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The six were divided by nationality -- two each from the Soviet Union, from
France and from the United States. It had been planned to introduce other
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nationals later, but circumstances intervened.
William Beckett of the United States pair, who was to become nominal chairman
of The Team, came to the first meeting with a particular worry that had been
ignited by the devastating plague outbreak on the West Coast of his nation.
Had the area been contaminated by disease fractions that had escaped from an
insecure laboratory? (It already was suspected that the Madman had set up his
laboratory in the Seattle area.) The others were too busy measuring each
other, however, and he saved his concern for later.
Ruckerman, who had been Beckett's professor at Harvard, had experienced little
difficulty putting his prize pupil on The Team. The selection board had been
awed by Beckett's talents and accomplishments: public health consultant on
bubonic plague; world-class skipper of racing sailboats; commercial aircraft
pilot's license with jet training (a major in the Air Force Reserve); a hobby
of creating and solving "brain-twister" puzzles; a consultant on the military
code system, "Diascrambler"; a distance swimmer and a generally respected
handball player.
"A molecular biologist second to none," Ruckerman had said. "A Renaissance
man."
Beckett was a sandy-haired descendant of Scots-English religious refugees. He
had the pink skin and pale eyes to go with this ancestry, but features that a
college date had described as "latent course." Beckett had been a college
football linebacker until discovering that the constant jarring collisions of
football might scramble his proudest possession -- a mind to which most
puzzles submitted after a skirmish more exciting than any on the gridiron.
The college date's prediction had proved accurate: Beckett had large, heavy
features, but the mind had improved.
Within minutes of meeting Francois Danzas of the French contingent, Beckett
had known it would be difficult working with the Frenchman. Danzas was a
tall, slender and dark native of Peronne with traces of Celt, Roman, Greek and
Viking in his genes. His obviously dyed hair was swept back in two raven's
wings over a face that often appeared blank and empty except for the large
brown eyes. These stared out in constant incredulity at a world of caprice,
now glaring, now withdrawn beneath their heavy black brows. Whenever Danzas
closed his eyes, his face emptied, leaving only that long nose and a narrow,
almost lipless mouth. Even the dark brows seemed to fade. As the Brittany
expression had it, Danzas was as tough as an old saddle. Seasoned by much
use, weathered and shaped, he was now a visible repository of valuable
experiences. Danzas relied on Danzas. He knew himself in jeopardy only when
traveling or when eating foreign food. Foreigners, especially the English
and, by language association, the Americans, were to be distrusted as
fundamentally unsound, capable of evil and would cooperate only under duress.
The White Plague, for Danzas, merely represented the present duress. In spite
of the fact that he looked down his long Gallic nose at Americans, Danzas was
recognized in his homeland as an expert on all things Yankee. Had he not
endured four interminable years on an exchange-research program in Chicago?
Where better to learn Yankee ways than in the Hog Capital of the world?
Danzas could understand the capriciousness of life where this touched on his
living arrangements, but not in his laboratory. In the lab, Danzas always
expected to be eyewitness to the virgin birth if not the immaculate
conception. Certain responsibilities fell upon such an eyewitness. Two
observers of the event could not come up with two different stories. Thirty
eyewitnesses must produce the same account. It was an infallible rule. A
pope could rely on no better.
The joke in France was that Danzas had been put on The Team as contrast to his
French companion, Jost Hupp. Hupp's horn-rimmed glasses, the slightly bulging
eyes, the youthful insouciance of his features, all conspired to a totality
that invited sharing. Those who called Hupp a romantic failed to focus on the
underlying strength of his fantasy world. He used romance as Beckett used a
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concealed anger. Where Beckett's muse led him to a raging intellectual
striving, Hupp's muse was endearing and promoted a gregarious sharing of
everything -- successes, failures, joys, griefs . . . everything. Threaded
through this complex personality was an Alsatian tenacity compounded of both
French and German ancestors. It was in part a hangover from early influence
by the Roman Catholic Church. Mephistopheles was real. God was real. The
White Knight was real. The grail remained the eternal goal.
There was a pattern in this deeply satisfying to Hupp. Without it, he would
have been merely a researcher, a man in a white coat, not white armor.
Beckett thought Hupp was okay. A little weird but okay. Danzas, however, was
a scientific prig of the worst sort. What the hell difference did it make
where this team assembled just so long as the facilities were acceptable? It
angered Beckett that he would have to work with this prig for God alone knew
how long. He kept the anger sufficiently under wraps that only Hupp
suspected.
Many people had worked with Beckett for years without realizing that he
operated on regular anger fixes. He could find something to anger him almost
anywhere and, thus charged up, went headlong into the problem confronting him.
The White Plague was made to order for Beckett. That son-of-a-bitch! That
fucked-up Madman! What right had he to disrupt a world that, admittedly not
perfect, was stumbling along in its usual fashion?
Little of this anger escaped an amiable mask. He seldom spoke harshly. If
anything, he was even more amiable with Danzas, which brought out the
Frenchman's most correct and stiffly proper courtesy. It was a matter of
mutual fury that amused Hupp.
The other member of the U.S. contingent, Hupp observed, was the real surprise
package, especially to the two from the Soviet Union, Sergei Alexandrovich
Lepikov and Dorena Godelinsky. They kept looking speculatively at Beckett's
companion, Ariane Foss.
At six feet six inches and 288 pounds, Foss was easily the largest person
present. The French dossier on Foss judged her one of the five or six best
medical heads in the United States on what her country-doctor grandfather had
called "female complaints." Both the French and the Soviets suspected she was
with the Central Intelligence Agency. It was noted that she spoke five
languages fluently -- including French and Russian.
Foss had rather small but even features framed in golden hair kept trimmed to
tight, natural curls. Although large, her body was well balanced.
At the moment, Lepikov and Danzas were verbally sparring for dominance, a
matter of revealing credentials as though they were card players turning up
their cards, each aware that the other reserved powerful aces.
Lepikov, short and stocky with bushy gray hair over a flat face with a touch
of Mongol in the eyes, appeared the peasant to Danzas's aristocrat, a fact
that each noted, thinking it a personal advantage.
Dorena Godelinsky, the other member of the Soviet contingent, showed
increasing signs of irritation at the male contest. A slight, graying woman
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