Moonlight Medicine: Inoculation (42 page)

To stay busy, Evelyn insisted that Nicolas continue to translate and the others help her to sort the Vulke research, even though it was too late to try something different. She also attempted several doomed experiments using a centrifuge to simulate the gravitational pull of the moon in her efforts to test her theory about the distemper co-infection. Nicolas often joined her in the lab, though he had no specific scientific skills. And if he was there, David came, and if David came then Kim followed, and if Kim followed, Clem didn’t want to be left alone at the condo. The full house at the lab added to the frustration of Evelyn’s fruitless experiments which was compounded by the shortening timeline and Roberto’s silence. When they weren’t going through the Vulke research or in the lab, all five of them worked their frustrations out at the gym, Clem and Nicolas as guests.

Finally, only three days from the start of the Wolfkin transformation cycle, Roberto arrived unexpectedly at the condo with a grim Caroline in tow. David happened to answer the door.

“What the hell, Roberto? We’ve left you like two dozen messages. What’s going on?!”

“It is a rather long tale. May we come in and sit down to tell it?”

David threw up his arms in frustration, but moved to let Roberto and Caroline enter. Roberto sat on one of the chairs in the living room and Caroline took the other, leaving Evelyn and Kim to share the couch, and David, Clem, and Nicolas to stand hovering on the fringes of the room.

Evelyn, who’d watched Roberto and Caroline closely from the moment they came in, knew that there was bad news coming.

“Let me first introduce you to the new Wahya Alpha.” Roberto gestured to Clem.

Clem froze, blinked then blinked again. “Uh, come again?”

Having a sneaking suspicion, Evelyn butted in. “Zachary? Wow. It makes sense.”

Clem stared at Evelyn. “Jest what makes sense?”

“
Zachary
was the traitor.”

Everyone now stared at Caroline, whose lips were pressed together so tight that they were white.

Her mouth gone dry, Evelyn had to ask, “Was?”

Caroline dropped her gaze to the floor. “Zachary’s dead.”

“How?“

Roberto cleared his throat. “That is not important now. What is important is that he tipped our hand to the Vulke and told them that we were investigating Vulke compounds. We could do nothing to prevent them from being abandoned, and now we do not know where the Vulke are concentrated to infect them. I’m afraid…” His normally commanding voice failing, Roberto brought up a hand and rubbed his temple. But he didn’t have to say it. The plan was scuttled. They couldn’t infect the Vulke before the battle. The news was bad, but all hope wasn’t lost.

“There’s another way.”

Clem’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You mean that virus wasn’t our last hope?”

“No, I mean there’s another way to distribute the virus to the Vulke, but…” Standing, Evelyn walked to the fireplace and stared at the flickering pilot light.

“But what, Evie?” David’s voice was warmer than it had been in days. She turned to face the room.

“The virus can be aerosolized and spread that way, so we could basically blanket the battlefield with it, but…” Evelyn closed her eyes to continue, “infection that way wouldn’t be one-hundred percent, and they have superior numbers, so if more of our side was infected with the distemper and couldn’t transform then…”

“Then it could still be a bloodbath,” David finished, conspicuously eyeing Nicolas, who was fidgeting and shifting his weight back and forth.

Nodding, Evelyn’s eyes became unfocused as her thoughts coalesced. “But I can make sure that we have an advantage.”

“How?” Kim’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I can vaccinate us.”

Evelyn’s words hung in the air until Caroline broke the silence. “I don’t see the issue here.”

David answered for Evelyn. “The issue, if I’m not mistaken, is that if you get the vaccine and make sure that you can fight, then you can’t use distemper as a kind of cure afterwards, right, Evie?”

She nodded.

Nicolas’s agitated motion ceased.

Roberto’s eyes blazed, but Caroline was nonplussed. “I never wanted your cure.”

This snapped Evelyn out of her stupor. “You may feel differently in a few years.”

“You might actually find a real cure in a few years.”

David interceded before Evelyn could lunge across the room and throttle Caroline. “We’ll have to tell all of the allies the risks involved and let them decide for themselves.”

Caroline shrugged. “Fine, whatever. We don’t even know if this is going to work.”

Evelyn ran a finger along the mantle. “We’ll know in three days. I’d like to test it on a stray and on a non-mutant Wolfkin.” She glanced up at Kim.

Kim’s face was stern. “Uh-uh, I’m fighting. The Vulke took…give me the vaccine. You should cure Katie.”

Frowning, Evelyn shook her head. “Too risky. If something goes wrong and it hurts her somehow…”

Roberto stood. “I have a candidate, the stray that escaped the Vulke. He is still quite traumatized from his ordeal. I think that he will be a danger to himself and others next time he changes.”

Evelyn didn’t relish the thought of using anyone as a guinea pig, but they had to know if her plan with the distemper was going to work. “That takes care of a stray and the mutant Wolfkin virus, what about a regular Wolfkin?”

Roberto opened his mouth and then closed it, pursing his lips together. Evelyn knew that Roberto wanted to be cured as much as she or David or Kim did, maybe more. But he also was a true leader, and to lead people into battle, you had to be out in front of the line. Clearing his throat, Roberto began again. “Doctor Jonson has suffered a significant decline in mental facilities since the last full moon. I am sure that he would be open to the idea…or at least his wife would.”

65

Dr. Jonson and the stray, Allen, sat in folding chairs in the basement of the defunct Northville Psychiatric Hospital, now under new management after being acquired by an entrepreneurial real estate company owned by, but not traceable to, Roberto. A makeshift lab had been hastily assembled in the space and, since they were no longer sequencing DNA, the lack of sterility was acceptable. Two burly men stood behind the chairs,
Paul and John?
Evelyn very vaguely remembered them from the throngs of Wahya at the battle, though she didn’t remember John having a scar across his cheek. They were there to escort the test subjects to the isolation cells that Clem had once occupied, in what seemed in Evelyn’s mind to be a whole lifetime ago, so that they could be monitored during the transformation.

Evelyn, the only one gowned, gloved, and masked, tapped the side of a tuberculin syringe one more time to dislodge any air bubbles, then approached Dr. Jonson. He smiled up at her.

“Shouldn’t be much worse than a rabies vaccine, right…uh…”

“Evelyn.”

“Right, Evelyn, I knew that.”

Evelyn swabbed his arm with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball then blew on it to dry the area. “One, two, three.” She jabbed the spot with the tiny needle and depressed the plunger. “All done.”

“Do I get a lollipop?”

“I’m afraid I’m all out.” Evelyn nodded to John, who tensed and glued his eyes to the veterinarian.

After disposing of the used needle in a bright red sharps container, Evelyn picked up a second needle filled with the same slightly opaque fluid and gave it a tap before approaching her other test subject. She spoke softly as she swabbed his arm, but he was sedated and didn’t really seem to notice her. She’d been upset by his state, but Roberto had shown her a video of the man agreeing to the test. “Allen, I’m Dr. Eisenhart. You may feel just a tiny prick now.”

Allen didn’t move a muscle while she injected him with the distemper virus sample. As Evelyn nodded to Paul, Paul and John escorted Allen and Dr. Jonson to the door and then out into the hallway. Roberto, who’d been lurking in the corner, paced over to her as she cleaned up and took off her mask, gown, and gloves.

“Should we not be testing the aerosolized strain?”

Shaking her head, Evelyn met his eye. “Same strain. Should make no difference, but if there’s some kind of terrible side effect, I didn’t want all of us exposed.”

“Ah, I see.” He walked towards the door with her. “Where is everyone else?”

“Clem had some pack matters to see to, David’s waiting in the isolation hallway with Kim, and Nicolas is…well, already in one of the isolation cells. David says that we are too close to people and he’s worried that Nicolas won’t be able to control himself…anyways, I don’t think it’s necessary, but…”

Roberto didn’t press and Evelyn didn’t want to say more. She was furious with David, treating Nicolas that way after all the help he had been to them. Still, she had to admit, a small part of her felt more at ease with Nicolas in a cell tonight. It just made things less complicated. Walking in silence the rest of the way to the isolation chambers, they arrived just in time to hear the dour clang of the cells being shut and latched. Evelyn checked her watch. “Not long now.”

Kim smiled at her and grabbed David’s arm. “That’s my cue.”

David pointed at Evelyn. “Remember your breathing.” He then followed Kim out into the hallway.

Roberto posted John and Paul next to the door then went with Evelyn to stand in front of the occupied cells. Peeking into Nicolas’s cell, Evelyn was going to ask him how he was doing, but he was sitting cross-legged in the center of the closet-sized room and appeared to be meditating, so she put her concentration to the task at hand. She hadn’t previously had great success staving off the change on the nights prior to or after the full moon, but Clem and David had both given her some tips to try tonight. Also, she hoped that the importance of testing the distemper co-infection would help her stay focused. Roberto was completely at ease, even when the pressure of the change was pressing in on Evelyn’s skull. Breathing slowly in and out, she glanced over at Paul and John. They both had flushed faces and shifted their weight back and forth instead of standing statue-still as before, but neither appeared to be in danger of losing control.

Come on, Evie, you can do this
. Evelyn peered into Dr. Jonson’s cell. Sitting serenely on the edge of the crooked metal bunk, he caught her eye.

“I feel a bit tingly. Is it close to sunset?”

“Not quite yet.” A thrill ran through her and the pressure in her head doubled. She moved on to Allen’s cell. He was actually asleep on his bunk, and since Evelyn knew from her experience with Kim that sedation did nothing to prevent transformation, she knew that the co-infection was working. Sweating and panting, she leaned on the wall between the two cells and imagined the distemper virus particles clinging to the newly exposed lupine DNA within the Wolfkin cells, creating physical blocks to the shifting
Languorem luporum
structure. Roberto approached, but didn’t crowd her.

“It appears to be working.”

Evelyn bit back the agony coursing through her own body. “Good results…but…might not work…as well…full…moon.”

Roberto nodded gravely then calmly removed a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped a fine layer of sweat from his brow. “We can set up a camera tomorrow night, but we will prepare the distribution canisters. Even if it does not completely prevent the change, if it does anything, it will help.”

“Where?”

“The new battle site? The Vulke haven’t specified yet, though I suspect a Canadian location this time. They are still acting in a civilized manner with regards to the war. It unsettles me. Other than Zachary informing them of our knowledge of several of their strongholds, they have no reason to believe that they have lost the upper hand…still.” As his words trailed off, Roberto sounded like he was talking mostly to himself.

Through the pain, Evelyn had a clear thought. “The…Alonso?”

Roberto frowned. “Will likely join the Vulke in battle here against us, as their other allies are more conveniently located for aiding in England.”

Gritting her teeth, Evelyn hunched. “Too…many…”

“Perhaps. We will need all the fighters we can muster. But in two days it will all come to an end.” He looked relieved.

It made sense. She couldn’t imagine the stress he’d been under since all this had started and the rest of the Wolfkin council had been killed. Feeling like she was almost able to ignore the throbbing in every cell of her body, Evelyn tried to stand upright, but then she heard howling that she recognized as Kim’s.

“Roberto?!”

He signaled Paul and John. “Let her through!”

Evelyn felt herself changing even before she made it to the hallway.

*

Early the next morning, Evelyn was back in the makeshift lab preparing the distemper vaccinations for the sixty-six Wahya and Amaruq who had opted to be vaccinated in case something went wrong. Roberto had already taken the drums filled with the distemper virus to be transferred into tear gas canisters to rain down on the Vulke side of the battlefield. The test had gone spectacularly well, even though Evelyn hadn’t been able to observe the subjects the entire night, but so much could still go wrong. They needed to time the distribution canisters perfectly, because too soon would tip off the Vulke that something wasn’t right, causing them to retreat before most became infected, but too late would arrive after most of the strays had already transformed. Without testing, Evelyn couldn’t be positive of what would happen to already changed Wolfkin who became infected with the distemper. It was possible that the transformation might be reversed, but any number of other outcomes, including a permanent Wolfkin form followed by manifestation of distemper disease symptoms, were possible. Lost in these unpleasant thoughts, Evelyn almost didn’t hear David come in.

“Evie?”

“Mmmm?”

“We need to talk.”

She glanced up from a pile of filled syringes. “Now?”

David’s green eyes were clear and sharp. “Now.”

Evelyn’s temper flared, but she removed her mask and gloves and faced David. “Okay.”

“I don’t think that you should vaccinate yourself.”

“No.”