Invasion

Once Cassy had been located, brought to the institute, and subsequently infected, progress on the Gateway speeded up. Although the thousands of workers didn't have to be individually told what to do, ultimately their instructions came from Beau. Consequently it was necessary for Beau to spend a good deal of time in the vicinity of the construction and for his mind to be clear of extraneous thoughts. With Cassy upstairs and soon to be one of the infected, Beau found it easy to fulfill his responsibilities. Progress had even reached a point where it was possible to energize briefly a portion of the electrical grids. The test was a success although it did indicate that portions of the system needed further shielding. With those instructions communicated, Beau took a break.

He climbed the main stairs in a normal bipedal fashion, although he was conscious of the fact that it would probably be easier for him now to hop up, taking six or eight steps at a time. There had been considerable augmentation of his quadriceps.

Reaching the upper hall he sensed something was wrong. He hadn't felt it downstairs because the level of unspoken communication about the Gateway was so intense. But now that he was alone, it was different. By this time he should have been getting stirrings of Cassy's developing collective consciousness. Since there was none at all he feared she'd died.

Beau quickened his pace. His fear was that perhaps Cassy had been harboring some disastrous gene that had yet to express itself. In that case the virus would have self-destructed.

With a sense of panic that he didn't understand, Beau struggled to open the locked door. Bracing himself to see her lifeless body draped across the mattress, he was even more surprised to find the room empty.

Beau gazed at the open window. He walked over to it and looked down at the ground outside. He saw the walkway and the balustrade. Then his eyes went up the tree, and he looked at the branch. Suddenly he knew. She'd fled.

Letting out a shriek that echoed through the huge mansion, he rushed from the room and charged down the stairs. He was overcome with anger, and anger wasn't healthy for the collective good. The collective consciousness had rarely experienced anger, and it didn't know how to handle it.

Beau entered the ballroom and instantly all work came to a halt. All eyes turned to Beau, feeling the same anger but having no idea why. Beau's nostrils flared as his eyes searched for Alexander. He spotted him at the command control console.

Boldly Beau strode over to his lieutenant and clamped down on his arm with his snakelike fingers. "She is gone! I want her found! Now!"

19

12:45 A.M.

Pitt kicked a few of the pebbles in the driveway of the old gas station. He bent down and picked up others and threw them absently at the ancient pumps. The stones clanged against the rusting metal.

Shielding his eyes from the sun, which was now significantly more formidable in its heat and intensity then two hours earlier, Pitt scanned the two-lane road to its vanishing point on the horizon. He began to worry. He'd thought she would have been there already.

Just when he was about to retreat back to the shade of the porch, his eye caught the glint of sunlight off a windshield. A vehicle was coming.

Unconsciously Pitt's hand slipped down to envelop the butt of the Colt. There was always the worry that it wasn't Cassy.

As the vehicle got closer, Pitt could make out that it was a late-model recreational vehicle with large tires and a built-in luggage rack on the top. It was coming fast.

For a moment Pitt contemplated hiding inside the building the way Harlan had done, but he dismissed the idea. After all, Jesse's van was sitting right there in plain sight.

The vehicle pulled into the station. Pitt wasn't sure it was Cassy until she opened the door and called out to him. The windows were heavily tinted.

Pitt got to the vehicle in time to help Cassy down. She was coughing and her eyes were red-rimmed.

"Maybe you shouldn't get too close," Cassy said in a deeply nasal voice. "We don't know for sure whether this can spread person to person like an infection."

Ignoring her comment, Pitt enveloped her in an enthusiastic embrace. The only reason he let go of her was concern about her getting the antibody.

"I brought some of the medicine I mentioned on the Internet with me," Pitt said. "Obviously we think it is best to get it into your system as soon as possible and that means intravenous."

"Where should we do it?" Cassy asked.

"In the van," he said.

They walked around the vehicle to its slider.

"How are you feeling?" Pitt asked.

"Terrible," Cassy admitted. "I couldn't get comfortable in that four-by-four; the ride is so stiff. All my muscles ache. I've also got a fever. A half hour ago I was shivering, if you can believe it in this heat."

Pitt opened the van door. He had Cassy lie down on the van's seat. He prepared the syringe, but then, after putting on the tourniquet, he admitted his inexperience at vein-puncture.