Kate dumped two spoonfuls of instant coffee into a large mug. Not quite the communal agrarian paradise the Unity had pictured for her. Although the part about the end of the world as we know seemed right on the mark.
"What would make her think you could stop a virus?"
"Damned if I know. That's for guys like Fielding and the government's alphabet soup agencies."
Kate closed her eyes and took a breath. Yes, Fielding… if he's alive.
"But she said something even crazier. She said you and I were already infected."
Kate gripped the edge of the sink as the room seemed to tilt. "She told you that?"
"Yeah. And you know what? The Russian-lady delusion must have tripped a switch in my brain because that fueled an even weirder dream. Weirdest I've ever had."
Kate was almost afraid to ask. "How so?"
The microwave chimed. Her hand trembled as she removed the measuring cup and poured the water into the mug.
"Well, the whole dream was based on the idea that Fielding's mysterious contamination virus doesn't just cause personality changes, it links all the minds of the people it infects into one group consciousness—a hive mind. Isn't that wild?"
Kate, stirring Jack's coffee, dropped the spoon.
"Wh-what? What did you say?"
Jack was describing the Unity, describing it perfectly. But how could he know? And how could he know he was infected?
"A hive mind."
Was that how he knew? During the battle between his immune system and the Unity virus, could his subconscious have realized what was at stake and tried to warn him? No, she couldn't buy that. Too New Age-y. But somehow… Jack knew.
Feeling a bit punch-drunk, Kate carried the coffee into the front room and handed it to him quickly to hide her trembling hands, then lowered herself onto a nearby hassock.
"Tell me about it."
"It took place just a few months from now when we're in the middle of an all-out war between the infected and the uninfected."
A war. Yes, Kate thought, that's what could happen if the virus were easily spread—say, airborne. Thank the lord it isn't.
She listened to his chilling, tragic scenario with a lump in her throat. She didn't know this Abe Jack mentioned, but she'd met Gia and Vicky and was deeply disturbed by hearing of Gia overdosing her daughter.
"I don't know her that well, but I can't see Gia doing something like that."
"Neither can I," Jack said. "Like most dreams it's got Swiss cheese logic. Like where Gia got the sleeping pills; I never questioned it in the dream, but I don't think she's ever taken one in her whole life. Lots of things got by me, and the weirdest one concerned you."
Kate felt her insides tighten. "I was in your dream?"
"Not in person. But my dreamself was thinking about you as being one of the infected. It wasn't a shocking revelation or anything like that; more like something I'd known for a while."
Kate felt as if she were slowly becoming a block of ice. "Is that all?"
"Not quite. I was thinking awful thoughts about you, imagining you returning to Trenton and using your practice to infect all your kid patients.
Kate closed her eyes and fought a wave of nausea.
"Sorry for being such a sicko, Kate," Jack was saying, and his voice seemed to be coming from the far end of a long corridor, "but that was the dream, not me. I know damn well you'd never do something like that."
But that was what she found most sickening: it was exactly what she'd do. Because that was what the Unity would command her to do. And even worse, she'd want to do it. Once fully integrated she'd be an enthusiastic participant in anything that brought more minds into the Unity.
"Kate?" Jack's voice, echoing from somewhere. "Kate are you all right?"
She had to tell him. He had to know.
"Jack…"
But he was staring at the TV screen, pointing. "Holy, Christ, Kate! Look at this!"
Kate turned and saw Fielding's face, obviously a personnel file photo, on the screen.
Jack had grabbed the remote and was bringing the sound up.
"… on a tip, police this morning found the body of medical re-
searcher Dr. James Fielding in his home in Middle Village, Queens. Cause of death appears to have been strangulation. Police have no motive or suspects yet. In other news …"
Jack hit the MUTE button and stared at her. "What the hell?"
But Kate couldn't speak. Her throat had locked. Last night's dream hadn't been a dream. The Unity had murdered Jim Fielding, and she'd been there, could still feel the handles of the garrote against her palms.
"Jack, I'm infected!" she blurted.
He stared at her, wide-eyed. "What? How?"
"Jeanette."
As ill as he was, something fearsome flashed in his eyes and contorted his features. "I'll kill her!"
"No, Jack. It's not her fault. She—"
"How do you know you're infected? Are you sure?"
"Because…"
And suddenly Kate felt a surge within her, an invisible hand reaching through her mind and clamping down on her tongue, trying to paralyze it. The Unity was back—or maybe it had never gone away, maybe it had sat quietly within her, eavesdropping, monitoring her conversation, ready to react if she intended to say or do anything that might threaten it. And now it was pouncing.
Kate fought back, managing to push the words past her lips.
"Because the part of your dream about the hive mind is true."
"Can't be. That was fever. I was delirious."
"No, Jack. The hive mind spoke to me yesterday. Jeanette, Hold-stock, and half a dozen more of Fielding's other patients are part of a single mind. And they're pulling me in too. They're in my head right now, trying to keep me from telling you this, but I guess I've still got enough uninfected brain cells left to resist."
Jack stared at her from his recliner, the rage in his face shifting to disbelief.
"They killed Fielding, Jack. They were afraid he might come up with a vaccine or a way to kill the virus."
"How… how can you know that?"
"Because I was there! I witnessed it through Holdstock's eyes."
That odd look on his face, worried for her, wondering no doubt how someone can seem sane one day and then suddenly lose her mind. She had to convince him, had to make him believe. Because if they killed Fielding, they just might kill Jack too.
"And Jack… that Russian lady… whether a dream or not, she was right. You're infected too."
3
Kate had lost it. That, or he was still running 104 and having another fever dream. Or…
Or it was true.
A year ago Jack would have snickered at the idea of a hive mind. But since last summer he'd come face to face with too many things he'd once thought impossible, so he couldn't just write this off. Especially when the source was someone as thoroughly anchored as Kate.
And even if this hive mind was a fantasy, he still did not want to be infected with Fielding's virus.
He felt lousy, too weak for a long, drawn-out discussion. Had to move this along.
"Okay," he said carefully. "First things first: if we're infected, how did we get that way?"
"With infected pins. Jeanette punctured my palm and Holdstock scratched your hand when he was here the other day."
The coffee went cold and bitter on Jack's tongue. He had never mentioned that scratch to Kate.
"How did you know about that?"
"The Unity told me."
She went on to describe yesterday's hand-holding session with Holdstock and Jeanette and the rest.
"You weren't imagining it?" he said finally, shaken because this was so much like his dream. "They were really talking to you… in your brain?"
Kate nodded. "Not just talking, showing me images of the future they envision for humanity."