The sound of running feet and the sudden pounding on his door brought Toby upright instantly. Wrenching open the door, he found Mei Ling panting. “What’s wrong?”
“TV . . . turn on the TV.” She managed to gasp, pointing to the small fifteen inch that sat on his dresser.
“What channel?” He moved across the floor, already afraid of what she would say.
“Doesn’t matter.” The grim note made his stomach lurch.
“ . . . report from Moon Base. It appears to have gone out on all channels. A poignant cry for help from the colonists who appear to have contracted some sort of disease that is decimating their population.” He felt her arms go around his waist while her head burrowed between his shoulder blades.
It wasn’t possible.
It couldn’t be happening. Not to Sam and Peter and Grandmother Penelope.
The ringing phone broke his focus on the screen and he reached for it. “Hello?”
The sound of his mother weeping made it all too real. She was barely coherent and he was just able to catch some of her words while he tried to soothe her. “Mom, I love you and we just have to pray for some kind of cure. Mom . . . Mom, call Mr. Baynes. You know you like his sermons and he’d be a great person to have with you right now.”
Something on the screen wasn’t right. They were replaying the broadcast of the third transmission from the Base and Father Adam was talking.
“Mom, call Mr. Baynes. I’ll be home as soon as I can. Okay?” He listened to her gasping agreement. “I love you, Mom. I’ll be there soon. Bye.”
His eyes had never left the screen and he listened to Father Adam’s fire and brimstone speech about unbelievers and fruits of sin with a detached air. The last time Sam had visited, he’d remarked on the 180-degree turn the priest had taken. He still took the opposing side in some of their discussions but only to bring out factors that needed to be taken into account.
Something wasn’t right. And he knew just the place to go to for the answers.
“Mei Ling, let’s take a little walk to clear our heads. I need some fresh air.” He turned off the TV with a sharp click, pinching her hand before moving.
“Fresh air?” Her face had an incredulous look on it that would have been funny at any other time. But when she saw his expression, she slowly nodded. “That . . . that sounds like a good idea. The press is probably heading here as we speak and none of them is as nice as Jane.”
“God, yes. Remember that nasty woman from the networks? She was so determined to get an expose that she planted a mike right here in my room to catch the dirt.” He steered her out of the room and down the hall to the back stairs that hardly anyone used. Placing a finger over his lips, he stilled her questions.
They came out of the back of the dorms and he whispered their destination in her ear. Saying nothing as they crossed the campus, Toby watched groups of students lazing on the green grass under the trees with a sense of unreality. It all looked so normal. How could he reconcile this with the horrible events that might even now be happening on Moon Base?
The interdenominational chapel stood among stately oaks, its white clapboards gleaming under the bright sun. The windows were brilliantly colored glass panels that provided a rainbow path up to the carved altar and the simple wooden cross above it. Every time he came here, it was like catching his breath after a long run. Calming and soothing when nothing else worked.
The young man on his knees before the altar finished his prayer before crossing himself and rising to greet them. “Toby, Mei Ling, I heard the terrible news. What can I do to help?”
“Father O’Shea, something isn’t right with what’s coming across the tube.” Toby sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Could I use your computer to try and find out what’s really going on?”
“Certainly. Come on into the office.” He led them to the simple ten foot by ten-foot room surrounded on all sides by bookcases and storage boxes. “Excuse the mess. The new robes for the choir came and we haven’t fully unpacked yet. The computer should already be on. I was going to do inventory but when I heard the news . . .”
His shrug was eloquent and Toby nodded since his throat was too tight to actually talk. What if it was really true? What if . . . The computer was already logged on and he tapped out the access codes to the secret account that had been set up for him by Jamie McGee. It seemed to take forever for the password to be accepted and he had plenty of time to envision the worst. But then it took and over the speakers came the soprano voice of the Base computer.
“Working. Toby honey, is that you?”
He blinked back sudden tears and typed his reply. //Yes, it’s Mei Ling and me. What’s really going on?//
“The Base was attacked with a plague virus that killed Ruth briefly but she’s all right now. We decided to let the enemy think they’d succeeded so Father Adam is raving about the wages of sin while he gradually gets made up to look like he’s suffering from the plague. Are you some place safe?”
He had to pause for a moment to blow his nose on the Kleenex that Father O’Shea handed him. //Yes, I think so. We’re in the chapel, using that computer. Is there anything we can do?//
“Toby,” Sam’s voice replaced the computer’s and Toby felt a fresh batch of tears well. “There’s no way we can soften this blow without giving away our plan. If you can get to Mom, I would. This is going to hit her like a ton of bricks.”
//Already has. She was just barely coherent when she called.// Toby wished he could just speak to his brother. Or better yet, hug him to pieces.
“Damn. This will all be over, one way or another by tomorrow, I hope. Go home and be with Mom and Dad. Tell them we love them very much.”
“Toby, it’s Peter. Stay safe, little brother. Take Mei Ling home with you and we’ll hopefully be calling soon to say it’s all over.” The familiar voice sounded so confident that Toby could feel himself begin to calm.
//Okay, guys. But when this is over, we have definitely got to get together.//
Twin chuckles came over the speakers. But Sam was the one who replied. “We will, Toby. Believe me when I say that you’ll all be coming up here for a very important ceremony as soon as this whole mess is cleaned up. Take care of Toby, little sister. Go home and hold good thoughts for us.”
//Mei Ling says she will if you will take care of each other.// Toby typed in. //Signing off. Stay safe, guys.//
The computer voice came back. “It will be all right, Toby. I won’t let anything happen to them. Sorry, but I have to clear the line.”
And just like that, they were disconnected. Toby sat with his hands in his lap, staring at the pulsing cursor. He couldn’t even imagine what they were going through up there. “How could Ruth be briefly dead? Why didn’t I ask how she was?”
Mei Ling hugged him from the side. “We’ll ask later. What I want to know is what kind of ceremony would be important enough to bring all of us up there?”
“I’m guessing that you don’t want me to say anything about that conversation?” Father O’Shea looked a little wistful.
“No, Father, please keep up the prayers for them and when it’s all over, I’ll let you know what happened. If I know it, that is.” Toby logged all the way out and stood up. “Now, how do we get out of here without letting the press know we’re going?”
Father O’Shea smiled and held up a set of keys. “I’d say you take my car and leave quietly. Maybe Mei Ling could drive while you sit in the back under a blanket.”
“Are you sure, Father? It might be a day or two before we can get back here.” Toby hesitated but caught the keys when they were thrown to him.
“I’m sure, Toby. Drive safely and get home. Your parents need you.” He shook his head. “I’d best get back to my prayers. Father Benson will need all the help he can get.”
Mei Ling hugged him hard. “Thank you, Father. See you later.”
Toby shook his hand before they left through the side door. The dark green Ford Taurus was unlocked and Toby settled on the floor in the back while Mei Ling unfolded the blanket to toss over him. He complained the entire way off campus while he was bumped and jostled over the pothole filled road. It was a good thing they’d taken the precautions however, since Mei Ling counted six TV vans clustered around their dorm.
Once they were ten minutes away, she stopped in a park and helped unpeel him from the floorboards. He felt as if he was permanently crippled until he walked around and tried a few arm swings. Then they were on their way home, pushing the speed limit to the max and not even stopping halfway the way they usually did.
Toby had to make a quick decision when he hit the outskirts of town. Their house was sure to be staked out so he chose to head in a circular pattern that brought them to the country club where he and Sam had run three months before. Only six cars in the parking lot told him he’d done the right thing. It was still pretty cold for anything but the most diehard of golfers.
Parking at the far end of the lot, he ducked inside to ask the manager if they could leave it there and cut across the course to the Hamilton back yard. He was given permission and condolences at the same time. He managed a smile for the man before leaving to grab Mei Ling and head out over the gradually greening course. She asked no questions but just matched his pace with two steps to every one of his. Crossing the creek was easy using the stepping stones his big brothers had laid out years before.
The back door was locked but he’d grabbed his keys before leaving his dorm room. The sound of the TV in the living room told him where his mother was and Mei Ling detoured to the stove to put the kettle on while he went to greet his mom.
Julie was rocking herself back and forth in front of the TV, tears rolling down her cheeks while listening to the reporter breathlessly spew out more unknown ‘facts’. “Mom, don’t watch that stuff. They don’t know what they’re talking about most of the time.”
She turned into his arms, her grip strong. He put his lips to her ear and whispered the news from three hours before over and over again until he was sure he had her attention. Gradually she calmed and he was able to coax her to her feet and out to the kitchen. Mei Ling had the teakettle steaming and the tea almost ready. Julie hugged her hard and they rocked together for a moment.
“Mom, there’s no cookies.” He strove for a normal tone, not even sure if they needed to be careful.
“I know, sweetheart. I just haven’t had the heart to bake.” Julie sat down and Toby was appalled at the lines around her mouth and eyes.
“Well, now that we’re here, maybe we can do some baking. It will keep our minds off . . . things.” He faltered but Mei Ling took up the conversation with a question about tea.
Toby got the phone after first checking who was at the other end. It was his Dad’s office number so he picked up and said hello. Edward’s voice wavered when he heard his son’s voice but he told him that he’d be home soon once the police got to the hospital to give him an escort. It was under a state of siege with at least ten reporters and camera crews out to way-lay anyone who looked like he might be him.
“We used the golf course, Dad. Just a thought.” He listened and nodded before saying goodbye. Holding the phone still, he heard the second click that told him their wire was tapped. Hanging up, he grabbed the blank pad by the phone and wrote what he’d discovered. Showing it to the other two, he watched his mother sit up a little straighter, a familiar spark in her eyes.
“Baking sounds like a very good idea. I’m sure there’s been some kind of horrible mistake and we’ll soon learn about it. Then we’ll have cookies to send up to the Moon. Let’s make Sam’s favorites, oatmeal cookies with chocolate kisses melted on top.” She bustled about the kitchen pulling ingredients from the shelves, only faltering once when she found the misshapen mug that Peter had made for her in sixth grade.
Setting it gently aside, she put them all to work. Toby heard the back door rattle and he looked outside first before unlocking the door and pulling his father into a hug. Just before he let go, he whispered what he knew from Sam and Peter. Only then did his father’s genial mask slip to reveal the despair within. But then Julie was there and they held each other while Toby went outside to talk to Sergeant Long of the police department.
He’d known him from the time he first rode his bike to the safety course the police gave every month. They spoke awkwardly of the situation and Toby mentioned his suspicion about the wiretap. That got his attention and he asked for permission to call the precinct to check for himself.
Five minutes later, he was on his way back to the country club with the mission of tracking down whoever was doing the tapping. Inside the house, the smell of baking filled the air with a familiar homey scent. His parents sat at the table holding hands and trying to be cheerful. Their conversation was stilted but once they set up the cookie making production line, a measure of peace descended on the kitchen.
They took turns checking the TV news that by common consent was set to mute. The first four dozen cookies were cooling on the counter when Toby wondered into the living room. For a moment, he didn’t realize what he was seeing then his eyes widened and he called to the others. Scrambling for the remote, he clicked the sound back on but the only sound was a low moan from one of the bodies that lay on the floor of the meeting hall.
“Oh, my god.” His mother gasped and sank down to the sofa. Toby sat on the floor in front of her as if he could protect her from the devastation on the screen. She leaned forward and gripped his shoulder. While Mei Ling huddled into his side, his father joined them with his oven mitt still on.
Toby counted seven bodies in various stages of what looked like decomposition. The camera in the ceiling kept up a 360-degree sweep of the room before pausing on the hallway that they knew led to the airlocks. The tension was palpable by the time the first suited figure appeared.
“We have seven confirmed in the meeting hall. We’re headed for the command center.” The first figure paused by one of the bodies that was still moving. “We’ll have to come back and finish off those who haven’t already died once we’ve verified that we’ve accounted for them all.”
His matter of fact delivery made the hair on the back of Toby’s neck stand up. They went down a side hall and the camera angle switched to the command center where three bodies including that of Father Adam lay. “Here’s the priest, Control. He looks dead enough to me. The lights show that the communications are off-line. It’s some kind of weird hybrid of Ikiiri and human. Do you want us to use theirs instead of ours?”
He waited for an inaudible response. “Okay, Control, we’ll keep on using ours for now. Our sensors aren’t working. I wonder if the thick walls are hampering them.”
“Colonel, we’ve got one still kind of coherent.” The camera switched again to the hall and Toby recognized Jamie all made up to look as if plague boils were ravaging his system.
“Children . . . family wing . . . save them . . . children.” His voice died away and the suited figure nudged him with his boot.
“We picked up some heartbeats down one of the halls but the door wouldn’t move. You want us to blast it open?”
The one they called Colonel swore, “Damn it, there weren’t supposed to be any survivors. Trust the doctors to screw up a perfectly ordinary search and destroy. We’ll leave them for last, the plague may take care of the problem for us.”
Toby wanted to hurt something. He found himself clenching and unclenching his hands. “I hope they’re taping this. These guys are so dead.”
“Who are they? Surely they can’t be our military.” Julie’s voice had a suppressed violence to it that spoke volumes.
“Colonel, I think we found the commander and that Ruth.” The voice seemed to come out of the air.
“Where? Are they dead?”
“Um, down the . . . uh, third hall from the airlock. Our sensors aren’t picking up any vitals. What do you want us to do with them?”
“Count them, Jackson. We have to account for all of them before we open the airlocks and pile the bodies outside. Once the decontamination is done we don’t want to have some forgotten body infecting the place. Keep counting until there’s nobody left to count.” He shook his head and muttered something about idiots under his breath.
They watched in fascination while the camera angle changed from hall to room and back to hall again. It appeared that there was a force of twenty-two men in space suits combing the base. Their comments were cruel and callused beyond imagining. But the crowning moment was when the leader spoke through the door intercom to the little girl on the other side, trying to get her to open it from her side.
“Can you reach it, honey? Just press the button and we’ll come in to get you.” His voice was soft and cajoling.
“I pressed and pressed it.” The small piping voice said. “Everybody fell down and went to sleep. They won’t wake up, not even when I shake them. They all got sick but me and it’s awfully hot in here.”
He let go of the button and nodded to his companion. “She’s probably gotten to the fever stage. If we wait a few more hours, she should be dead as well.” He pressed the button again. “You’re going to be just fine, honey. We’ll take care of you as soon as we can. Can you count for me? How many are sleeping on your side of the door?”
“Um, there’s thirty-two kids. They all came to my birthday party last week. I was five. And there’s Shima Mary and Shima Penelope and Elder Running Elk and Doctor Sam. But they’re all asleep on the floor.”
“Just sit tight, honey. Maybe you should take a little nap too while we figure out how to open the door.”
“Okay. It sure is hot in here.”
He let go of the comm panel and pumped his fist in the air. “We got them all, Control. The last survivor should be dead in a couple of hours so we can blow the airlocks, dispose of the bodies and get back to the ship so we can get out of these suits.”
“Colonel, we’ve finished all the rooms down the fourth hall.”
“Fifth hall is done.”
“Ninth hall is clear.”
The chorus from the speakers made Toby’s teeth clench. They sounded almost bored with the routine rather than upset at all the supposed deaths around them. He watched while they all came back to the meeting hall which had been cleared of bodies. The Colonel idly asked who had cleaned up but all he got was a chorus of ‘not me’.
Just then, all the doors to the meeting hall closed.
“Hey, what happened?” The Colonel sounded more annoyed than upset but some of his men were jumpier.
“This place is, like . . . haunted, or something.” One of them said. “I kept hearing breathing or sighing coming from some of the rooms.”
“Oh please, it’s probably just some kind of computer glitch. Jackson, go into the command room and see if you can find the controls for the doors. We didn’t have any trouble getting in and we won’t have any trouble getting out.”
Jackson touched the panel by the far door, then hit it with his fist before trying to slide it to one side with his hands. “Sir, it won’t budge. Try one of the others.”
Several of them hurried to the other doors but none of them would move. Their comments were beginning to show a little panic when suddenly all the computer screens in the room lit up. Toby sat up straight with a muted cheer when he saw his brothers and Seth flanking Ruth. A very live Ruth with the grimmest expression on her face that Toby had ever seen.
“Gentlemen, and I use that term loosely, you will be contained in the meeting hall until the authorities arrive to take you into custody. You’ll be glad to know that you will not be alone. The FBI has taken your Control and his minions. Your entire operation went out over a live feed to the world. I expect your trial to be an extremely short one.” Her voice was colder than ice.
The picture switched to the command center and to some of the denizens of Moon Base who’d cleaned the worst of the makeup off their arms and faces. Ruth’s face was drawn but at peace when she addressed her worldwide audience.
“I’m so sorry for the pain and anguish we had to put the families back on Earth through. If we could have figured out a way to catch these criminals without the trauma, we would have. But the only way to keep us safe was to play along with the plot to kill off all of us with a mutation of the plague virus. It very nearly succeeded but working together, we managed to save ourselves. Please forgive our play-acting. In the next few days, all will be revealed. But for now, know that we are safe. For the next hour, we will come and show ourselves to reassure families and friends. Bless you all.”
She stepped back and Toby watched while Peter put his arm around her and held her close, bending low to whisper something in her ear. But he was distracted from the sight by Sam and Seth stepping up to wave at their Earth-side audience. His mother was sighing and complaining that Sam looked like he hadn’t been eating.
The phone rang just as Marag blew a kiss to her son in the Navy. Edward went to answer it with a light step and the comforting murmur of his voice reassured Toby who finally relaxed enough to lean back against his mother’s knees. Her arms came around him in a hug.
“Thank goodness, that’s over. I wonder how they’ll get the authorities up there and those horrible men out of the meeting hall.” She dropped a kiss on his hair and then squeezed Mei Ling for good measure.
“Well, the Ikiiri took the ships out to Mars so I expect they’ll bring them back and that’s how they’ll get them.” He brushed a kiss over Mei Ling’s cheek and she leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh.
“Oh my,” Julie stilled and Toby turned back to the screen in time to see Peter kiss Ruth. By no stretch of the imagination could he call that kiss platonic or even brotherly.
It was more along the lines of we-just-survived-by-the-skin-of-our-teeth-and-now-it’s-time-to-make-love kind of kiss. Toby gulped hard and turned to see how his mother was taking it. “Um, Mom, are you okay?”
“No, but I will be. I should have known something like this would happen. Peter never chose the easy path. He was almost as much of a hermit as Sam was becoming. But I can truthfully say, I did not see that coming.” Her eyes watched the screen while she sighed. “Poor Ruth, she looks as if she can’t believe he just did that. I’d say that Peter is staking a claim publicly so that she won’t be able to get cold feet.”
Mei Ling was giggling at the look on Toby’s face. “The Hamilton men almost always get what they go after, or so I’m told.”
“Hey! I resemble that remark.” Toby tweaked her nose and they wrestled a bit, releasing the tension of the last few hours while Julie leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes with a sigh.
Edward came back with news from the police about an unmarked van and the surveillance equipment they’d found inside. Toby heaved a sigh of relief at the thought that their communication would be bug-free, hopefully from now on. Relaxing on the floor, Toby watched as young and old alike waved to the cameras and said a few words to family back on Earth.
He felt ten years older than he had that morning and he hoped with all his heart that the threats for Moon Base were over. Idly, he wondered who had been behind the plot and what they’d hoped to gain from killing over five hundred people. Shaking his head, he followed his family into the kitchen to continue their interrupted baking.
Who ever it was, he hoped they got everything that was coming to them.
**********************
End Chapter 39