Page 6 of Land of Shadow

“But why go?” I cut a piece of my hamburger steak. “Why not hold the fort here? I thought that was your plan. At least, until you sprung on metodaythat you’re running for president.”

“This may be the last national election for a long, long time.” Juno sips her water, her light brown eyes on me. She doesn’t say “the last electionever” but she might as well have. “We’ve lost so many lives—I don’t know the most recent estimate?—”

“One hundred and ten million in the US alone was the CDC’s last number a few months ago.” I swallow hard at the sheer magnitude. Entire communities wiped out. The plague doesn’t discriminate. It’s destroyed human life on a scale that has plenty of scientists believing we’re in the midst of a mass extinction. A tiny voice inside me says maybe we are. Maybe this is the planet course correcting itself. Maybe humans have abused it too much for too long, and this virus is its response. I’m not the first person to think it, and I’m certainly not the most eloquent at expressing it, but this level of death feels almost like judgment.

“Growing by the minute.” Fatima picks at a stack of what looks like boiled beets and carrots.

“President Gray is a lame duck president,” Juno says as she cuts her steak into neat squares and begins systematically devouring it. “He’s reacted too slowly to stop the spread of the virus. His restrictions on Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston are extremely disliked from every quarter. And then there’s New York.” She doesn’t have to say more than that. Everyone knows what happened in New York. The outbreak spread there in much the same way as everywhere else. But when it first hit, a massive Nor’easter hit, too. Work and school were canceled, and people were stuck inside with their families while the storm buried the city in snow and ice.

This was back when there were still dozens of news sources with talking heads, opinions dressed as fact, conspiracy theories, and general distrust of science and academics from several areas of society. One newscast would warn of the spread of the virus and show images of victims covered with pustules, another would debate whether these images were actually Chinese propaganda, while yet another would say the entire thing was a hoax created by the Deep State. While all those people talked and sowed distrust or complacency, the virus silently spread. That’s what viruses do—they replicate themselves, invading cell after cell and using up their energy stores with never-ending hunger.

When the storm let up, the Big Apple had become a tomb for entire families. The hospitals were overwhelmed in the first day of the blizzard. By the second, President Gray ordered the entire island quarantined. The death toll only increased when healthy residents were forced to shelter in place surrounded by the infected and the dead. Piles of bodies lined the streets.

A photograph of rats feasting on a corpse won the Pulitzer Prize.

“Just because people don’t like him doesn’t mean you can unseat him easily. What’s that thing about changing a horse mid-rodeo-or-something-or-other?”

“Midstream,” Vince interjects.

“Yeah, that.” I say around the piece of hamburger steak that’s survived at least 30 chews and is still holding together.

“I could do the job. I couldhelppeople.” Juno finishes her neatly-cut food. “Hell, I’ve managed to hold Texas together and kept us in the Union despite the threats from the idiots in the Statehouse. If I can do that?—”

“You can do anything.” Candice walks in, her steps slower these days. “I’ve told you that from the get.” She points at me. “I’ve toldyouthat, too, professor.”

Juno swipes a stray black curl, this one laced through with gray, from her forehead. “I’m going to run, and I’m going to win.”

“Here here.” Vince bangs the butt of his knife on the table.

“Huzzah,” Fatima adds.

“Did your visitor help you make up your mind?” I ask.

Juno’s gaze flickers over to Vince. “Somewhat,” she says airily as she stands.

My suspicions kick up a notch. My sister is tough, but she doesn’t have much of a poker face with me. She nearly winced when I mentioned him. “Who was he?”

“Someone who can help us get to Washington, and then—perhaps—help us do a hell of a lot more.”

“Have I mentioned that I’m hating the secrecy?” I wrinkle my nose and keep on chewing.

“I can’t explain it. Not yet. You’re going to have to trust me. But consider the man you saw earlier to be a representative of a foreign government. One with the possibility of helping the US and eventually the world.”

“Okay, that’s big. Huge. Momentous. But also fucking vague. I need more.” Does he have information on a possible treatment or vaccine? “He’s a scientist? A doctor? Where’d he study?” I’m about to get cross with her for having a plague specialist in her office without inviting me to sit in when Vince lets out a grunt. “He’s a threat,” he impales a potato with his fork. “That’s what he is. A kook, too, most likely.”

I croak out an exasperated groan. “Will one of you quit talking around the point and explain who the hell this guy is?”

“The appointment book said Valen Dragonis,” Candice volunteers. She dips her chin at me as if in apology for earlier.

“His name iswhat?” I snort a laugh, then stop when my sister gives both Candice and me an unusually hard look. I shrug. “Come on, what sort of name is that?”

“An old one.” Juno strides toward the hallway, leaving far sooner than usual, Fatima already at her heels. “I have mayor calls tonight, and I need to go over the food bank allocations for next month.”

“Don’t forget Dr. Dexter at the pharmaceutical bank. They’re having a real problem getting enough insulin,” adds Fatima.

“Right,” Juno says curtly and squares her shoulders. “That, too. I’ll see everyone in the morning.”

Shit. She’s on edge. Badly. The mood in the room goes from mildly combative to uncharacteristically cold as Juno and Fatima disappear. I slump in my seat and finally swallow the lump of steak. It goes down about as smoothly as Juno’s obfuscation. With her, it’s like she says tons of words, but once she’s gone, anyrealinformation is also gone with her. Maybe that’s what being a politician is all about.

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