Genesis Plague (10 page)

H
e and Renfield stood next to the long, flat rock where the
majority of the
Polychaeta Loasis
were congregated. I watched the slugs
crawl over the spackled surface for a while, then said, “I don’t see what you
mean.”

Renfield smiled and
knocked on the top of the rock several times. There was an empty
clack
with each knock.

“It’s hollow,” I said
with surprise.

“Hollow?” repeated
Xander, coming forward.

“This rock is extremely
porous,” said Flint, crouching next to me. He leaned in close to study the
rock. “Much more so than the rest of this cavern. This isn’t igneous.” He
knocked and listened. “Hell, I don’t know
what
it is.”

“Crack it open,” said
Xander suddenly.

“Don’t be ridiculous,”
said Levino with a look of disgust. “We don’t know what’s inside! There are
procedures for this kind of thing—”

“None of which apply to
me,” said Xander. “I’m not here under the oppressive thumb of your university,
nor under a mission of scientific preservation. I want a sample of whatever is
in that rock.”

“There are other
considerations,” I said loudly.

“Such as?” asked
Xander.

“We’ve been so
concerned with the organisms we can see with the naked eye, but we haven’t
given any thought to what we
can’t
see. This place could be crawling
with all kinds of bacterial life, not to mention viral.”

“Viral?” said Levino,
his voice dropping like dead weight. “What do you mean,
viral
?”

“I mean there’s no way
to know how this creature is interacting with its environment or how it’s
getting its food. The corrosive nature of its excretions could be indicative of
a similar toxicity in whatever it’s consuming. These are primitive creatures
from a primitive era, and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a viral
presence.”

“Well, that’s just
great
!”
said Levino, tossing up his hands. “What are we supposed to do now?! You didn’t
say anything to me about a virus!”

“Because it’s probably
nothing to worry about.”

“Paul is just being overly
cautious, as usual,” said Xander. “He is the antithesis of progress.”

“Only
blind
progress, Xander. I’m a big fan of the scientific method.”

He raised a finger and
opened his mouth to retort when Renfield said, “Good God!” and stumbled
backward.

A large domed bubble rose
slowly from the lava pool. It swelled up toward the ceiling, expanding outward
until it touched rock on all sides.

“Everyone back!”
shouted Flint. He pushed me away from the lava pool just as the top of the
bubble hit the ceiling.

The dome burst outward
with a loud
bloorp
, spraying molten rock in all directions. Globs of
glowing lava splatted to the ground. Mike grabbed Maria and shielded her with
his back. He let out a surprised yell when a splash of lava smacked between his
shoulder-blades. He brushed it off quickly, the material of his gloves smoking
on contact.

A drop of it landed on
my shin, and I quickly swiped it away.

I looked up and did a
quick head-count. Everyone was seemingly okay, but Xander had disappeared yet
again. I was about to ask if anyone saw him leave, when a long, steady slurping
sound emanates from deep within the lava pool.

I watched as the thick
liquid quickly drains from the pool, leaving behind molten walls glowing with fiery
intensity. The lava drained through a wide crack at the bottom of the large
bowl, and soon only a few small puddles remained.

“Ummm…” said Cass.

“Yeah,” said Flint.
“That means we should definitely leave until I can get some readings back at
camp.”

“Where’s Xander?” asked
Renfield.

“Who cares?” said
Levino. “He has good insurance. Everybody out! Dan, you have the samples?”

Grayson held up the
case as he walked quickly toward the exit, the rest of us falling in line right
behind him.

W
e were halfway back to base camp when the rain started. The
wind had been steadily picking up ever since we left the cave, whipping across
the barren mountainside and pushing a blinding, stinging rain. I was still
wearing the heat suit, but I had peeled off my mask the second I left the cave.

The air was metallic
and cool from the oncoming storm, and the sky overhead was a steady current of gray
clouds.

The ground rumbled and I
looked back in the direction of the cave, tracing the open fissure pulsing with
molten lava. For a moment, the mouth of the cave brightened, as if someone
inside the tunnel were running toward the exit with a powerful red torch.

The light blinked out
as a cannon blast of rocks and dirt erupted from the mouth of the cave.

“That wasn’t natural,”
said Flint.

“Must be Xander.”

“That son of a bitch!”
screamed Levino. “Where did he get explosives?! What the hell is he doing up
there?! He’s ruining a valuable scientific site!”

He charged back toward
the cave, but Renfield snagged his arm and held him back.

“It’s done, Roger,” he
said sadly. “The integrity of the cave will have to be reassessed before we can
go back. He may have destroyed everything.”

“And set off the damn
volcano in the process!”

“You can’t force an
eruption, even with a detonation like that,” Flint said.

Another explosion
rocked the mountainside, stronger than the first. Levino and Renfield flinched
as if physically struck.

“You sure about that?” said
Cass warily.

“That son of a bitch,”
muttered Levino as he turned away from the explosion and stomped down the
trail, toward camp.

“What do you think he’s
doing up there?” asked Flint as the rest of us, minus Xander, resumed our
descent.

“Beats me. But he
perked right up when I mentioned a virus.”

Flint nodded solemnly.
“Lot of cash in that game.”

“Much more than in pure
research,” said Cass. “It seems the rapid ability to destroy is more profitable
than the long-term potential for life.”

“I think Xander
believes both can occur simultaneously,” said Maria. “The yin and the yang,
together. I watched a presentation he gave at a sales conference a few months
ago. He was very passionate about what he called the mutual balance between
profit and discovery.”

“The only thing he
believes in is money,” I said.

“Money’s no good if
you’re dead,” said Cass. “I’d be surprised if he made it to safety before his
own bomb went off.”

A
nd so she was surprised, as were the rest of us, when Xander
strolled into base camp two hours later, his heat suit singed but intact, his
face grimy with dirt. The light rain caused the dirt smudges on his face to run,
like bleeding mascara.

Fortunately, I was the
first one to get to him, because I didn’t want anyone else in the way who might
accidentally get hurt.

My right cross landed
square on his cheek, just above his jaw. His head snapped to the side and back
in a flash, and he snarled as I followed my punch with a shoulder to his gut. I
picked him up off his feet and jumped forward, slamming his back to the ground.

Lightning flashed
overhead as he twisted beneath me, flipping over onto his stomach. He clawed at
the wet ground to try and scramble away. I kept him pinned down at the waist
and hammered the back of his head with my fists, pounding his skull into the
soft ground.

He bucked once and
there was air between us for a brief moment. It was enough. When I came back down,
Xander was out of my reach, scrambling on all fours to get behind me. I turned
to face him and a clump of mud smacks my eyes, blinding me. As I wiped it away,
Xander hit me in the temple with what felt like a baseball bat. My knees gave
out and I hit the ground, hard.

I held my arms over my
head, expecting the attack to continue. When the rain washed the rest of the
mud from my eyes, I could see Flint and Mike sitting on top of a struggling
Xander, pinning him down. On the ground nearby was a heavy branch. I figured
some of my DNA was probably embedded on the end of it in the form of a healthy
chunk of flesh.

The rain beat harder,
and thunder rumbled in the distance.

I touched my temple
where Xander struck me and felt the blood running freely. I rubbed the blood between
my fingers and it diluted in the rain, thinning out as it ran down my hand.

“I think you made your
point, Paul,” said Flint. He leaned down and spoke directly to Xander. “Don’t
you?”

Xander calmed suddenly,
as if the life were suddenly yanked out of his body. He nodded slowly.

Flint and Mike stood up
quickly and stepped back. Xander pushed himself to his feet and looked at me.
He smiled, showing his undamaged white teeth, and adjusted his bottom jaw,
rubbing the bruised side.

He pulled out three
glass tubes filled with thick, red-black liquid from inside his heat suit and
inspected them, checking for cracks. They were intact. He shook them in my
direction with a sly grin.

“Sorry for the boom,
Paul,” Xander said. He clutched the vials possessively as he turned to walk
away. “Had to get into that rock.”

C
ass dabbed at my bleeding temple with dry gauze. We were in a
small supply tent packed with large plastic cases. One with a large red cross
on the lid sat open on the ground at Cass’s feet.

“You boys,” she sighed,
shaking her head. “You never really grow up, do you?”

“He’s reckless and
inconsiderate, and he’s going to get somebody killed.”

“Is that what caused
your previous showdown?”

“Don’t make fun of me,
Cass.”

She gave me a small, restrained
smile and continued cleaning my wound. Her left hand was wrapped with fresh gauze
after the burn she suffered in the cave. The redness was already fading when we
returned to camp, but there was a persistent stinging sensation that could only
be alleviated with medicated ointment.

“And yes, that’s what
caused our last fight.” I continued. “Maria and I were consulting on an
excavation in China a couple years ago. They uncovered ancient ruins buried
just off shore, and we were there to make sure the dig didn’t impact the local
fauna. King showed up, armored to the teeth with all the right paperwork, and
proceeded to work all of the diggers to the bone. He kept us all underwater far
longer than safety regulations allow. When one of the workers passed out with a
bloody nose after we brought him up to the surface, I confronted Xander
and…well, and you can guess what happened after that.”

She raised an eyebrow
and said, “You expressed your thoughts using small words in a clear and concise
manner?”

“More or less.”

“Well, I hope you feel
better after what just happened outside.”

“It was very cathartic.
I’m even thinking about apologizing.”

“Oh, don’t do that. You
wouldn’t want him to get the wrong idea about you.”

I shook my head. “Part
of me feels like I should just be able to let it go.”

“He could have really
hurt someone up there,” said Cass. “No one else would have done anything.” She
sighed. “I think your heart was in the right place, but I just don’t like
seeing you get hurt.”

She applied a small
adhesive bandage to my temple and rubbed it down with her thumb. I grabbed her
waist and pulled her close to me, kissing her neck. I made my way up to her
mouth, but she quickly pushed me back.

“What’s the matter?” I
asked.

She smiled and brushed
back a strand of her straight brown hair with her bandaged hand. Then she
looked at the gauze.

“Nothing,” she said
gently. “It’s just…” She took a quick breath, preparing to speak, then sighed
again. “I love you, Paul.”

I went in for another
kiss, but she giggled and pushed me back.

“No, not yet,” she said.
“We need to do some analysis first.”

“Analysis?” I said. “Of
us? I know all I need to know about us, Cass. In fact, there’s something I need
to ask you about—”

“Shhhh,” she said
softly, hovering a finger over my lips. “Hold that thought.” She slipped out of
my grip and walked away.

“Hey, where are you
going?”

“Didn’t anyone tell
you?” she said. “We just made the scientific discovery of the decade.” She
winked and hurried out of the tent.