'Come on!' Sheila said. 'We have work to do.' She put Cassy's arm over her shoulder. 'Let's get you into the infirmary.'
With Sheila on one side and Pitt on the other they walked Cassy through the lab to the sick bay. She was introduced to Harlan en route. He held open the door for them.
'I think it best if she occupies one of the containment rooms,' Harlan said. He pushed past the group and led the way.
The room looked like a regular hospital room except for its entrance, which had an air lock so the room could be kept at a lower pressure than the rest of the complex. The inner door was also lockable and the glass in the porthole was an inch thick.
Everyone crowded into the room. With help from both Sheila and Pitt, Cassy stretched out on the bed and sighed with relief.
Sheila went right to work. With practiced deftness she started an IV, then gave a sizable dose of the monoclonal antibody. She injected it into the intravenous port on the IV line.
'Did you have any adverse reaction to the first shot?' Sheila asked as she momentarily sped up the IV to carry the last of the antibody into Cassy's system.
Cassy shook her head.
'There was no problem,' Pitt said. 'Except for a coughing spell which scared me. But I don't think it was related to the medication.'
Sheila attached Cassy to a cardiac monitor. The beats were normal and the rhythm regular.
'Have you felt any different since that first shot?' Harlan asked.
'Not that I can tell,' Cassy said.
'That's not surprising,' Sheila said. 'The symptoms are mainly from your own lymphokines, which we know shoot up in the early stages.'
'I want to thank you all for letting me come here,' Cassy said. 'I know you are taking a risk.'
'We're glad to have you,' Harlan said, giving her knee a squeeze. 'Who knows, like me you may be a valuable experimental subject.'
'I wish,' Cassy said.
'Are you hungry?' Sheila asked.
'Not in the slightest,' Cassy said. 'But I could certainly use some aspirin.'
Sheila looked at Pitt. 'I think I'll turn that over to Dr. Henderson,' she said with a wry smile. 'Meanwhile the rest of us have to get back to work.'
Harlan was the first to leave. Sheila paused with one leg into the air lock. Looking back she waved to Jonathan. 'Come on. Let's leave the patient to her doctor.'
Jonathan reluctantly followed.
'You were right,' Cassy said. 'This place is unbelievable.'
'It's just what the doctor ordered,' Pitt said. 'Let me get you that aspirin.'
It took Pitt a few minutes to find the pharmacy and a few more to locate the aspirin. When he returned to the confinement room, he found that Cassy had been sleeping.
'I don't want to bother you,' Pitt said.
'No bother,' Cassy said. She took the aspirin, then lay back. She patted the bedside. 'Sit down for a minute,' she said. 'I've got to tell you what I learned from Beau. This nightmare is about to get worse.'
The tranquility of the desert was suddenly shattered by the repetitive concussion of the rotor blades and the roar of the Huey military jet engine as the copter swept low across the barren landscape. Inside Vince Carbon held a pair of binoculars to his eyes. He'd told the pilot to follow a strip of black tarmac that cut across the sand from horizon to horizon. In the backseat were two former police officers from Vince's old unit.
'The last word we have is that the vehicle came out this road,' Vince shouted to the pilot over the sound of the engine. The pilot nodded.
'I see something coming up,' Vince said. 'It looks like an old gas station, but there's a vehicle and it fits the description.'
The pilot slowed the forward progress. Vince held the binoculars as steady as he could.
'Yup,' he said. 'I think it's the one. Let's go down and have a look.'
The helicopter lowered to the earth, kicking up a horrendous swirl of sand and dust in the process. When the skids were firmly on the ground, the pilot cut the engine. The heavy rotors slowed and came to a stop. Vince climbed out of the cab.
The first thing Vince checked was the vehicle. He opened the door and could immediately sense that Cassy had been in it. He looked in the luggage space. It was empty.
Motioning toward the building, the two former policemen went inside. Vince stayed outside and let his eyes roam around the horizon. It was so hot that he could see heat rising in the air.
The policemen came out quickly and shook their heads. She wasn't in there.
Vince motioned back to the copter. He was close. He could sense it. After all, how far could she get on foot in that heat?
Pitt came into the lab. Everyone was working so intently that they didn't even raise their heads.
'She's finally sleeping,' he said.
'Did you lock the outer door?' Harlan asked.
'No,' Pitt said. 'Do you think I should?'
'Absolutely,' Sheila said. 'We don't want any surprises.'
'I'll be right back,' Pitt said. He returned to the air lock and looked in at Cassy. She was still sleeping peacefully. Her coughing had significantly abated. Pitt locked the door.
Returning to the lab, he took a seat. Again no one acknowledged him. Sheila was engrossed, inoculating tissue cultures with the enabling protein. Harlan was extracting more antibody. Jonathan was at a computer terminal wearing earphones and working a joystick.
Pitt asked Jonathan what he was doing. Jonathan took off the earphones. 'It's really cool,' he said. 'Harlan showed me how to connect with all the monitoring equipment topside. There are cameras hidden in fake cacti which can be directed with this joystick. There's also listening devices and motion sensors. Want to try it?'
Pitt declined. Instead he told the others that Cassy had described to him some astounding and disturbing things about the aliens.
'Like what?' Sheila asked while continuing to work.
'The worst thing,' Pitt said, 'is that they have the infected people building a huge futuristic machine they call a Gateway.'
'And what's this Gateway supposed to do?' Sheila asked, while gently swirling a tissue culture flask.
'It's some kind of transporter,' Pitt said. 'She was told that it will bring all sorts of alien creatures to Earth from distant planets.'
'Jesus H. Christ!' Sheila exclaimed. She put down the flask. 'We can't face any more adversaries. Maybe we'd better just give up.'
'When is this Gateway going to be operational?' Harlan asked.
'I asked the same question,' Pitt said. 'Cassy didn't know, but she had the impression it was imminent. Beau told her it was almost finished. Cassy said there were thousands of people working on it.'
Sheila exhaled noisily in exasperation. 'What other charming news did she tell you?'
'Some interesting facts,' Pitt said. 'For instance, the alien virus first came to earth three billion years ago. That's when it inserted its DNA into the evolving life.''
Sheila's eyes narrowed. 'Three billion years ago?' she questioned.
Pitt nodded. 'That's what Beau told her. He also told her that the aliens have sent the enabling protein every hundred million Earth years or so to 'awaken' the virus to see what kind of life has evolved here and whether it was worth inhabiting. What he meant by Earth years she didn't ask.'
'Maybe that relates to their ability to go from one universe to another,' Harlan said. 'Here in ours we are caught in a space/time freeze. But from the point of view of another universe, what's a billion years here, might only be ten years there. Everything's relative.'
Harlan's explanation brought on a moment of silence. Pitt shrugged. 'Well, I can't say it makes much sense to me,' he said.
