Daniel replied, “I don’t know. I’m glad I didn’t have to kill him, and I’m glad he didn’t kill anyone else. I don’t have any easy answers. We have to operate within the parameters we have right now. Maybe later you can tweak the virus to keep the reluctance-to-kill virtue without making it a vice.”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

Daniel rubbed his eyes, thinking. “Okay, then what about the hunger? The food needs? The excessive fertility?”

Elise let out a breath, as if she had been holding it. “That can be improved a lot easier, I think. Just time and money and research.”

Daniel nodded, thinking. They sat back against the granite, watching the puffy clouds, feeling the breeze through their jackets, smelling the sweet pine. He opened up a bag of trail mix and M&Ms, what backpackers called “gorp,” and set it on the rock between their thighs. A handful went into his mouth with a practiced flick. He took a deep breath. “Elise…” his voice trailed off.

“Yes. Go on, it’s okay.” Her tone was gentle.

“Elise,” he started again, “I care for you. I could call it something else but maybe it’s too soon. I think you care for me. But I think I’m in charge of this whole thing now and I need to think about bigger issues than just the two of us. That means I need to…to put aside at least that much turmoil. Oh, I’m not saying this very well, I’m making it sound like it’s a coldblooded decision.” He turned to her, to look in her eyes. “I just mean –”

She reached for him then, her lips for his. Relief flooded through Daniel’s body, relief that she had not rejected him. The kiss was magical, electric. He felt connected to her in a physical way, like a joining of their nervous systems, as if in that moment he could reach out his hands to her body right there on that breezy chilly mountainside, and it would be wonderful. But something stopped him, the thing that had begun to get in the way between them. A desire to do things better. To not screw this up the way he had screwed up his other relationships. He hadn’t given the two of them nearly as much thought as he had about the world-shaking implications of the Plague, and he felt embarrassed to have put her in second place. But dammit, wasn’t all of mankind more important than any two people? He gently broke the embrace, still holding her head in his hands. “Elise, we need to –”

“Shut up, Dan, and take me here,” she whispered huskily. “Right here and now. I can’t think of a more glorious place.”

He groaned, eyes squeezed together. “Elise, I want you too, so much. But I want to do it right.”

“Oh, we’re going to do it right all right.” She stared at him wide-eyed when he only chuckled, pained. “Okay. Do what?”

“You know. I mean…if we’re in love…if we love each other…”

“I do love you,” she said.

“I know. I mean, I mean, we should…make a commitment. Make it official.”

Elise sat back, obviously stunned. “You mean like, uh, married? Sure, I assumed we would, eventually. But a moment like this only comes along once in a while. Let’s take it while we can.” She reached for him again.

He held her gently away. “Elise, I…I…I made a promise. To be a better person. I keep my promises. And I mean, I’m not a real religious guy or anything but I just think…I want to be married to you before we…you know.” His voice dropped to a miserable whisper. “So maybe I won’t screw it up this time.”

She reached up to take his hand in both of hers. “I can’t argue with your enhanced conscience now, can I?”

“Don’t put this on the Eden Plague! That would mean it’s not really me. But after my divorce…I promised God I’d do everything right with the next woman in my life. I screwed up so many times.” His face begged her to understand.

She shook his hand between hers. “Well, I have to admire and respect you for sticking to your beliefs and promises, even if they’re not mine.” Her eyes crossed slightly as she thought it through, thought of a way around Daniel’s dilemma. “There won’t be any official marriage certificates or anything like that, right? We’re off the grid. So a marriage is just our commitment to each other.”

“It’s a commitment in front of witnesses.”

She sat back in defeat. “Damn you, I was going to construct a nice little argument for saying our vows right here and now and then doing it like bunnies.”

Daniel laughed, a great belly laugh of relief that lasted a long time, leaving his eyes and nose running. “I love you too, you know.” He reached for her embrace and they basked in the shared warmth of their bodies.

“Okay, mister goody-two-shoes. Let’s go get married. Today.” She leapt to her feet, pulling him with her down the trail.

They tried. It turned out that the rest wouldn’t let them. After the girlish shrieking from Cass and Millie, the backslapping from the men, and confused looks from Ricky, everyone made them wait until the next day. But Daniel and Elise insisted on having the wedding outdoors in the sunlight.

It was a short, moving ceremony. After “You May Kiss The Bride” Elise whispered in Daniel’s ear, “Now let’s go up to our ledge and do it like bunnies.”

And so they did.

No doubts remained in either of them as he took her in his arms and their bodies melded together, nothing between them anymore, with the blessings of their friends and, Daniel knew, of God. Time suspended itself as they wrapped themselves in each other. “Stick that in your image enhancers, satellite-watchers,” he muttered as they stared up at the twilight sky from inside the double sleeping bag. He laughed and buried his face in his wife’s sweet hair. If this love was the EP’s doing, he’d given up on his doubts, and on fighting biology, and just accepted things as they were.

-20-

It was days later, after bouts of dreamy pleasure and sessions of hard work for the both of them, that they finally made time for the conversation they had been trying to have before. Daniel dragged Elise back up to their ledge with a picnic dinner and sleeping bags as twilight fell she took his licentious look with good cheer and eagerness. But once they’d gotten there and set out the food, he said, “I need to talk to you about something.”

She looked worried for a moment, then sat back, picking up an apple and taking a crunchy bite. Her freckles danced as her strong jaw worked. “Uh-oh. When the man says that it’s always bad,” she teased, knowing full well it was usually the other way around.

He pushed aside the distraction of her simple natural beauty and plowed on. “Remember what we were talking about here before? When we had the conversation?”

“About doing it like bunnies?” He laughed. “Okay, yes. About the Eden Plague and fixing it?” she asked.

“Yes. I’ve decided something. I’m sorry if it sounds like I left you out of the decision, I don’t mean to,” he put on his most determined expression, “but I really believe it’s the right thing to do.”

“Do what?”

He licked his lips. “To start the Plague going. As soon as we can.”

She sat back, still chewing apple, crossing her eyes slightly as she always did when thinking deeply. She ate the whole fruit, including the core, except that little stem they always leave on to ensure everyone knows it’s really from a tree. Daniel sat and let her think.

Eventually she responded. “You know, if we had a few months, we could probably make it airborne. Graft in some highly infectious influenza. One good thing is, it appears the virus is designed to survive in all sorts of media – blood, saliva, salt water, even chlorinated water doesn’t faze it. And once it’s ingested, it’s very infectious. Kind of like Ebola.”

“That’s good news. You know, they’re going to be watching for people pulling research off the web.”

“I’ll work with Vinny and Cass to make sure we don’t get traced.”