Panspermia Deorum (42 page)

“Ok, ok. So,
how have you managed to halt the transition?”

“I don’t bloody
know. That’s why I’m here. Look, we both know that the lid is being
kept on stuff in this place. The only person we trusted from the
top brass was that French guy who left, Deluge or something…I
can’t,”

“Delacroix. I
tried to keep in touch with him but he didn’t answer my emails. I
don’t know how to contact him now. Anyway, I’d get fired if they
found out.”

“For Christ’s
sake, what about your kids? Don’t you want them to be safe?
Whatever has blocked my transition is the only hope I have, and it
may be the only hope for your children. We can’t let this fall into
the hands of those upstairs.”

“Mmm, I seem to
remember Delacroix’s father was the big wheel in deflecting the
asteroid. He shouldn’t be too difficult to trace. We can make
enquiries in France.”

“Now you’re
making sense. So, examine me first – you need to know there is a
chance for you and your family.”

“You’re right.
Get on the scanner table while I set up the controls.”

Z
latan was sleeping rough again. It was the safest
option while he waited for contact from his boss. Several days
passed and he was beginning to harbour thoughts that the perimeter
guards may have reported his arrival at the checkpoint. His boss
may be now under suspicion. Another week and he was beginning to
run out of bees. He knew that this particular genus of killer bees
were from African origin, he’d studied them as a boy. He was also
aware of why they were called ‘killers’. Their venom wasn’t
drastically different from other varieties, but they were extremely
aggressive, and had been known to pursue threats to their hive for
more than quarter of a mile. It was the sheer number of stings
within a very short time which terminated the target. He wasn’t an
experienced bee ‘shaman’ like Olla, and capturing them himself
wasn’t an option.

He was resigned
to returning to speak with Suma when his boss finally appeared in
the homeless enclave.

“Sorry for the
wait, but I’ve had to be very careful about how I tried to contact
the asteroid man. I’ve eventually managed to get a message to him,
via a guy who used to work for him at the company he used to run.
It has a different name now. Pan American something or other.
Anyway, this Russian gave me his number after a hell of a lot of
questions. He finally relented when I said it was actually the
guy’s son I wanted to contact. I spoke to the father and he seemed
very interested in what we found during your examination. He has
since contacted his son and this Eugene character wants to meet
with you. I said it was me who conducted the examination, but he
wasn’t put off. He insisted he needs to examine you himself. He is
presently in Japan. He was happy to transfer funds for you to fly
there so he can check your condition for himself. So, we have to
get valid travel documents. I know someone who can do this, but
we’ll have to hurry, the two guards ask me every day what has
happened to you. I’ve told them you are still in quarantine until
we can be absolutely sure you aren’t a risk. I swore them to keep
schtum, but we can’t rely on them indefinitely. I’ll tell them
you’ve been transferred to another research unit.”

“Ok, so when do
I see the document man?”

“Now, that’s
why I’m here. I had to clear the funds first. Let’s go.”

*

All the
previous background work Eugene had invested in Sophie’s treatment
for schizophrenia was bearing fruit in the virus project. The
flexibility of stem cell orientation and the established snip and
stitch technique enabled him to declare that his part of the
ultimate attack on the virus was almost ready.

He hadn’t yet
mentioned the information his father had passed on about Zlatan,
and that wouldn’t change until an intense examination of the
subject had been completed. He did offer to join in with Brandon’s
more esoteric task of implanting and maintaining chaos to preoccupy
the virus on a second front. The extra pair of hands was welcomed,
as fatigue was beginning to emerge, in part because of a string of
negative results. They needed a boost of some kind.

Eugene took
advantage of his own workload easing to speak again with his
father. The news wasn’t good. As if the world needed more
self-inflicted harm, Julien’s description outlined the mushroom
effect of a new cult.

It was
springing into existence across every social group in Europe, and
France provided fertile ground. The basic premise, in the face of
exponential spread of the virus, was to re-connect with God. No
matter which god, it was extoled as being part of some great
tapestry. Interference with the ordained path of the almighty was
sacrilegious, abhorrent, naïve, futile, cowardly, and dozens of
other descriptive gospelesque terms. There was no other explanation
– it was simply meant to be. The potential of such doctrine to gain
such a stranglehold was not foreseen, or if it had been, it was
considered as nothing more than the looney rabble elements
clutching at any hint of salvation. It was only when the link to
suicide bombers was made, that suspicion fell on orchestration by
Alphas. Killing oneself by explosive force in densely populated
areas, was an effective and indiscriminate way to spread infected
flesh. The injured had to be attended, the uninjured would be
contaminated, not as a collateral effect, but as part the main
strategy. Momentum was achieved firstly by indoctrination, becoming
a disciple of the omnipotent one, to be rewarded in heaven. A
consequence of which was an extremely productive ratio of suicides
to created deviants. Julien explained that the family were
seriously at risk every minute of every day just seeking enough
food to survive. They had virtually become prisoners in their own
home. Eugene sensed some regret that they hadn’t stayed in
Guiana.

*

Zlatan was
nervous. The security staff at Perth air terminal seemed to be
hunting in packs. He recalled his parting conversation with his
boss.

“I didn’t want
to believe it, Geoffrey Nelson. When you told me you were known
only as Zlatan after your escape from the exclusion zone. But since
your miracle ‘cure’ I’ve thought more about how you were always
droning on about various conspiracy theories. I also started
checking up on certain events whenever I had the chance to access
files. The sheer number of alterations, designated as errors which
appear in personnel records isn’t explained by the workload
everyone is under. Some just don’t make sense. According to these
records you are officially dead. This led me to look at scan
results. They weren’t where they should be, but I asked a colleague
if she could undelete certain files, after I knew she was clean. At
first she refused, but I told her I knew for certain that some
dead
people according to the files, were still walking
around. Guess what she found? The entire supervisory panel of the
exclusion zone had positive initial scans. Subsequent scans placed
them in strict echelons, related to different stages of infection
symptoms. The ones at the very top are all what she called
‘stabilised Alphas’. This situation is even worse than you
suspected. You have to get to this Delacroix guy, because unless
you do, I fear the battle is lost.”

Zlatan had
taken the precaution of subjecting himself to eight stings that
morning, hopefully suppressing any signs of infection as he passed
through to the gate for boarding. Still, he couldn’t relax until
they were at thirty thousand feet and the co-pilot began to ramble
on about the anticipated weather over the entire journey.

*

The situation
in Lyon had deteriorated further, so much that Julien had found a
reputable company to build a panic room in the apartment. The
specification included ten centimetre thick metal walls to give a
degree of protection from home-made bombs. Massive freezer capacity
for stored food cut down the number of visits to supermarkets. Once
locked from the inside, the only way in was to cut through the
walls. However, there were compromises, such as air conditioning
vents. They were located externally, on the roof and could be
tampered with or deprived of power, giving rise to suffocation
risk. As a disincentive, the panic room concept could help, but
Julien knew it was primarily based upon the logic that there might
be easier targets for the perpetrators to fulfil their lust to harm
the very rich.

He decided not
to tell Eugene about this; he wanted his son to have no further
distraction from his daunting task to neutralise the enemy from the
world of the infinitely small.

*

Eugene didn’t
recognise Zlatan from his time in Australia.

“That’s how it
normally goes, the workers know the bosses, but the reverse doesn’t
often apply.”

“Well, they say
it’s never too late, but we are on a shrinking window of
opportunity to nail this pestilence. So, rather than reminiscing
here at the airport, let me get you back to the lab and get on with
the examination. Then I can introduce you to the rest of the team.
While we drive back, do you want to tell me about how you came to
be in a stable condition after suffering the full-blown
infection?”

“I’d rather let
you explain it to me if you don’t mind. I think I know what it was
that turned my condition around, but I have no idea how it works. I
don’t want to come across as some kind of crank, and I’m hoping
you’re going to prove that. If you can, then I’m sure it will give
you a valid starting point to develop an effective treatment for
the condition. I’m told that I’m not cured, and that the virus has
just been halted in its tracks. If it checks out, I can certainly
indicate to you what would extend my stay of execution.”

“Now you do
have me intrigued. Here we are, this is our lab, believe it or not.
Looks like we both have to invest a bit of faith in each
other.”

*

Zlatan’s boss
was called to the inner sanctum. He’d anticipated this for some
time. The invitation quickly descended into an interrogation. He’d
rehearsed this in his mind over and over again.

“We understand
that certain files have been undeleted from our highest security
database. Do you know anything about that?”

“I’m sorry, I
didn’t even know such a facility existed. May I ask a
question?”

“At this stage,
you can.”

“Why am I being
cross-examined about something I couldn’t possibly know about? I
supervise nurses, that’s all, and everything I need to access in
order to carry out my function has to be absolutely open on my
system. There is no delete facility, if there was we couldn’t do
our job.”

“That seems
quite logical. This inquiry pertains to one of your subordinates,
not the nurses’ manual of work practice. ”

“Oh, I see, am
I allowed to know which one?”

“That can come
later if we can’t find the hacker, by interviewing others who may
have accessed the file of this particular nurse in your team. Thank
you. If you don’t hear from us there will be no further
inquiry.”

“I’m confused
now. If there has been misconduct by any of my people, I should
know about it. I would like to think that if you find the hacker
and it is someone in my department, you would tell me.”

“Naturally,
thank you for being so candid.”

He felt
reasonably confident that the interview had bought a little time
for him. He needed to confront the guards when he left work.

*

Eugene
scratched his head repeatedly.

“Is it bad
news,” asked Zlatan.

“No, at least I
don’t think so. It does confirm most of what you said, but I can’t
seem to figure out why the infection has gone dormant. Well, I mean
from the results I have in front of me.”

“That’s a
relief thought isn’t it? The verification that it is possible to
halt the progress of the virus?”

“Indeed. But in
my line of work we must be able to comprehend mechanisms, not just
events.”

“I see. So,
does it help that I began to resist the advance of the sickness by
allowing killer bees to sting me on a daily basis?”

“Killer bees?
Bee venom? I don’t really know, how did you find out that the
stings would have this effect?”

He spun a bit
of a fairy tale to protect Suma and his kin.

“You have good
days and bad with this sickness. I was accidently stung a couple of
times and the next day I felt better than I had for weeks. So, I
repeated the process and I just kept on improving. First my
eyesight and then the other symptoms.”

“Have you told
anyone else about this?”

“No, definitely
not. I knew there was something odd going on in the exclusion zone.
That’s why I asked my boss to try to find you.”

“Good. The next
step is for you to meet with my colleagues and let them see the
results I have. Then you tell them what you’ve just told me,
ok?”

“Sure.”

T
hey could hear a ruckus outside the front door.
Julien had installed cameras in various places inside and outside
the apartment, including the new panic room. The one picking up
activity in the hallway depicted a serious situation. He watched in
horror as he saw his neighbour’s wife being dragged feet-first into
the elevator. Her husband’s body was already lying on the tiled
floor. He could see three deviants, one was stuffing all manner of
foodstuffs into a large green sack. Another was busy breaking down
the door of a second neighbour, and the third was now about to
press the descend button in the elevator. Julien motioned for
everyone to get into the panic room. He’d deliberately left the
kitchen refrigerator full of raw meat in case something like this
happened.