by Meg Ripley
“Espera un minuto… How do you know about us? And more importantly, how did you know I was shifter?” Ramon was looking at me suspiciously. “Who are you, really? You’re not an entomologist, are you? Is your name even Min?” He was getting angry, but I refused to go on trial.
“Everything I said to you is true!”
“So, do some explaining! How do you know about shifters? ¿Qué está pasando?” Ramon was still trying to look at his shoulder, seeming to realize there was something there that revealed his true identity. “What are you looking at back there?”
“If you sit down, I will explain,” I said finally, walking over to my luggage. I pulled out two things: the box of ticks and a pair of tweezers. I walked back over the bed where Ramon had sat down; his eyes were locked with mine, his brow furrowed in anger.
I checked the box for any cracks where ticks could have escaped from, and there were none. It was still completely sealed.
“Did you go in my suitcase at any point and open this box?” I asked, holding it up.
“No, I didn’t. What the fuck are those? You brought bugs with you?”
“They’re not just any bugs. They’re ticks.” I took a deep breath as I set the box on the bed and walked over to Ramon with the tweezers.
“What are you doing with those?”
“They’re part of my assignment. Here, hold still; this is going to hurt.” I grabbed the tick carefully by the head with the tweezers and twisted it around, dislodging it from Ramon’s skin.
“Damn!” Ramon exclaimed, his shoulder flinching. “What the fuck was that?”
I held the tick in front of his eyes. It was still moving and engorged with Ramon’s blood.
“I had a tick on me?” Ramon looked from the insect to his shoulder and back again. “Must have been from the last time I was at the park, I guess.”
“Well, not necessarily.”
“No entiendo.”
I drew in a deep breath, “Let me explain. What I’m about to tell you is top secret government information. As far as I know of, only three people know about this operation.” Ramon’s eyes grew wide as I continued, “A small faction of the government known as the NCPD-CID became aware of the real cause of death associated with Danielle Peterson. When the FBI report was filed, it seemed fishy, so they looked into it. They found satellite surveillance of the attack and therefore became aware of bear shifters.”
“So, you work for this department?”
“I guess you could say that. I work for the CDC, and the NCPD-CID is a sub department. They hired me to come to Acadia on a special assignment.”
“And I’m guessing it wasn’t to collect aquatic insect data?” Ramon crossed his arms over his chest.
“No, it wasn’t,” I sighed. “Well, about this bear shifter who attacked Danielle Peterson…based on what you’ve told me about your job responsibilities, I’m guessing that you’re the most qualified to study him.”
“Si,” Ramon nodded.
“And were you able to detect anything?”
“We concluded that he was affected by some sort of rabies mutation that he picked up somewhere.” Ramon seemed hesitant to disclose this data to me.
“Well, they know that, too, and they wanted to help. With these guys,” I said, grabbing a vial from my bag and sealing the engorged tick I removed from Ramon in it.
“How were these ticks supposed to help us?” he asked as I placed the vial in his hand for him to examine more closely.
“They contain the vaccine for the mutated virus. They used the rabies vaccine to create one that could combat the mutation as well, and they conducted two trials and found it effective in preventing infection. Due to the attack happening here, they wanted to make sure no one else would contract the virus by vaccinating everyone. They would rather have bear shifters living in secret, than have to deal with the ill effects of infected rogue bears running around,” I shrugged. It actually wasn’t as hard to talk about this as I thought it would be.
Ramon seemed very interested. “So, they sent you here to…vaccinate us?”
“Yes. But something is wrong,” I admitted, and Ramon’s eyes met mine with more confusion. “See the marking on its back? I didn’t release any of these particular ticks here in Acadia.”
“That’s not possible; you just found one on me. Maybe one escaped from the box?”
“I just checked and it’s still completely sealed. Unless you opened it, I don’t know how this ended up on you.”
Just then, my stomach dropped. I paused for a moment, worrying my lip as I recalled the virus’ symptoms from the NCPD-CID’s files: fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, insomnia… I started to put two and two together, and wasn’t sure if I should even suggest this, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
“Another thing is, well…Ramon, I think you might have contracted the virus somehow.”
“What?”
I walked over to the file I was given by the woman and showed it to Ramon. The first page outlined the symptoms of the mutated virus, and Ramon shook his head in disbelief at what he was reading. “I don’t understand. If the tick was on me, that means it administered the vaccine to me, so I shouldn’t have the virus. Right?” His eyes bore into mine with sheer panic.
Just then, if only for a split second, Ramon’s hand turned into a bear paw; when I blinked, it had transformed back to a human hand. I covered my mouth, staring at him in disbelief.
“Dios mío,” Ramon’s eyes were worried when they met mine and my heart sank. He didn’t deserve this.
“I don’t know…I don’t even know how to explain this or what’s going on…” I choked out as tears pricked the corners of my eyes.
He let out a long sigh, “Well, when I have questions that need answering, I always go to my lab.”
“I think we definitely need to dissect the tick and see what’s going on.” I grabbed the vial from him and the case filled with ticks, putting them back in the suitcase. “Come on! Let’s go!”
Ramon put his sweaty shirt back on and slipped into his boots, and we were out the door in no time.
8
Ramon
Min had pinned the tick down with her tweezers and held it under my microscope as I picked up a fine scalpel.
“Okay, so make an incision in its belly. A few drops of blood should come out, which will be yours, but we’ll have to examine it under the microscope as well to see if anything other than the virus is in it.”
I nodded. This whole thing was crazy, though. How could I possibly have the virus?
I made a small incision along the tick’s belly, and just as Min said, a few drops of dark red blood spilled onto the slide.
“Is it supposed to be that dark?” Min asked.
“The virus itself is black, and when it attacks blood cells, those turn black as well. The further the virus progresses, the darker the blood becomes.”
Min removed the insect so only the blood was left, and I placed a cover slip on top of it to spread the blood more thinly. I peered closely through the eyepiece to examine its contents.
“There it is.” I could see the virus attacking my blood cells, turning them black, and as I scanned for anything else, nothing was noticeable. I stepped aside and let Min take a look.
“Yeah, I don’t see anything except the virus attacking your blood cells.” Min stepped back and looked around, thinking. “Maybe we should open up one of my ticks to see what we should be looking for?”
“Sure.”
Min went over to her luggage and opened the case of ticks. She delicately removed one with the tweezers and placed it on the table before opening its belly with the scalpel. Taking a bit of its gut contents and smearing it onto a slide, she placed it under the microscope for me to examine.
As I viewed the specimen, I shot a confused look to Min. Why are the innards of the ticks carrying the vaccine the same color as the live virus?
My eyes widened. “Mierda…”
�
��What? What is it?” Min pushed me aside to look through the eyepiece and looked up at me in horror. “They lied to me; they’re the ones spreading the virus! And they conned me into helping them! I can’t fucking believe this.”
“Are they trying to make us into monsters, and then expose us as such to freak everyone out?”
“Or worse…Maybe they’re trying to wipe you out…”
She was right; in fact, her thoughts were probably more likely. Exposing our kind to the world would cause an uproar and panic. If the government simply wiped us all out instead, they could just pretend we never existed. Problem solved.
“So, that’s what happened to the rogue bear who killed Danielle Peterson. He was infected with the virus.”
“Did he die recently?” Min asked.
I couldn’t answer her right away. A sharp, intense pain shot through my temples and I was blinded for a moment. I screamed in pain and held my head; it felt like my skull was splitting in two.
“Ramon! Are you okay?” Min rushed over and pressed the back of her palm against my forehead once again. Her hand felt cold against my burning, sweat-drenched skin, and it was more than welcomed.
Just as quickly as it came, the pain had dissipated. I blinked repeatedly until my vision returned.
“Yeah, sorry about that. It must have been some kind of passing tension headache.” I smiled to reassure her, but I could tell she was not convinced. “What did you ask me before?”
“I asked if the rogue shifter had died recently.”
“Yes, actually. He died the morning of the night we met. I had just finished his autopsy hours before I came to the bar.”
“Then that’s when you were infected; the tick must have detached from the corpse during the autopsy and latched onto you.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I read in the file that if the tick administers the ‘vaccine’ successfully, it leaves the shifter in search of another host. So, I’m guessing once the virus kills the host, they move onto the next shifter.”
“Un-fucking-believable!” I slammed my fist on the table, trying to control my anger, but I could feel it bubbling inside me. I already felt like a furnace and the pounding in my head wasn’t helping.
“Do you guys spray for ticks?”
“No; it would be cost-prohibitive. Acadia is so large and would need to be sprayed several times per year to be effective. We just don’t have that kind of funding. Not only that, spraying could potentially impact the ecosystem in other ways.”
“I’m not even sure it would have worked on these ticks, anyway. Who knows what other mutations they have?” Min shrugged, trying to console me, but it was hard to think of anything else.
I had been infected, and certain death was just around the corner.
Beyond myself, I had to let Trent and Knox know. As the disease progressed, I’d become a serious threat to the clan and park visitors.
And Min.
In that moment, my fear turned to anger. And then, resolve.
“If those putas think they can take us down, they’ve got another thing coming. We’ve got all those ticks carrying live specimens of the virus; surely, if the two of us put our heads together, we can come up with an antidote and beat this.”
Min’s eyes lit up as she looked into the glass box and counted the ticks. “We only have fifteen ticks left, so we’ll need to be careful. That’s fifteen attempts at an antidote.”
“I’ll have to notify my boss immediately, so we can get started. You said the government put you up to this; do you remember the names of the people you are taking orders from?”
“Yeah, it was a man Eric Hanson, and a woman, I think her name was Cassidy Powers.”
“Cassidy Powers? ¿Estás seguro? Positive? That’s impossible!” I was pacing back and forth in disbelief after Min had revealed that she was taking orders from a shifter—from our clan.
“I’m fairly positive that was her name. She only mentioned it once and probably hoped I would forget it, honestly.” Min rolled her eyes. “She was not a very nice person; that much I know for certain.”
What? Cassidy was one of the nicest people I knew!
“That sounds so unlike her…” I continued to pace, trying to wrap my head around this shocking news.
“So, you know her? I mean, she told me she worked in Acadia, but I’m not sure how close you all are.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say we’re close friends or anything, but being a part of the clan, I would consider her family—but certainly not anymore.”
“Wait, she’s part of your clan? So, she’s a shifter, too?”
I nodded slowly as rage burned in the pit of my stomach. “I wonder how the guy who killed Danielle Peterson became infected. He was long gone by the time we got to him; we couldn’t even get a name out of him.”
“Well, Cassidy did say she administered the first two trials herself. That was obviously one of the incidents, but did you have any other run ins with malicious shifters?”
“Yeah, last fall, my boss’ girlfriend was cornered by three rogue bears who came to Acadia, and one of them in particular was such an asshole that he ended up getting himself killed. Maybe he was the subject of the first trial? It’s all coming together now…”
“So, what are we going to do first?”
“We are going to tell my boss and the law enforcement ranger of the park and have Cassidy detained for questioning; hopefully, she’ll give us more information about the ticks, and then we can work on the antidote.”
I reached out to Knox with my mind. Boss? We’ve got a problem. A HUGE problem.
Fuck, what’s going on, Ramon?
Where is Cassidy right now? I did my best to keep my thoughts calm, but between my rage and my worsening symptoms, it wasn’t easy.
Surveying the landscape of the park for safety improvements. If we want to make visitors feel safe in the park again, we have to do everything we can to make sure it’s secure.
Well, about that rogue bear I did the autopsy on two weeks ago…
Yeah?
Remember we ruled it as a mutated rabies virus infection?
Yeah?
Cassidy planted it.
What the…? That’s a very serious accusation, Ramon. Do you have any proof to back this up?
Tons. If you have Trent detain her, I can bring all the proof to the holding lodge, and you can see it for yourself.
You’d better be right about this. I don’t usually arrest clan members without seeing solid proof firsthand.
Knox, there’s no way she didn’t do it.
Trent is on his way to pick her up. I’ll see you at the holding lodge.
“Alright, let’s go to the holding lodge,” I said, carefully placing the blood and virus slides in a small carrying case so they wouldn’t become tainted on the way over.
“I thought you were going to call your boss?”
“I did.”
She gave me a sideways glance. “What?”
“We have intra-clan telepathy. Anyone in the clan can be reached by thought, but only if by another clan member.”
“So, you used you mind to contact your boss?”
“Yes. He just deployed our law enforcement ranger, Trent, to detain Cassidy.”
I looked up to see Min staring at me, her eyes wide. “I have to admit, that’s pretty cool.”
I shook my head and chuckled. “Come on, we have to bring every bit of proof we have. Knox, my boss, is not going to be easily convinced that Cassidy is conspiring against us unless we have a ton of proof to back us up. You’re an outsider, so I would say the less talking you do, the better. It’ll be more effective if Knox hears everything from me, but he may have some questions for you, so be prepared to be under interrogation as well. Knox will protect his own before he puts his trust in you.”
It was sad, but it was true. I was reluctant to believe Min at first, too, but seeing how she reacted to everything, I knew she had nothing to do with this.
We just had to prove it to Knox and Trent.
“Alright, I’m ready.”
When we got to the holding lodge, both Trent and Knox’s Jeeps were parked outside. Cassidy was detained, and I highly doubted she would confess upon seeing Min, so we both had to be prepared to present our case.
And we were.
We walked into the holding lodge and Min and I exchange looks. Trent and Knox were standing by the desk talking in low voices, while Cassidy was behind bars screaming at them.
“Come on boss, what the hell is this about? You’ve got me locked in here for what?” She heard the door open and froze when she saw Min. That was all the confirmation I needed to know she was guilty, but I wasn’t sure if Trent and Knox had caught it.
“Hey, guys. This is Min Dupont. She’s an entomologist for the CDC.”
“What the hell is she doing here at a time like this?” Knox asked angrily.
“She knows, Knox. About us. I can explain everything.”
“You guys have got to stop telling your girlfriends about us! This is the third woman in a year, all because you guys can’t keep your mouths shut.”
“Well…to be fair…You couldn’t, either.” Trent shrugged and smiled at Min. “Nice to meet you Min, I’m Trent.”
“Pleasure.” She reached out her hand and he shook it. Knox gave her a nod and wasn’t fully ready to accept her with open arms just yet.
“Are you going to tell me what all this is about now?”
“Si.” I started unpacking my microscope and the case of ticks as well as the slides showing my blood and the tick’s innards.
“What the fuck are those?” Trent asked, his face disgusted.
“Ticks. And they are the source of our problem.”
“We’re listening,” Knox said.
“Okay, so the night we went out to the bar, I had just finished the autopsy of the infected shifter. I told you guys I wasn’t feeling well and had a headache. I was also feeling queasy.”
“Yeah, then you took two weeks off to spend with your girlfriend here.” Knox rolled his eyes.
“Well, actually, she spent most of that time taking care of me. I was vomiting all over the place, pure stomach acid and I couldn’t bring myself to swallow anything, not even liquid. I still have a headache, nausea, and I’ve hardly slept in days.”
