“Um, I think you’re skipping over something there.”
She snorted. “I’m not the one going for a biology degree. I’m just a philosophy major who eats people. But here’s the bio-for-philosophers version: A new strain of the parasite appeared, one that moved back and forth between rats and humans, without cats. Of course, as with any new strain, the optimum virulence was a mess; the peeps were much more violent and difficult to control. A total zombie movie, like you said.”
“And the old strain went underground.”
“Very good.” Sarah smiled. “They told me you’d understand.”
“But that was Europe. This is New York.”
“Rats go everywhere, Cal. They love ships, so of course the new parasites made it to the New World. Even here, the old strain was pushed down into the deep.”
“But now it’s coming back up,” I said. “Why aren’t we doing something about it? Why are the old carriers hiding it from the rest of the Watch?”
“Excellent questions.” She nodded slowly, chewing the last bite of her hamburger. “That’s what you scientists never seem to understand: The whys are always more important than the hows.”
“Sarah, just tell me!”
“Okay.” She placed her palms on the table. “Feel that?”
I looked at the surface of my coffee; its black mirror reflected the lights overhead with a pulsing shimmer. “You mean the subway going by?”
She shook her head, her eyes closed. “Feel deeper.”
I placed my hands on the table, and as the train faded, I felt another, more subtle shudder in its wake. Like something disturbed in its sleep, turning over. Like the trembling I’d felt through my cowboy boots, the first time I’d seen the peep cat.
Sarah opened her eyes. “Our strain is coming up because it’s being pushed up.”
I remembered the unseen thing I’d smelled in the Underworld, and the shudder in my hands took over my whole body for a moment. “By what?”
Sarah lifted her palms from the table, sighed, then shrugged. “There are a lot of things down there, Cal, things human beings haven’t seen in a long time. We lost a lot of knowledge during the plague. But the old guys do know one thing: When the ground starts to tremble, the old strain will rise up. They need us.”
“Wait a second. Who needs who?”
“They”—she looked out the window at the passing crowds—“need us. We’re the immune system for our species, Cal. Like those kick-ass T-cells and B-cells you always told me about, we get activated by an invasion. New-strainers are just zombies, vampires. But those of us with the old disease, the carrier strain, we’re soldiers.”
My mind spun, trying to reconcile what Sarah was saying with what I’d seen Morgan doing, spreading the disease haphazardly, enlisting hordes of cats. “But why is this a secret? I mean, why didn’t this come up in my Night Watch courses? Does Dr. Rat know about it? Or Records?”
“It’s older than Records. Older than science. Even older than New York. So the carriers kept it a secret from the Night Watch humans, Cal. It’s not going to be pleasant for them, the next few months. But we need all the soldiers we can get. Fast.”
“So you’re spreading the disease on purpose?” I asked, but Sarah’s eyes had left mine, looking over my right shoulder, a pleasant smile filling her face.
A hand fell on me. “Uh, hey, Cal. Sorry I’m late.”
I looked up. Lace was staring down at Sarah, a little unsure.
“Oh, hi.” I cleared my throat, realizing I’d waited too long; the inevitable collision had happened. “This is Sarah. My ex.”
“And you must be Lacey.” Sarah extended her hand.
“Uh, yeah. Lace, actually.” They shook.
“Hot stuff, coming through!” said Rebecky, sliding a plate of pepper steak in front of me. Lace sat down next to me, wary of the woman across from her. Rebecky’s gaze moved among us, intrigued by the obvious discomfort of it all.
“Coffee, honey?” she asked Lace.
“Yeah, please.”
“Me too,” I said.
“Me three,” Sarah added. “And another hamburger.”
“And one of those.” Lace pointed at my pepper steak. “I’m starving.”
“Pepper steak?” I said. “Oh, crap.”
“Hey, it’s not against the law, dude,” Lace muttered as Rebecky walked away.
“What isn’t against the law?” Sarah asked, licking her fingers.
“Eating meat,” Lace said. “Sometimes people change, you know?”
Sarah smiled. “Oh. Used to be a vegetarian, did you?”
I started in ravenously on my own pepper steak. Otherwise, I was going to faint. “She was. Until recently.”
Sarah looked from Lace to me, then giggled. “You’ve been very naughty, haven’t you, Cal?”
“It was Cornelius.”
“Could someone please tell me what’s going on?” Lace asked.
Sarah sighed. “Well, Lacey, things are about to get complicated.”
Lace raised her hands. “Don’t look at me, girl. I never even kissed this guy. In fact, I’m really pissed at him right now.”
“Oh, poor Cal!” Sarah said. Then she added in a cruel baby voice, “Did kitty beat you to it?”
“What the hell are you guys talking about?” Lace said.
I dropped my fork to the table. Things were spinning out of control, and I had to do something to unspin them. Most important, I had to get Lace out of here, or she would wind up in Montana.
Sweeping Sarah’s bottle of pills into my pocket, I pushed Lace out of the booth and dragged her toward the door.
“What the hell!” she shouted.
“Cal,” Sarah called. “Wait a second!”
“We have to leave,” I hissed to Lace. “She’s one of them.”
“What, an old girlfriend? I could tell that.” Lace paused, looking back at Sarah. “Oh, you mean …?”
“Yes!”
“Whoa, dude.”
As we reached the door, I glanced back. Sarah wasn’t following us, just watching our retreat with an amused expression. She pulled out a cell phone but paused to wave it at me: shoo. For some reason—old loyalty? lingering insanity? — she was giving us time to get away.
The street in front of us was thronged with pedestrians, but I didn’t smell any predators among the crowd—just lots of humans crammed together, ready for infection and slaughter. I kept us moving, tugging Lace along in one random direction after another.
“Where are we going, Cal?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But we have to get out of here. They know about you.”
“Know what about me? That you told me all your Night Watch stuff?”
I didn’t answer for a moment, trying to think, but Lace pulled me to a stop. “Cal? Tell me the truth, or I’ll have to kill you.”
I glanced behind her—still no signs of pursuit. “They sent Sarah to find me.”
“And you told her about me?”
“No! You did. When you ordered that pepper steak!” I tried to get Lace moving again, but she pulled me to a stop.
“What the hell? What’s pepper steak got to do with this?”
“You’re starving, right? Feeling faint? And you’ve been craving meat all day…”
She didn’t answer, just stood there with eyes narrowed, my words finally sinking in. “Um, earth to Caclass="underline" You and I didn’t sleep together.”
“Believe me, I know. But you see, there’s this new strain… I mean, turns out it’s an old strain, and it has to do with cats. They’re the vectors we have to worry about now.”