Page 21 (1/2)

Chapter 21

EX

"Hiya, darling," Sarah said "You&039;re looking good"

I didn&039;t say anything, paralyzed by the sight of her Sarah was utterly transforlimpse before the transport squad had taken her away Her hair was clean, her fingernails pink and neatly trileah the ss, Bob&039;s Diner see backward

She was even wearing a thick black leather wristband, a definite reference to Elvis&039;s 1968 Comeback Special Very appropriate

Rebecky slapped down a cup of coffee in front of nized you," she said to Sarah "It&039;s been a while since you&039;ve been in here, right?"

"Been out of town Hoboken mostly, then a few days in Montana, of all places," Sarah said, shaking her head "But I&039;ood Looks like Cal here sureat my blank expression "The usual, Cal?"

I nodded When Rebecky had gone away, I found ood too, Sarah"

"Been putting on soe bite of the haer in front of her

"It suits you," I said "Makes you look rinned

"Yeah, I guess" My oing off deep in my brain "Where&039;s Lace?"

"Lace, huh?" Sarah frowned "What kind of nauys didn&039;t" I looked around for the Shrink&039;s minders, sniffed the air for other predators All I smelled was Bob&039;s: potatoes and rill - and Sarah, who sed "Look, Cal, I don&039;t knoho you&039;re o and told ht you&039;d listen to soe She said maybe you needed a jolt"

"Well, ured it wouldn&039;t hurt if you saell I was doing"

"Yeah You lookso sane"

"A to think straight through the tangle of et here any moment now Maybe I could run and try to catch her on the way If Lace said the wrong thing in front of Sarah, the Watch ure out that she knew toothe street for Lace&039;s face a back to the girl in front of me - Sarah, alive and well and human

I couldn&039;t run yet; I had to know "What happened?"

Sarah chewed a bite of burger thoughtfully, then sed "Well, first this total dickhead gave me a disease"

"Oh, yeah" I drank some coffee, frowned at its bitterness "I never had a chance to say sorry about that I didn&039;t know - "

"Yeah, yeah I guess we&039;re both to blahed "Then there was my littlebreakdown But you saw most of that"

I nodded "Until you disappeared"

Sarah took a long breath, staring out the"Well, the parts you missed out on are kind of hazy for ry" She shuddered "And eating Then there you were again, rescuing me" She s you?" I sed, never having thought of it that way myself "It was the least I could do But, Sarah, how did you get so normal? So fast?"

"Good question, which reminds me" She pulled out a bottle of pills, dumped two into her palm, and sed "Tith every meal"

I blinked "There&039;s a cure?"

"Sure They had ot to Montana"

"When did that happen? The cure, I o"

There it was again, that seven-hundred-year thing "The plague? This doesn&039;t make any sense, Sarah"

"It will, Cal Just listen up I&039; Doctor&039;s orders" She bit deep into her burger, hurrying now that she was only a fes from the end

"Which doctor? Prolix?"

"Yep, the Shrink She&039;s been telling " Sarah looked out at the crowds on the sidewalk "They figured I could take it, because ofhabits lately" She looked down at her haer with momentary suspicion, then took another bite "And because they don&039;t have time to mess with me Or with you, anymore Time to face facts, Cal"

Suddenly, the restaurant felt overcrowded, claustrophobic I could smell the people in the booth behind me, the pressure of the passersby on the street "The disease is out of control, isn&039;t it? We&039;re going to wake up one day in one of those zo faster than anyone can stop it"

"No, Cal Don&039;t be silly The disease is in control, the way it should be The parasite&039;s calling the shots now"

"It&039;s doing what?"

"It&039;s in charge, ht Watch was always just a holding pattern, keeping down thefor the old strain to come back"

I shook my head "Wait What?"

Sarah held up her fork and knife, looking from one to the other "Okay There&039;s two versions of the parasite The new kind and the old kind Right?"

"Two strains, I know" I nodded "And we&039;ve got the new one, you and hed "No, dickhead, we have the old kind The original" She rattled her pill bottle "This is arlic, o, people used to totally control this disease"

"Until the plague?"

"Bingo That&039;s when the new strain showed up" Sarah shook her head "You&039;ve got to blaot it into their heads that cats were evil and started killing loads of the as how it jumps back and forth between felines and huht I know about that But that&039;s the old version?"

"Yes Pay attention, Cal As I was saying, it&039;s 1300 ad and everyone&039;s killing cats So with hardly any cats around, the rat population grows like crazy More human-to-rat contact, evolution of various diseases, fleas and ticks, blah, blah, blah" She waved her hand "Plague"

"U there"

She snorted "I&039;ree I&039;m just a philosophy major who eats people But here&039;s the bio-for-philosophers version: A new strain of the parasite appeared, one that moved back and forth between rats and humans, without cats Of course, as with any new strain, the optimum virulence was a mess; the peeps were much more violent and difficult to control A total zombie movie, like you said"

"And the old strain went underground"

"Very good" Sarah smiled "They told me you&039;d understand"

"But that was Europe This is New York"

"Rats go everywhere, Cal They love ships, so of course the new parasites made it to the New World Even here, the old strain was pushed down into the deep"

"But now it&039;s co about it? Why are the old carriers hiding it from the rest of the Watch?"

"Excellent questions" She nodded slowly, chewing the last bite of her haer "That&039;s what you scientists never seem to understand: The whys are always more important than the hows"

"Sarah, just tell me!"

"Okay" She placed her palms on the table "Feel that?"

I looked at the surface of hts overhead with a pulsing shi by?"

She shook her head, her eyes closed "Feel deeper"

I placed my hands on the table, and as the train faded, I felt another,disturbed in its sleep, turning over Like the treh my cowboy boots, the first time I&039;d seen the peep cat

Sarah opened her eyes "Our strain is co pushed up"

I re I&039;d smelled in the Underworld, and the shudder in my hands took over my whole body for a moment "By what?"

Sarah lifted her paled "There are a lot of things down there, Cal, things hu tiue But the old guys do know one thing: When the ground starts to tremble, the old strain will rise up They need us"

"Wait a second Who needs who?"

"They" - she looked out theat the passing crowds - "need us We&039;re the immune system for our species, Cal Like those kick-ass T-cells and B-cells you always told et activated by an invasion New-strainers are just zombies, vampires But those of us with the old disease, the carrier strain, we&039;re soldiers"

Myhat I&039;d seen Morgan doing, spreading the disease haphazardly, enlisting hordes of cats "But why is this a secret? I ht Watch courses? Does Dr Rat know about it? Or Records?"

"It&039;s older than Records Older than science Even older than New York So the carriers kept it a secret fro to be pleasant for theet Fast"

"So you&039;re spreading the disease on purpose?" I asked, but Sarah&039;s eyes had lefther face

A hand fell on me "Uh, hey, Cal Sorry I&039; down at Sarah, a little unsure

"Oh, hi" I cleared ; the inevitable collision had happened "This is Sarah My ex"

"And you must be Lacey" Sarah extended her hand

"Uh, yeah Lace, actually" They shook

"Hot stuff, co a plate of pepper steak in front of me Lace sat down next to aze ued by the obvious discomfort of it all

"Coffee, honey?" she asked Lace

"Yeah, please"

"Me too," I said

"Me three," Sarah added "And another haer"

"And one of those" Lace pointed at "

"Pepper steak?" I said "Oh, crap"

"Hey, it&039;s not against the law, dude," Lace muttered as Rebecky walked away

"What isn&039;t against the law?" Sarah asked, licking her fingers

"Eating e, you know?"

Sarah setarian, did you?"

I started in ravenously onto faint "She was Until recently"

Sarah looked frohty, haven&039;t you, Cal?"

"It was Cornelius"

"Could so on?" Lace asked

Sarah sighed "Well, Lacey, things are about to get complicated"

Lace raised her hands "Don&039;t look at uy In fact, I&039;ht now"

"Oh, poor Cal!" Sarah said Then she added in a cruel baby voice, "Did kitty beat you to it?"

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Lace said

I droppedout of control, and I had to do soet Lace out of here, or she would wind up in Montana

Sweeping Sarah&039;s bottle of pills into ed her toward the door

"What the hell!" she shouted

"Cal," Sarah called "Wait a second!"

"We have to leave," I hissed to Lace "She&039;s one of theirlfriend? I could tell that" Lace paused, looking back at Sarah "Oh, you mean ?"

"Yes!"

"Whoa, dude"

As we reached the door, I glanced back Sarah wasn&039;t following us, just watching our retreat with an amused expression She pulled out a cell phone but paused to wave it atinsanity? - she was giving us tiet away

The street in front of us was thronged with pedestrians, but I didn&039;t s the crowd - just lots of huhter I kept usin one rando, Cal?"

"I don&039;t know," I said "But we have to get out of here They know about you"

"Knohat about ht Watch stuff?"

I didn&039;t answer for ato think, but Lace pulled me to a stop "Cal? Tell lanced behind her - still no signs of pursuit "They sent Sarah to find me"

"And you told her about me?"