Panspermia Deorum (36 page)

“Sorry to hear
that, so why did you need to tell me?”

“Eugene wants
to link up with an old employee who worked for him in the
microbiology lab. He’s going to take a break from work and do a bit
of travelling. Anyway, he’s lost touch with the guy, and in the
move to Lyon, he seems to have misplaced his contact details. I
thought that there could still be some personnel stuff there from
the old VB Aerospace days. Or better still there could be
co-workers still there who know where he went after leaving, you
know, it was before the sale of the company. I’d appreciate any
help, Alexei, but if you can’t then it’s no big deal.”

“It is always a
big deal with you, Julien. We both retain some symptoms of Ivan
Kolorov disease. I will check it out and then you can tell me the
real reason. Ok, what is his name?”

“Alexei, I’m
too old and tired for cat and mouse talk. I just want to see my son
happy again. He seems totally traumatised by the bureaucracy in
Australia, I wonder where he gets that from? The name is Brandon
Mitchell. I can’t say whether or not I ever met him, I just can’t
remember. Eugene says he was born in the USA, but all he could tell
me about his appearance is that he is well over six feet tall, lean
and has a small birth mark on the back of one hand, but can’t
remember which hand. Apparently he speaks German, not fluently but
more than enough to get by.”

“Fair enough.
It might take a few days. I will get back to you.”

The Others

He had managed
what many others hadn’t. His journey from the clinic to the outside
world had been in no small way down to good fortune, but there had
been critical decisions to take advantage of when choice raised its
head. The very first was when he knew before anyone else that he
was one of them. In future, recognising other Homo Diversitus
individuals by sight would become a potent survival ability, in the
clinic it was a certain death sentence. Many patients who were
known to have ‘crossed over’ couldn’t help giving the game away in
front of human officials. Being a nurse was a serious risk either
way. If you were clean, you were only a bite away from infection.
If you had crossed over, then quarantine and humane termination
would probably follow. This practice was one of a long list of
control policies with which Eugene took issue, and yet it was never
allowed to become public knowledge.

Having managed
to self-diagnose, Geoffrey Nelson disappeared from the clinic
before anyone suspected what had happened. His first task was to
get through the checks at the exclusion zone border. Cosmetic
disguise was necessary. Shaved head, no identity or bank cards,
stolen overalls from a motor repair shop, and his brother’s car
would at least get him out of the medical hub. Food wasn’t a
problem, even though he didn’t know why he craved uncooked meat. He
became Zlatan, without a surname. The contrived accent of an
immigrant would help offset complex semantics when either asking or
answering questions. The subtle physiological changes in his
optical ability transformed his vision of many warm blooded
species. A heat pattern was available as well as the outline, at
the expense of definition of features. In other words, he had a
clear indicator of friend or foe, but a hazy retention of
individual faces. By sheer chance he met Valerie in a side street
where he dumped the car. She was, or had been, a waitress at a
roadside diner. Valerie didn’t yet know she’d crossed over.

“Excuse me, are
you ok? You look unwell.”

“Go away, I
don’t know you so sod off.”

“It’s the
blurred vision isn’t it?”

“How could you
know that? Did that bastard who fired me at the diner tell
you?”

“I’m not local,
so I don’t know any diners around here. I’m pretty sure you have
the same problem as I do. You see others as different because of
the blurring. One type looks ‘hotter’ than the other for the want
of a better description. It seems crazy to talk about seeing heat
rather than feeling it. I suppose it could be both.”

“That sounds
about right but how do you know so much about the problem with my
eyes?”

“I’m sorry to
tell you, but we both have this virus which has been in the
headlines on all of the news channels. What they haven’t told
people is that it’s out of control, and yet they are secretly
rounding victims up and disposing of them to try and contain the
spread, because there is no treatment or cure. You should come with
me, I used to work in one of the hospitals. What other strange
symptoms do you have?”

“What? Well, I
began to think I was pregnant, but I was told a couple of years ago
that I was infertile.”

“Why did you
think you were pregnant?”

“Because I’m a
vegetarian, but now I have a constant craving for meat.”

“Ok, in that
case you mustn’t fight it, you’re going to need to eat meat from
now on, even raw meat. It’s the only way you’ll survive. And you
have to begin to understand that those who look hotter are the same
as us, but not necessarily trustworthy. They can be depending on
whether they are type A or B. The ones who don’t look hot don’t
have the virus yet.”

“What the hell
do you mean, A or B?”

“Alpha’s are
likely to rape you, kill you and maybe even eat you. Betas can
either be friendly or prepared to report you to the authorities.
Then you’d be assessed as to whether you can become an agent for
them, turning in those like us. Look, we’d better get out of here,
I can usually tell Alphas from Betas because of my hospital
training, and I can teach you to do the same. For now, you need to
get off the streets.”

“Ok, I’ll
follow you.”

J
ulien had to excuse himself to take Bondarenko’s
call. Elise and Geraldine were enjoying coffee and muffins on the
balcony.

“Hi, Alexei. Do
you have good news?”

“I thought it
was no big deal.”

“Not for me it
isn’t, I meant for Eugene.”

“Well, the old
personnel records we have here were of no use at all, and there are
not many technicians left here who worked in the microbiology lab
at the same time as Brandon Mitchell. But one female researcher
does recall some details about him. I got the idea that they might
have been seeing each other for a while. She seemed to endorse the
others I spoke to about him pretty much keeping his own company, a
bit aloof with everyone. Anyway this lady mentioned a German
girlfriend he had, and he received calls from her every few days.
The more questions I asked, the more I became sure this female
researcher was jealous in some way. She said this German girlfriend
actually took a trip out here at some point, and there was a hell
of an argument between her and Mitchell. She left in a rage
according to Suzanne, the researcher. The German woman is
apparently known by the name of Therese Kohl. The only other
information I could get out of her before she clammed up is that
Fraulein Kohl is doing a post-grad course in a London university,
but which one she didn’t know. Not much to go on but you should
still be able to run down Therese Kohl. Hopefully she is still in
contact with Mitchell.”

“You never
disappoint, Alexei, thanks. I’ll pass this on to Eugene and I’m
sure he’ll be grateful enough to give you a call. You’ll have to
visit us when you get the chance, it would be good to catch up. Let
me know if you come to Europe and we can meet up.”

“Will do, now
get back to your slippers and cardigan! I hope you are taking it
easy, Julien. You need to after that bypass operation. I am sure
Elise will see to that. Goodbye for now.”

*

Eugene was in
trouble. Having persuaded two of his colleagues to leave Australia
for the same reasons, they had an injunction slapped on them
minutes after they had given notice to quit. They were asked to
sign documents agreeing to make no future reference whatsoever with
regard to what was happening inside the exclusion zone. There was
no specific date at which the restriction would be lifted, the
default effectively meaning that they were gagged in
perpetuity.

They refused
such a blanket career wrecking ball attempt and were summarily put
under house arrest. Their communication with the outside world was
cut off, and they had a sense there was worse to come.

When Julien
didn’t receive his regular call, he tried to ring his son directly
but never got past the unobtainable tone. He immediately engaged a
diplomat in Paris to determine if there was a problem in Australia.
Another week passed and he contacted the Parisian office again. The
lack of detailed information bothered him despite the diplomat’s
reassurance that everything was proceeding as normal in the outback
project. Eugene was apparently still a part of it, although at this
time he was on a fact-finding mission in a more remote part of the
territory, where there was no signal. Julien decided to travel to
Paris and arrive at the consulate unannounced.

*

Zlatan and his
new friend took temporary refuge in an abandoned shack. “We can
rest for a while, but we should move on soon, because we’ll have to
keep our heads down when it gets light. Listen, don’t tell me your
real name, just pick a first name and you can pose as an immigrant
like me. It will help if we get caught and questioned. We just
pretend we don’t speak too much English. I’m not going to tell you
too much more about what’s going on for now. I know too much
already and the least you can be persuaded to confess the better.
You mentioned earlier that you thought you were pregnant, and that
might happen again. Unlike Alphas, Beta females are driven to
breed. Have you had sex recently?”

“Back off,
Mister. My boyfriend knows I can’t have kids. You said you’re a
Beta, but you also said Alphas would rape me. Are you some kind of
pervert? Maybe we should split.”

“For hell’s
sake calm down. I can help to keep you safe, but if you don’t
believe me you can leave at any time. For the record, I don’t want
to have sex, you just don’t do it for me. Now, my name is Zlatan,
how do you want me to refer to you? Or do you want to piss
off?”

“Sorry, maybe
I’m a bit tense, and I’m really hungry. I like Lydia.”

“Great, let’s
get going again. I’m pretty sure we’ll come across a few burrows
around here and we can try to catch something to fend off the
hunger.

*

Cold-calling at
the consulate was frowned upon, but when the diplomat heard it was
the man who’d saved the planet, he began to think about delegating
the problem to his boss. Julien was ushered into the ornate office
and asked to sit.

“Just exactly
what do you think we can do for you Mr Delacroix? We have checked
this out several times with our people on the ground out there, and
they continually assure us that your son is out on field duties
where he cannot easily be contacted.”

“In that case,
get one of your people to go to where Eugene is working. Have them
take some portable communication technology with them so that my
son can reassure me! For goodness sake, I’ve had many a
conversation with my people out in space, we’re only talking
Australia here.”

“There is an
exclusion zone in place and for good reason. There is a potentially
dangerous virus in the area.”

“Precisely, and
that’s what worries me. My son would never have left for some place
where he couldn’t contact me without giving me advance notice that
he’d miss a call or two. We have that kind of understanding. Now,
if you want me to take this further I’ll get my lawyer to speak to
someone close to the President. Please yourself. As I see it, you
get him to call me, I go out there, or you get a trip to the Elysee
Palace.”

“Let me make a
call to Australia first. I have been relying upon my junior staff
to handle this. Could you give me a moment of privacy, Mr
Delacroix?”

“Fine, I’ll
wait outside, for a moment.”

Several minutes
passed and Julien was invited to return to the office.

“I’m delighted
to tell you that your son will call back on this phone in about
twenty minutes. Would you like coffee while we wait?”

“Why not?”

*

Zlatan and
Lydia stumbled over a promising burrow after an hour or so. He lit
some tumbleweed with his cigarette lighter and pushed it into the
mouth of the hide. Forcing more and more dried grass into the
aperture produced a thick pall of smoke. He was ready, and blew out
the flames, leaving the smoke to begin its suffocating diffusion
deeper into the burrow. Several small rodents burst through the
tangled grass and Zlatan grabbed a few, motioning for Lydia to do
the same. She watched him bite off the heads of three before she
followed suit. The colder midnight air was moving in and they
gorged on their kill, stripping virtually everything from the
fragile bones. It was time to move on. They came to a trail which
had recent tyre marks in each direction. They chose north and
finally saw lights on the horizon. When they were within half a
mile of them they left the road and approached over the surrounding
scrubland. It was a fuel station and a rickety old house.

“We need to
find a water hole, Lydia. We must clean this blood from our faces,
and anyway we have to re-hydrate, it’s not good for us to become
too thirsty.”

A
fter an agonising wait the consulate phone rang and
startled Julien. The handset was passed over to him. He didn’t
recognise the voice.

“Hello, is that
Mr Delacroix? Julien Delacroix?”

“It is, to whom
am I speaking?”

“My name is
Leonard Schuster, I am Director-in-Chief of the viral containment
unit in our programme here in Australia. I understand you wish to
speak to your son, Eugene.”