Page 4 of The Shadow Friends

“Yes. I think that’s a good idea. You should fly home. Take as much time as you need, and come back when you feel ready.” He caressed her cheek. “But please,” he said with a smile. “Don’t be gone for too long.”

She caught his wrist and gently lowered his hand. “To be honest, there’s another reason I need to go home for a while.”

“What reason?”

She turned and looked up the road at the safe house. At what should have been a safe house but instead had turned into a place of slaughter. “I thought I was going to die there. And that’s when I realized what I want to live for. Who I want to live for. I need to tell him, while I still have the chance.”

“Him?” Rodrigo frowned. “You can’t mean that analyst you’ve been talking about?”

“That’s exactly who I mean.”

“Are you really going home to that—that desk jockey?”

“That desk jockey loves me.” In ways that you never will, she thought.

“And is that enough?”

“Love?” She looked at him and gave a sad laugh. “You really don’t understand it, do you?”

“I understand that you and I have something special.”

“And how long would that last?”

“Long enough.” He tilted up her head and looked straight into her eyes. “Admit it, Ingrid. You’d miss me, wouldn’t you? How long will it take for you to get bored with him? Maybe not this year or next year, but eventually you will be. He has no idea what our world is like. He spends all day at his desk and goes home every night, to what? Dinner and a video?”

“That’s starting to sound pretty damn good.”

“You know what does sound good?” He pulled her closer, so close their bodies were pressed against each other. “A hotel room. A glass of champagne . . .”

She stepped away. “I’ll write my report tonight, and it will be on your desk tomorrow, for the cable. And then I’m going to apply for a transfer.” She looked down one last time at Gordon. Poor Gordon would never have the chance to grow old, but she would. And she didn’t want to do it alone. “Goodbye, Rodrigo. I’ll invite you to the wedding.” She turned and walked away.

“I won’t come!” he called.

“Suit yourself.”

“I hate to watch tragedies!”

“Not a tragedy.” She paused and glanced back at him. “A happy ending.”

“Are you sure about that?”

She didn’t answer him. She didn’t know.

Now

Chapter 2

Ingrid

Friday

“Humanity stands at the edge of an abyss,” said Dr. Cornell Stamoran. “Whether it’s nuclear winter or biological warfare or a devastating natural pandemic, we are woefully unprepared for the coming global catastrophe.” He surveyed the audience of nearly four hundred people gathered in the ballroom of the Cod Cove Resort. “Some of you will say I’m being unnecessarily alarmist, but based on current information, I believe it’s likely that within the next two decades, there will be another pandemic. And this could be the face of that catastrophe.” He advanced to the next slide, and an image of a child’s face, covered in fluid-filled pustules, filled the ballroom screen. Ingrid, seated in the emcee’s chair onstage, heard murmurs of horror from the audience, even though most people in this room were already well acquainted with the tragedies of the world.

“Some of you may recognize what this little girl is dying of,” continued Stamoran, and Ingrid saw several audience members nodding their heads. “During the twentieth century, an estimated three hundred million people did die of this disease. This is the face of variola major. Otherwise known as smallpox.”

Stamoran advanced to the next slide, a photo of schoolchildren standing in line, their sleeves rolled up to bare their arms.

“And some of you are old enough to remember standing in a line like this one, to receive the vaccine that completely eradicated smallpox. I’m a virologist, but I myself have never seen a case of variola major, because the virus is now extinct in the wild. The fact we were able to completely erase it from the globe was a testament to science and to global cooperation. So why do I mention smallpox at this conference on global catastrophes? Wasn’t the disease wiped out, erased from the planet?”