several cardboard tubes, like the kind used to hold posters or blueprints.
His eyes looked pained, but he was smiling. The smile widened when he saw us, but somehow didn’t become any more convincing.
“Hi Jimi,” he said. “Hi, Rex.”
“Hi, um…Chris,” I said.
Rex seemed even more confused. He just said, “Hi.”
Chris sniffed and wiped his eye.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded and boosted his smile some more. “Never better.” Maybe it was the smoke. “Claudia’s inside,” he said as he got in his car.
We walked up to the doorway and rang the bell as he drove off.
“I didn’t know you’d met Claudia’s dad before,” I said as we waited.
Rex shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I haven’t.”
Before I could respond, Claudia opened the door, looking exhausted.
“Hey,” I said. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head with a weary laugh. “I don’t even know any more.” She scrunched up her face waved her hand as if she could dissipate the smoke. “Come on inside, where we can breathe.”
“How are you holding up?” I asked, once she closed the door behind us.
“I’m about the same,” she said. “Except now I don’t know what’s worse, having him zoned out and unresponsive, or blathering on about his stupid upgrade like a paid Wellplant spokesperson.”
“I’m really sorry, Claudia,” Rex said. “I wish there was something we could do.”
She nodded. “Thanks. So what are you two doing here?”
“We tried to call,” I told her. “But the phones are out.”
“Yeah, the brush fires took down the lines.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I love being out here in the woods like this, but the brush fires have been getting really bad.” She let out a short bark of a laugh. “Of course, my dad is making a lot of money on the firefighting drones. Turning lemons into lemonade, as he likes to say.”
“He makes firefighting drones now?” Rex asked. Claudia had told us that her father had his hands in a lot of different enterprises, but firefighting drones was a new one.
She shook her head. “No, just the chemicals. One of his companies makes the pink stuff the drones drop on the fires. He’s not a drone manufacturer…yet.” She coughed, then said, “What’s been going on with you?”
“A lot, actually,” I said. “We were worried about you and wanted to make sure you’re okay. But also, we need your help. I can tell you more on the way, but…could you give us a ride to Jersey?”
She winced. “Sorry. I’d love to help, and I’d really love to get out of the house, but my car’s in the shop getting that H4H love letter buffed out and painted over, and my mom’s down in Washington for a seminar. I’m sure my dad would let me borrow his car, but he got called in to work. The place that makes the fire retardant, actually. He just left.”
“Crap,” I said.
“Why?” she asked. “What’s up?”
We sat in the living room and told her what had happened at the vertical farm, about Dymphna, and Stan and Cronos, and what we suspected was going on with Wells’s super-flu, and how Chimerica’s governing council had refused to act.
“Dymphna’s dead?” she said, stunned.
I nodded, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat.
She put an arm around my neck and hugged me tight. “Jimi, I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks,” I said.
We were silent for a minute. Then Claudia said quietly, “I’ve been so caught up in the craziness at home, I haven’t even been watching the news or anything. This is so messed up. So you think Wells is really going to release this flu? How?”