It had only been an hour, but it finally hit Cass that her friend was gone. Brian was dead.
She had to tell Walt, or would he just find out?
Without a doubt, she wanted Eb to hear it from her and since he had agreed to be part of Lena’s show, she made her way back out to Ada’s, bringing Art with her, just to check him.
Even though she was certain that Eb hadn’t left town or had any contact with Brian, she wanted to be sure.
While Art talked to him, ran that light over him, Cass stared out the kitchen window. She watched them filming the garden portion of Lena’s show.
Had she not known it was Ada, Cass wouldn’t have recognized her. Her hair was done and her makeup was natural looking and perfect.
She stood at the window, arms folded staring out for a while.
“Clear,” Art announced as they returned to the kitchen.
“Told you,” Eb said. “I didn’t leave or speak to anyone other than you, Cass. You okay?” He stepped to her.
“I’ll be fine. This is just a lot right now,” Cass said. She looked back out the window, saw they were gone and within a few seconds, the back door opened.
“Back again?” Ada asked. “Who’s your friend?”
Before Cass could answer, Lena smiled brightly. “Oh! Are you here for lunch? I made a lovely quiche and salad.”
Cass shifted her eyes back and forth from Ada to Eb.
“You don’t like quiche?” Lena asked.
“That’s not it,” Ada answered for Cass. “Something is going on. Spill it. Who’s the guy?”
“I’m Art Bohr,” Art introduced himself. “I’m a scientist.”
“Ada,” Cass said gently, “I know this is going to sound ridiculous and hard to believe, we’re all still processing it. But it seems the global extermination of the pred bugs, may just be a global extermination of the human race.”
Silence.
“Wow,” Art said. “That was simplified and blunt.”
Kat started to laugh. “She’s joking.” He paused and the smile dropped from his young face. “She’s not.”
Cass shook her head.
Almost as if she were expecting it, Ada walked to the fridge. “So, basically the super ‘kill off the bug’ stuff isn’t so safe for humans. I could have told them that.” She opened the fridge. “Iced tea, anyone?” She pulled out the pitcher. “Art, you have something to do with this?”
“I was on the team that invented the fungus that was meant to eradicate the pred bugs.”
“And you didn’t know it wasn’t safe.”
“Not at first,” Art replied. “By the time we figured it out, they wouldn’t stop. They said our data wasn’t strong enough. That the impact on human life was mild compared to what the pred bugs would do.”
“I take it they didn’t think about global extermination,” Ada said.
Art shook his head.
“So why are you in Griffin?” Ada asked. “Last town to try to save?”
“Last town alive.”
The pitcher nearly toppled from Ada’s hand at the same time as Lena gasped.
“There could be a few other places that weren’t affected with the drop. Places like Griffin, blips on a map that fell through the cracks of the wind patterns and jet streams that carried the fungus.”
“A fungus.” Ada nodded. “How much do you know about how it affects humans?”
“Not much. We barely started our research when the drop happened. I know it infects three ways. Skin, lungs, ingestion.”
“Like anthrax,” Ada said, “and I’m betting, like anthrax, it’s a death sentence if you ingest it.”
Art lowered his head and looked at her through the tops of his eyes. “It’s a death sentence if the spores attach to you.”
“Nonsense.” Ada shook her head.
“Once it’s in the blood stream…”
“How long does it take to get into the blood stream from the skin?”
“I… I don’t know,” Art stuttered.
“Find out.”
“It’s not that easy,” Art said.
“Yes, it is, find someone with the rash.”
“The spores die off at twenty-four hours, so does the person, it happens rather fast.”
“You’re telling me,” Ada said, “that a person gets a rash from this and is dead in twenty-four hours?”
“Yes.”
Ada scoffed.
Eb spoke gently, “Ada, why are you having a hard time believing this?”
“Because I know how his stuff works. I was a nurse for many years. I also know nature very well and this is impossible.”
“That’s because,” Lena interjected, “this isn’t all nature. He made this or manipulated it so it’s also man made.”
“We came, Ada,” Cass said, “to let you know and we’re checking to see if anyone left town, or was outside of Griffin, after eleven in the morning yesterday.”
“I wasn’t,” Ada replied. “None of us were.”
“Brian was,” Cass said solemnly. “Patty and Mrs. Sanders.”
Ada looked at Cass curiously.
“Brian and Patty are dead. Kit is checking Mrs. Sanders,” Cass said.
“Oh, honey I’m sorry.” Ada then looked at Art. “Did you bring stuff to work on this?”
“I did.”
“Can’t you get a sample from Brian?” Ada asked. “Work with that.”
“I can. But the spores are probably dead by now—they can only spread while they’re alive,” Art explained.
“Does that reset the clock?” Ada asked.
Art nodded. “Yes, so Griffin won’t be risk free until everyone who has it has passed and the spores are inactive on any surface they happened to be upon. Griffin didn’t get hit with the agent, so any fungus or spores were brought in by outside sources or were passed on by an infected person.”
“And I take it you’re doing contact tracing?” Ada asked.
“The town doctor and I, along with the police force, are,” Art replied.
“It should be easy,” Cass spoke hopefully. “I mean, Brian stayed home and we checked the two places he was. They were clean. Mrs. Sanders had the rash cream delivered, she never left the house, and the pharmacy man just put it on her porch. So we think we have this.”
Ada shook her head. “You’re forgetting about Patty. Brian’s wife does nails. Her shop was open until seven last night. Lord knows how many hands she touched.”
“Shit,” Cass said.
“Will you…” Lena nervously spoke. “Will you excuse me. I’m going to use the land line and try John again. If that doesn’t work I will try every number in my phone. This can’t be everywhere. It can’t be in the big cities. It just sounds so impossible. We would have heard. Excuse me.” She hurried out of the room.
Eb exhaled with a slight whistle as he sat down. “Obviously it hasn’t sunk in she’s in Griffin, and we run two days behind with the news.” He shifted his eyes to Cass. “No offense.”
“None taken.”
Art faced her. “Cass, can you take me to this nail shop? Maybe we can go inside and look at the appointment book. See who all came to see her and go from there.”
“And do what? Quarantine and try to help them?” Ada asked.
“Yes,” Art said, impassioned. “That’s the plan, and look for others and quarantine them.”
“How about this?” Ada suggested. “You need to get a good twenty-four hours for these spores to lose effectiveness. Meaning, you need to cut them off from a host. Instead of searching for anyone who has a rash, why don’t you just tell everyone they can’t leave where they are, at this moment, for twenty-four hours. If they’re at the store, give them a chance to go home, but home they stay for twenty-four hours. After that, no one has contact with anyone else, it’s done. And since that shit was dropped yesterday. It’s done everywhere else.”
“Threat over?” Cass asked Art.
“Go into a lockdown, yeah. Yeah, it couldn’t hurt.”