Cheeks burning, I muttered, “I am getting damn sick of scientists,” and popped the lid off the testing unit. I slammed my thumb down on the panel inside, feeling the needles bite into my skin.
Dr. Abbey nodded. “Good. You can follow directions. That’s going to be important.” She placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled. On cue, an impossible terror came lumbering down the hall, jowls flapping, eyes glowing with menace.
I couldn’t help myself. I screamed. It was a high, piercing sound, and I was ashamed of it as soon as it left my throat. It had the unexpectedly positive effect of stopping the terror in its tracks. The huge black dog cocked its head, looking at me. Shaun also stopped trying to strangle Dr. Shoji, twisting around to regard me with alarm.
“George? What’s wrong?”
Mutely, I pointed to the dog.
“Oh.” Shaun blinked, releasing Dr. Shoji’s throat. The Hawaiian virologist took a hasty step away from him. “That’s just Joe. He won’t hurt you.”
“He will if I tell him to,” said Dr. Abbey, leaning over to pluck the test unit from my hand. She didn’t bother with a biohazard bag. She just snapped the lid closed and tucked the whole thing into the pocket of her lab coat. “Joe, guard.”
The dog sat, gaze remaining on me. Something in its posture told me it wouldn’t regard ripping my throat out as the high point of its day, but it would do it all the same if Dr. Abbey gave the order. The idea of moving seemed suddenly ludicrous, like it was the sort of thing only crazy people did.
“You’re a bit high-strung, aren’t you?” asked Dr. Shoji, rubbing his throat and giving Shaun a sidelong look. “Have you considered the benefits of marijuana? Or at least reducing your caffeine intake?”
“Don’t push it, Joey; he’s had a long day,” said Dr. Abbey.
“He just tried to strangle me.”
“Yes, but he failed, which means we’re still playing nice.”
“Don’t you touch my sister,” snarled Shaun, seeming to remember that Dr. Shoji was there.
I sighed, reaching out to grab Shaun’s elbow. “He’s not one of the doctors from Portland. It’s okay.”
“I heard screaming—is everything okay out here?” Alaric emerged from one of the side rooms, showing an admirable lack of self-preservation—it takes a reporter, after all, to run toward the sound of screaming. Reporters and crazy people, they were the only ones who would be moving in a situation like this. So which one was I going to be?
“The dog startled me,” I said, turning to face him. I tried a smile. It felt foreign, like it wasn’t quite designed to fit my face. “Hey, Alaric. Long time no see.”
Alaric stopped dead, blood draining from his face. Then, with no more ceremony than that, his eyes rolled back in his head and he hit the floor in a heap. The five of us stared at him. Even Joe the giant fucking dog turned his head to study the prone blogger for a moment before returning to the serious business of staring at me.
“Dude really needs to toughen up,” said Shaun.
Becks sighed. “Or maybe we need to stop doing twelve impossible things every day. Are we all done waving our crazy flags around and proclaiming ourselves the Kings of Crazytown? Because I want to know what the new guy is doing here, and I want you to do whatever you need to do to prove that she”—she jerked a thumb toward me—“is close enough to legit that we can let Shaun keep her. I think he’ll cry if we don’t.”
Shaun glared at her. Becks ignored him.
“If I may?” Dr. Shoji looked from Shaun to Dr. Abbey, and finally to me. “As I was saying, I work with the Kauai Institute of Virology. I’ve been consulting with their Kellis-Amberlee research division for the past seven years, which is fairly impressive, considering they think I’m on loan from the CDC.”
I paused before saying slowly, “But you don’t work for the CDC, do you?”
“No. I believe you’ve already met some of my associates, Drs. Kimberley and Lake? They spoke very highly of you, even before they were sure you’d be able to make it out of the facility. They certainly thought you were the most promising subject—forgive me for using that word; it’s an ugly word, but it’s the only one I have—to arise from Project Shelley. We were all rooting for you from the start.” He was smiling again. It was such a kind smile. What was my life going to be like if I didn’t trust people who looked kind?
Probably a lot like it was before, when I didn’t trust anyone who wasn’t on my team. “You’re with the EIS.”
“What?” said Becks.
“What?” said Shaun.
“That was quicker than I expected,” said Dr. Abbey. She gestured toward Alaric, who was still lying on the hallway floor. “One of you, get him up. I don’t want an intern coming along and shooting him before he can wake up and tell them he’s not dead.”
“Giant dog,” I said.