Amazonia

Olin pointed to the screen. “We should be uplinked in thirty seconds.”

Kelly watched the small timer on the computer screen count downward. When it reached zero, her father’s face blinked onto the screen. He was dressed casually, his tie half undone, no jacket.

“You look like a drowned rat” were his first words from the flickering image.

With a small smile, Kelly lifted a hand to her wet hair. “The rains have started.”

“So I see.” Her father returned her grin. “How are things out there?”

Frank leaned forward into the view. He gave a quick overview of their discovery.

As he talked, Kelly listened to the echoing whine of Nate’s boat. The waters here and the overhanging jungle played tricks with acoustics. It sounded like the boat was still nearby, but then the noise suddenly choked off. They must have reached the village already.

“Watch out for your sister, Frank,” her father said, finishing their talk.

“Will do, sir.”

Now it was Kelly’s turn. “How’re Mother and Jessie?” she asked, holding her fists clenched in her lap.

Her father smiled reassuringly. “Both in the pink of health. We all are. The entire institute. So far no cases have been reported in the area. Any risk of contamination has been successfully quarantined, and we’ve converted the west wing of the institute into temporary family housing. With so many MEDEA members here, we’ve got around-the-clock doctors.”

“How’s Jessie handling it?”

“She’s a six-year-old,” he said with a shrug. “At first she was a bit scared at being uprooted. But now she’s having a ball with the other staff’s children. In fact, why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Kelly sat straighter as her daughter’s face came into view, a small hand waving. “Hi, Mommy!”

Tears welled. “Hi, sweetheart. Are you having fun?”

Her daughter nodded vigorously, climbing into her grandfather’s lap. “We had chocolate cake, and I rode a pony!”

Choking back a laugh, her father spoke over the top of his granddaughter’s head. “There’s a small farm nearby, in the quarantine zone. They brought a pony over to entertain the kids.”

“That sounds like fun, honey. I wish I could’ve been there.”

Jessie squirmed in her seat. “And you know what else? A clown is coming over and is gonna make animal balloons.”

“A clown?”

Her father whispered to the side. “Dr. Emory from histopathology. He’s damn good at it, too.”

“I’m gonna ask him to make me a monkey,” Jessie said.

“That’s wonderful.” Kelly leaned closer, soaking up the view of both her father and her daughter.

After a bit more elaboration on clowns and ponies, Jessie was lifted off her grandfather’s knee. “It’s time for Ms. Gramercy to take you back to class.”

Jessie pouted but obeyed.

“Bye, honey,” Kelly called. “I love you!”

She waved again, using her entire arm. “Bye, Mommy! Bye, Uncle Frankie!”

Kelly had to restrain herself from touching the screen.

Once Jessie was gone, her father’s face grew grim. “Not all the news is so bright.”

“What?” Kelly asked.

“It’s why your mother isn’t here. While we seem to have things contained, the outbreak in Florida is spreading. Overnight, there’s been another six cases reported in Miami hospitals, and another dozen in outlying county hospitals. The quarantine zone is being widened, but we don’t think we secured the area in time. Your mother and others are monitoring reports from across the country.”

“My God,” Kelly gasped.

“In the last twelve hours, the number of cases has now climbed to twenty-two. The fatalities to eight. Scenarios calculated by the best epidemiologists in the country have these numbers doubling every twelve hours. In fact, along the Amazon, the death toll is already climbing toward the five hundred mark.”

As Kelly calculated in her head, her face blanched. Frank’s hand on her shoulder tightened. In just a few days, the number in the U.S. could climb into the tens of thousands.

“The president has just signed an order to mobilize the National Guard in Florida. The official story is an outbreak of a virulent South American flu. Specifics on how it got here are being kept under wraps.”

Kelly leaned back, as if distance would lessen the horror. “Has any protocol for treatment been established?”

“Not as of yet. Antibiotics and antivirals don’t seem to be of any help. All we can offer is symptomatic care—intravenous fluids, drugs to combat fever, and pain relievers. Until we know what is causing the disease, fighting it’s an uphill battle.” Her father leaned closer to the screen. “That’s why your work out in the field is so critical. If you can find out what happened to Agent Clark, you may discover a clue to this disease.”

Kelly nodded.

Frank spoke, his voice a hoarse whisper. “We’ll do our best.”

“Then I’d better let you all get back to your work.” After a sober good-bye, her father signed off.

Kelly glanced to her brother. She saw that Manny stood to one side of him, Richard Zane to the other.

“What have we done?” Manny asked. “Maybe someone should have listened to that Indian shaman back in Wauwai. Burned Clark’s body after he died.”

Zane shook his head and mumbled, “It wouldn’t have mattered. The disease would’ve eventually broken out of the forest. It’s just like AIDS.”

“What do you mean?” Kelly asked, turning in her seat.

“AIDS started after a highway was built into the African jungle. We come disturbing these ancient ecosystems, and we don’t know what we stir up.”

Kelly pushed out of the camp chair. “Then it’s up to us to stop it. The jungle may have produced AIDS, but it also offered our best treatments against the disease. Seventy percent of AIDS drugs are derived from tropical plants. So if this new disease came out of the jungle, why not the cure, too?”

“That’s if we can find it,” Zane said.

Off to the side, Manny’s jaguar suddenly growled. The great cat swung around and crouched, ears pricked, eyes fixed on the jungle behind them.

“What’s wrong with him?” Zane asked, backing a step away.

Manny squinted at the shadowed rain forest as Tor-tor continued a deep warning growl. “He’s caught a scent…something’s out there.”