Pandemic

"Absolutely!" Gwen pointed to her chest. "We'll both go."

"Both?" Hart turned to Gwen with surprise. "No. No. Just Dr. Haldane."

"Ted—" Gwen started.

Hart waved his open palms at her. "No, Gwen! You have a crucial job to perform. The country is relying on you to stay here at home and do it."

Gwen shook her head defiantly. "Everything is unfolding here as we planned. There's little more I can do right now except wait like everyone else."

Hart frowned. "And what can you do over there?" he asked pointedly.

"I am a scientist, too, Ted. I know as much or more about microbiology labs than Noah does." She stared back at Hart, her face fixed in fierce determination. "I know what we're looking for. I feel it in my bones."

"Gwen is right," Haldane said. "She would be a help."

Hart shook his head but with less authority.

Gwen looked down and spoke to the floor. "Ted, they attacked us with the unthinkable. I need to be over there to see this through. You can understand that, can't you?"

Hart stared at her for several seconds before he sighed heavily. "Lucky for you I've run out of time to argue. We need to get you to Andrews Air Force Base ASAP. Your flight leaves in a half an hour."

Gwen offered her boss a grateful smile. "We're gone, Ted."

* * *

Haldane had never experienced such a smooth transfer. Their limo pulled up onto the tarmac of the Andrews Air Force Base. They stepped out of the car and walked up the steps into the cabin of the C37A twin-engine jet. Two prepacked generic overnight bags awaited them. And within moments of boarding, they were airborne.

Aside from the flight crew, consisting of a pilot, a copilot, and a junior officer who functioned as a flight attendant, there were no other passengers in the spacious cabin, which wasn't much smaller than a commercial airliner. Once at cruising altitude, the pilot's friendly voice came over the loudspeaker. "Hi, Doctors, we'll be cruising at close to the speed of sound, which should get us to Yemen in just over eight hours," he said. Noah consulted his watch and did the calculation, realizing they should touch down around 12:30 A.M. local time, less than two hours before Operation Antiseptic was set to commence.

Though comfortable in the cabin, Haldane was too keyed up to sleep. Gwen sat beside him, lost in the laptop computer in front of her. He touched her shoulder. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"Good." She smiled distractedly. "Glad to be along for the ride."

"Nervous?"

She turned away from the computer and studied Haldane with a quizzical frown. "They won't let us near the action."

Haldane let his hand linger a second longer on her shoulder before pulling back. "I didn't mean that. It's just that it's all coming to a head."

"Finally," she sighed. "I'm actually relieved. I was beginning to wonder if this would ever end."

Haldane smiled. "As long as it ends well."

"Yeah, that's kind of key. Truth be told, I am nervous." She bit her lip. "But a good nervous, you know?"

Haldane smiled, appreciating how pretty she looked at moments like these when she let her professional guard down.

"Hey!" She leaned forward and rummaged through her handbag at her foot. She brought her closed hand up to him and then turned it over, exposing a brown pill bottle. She popped the lid off to show the small yellow tablets inside.

Haldane studied the unmarked pills for a moment, before it dawned on him. "Dr. Moskor's wonder drug?"

"Well, the wonder part is yet to be proven, but, yeah, this is a bottle of his drug, A36112. It was waiting for me on my desk in a little box with a note that said, 'Go save the world, kid."' She chuckled. "Typical Isaac!"

Haldane pointed at the bottle. "Have to be a pretty small world to save it with those."

"True." Savard smiled and bit her lip again. "Let's hope we never need a single pill."

* * *

Shortly after midnight Yemeni time, Haldane stared out the window as the C37A began to descend into blackness. As he felt his ears pop, he wondered with slight apprehension where exactly in the darkness the pilot intended to land. Suddenly lights broke through the pitch-black, and he could see they were no more than a few hundred feet from a runway.

The plane landed without so much as a bump. As their plane taxied toward the hangar, Haldane noticed how active the airstrip was. To either side, they passed airplanes ranging from fighter jets to the huge Hercules-style transport planes. A long line of planes waiting for takeoff had formed in the opposite direction.

The C37A slowed to a halt beside the massive hangar. Gwen and Noah grabbed their bags and disembarked following the crew.