"It was a deadly virus spread by deer mice in the Southwest U.S. several years ago."
"And are you familiar with FEMA? What the Federal Emergency Management Agency's real power is?"
Mulder raised his eyebrows, waiting to hear how this was all going to fit. Kurtzweil went on quickly,
"FEMA allows the White House to suspend constitutional government upon dec-laration of a national emergency. It allows the creation of a non-elected government. Think about that, Agent Mulder."
Mulder thought. Kurtzweil's voice rose slightly, knowing he finally had an audience. "What is an agency with such broad sweeping power doing managing a small viral outbreak in suburban Texas?"
"Are you saying," Mulder said slowly, "that it wasn't a small outbreak?"
Kurtzweil's expression looked positively feverish. "I'm saying it wasn't the Hanta virus."
From the street came the sudden yo<wp of a siren. The two men started, then backed more tightly against the damp brick walls as a police car cruised slowly down the street. When it was gone, Mulder hissed, "What was it?"
Kurtzweil stared at his hands, finally said, "When we were young men in the military, your father and I were recruited for a project. They told us it was biological warfare. A virus. There were… rumors…
about its origins."
Mulder shook his head impatiently. "What killed those men?"
"What killed them I won't even write about," Kurtzweil exploded. "I tell you, they'd do more than just harass me. They have the future to protect."
Mulder regarded him coolly. "I'll know soon enough."
But Kurtzweil was too worked up to hear him. "What killed those men can't be identified in simple medical terms," he went on heatedly. "My god, we can't even wrap our minds around something as obvious as HIV! We have no con-text for what killed those men, or any apprecia-tion of the scale in which it will be unleashed in the future. Of how it will be transmitted, of the environmental factors involved…"
"A plague?"
"The plague to end all plagues, Agent Mulder," whispered Kurtzweil. "A silent weapon for a quiet war. The systematic release of an indiscriminate organism for which the men who bring it on still have no cure. They've been working on this for fifty years—" He punched the air for emphasis. "—while the rest of the world was fighting gooks and commies, these men have been secretly negotiating a pla
Mulder frowned. "Negotiating with whom?"
"I think you know." Kurtzweil's mouth grew tight. "The timetable has been set. It will hap-pen on a holiday, when people are away from their homes. When our elected officials are at their resorts or out of the country. The President will declare a state of emergency, at which time all federal agencies, all govern-ment, will come under the power of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"FEMA, Agent Mulder. The secret govern-ment."
Mulder whistled. "And they tell me I'm paranoid."
Kurtzweil shook his head fiercely. "Some-thing's gone wrong—something unanticipated. Go back to Dallas and dig, Agent Mulder. Or we're only going to find out like the rest of the country—when it's too late."
The older man shoved his hands into his pockets, turned, and walked quickly down the alley. Mulder stared after him, torn between a
"You can't," Kurtzweil replied without looking back. Mulder ran to catch up with him, pulling out his cell phone.
"Here—" he said breathlessly. Kurtzweil halted and stared at him. His eyes were wide, and for the first time Mulder recognized in the doctor's face that blend of fanaticism and fear that marked true and intense paranoia. He forced the cell phone into Kurtzweil's hand, then shook a finger at him.
"No calling Hawaii."
Mulder made his way in silence back to the leaden expanse of Co