“I’m sorry, Tiss,” I said, “I’ve got to go. It’s Torio on the other line.”
She made a sad face. “Okay, I understand. Duty calls. We’ll talk later. Raad is missing you.”
“And I’m missing Raad. Please tell Papa I love him. Bye, Tissa. Bye, Rein and Forschi.”
The dogs yipped in the background as I ended the call and picked up Torio. His face appeared on my holographic screen. He looked agitated.
“Torio, what’s wrong?”
“People are dying,” he said—no pause, no formalities, straight to the point. Torio didn’t beat around the bush. “Twenty deaths in Nurlie since yesterday. Five deaths in Surrvul. Three deaths in Krug. It’s an outbreak, Kaelyn. It’s a viral illness unlike anything Geniverd has ever seen. We’re hours away from a pandemic!”
Chapter 12
“What do you mean, an outbreak? What’s going on, Torio?”
I was suddenly very awake, hunched on the edge of my bed, shouting at the screen of my visin. Zawne was sprawled out behind me in la-la land, probably in Shiol with Lordin.
“It starts as a fever,” Torio said. “Then it escalates into vomiting, hallucinations, and eventually death. We think it began two days ago. As of right now, there are three hundred people hospitalized.”
“Why have they not received medicine?” I asked. “Tell me there’s a plan, Torio. I can’t have widespread disease in my first year as queen!”
Torio made a face, ran his tongue across his teeth, and said, “Well, Your Most Supreme Majesty, the sick people have indeed received antivirals. However, the ones they need—the ones that can combat this virus—are not being delivered. This is also a mutated strain. We need an antiviral to be produced.”
“So,” I asked, “what’s the holdup?”
“We are still waiting for word from the manufacturer. You might remember it: VBione Corp.”
I gasped. “Don’t tell me …”
“Yes,” Torio said, a look of deep remorse on his face. “They bought out the other companies. The only other manufacturing plant that could have engineered the right vaccine or produced antivirals was Medseet. VBione Corp absorbed them after you gave them permission. They shut down the plant in Krug, pending change of ownership.”
A wave of nausea swept over me. I got out of bed and stumbled through the darkness of the apartment. Had I made the wrong decision? Why had the Crown of Crowns made me rule in favor of VBione Corp?
“Is there no one else?” I asked Torio. “What of the antimicrobial producers in Gaard? There must be some way to stop this before it spreads.”
“We’ve started to quarantine,” Torio said, “but it may be too late. I’m not sure that you gauge the scope of VBione Corp’s influence. They’ve gobbled up every large antimicrobial manufacturer across the six continents. We’re relying solely on them to fix this, and they aren’t delivering.”
I was chewing on my lip. I had no idea what to do. How was I supposed to solve a global pandemic?
“Set up a meeting,” I said to Torio. “I want everyone in my private council chamber in thirty minutes. Got it?”
“Yes, Your Most Supreme Majesty.”
Torio ended the call. I paced for thirty seconds in the dark, wishing I could wake up Zawne. But no, he was flirting with his dead fiancée in Shiol. To heck with it, I could run the kingdom myself. I was the daughter of a Gaard-Ma. I had to keep her strength alive!
Then I remembered Raad. My brother was Gaard-Elder. I figured if anyone had access to the Gaard medical companies, it was him. I dialed his number on my visin while trying to get dressed in my massive dressing room.
“Kaelyn?” Raad was red eyed, half-asleep. I must have woken him. The light from his visin made him look like a ghostly silhouette. “What’s going on? It’s the middle of the night.”
I spoke in bursts, trying to jam my legs into a pair of pants. “Disease spreading across Geniverd. Emergency. No medicine. People dead.”
“Whoa,” Raad said, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “What are you talking about? Slow down, sis.”
I stopped, took a deep breath, and explained as best I could. I told Raad everything Torio had told me.
My brother gave me a look of resolve, but I could see the fear in his eyes as he said, “You need to stop this outbreak right away, before it gets out of control. Get ready for your emergency council meeting while I make some calls about VBione Corp. I’ve heard about their recent acquisitions, but I also heard you gave them the go-ahead. That’s why I didn’t make a fuss when they swallowed the last of their competitors here in Gaard. After Medseet, VBione Corp was simply too big. No one could refuse an offer from them.”
I was having serious reservations about my decision regarding VBione Corp. I couldn’t help but feel like I had been played for a fool. Yet it was what the Crown of Crowns had recommended. Did they have a divine plan regarding the outbreak? I needed to have a chat with Riedel and Hanchell as soon as possible. Something here didn’t smell right.
I thanked Raad and ended the call.
I was on my personal hover scooter, zipping through the dimly lit pathway toward the government building with Protectors gliding behind me, when Raad called back.
“Any news?” I asked. There was no projection, just Raad’s voice in my ear.
“Yes,” he said, “and it’s not good. First off, the spokesperson for VBione Corp claims they are having stability issues with the antivirals. They can’t send them out, because they’re not ready to be administered to humans. There is a batch undergoing testing as we speak. I don’t know. It sounded fishy to me.”
“Do you suspect foul play? Do you think their takeover of the industry was a precursor to the outbreak?”
“I don’t know,” Raad said,
