What if I get to the Moonlight and hit the third stage?
The guys holding me aren’t gripping me tight enough, so I drop my weight until I land on my knees. Their hands slip, and I throw a hook punch into the nuts of the guy on my left, because he’s the bigger of the two. He doubles over and heaves, which gives me the chance to throw my shin behind the knees of the other one. With the two of them on the floor I manage to get to my feet.
But then the woman with the carved biceps puts me in a blood choke.
Damn it, it’s always the third one.
I try to hammer her thigh but she sees it coming and kicks her leg back. I grab the arm that’s pressing my airway closed and jerk forward but she’s strong. She leans back and hoists me into the air.
She’s letting in just enough oxygen I can breathe, but not enough I can struggle. So it’s not long before I go limp, my body refusing to cooperate. She drags me toward the door. She’ll let her guard down in a second, and then I’m sticking my thumb in her eye.
As I’m balling my fingers into a fist, thumb ramrod straight and perpendicular, yellow lights flash outside the lobby doors. Doesn’t look like any of the emergency vehicles we use on-site, and it’s enough to slow me down, plus the agent dragging me. The doors slide open and five people in white hazmat suits stream into the lobby, cold air following them as they drag equipment and hoist sensors.
“Who is in charge here?” barks a woman in a stern British accent. The suit at the center, the smallest of the bunch.
The TEA agent drops me and I fall to my knees, breathing hard, trying to reinflate my lungs. No one seems to care about us anymore. Allyn steps to the woman and says, “Allyn Danbridge, TEA.”
The woman strides up to him until the faceplate of her suit is nearly pressing against Allyn’s nose. “Okay, Allyn Danbridge, TEA. I’m Doctor Liz Gottlieb, CDC. Could you please tell me why you have live dinosaurs on this site and did not think to call me? Or literally anyone?” She is so angry her voice is trembling.
Allyn stammers, his face drops. “How did you…”
“Social fucking media, you turnip,” she says. “Do you know what kind of bacteria or viruses or pathogens those things could be carrying?”
This causes a few people in the lobby to chatter nervously, and frankly it’s not a fun thing for me to hear either. One of them bit me. Tamworth seemed to think it was okay, but what if it’s not?
“Could you keep your voice down?” Allyn asks, his voice a rasp.
“No, I will not, because I want everyone to know how much of a twit you are. Now, since no one’s currently bleeding from their eyes I figure we’re okay, but we are still locking this place down and running some tests before anyone will be allowed to leave.”
“And how long is that going to take?” Drucker asks, suddenly at Allyn’s shoulder.
“As long as it needs to. Until then, no one in or out.”
Allyn glances over at me and says, “We have one person who is a risk to security and needs to be taken off-site immediately.”
“No one in or out,” Gottlieb says, slowly this time, like she’s speaking to a child.
Allyn looks like he’s ready to argue, but then gives up. Can’t help but smile at that.
Eternalism, baby. Saved by the CDC.
“Now,” Gottlieb says. “I want anyone who had direct contact with the creatures quarantined in the medical office right now. Everyone else should be encouraged to go to their rooms. We will perform our tests and let you know when we are finished. Until then, I’m assuming control of this facility. Do you understand?”
Allyn nods, and Drucker pulls him aside while Gottlieb goes back to her team. I stroll over, put on the biggest smile that I possibly can, and tell Allyn, “I guess I’ll head upstairs then.”
He doesn’t respond. Just turns back to Drucker and leads her away so that I can’t hear what they’re saying.
He’s still nursing the wound I gave him.
Good.
* * *
—
A man in a hazmat suit uses a long cotton swab to get a sample from inside my sinus cavity, though I think really he’s trying to poke me in the brain to see what happens. Then he does a handful of skin tests and takes some blood and without another word he hustles out of the room. At least they’re efficient.
The crinkle paper I mussed up hasn’t even been changed yet. But I opt for the chair instead of the table. Lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes.
“Ruby, any CDC chatter you can clue me in to?” I ask.
No response. I lost it somewhere in all the confusion. Maybe it was confiscated? I don’t even remember. I actually feel a tiny pang of loss at not having it. It may annoy the shit out of me, but it was also reliable.
It was something I could talk to.
And it kept talking to me no matter how I acted.
I get up and go to the door but it’s locked.
Fine. I climb onto the table. If I’m going to be locked in here waiting, no sense in wasting the time being awake. I’m dozing when the door opens and Nik comes in. He nods to me and sits in the chair.
“Aren’t we quarantined?” I ask.
“Yeah, well. I got the door open. Figure if there is anything to be worried about, we both have it. What’s the harm?”
“So are you excited?” I ask. “Soon this will all be yours.”
“No,” he says. He crosses his feet in front of him and puts his hands behind his head. “I told you, I don’t want your job. I want to be in the stream. But I’m playing a long game here. Figure if I step up, Allyn will see me as someone reliable.”
“Just make sure to clean off the knife you plunged into my back.”
“I tried to convince him to keep you on. Clearly you want to be here.” He pauses. “Well, not clearly. You kind of treat everyone like shit. Somehow they’re all still fond of you. But I’ve never seen someone stomp on so much goodwill as you do.”
I lift myself to sitting and turn so I’m facing him. “Getting bold now, are we?”
He shrugs. “I have to know who I’m working with. Did you think I wasn’t going to ask around? Or that people wouldn’t just volunteer information? A lot of them did. Just the way it is.”
“So you know me now.”
He shakes his head. “Nobody really knows anybody. Your business is your business.” He folds his hands in his lap. “I remember the explosion. The woman who died…”
“Mena.”
“Some of the people at Einstein still knew her, back from when she was a stewardess.”
“Yeah, she worked there for a while, before she got the job here.”
Nik nods. “Everyone liked her.”
“She had that kind of effect on people,” I say, choking down the lump in my throat.
“Can I give you some advice?” he asks.
“No.”
He stares me down for a minute and scrunches his lip. “Well, I’ll say the advice and you can hear it and I guess that’ll have to be enough.” He clears his throat. “It sucks when people you love die.”