Pavlov's Dogs (18 page)

Ken spit again.

He hated this new world they lived in.

ALPHA MCLOUGHLIN’S TEAM had been off the yacht for less than a minute before they heard the news: Project Director Crispin was dead. A sweating and frazzled Dr. Donovan was on the pier waiting for them, being the most sincere since he’d stepped foot on the island.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” he said, repeating it every few sentences. “Kaiser, he just
snapped
. After your Theta got bitten—”

“Dunne,” McLoughlin said.

“—Kaiser went ballistic. But I think it was the termination command that put him over the edge.”

McLoughlin’s eyes narrowed. Even in human form, he could smell the tang of Dr. Donovan’s vomit. And in the vomit he could detect the very smell of Donovan’s fear. Some adrenaline byproduct or another.

“So Kaiser was inside Command?” McLoughlin asked, directing the question at Luke Jaden, who stood nearby, hands folded behind his back.

“Yes—” Jaden began, but Donovan talked right over him.

“Dr. Crispin and I were running an experiment. I had some theories about Kaiser’s disobedience, and we needed the, uh, we needed the controls to test it.”

“Sounds like it backfired,” Jaden said, meeting the Alpha Dog’s eyes as if to stress some sort of unspoken significance.

He thinks it’s weird, too
, McLoughlin thought.
Kaiser in Command.

“Where is Kaiser now?” the Alpha Dog asked.

Donovan shook his head. “Did Crispin... did he have any contingency plans set up in the event of his death? A will, or...?”

The question took both McLoughlin and Jaden by surprise. As well thought-out as this entire operation was, neither of them could fathom how such an important detail could have been overlooked.

“I don’t think he thought he would ever die,” Jaden said.

Donovan sighed for some reason, and McLoughlin couldn’t determine whether it was out of relief.

“Well, I guess it makes sense for the second-in-command to take the helm,” he said, frowning at the ground. “At least until we can elect someone else. So that’s just what we’ll do. And I promise you, I will not let this stand. Kaiser will be prosecuted, or court-martialed—or whatever it is we do—to the fullest extent.”

After a while, the Dogs left the neurotech wringing his hands on the pier, and Jaden accompanied them toward the barracks. He spoke privately with McLoughlin on the way.

“Did you check the security cameras?” the Dog asked.

“Yes, and it seems Donovan did, indeed, escort Kaiser to Command, just like he described when I interrogated him. But Kaiser won’t say shit, and there’s no footage from inside the building.”

McLoughlin thought about that for a second. “You mean there aren’t any cameras in Command.”

“You say that like it doesn’t surprise you.”

It didn’t. Crispin was typically the only person who ever entered Command, so the level of privacy didn’t surprise him at all. But the level of oversight certainly did.

“I’m going to check into a few more things,” Jaden said, “perhaps canvass.” He and McLoughlin nodded to each other, and then the head of security broke off and started walking the other way.

McLoughlin’s pack proceeded to the barracks. They needed rest. And therapy.

As they passed the Q section, Samson couldn’t help but notice the despair in the survivors’ faces. Some of it was for their savior, Dr. Crispin, but more than that, the Dogs had come back empty-handed; no more survivors. Samson took a longer look into the fenced-off area and saw that someone had torn a black dress into strips; a pair of girls was passing them out for the survivors to tie around their upper arms.

Hayte, for his part, was chanting in a low voice, then shaking his head and doing it again.

“What’s that?” Samson asked.

“I’m preparing a Song for Crispin. I’m not a true Singer of my people, but I know the way. And, you know, I might be the last of my people, so perhaps I can Sing him to the afterlife without offending the Faraway Gods.”

Kristos clapped the Amerindian Dog on the shoulder. “That’s beautiful, Hayte. Really. I don’t... I know I rag on you, but that’s a really nice thing.”

Beside them and nodding mutely, Rose agreed.

Jorge watched the Dogs walking past the quarantine. He wanted to call out to them, to get news of Ken and the other survivors, but he had a feeling that he would simply be ignored. He looked over at Marie and lifted his chin.

“Hey. Now they know how we feel. Maybe now we’ll get some real action from them.”

Marie pursed her lips. She was clearly humoring him. Taking a deep breath, Jorge pushed that thought away. She was hurting; losing Paulo and having no clue whether their kids were safe... he was prepared to give her more leeway than before. Quietly, Jorge went over and sat down next to her. He patted her knee.

She looked over at him, eyes brimming with tears. Jorge saw them and his heart cracked, just a little. This wasn’t his Marie. His Marie had been full of fire, and piss and vinegar, and guts and steel.
This
wasn’t her.

This new person, this stranger, leaned her head on his shoulder, and he let it rest there.

“Marie,” he said. “Baby, I have a question for you.”

“Hmm?”

“When did your feet get so big?”

He felt her stiffen next to him. Her head came up; not a lot, but enough to take the pressure off his shoulder.

“
¿Que dijiste?
What about my feet?”

Jorge stifled a laugh. “I said, when did they get so
big?”
He shook his head. “I don’t remember them being so fat. You been hogging the chocolate?”

Marie sat up straight. “
Chingate, cabron.
You know what? I wish they’d thrown
your
ass off the boat.”

“Hey, now. I’m just asking.”

Marie got up and stomped away.

“Marie!”

Her only response was to spit and hold up a middle finger while she walked off. Jorge smiled and slapped his thigh.

“That’s my girl.”

’

Holly Randall sat with her engineering group in the galley, watching her coffee cool. Intellectually, she knew that the molecules of coffee were losing their vibrational energy to the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the air around the cup, but emotionally it was a metaphor for life. You start off all hot and ready to scald something, and then you cool to room temperature. Or something.

She shook her head.

I need to get some sleep.

Holly looked around the galley, surprised to see how many people were actually in there. The place was quiet. Eerily quiet. Everyone absorbed in their own recollections of Dr. Crispin. Even the IT Lucies were subdued.

“Is this seat taken?” Jaden asked.

Holly shook her head, and the security man sat.

“Are you holding up all right?” he said.

The engineer blinked. “I, uh... yeah. I think so. It’s just so weird, you know? The whole world out there is dying or dead, and none of us really tuned into it, I guess.”

Jaden smiled. “It takes something close to home.”

Gary and Scott, the neurotech interns, began punching each other in the arm. Nurse Joshua clapped his hands to the sounds of fist striking arm, keeping a cadence with it.

Holly raised her eyebrows. “Exactly like that. Here we are, fraying at the edges. And you know, it’s not like...” She looked up. “What is
this
?”

Jaden turned to see a pair of techs dragging in the podium. Dr. Donovan stood waiting, looking as if he had just gotten out of the shower. When the podium was set, Donovan stepped forward and turned on the microphone.

“Good afternoon. I’m glad so many of you are here.” He had some three-by-five cards that he looked at, then stuffed into his pocket. “Sorry. I had a speech written out, but now that I’m here, and you’re here, I don’t know.

“What I want to say is this: once Dr. Crispin’s remains have been...
processed
by the medical team, we’ll hold a service for the Project Director. If anyone has any suggestions for a fitting location for the memorial, I’m ready to listen. You all knew Dr. Crispin better than I did, but in the few short months that I had his acquaintance, I can say he was a true visionary.”

Weepy Lucy broke into sobs, and Doctor Ron put his arm on her shoulders. He nodded to the other nurse, Alison, who put a hand over her shirt pocket. Jaden saw several hypodermic needles there. Evidence. But at this point, he had bigger concerns than pill poppers and junkies.

“I wish I could say more to make things easier for everybody,” Donovan said. “All I can do is offer this, from Summer Chan. Ah, she’s one of my interns. She wrote this, and I had wanted to save it for the service, but, well, here we are...”

I thank you for everything you’ve done,

For shining light when there was no sun,

You lit the way to a better day,

You gave us hope when there was none.

We’ll terribly miss your guiding light,

We’ll miss your gifted, brilliant sight,

And though you’re gone, you gave us dawn,

An end to this endless night.

He put the paper with the poem down, and some light applause broke out. There were quite a few wet faces, and Weepy Lucy had put her head down on the table.

Jaden watched Donovan over the rim of his cup, his eyes cold.

’

Samson and McLoughlin were in the Alpha’s office. The door was shut, blocking out the sounds of the big barracks room. McLoughlin sat with his feet on the desk, fingers laced behind his head, staring at the ceiling. Samson stood against the door, arms crossed.

“If you’re asking me,” Samson said, “I’m going to be honest. I don’t know. I mean, he says he’s in charge, but...”

“Who put him there?” McLoughlin finished his friend’s sentence. “Right. Well. He was second-in-command, Dr. Crispin said so himself. I think it might be our duty to continue to serve the leader of the project. Until proven guilty, right?”

Samson shrugged. “Things were so much easier before all this shit. This morning, we had structure. We had a rigid chain of command.” He threw his hands in the air. “Now? The only one I know to follow is you, man.”

“Don’t do that,” McLoughlin said. His feet came off the desk and he swiveled his chair to look at Samson. “Don’t just put it on me. We’ve known each other too long for that. You know I need your input, so yes. I am asking you.”

Looking up at the ceiling, Samson made clicking noises with his tongue. “All right. In the absence of having a copy of
Robinson Crusoe
to draw wisdom from, you’ll have to make due with whatever’s in my noggin. This is what I think. Are you paying attention?”

“Will you go, already?”

“I think you should follow if, and only if, your leader is taking you someplace good. Someplace safe. And then only if the way is honorable. That’s what matters. If not...” He looked at Mac. “If your leader isn’t fulfilling his role, then perhaps you should be the one who leads.”

’

“That was low, Doc. I mean, I knew you had it in you, but I didn’t expect it to come so fast.” Kaiser gripped the bars of his darkened cell and stared out of the shadows at Donovan. “I have to say. I did not see that one coming.”

Donovan gave the Dog a tight smile. “Safety first.”

Kaiser laughed. “You know, I was a little shocked when I found myself changing back, but then when you made me go to sleep.” He applauded. “And I wake up here.”

“That’s right,” Donovan said. “And without the benefit of hormone therapy, that’s the last time you’ll go through the Change for the next four weeks.” He waved his hand. “But this is just for show. Come on, you know this. I just need you in here until I can tell which way the wind is blowing with security. And the Alpha Dog.”

With a snort, Kaiser let go of the bars and backed to his cot. “Big Mac ain’t gonna take it. Maybe at first, but when he gets a whiff of the real you, and he
will
—” He spit at the sink in the corner of the cell. “Your position won’t mean anything. Alpha McLoughlin is a big, furry Boy Scout, and he’ll break his own back doing the right thing.”

Donovan tapped his chin. “Well, then. I’ll just have to be extra careful with my stated intentions, won’t I? At least for long enough to win him over. I’ll be a man of the people.”

“It won’t be enough. He’ll know. He’s the Alpha Dog.”

“Don’t tell me he can smell lies. You’re being ridiculous.”

Kaiser leaned forward on his cot, letting his canines show in the low light. “Let me take care of him. I’m stronger than he knows. I can get rid of—”

“Sit,” Donovan said.

In this instance, he did not intend to share his schemes with the Theta. But if there was one thing he absolutely would not do in this new world, it would be to throw away any asset. McLoughlin still had a chance to come around. And until he did, Kaiser would have to get comfortable in his six-by-six cell.