Bobby said, “Are you serious? Drink that crap? No way, Mae!”
She turned to Vince.
“Smells like shit to me,” Vince said. “Let someone else try it first.”
Mae said, “Ricky? You want to be the first?”
Ricky shook his head. “I’m not drinking that. Why should I?”
“Well, for one thing, you’d be assured you weren’t infected. And for another, we would be assured, too.”
“What do you mean, it’s a test?”
Mae shrugged. “That’s what Jack thinks.”
Julia frowned. She turned to Mae. “Where is Jack now?” she said. “I don’t know. The last time I saw him was by the fermentation chambers. I don’t know where he is now.”
“Yes, you do,” Julia said coldly. “You know exactly where he is.”
“I don’t. He didn’t tell me.”
“He did tell you. He tells you everything,” Julia said. “In fact, you and he planned this little interlude, didn’t you? You couldn’t seriously expect us to drink that stuff. Where is Jack, Mae?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
Julia said to Bobby, “Check the monitors. Find him.” She came around the table. “Now then, Mae.” Her voice was calm, but full of menace. “I want you to answer me. And I want you to tell me the truth.”
Mae backed away from her. Ricky and Vince were closing in on either side of her. Mae backed against the wall.
Julia advanced slowly. “Tell me now, Mae,” she said. “It will be much better for you if you cooperate.”
From the other side of the room, Bobby said, “I found him. He’s going through the fab room. He’s carrying a jug of the crap, looks like.”
“Tell me, Mae,” Julia said, leaning close to Mae. She was so close their lips were almost touching. Mae squeezed her eyes and her lips tightly shut. Her body was beginning to shake with fear. Julia caressed her hair. “Don’t be afraid. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Just tell me what he is doing with that jug,” Julia said.
Mae began to sob hysterically. “I knew it wouldn’t work. I told him you would find out.”
“Of course we would,” Julia said quietly. “Of course we would find out. Just tell now.”
“He took the jug of virus,” Mae said, “and he’s putting it in the water sprinklers.”
“Is he?” Julia said. “That’s really very clever of him. Thank you, sweetie.” And she kissed Mae on the mouth. Mae squirmed, but her back was against the wall, and Julia held her head. When Julia finally stepped back, she said, “Try and stay calm. Just remember. It won’t hurt you if you don’t fight against it.”
And she walked out of the room.
DAY 7
6:12 A.M.
Things happened faster than I expected. I could hear them running toward me down the corridor. I hastily hid the jug, then ran back and continued crossing the fabrication room. That was when they all came after me. I started to run. Vince tackled me, and I hit the concrete floor hard. Ricky threw himself on top of me after I was down. He knocked the wind out of me. Then Vince kicked me in the ribs a couple of times, and together they dragged me to my feet to face Julia.
“Hi, Jack,” she said, smiling. “How’s it going?”
“It’s been better.”
“We’ve had a nice talk with Mae,” Julia said. “So there’s no point in beating around the bush.” She looked around the floor nearby. “Where is the jug?”
“What jug?”
“Jack.” She shook her head sadly. “Why do you bother? Where is the jug of phage you were going to put in the sprinkler system?”
“I don’t have any jug.”
She stepped close to me. I could feel her breath on my face. “Jack… I know that look on your face, Jack. You have a plan, don’t you? Now tell me where the jug is.”
“What jug?”
Her lips brushed mine. I just stood there, still as a statue. “Jack darling,” she whispered, “you know better than to play with dangerous things. I want the jug.” I stood there.
“Jack… just one kiss…” She was close, seductive.
Ricky said, “Forget it, Julia. He’s not afraid of you. He drank the virus and he thinks it’ll protect him.”
“Will it?” Julia said, stepping back.
“Maybe,” Ricky said, “but I bet he’s afraid to die.”
And then he and Vince began dragging me across the fabrication room. They were taking me to the high mag field room. I began to struggle.
“That’s right,” Ricky said. “You know what’s coming, don’t you?” This was not in my plan. I hadn’t expected it; I didn’t know what I could do now. I struggled harder, kicking and twisting, but they were both immensely strong. They just dragged me forward. Julia opened the heavy steel door to the mag room. Inside, I saw the circular drum of the magnet, six feet in diameter.
They shoved me in roughly. I sprawled on the ground in the room. My head banged against the steel shielding. I heard the door click and lock.
I got to my feet.
I heard the rumble of the cooling pumps as they started up. The intercom clicked. I heard Ricky’s voice. “Ever wonder why these walls are made out of steel, Jack? Pulsed magnets are dangerous. Run them continuously, and they blow apart. Get ripped apart by the field they generate. We got a one-minute load time. So you’ve got one minute to think it over.” I had been in this room before, when Ricky showed me around. I remembered there was a knee plate, a safety cutoff. I hit it with my knee.
“Won’t work, Jack,” Ricky said laconically. “I inverted the switching. Now it turns the magnet on, instead of off. Thought you’d like to know.”
The rumbling was louder. The room began to vibrate slightly. The air grew swiftly colder. In a moment I could see my breath.
“Sorry if you’re uncomfortable, but that’s only temporary,” Ricky said. “Once the pulses get going, the room’ll heat up fast. Uh, let’s see. Forty-seven seconds.” The sound was a rapid chunk-chunk-chunk, like a muffled jackhammer. It was loud, and getting louder. I could hardly hear Ricky over the intercom. “Now Jack,” he said. “You have a family. A family that needs you. So think about your choices very carefully.”
I said, “Let me speak to Julia.”
“No, Jack. She doesn’t want to talk to you right now. She’s very disappointed in you, Jack.”
“Let me speak to her.”
“Jack, aren’t you listening to me? She says no. Not until you tell her where the virus is.” Chunk-chunk-chunk. The room was starting to get warmer. I could hear the gurgle of the coolant as it went through the piping. I kicked the safety plate with my knee. “I told you, Jack. It’ll only turn the magnet on. Are you having trouble hearing me?”
“Yes,” I yelled. “I am.”
“Well that’s too bad,” Ricky said. “I’m sorry to hear that.” At least, I thought that’s what he was saying. The chunk-chunk-chunk seemed to fill the room, to make the very air vibrate. It sounded like an enormous MRI, those giant pumps. My head hurt. I stared at the magnet, at the heavy bolts that held the plates together. Those bolts would soon become missiles.
“We’re not fucking around, Jack,” Ricky said. “We’d hate to lose you. Twenty seconds.” The load time was the time it took to charge the magnet capacitors, so that millisecond pulses of electricity could be delivered. I wondered how long after loading it would take for the pulses to blow the magnet apart. Probably a few seconds at most. So time was running out for me. I didn’t know what to do. Everything had gone horribly wrong. And the worst part was that I had lost the only advantage I ever had, because they now recognized the importance of the virus. Earlier they hadn’t focused on it as a threat. But now they understood, and were demanding I hand it over. Soon they would think to destroy the fermentation tank. They would eradicate the virus very thoroughly, I felt sure.
And there was nothing I could do about it. Not now.
I wondered how Mae was, and whether they had hurt her. I wondered if she was still alive. I felt detached, indifferent. I was sitting in an oversized MRI, that was all. This big terrifying sound, it must have been how Amanda felt, when she was in the MRI… My mind drifted, uncaring.
“Ten seconds,” Ricky said. “Come on, Jack. Don’t be a hero. It’s not your style. Tell us where it is. Six seconds. Five. Jack, come on…”
The chunk-chunk-chunk stopped, and there was a whang! and a scream of rending metal. The magnet had switched on, for a few milliseconds.
“First pulse,” Ricky said. “Don’t be an asshole, Jack.”
Another whang! Whang! Whang! The pulses were coming faster and faster. I saw the jacketing on the coolant beginning to indent with each pulse. They were coming too fast. Whang! Whang!
I couldn’t take it anymore. I shouted, “Okay! Ricky! I’ll tell you!”
Whang! “Go ahead, Jack!” Whang! “I’m waiting.”
“No! Turn it off first. And I only tell Julia.”
Whang! Whang! “Very unreasonable of you, Jack. You’re in no position to bargain.” Whang!
“You want the virus, or you want it to be a surprise?”
Whang! Whang! Whang!
And then abruptly, silence. Nothing but the low swoosh of the coolant flowing through the jacketing. The magnet was hot to the touch. But at least the MRI sound had stopped. The MRI…
I stood in the room, and waited for Julia to come in. And then, thinking it over, I sat down.
I heard the door unlock. Julia walked in.
“Jack. You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No,” I said. “Just my nerves are shot.”
“I don’t know why you put yourself through it,” she said. “It was totally unnecessary. But guess what? I have good news. The helicopter just arrived.”
“It did?”
“Yes, it’s early today. Just think, wouldn’t it be nice to be on it now, going home? Back to your house, back to your family? Wouldn’t that feel great?”
I sat there with my back against the wall, looking up at her. “Are you saying I can go?”
“Of course, Jack. There’s no reason for you to stay here. Just give me the bottle of virus, and go home.”
I didn’t believe her for a second. I was seeing the friendly Julia, the seductive Julia. But I didn’t believe her. “Where is Mae?”
“She’s resting.”
“You’ve hurt her.”
“No. No, no, no. Why would I do that?” She shook her head. “You really don’t understand, do you? I don’t want to hurt anybody, Jack. Not you, not Mae, not anybody. I especially don’t want to hurt you.”
“Try telling that to Ricky.”
“Jack. Please. Let’s put emotion aside and be logical for a moment. You’re doing all this to yourself. Why can’t you accept the new situation?” She held out her hand to me. I took it, and she pulled me up. She was strong. Stronger than I ever remembered her being. “After all,” she said, “you’re an integral part of this. You killed the wild type for us, Jack.”
“So the benign type could flourish…”
“Exactly, Jack. So the benign type could flourish. And create a new synergy with human beings.”
“The synergy that you have now, for example.”
“That’s right, Jack.” She smiled. It was a creepy smile.
“You are, what? Coexisting? Coevolving?”
“Symbiotic.” She was still smiling.
“Julia, this is all bullshit,” I said. “This is a disease.”
“Well of course you would say that. Because you don’t know any better, yet. You haven’t experienced it.” She came forward and hugged me. I let her do it. “You have no idea what’s ahead of you.”