“I’m terribly sorry if I’m interrupting,” Kim said.
“It’s quite all right,” Edward said. “Did you want something in particular?”
Kim told them about the problem with her garbage and the visit by the police. She then asked if anybody heard or saw anything out of the ordinary during the night.
Everyone looked at each other expectantly. No one responded at first, then they all shook their heads.
“I sleep so soundly I doubt I’d hear an earthquake,” Curt said.
“You sound like an earthquake,” David joked. “But you’re right, I sleep equally as soundly.”
Kim glanced around at the faces of the researchers. The somber mood she’d detected when she’d first entered already seemed to be improving. She then told them that the police thought the culprit might be a rabid bear, but that kids had been taking advantage of the situation in the name of fun. She also described the excitement that bordered on hysteria that gripped the town.
“Only in Salem could something like this get so blown out of proportion,” Edward said with a chuckle. “This town is never going to recover completely from 1692.”
“Some of their concern is justified,” Kim said. “The problem has recently taken on a new dimension. A dead man was found this morning not too far away from here, and his body had been gnawed.”
Gloria blanched. “How grotesque!” she exclaimed.
“Have they determined how the man died?” Edward asked.
“Not exactly,” Kim said. “They’ve sent the body to Boston to be examined. There’s a question about whether or not the man had been dead prior to being attacked by the animal.”
“Then the animal would have been only acting as a scavenger,” Edward said.
“That’s true,” Kim said. “But I still thought it was important to warn you all. I know that you walk late at night. Maybe you should drive the short distance to the castle until this problem has been taken care of. Meanwhile, keep your eye out for either a rabid animal or teenagers.”
“Thanks for warning us,” Edward said.
“One other thing,” Kim said, forcing herself to switch subjects. “There’s been a minor problem at the castle. There’s been some dirt tracked in through the entrances to the wings. I wanted to ask that you all wipe your feet.”
“We’re terribly sorry,” François said. “It’s dark when we get there and dark when we leave. We’ll have to be more careful.”
“I’m sure you will,” Kim said. “Well, that’s all I had. Sorry to bother you.”
“No problem at all,” Edward said. He accompanied her to the door. “You be careful too,” he told her. “And watch out for Sheba.”
Edward walked back to the group after seeing Kim off. He looked at each face in turn. They were all concerned.
“A human body puts this all in a different perspective,” Gloria said.
“I agree,” Eleanor said.
There was silence for a few minutes while everyone thought about the situation. David finally spoke: “I guess we have to face the fact that we could be responsible for some of the problems in the area.”
“I still think the idea is absurd,” Edward said. “It flies in the face of reason.”
“How do you explain my T-shirt?” Curt said. He pulled it from a drawer where he’d stuffed it when Kim had suddenly arrived. It was torn and stained. “I ran a test spot of one of these stains. It’s blood.”
“But it was your blood,” Edward said.
“True. But still,” Curt said, “how did it happen? I mean, I don’t remember.”
“It’s also hard to explain the cuts and bruises we have on our bodies when we wake up in the morning,” François said. “There were even sticks and dead leaves strewn about my floor.”
“We must be sleepwalking or the equivalent,” David said. “I know we don’t want to admit it.”
“Well, I haven’t been sleepwalking,” Edward said. He glared at the others. “I’m not entirely sure this isn’t some elaborate practical joke after all the playing around you guys have been doing.”
“This is no joke,” Curt said as he folded up his damaged shirt.
“We’ve seen nothing with any of the experimental animals that would even suggest a reaction like you’re suggesting,” Edward said belligerently. “It doesn’t make scientific sense. There’d be some corollary. That’s why we do animal studies.”
“I agree,” Eleanor said. “I’ve not found anything in my room nor do I have any cuts or bruises.”
“Well, I’m not hallucinating,” David said. “I’ve got real cuts here.” He stuck out his hands so everybody could see them all. “As Curt says, this is no joke.”
“I haven’t had any cuts, but I’ve awakened with my hands all dirty,” Gloria said. “And I don’t have a nail worth mentioning left. They’ve all broken off.”
“There’s something wrong despite the fact it hasn’t shown up with the animals,” David insisted. “I know that no one wants to suggest the obvious, but I will! It must be the Ultra.”
Edward’s jaws visibly tightened and his hands closed into fists.
“It’s taken me a couple of days to admit it even to myself,” David continued. “But it’s pretty clear I’ve been out at night without any recollection of going. Nor do I know what I’ve been up to, except that I’m filthy in the morning when I wake up. And I assure you, I’ve never done anything like this in my life.”
“Are you suggesting that it’s not an animal that has been causing problems around the neighborhood?” Gloria asked timidly.
“Oh, be serious,” Edward complained. “Let’s not let our imaginations go haywire.”
“I’m not suggesting anything other than I’ve been out and I don’t know what I’ve been doing,” David said.
A ripple of fear spread through the group as they began to face the reality of the situation. But it became immediately apparent there were two groups. Edward and Eleanor feared for the future of the project while the others feared for their well-being.
“We have to think about this rationally,” Edward said.
“Without doubt,” David agreed.
“The drug has been so perfect,” Edward said. “We’ve had nothing but good responses. We’ve reason to believe it’s a natural substance, or close to a natural substance, that already exists in our brains. The monkeys have shown no tendency toward somnambulism. And I personally like the way I feel on Ultra.”
Everyone immediately agreed.
“In fact, I think it is a tribute to what Ultra can do that allows us to even think rationally under these circumstances,” Edward said.
“You’re probably right,” Gloria said. “A minute ago I was beside myself with worry and disgust. I already feel more composed.”
“That’s exactly my point,” Edward said. “This is a fantastic drug.”
“But we still have a problem,” David said. “If the sleepwalking we’ve suggested is occurring, and if it is caused by the drug, which I think is the only explanation, it has to be a side effect that we couldn’t possibly have anticipated. It has to be doing something in our brains that is unique.”
“Let me get my PET scans,” François said suddenly. He went down to his cluttered workspace but quickly returned. He began laying out a series of brain scans of a monkey that had been given radioactively tagged Ultra.
“I wanted to show everybody something that I just noted this morning,” he said. “I really haven’t had time to think too much about it, and I wouldn’t have noticed it except the computer picked it up when these images were in digital form. If you look carefully, the concentration of the Ultra in the hindbrain, midbrain, and limbic system slowly builds from the first dose, then, when it gets to a certain level, the concentration goes up markedly, meaning there’s no steady state reached.”
Everyone bent over the photographs.
“Maybe the point where the concentration increases markedly is at the point that the enzymatic system that metabolizes it is overwhelmed,” Gloria suggested.