EL-MASRI: You can’t blame him for not knowing that the stream is packed with the Rot’s bacteria.
SPURLEA: Believe me, I don’t. His blood work just pinged, by the way.
EL-MASRI: Bad news?
SPURLEA: Don’t make it sound like you care, Chen.
EL-MASRI: Just tell me.
SPURLEA: He’s got it in his blood. He’s got about twenty-four hours before the septicemia blows him up from the inside.
EL-MASRI: We don’t have enough painkillers for you to let him ride out that whole time, Aurel. That’s how we got into this situation with the painkillers in the first place.
SPURLEA: I know.
EL-MASRI: You’re going to take care of this, then.
SPURLEA: When I go back in I’ll give him enough to get him to sleep. I’ll take care of it from there.
EL-MASRI: I’m sorry I have to be like this to you about it.
SPURLEA: I understand, Chen. I do. I’m just certain that when I die and meet Hippocrates, he’s going to be sorely disappointed in me.
EL-MASRI: He’s going to die anyway, and painfully. You wouldn’t be doing him any favors.
SPURLEA: I’m going to change the subject by saying, Look, here comes Magda.
GANAS: The easterly team found the containers with the crew from the Erie Morningstar.
EL-MASRI: What’s the report?
GANAS: Everyone’s dead. Death at impact at one site. Death by the pack, it looks like, at the other. They’re less than a klick apart, with the death-by-impact site being the most northerly one. The team took pictures, so if you want to have nightmares tonight, you can look.
EL-MASRI: No other containers?
GANAS: If they’re there, they haven’t found them yet.
EL-MASRI: Have them keep looking. Give all the other search teams the coordinates and fan out from there.
GANAS: How is Malik?
SPURLEA: The Rot’s in his blood.
GANAS: Jesus.
SPURLEA: Just another perfect day here in New Seattle.
EL-MASRI: Look at it this way. It’s unlikely to get much worse.
GANAS: Don’t jinx it.
EL-MASRI: Thank you, Aurel, Magda. I’ll let you know when or if we find those supplies.
SPURLEA: Thank you, Chen.
GANAS: There goes a right bastard.
SPURLEA: We knew what he was when we hired him.
GANAS: I know, but it’s painful to be reminded of it so frequently.
SPURLEA: Without him we might be dead already.
GANAS: Which is also painful to be reminded of so frequently.
SPURLEA: Come on. We have to give Malik his painkillers.
GANAS: Did Chen tell you to finish him off after you did?
SPURLEA: He did.
GANAS: Will you?
SPURLEA: I don’t know.
GANAS: You’re a good and decent man, Aurel. You really, truly are. How you ended up on a wildcat colony is beyond me.
SPURLEA: You’re one to talk, Magda. Let’s go in.
GANAS: All right.
SPURLEA: And turn that off. Whatever I do, I don’t want a record of it anywhere but on my conscience.