“Ameer and his brother,” I said bitterly.
“Precisely,” she said. “When you add it all up, whatever Al Andalus is, it’s critical to ISIS’s plans. We’ve got to figure out its purpose and how to stop it.”
“So when we get back to D.C., I guess we need to go straight to Fort Meade,” I said.
Esther shook her head in an emphatic “no.”
“I really doubt they’ll let me in there with you,” she said, “and they might not even let you in after what happened in Oak Ridge. Rather than risk a long delay, I think it would be better for you to tackle the virus from your home computer. You have secure access to the NSA network, don’t you?”
I told her I did, so that became our plan. The only part of working from home I wasn’t happy about was the possibility of encountering Ginny. After all I had learned, I just didn’t feel like I was ready for a confrontation with her. Besides, it would only serve as a distraction to keep me from focusing on the virus. Having it out with my wife would have to come later.
I did my best to make up for our late start, but we kept losing time along the way. In addition to the inevitable pit stops and a break to pick up some lunch, the wound in Esther’s arm was clearly causing her more pain than the ibuprofen could handle. Finally, I pulled off the interstate at Harrisonburg and went looking for a drugstore. I passed by a couple of chain stores and finally found an old-fashioned family drugstore. The pharmacist on duty was a woman, and when I showed her Esther’s arm, she became very sympathetic.
“I’m trying to get my wife to our family doctor in D.C.,” I told her, “but I don’t know whether she can hold out till we get there.”
The woman went back among the shelves and reappeared with a little white envelope. “Here’s a Lortab,” she told me. “It’s a combination of acetaminophen and hydrocodone. I can’t give you more than one without a prescription, but this should help your wife till you can get home. I’d recommend she have something to eat before she takes it.”
I thanked the druggist profusely for her kindness and we climbed back into the car. Esther wanted to hold off a little before she took the medicine in case it made her sleepy, so I drove another hour until we reached the turn-off to I-66 and stopped in Front Royal. By then it was after 8:00 p.m., and we were both hungry. We found a funny little burger joint called Spelunker’s – I guess because of Skyline Caverns – and we had burgers and fries, which were surprisingly good.
Esther took the Lortab with her meal, and it seemed to hit her almost right away because she started to get drowsy right after we finished. I was worn out too, so it was obvious to me that we weren’t going to make it home that night. There was a Super 8 motel almost right across the street, so after we finished our meal I drove the car over there and got us a room. I helped Esther inside and she was out like a light only minutes after she hit the bed.
That left me to sit around in the darkened room, and once again my mind started revisiting everything that had happened. In only a few days my whole life had been turned upside down. And the person who had caused all this chaos was none other than my wife Ginny, the woman I had loved without reservation and for whom I would have gladly given my life before all this started.
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