Now that was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“Just one drink, then,” Cole said. “No way you’re getting me to stay the night. Hope you know that.”
Leila swished the sugary liqueur around her mouth. She would have preferred the real thing and almost said so, but didn’t want to make this sweet lady feel silly. Sweet, yes, that was really the best word for her. Not like Leila’s usual drinking crew back in Atlanta.
Yes, a doctor in the Epidemic Intelligence Service. No, never seen Ebola in real life. Yes, first time to Rwanda. Couldn’t they appreciate that she wasn’t exactly in the mood for small talk? A patient in her care had just died a horrible death, her estranged mother was dying too, thousands of miles away, and it was already past midnight. Enough already.
Cole saved her, setting his tumbler down firmly on the coffee table.
“This has been fun, thanks, Katie.” He stood up, and the rest of them followed. “We should let you get to bed, though. I know those kids will have you up before sunrise.”
“Well they’re not quite that bad, but you’re right.”
Leila caught the questioning look Katie aimed at her husband, and his subtle nod in response.
“Just let me know if you need anything at all tonight. Hope to see you
both
in the morning.”
“The three of us are going to make some calls from the basement,” Dave said, kissing his wife’s forehead. “I’ll be up in a little while.”
Leila followed the men down a narrow set of stairs into a large, unfinished basement. It was wide open except for a square section in one corner.
“Guess that’s where we’re headed?” Cole said. “You’ve never shown me this little spot.”
“You’ve never needed to know.” Dave raised an index finger and placed it against a smooth white panel set in the wall beside the door. “Now you do.”
There was a short tone, and a tiny green light flashed above the panel. Leila heard the smooth turning of what sounded like way too much steel inside the door, and then a click.
“Welcome to my secure communications center.” He pushed the heavy door open and walked inside. “Also serves as a temporary shelter that could hold our family for a week, God forbid the nineties’ genocide ever repeats itself.”
He flipped a switch and bright fluorescent lights flickered to life overhead.
Leila looked around the room in awe. One wall was dominated by a large desk holding two computers, a phone, and other equipment she couldn’t identify. Maybe some kind of radio? Under the desk were several large backup power sources and a mess of wires. Shelving filled with bottled water and MREs covered the back wall, and stacked opposite the desk were a few folding cots. She couldn’t imagine spending an hour, let alone a week, in this place. Especially with kids. But she also couldn’t imagine the horrible circumstances that might drive them in there in the first place. More power to him.
“So who first?”
Dave sat down at the desk and picked up the phone, motioning for them to join him.
“We need to update Bill Shackleton at the CDC,” Cole said. “Leila’s working under him in Viral Special Pathogens, and he’s also an old mentor of mine.”
Leila nodded her head. She hadn’t had the nerve to let Bill know about Marna’s death yet.
“If his word on the importance of this outbreak isn’t enough for you,” Cole continued, “we can try to get Colonel Sam Simmons at USAMRIID on the line too. He’s commander there, and I managed to rope him in as one of my thesis advisors for this PhD project.”
Of course you did
. Leila was finally beginning to realize what an annoyingly determined wunderkind this vet was, and it made her dislike him even more. Was it because she was so similar in all the worst ways? Maybe so, but that didn’t change anything. She was done with Rwanda, monkeypox, and Cole McBride. Maman wanted to see her. Baba had given his blessing. That’s where she needed to be.
“But hang on, who did you say you just got an e-mail from?” Cole couldn’t believe the news of his virus had already reached the White House. What must Anna be thinking, knowing he was right there in the center of it?
“Andrew Mills, White House press secretary.” Bill Shackleton’s voice came through strong and clear over the speakerphone. “Like I said, this story has gone all the way to the top. The media loves a good feeding frenzy whenever there’s even a hint of the next big global pandemic, and those videos from the hospital in Goma are starting to go viral online.”
“Okay, but why the White House?” Cole was honestly confused. “Don’t they have bigger fish to fry, with Lebanon and now that hurricane?”
“The election is four months away, Cole. You know how much the president likes to reassure his citizens that he’s got everything under control.”
Dave Wong jumped in.
“Think I’ve heard enough here, and I’m convinced.” He looked up at Cole as he continued. “It’s good to know my junior Veterinary Corps officer here isn’t completely crazy for wanting to get back across the border.”
“Well I didn’t say that, but I do agree that it’ll be vital in helping us understand what’s actually going on with this virus. He’ll be a couple days ahead of any other international response that’s currently in the works, and that could translate into who knows how many thousands of lives saved.”
“Understood. But I also need you to realize that even though we both think it would be useful for him to continue the investigation in Virunga, that doesn’t mean I can authorize the mission. I also need to chat with USAMRIID and then get final clearance from AFRICOM for that.”
“Don’t let me hold you up, then. Thanks for the update, everyone. Leila, I’ll see you tomorrow evening with those samples?”
She spoke up for the first time since saying hello. “Maybe not. I should have told you, but I’m putting in for emergency leave. My mother is close to dying, back in Iran.”
“Okay, that complicates things, doesn’t it?” Shackleton said. “I’m very sorry to hear that, though. I didn’t know.”
Cole looked at her quizzically. Why hadn’t she said anything?
“More details to follow in an e-mail as soon as we get off the phone. But don’t worry about the samples—I’ll hand them off to Travis at the airport in Atlanta tomorrow, then continue on from there.”
“Right,” Shackleton didn’t sound completely convinced. “We’ll be in touch.”
Dave leaned in to the microphone. “Thanks, Bill, for taking the time to chat. We’ll let you go now.”
“Pleasure’s all mine. Now that you’ve got a confirmed human death there in Rwanda, I can almost guarantee we’ll be spending a lot of time on conference calls together over the next few days.”
Cole let out a sigh of relief. Another thirty minutes on the phone, and Colonel Simmons from USAMRIID had also signed off on the plan. He emphasized that Cole’s early return to the Congo could be their best and only chance of identifying the outbreak as an intentional release rather than a natural phenomenon. Unlikely, he admitted, but his job was to be suspicious. Now after being passed from someone at AFRICOM to the duty officer with Special Operations Command Africa, both in Stuttgart, Germany, they were finally waiting to be patched through to the Kony task force commander in Djibouti.
“Colonel Ed Alsina here, you’re on a secure line.”
Cole’s eyes got big.
“Sir, this is Lieutenant Colonel Dave Wong, defense attaché at the embassy here in Kigali. Also listening in are Captain Cole McBride and a CDC physician named Leila Torabi.”
“Cole McBride—you shitting me?” The senior officer’s gravelly voice was unmistakable.
Dave looked across at Cole, eyebrows raised.
“Yes, sir,” Cole started, a smile growing on his face, “You may have thought you’d never hear from that damn vet of yours after he left 10th Group, but here I am in the flesh, ready to haunt your nightmares once again.”
Dave shook his head, giving Cole a look that could only mean
you lucky bastard
. “You two know each other, I take it?”
“Indeed we do. Cole served as a royal pain in my ass for almost three years, right up until he decided he’d rather play around with gorillas than keep taking care of my working dogs. Is he giving you any trouble over there?”
“I guess you could say that, sir.”
Cole tried to catch his friend’s eye, shaking his head from side to side. He knew Dave was genuinely concerned for his safety, but he wasn’t going to let him jeopardize this mission.
Dave continued, “You’re probably aware of the disease outbreak in Goma?”
“As of about an hour ago, yes.”
“Well Captain McBride here is convinced that he personally needs to illegally cross the border into the Congo, by himself, in an attempt to trace the origin of this virus.”
“What in—”
“Not by myself, Colonel. I would have two of the most experienced rangers from Virunga National Park with me, along with one of their tracking bloodhounds.”
“I could give a rat’s ass who’s with you, son. First I need to know why you think this is even necessary.”
Cole loved that about the colonel—he would always hear his men out.
“I can answer that, sir, because I needed some convincing as well,” Dave said. “We’ve just gotten off the line with both the director of Viral Special Pathogens at the CDC and the Army commander at USAMRIID. Much as I hate to tell you this, they’re in agreement that the mission is critical in stopping this outbreak before it gets out of hand. With the rebels closing both the airport and the only legal border crossing, there’s no good way to get anyone else in there for a more comprehensive response and investigation.”
“Well they’re the subject matter experts, so it’s not my place to question that assessment. I’m more concerned about Cole’s safety and the implications of an unsanctioned international excursion by the U.S. military.”
“Exactly,” Dave said. “And that’s why I don’t think we can let him do it.”
There was a pause, and Cole’s wavering optimism began to fade. He couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, though, not after what happened to Marna. Not with the devastation he knew was burning through the population, both human and gorilla, right across the border. He’d been battling this feeling of responsibility all night. Why did he have to be the one to go back out there? Hadn’t he seen enough suffering and paid his dues already? The self-centered loner in him was tempted to simply hop on the first flight out of there, data in hand, and leave this mess for someone else to sort out. But he knew that wasn’t the man he wanted to be—not the man his parents had raised him to be. He’d been given this extensive education, the military training, even his combat experience, for a reason, and he knew that reason did not involve his own safety or selfish academic ambitions. No, he couldn’t turn his back now.
“You’re in a secure area, correct?”
Cole’s head shot up at the change in tone of the colonel’s voice.
“Roger that.”
“And everyone’s got their clearances, I assume?”
“Affirmative.” Dave’s immediate answer caught Cole by surprise. He looked across at Leila, but she only nodded.
“I might have a way to make this work. We’ve got a small team just west of Virunga National Park right now, part of my task force hunting Joseph Kony.”
“I didn’t realize they were in the Congo,” Dave Wong said.
“Arrived there last week, acting on reports from Invisible Children’s Early Warning Radio Network, along with our own intercepts through the NSA. Looks like the main body of fighters is camping out right there in the park.”
Cole remembered the purposeful attack on their helicopter only two days earlier. Had he really returned fire from the LRA?
“We got some new intelligence today, top secret only, that an individual in the same area has been making repeated calls in a failed attempt to reach an unknown contact within the Iranian government.”
Cole couldn’t help glancing at Leila and thought he saw the slightest flash of fear dance across her dark eyes.
“I’m wondering if we can kill two birds with one stone here,” the Special Forces colonel continued. “It does seem like quite the coincidence, but you remember what I always say about that, right Cole?”
“That true coincidences are a heck of a lot less common than most people think? Don’t worry, sir, I don’t plan on forgetting it.” It was one of Ed Alsina’s favorite phrases, and it had served them well, tracking down Taliban fighters across Afghanistan.
“Well that’s the censored version, but yes. I tend to believe these things happen for a reason. My guys would have been going into the park blind—the Congolese unit they’re with is from Kinshasa and scared stiff of the jungle—so these two park rangers would definitely come in handy.”
“And I know I don’t have to convince you, sir, after everything we saw in Afghanistan, of how useful a dog with a good nose could be. I hate to admit it, but these bloodhounds might even be a step above our malligators in that department.”
“I hear you,” the colonel said. “And I think it’s clear that my team would benefit from joining up with these guys. They do have a dog already, but he’s obviously not as familiar with the local terrain or scents as this hound would be. But what about the virus—the outbreak?”
“I’ll be collecting samples from everything I can get my hands on along the way, and I might be even more successful interviewing some of the locals if I’ve got a bunch of big guys with guns at my back. I think we can make this work for both sides. I really do.”
Cole felt his heart pounding. He was so close.
“So what would this actually look like, your little expedition across the volcanoes to meet my team?”
“If we left at first light tomorrow and spent the night at an abandoned research camp just across the border, we could be with your guys near Rumangabo by the afternoon of the second day.”
“Cole, I need you to be honest with me here. How sure are you that you can make this happen—make it through in one piece?”
“I’m safer in that park with the Kambale brothers than I would be with all of 10th Group backing me up. That’s the honest truth, sir. They’ll keep us far from any human activity until we’ve connected with your team.”
There was another pause, and Cole realized he had broken a sweat again.