Invasion (34 page)

“What about Eastern Europe?” Beau asked. “They are the ones that have been troubling me the most.”

“Same situation,” Alexander said. “Particularly Romania. They’ll be closed this week.”

“Excellent,” Beau said.

Randy Nite saw Beau speaking with Alexander and hastened over.

“What do you think?” Randy said, while proudly eyeing the emerging central structure.

“It’s coming along well,” Beau said. “But I’d appreciate a little more speed.”

“I’ll need more help then,” Randy said.

“Whatever you need,” Beau said. “We must be ready for the Arrival.”

Randy flashed a smile of appreciation before rushing back to his project.

Beau turned to Alexander. “What about Cassy Winthrope?” he asked. There was a sudden edge to his voice.

“She’s not been accounted for as yet,” Alexander said.

“How can that be?” Beau asked.

“It is a mystery,” Alexander said. “The police and the university officials have been exemplarily cooperative. She’ll turn up. Maybe even at the gate on her own accord. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”

Beau lashed out with his right hand, seizing Alexander’s forearm in a powerful grip that immediately cut off circulation to Alexander’s hand.

Shocked by this overtly hostile gesture, Alexander looked down at the hand that was holding him. It wasn’t a human hand. The fingers were long and wrapped around Alexander like minature boa constrictors.

“This request of mine to find this girl is not an idle whim,” Beau said. He regarded Alexander with eyes that were almost all pupil. “I want the girl now.”

Alexander raised his eyes to meet Beau’s. He knew enough not to struggle.

“We shall make it a top priority,” Alexander said.

JESSE HAD CUT PINE BOUGHS IN THE NEARBY FOREST, AND
after parking the van alongside the shed, had covered it with the branches. From the outside the cabin looked completely deserted save for the wisps of smoke rising from the stone chimney.

In marked contrast to the placid exterior, the interior
had been transformed into a crowded workstation. Taking up a lion’s share of floor space was the makeshift biological laboratory.

Nancy was in charge in that arena with Sheila working closely with her. Everyone suspected that Nancy was redirecting her powerful grief over Eugene’s death to the task of finding a way to stop the alien virus. She was a woman possessed.

Pitt was busy with a PC. He was attempting to do more accurate modeling with information that had become available on the TV. The media had finally picked up the story about the black discs, but not in regard to the flu epidemic. The stories were presented more as a way to stimulate the public’s interest in going out and finding them.

Jesse recognized that his input was more in logistics, particularly the practical aspects such as food and keeping the fire going. Presently he was busy putting the finishing touches on one of his specialties: chili.

Cassy and Jonathan were sitting at the communal eating table with the laptop. To Jonathan’s delight there’d been a distinct role reversal: now he was the teacher. Also to Jonathan’s delight, Cassy had on one of her thin cotton dresses. Since it was apparent she had no bra, Jonathan found it excruciatingly difficult to concentrate.

“So what do I do?” Cassy asked.

“What?” Jonathan asked as if waking up from sleep.

“Am I boring you?” Cassy asked.

“No,” Jonathan said hastily.

“I’m asking if I change these last three letters in the URL?” Cassy said. She was intent on the LCD screen and oblivious to the effect the physical aspects of her femininity
were having on Jonathan. She’d just come in from a swim and her nipples were sticking out like marbles.

“Right…uh, yeah,” Jonathan said. “Dot G O V. Then…”

“Then backslash, 6 0 6, capital R, small g, backslash,” Cassy said. “Then I hit Enter.”

Cassy looked up at Jonathan and noticed he was blushing.

“Is there something the matter?” Cassy asked.

“Nope,” Jonathan said.

“Well, then should I do it?” Cassy asked.

Jonathan nodded, and Cassy hit Enter. Almost simultaneously the printer activated and began spewing out printed pages.

“Voilà,” Jonathan said. “We’re into our mailbox without anybody being able to trace us.”

Cassy smiled and gave Jonathan a friendly poke. “You are one fine teacher.”

Jonathan blushed anew and averted his eyes. He busied himself by getting the pages out of the printer. Cassy got up and moved over to Pitt.

“Soup’s on in three minutes,” Jesse called out. No one responded. “I know, I know,” he added. “Everybody’s too busy, but you gotta eat. It will be on the table for whomever is interested.”

Cassy rested her hands on Pitt’s shoulders and looked at his computer screen. He had another pie graph, and now the red was larger than the blue.

“Is this where you think we stand now?” Cassy asked.

Pitt reached up and grasped one of Cassy’s hands and gave it a squeeze. “Afraid so,” he said. “If the data I got
from the TV is reasonable or even if it is low, the projections suggest that sixty-eight percent of the world’s population is now infected.”

Jonathan tapped Nancy on the back. “Sorry to bother you, Mom,” he said. “Here’s the latest off the Web.”

“Anything from the group up in Winnipeg about the protein amino-acid sequence?” Sheila asked.

“Yeah,” Jonathan said. He shuffled the pages and pulled out the one from Winnipeg. He handed it to Sheila who stopped what she was doing to read it.

“I’ve also connected with a new group in Trondhiem, Norway,” Jonathan said. “They’re working in a hidden lab beneath the gym in the local university.”

“Did you send them our original data?” Nancy asked.

“Yup,” Jonathan said. “Just like with the others.”

“Hey, they’ve made some progress,” Sheila said. “We now have the entire amino acid sequence of the protein. That means we can start making our own.”

“Here’s what the Norway people sent,” Jonathan said. He started to hand the sheet to Nancy, but Sheila reached over and took it instead. She read it rapidly, then crumpled it. “We’ve already determined all that,” she said. “What a waste of time.”

“They’ve been working in total isolation,” Cassy said in their defense, having heard Sheila’s remark.

“Anything from the group in France?” Pitt asked.

“A lot,” Jonathan said. He separated the French pages from the rest and handed them to Pitt. “Seems that the infestation is still progressing slower there than anyplace else.”

“Must be the red wine,” Sheila said with a laugh.

“That might be an important point,” Nancy said. “If it continues and is not just a random blip on the bell curve and if we can figure out why, it might be useful.”

“Here’s the bad news,” Jonathan said, holding up a sheet of paper. “People with diabetes, hemophilia, cancer, you name it, are dying in record numbers all over the world.”

“It’s as if the virus is consciously cleaning the gene pool,” Sheila said.

Jesse carried the pot of chili to the table and told Pitt to move the PC. As he waited to put the food down he asked Jonathan how many research centers he was in touch with around the world the previous day.

“A hundred and six,” Jonathan said.

“And how many today?” Jesse asked.

“Ninety-three,” Jonathan said.

“Wow!” Jesse said, putting down the chili. He headed back to the kitchen for dishes and flatware. “That’s rapid attrition.”

“Well, three of them might still have been okay,” Jonathan said. “But they were asking too many questions about who we are and where we are so I cut them off.”

“As the saying goes, ‘Better to be safe than sorry,’” Pitt said.

“It’s still rapid attrition,” Jesse said.

“What about the man calling himself Dr. M?” Sheila asked. “Anything from him?”

“A bunch of stuff,” Jonathan said.

“Who’s Dr. M?” Jesse asked.

“He was the first to respond to our letter on the Internet,” Cassy explained. “He responded in the first hour. We think he is in Arizona, but we have no idea where.”

“He’s given us a lot of important data,” Nancy said.

“Enough so he’s made me a tad suspicious,” Pitt said.

“Come on, everyone,” Jesse said. “This chili is going to get cold.”

“I’m suspicious of everyone,” Sheila said. She walked over to the table and took her usual seat at the end. “But if someone is coming up with useful info, I’ll take it.”

“As long as contacting him doesn’t jeopardize our location,” Pitt said.

“Obviously that’s a given,” Sheila said condescendingly. She took the pages from Dr. M that Jonathan held out for her. Holding them in front of herself, she started reading while shoveling chili into her mouth with her free hand. She acted like a high-school student cramming for exams.

Everyone else sat down at the table in a more civilized manner and spread napkins on their laps.

“Jesse, you’ve outdone yourself,” Cassy said after her first mouthful.

“Compliments are freely accepted,” Jesse said.

They ate for a few minutes in silence until Nancy cleared her throat. “I hate to bring this up,” she said. “But we’re running out of basic lab supplies. We aren’t going to be able to continue working much longer unless we make another run into the city. I know it is dangerous, but I’m afraid we have little choice.”

“No problem,” Jesse said. “Just make out a list. I’ll manage it somehow. It’s important that you and Sheila keep working. Besides, we need more food.”

“I’ll go too,” Cassy said.

“Not without me you won’t,” Pitt said.

“And me too,” Jonathan said.

“You are staying here,” Nancy said to Jonathan.

“Come on, Mom!” Jonathan said. “I can’t be coddled. I’m as much a part of this as anybody else.”

“If you are going, I’m going too,” Nancy said. “Besides, either I or Sheila should go. We’re the only ones who know what we need.”

“Oh my God!” Sheila said suddenly.

“What’s the matter?” Cassy demanded.

“This Doc M guy,” Sheila said. “Yesterday he asked us what we had on the sedimentation rate for that section of DNA which we knew contained the virus.”

“We sent him our estimate, didn’t we?” Nancy asked.

“I sent exactly what you gave me,” Jonathan said. “Even the part about our centrifuge not being able to reach such an RPM.”

“Well, apparently he has access to one that can,” Sheila said.

“Let me see,” Nancy said to Sheila. She took the page and read it. “My gosh, we’re closer to isolating the virus than we thought.”

“Exactly,” Sheila said. “Isolating the virus is not an antibody or a vaccine, but it is an important step. Maybe the single largest step.”

“WHAT TIME IS IT?” JESSE ASKED
.

“Ten-thirty,” Pitt said, holding his watch up to his face to see the dial. It was dark beneath the trees on the bluff overlooking the university campus. Jesse, Pitt,
Cassy, Nancy, and Jonathan were sitting in the van. They had arrived a half hour earlier, but Jesse had insisted they wait. He didn’t want anyone going into the medical center until the eleven o’clock shift change. He was counting on the general confusion at that time to facilitate getting what they needed and getting it out of there.

“We’ll start at ten forty-five,” Jesse said.

From their vantage point they could see that a number of the university asphalt parking lots had been dug up. Lights were strung across some of the open areas created and infected people were busy planting vegetables.

“They certainly are well organized,” Jesse said. “Look at the way they work together without any conversation.”

“But where are the cars going to park?” Pitt asked. “That’s taking environmentalism to an extreme.”

“Maybe they intend not to have cars,” Cassy said. “After all, cars are major polluters.”

“They do seem to be cleaning up the city,” Nancy said. “You have to give them credit for that.”

“They’re probably cleaning up the whole planet,” Cassy said. “In a curious way it’s making us look bad. I guess it takes an outsider to appreciate what we’ve always taken for granted.”

“Stop it,” Jesse said. “You’re starting to sound as if you are on their side.”

“It’s almost time,” Pitt said. “Now here’s what I think. Jonathan and I should go into the medical lab in the hospital. I know my way around in there, and Jonathan knows computers. Between the two of us, we’ll be able to decide what we need and carry it.”

“I think I should stay with Jonathan,” Nancy said.

“Mom!” Jonathan moaned. “You have to go to a pharmacy, and you don’t need me there. Pitt needs me.”

“It’s true,” Pitt said.

“Cassy and I will go with Nancy,” Jesse said. “We’ll use the pharmacy in the supermarket, so while she’s getting the drugs she needs, we’ll load up on groceries.”

“All right,” Pitt said. “We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes.”

“Better say forty-five,” Jesse said. “We got a little farther to walk.”

“Okay,” Pitt said. “It’s time. Let’s go!”

They climbed out of the van. Nancy gave Jonathan a quick hug. Pitt grabbed Cassy’s arm.

“Be careful,” Pitt said.

“You too,” Cassy said.

“Remember, everybody,” Jonathan said. “Put a big shit-eating grin on your face and hold it. It’s what all of them do.”

“Jonathan!” Nancy admonished.

They were about to move off when Cassy grabbed Pitt’s arm. When he turned, she gave him a kiss on the lips. Then Cassy ran after Nancy and Jesse while Pitt caught up with Jonathan. They all moved off into the night.

THE PICTURE WAS ONE OF CASSY TAKEN SIX MONTHS
previously. It had been shot in an alpinelike meadow with wildflowers forming a natural bed. Cassy was lying down with her thick hair splayed out around her head like a dark halo. She was impishly smiling at the camera.

Beau’s wrinkled, rubberlike hand reached out. The long snakelike fingers wrapped around the framed photo
and lifted it and drew it closer to his eyes. Their inherent glow served to illuminate the picture so Beau could more clearly make out Cassy’s features. He was sitting in the upstairs library with the lights off. Even the bank of monitors was off. The only light was an anemic moonbeam that slanted through the windows.