Peru, she should look for either Maria Cortez or Mac Coleman.
She hoped her partner would be Maria, whom she’d worked with years ago at the CDC. Maria was smart and funny and Jane got along well with her.
She hadn’t met Mac Coleman, but he had a reputation for being a maverick. In fact, he’d founded Rebel Virology. He’d worked with the World Health Organization and had been on his way to the top of his career, but had left for bureaucratic reasons. And scientists who were tired of working within the government structure had applauded him. But a few years later, in Southeast Asia, he’d had a fiasco that had led to the deaths of twenty-five people. She’d heard that he’d rushed to treatment and lost lives.
Jane rubbed the back of her neck. There were no details on the incident. She knew mistakes were made by both virologists and governments and she wasn’t judging him.
She checked the laminated maps she’d stopped at Kinkos to make on her way home. The jungle wasn’t kind to paper. She had a compass, a Blackberry phone with GPS unit that would work even in the depths of the jungle and two backups. She had a lethal hunting blade that her grandfather had given her. He’d been a Marine and had reinforced to Jane every summer when she saw him to always be prepared.
She packed rice, rice cakes and her favorite cereal bars. She brought the tea she loved so much in a metal canister that she knew might rust if she stayed too long in the jungle. She had medicine, as well, in a separate pack, treatments for a long list of diseases.
The phone rang. She glanced at the clock. She was waiting for a call from Angie, her assistant, who was making all of the arrangements for the trip. “Dr. Miller.”
“Jane, it’s Raul Veracruz.”
Jane held the phone away from her ear. Had she conjured him up by thinking about her father? “What can I do for you?” she asked. It had been a long time since she’d heard from him. Three years, in fact. The day her father had left the CDC.
“Meredith contacted me about some research you were doing,” he said.
Maybe Raul would be interested in helping her. “I found the information I needed here in the lab while working with the samples.”
“Who sent the samples to you?” he asked.
“A virologist living with the Yura.”
“Your dad?” he asked.
She hesitated. Raul had once been Rob’s assistant and the two men had been friends. For a brief time Jane had been involved with him. But that hadn’t lasted. Like most of her personal relationships, theirs had ended because she hadn’t found him as interesting as the specimens in her lab. “Yes.”
“Jane, I talked to him already. I personally analyzed the samples he had. They were clean. No sign of any virus.”
“The ones I received were infected, Raul.”
“Who are you going to trust?” he asked.
Jane doodled on her blotter and changed the topic. “What are you doing now? You’re not with the CDC anymore.”
“That’s right. I’m working for Thompson-Marks Pharmaceutical.”
“Research and development?”
“Yes. I like it. It’s challenging and it pays well. Why don’t you come and join me in their labs?”
“No, thanks. I like where I am.”
“There’s a lot more freedom to work on the projects that are important.”
“And the CDC doesn’t?”
“You know what I mean,” he said.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Someone knocked on the door of her lab.
“Please think twice about revealing anything your father may have sent you to others, Jane. You know he’s done some…creative tampering before.”
“I will. Goodbye, Raul.” Jane hung up the phone and went to the door. It was Angie Tanner, her secretary, lab assistant and research guru.
The short, dark-haired woman wouldn’t enter the actual lab even dressed as she was in a full-body space suit. Jane thought it was kind of funny. Angie had spent the last twenty-five years working for the CDC and had in fact been her father’s assistant in the early days. Her smile was friendly and she loved her job. And she was completely paranoid about germs.
“I’ve finalized all the arrangements for you. The area you want to go into is only accessible by air.”
Angie was ultraefficient and a real wizard when it came to bringing together the details of an operation. She was a top-notch researcher and interviewer and Jane trusted her implicitly. “I know. That’s why I asked you to hire a small plane. Why don’t you come in my office and join me for a cup of tea?”
“Because I happen to like being healthy. I tried to get you a flight to La Paz, but they didn’t have anything leaving tomorrow, and Meredith wouldn’t approve using the CDC plane.”
Angie’s phobia about her health was something of a joke amongst those who worked with her. She kept a huge bottle of vitamin C tablets on her desk and popped them like candy throughout the day. “Meredith doesn’t really want me to go,” Jane said. Angie probably was risking her position by helping Jane out.
“She has to answer to her own conscience,” Angie said, handing Jane a plastic wallet portfolio. “Here are the rest of your papers. You’re going to be parachuting into the jungle. I called in a favor from a buddy of mine in the military.”
“Okay,” Jane said. She loved parachuting and had a lot of experience. The jungles of the Amazon basin would be perfect for skydiving. If it weren’t for the fact that her father was in jeopardy she might actually enjoy this trip.
“I told him you know your stuff when it comes to parachuting.”
“Thanks. I’m not so sure about the virologist who’ll be joining me.”
“I only made travel arrangements for you,” Angie said in a surly voice.
“Can you add one to the parachute jump?” Jane asked, knowing that once Angie made her plans or finished her research she didn’t like to have to go back and change it.
“I’ll try.”
“Thanks. Did you get the guide I requested?” Jane asked. Going into the jungle alone was asking for trouble.
“Yes. He’ll meet you at the private airstrip on the morning of your sky dive.”
“Thanks, Angie. Can I ask you to do one more thing for me?” Jane asked.
“What?”
“Will you check into the research the Peruvian government has done on this disease? According to everyone I talked to, it’s not lethal.”
“What do you want to know?” Angie asked.
“Who did the testing and interviews and when they were conducted.”
“Is that it?”
“For now.”
“Be careful, Jane, even virus hunters aren’t immune to death.”
It was almost two in the afternoon by the time Jane arrived in Lima two days later. Tired, hungry and anxious to get to work, she made her way toward her hotel. The air was hot, humid and blanketed the city in the kind of haze that often covered Los Angeles. She closed her eyes and tried to breath. But the air was hot. It burned her lungs.
In a way it was invigorating. The one thing that she liked, though she hated to admit it, about South America was that you still had the feeling of having to fight to survive. That life was brought in on its most simplistic terms. Here it really was survival of the fittest.
But she had no time to enjoy it. She was here on a mission and every