Panspermia Deorum (44 page)

Even so, the
third infusion was delivered with some unease. The previously
stabilising readouts began to show surges in all directions. Zlatan
became delirious, moaning and talking nonsense, but remaining
conscious. This wild fluctuation continued for the best part of an
hour, inflicting a degree of pessimism into the equation. Then,
quite suddenly the patient’s blood pressure dropped dramatically,
as did his pulse rate. The onlookers now became gravely concerned.
Zlatan’s speech gradually lost its slurring tendency and he was
more lucid.

“Something is
going on inside me. I’m seeing pictures from earlier this morning,
yesterday, and years ago. They come and go. There are hundreds of
them. They are there whether I close my eyes or keep them open.
What is happening?”

Brandon told
him that they couldn’t know exactly what was going on, but at least
they knew his body was reacting to the infusions.

“The virus will
also be engaged in the struggle. I would expect this to continue
for quite some time, maybe even overnight. Are you in any
pain?”

“Not really, I
just feel as if I don’t know who I am. The pictures are confusing
because some have me in them and others are familiar but I don’t
know why. I feel hot at the moment, very hot. I want to sleep but
the pictures won’t stop.”

Eugene noted
that his blood pressure had increased slightly and his pulse was
now normal. Zlatan stopped speaking in mid-sentence and closed his
eyes again. The hiatus in communication with him gave an
opportunity for the others to discuss and digest all of the data
which had been collected so far. It could be several hours before
reliable trends could be extracted or there could be a sudden
change at any time. It was going to be a long night.

*

Zlatan’s boss
had a conundrum. He’d checked with the guards and they swore blind
that they had never talked about the return from the dead of the
former nurse, and had agreed to pretend his reappearance had never
happened.

“Have you been
questioned about it?”

They said they
had expected to be asked about it, but it hadn’t come up, either by
rumour or contact from the hierarchy. He was leaning toward
believing them when he was asked to attend a second interrogation.
He feared that he’d erred somewhere along the line, but retained
his casual persona when he entered the room.

“We wanted to
bring you up to date with our findings regarding the undeleted
files we spoke about last time.”

“Oh, yes, I’d
forgotten about that.”

“Well, we are
now satisfied that it was a routine housekeeping exercise which
brought up these files and posed the question as to whether they
should be permanently deleted or left in abeyance until the next
clean-up point. Most of them have been permanently deleted, but on
balance we felt you should know that one of these files related to
Geoffrey Nelson, a nurse who reports to you, his file has now been
removed from this list and transferred to an investigative
section.”

“I see. What
kind of investigation? Is that why I’m here?”

“Not to be part
of the investigation, only to verify certain information. Some of
what was in the file has become subject to dispute.”

“Right. Well,
he was a reliable employee. He had some strange views on life in
general, but he never let it affect his work.”

“You speak of
him respectfully, in the past tense.”

“Yes, of
course, he was reported as deceased not long after he became
infected. Wasn’t that on this file you keep talking about?”

“Unfortunately
not. You see, some alterations appear to have been made when this
clean-up took place. His file information ends with the declaration
that he was infected. You’ve been very helpful, and it just shows
that every once in a while human memory can be more reliable than
strings of computer code. We also vaguely remembered he was one of
many of our staff who’d succumbed to the virus. We can now correct
the file, registering his death, and close the investigation. It
will become extremely important in the future to ensure our records
of this plague are as accurate as possible.”

He left the
inner sanctum and felt relieved that he’d stayed on script, but he
knew that they knew for certain that Geoffrey Nelson didn’t
actually die inside the exclusion zone.

Darwinian
Roulette

I
t had been a long and sometimes depressing vigil.
Global events took on the temporary cloak of mere wallpaper,
unfolding but blotted out by sheer focus and determination. Zlatan
had been hooked up to technical survival kit for two and a half
weeks. He’d also had to cope with intravenous feeding and bedpans.
He was weary beyond comprehension.

Eugene uttered
only two words.

“You won.”

“What?”

“You’re clean.
The virus has been purged from your body. There have been quite a
few wobbles, but in the end, the Phospholipase A2 made the
difference. Once you recover from fatigue you’ll improve quickly.
We’ve decided you can return to oral sustenance. Sorry about the
nil by mouth discomfort, but we had to rule out any interaction
between the virus and contaminated foodstuffs. If you want a
sleeping draft just let me know. You have a place in history now,
the first human to beat this pestilence.”

Zlatan let the
emotions flow and began to convulse with joy. He was muttering
something repeatedly. Eugene leaned closer.

“Ice cream, I’d
like an ice cream. Lots of it and only then a sleeping pill.”

The others were
almost too tired to celebrate, but there was one more thing to
address. It fell to Brandon to make the point.

“Listen guys. I
think I know how you feel, but this is just the beginning. We can’t
let the cat out of the bag until we find the right people to work
with in using this technique. If it was broadcast, then stabilised
Alphas would ensure that the virus would be directly exposed to the
cure, in a lab, not a discrete human body. We can’t let that
happen. Its adaptability would then become a threat, mutating to a
new foe, and starting a new, more complex campaign. Let’s enjoy the
moment and think about what we do next. I’d like to suggest we know
where we have to begin. Australia has to be neutralised before we
tackle the wider world.”

The two
Japanese researchers were keen to stay with the project, but
brought up the practical aspect of being paid, they had to earn a
living. Eugene had an idea he wanted to share.

“This will, as
Brandon said, reach a point where we have to trust a larger and
larger circle of people. I agree that the original Australian
spawning nest has to be eradicated first, but by whom? We aren’t
militarily capable of enforcing terms for treating one person but
not another. Politicians scare the shit out of me when it comes to
trust, but we simply can’t administrate and treat on the scale
required. It pains me to concede this. But, if we want to deceive
the world at large about exactly what we’re doing, at least for a
while, politicians have this in their DNA – the four of us don’t.
We just have to find the right politicians. With respect to being
paid, I can vouch for support from my father and myself, so forget
about that for now. As the project grows, regular employment will
follow. Brandon is absolutely correct, we can only treat a person
once, and that brings up the question of secondary infection. Those
cured must be kept away from any form of the virus, whether from
plants, animals, or deviants. I would have thought it makes sense
to do this in Australia as we go, because if the eradication
programme is to be successful we have to limit it to phase one
deviants in the beginning. We have more work to do with phases two
and three. Progressively cleansing in an ever-expanding circle
would afford us the opportunity to select such candidates
simultaneous with eliminating and burning others. One further point
I’d like to make, we as individuals and a group are pitifully naïve
when it comes to achieving the organisational bridgehead we need.
My father has both the financial and people connections to help us.
He’s been in this kind of situation many times.”

The Japanese
duo looked blankly at Brandon.

“I can go along
with Eugene on this. I never really knew Julien Delacroix when I
was with VB Aerospace, but he gained my trust when he persuaded me
to speak to Eugene, and thus the means to bring this team together.
We’re scientists, someone else has to deal with the rest.”

It was agreed
that they would wait until Zlatan was on his feet and functioning
normally before outlining the situation to Julien.

Five Days
Later

Zlatan showed
remarkable improvement and was fit enough to travel. Eugene called
his father and was redirected to another number. Eventually someone
answered.

“Sophie? What’s
going on? I’ve been on the line for over a minute.”

“Eugene, thank
goodness you called. We had no time to let you know we were getting
out of Lyon. We flew to Corsica yesterday. It was the only flight
available at short notice for all five of us.”

“Just a minute,
sis, I’m not following you. Corsica?”

“Yes, the
French mainland is completely out of control. These deviants are
everywhere. You don’t have to watch it on TV, just looking out of
the window we could see people being attacked every few
minutes.”

“Bloody hell,
news of this kind of stuff hasn’t reached Japan, or it could be
deliberately suppressed. Is everyone ok?”

“Yes, but we
aren’t staying here too long. It’s quiet, but it won’t stay like
that. We’re going back to Guiana as soon as we can make the safest
travel arrangements.”

“Right. Is Dad
there?”

“Yeah, I’ll put
him on.”

He could hear
lots of intermingled voices, then Julien’s voice prevailed over the
background noise.

“Hello, Eugene.
I was beginning to think I’d never hear your voice again. Are you
still working on your project in Japan?”

“In a way, but
we’re facing a dilemma. I can’t say too much on the phone but I
think we need your help.”

“My help? I’m
an old man now, Eugene, and I know nothing about microbiology. How
can I help?”

“Through your
contacts. We’re at a crossroads. Listen, I told Sophie that we were
a little isolated here in terms of world news, but it is quiet and
pretty safe. Unless you’ve all made up your minds to head for
Guiana right now, how about we meet up in Japan. We won’t be here
too long, and that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Think of
it as a holiday. I promise it won’t be a waste of your time. I’ll
hold while you ask the others. I’m sorry to be so vague but we
don’t have much time to spare.”

Julien knew his
son well enough to refrain from asking more questions, and guessed
that there was something big to consider in Japan. He simply said
he’d talk the others into a new vacation in the Orient and would
call back with the flight times.

“Just meet us
at the airport and we’ll take it from there, ok?”

“No shit? I
don’t envy your task in herding the others into line. Thanks,
Dad.”

*

The reunion of
the family at the airport was laced with joy and huge relief.
Eugene took his father to one side and said they should drop the
others off at the five star hotel before the two of them could
proceed to the lab. When Zlatan’s situation was explained to him,
he challenged Eugene’s sanity.

“You’re joking
aren’t you? So, what’s the real reason you asked us to fly halfway
around the world?”

“This is as
serious as it gets, Dad. I know you have to take a leap of faith
here, but we don’t have time to piss about. We either squander this
breakthrough by trusting the wrong people or you help us to find
the right people. That’s it, yes or no, there’s no way we’d make up
such a preposterous tale. We don’t have a choice as to whether we
do this, only how we do it.”

“You haven’t
said so, but you are leaning heavily on my conscience about
bringing this scourge here with the cometary pebbles aren’t you?
I’ve continually agonised over the advice I gave at the time. I
truly thought we had no reason to be concerned about them,
especially as we’d just averted Armageddon. Ok, I get it, but do
you seriously think I can bring people we can trust to Australia
and weed out these ‘stable Alphas’ without revealing our
motive?”

“Like I said,
unless you have a better idea.”

“I need to
digest all this. I’m going to have a few beers at the hotel
tonight. But first, can I see this man you’ve ‘disinfected’?”

Julien was
introduced to Zlatan.

“Tell me more
about your time before you were infected. How you began to suspect
the hierarchy, and the names of any contacts inside the exclusion
zone you can trust.”

Zlatan’s
account was reassuring in its utter simplicity and gratitude that
he was actually able to be here and recount it.

“It’s a real
honour to meet with someone like you, sir, but I can only give you
names of people I
don’t
trust in Australia. It doesn’t work
the other way. When you’ve had this ‘inhabitation’ of your body,
and are helpless to resist doing what it urges you to do, there
seems to be no point in living. Yet you don’t even get near to
ending your life. Something keeps you going. It would be a real
shame if your work in preventing the asteroid from wiping out our
species, was to become only a prelude to caving in to some bloody
pest which can’t actually survive without us, or other Earth
inhabitants. It doesn’t belong here. I don’t know if any of this
makes sense, but when these guys who cleansed me are ready to go
back there, I’m in it with them – all the way. They’ve risked
everything for me, I owe them bigtime. You need to see what’s going
on down there for yourself, sir.”