Brushfire Plague: Reckoning Read online

  Dranko nodded in agreement, “Losing a loved one is bad enough. When it’s been done on purpose, revenge is the first…and often last…thing people feel.”

  Cooper moved past his friend, striding toward the kitchen, “I had to do it. The world deserves to know the truth, dammit!”

  Dranko turned to follow him, “Look, brother, I ain’t arguing with you. I am just here to tell you the reaction to that truth, mainly so we can be prepared for it.”

  Cooper drew his pistol from its holster, laid it on the counter, and leaned back against it, facing Dranko, “Yeah, I know. Keep going.”

  Dranko settled in, legs in a wide stance and arms folded, “Like I was saying. The other half is pretty damn upset. On the foreign front, recriminations and demands for justice have already started pouring in to our government.” Dranko paused and averted his eyes from his friend’s.

  Cooper looked exasperated, “C’mon. What’s the worse news? I can handle it.”

  “So far, that’s been the official reactions. You have opposition parties in many countries screaming for retribution. Some of the most radical have already started calling for nuclear strikes on us. It’s already being called an unprecedented ‘worldwide genocide’ that an American thrust upon the world.”

  Cooper exhaled loudly; his left hand ran raggedly through his black hair, while his left grasped the countertop until his knuckles turned white, “Jesus. I didn’t see that coming.” He shook his head once, as if to clear it.

  “Yeah, me neither. On the domestic front, it’s similarly bad. There are renewed outbreaks of violence and rioting. However, they’ve shifted from happening near medical and food facilities to anything that is government related. Hell, the funniest has been a report of a firebombing at the U.S. Patent office!”

  “I wish I was in the mood to laugh, because that is ridiculous,” Cooper intoned. “How’s our government responding?”

  “As you might expect. They are denying any knowledge of the events in question, promising a swift investigation and severe and unprecedented punishment if they discover a shred of truth about the allegations against Admonitus and the Mr. Ethan Mitchell.”

  Cooper’s eyes grew quizzical, “They haven’t announced that he’s dead?”

  “Nope. But, you’d better be happy about that!”

  “Why?” Cooper asked.

  “Haven’t you thought about it? They’d tie it to you and add murder to the list of charges against you.”

  Cooper’s face went slack in surprise, “I hadn’t thought about that. I guess I didn’t think of a lot of things that might happen by telling the world the truth.” Inwardly, he cursed himself for not having thought it all through. A wave of dizziness hit him and his arm cast about until it found a wall to steady himself with.

  Dranko watched him and waited until he was all right before going on, “Well, friend, you can be impulsive sometimes. But, that’s why you have me around, to worry about all the angles for you!”

  Cooper’s smile returned to his face, “Thanks, brother. But, you are the ugliest nursemaid I’ve ever seen.”

  “Funny.” Dranko quickly held up his hand. “Oh, I almost forgot. The President is holding a full press conference in about a half hour about all of this, too.”

  “Really? Well, we’ll have to tune in,” Cooper said, as a wry grin spread across his face. I wonder how they will try to spin themselves out of this one.

  **********

  The sharp rap of a cane against his door interrupted Dranko’s response. Cooper walked to the door and before he could call out, a raspy voice shrilled from outside, “Let me in Cooper, or I’ll have to blow your door down!”

  Cooper and Dranko exchanged bemused smiles. Lily Stott’s voice was unmistakable and the old woman’s wit and wisdom were legendary in the neighborhood. Her reputation had only grown since the outbreak of the plague.

  “Coming ol’ darlin’,” Cooper said, doing his best to mimic Lily’s accent from her native Kentucky.

  He opened the door and her diminutive frame greeted him, as did her expansive personality, “Ya know, if I was a few decades younger…or you a few decades older, that accent just might get me into a friendly way with ya, Coop.” Her piercing blue eyes lit up as she lilted the last few words.

  Cooper couldn’t stop the blush that ran into his cheeks and he flashed a smile at his embarrassment, “Lily, I know you didn’t come over to charm me, so what can I do for you?”

  “I came here for this,” she said as she rapidly closed the space between them and wrapped Cooper into a tight embrace. It was far tighter than he would imagine an eighty-something woman could pull off. He burst out laughing in surprise.

  “What’s gotten into you, Lily?”

  She held him in the bear hug for several seconds longer. Cooper cast a “help me” gaze at Dranko, who only smiled in return, arms crossed.

  “You’re on your own, brother. I ain’t crossing swords with Ms. Stott,” he exclaimed.

  At that, Lily released him, “Oh, fool’s feathers, you young boys can’t handle something you ain’t planned or predicted, can you?” She stepped back from Cooper so she could look him directly in the eyes before continuing, “That was to thank you for what you done. Paul told me this morning it was you who sent the world the truth about this terrible thing. Plain and simple. What you done was right. And, I know it didn’t come easy to go on and tell that truth.”

  Cooper shrugged nonchalantly, “You know me, Lily. After what happened to my dad, I can’t do anything but tell the truth.” He choked on the last word, as he did every time he was reminded of how deceit had destroyed his father’s life. As a boy, he had watched his father wither away in prison, put there by the lies of other men. That wrenching experience had led Cooper to a life of absolute honesty; even in the most difficult of situations.

  “Pig doodles! Don’t hand me that. You coulda kept quiet. I seen you do that, Cooper, because that ain’t the same as lying. At least to you it ain’t. I believe the good Lord would take a different view. No offense,” she said waving her hand dismissively.

  “None taken. That’s true, I thought about just keeping quiet. I thought about it quite a bit.”

  “I bet you done. So, don’t try to shirk off your hero name tag. I’m planting it on you. And, you know what?”

  “What?”

  “You know me. Once I aim to do something, it sticks like a dried up bug’s wing to flypaper!”

  Cooper and Dranko both laughed at that, “I won’t even try to deny the truth of that, Lily.”

  “Alright, so thank you for telling us what really happened. It was mighty difficult to swallow, with so many dying and it being done on purpose. That is a bitter pill to choke down,” her voice rising to mimic that of a Southern preacher on Sunday. “But, it says so in the Bible, ‘the truth shall set you free’, so what you did was the only thing a righteous man could have done. Yes indeed, Amen!” She clapped her hands in exultation as she finished.

  “Well, you’re welcome,” Cooper said awkwardly. “I don’t feel heroic or righteous. I just did what I knew I had to do to wake up feeling right about myself and my boy.” His eyes gazed into the distance as he talked, “People deserve the truth, even when it’s tough to hear. In fact, when you think about it, that was a problem in the country before the plague…no one wanting to tell unpleasant truths.”

  “You’re right about most regular people. But, people like me were always telling you all the truth about what might happen. You just didn’t want to hear it,” Dranko contravened.

  Cooper pushed him with an open palm in the chest, “Can you give it a rest? How many more times do I have to hear some version of ‘I told you so’ from the great Paul Dranko? Sometimes, I think you helped Mitchell out just so you could be right about one of the versions of the end-of-the-world you were always spouting off about.” He turned to Lily, “Can you help me put a stop to this and give my medal to Dranko instead? I think it might shut him up!”

 
Dranko pushed him back, “Alright already, I made my point and you made yours. How about we leave it there?”

  “Good enough for me,” Cooper returned.

  Lily wagged her head deliberately back and forth and moved to the door, “You two remind me of my boys, always bickering like they say old women do. But, take this as the truth, when it comes to fussin’, you boys are far worse than the worst of any withered up old women I ever did see!” She exited the house and took deliberate care descending his front steps. When she reached the bottom, she looked back, “You all have a good night now, hear?”

  Cooper gave her a warm smile, “Sure thing, Lily and thank you for stopping by. You are very kind.”

  Lily just nodded her head and ambled off back towards her home. Cooper closed the door and turned to Dranko, “So, we can fire up my radio in a little bit and listen to the President?”

  Dranko stepped towards the door, “Better yet, come over to my place. I can get it up on the computer most likely.”

  “Your internet is still working?”

  “It is. I don’t know how much longer, but my satellite link up is still working its magic.”

  “Okay, I’ll be over on the hour.”

  Dranko opened the door, left, and then shut it.

  Cooper decided to spend the remaining time with Jake before listening in to the President’s message.

  **********

  Later, they’d gathered at Dranko’s place. Cooper, Dranko, and Jake huddled in his basement room where Dranko had stockpiled all manner of communications equipment over the years. When they’d arrived, Dranko had surveyed the spectrum for their benefit. He had old vacuum-tubed radios that could survive the Electro-Magnetic Pulse he feared would eventually happen from a nuclear device detonated above America. He had several solar and hand-cranked radios that could operate without batteries. However, his most elaborate set-up was reserved for the myriad of ways he could stay connected to the Internet: satellite, cable modem, and satellite phone topped the list. Dranko’s small battery of stockpiled weapons had enabled the neighborhood to defend itself during the chaos thus far. Now, Cooper was thankful for his friend’s communications equipment that had allowed him to spread his message to the world about the Brushfire Plague and, now, listen to the President’s response.

  The familiar podium and Seal of the President greeted them as Dranko secured a live streaming telecast of the speech over the Internet. Cooper tuned out the familiar greetings and the platitudes of sorrow the President offered his fellow Americans. His ears literally perked up when he got to the meat of the speech:

  “In this trying time for our nation, a time of horrendous loss for so many, a time of unfathomable grief, a time when the strength of our country is being tested like never before, I first want to share that the hopeful rays of God’s mercy are shining once again. That’s right, my fellow Americans, the first signs that the scourge of the Brushfire Plague is finally abating.”

  “I receive briefings from the Centers for Disease control three times daily. It pleases me beyond measure that over the last forty-eight hours, those briefings have told the same story: both the infection rate and the morbidity rate from this terrible plague have been falling steadily. In short, this means that the number of those becoming infected is falling. More importantly, the rate of those who do contract this disease and then die from it is declining rapidly. At the conclusion of my remarks, Dr. Charles Holmes, the Director of the CDC will speak to the specifics. But, the layman’s version is that the virus is mutating to a less lethal form. These developments mean great hope to those who are now sick, and even greater hope that our nation has passed through the darkest hour of this devilish calamity. Rest assured, we will be monitoring this situation carefully, but the best medical minds are confident that this trend will continue.”

  The President paused as his face turned from one filled with hopeful and sympathetic lines to ones far grimmer. The transformation was slow, subtle, but complete. Despite himself, a riot of goose pimples erupted across Cooper’s body.

  “However, amidst this moment of enormous hope and guarded relief, I must also respond to a new threat to our great nation. Most of you have probably seen the scandalous and unfounded reports spread across the Internet and some irresponsible media outlets that the Brushfire Plague was no accident. That it was intentionally started by a company called Admonitus, based in Portland, Oregon. Yes, I know, my fellow Americans, it is a shocking allegation that is beyond the pale.” Cooper felt the others’ eyes on him as the President recalled Cooper’s email to the world’s media detailing the devastating truth that he had learned about the genesis of the Brushfire Plague. The email sharing Mitchell’s darkest confessions.

  “I want to assure you all that once this administration learned of that frightful rumor, we launched a full scale investigation to determine its veracity. In the reports, you may have also heard that my administration was aware of this diabolical plan and possibly assisted its implementation.”

  His face grew angry, dark lines outlining his eyes and his jaw firmly set with muscles twitching, “You may only guess how outraged I was when I first heard of this nonsensical drivel. But, let me state plainly, and for the record, no one in my administration knew of such a plan, if it even existed. It is an affront to the honor of my family that such a thing has even been uttered. My family has suffered losses, as well. We were not spared from the death that has spread across our nation. It is incomprehensible to me that any madman would have done this on purpose. But, I swear on the word of God, that my administration had no warning of it nor did we enable or abet any such crazy plan.”

  “We have found no evidence, thus far, that this plague was intentional. But, our investigation will continue, and we will transparently share with the American people any, and all, results that we learn. As I talk to you, officials are on the ground in Portland and we are moving to secure the offices and facilities of Admonitus and the home of its CEO, Ethan Mitchell.”

  “I wish to say to my fellow Americans, and our neighbors around the world, America did not start this terrible plague of biblical proportion. We, as a nation, did not do…or even conceive…of any such thing. And, I promise you, if we learn that a crazed man or a company led by a madman did this, the punishment will be swift and unprecedented. You can know this as truth!” He pounded his fist against his desk with a loud thud.

  “Now, let me turn to our efforts to track down the origin of these dreadful rumors. The potential harm of these unfounded reports is already evident. Sadly, they have already sparked attacks against innocent government officials and the wanton destruction of property. For that reason, our efforts to track down who started these vicious rumors are being conducted under the auspices of the Patriot Act and this is being treated as an act of terrorism against America.”

  Once more, he paused for effect. “This decision was not taken lightly, as we deeply value the right of Freedom of Speech within my administration. However, the spreading of these unconfirmed reports at a time of great trial for America is a dangerous act. Already, this rumor has resulted in violence upon the innocent. I’m sure that the decent and God-fearing people of America will agree with me that the threat to our shared national security posed by these lies trumps any right to free speech.”

  The camera now zoomed in further, almost imperceptibly, but the effect was dramatic. Cooper felt the hair on his neck rise. “I wish to announce that we have a person of interest in this investigation. Our evidence indicates that this person may know about, or have been directly involved in, a series of dreadful acts including the killing of Mr. Ethan Mitchell, the CEO of Admonitus. Most importantly, we believe this person is responsible for spreading panic and violence by proclaiming these irresponsible—and unfounded—allegations. This person of interest is Mr. Cooper Adams, of Portland, Oregon.”

  The President’s words sucked all the air out of the room where Cooper, Dranko, and Jake sat. Silence engulfed the room. Both Jake and Dranko
looked at Cooper in shock.

  “As you might imagine, prior to this crisis, we would have this person in custody before I would make such an announcement. However, our resources are already taxed beyond heroic measure and I refuse to allow the apprehension of this person to take precedence over tending to the greater, and more immediate, needs of our nation. I am coordinating efforts with the Governor of Oregon to apprehend Cooper Adams and to bring him in for questioning. In the meantime, I urge anyone with information on his whereabouts to contact their local authorities. I also wish to remind my fellow Americans of their power to make a citizen’s arrest in the event they encounter Cooper Adams and can secure him until the authorities arrive.”

  Dranko let out a low whistle, “Christ, Cooper. He just declared open season on you!”

  Cooper’s face gave Dranko a sharp rebuke as he inclined his head slightly to remind his friend that Jake was in the room with them. Dranko continued undeterred, “I know you don’t want to hear this, but we need to get out of here. As soon as they can get themselves organized, they will be coming for you.”

  “Dranko, we’ve been through this before. I won’t leave my home. It’s all I have left of Elena.”

  Dranko sprung to his feet, “Cooper, don’t be ridiculous! This changes everything. Hell, yes, we’ve survived against some teenage hoodlums, some disorganized thugs, and even that squad of National Guarders. We’ve been far beyond lucky! Tell me you think we can survive the full weight of the U.S. Government, even if they are disorganized and weak right now!”

  Cooper stood in turn. His own head was swirling in shock at hearing the President call for his arrest to a national audience, “Damn it, Dranko. Just give me a minute before you start telling me what I have to do!”

  Dranko knew his friend’s lack of outright rejection was his best chance, “I’m sorry, brother, but I have to tell you because you need to think straight right now. You know what I’m talking about! They are figuring out how to land a couple Blackhawk helicopters on your front lawn and send a couple teams of Navy Seals to round your ass up! If the world wasn’t a stinking pig pile of shit, it would’ve already happened.”