Invasion

"Okay," Nancy said. "I'll be back to you sometime today."

Cassy stood up. "Thank you, and as I've said, we need you. This problem is spreading like a plague."

The street was dark save for the widely dispersed street lights. From the distance two men approached, walking large German shepherds. Both the men and the dogs acted as if they were patrolling the street. Their heads were constantly turning from side to side as if they were searching and listening.

A dark sedan appeared and stopped. The window came down and the pale face a of woman appeared within. The two men stared at the woman but no one spoke. It was as if they were having a conversation without the need for words. After a few minutes the car window soundlessly went back up and the car moved off.

The two men resumed their walk, and as the eyes of one of the men passed by the line of Jonathan's sight, Jonathan thought he saw a glow as if the eyes were reflecting an unseen light source.

Jonathan reflexively pulled back from the window and let the drape fall into place. He didn't know if the man in the street had seen him or not.

After a moment Jonathan carefully parted the center of the drapes with his finger, exposing only the barest crack. Being in a dark room himself, Jonathan was not afraid of light giving him away.

Jonathan brought his eye to the crack. Down in the street he could see that the two men and dogs had continued walking just as they had earlier. Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. They'd not spotted him.

Letting the curtain fall back into place, Jonathan left the bathroom and went out into the living room to join the others. He and his parents had come to the place where Cassy and her friend Pitt were staying. It was a large three-bedroom flat in a garden apartment complex. Jonathan thought it was cool. There were a number of impressive aquariums and tropical plants.

Jonathan considered telling everyone what he'd just seen, but they were too preoccupied. At least everybody but his father. His father was standing away from the group with his elbow on the mantel. Jonathan recognized his expression. It was one of those condescending ones he'd assume whenever Jonathan asked him for help with math.

Jonathan had been introduced to the others. He'd seen the black policeman before and had been impressed by him. He'd come to the school the previous autumn for career day. Jonathan had never met Dr. Sheila Miller but was wary of her. Except for her blond hair she reminded him of the witch in the Snow White video his parents had made him watch when he was a kid. There wasn't anything feminine about her like there was about Cassy. The long fingernails didn't quite hack it, especially since they were painted a rather dark color.

Cassy's friend Pitt was an okay guy except Jonathan felt a twinge of jealousy because of Cassy. Jonathan didn't know if they were exactly dating, but it seemed like they were living there in the same apartment. Jonathan wished he had a physique like Pitt and maybe even black hair if that was what Cassy liked.

Sheila cleared her throat. "So let's summarize," she said. "What we're dealing with is an infectious agent that rapidly sickened guinea pigs, but the animals produced no detectable microorganisms, specifically no viruses. The illness is not airborne, otherwise we'd all be infected. At least I certainly would be, since I've been essentially living in the ER. It's been literally filled with infected people over the last couple of days who've been continuously coughing and sneezing."

"Have you inoculated any tissue cultures?" Nancy asked.

"No," Sheila said. "I don't think of myself as experienced enough for that type of work."

"So you believe the illness is only spread parenterally," Nancy said.

"Exactly," Sheila said. "By one of these black discs." Both the discs were sitting in a topless Tupperware container resting on the coffee table. Nancy picked up a fork and began pushing them around so she could examine them. Then she tried to turn one of them over, but being unwilling to touch it with her finger to stabilize it, it seemed impossible. She gave up. "I can't imagine how these things could sting anything. They are so uniform."

"But they most certainly can," Cassy assured her. "We saw it happen."

"A slit opens up at the edge," Jesse said, taking the fork and pointing. "Then a chromelike needle shoots out."

"But I don't see where a slit could be," Nancy said. Jesse shrugged. "It's got us buffaloed as well."

"The illness is unique," Sheila said, refocusing the discussion. "It basically resembles the flu symptomatically, but its incubation period is only a few hours after injection. Its course is also short and self-limited, again only a few hours except for people with chronic disease like diabetes. Unfortunately, for those people it is rapidly lethal."

"And people with blood disease," Jesse added in memory of Alfred Kinsella. "True," Sheila agreed.

"And so far no influenza virus has been isolated from any of the victims," Pitt said.