ARLEN MAKES A CATCH

1529 4D

“The paramedic said what?” Arlen was incredulous.

“That there was a voice in her head, talking to her about feeding. It happened after she worked on that guard on 155.” The young biotechnician looked confused. They stood in one of Arlen‘s smaller meeting rooms, at a long metal table.

“You tested her?”

“Everything checks out – no imbalances we could find.”

“An andro virus, maybe.”

“Possibly, sir. But there was this. The doctor wanted you to see it.” The technician produced a small sealed vial with a drop of clear fluid at its bottom, and a testkit which she set on the table. “Watch.” She set the vial in a testkit recess, and said, “Kit, apply resonant current.”

A heartbeat passed, and then the vial began to glow more and more strongly. At length, its light outshone the lights in the meeting room they stood in.

“A sputum sample, taken from her just after she reported the guard’s death. Kit, terminate current.”

“Where is this woman?”

“When we found this, we confined her. No physical contact. We had no idea what was happening, and the viral ‘demics have been a big problem.”

“I will interview this woman,” Arlen said. The tests that elicited the sputum radiation reminded him strongly of the very first tests he had performed on the anth. Maybe this was the trace of an alien, loose in the City. The money he had passed to a few City doctors for supplying him with intelligence had just repaid itself, with considerable interest.