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Farther down the row of patients, we hear a shout "We’ve had a rupture!" ainternally"

I call out over the ather around the patient, who has gone pale The vital-stats machine screams at us as the patient’s blood pressure drops and his heart rate speeds up The ics yell out instructions

This patient, and all the rest, lie completely still

We can’t save hiical roolance around at the patients nearby I hope they haven’t seen too ht of the patient’s death settles over me as I pick up e fro fro patient data now Review immediately

He wants me to look at data now? When we’ve just had a death? The entire team looks rattled The point of the , is that we save people We don’t lose them like this

I walk over to the side of the rooency It’s data from the patients who’ve come in sick, and the information looks like basic medical workups I’et it The workups are all recent, from when the patients were iot theto have to lock down your wing completely," the head physic says from the miniport

"I understand," I tell hi into lockdown," I tell the team

They nod, exhausted They understand We’ve all been through this in drills a million times We’re here to save people

Then I hear footsteps behind ist is heading for theHave they had ti to expose an entire new cluster of people to theback down the rows of patients, as fast as I can He’s older thanus both to the ground "You don’t run," I say, not bothering to keep the disgust out of my voice "You stay to help when people are sick That’s part of your job"

"Listen," he says, struggling to sit up I let him but I hold on to his arm "We may not be safe fro"

"That’s exactly why you can’t risk exposing anyone else," I say "You know that better than anyone" I haul him up by the back of his unifore closets I don’t want to lock hiht now

"Unless," the virologist says, sounding either crazy or inspired, "the people with scars are safe The small scars"

I knohat he ue," I say The Rising told us to look for the marks, and Lei and I talked about them--those small red scars between their shoulder blades

"Yes," he says eagerly "They could have had a slightly mutated version of the earlier virus, and their variant is close enough to theit But the iiven--it was just chopped-up pieces of the original virus It won’t be close enough to this new mutant form to protect us"

I keep hold of hio doith the earlier version of the Plague," he says "But ere still exposed Our initial immunity protected us from the worst symptoms, but we could still contract that earlier version of the Plague That’s how an immunization works It teaches your body how to react to a virus so your systeain It’s not that you don’t get sick at all But your body kno to handle it"

"I know," I say I’ve figured out thisyou," the virologist says "If that happened, if we actually contracted the first version of the Plague, the one going around when the Pilot first spoke--then we have the red o down, but we still had the virus Our bodies just dealt with it But if we didn’t catch the earlier virus during that "--he spreads out his hands--"we can still get the mutation And we may not have a cure that works for this version"

For a ibberish, and then it all coht

He twists his ar the top of his plainclothes Then he pulls down the collar of his black uniform "Look," he says "I don’t have the small mark Do I?"

He doesn’t

"No," I say I resist the urge to pull down my own collar and try to see if the ht to look for it on o out there, you could infect other people You’ve been exposed to the o out into the woods People in the Borders have always kno to survive There are places I can go"

"Like where?" I ask

"Like the stone villages," he says

I raise my eyebrows Is he confused? I don’t knohat those places are I’ve never heard of thes there?" I ask "Do they have what you need to stay alive until there’s a cure? And don’t you care about exposing them to illness?"

He stares up at me ild-eyed panic "Didn’t you see him?" he asks "That patient? He died I can’t stay here"

"Was that the first time you’ve seen anyone die in real life?" I ask

"People didn’t die in the Society," he says

"They did," I say "They were just better at hiding it" And I understand why the virologist is afraid I think about running away too, but only for a second

The head physic decides to relax the lockdown long enough to send usthe virologist told me over the miniport, so he’ll decide how to report it all to the Pilot I’lad that’s not my job

But I do have one request for the head physic "When you send in the new personnel," I say, "make sure they know this new form of the virus hasn’t responded yet to the cure We don’t need anyone else trying to run We want the into"

It’s not long before several Rising officers, ar haz The officers take the virologist aith them I’m not sure where they’ll quarantine him--in an empty room on his own, perhaps--but he’s become a liability, and we can’t keep hi sure he’s taken care of that it takes me a moment to realize that one of the new staff is Lei