What were my chances there to escape trouble? The doctor, of course, had not believed a word I was saying.
I think the sight of an unknown guy in a small town was not well seen in that chaos.
"She's still a minor!" The old man managed to complain for the third time.
Shit!
I hadn't even noticed the miserable detail. Call a responsible person? Curse! It was just a medication I was looking for.
-That's not what you're thinking. No drugs. I can assure you. - My face was a mask of forced coldness.
Drugs! I hadn't even thought about it, either.
He looked me up and down excessively. Nor did he try to disguise what probably thought. The guilty verdict was stamped on his loaded face.
Could you fool someone? Or a little mental persuasion ...
- Really. Also no alcohol. The girl just complained about her aching head and vomited. Much.
I wasn't going to explain to him things that worried me and more serious things like mental reprogramming.
With any luck, I got out of there in a police car and handcuffed.
Damn luck. I didn't really have time for all of that.
-Because I have a lot of time to hear explanations. You kids are ready for anything.
As? Boy?
Fuck!
-I do not...
- I had the girl medicated. This does not mean that I believed in the story. Drinks, sex, and drugs and it ended badly. I will have toxicology tests done on your blood after the nurse picks up hers.
Seriously?
I rolled my eyes and fixed the door at the end of the corridor and not knowing what they were doing there with the girl.
Perhaps the truth ...
Tell the truth? The guy will freak out!
Or else...
I was probably going to be very lucky to get stuck. The man seemed to smell my lies.
- Right. And now the truth. What have you been experiencing?
I swore angrily and was rewarded with a look to shut anyone up.
- Maybe I thought of something simple. A general assessment of antibodies and basic immunization. -I ended up responding with a total lack of patience.
Hells! He wanted the truth, didn't he?
-Like?
- I want to see the girl ...- I demanded with a lack of patience. - Now. I don't even have time for that. If I find her before I can ...
- Look here, you kid ...
It was the final straw. My patience is over.
-Shit! I don't even have time for that. And you, doctor, have a lot of sick people to take care of. Most may not even survive. You wanted the damn truth, didn't you? Great for me. It is an alien pathogen. It will not be long and those who are not selected will have seizures, hemorrhagic fever, and whatever. - I knew I shouldn't lose my temper, but Angel was burning with fever. My concern affected discipline. - I need you to apply a concentrated dose of antibiotics to her so that the immune system reacts to it. I would advise you to do the same with your patients, or else take your family and seek shelter.
Ready. The disaster was done. Complete. I was never the type of guy to leave things in half.
The funny thing was that for the first time the doctor looked at me more seriously and without any hostility.
-I notified the Epidemiology Department. The Center for Disease Control has been notified. We await the identification and investigation of transmission cases. My report through laboratory evidence mentions the possibility of a major outbreak here and recommends danger of possible transmission through contact with blood, tissues, or body fluids of infected animals and individuals (including cadavers), or from contact with contaminated surfaces and objects.- the doctor explained slowly. Like...?
I rolled my eyes impatiently. I shouldn't be there meddling and changing the course of natural events. Only the hospital was full of people, there were children and women and old people. It was hell. And Angel was right there. Damn it!
- The contact is worse, I'm afraid. - I started saying what I shouldn't. I think it was the doctor's expression that showed no skepticism.
A doctor always knows when things are going wrong. There, real chaos began to set in.
- The virus is transmitted through the atmosphere. It also stays indoors. - I sighed discouraged. - Knowing the form of transmission will not contain the progress of the disease.
The doctor shook his head in disgust.
- It is necessary to guide people on what are effective preventive measures.
I laughed skeptically.
-The virus can remain in the air for hours and infect other people. And it will continue until it spreads across the planet.
-We need to spread the alert recommending, in addition to avoiding close contact with infected people and hand hygiene frequently, "avoid crowded places, places of close contact and confined and closed spaces with little ventilation ...
The man was talking and his mind was far away from that room. I watched the doctor take a small device out of his pocket and sighed miserably.
-Enough! I already said what you wanted! - I decided categorically. - There is no way to save most of these people here. Give the damn medication to the girl and... Oh, nothing like that, doctor.
The problem with knowing what will happen is precisely the desire to interfere in the natural course of events. That in general never ended well. There were always consequences.
Okay, I had said too much. I didn't mean to say that I could allow the doctor to get out of there and shout out what really happened.
There were Confederation guidelines that prohibited it. For me, at that moment I could send them all to damn hell. All those people arriving with the first symptoms ... Agh! They brought horrible memories of Édrin. In less than ten days our entire planet was contaminated. There were millions of dead. There was no effective medication.
- I can't even let you announce this to the world. - I was sorry.
Maybe a little mental persuasion ... Hell! I didn't like anything.
Now the doctor was beginning to evaluate me with different eyes. I was the one who knew what was going on. He didn't even doubt it for a minute or question it.
-How can you know all this? You notified the CDC just yesterday with the first cases .... Who ... who are you?
Who was I?
- Take your people and try to get away somewhere safe, doctor. I just need antibiotics for the girl and ...
The man shook his head in an unnerving denial.
-I don't know how things work where they come from. Only Small Mountain is quite small. The girl's caregivers may not even care about her adopted daughter, but Angel is my patient.
Great! it got better and better!
-Angel can get worse over time and trigger a clot in the head causing a chronic subdural hematoma. I don't know if you understand me. They form with blood hardening and are an essential part of hemostasis (the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel).
Shit!
Of course, I knew that mental reprogramming was not a process that guaranteed someone's safety. The girl should have rebelled to sheer exhaustion to come to such a situation. A hybrid! Perhaps it was the hybridization process. She didn't look healthy at all.
-We found no evidence that one thrombolytic drug was clearly better than another, or that injecting the thrombolytic into the artery would be better than the vein and ...
-Just apply the damn medication! - I decided to take all the risks with the decision and turned on the wrist computer. - Iron, I need you to monitor the girl and check Angel's bio-organic standards.
The doctor's eyes focused on my small object on the wrist with bulging eyes.
-But this is...
- Sir. The limited data available suggest that administering thrombolytics at higher doses increases the rate of intracranial hemorrhage. - Spartackus' artificial intelligence begins to search the databases for the information I wanted.
I swear mentally.
- However, the evidence is insufficient to conclude that lower doses of thrombolytics would be more effective than higher doses, or whether one drug would be better than another and moreover ...
- Do an analysis and look for microchips implanted under the skin, Iron. Any small bulge. It must be almost imperceptible.
It took me what seemed like forever and looking at the doctor, I motioned with my hand that he was silent.
-I can locate biometric chips for identification on her forearm. - Iron didn't tell me anything that I still didn't suspect.
-The device uses technology far superior to that of NFC. Alert microbiologist mentions adverse reactions of the human organism.
I smiled at the doctor as if he were insane there. It couldn't be that simple. After all an easy thing.
-Neutralize the technology for bio-organic identification of it. This will give way to the infernal clot they suspect.
-You want to tell me ... do you want to tell me how you know all this? - The man was just confused and amazed.
I sighed knowing that would inevitably end up exhausted using my power there until I adapted to the temperature of the planet.
-Just do it, Iron. Disable all the damn chip functioning on her until we can remove it with the ship's automatic doctor ... Ravenack wouldn't be staying without leaving a welcome reception.
The doctor gasped at that. It was the hour I was finally waiting for. I could, with very little tolerance, complain about the imprudence of their medicine in trying to convince the girl who was almost a lunatic with the damned memories.
-But ..., but who are you? What ship? - the doctor asked, starting to walk away slowly as if I were the ghost there.
I shook my head. It was too much temptation. It could demand many satisfactions from him.
-You wanted a damn person in charge of the girl, didn't you, doctor? I replied furiously.- I walked away, but I'm back now. -My voice was firm and made my annoyance very clear there. - I don't think I've been appreciating your primitive medicine around here.
The doctor looked at me puzzled.
-But who...
Annoying conversation. I raised my hand in the air, looking the man in the eye, maintaining eye contact. Just a little mental pressure ... nothing too serious.
- You will leave this hospital, comrade, and look for your family. There is not much time left. Take your people and get out of here.
I know my eyes were shining red at that moment with disgust. Damn K'Aldriants. Even unwillingly, I had assimilated some of their skills. It was what gave such creatures a host for so long. Patience- could have been much worse.
I saw the man turn his head in the clouds under my mental command while I was there in surprise.
What the hell had I done in my head to claim Angel as my responsibility?
She belongs to Ravenack. Forget what you can't have, Zorack.
And suddenly I didn't want it to be that way. It was me that the girl should belong to.
My problems were just beginning. Until I gained Caílin's trust, she was still going to give me quite a headache.
I didn't stop to think about it for a long time. I was in a hurry. I went back to the infirmary, avoiding showing my displeasure at seeing the girl with needles stuck in her arm and I looked very carefully at the serum they administered to her. Rays! How long yet?
However, there was no time for that. If the K'Aldriants were around, Angel would never be safe there. I walked over to the bed, holding my breath. Her appearance was innocent and oblivious to all the horror that threatened to surround us. As always. Very slowly, I touched her face with my hands flat, forcing my mind very carefully to try any kind of connection with her.
-Caílin ...- I called very low and attentive to every detail of the face I knew so well.
It was a breathtaking face with those dimples in its chin and upturned nose. Fatally I was walking to ruin. My resistance to that girl was minimal after the provocative visions of the bath. And even more after the night I had her in my arms. I remembered all her ways when I was younger. Everything suddenly came back to mind. And it was the temptation to tempt.
I looked at the mouth of inviting and sexy lips parted.
"Come on, Zorack, you won't do this!"
And why not? I burned with the urge to try that provocative mouth.
When had it been the last time after Klaus that I felt this way?
Angel.
I really wanted not only to enjoy that body but also to sleep with her. There, with her eyes closed, the girl looked small and vulnerable. This was not going to work. I had screwed a good variety of females in N'Tirlay before, never being so involved with any of them. Not definitely after Klaus.
"Do you know what you're doing, comrade? Rays!
What is she doing to me?"
It was a dilemma. I wanted and couldn't. Still, I bowed and my mouth was close to hers. A kiss ... Her smell was enveloping and reminded Édrin's mornings as always. There was a familiar smell of mint and cinnamon.