city.'
The women emerged on the passenger side of the car. As they did so Eugene nervously glanced back at the red car in time to see the bearded man get out.
'Come on, hurry!' Eugene urged the women. Expecting the bearded man to come running in their direction, Eugene was surprised to see him retrieve something from the car. When he held it aloft, Eugene thought it suspiciously like the Tupperware container they'd brought with them to Atlanta.
Confused by this gesture, Eugene continued to watch while Nancy and Sheila helped each other up the hill. A few seconds later Eugene found himself staring at one of the black discs. To his utter shock it was hovering in midair right in front of his face.
'Come on, Eugene!' Nancy called from near the summit of the rise. 'What are you waiting for?'
'It's a black disc,' Eugene yelled back.
Eugene noticed that the disc was rotating rapidly. The individual bumps that lined the edge now appeared like a tiny ridge.
The black disc moved closer to Eugene. His skin tingled.
'Eugene!' Nancy called urgently.
Eugene took a step back but did not take his eyes off the disc in front of him, which was now turning red and radiating heat. Slipping off his jacket and rolling it, Eugene swatted at the disc in an attempt to knock it from the air. But it didn't happen. Instead the disc burned a hole through the jacket so quickly, Eugene felt no resistance whatsoever. It had been like a knife through room-temperature butter.
'Eugene!' Nancy shouted. 'Come on!'
As a physicist, Eugene was mystified, especially when a corona began to form around the disc and the color began to turn from red to white. The tingling sensation he felt on his skin increased.
The corona rapidly expanded into a glaring ball of light so bright that the image of the disc contained in it was no longer visible.
Nancy could now see what was occupying Eugene's attention. She was about to call out to him again when she saw the bright ball of light suddenly expand to engulf her husband. Eugene's instant scream was immediately choked off and replaced by a whooshing sound. This noise grew deafening, but only for an instant; then it was cut off with such suddenness that Nancy and Sheila felt a concussive force like a silent explosion.
Eugene was gone. The rental car was left as a curiously twisted hulk as if it had been melted and pulled toward the point where Eugene had been standing.
Nancy started to run back down the hill, but Sheila grabbed her.
'No!' Sheila yelled. 'We can't.' There was now another ball of light forming next to the wreck of the car.
'Eugene!' Nancy cried desperately. Tears had burst forth.
'He's gone,' Sheila said. 'We have to get out of here.'
The second ball of light was now expanding to envelop the car.
Sheila grabbed Nancy's arm and pulled her off the top of the hill toward the busy city. Ahead of them was heavy traffic and, even better, thousands of pedestrians. Behind them they heard the strange whooshing sound again and another concussion.
'What on earth was that?' Nancy asked through tears.
'I believe they thought we were in the car,' Sheila said. 'And if I had to guess, I'd say we just witnessed the creation of a couple of miniature black holes.'
'Why haven't we heard from them?' Jonathan asked. He'd become progressively more worried as the day drew to a close. Now that it was dark, his concerns magnified. 'I mean, it's even later in Atlanta.'
Jonathan, Jesse, Cassy, and Pitt were in Jesse's car cruising along Jonathan's street. They'd passed his house several times already. Jesse was nervous about making this visit, but he'd relented when Jonathan insisted he needed some more clothes and his laptop. He also wanted to make sure his parents hadn't called and left some kind of message on his computer.
'Your parents and Dr. Miller are probably terribly busy,' Cassy said. But her heart wasn't in the explanation. She herself was worried.
'What do you think, Jesse?' Pitt asked as they came to Jonathan's house for the third time. 'Do you think it's safe?'
'It looks clear to me,' Jesse said. 'I don't see anything that looks like a stakeout. All right, let's do it, but we'll make it fast.'
They pulled into the driveway and killed the headlights. At Jesse's insistence, they waited for another few minutes to see if there were any changes in the neighboring homes or vehicles parked on the street. All seemed peaceful.
'Okay,' Jesse said. 'Let's go.'
They went in the front door, and Jonathan disappeared upstairs to his room. Jesse turned on the TV in the kitchen and found cold beer in the refrigerator. He offered one to Cassy and Pitt. Pitt accepted. The TV was tuned to CNN.
'This just in,' the reporter announced. 'A few moments ago the White House canceled the multinational summit on terrorism, saying that the President has come down with the flu. Presidential press secretary Arnold Lerstein said that the meeting probably would have gone on as scheduled without the President except that, by coincidence, most of the other world leaders seemed to be suffering from the same illness. The President's personal physician made the statement that he is convinced the President has the same 'short' flu that has been decimating Washington over the last few days and should resume normal duties in the morning.'
Pitt shook his head in dismay. 'It's taking over our whole civilization the same way a central nervous system virus takes over a host. It's going for the brain.'
'We need a vaccine,' Cassy said.
'We needed it yesterday,' Jesse said.
The phone startled everyone. Cassy and Pitt looked at Jesse to see if they should answer it. Before Jesse could respond, Jonathan answered it upstairs.
Jesse charged up the stairs with Cassy and Pitt at his heels. He ducked into Jonathan's room.
'Hold on,' Jonathan said into the phone, seeing the others. He told everyone that it was Dr. Miller.
'Put her on the speakerphone,' Jesse suggested.
Jonathan pushed the button.
'We are all here,' Jesse said. 'You're on a speaker-phone. How did you fare?'
'Miserably,' Sheila admitted. 'They led us on. It took several hours before I realized that they were all infected. The only thing they were interested in was how we'd found out what was going on.'
'Christ!' Jesse mumbled. 'Was it hard to get away? Did they try to detain you?'
'Not initially,' Sheila said. 'We told them we were just going to a motel to get some sleep. They must have followed us because they intercepted us on our way to the airport.'
'Was there trouble?' Jesse asked.
'There was,' Sheila admitted. 'I'm sorry to say we lost Eugene.'
The group looked at each other. Everyone had a different interpretation of what 'lost' meant. Jesse was the only one who knew for certain.
'Have you looked for him?' Jonathan asked.
'It was like the hospital room,' Sheila said. 'If you know what I mean.'
'What hospital room?' Jonathan asked. He was getting panicky.
Cassy put her arm around Jonathan's shoulder.
'Where are you?' Jesse asked.
'At the Atlanta airport,' Sheila said. 'Nancy is in kind of a bad way as you might guess, but we're coping. We've decided to come home, but we need someone to call up and prepay some tickets for us. We're afraid to use our credit cards.'
'I'll do that right away,' Jesse said. 'We'll see you as soon as you get back.'
Jesse hung up and dialed the airline ticket office. While he was making the arrangements, Jonathan asked Cassy directly if something had happened to his father.
Cassy nodded. 'I'm afraid so,' she said. 'But I don't know what. You'll have to wait until your mother comes
