Invasion

Sheila stepped out into the hall. There were no gun shots. "Let's go," she called to the others. "Pitt, you and Harlan go ahead so that we know where we are going. Cassy and Jonathan, you carry the tissue culture flasks."

In a tight group they moved down the hallway. In the haze the corridor seemed interminable. Finally they came to the air lock and climbed in. Sheila pulled the door behind them. Pitt opened the outer door.

Beyond the air lock, the atmosphere progressively cleared, especially when they got on the electric cart. By the time they came to the exit stairs, they could remove their breathing apparatuses.

It was six flights up to the surface. They emerged through a trap door the size of a scatter rug into the living room of a farmhouse. When the trap door was closed, no one would have suspected what it concealed.

"My car should be in the barn," Harlan said. He took his arm off Pitt's shoulder. "Thanks, Pitt," he said. "I don't think I could have made it without you, but I feel a bit better already." He blew his nose noisily.

"Let's get a move on," Sheila said. "Those people who were after us might have found rebreathers as well."

The group exited the house via the front door and walked back toward the barn. The sun had set and the desert heat was rapidly dissipating. There was a blood-red smear along the edge of the western horizon. The rest of the sky was an inverted bowl of indigo blue. A few stars twinkled overhead.

As Harlan had hoped, his Range Rover was still safely parked in the barn. He put all the tissue culture flasks in the back storage area before getting behind the wheel. He took the Colt from Sheila and slipped it into the door pocket.

"Are you sure you feel up to driving?" Sheila asked. She was amazed at his recovery.

"No problem," Harlan said. "I feel completely different than I did just fifteen minutes ago. The only symptoms I have now are of garden-variety cold. I'd say our human trial was an unmitigated success!"

Sheila got into the front passenger seat. Cassy, Pitt, and Jonathan climbed into the back. Pitt put his arm around Cassy, and she snuggled up against him.

Harlan started the car and backed out of the barn. He made a U-turn and drove to the road.

"This alien infestation certainly has cut down on traffic," he said. "Look at this. Not a car in sight and we're only fifteen minutes out of Paswell."

Harlan turned right and accelerated.

"Where are we going?" Sheila asked.

"I don't think we have a lot of choice," Harlan said. "My sense is that the rhinovirus is going to take care of the infestation. The problem then boils down to the Gateway thing. We got to try to do something about it."

Cassy straightened up. "The Gateway!" she said. "Pitt has told you about it."

"He certainly did," Harlan said. "He said you thought it was almost operational. Did you get any idea when they might use it?"

"I wasn't told specifically," Cassy said. "But my sense is that it will be used as soon as it is finished."

"There you go," Harlan said. "We'll just have to hope we can get there in time and figure out a way to throw a monkey wrench into the works."

"What's this about a rhinovirus?" Cassy asked.

"Some rather good news," Harlan said, glancing at Cassy in the rearview mirror. "Particularly for you and me."

Cassy was then told the whole sequence of events that led to the discovery of a way to rid the human race of the alien viral scourge. Both Harlan and Sheila credited Cassy for the information that she'd given Pitt.

"It was the fact that the alien virus had come here three billion years ago that was so important," Sheila said. "Otherwise we wouldn't have thought about its being sensitive to oxygen."

"Maybe I should be breathing some of that rhinovirus now?" Cassy said.

"No need," Harlan said. "Just riding in the car means all of you are being adequately infected. I imagine it only takes a couple of virions since no one has any immunity to it."

Cassy settled back and snuggled against Pitt. "Only a few hours ago I thought all was lost. It's a shock to be hopeful again."

Pitt squeezed her shoulder. "We've been incredibly lucky."

They arrived at the outskirts of Santa Fe a few minutes after eleven o'clock at night. They had driven straight through, stopping only once at an abandoned service station to fill up the gas tank. They'd also helped themselves to candy and peanuts from a vending machine. There was plenty of change in the cash register.

Cassy had stayed in the car. By then she'd been in the middle of the period of weakness, malaise, and foaming at the mouth and eyes that Harlan had experienced as they'd left the underground laboratory. Harlan had been ecstatic, taking Cassy's temporary misery as further evidence of the efficacy of the "rhino-cure," as he called it.