Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation (39 page)

61

When Evelyn arrived in Sault Ste. Marie, Clem met her at one of the local McDonald’s. Ravenous from only a hasty meal on the road, Evelyn ordered a quarter pounder with cheese meal with a coke before joining Clem at the booth where he was waiting, sipping at an orange soda. Evelyn slid into the plastic seat and Clem eyed her morosely.

“Evie, I’ve known rabid skunks that were less of a walking calamity than you.”

Evelyn savored the greasy, salty taste of the three fries she’d shoved into her mouth before answering. “You really know how to charm a girl.”

Clem’s grin lacked conviction, but it softened his face modestly.

“Jest tell me, how is this a’gonna work again?”

Evelyn swallowed a mouthful of burger and washed it down with a swig of cola.

“So, we go to the locks incognito and watch for Nicolas. When I see him, I’ll give you the signal, and you bump into him and slip him the paper with the instructions on it. We watch him closely to see if he’s being followed or tries to contact anyone then meet him at the final destination. Anything looks shady and we just bail.”

Clem ran a hand over his face. “I think I’ve seen this movie before. I don’t know, Evie.”

“Clem,” Evelyn said over more fries before swallowing, “you agreed to help on the phone yesterday.”

“Yeah, after a heck of a lot of guiltin’ and brow-beatin’. ‘Sides, I don’t like all this sneakin’ about behind everyone’s backs. Roberto, David…it’s no good, Evie.”

“I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t important. Clem. What if there’s something in those notes? Something that we can use against the Vulke. Something that we can use to find a cure for all of those strays. We have to do this. I have to do everything I can and I can’t argue with Roberto about it or wait for David to see that we have no choice.”

“Alrighty, Evie, don’t choke on a fry. Do ya know how embarassin’ it would be to die in a McDonald’s? Course, Karen’s gonna kill you anyways when she finds out you already ate.”

*

Evelyn and Clem spent the night at Karen’s house, and she seemed twice as big as the last time Evelyn had seen her, though her due date for the new baby was still two months out. Even in extreme pregnancy, and despite a somber air that hovered over the home, Karen made an excellent hostess. She and Gabe knew all about the war and the fire and how bad things were, although Clem hadn’t mentioned his and Evelyn’s dangerous plans for the following day. Just before they left late the next morning Karen took Evelyn aside.

“I thought we’d lost him last time you came for him. But you both came back. I’d appreciate it if Clem could meet his niece…and you too, Evie.”

As Evelyn hugged Karen she tried not to wonder what would happen to Clem’s family if the Vulke won the war. Gabe would fight no doubt, and Evelyn had seen Karen’s moxie up close and personal, but they’d have three children to protect and no help from the Wahya. Evelyn hoped that they would run away and hide somewhere isolated, but intuition told her it was more likely that they’d end up the head of a werewolf hunting organization, training others about Wolfkin.

“I’ll do everything I can, Karen, absolutely everything.”

When they parted, both women’s eyes were moist.

“I know you will.”

*

Sunny, mild weather made the locks a crowded place to be on a Saturday. Tourists and townies alike were out to enjoy a lunch, watching the freighters rise and fall. Evelyn couldn’t begrudge them the view. It was peaceful, or would’ve been if a thousand butterflies of suppressed Whatifs weren’t caught in a tornado in her stomach. When noon arrived, Evelyn couldn’t even sip at the pop she’d purchased to blend in. Her eyes darted back and forth along the strip in front of the locks and she couldn’t help but remember the last time she’d been there with Clem. Good news had come out of that visit, so she prayed that good news would come from this one.

It wasn’t until twelve-fifteen, when Evelyn’s nerves were stretched to breaking and she was certain that Vulke were about to storm the locks and kill them both, that she finally spotted Nicolas. He looked weary, but also oddly excited. With him, he carried a large leather satchel. Pacing along the rail and gazing around, presumably for Evelyn, it didn’t appear as though he’d been followed, at least not knowingly. Evelyn ducked behind the pillar of the building and signaled Clem, then held her breath as she watched him approach Nicolas.

Clem strolled over to a spot at the railing, seemingly enthralled by the sight of the freighter in the lock. Not even a flicker of recognition crossed Nicolas’s face as he glossed over Clem then continued his search for Evelyn. Clem moved naturally along the railing, until he was behind Nicolas, then pulled out a camera and backed up until he bumped into the Vulke. Nicolas stumbled and Clem, feigned losing his balance, and tipped into Nicolas, causing both of them to sprawl to the pavement. Clem’s cane made the farce all the more convincing as he made a big show of apologizing profusely and helping a flustered Nicolas up. Evelyn peered around to ascertain whether anyone else was overly interested in the exchange, but most people either hadn’t noticed, or had immediately lost interest when they decided that a fight wasn’t going to break out. As Nicolas stood, his hand went to his pocket and Evelyn’s pop slid from her fingers. She gasped, picturing him pulling out a knife or a gun and turning on Clem. Taking a few steps forward as if she could close the distance and intervene somehow, Evelyn couldn’t breathe, but then Nicolas pulled out a handkerchief and brushed off his hands, vaguely nodding to Clem’s continued requests for forgiveness. Just before turning away, Clem shook Nicolas’s hand and Evelyn spied the instruction sheet as Clem thrust it into Nicolas’s palm.

To Nicolas’s credit, he took the clandestine exchange in his stride and only peered after Clem for a moment before pocketing the paper, giving his surroundings one last glance, and heading over to an area of benches familiar to Evelyn. She spared a few more minutes to watch him as he opened the satchel and then sorted through some of the papers inside as though looking for a particular sheet. He then seamlessly mixed in the note from his pocket. Glancing around again and sending Evelyn sidestepping further behind the pillar, Nicolas carefully unfolded the note and read. His back was towards Evelyn, so she couldn’t get an idea of the expression on his face and his body language gave nothing away. A few minutes later, he packed up the satchel and left the bench, heading towards the parking lot.

Evelyn hesitated until he was well out of sight before stepping around the sticky puddle of her spilled drink and striding towards the bench Nicolas had just vacated. A family of four was nearing the benches and a flutter of panic surged through Evelyn. If Nicolas had done as instructed, then it was vital that she reach the bench before them. Unfortunately she couldn’t all out run, because that would look stupidly suspicious. Gritting her teeth, she power-walked for all she was worth until plopping down on the bench and pulling Nicolas’s cell phone from under her thigh as though she were pulling it from her own pocket. With a more practiced hand, she popped out the cell’s battery and then stood and pocketed each. There was always the possibility that he had another cell phone on him that could be tracked, but the dismantled phone gave Evelyn a mote of relief.

*

The next few hours could have appropriately been described as hijinks. The instructions had Nicolas touring back and forth across Sault St. Marie with Clem and Evelyn in hot pursuit. At no time did they spot anything suspicious other than themselves, not even when they had Nicolas answer a ringing payphone and had Clem direct him verbally to his final destination, the Sault Ste. Marie public courthouse, where he would have to pass through a metal detector. Clem was to watch Nicolas from just inside the foyer as he went through the detector, and then if all went well, they would meet Evelyn on the second floor.

Evelyn sat on a bench in the main hallway of the second floor trying not to appear out of place. She did have to wave off one excessively helpful clerk, who asked her if she needed help, by telling him that she was just waiting for someone. A few moments after he’d gone into one of the offices, Evelyn heard the murmur of voices and the echo of footsteps on the stone stairs. She leapt up and her heart likewise leapt into her throat as Clem followed Nicolas up the stairs and into the hallway. Nicolas paused when he saw Evelyn, staring until Evelyn fidgeted and tried to smile. He trod towards her slowly, carefully, as if he was afraid that she would run from him.

“This was a lot of, how you say, cloak and dagger, yes?”

“I’m sorry for that, but…well, it’s hard to trust…you understand.”

Nicolas let out a long breath. “Da. What now?”

“I’m afraid there’s just one more hoop we need you to jump through.”

Nicolas raised an eyebrow. “Hoop?”

“Oh sorry, it’s an expression. Just one more precaution, a test.”

“Oh.”

Eyeing his watch, Clem stepped forward. “And time’s a wastin’, so we best get a shuffle on.” Nicolas nodded and motioned for Evelyn to go ahead of him, but Clem shook his head. “Uh-uh. You first, then me, then Evie. And you’re ridin’ up front with me until we get this last bit sorted.”

Displeasure framed Nicolas’s haggard face, but he didn’t argue. When they’d exited the building and were heading towards the car, Evelyn pointed to the satchel.

“May I?”

Nicolas’s eyes lit up. “You speak Russian?”

Evelyn felt a burn in her cheeks. “No, but you know, science is the universal language, so I’ll understand at least some of it now.”

The sudden spark faded, but he handed over the satchel and Evelyn perused the contents as Clem drove. In this batch of papers were a bunch of photocopied articles whose originals had been heavily highlighted. Evelyn wished these were in English, but did catch a few scientific terms that gave her at least the gist of several of them. She’d have Nicolas translate for her on the way back down to Lansing…if this last thing went well. Soon they reached the outskirts of the city and pulled into an empty parking lot in front of a small, squat building with a fenced yard in the back.

“We’re here.”

Clem motioned for Nicolas to get out and waited until he slammed shut the car door before also exiting the vehicle with Evelyn.

Nicolas turned towards Evelyn. “A veterinary clinic?”

Evelyn nodded. Nicolas shrugged and the three of them walked up to the door. The sign in the window was flipped to closed. Evelyn opened a white metal container hanging off the door that was used by diagnostic services to pick up samples of blood, and rummaged around inside of it, tongue between her teeth.

“Aha!”

Out of it, she pulled a key on a fluffy white dog keychain.

“You have worked here before?” Nicolas asked as she unlocked the door and led them inside.

“No, but I went to vet school with the owner.” She locked the door behind them. “Raul’s a good guy. I told him I had family up here who only trusted me to work on their animals, but wouldn’t bring them down to my clinic. He agreed to loan me his for the evening, provided I left everything cleaner than I found it and paid him a fee for use of the facility as well as for all the materials I use. Fortunately, his kid has a little league game tonight, so he couldn’t stop by and say ‘hi’, but was able to leave a key for me.”

Evelyn led them out of the small waiting room with the fish tank, past the exam rooms, and into the treatment area of the clinic. Switching on the lights, she revealed an open space with lots of cabinets and counters, a few metal tables, and some overhead surgical lights. Off the open space were two smaller rooms with open doors, a closed door, and one dark, closet-looking room. Pausing only briefly, Evelyn headed towards one of the rooms with an open door and turned on the light in that room as well, illuminating a long table situated underneath an x-ray machine.

“Please lay down on the table.”

For a moment Nicolas appeared as though he might protest, but then shrugged and did as instructed. Evelyn located the stash of unused film cassettes and placed a large one in a tray that slid out from inside the table, then used an x-ray-thickness caliper to measure Nicolas’s chest. Focusing a light from the overhanging machine over Nicolas’s upper torso, she placed a plastic square with an embedded metal R on the right side of his body and then adjusted the dials on the machine with audible clicks. She then grabbed some protective garments off hooks along the wall and showed Clem how to don the lead apron and thyroid protector.

“Stand back and put your hands behind your back.”

Clem retreated towards the door and clasped his hands behind his back as Evelyn pushed a foot pedal out from under the table. She looked down at Nicolas. “Hold very still now.” Moving her hands behind her back to shield them, Evelyn pressed down on the foot pedal. There was a whirr and a beep. “Okay, you can relax. Just three more.” Evelyn removed the exposed film cassette from the tray and handed it to Clem. “Set this out there on one of the tables.”

Clem took the cassette out of the room as Evelyn placed a fresh film in the tray, slid the light of the machine down to Nicolas’s lower torso and abdomen, and measured his abdomen. She adjusted the machine dials again then assumed the position by the foot pedal.

“Hold. Three, two, one.” Evelyn depressed the pedal and the machine gave out another whirr and beep.

“Oh shoot, I forgot to put my hands back.”

Evelyn glanced at Clem. “Oh no! The radiation! You might transform into some kind of monster.”

Clem frowned at her.

“You’ll be fine.”

When Evelyn had taken four radiographs, she removed the lead apron, motioned for Clem to take off his, and walked over to the table to retrieve the last film cassette. “You can get up now.”

Nicolas climbed off the table. He stared at Evelyn with fire in his icy blue eyes. “What about me? Will I turn into some kind of monster now?”

Evelyn didn’t know how to respond to that, so forced her eyes from his and turned away to remove the film from the tray. “I’ll be back in a minute. I have to develop the films.”