Free Containment by Kyle Kirkland Page B

Kraig."
    " That's my job."
    " No it isn't. That's where you're wrong. Do you know how long you'll last in this business if you keep up this kind of attitude?"
    Kraig briefly wondered if that was a subtle threat.
    The director went on, "Now, look at me. I've lasted thirty years. I won't say they've all been great years but most of them were tolerable. I've shown stamina and endurance, qualities which, I fear, you will not prove to have."
    Cyan light flooded Kraig 's office. Kraig thought about killing the video feed of his communication system, even started to reach for the key to do so, but then let his hand fall limply to his side. Hell with it.
    The director continued, apparently oblivious, for the moment, to Kraig 's physio alarm. "You'll worry yourself into an ulcer. You'll worry yourself into becoming a frightened, hunted animal. Listen to me, Kraig! I know what I'm talking about. And I know what I'm doing."
    Kraig paused, staring at the proud white mustache, puffed out in its fullest splendor. "I understand what you're saying." Kraig's tone sounded conciliatory. The cyan light faded. "There's such a thing as hitting the panic button too soon. But listen. We've got two fatalities, so we know this agent kills. We know it's something, some kind of agent of disease, because of the mice. What we don't know is how dangerous it is to humans. We don't know how infectious it is. We don't even have a good idea what it is because it doesn't show up on any of our radar screens."
    " Well, then, it certainly bears watching, I agree. But is there a trend in the hospital statistics? Is there a cluster of symptoms making the rounds in the city or in any of the neighboring vicinities? Anywhere in the county?"
    Kraig shook his head.
    The director pressed the issue. "Any sign of an epidemic? Any sign at all?"
    " Only among the mice."
    The white mustache rested its case. "Then I suggest you're dangerously close to hitting the panic button too soon."
    Kraig said nothing.
    "It's a catastrophe for the mice," said Chet, "but so far that's the extent of it."
    " Tens of thousands of people are at risk. Maybe more."
    " We're all at risk, Kraig. Every day, every hour of our lives. We could pick up a virus from some stranger. We could get food poisoning. A single cell in our body could start dividing uncontrollably and give us cancer. We could get hit by a bus."
    " But we're talking about a whole city. The danger level has to be raised when you're talking about so many people."
    " And what do you propose to do about it? Worrying isn't going to help." The white mustache splayed out, sensing victory. "Containment? Quarantine? Sure we've done it before, but you've got to be awfully damn careful. Suppose we quarantine the whole city, maybe even the whole county, over what proves to be a false alarm. Do you realize how well that would go over?"
    " Not well," admitted Kraig. "But it's our job."
    " Speaking of jobs...." The director glared at Kraig. "I'm well aware that you're ambitious. Now, what could be better for you if I were to commit the governor or the president to an unpopular decision?"
    Kraig stared. The cyan lights returned.
    "Oh, yes," said the director. "It's certainly happened before, in this Unit and others, in bureaucracies everywhere all over the globe. Suppose I flied off the handle and became alarmist, convincing the politicians to initiate a containment procedure that turned out to be unnecessary. Thousands of people will be inconvenienced, some might even be physically or emotionally harmed. Civil rights groups would get up in arms, as they always do, and call us Nazis, as they always do. Voters would become outraged. Politicians who represent those voters would be forced to become outraged if they weren't already, or at least feign outrage. Almost everyone would get hot and bothered and do you know whose scalp they'd come after? Well, Kraig, it wouldn't be the assistant director's, I can tell you that."
    Sounds of bubbles and waves