Page 17 (1/1)
"I’, you didn’t have to worry about this shit when you lived the happy bachelor life Look, I need to go--the Doc’s just checked out clean, so it’s probably ti here"
"Callon"
"Got it," I said, and clicked off
Kelly lowered her test unit, apparently satisfied that everyone had seen it, and said, "I’m clean Do you have a biohazard receptacle I can dispose of this in?"
"It’s next to the medical supplies" I walked toward the kitchen "I need a Coke Anybody else need anything before story tih privacy to feel co quietly, "Can we try to keep the interjections down for a little bit? I don’t want Kelly thinking I’m crazy" I paused "Not yet, anyway"
You have a plan? asked George
"More rabbedrooot there, Kelly was on the couch, Alaric was sitting on the beanbag he’d tripped over before, and Dave was back at his ter data feed with one eye while re half-turned toward the roo Kelly like she expected the other woman to spontaneously arabbed a folding chair froainst the wall and set it up in front of the entrance hall Nobody was getting in or out without going through me, and that wasn’t exactly an easy proposition Potentially entertaining; not easy
"I’ on the couch," said Becks, beforedown
"Most people are" I turned to Kelly "That brings us back to story tihed It was a soft, exhausted sound, conveying a vast amount of information in a very small amount of time This was a wo forced to find reserves she didn’t think she had Now even those reserves looked about to run out Maybe the word "corpse" wasfor the other shoe to drop
"Dr Wynne sends his regards"
There it was: the other shoe
Dr Joseph Wynne was Kelly’s supervisor at the Mee called the CDC for help on the night Buffy died We knee’d been set up--it was hard toat our tires and everything--but we didn’t realize how thoroughly screere until we talked to the CDC Soe did That first caller reported that we’d all gone into amplification, not just Buffy Since ere outside in a confirally justified in ordering our ie sort of sidelong way, that I owed him
"Does he?" I asked, as neutrally as I could
"He sent a data card for you to review" She picked up her briefcase fro for a second before producing a plain white plastic rectangle I raised an eyebrow A shosted across Kelly’s face as she offered the card to row a full-body clone and stage my own death without help?"
"Guess not," I said "Alaric, run the card" He ju for his terminal so fast that I almost expected him to leave skidback to Kelly "Now it’s really story tireed She took a stack ofa loose circuit around the rooot an envelope before she returned to the couch and sat, looking alet fro the zo to sit down and let it be our problem instead of theirs It’s the expression of someone who knows, deep down inside, that the buck is about to be passed
Buck-passing rarely comes with handouts I peered into the envelope, natural paranoia de that I confirm it wasn’t filled with mousetraps or funny white powder before I removed the contents Paper Some paperclipped reports, a few loose memos, and a few sheets of statistical data I didn’t understandI never wash the contents of their respective envelopes It looked like it was up toI waved a sheet of statistics and asked, "What’s all this?"
"It’s the story" She sagged back in the couch, closing her eyes The "passing the buck" expression faded, replaced by one of deep and abiding weariness She kept her eyes closed as she began to talk Ither facts straight, but I don’t think so
I think she just didn’t want to risk seeing the look on my face
"The first cases of confirmed Kellis-Amberlee occurred in 2014 That’s when the viruses were introduced to the biosphere, ed to successfully combine The viral substrains are either descendants of different initial cases of Marburg Amberlee or the result of very raphic areas Everywhere in the world, Kellis fluAmberlee, and Kellis-Amberlee was the result It’s not natural virus behavior Neither of the pathogens involved was a natural virus Kellis-Amberlee has been stable, and effectively identical, since it was ‘born’ "