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All four smiled, then Hawkins said, “I shot her right in the heart. It was like I could see the bullet go in and come out, it was like the wind, blowing through her soul…”
Rae turned away from him: “Oh sweet Jesus.”
—
When the skivillage came into sight, Letty took out her telephone, had three bars, and with the others listening in, called Greet and said, “We caught Turney and killed her.”
Greet: “That’s terrific. I found a chopper and three of the Fort Detrick team will be with you shortly. You gotta keep everybody away from that bus and away from Turney. Do not get close to her. What about Scott and anyone else…this Catton?”
“It’s possible that they’re still up in Catton’s house, but I don’t think we go in there, either. We know they’ve been working with the disease models and we don’t know how contaminated the place might be.”
“You’re on the ground and have to make the call,” Greet said. “Do they have a fire department up there?”
“Don’t know. They’ve got a police department, so maybe they’ve got something. Why?”
“Because I’m thinking maybe we hose the house down with gasoline and burn it to the ground. If anybody runs out, we shoot them.”
Letty: “Wow. Is that what Detrick wants?”
“I haven’t talked to them specifically about Catton’s house. This is completely unprecedented,” Greet said. “I have no idea of what the legalities are, but what else can we do?”
Lucas made a “give it to me” gesture with his fingers, and Letty handed him the phone. “Billy, this is Lucas. We got important stuff out of Catton’s Santa Fe house. There might be important paper in her house here. I’d hate to burn it before somebody takes a look.”
“You’ve got a point. The second group of Detrick people brought a bunch of PPE gear with them. I’ll see what they’ve got that fits you.”
“That’s not exactly where I was going with this,” Lucas began.
“I can always order your daughter to go in,” Greet said.
“Fuck you,” Lucas said. “Get me a suit, or whatever else.”
“On the way,” Greet said.
Letty took the phone back. “Billy, we need a meeting with everybody. Maybe even the Big Guy. I’m think we need to shut down Taos. I looked at a map, and there aren’t many roads out of there. We need state patrol checkpoints on all of them—don’t let anyone out unless we know who they are.”
“That could cause a nationwide panic. Shutting down a whole city? Not letting anyone out?”
Letty: “Billy, spend two minutes thinking about it. If they’ve got that hybrid virus, they could kill the world. This would be the biggest crime in human history: this would be worse than anything Tamerlane or Genghis Khan ever did. We can’t let them get out. Once they’re out…”
Long silence: “I’ll go to the Secretary.”
“There’s no time. Put up the checkpoints—that will probably turn these assholes around if they try to get out of the city. We’ve got to keep them contained.”
—
Two more minutes,and they ended the call. The four of them continued up the hill for a while, with nobody talking, until Rae said, “You know, Lucas, I could take a look in the house…”
Lucas: “Nope. This is on me, Rae.”
Letty: “I don’t think…”
Lucas: “I’m the oldest. I’ve lived the longest.”
Hawkins: “Ah…Jesus.”
—
Tank turned outto be the chief of a four-man department. He said that nobody had tried to get off the RV, and the cop who’d gone down the hill to look for Turney had found a state police checkpoint at the bottom of the hill.
