Plague Year by Jeff Carlson

Author:Jeff Carlson [Carlson, Jeff]
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Science fiction, General, Fiction, Fiction - Science Fiction, Science Fiction - General, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Science Fiction - High Tech, Epidemics, Nanotechnology
ISBN: 9780441015146
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2010-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Nothing else on Earth was like Ruth had expected it either, not even James. When they did meet, the next day, she initially mistook him for another politician. Her memory was of thick geek glasses and a desk-belly, but he’d had laser surgery two years ago and nobody in this place carried extra weight.

He looked good. His cheekbones were high and compact above his white mask and his well-trimmed beard, and he appeared to be using the same setting to chop his bristly brown hair as well. At least that was a hint of lab rat mentality, efficiency taking priority over appearances. The one-inch carpet of beard and hair gave him a no-nonsense look that was reinforced by a plain beige sweater. It was an image he’d cultivated, unassuming, inoffensive.

James Hollister had turned into a politician in every sense of the word. He was both a general administrator for the nanotech teams and their liaison to the president’s council. He rode herd on thirty-eight disagreeable geniuses, quelling their disputes, enforcing a rotation of the equipment, and

meanwhile championed their interests above every other problem faced by Leadville without excessively irritating the bigwigs above him.

He walked these many tightropes with confidence.

Ruth was attracted to his poise before she knew most of this. She was also much different than she’d envisioned, more alone, more needy—but the father-daughter thing was too strong in her head. She had leaned on James for several months now, going to the radio for guidance and for praise.

Just getting a hug was super. He smelled clean. She might have clung long enough to make him uneasy, then babbled the words she’d held back from Kendricks. “There’s a war going on out there! How did— What’s happening?”

But James didn’t want to talk seriously, another change. To this point their entire relationship had been nothing except scheming and big ideas. He murmured pleasant things. “Your pilot was incredible, they’re talking about a plaque or something,” and pulled his ear and touched his index finger to his mouth and shrugged. Ruth swallowed her questions.

They might be listening. * * * *

She was released the next morning with a quarter-full bottle of calcium supplements and a handful of aspirin. She had been invaded by a gynecologist, and attacked by a dentist who made her gums bleed, and an optometrist had briefly tested her eyes, and they needed her bed. An ATF assault group had been brought in with gunshot wounds and the peculiar subdermal rash caused by nano infestations.

Major Hernandez personally escorted Ruth out into the vast, crisp light of the open sky, along with James and no less than nine soldiers in three jeeps. James seemed to know Hernandez well, asking after someone named Liz, and Ruth was glad. The two of them were a lot alike, she thought, assured, methodical.

It was good to know that there were still good men.

Yet it felt damned surreal, listening to them chitchat as the jeeps rattled south through residential streets.

“Come by tonight for a drink,” James told him.

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