Kate remembers her unaccountable indecisiveness yesterday, the difficulty she had telling Fielding to make the call.
"You were influencing me?"
Merely trying to let you see our side.
Kate is reeling. Her thoughts are no longer private. How much longer will she be able to call her thoughts her own, her actions her own? How long before she's doing things against her will? How long until she has no will?
You see, Kate? There's the problem: will—too many wills. You shouldn't have to worry about your will or our will. Within the Unity there is only one will. It makes life so much simpler.
But Kate senses something… a subtle shift in the Unity's mood, a hint of uncertainty. And she realizes that this oneness of theirs is a two-way street. They can see into her mind, but she can also see into theirs. Not clearly, not deeply, but enough to gather impressions.
"You're afraid, aren't you."
A dark ripple through the enveloping bliss. No. Of course not. We are the future. We are inevitable. We have nothing to fear.
But Kate can't be sure whether that's true belief or merely wishful thinking.
"What if Fielding finds a virucide that works against you? Or better yet—a vaccine? What happens to your inevitability then?"
He will not. He cannot. He hasn't enough time.
"He's got plenty of time. You're hampered by your nature. You're a blood-borne infection. It'll take decades—"
Kate gasps as a wave of joyous anticipation washes over her, blotting out her fears and suspicions in a surge of pleasure as intense as an orgasm.
Not true! You'll see! We will prevail! We will sweep across the globe. And you will be a part of it!
"No. Because if Fielding doesn't stop you, I have a feeling someone else will."
You're speaking of your brother? The Voice laughs. How can he stop us when he will soon be one with us?
Kate feels her knees sag. Not Jack! How? When?
Yesterday morning. He seemed too resourceful so the One Who Was Terrence scratched him with a pin dipped in our blood.
"No!" she screams and kicks and twists and wrenches her trapped hands, taking the Unity by surprise, breaking free, breaking contact, and abruptly the bliss and peace and belonging vanish, replaced by a void filled with fear and anguish.
Vision blurs, dark splotches expand before her eyes, merging, engulfing her.
9
"Is Jack gonna be all right, Mom?"
Disembodied voices echoed faintly around Jack. He tried identifying them but his mushy brain was having difficulty focusing.
The last one, a child's voice… what was her name? Vicky. That was it. But she sounded as if she were at the far end of the Lincoln Tunnel. He tried to open his eyes to find her but the lids weighed tons.
"Of course, honey," said another voice, female, older… Gia's voice. But she sounded even farther away—the Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel. "He's been sick like this before. Remember last summer?"
"I don't like to think about last summer."
"I know you don't. But remember after all the scary times were over and he was hurt and sick and we nursed him?"
"Yes."
"Well, this is like that time."
"But Jack had a doctor then."
"So to speak."
Even in his delirium agony Jack had to smile. Gia had never had much faith in Doc Hargus.
He felt the once cool, now warm washcloth peeled from his forehead.
"Here, honey. Go run some cold water over this again."
Over the fading patter of Vicky's retreating footsteps Jack heard Gia's voice, low and close to his ear.
"Jack, are you listening?"
"Nnnngh."
"Jack, I'm scared. You've got a temperature of a hundred-and-four and I don't know what to do for you."
He managed to put two words together. "Dc Hrgs."
Doc Hargus had had some run-ins with officialdom over the years, so his license wasn't exactly current. But that didn't mean he didn't know his stuff, just that it wasn't legal for him to practice. Jack had entrusted his life to him before, and he'd do it again.
"I've called him three times." He could hear the tension in Gia's voice. "All I get is his answering machine, and he hasn't called back."
"Mnth zit?" Jack said.
"Month? Don't you even know? It's June."
Hell. Hargus went to Arizona every June to visit his grandkids. So much for help from him.
"I'm scared, Jack. You looked like you were in a coma before."
Coma? As in comatose? With this fever, more like coma-toast.
"I'm going to call an ambulance."
"Nuh!"
"Please, Jack. I'm afraid you're dying!"
Couldn't go to a hospital. Too many questions, too many bean counters prying into the nooks and crannies of his life in search of money.
"Nut dine. Nuh husptl."
"I can't take this any more, Jack. I just can't sit here and watch you boil inside your skin. I'm getting help."
As Gia rose Jack slid his hand across the covers and clutched her arm. Not hard enough to haul her back—no way he had the strength for that—but the gesture stopped her.
Had to think. Couldn't let her wheel him into an ambulance.
Abruptly she pulled away. "Why didn't I think of this before? How dumb can I be?"
What was she doing? Wanted to cry out for her to stop. Please, Gia. No EMTs! I'll be fine. Just need some heavy rest. Don't do this to me! But his voice was gone.
His dread was swamped by the overwhelming fatigue that engulfed him and took him under again.
10
Kate came to on the couch with Jeanette next to her, holding her hand.
What happened? was the intended question but Jeanette answered before she'd completed the thought.
"You passed out."
Kate looked around. "Where are the others?"
"We… they left. A matter to attend to."
Did it really happen? Kate wondered, squeezing her eyes shut against a blinding headache. Or was I drugged or hypnotized?
"It really happened," Jeanette said.
Kate snatched her hand free and slid to the opposite end of the couch. This wasn't Jeanette. And she was reading her thoughts.
Could this be? Could a strange new virus change human brains and link minds? It was too bizarre. This sort of thing only happened on that Sci-Fi Channel that Kevin liked to watch.
And yet, if it wasn't real, what had she experienced a few moments ago?
And why this feeling now that her mind was no longer completely her own? Was it the power of suggestion… or real?
"We know how you feel, Kate."
"Do you? I doubt that."
"Fear…"
"More like terror."
"… uncertainty…"
"How about betrayal, Jeanette?" Anger heated her face. "Do you feel betrayed? I know I do. I loved you, Jeanette. I trusted you."
She realized with a start she was using the past tense. "And you… you…
"You'll thank us, Kate. In a few more days, when you're fully integrated, you'll bless that little pinprick in your palm."
"Never! And bad enough you infected me, but my brother as well! I'll never forgive you for this!"
Kate rose unsteadily. Never before had she wanted to hurt someone, but Jeanette's true-believer complacency made her want to hit her. Or worse.
"But you will. And so will Jack. In a few days you'll come to see—"
"A few days! Is that all? It took you much longer!"
"A mutation in the virus lets it spread much faster now through a host system. We—"
"'We'? 'We' who?"
"Sorry. Once you're part of the Unity it's difficult to think of yourself as an 'I.' All of them are with me now and I am with all of them, even though we are miles apart."