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"Well, those people have sticks shoved half a mile up their asses," said Dr Abbey "Besides, Joe’s no threat He’s immune, aren’t you, sweetheart?" The ging frantically back and forth
The rest of us, with the exception of Maggie--as still deeply involved in her dog-worshipping duties--turned to stare at her Surprisingly, it was Alaric who found his voice first, asking, "Are you serious? Ih more than sixty pounds How can he possibly be iot the canine forns of developing a sixth He’s never going to be a daddy, since the fourth one he developed was testicular Kellis-Auy--but he’s never going to ahts raced as I tried to absorb her words It didn’t help that George was shouting inthe possible truth of Dr Abbey’s claims at the sa silently as she tried to for to co as surprised as I’d ever seen her That was saying so, because Becks doesn’t do surprised No one who’s done field ti easy to knock off balance
Maggie looked up fro between her eyebrows as she considered Dr Abbey "Five reservoir conditions in one dog?" Dr Abbey nodded "But how? I’ve never heard of anything, canine or hu more than one"
"Oh, that part was simple," said Dr Abbey, and beamed This smile was pure professional pride "I induced theie’s hands stilled, dropping away fro of the computers, the occasional squeal or bark from a lab animal, and the footsteps of the other technicians provided a strange sort of background music Joe looked between the hu bark
Dr Abbey reached down to pat hiot a lot to talk about, why don’t you come to my office? There’s cookies and tea, and I can tell you all about how I’vefor the rest of us to follow, she walked forward, into the bustling lab
"Are we going with her?" asked Alaric
"Got a better idea?"
"Nope," he said, glu the crazy lady to our deaths it is" I shrugged and walked after her, trying to look nonchalant The day was gettingby thewe’d live to talk about later
The nature of the so-called reservoir conditions has never been fully explained, although a great many theories have been proposed, some reasonable, some not Why does the KA virus manifest its live state in certain parts of the body? Why does that live virus then fail to spread the infection according to the laws that govern all of its other manifestations? Why is retinal KA most common in females, while cerebro-spinal is most common in males? Nobody really seems to have a clue
We do know that reservoir conditions are beco more common, with reported cases of retinal, cerebro-spinal, ovarian, testicular, and pituitary KA in both huhteen percent overthe last eleven years There are ru themselves, conditions with scary names like "cardiac" and "pulether, it’s enough to ed the end of the human race… or y of the Wall, authored by Mahir Gowda, January 11, 2041
Nine
Dr Abbey’s "office" was a eupheer than the ones around it It didn’t help that it was jammed with file boxes, outmoded computer equipment, and--best of all--clear plastic tanks full of assorted insects and arachnids I don’t have a probleiant hissing cockroaches and squiggly things ay too ard Every ti moved, she sank farther back into her chair
It’s called a e
"It’s called comedy," I muttered, and turned ed out of her lab coat before pulling a bag of Oreos out of a filing cabinet and duh thein a way that I recognized as designed to put a minimum of stress on her knees Joe the Mastiff was stretched out between her and us, enors His pose was relaxed, but his eyes were alert, focusing on whoever had moved most recently That meant his focus was
"So there’s apple juice, water, beer, and soae" Dr Abbey looked up "Who wants what?"
"I want to kno you ed to induce a reservoir condition," volunteered Kelly, the need for knowledge apparently overwhel her reluctance to ith unsanctioned researchers