Sheila placed the jar on her desk and peered through the oculars of a binocular dissecting microscope. One of the black discs was positioned on the tray.
“This situation gets more and more bizarre,” Sheila remarked. “I gotta tell you; the surface appears fault-free. I’d swear it was a solid chunk of whatever it is.”
“It may look that way, but it isn’t,” Cassy said. “It’s definitely mechanical. We all saw the slit.”
“And the needle,” Pitt added.
“Who would make something like this?” Jesse questioned.
“Who could make it?” Cassy asked.
The four people stared at each other. For a few minutes no one spoke. Cassy’s rhetorical question was unsettling.
“Well, we won’t be able to answer any questions until we find out what’s in the fluid that soaked into the blotter,” Sheila said. “The problem is I’ve got to do it myself. Richard, the head tech in the hospital lab, has already blabbed to the CEO about our CDC visitor. I can’t trust the people in the lab.”
“We need to get other people involved,” Cassy said.
“Yeah, like a virologist,” Pitt said.
“Considering what happened with the man from the CDC, that’s not going to be easy,” Sheila said. “It’s hard to know who has had this flu and who hasn’t.”
“Except when it’s people we know well,” Jesse said. “I knew the captain was acting weird. I just didn’t know why.”
“But we can’t use the fear of not knowing who’s been sick as an excuse to sit around and do nothing,” Cassy said. “We have to warn people who haven’t been infected. I know a couple who could be a great help. She’s a virologist and he’s a physicist.”
“Sounds ideal provided they’ve not been stung,” Sheila said.
“I think I can find out,” Cassy said. “Their son is a student in one of the classes I’m student teaching. He has an inkling that something strange is going on because his girlfriend’s parents apparently were infected.”
“That might be a source of worry,” Sheila said. “From what Jesse has told us about the captain, I have a distinct and uncomfortable sense that the infected people feel evangelistic about their condition.”
“Amen,” Jesse said. “He was not to be denied. He was going to give me that black disc no matter what I said. He wanted me sick, no doubt.”
“I’ll be wary,” Cassy said, “and as you said before, discreet.”
“Okay, give it a try,” Sheila said. “Meanwhile I’ll run some preliminary tests on the fluid.”
“What are we going to do with the discs?” Jesse asked.
“The question is more what are they going to do with us,” Pitt said. He was looking at the one positioned under the microscope.
12
9:00 A.M.
IT WAS A GLORIOUS MORNING WITH A CLOUDLESS, crystal-blue sky. The distant saw-toothed purple mountains looked like amethyst crystals bathed in a golden light.
At the gate of the estate an expectant crowd had formed. There were people of all ages and from all walks of life, from mechanics to rocket scientists, from housewives to presidents of corporations, from high-school students to university professors. Everyone was eager, happy, and glowing with health. The atmosphere was festive.
Beau came out of the house with King at his side, descended the steps, walked fifty feet, then turned around. What he saw pleased him greatly. Overnight a large banner had been made that draped all the way across the front of the building. It said: “The Institute for a New Beginning…Welcome!”
Beau’s eyes swept around the grounds. He’d accomplished an extraordinary amount in twenty-four hours. He was glad he no longer needed to sleep except for short snatches. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible.
In the shade of trees or walking through sun-dappled meadows, Beau could see dozens of dogs of various breeds. Most were large dogs, and none had leashes. Beau could see that they were as alert as sentinels, and he was glad.
With a happy spring to his step, he returned to the porch to join Randy.
“This is it,” Beau said. “We’re ready to begin.”
“What a day for the Earth,” Randy replied.
“Let in the first group,” Beau said. “We’ll get them started in the ballroom.”
Randy took out his cellular phone, dialed, and told one of his people to open the gate. A few moments later Randy and Beau could hear a cheer rise up into the crisp morning air. From where they were standing they couldn’t see the front gate, but they could certainly hear the people shouting as they entered.
Buzzing with excitement, the crowd swarmed to the house and formed a spontaneous semicircle around the front porch.
Beau extended his hand like a Roman general and instantly the crowd went dead silent.
“Welcome!” Beau shouted. “This is the new beginning! You all bear witness that we share the same thoughts and vision. We all know what we must do. Let’s do it!”
A cheer and applause erupted from the crowd. Beau turned to Randy, who beamed. He was applauding as well. Beau gestured for Randy, to enter the house and then followed him.
“What an electric moment,” Randy said as they walked toward the ornate ballroom.
“It’s like being one huge organism,” Beau said with a nod of understanding.
The two men entered the vast, sun-drenched room and stood off to the side. The crowd followed at their heels, filling the room. Then, responding to an unseen, unspoken cue, they fell to dismantling the room.
CASSY BREATHED OUT A SILENT SIGH OF RELIEF WHEN SHE found herself facing Jonathan when the Sellerses’ front door had been pulled open. Expecting the worst, she’d anticipated having to face Nancy Sellers right off the bat.
“Miss Winthrope!” Jonathan said with a mixture of surprise and delight.
“You recognized me away from the school,” Cassy said. “I’m impressed.”
“Of course I recognized you,” Jonathan blurted. Consciously he had to resist letting his eyes wander below Cassy’s neck. “Come in.”
“Are your parents home?” Cassy asked.
“My mom is.”
Cassy studied the boy’s face. With his flaxen hair hanging down over his forehead and his self-consciously flitting eyes, he looked himself. His manner of dress was reassuring as well. He had on an oversized sweatshirt and a loose-fitting pair of Jams that were just barely hanging on to his buttocks.
“How’s Candee?” Cassy asked.
“I haven’t seen her since yesterday.”
“What about her parents?” Cassy questioned.
Jonathan let out a little sardonic laugh. “They’re gonzo. My mom had a talk with Candee’s mom, and it was like zero.”
“What about your mom?” Cassy asked. She tried to study Jonathan’s eyes, but it was like trying to examine a Ping-Pong ball during a game.
“My mom is fine. Why?”
“A lot of people are acting strange lately. You know, like Candee’s parents and Mr. Partridge.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jonathan said. “But not my mom.”
“Your dad?”
“He’s fine too.”
“Good,” Cassy said. “Now I’d like to take you up on your invitation to come in. I’m here to talk with your mom.”
Jonathan closed the door behind Cassy and then bellowed at the top of his lungs that there was company. The sound echoed around the inside of the house, and Cassy jumped. Despite trying to act calm, she was as taut as a banjo wire.
“Can I get you some water or something?” Jonathan asked.
Before Cassy could respond Nancy Sellers appeared at the balustrade on the second floor. She was dressed casually in acid-washed jeans and loose-fitting blouse.
“Who is it, Jonathan?” Nancy asked. She could see Cassy, but because of the way the sun was coming through the window into the stairwell, Cassy’s face was lost in shadow.
Jonathan yelled up who it was and motioned for Cassy to follow him into the kitchen. No s
ooner had Cassy sat at a banquette than Nancy appeared.
“This is a surprise,” Nancy said. “Can I offer you some coffee?”
“Sure,” Cassy said. Cassy eyed the woman as she motioned for Jonathan to get a cup while she went to the stove to pick up the coffeepot. As far as Cassy could tell Nancy looked and acted the same as she did when Cassy had first met her.
Cassy was beginning to relax a degree when Nancy reached out to pour the coffee. On her index finger was a fresh Band-Aid, and Cassy felt her own pulse quicken. A wound of any sort on the hands was not what she wanted to see.
“To what do we owe this visit?” Nancy asked as she poured herself a half cup of the coffee.
Cassy stumbled over her words. “What happened to your finger?”
Nancy glanced at her Band-Aid as if it had just appeared. “Just a small cut,” she said.
“From some kitchen implement?” Cassy asked.
Nancy studied Cassy’s face. “Does it matter?” she asked.
“Well…” Cassy stammered. “Yes, it does. It matters a lot.”
“Mom, Miss Winthrope is concerned about the people who are changing,” Jonathan said, coming to Cassy’s aid once again. “You know, like Candee’s mom. I’ve already told her you talked with her and thought that she was out in left field.”
“Jonathan!” Nancy snapped. “Your father and I agreed we wouldn’t discuss the Taylors outside the home. At least until…”
“I don’t think it can wait,” Cassy interrupted. Nancy’s little outburst had encouraged her to trust that Nancy had not been infected. “People are rapidly changing all over the city, not just the Taylors. It might even be happening in other cities. We don’t know. It’s happening with an illness that resembles the flu, and as far as we can tell it is spread by little black discs that have the capability of stinging people on their hands.”
Nancy stared at Cassy. “Are you taking about a black disc with kind of a hump in the middle, about four centimeters in diameter?”
“Exactly,” Cassy said. “Have you seen any? Lots of people have them.”
“Candee’s mother tried to give me one,” Nancy said. “Is that why you questioned my Band-Aid?”
Cassy nodded.
“It was a knife,” Nancy said. “A recalcitrant bagel and a knife.”
“I’m sorry to be so suspicious,” Cassy said.
“I suppose it is understandable,” Nancy said. “But why did you come here?”
“To enlist your help,” Cassy said. “We have a group, a small group, who have been trying to figure out what’s happening. But we need help. We have some fluid from one of the discs, and with you being a virologist, you’d know what to do with it. We’re afraid to use the hospital lab because we think too many people in the hospital have been infected.”
“You suspect a virus?” Nancy questioned.
Cassy shrugged. “I’m not a doctor, but the illness seems like the flu. We also don’t know anything about the black discs. That’s where we thought your husband might help. We don’t know how the things work or even what they are made of.”
“I’ll have to discuss this with my husband,” Nancy said. “How can I get in touch with you?”
Cassy gave the telephone number of Pitt’s cousin’s apartment where she’d stayed the previous night. She also gave her Dr. Sheila Miller’s direct dial number.
“Okay,” Nancy said. “I’ll be back to you sometime today.”
Cassy stood up. “Thank you, and as I’ve said, we need you. This problem is spreading like a plague.”
THE STREET WAS DARK SAVE FOR THE WIDELY DISPERSED street lights. From the distance two men approached, walking large German shepherds. Both the men and the dogs acted as if they were patrolling the street. Their heads were constantly turning from side to side as if they were searching and listening.
A dark sedan appeared and stopped. The window came down and the pale face of a woman appeared within. The two men stared at the woman but no one spoke. It was as if they were having a conversation without the need for words. After a few minutes the car window soundlessly went back up and the car moved off.
The two men resumed their walk, and as the eyes of one of the men passed by the line of Jonathan’s sight, Jonathan thought he saw a glow as if the eyes were reflecting an unseen light source.
Jonathan reflexively pulled back from the window and let the drape fall into place. He didn’t know if the man in the street had seen him or not.
After a moment Jonathan carefully parted the center of the drapes with his finger, exposing only the barest crack. Being in a dark room himself, Jonathan was not afraid of light giving him away.
Jonathan brought his eye to the crack. Down in the street he could see that the two men and dogs had continued walking just as they had earlier. Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. They’d not spotted him.
Letting the curtain fall back into place, Jonathan left the bathroom and went out into the living room to join the others. He and his parents had come to the place where Cassy and her friend Pitt were staying. It was a large three-bedroom flat in a garden apartment complex. Jonathan thought it was cool. There were a number of impressive aquariums and tropical plants.
Jonathan considered telling everyone what he’d just seen, but they were too preoccupied. At least everybody but his father. His father was standing away from the group with his elbow on the mantel. Jonathan recognized his expression. It was one of those condescending ones he’d assume whenever Jonathan asked him for help with math.
Jonathan had been introduced to the others. He’d seen the black policeman before and had been impressed by him. He’d come to the school the previous autumn for career day. Jonathan had never met Dr. Sheila Miller but was wary of her. Except for her blond hair she reminded him of the witch in the Snow White video his parents had made him watch when he was a kid. There wasn’t anything feminine about her like there was about Cassy. The long fingernails didn’t quite hack it, especially since they were painted a rather dark color.
Cassy’s friend Pitt was an okay guy except Jonathan felt a twinge of jealousy because of Cassy. Jonathan didn’t know if they were exactly dating, but it seemed like they were living there in the same apartment. Jonathan wished he had a physique like Pitt and maybe even black hair if that was what Cassy liked.
SHEILA CLEARED HER THROAT. “SO LET’S SUMMARIZE,” she said. “What we’re dealing with is an infectious agent that rapidly sickened guinea pigs, but the animals produced no detectable microorganisms, specifically no viruses. The illness is not airborne, otherwise we’d all be infected. At least I certainly would be, since I’ve been essentially living in the ER. It’s been literally filled with infected people over the last couple of days who’ve been continuously coughing and sneezing.”
“Have you inoculated any tissue cultures?” Nancy asked.
“No,” Sheila said. “I don’t think of myself as experienced enough for that type of work.”
“So you believe the illness is only spread parenterally,” Nancy said.
“Exactly,” Sheila said. “By one of these black discs.”
Both the discs were sitting in a topless Tupperware container resting on the coffee table. Nancy picked up a fork and began pushing them around so she could examine them. Then she tried to turn one of them over, but being unwilling to touch it with her finger to stabilize it, it seemed impossible. She gave up. “I can’t imagine how these things could sting anything. They are so uniform.”
“But they most certainly can,” Cassy assured her. “We saw it happen.”
“A slit opens up at the edge,” Jesse said, taking the fork and pointing. “Then a chromelike needle shoots out.”
“But I don’t see where a slit could be,” Nancy said.
Jesse shrugged. “It’s got us buffaloed as well.”
“The illness is unique,” Sheila said, refocusing the discussion. “It basically resembles the flu symptomatically, but its incubation period is only a few hours after
injection. Its course is also short and self-limited, again only a few hours except for people with chronic disease like diabetes. Unfortunately, for those people it is rapidly lethal.”
“And people with blood disease,” Jesse added in memory of Alfred Kinsella.
“True,” Sheila agreed.
“And so far no influenza virus has been isolated from any of the victims,” Pitt said.
“Also true,” Sheila said. “And the most unique and one of the more disturbing aspects of this illness is that after recovery the victim’s personality changes. They even profess to feel better generally than they had before the illnesss. And they start talking about environmental problems. Isn’t that right, Cassy?”
Cassy nodded. “I discovered my fiancé out in the middle of the night having a conversation with strangers. When I asked him what he’d been talking about, he said the environment. At first I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t.”
“Joy Taylor told me she and her husband were having environmental meetings every night,” Nancy said. “Then with me she brought up the issue about the destruction of the rain forests.”
“Just a minute!” Eugene said. “As a scientist all I’m hearing is hearsay and anecdotes. You people are getting way ahead of yourselves.”
“That’s not true,” Cassy said. “We saw the disc open, and we saw the needle. We’ve even seen people get stung.”
“That’s not the point,” Eugene said. “You don’t have any scientific proof that the stinging caused the illness.”
“We don’t have a lot of proof but the guinea pigs did get sick,” Sheila said. “That was for sure.”
“You have to establish causality in a controlled circumstance,” Eugene said. “That’s the scientific method. Otherwise you can’t talk about anything except in vague generalities. You need reproducible evidence.”
“We got these black discs,” Pitt said. “They are not figments of one’s imagination.”