'Because I went to see my fiance, Beau Stark, today,' Cassy admitted.
'I hardly think that was wise,' Sheila said angrily.
'I had to,' Cassy said. 'I had to try to talk to him and get him to come back and be examined.'
'Did you tell him about us?' Sheila demanded.
Cassy shook her head. Thinking about her visit, she fought against tears.
Pitt got out of his chair and sat on the arm of Cassy's. He put his arm around her shoulders.
'What made you think about mutation?' Nancy asked. 'Do you mean somatic mutation, like his body changing?'
'Yes,' Cassy said. She reached up and took hold of Pitt's hand. 'The skin behind his ear has changed. It's not human skin. It's like something I've never felt.'
This new revelation brought another period of silence. Now the threat seemed even greater. There was a monster lurking in everyone.
'We have to try to do something about this,' Jesse said. 'We have to do it now!'
'I agree,' Sheila said. 'We don't have a lot of data but we have some.'
'We've got the protein,' Nancy said. 'Even if we don't know much about it yet.'
'And we have the discs with the preliminary analysis of their composition,' Eugene added.
'The only problem is we don't know who is infected and who isn't,' Sheila said.
'We'll have to take that chance,' Cassy said.
Nancy agreed. 'We don't have any choice. Let's put all our data together in a more or less formal report. I want to have something in hand. A good place to do it is in my office at Serotec. We won't be bothered, and we'll have access to word processing, printers, and copiers. What do you all say?'
'I say time's a'wasting,' Jesse remarked and got up from the couch.
Eugene put the Tupperware container with the two black discs into a knapsack that also contained printouts of the various tests he'd run. He slung it over his shoulder and followed the others outside.
Everybody squeezed into the Sellerses' minivan. Nancy drove. As they pulled away from the curb, Jonathan looked out the back window. A few of the many pedestrians were watching them but most ignored them.
Within an hour the entire group was hard at work. They divided the task up according to abilities. Cassy and Pitt were busy typing on computer terminals with Jonathan's technical assistance. Nancy and Eugene were making copies of their test results. Sheila was collating the patients' charts of hundreds of flu cases. Jesse was on the telephone.
'I think you should be the one to speak,' Nancy told Sheila. 'You're the medical doctor.'
'No doubt about it,' Eugene said. 'You'll be much more convincing. We can back you up by providing details as needed.'
'That's a lot of responsibility,' Sheila said.
Jesse hung up the phone. 'There's a red-eye to Atlanta that leaves in an hour and ten minutes. I booked three seats. I assumed that just Sheila, Nancy, and Eugene were going.'
Nancy looked over at Jonathan. ' 'Maybe Eugene or I should stay here,' she said.
'Mom!' Jonathan whined. 'I'll be fine.'
'I think it is important that both you people come,' Sheila said. 'You're the ones who have done the tests.'
'Jonathan can stay with us,' Cassy said.
Jonathan's face brightened.
Several cars pulled up to the front of the Serotec building. Pedestrians stopped their wanderings and walked over. They helped open the doors. From the first car emerged Captain Hernandez. His driver got out on the other side. It was Vince Garbon. From the car behind emerged plainclothes officers as well as Candee and her parents.
The pedestrians stood in front of the captain and pointed up to the lights in the fourth-floor windows. They told the captain that all the 'unchanged' were up there. The captain nodded, then waved to the others to follow him. En masse they entered the building.
Cassy had finished her typing and was waiting by the printer as it spewed out the pages. Jonathan moved over so he was standing next to her.
'I still don't understand why Atlanta,' Jonathan said. 'Why not just go to the health authorities here?'
'Because we don't know whose side the local health people are on,' Gassy said. 'The problem is here in this city, and we can't risk spilling all we know to somebody who might be one of them.'
'But how do you know it's not happening in Atlanta?' Jonathan asked.
'We don't know,' Cassy admitted. 'At this stage we're just hoping.'
'Besides,' Pitt said, overhearing, 'the CDC is the best bet for handling this kind of problem. It's a national organization. If need be they could quarantine this city or even the whole state. And perhaps most critical of all, they can get the word out. This whole affair has happened so fast here that the media hasn't even picked up on it.'
'Either that or the people who control the media are all infected,' Cassy said.
Cassy got her pages together and joined them with Pitt's. As she was stapling them together the lights flickered.
'What the hell was that?' Jesse asked. He was tense like everyone else.
For a moment no one moved. Then the lights went out. The only illumination came from computer screens that had backup battery power sources.
'Don't panic,' Nancy said. 'The building has its own generators.'
Jonathan went to the window. He cranked it open and stuck his head out. Below he could see light coming from lower floors. He relayed this disturbing information to the others.
'I don't like this,' Jesse said.
The faint but high-pitched whine of the elevator permeated the room. The elevator was coming up.
'Let's get out of here!' Jesse yelled.
Frantically the group threw together all their papers and packed them into a leather briefcase before racing from the room. In the darkened hall they could see from the floor indicator that the elevator was almost there.
With Nancy silently beckoning to show the way, they ran the length of the corridor and burst through the door into the stairwell. They started down but almost immediately heard a door opening three floors below them on the ground level.
Jesse, who was now in the lead, made a snap decision and detoured into the corridor of the third floor. Everyone followed.
They dashed to the stairwell at the opposite end. Jesse held up until Sheila brought up the rear. As Jesse was about to open the door, he caught a glimpse through the door's window of someone coming up the stairs. Quickly he ducked down and motioned frantically for the others to do the same. They all heard the heavy footfalls of several people charging up the stairs, heading to the fourth floor.
The moment Jesse thought he heard the stairwell door above close, he pulled open the door in front of him. He looked up. Satisfied the stairwell was now empty, he motioned for the others to follow him down to the ground level.
They regrouped in front of a door that said it was armed and was restricted for emergency use only.
'Everybody here?' Jesse whispered.
'We're all here,' Eugene said.
'We get in that van and we're out of here,' Jesse said. 'I'll drive. Let me have the keys.'
Nancy gladly passed them to him.
'Okay, go!' Jesse said. He burst through the door, setting off the alarm. The others followed closely at his heels. They ran half bent over. Within a few seconds they were inside the car, and Jesse had the engine roaring.
'Hang on,' he warned. He gunned the engine. With a screech of tires they rocketed out of the parking lot. Jesse didn't bother to stop at the security gate. The van hit the black-and-white wooden bar and snapped it cleanly off.
Jonathan turned and looked out the rear window. Glancing up at the darkened windows of the fourth floor, he saw several pairs of glowing eyes. They appeared like cats' eyes reflecting the beam of a headlight.
