by Lee Stephen
“Righ’, well yeh got your answer.”
The door to Room 14 opened again. They regarded the lounge entrance, where two voices made their approach. It was David and Galina. As soon as Galina stepped in the lounge, her eyes found the table. David entered right behind her.
“We have a problem,” he said.
“Yeah, I think we migh’ be talkin’ abou’ it.”
“Scott?”
“Yeah.”
David stepped to the table. “Do you know what he told Galya?”
No one at the table answered.
“He is returning to active duty,” Galina said. “He no longer wants supervision.”
“Wha’?” asked Becan.
David leaned against the counter. “He also told her that if she questions him about it, he’ll punish her.”
“Punish?” asked Travis. “Punish like how?”
“He did not say,” answered Galina. “But I dared not ask. He looked like he would strike me if I did.”
“That’s not like Scott at all.”
“I have never seen him like this. In all my time with him, he has never looked like he does now. He looks like different person.”
“Do yeh think he’s gone loopers?”
“That is the thing that worries me. He does not look crazy. Not in that way.” Galina paused and frowned. “He looks focused. He looks like a man with a mission.”
“That’s exactly how he came across to me, as well,” said Esther.
“What did he say to you?”
“He ordered me to find out what the Silent Fever was. He said he didn’t care who I had to kill to do it.”
“Scott said that?” asked David, arching his eyebrows.
“That’s the same reaction we had,” said Travis.
“He hollered,” Esther said. “Several times. He said I was a Type-2 scout. He told me to tactically observe.”
“Well, wha’ does he expect yeh to do? Wave your hands an’ make the answer appear?”
“I don’t know, Becan!”
“The bottom line,” Galina said, “is that he suspects something. He does not think her death was an accident.”
Becan’s nostrils flared. “Yeh know, I said tha’ before, an’ nobody listened. There’s somethin’ not righ’ abou’ this at all.”
“Just because Scott suggests foul play, doesn’t mean there is,” said David.
“Dave, wha’s your bloody problem? This is Remmy we’re talkin’ abou’.”
“I don’t have a problem. I’m only saying he’s unstable.”
“He didn’t sound unstable,” Esther said.
“Wha’ if Remmy has a point?”
“If he does,” David said, “we’ll find it. But let’s not jump to conclusions.”
“I can’t bloody believe I’m hearin’ this. It sounds like you’re defendin’ this God-awful place.”
David scoffed. “I’m not defending anything. The only thing I’m saying is to study the situation. Study it, and if there’s something to conclude, do something. But veck, let’s keep our heads on here.”
“He wants a memorial,” Galina said. “Tonight, for Nicole. Before she goes back to America.”
“He wants to see her again,” Esther said.
“How can he even be thinking straight?” Travis asked. “I mean…his fiancee just died.”
“He’s finding something to blame,” said David. “I know. I lost friends in the force. If you can’t deal with it, you find something to get mad about. You can cope with that just fine.”
“Then who’s his bloody target?”
“The Silent Fever. Whatever it is.”
Esther folded her arms against the table. “Please, someone tell me what I’m supposed to do. He expects an answer from me, but I haven’t the slightest idea where to go. Does anyone even know what the Silent Fever is?”
“No,” said Galina. “It is unknown disease.”
“Have yeh ever studied it?”
“Nyet.”
“Could she have caught it from one of us?” asked Travis. “We were the only ones around her.”
“If she caught it from one of us, one of us would be dead,” said David.
“But what if some people have natural immunity?”
Becan turned to Galina again. “Wha’ would yeh have to do to study it? To get a sample?”
“I am a combat medic,” she answered. “I am not medical researcher.”
“Well I’m no technician, but I can un-jam a bloody rifle.”
“Do you even know what a medical researcher is?”
“Maybe it was something in the food,” David said. “She got sick right after she ate.”
“Wouldn’t we be sick as well?” Esther asked.
“I don’t know.”
“She had a shoulder ache before she ate anything. Big Willie said tha’ was one o’ the symptoms.”
Galina turned to David. “Scott saw her that morning, before he came into the lounge. Whatever it was, it happened between then and when she sat down in the cafeteria.”
“Maybe after Scott left,” Travis said. “When she was by herself in his room.”
“I wonder if Joe was by himself when he got it?” David asked.
“We could ask Will,” Becan answered. “Annyone seen him lately?”
“He’s probably in Room 8,” said Travis. “Or the weight room.”
Becan and David exchanged a glance. Becan rose to his feet. “I’ll go find him.”
“Do that. Anyone else know anyone who died of the Silent Fever?”
Galina shook her head. “Many have died, but none that I knew personally. I could ask some people I know in R&D.”
“Good idea.”
Galina stood to join them.
“All right everyone,” said David, “my gut says not to mention this to anyone else. Let’s see what we can find out ourselves.”
“What about me?” Esther asked. “What should I do?”
“We’re doing it now,” David answered. “If Scott asks you anything, tell him you’re working on it.”
“All righ’,” Becan said. “I’m goin’.”
“Me too,” said Galina. They headed for the lounge door.
Before they could reach it, a new voice broke the newly formed silence. It was from someone who had been there all along. It was the first time he had spoken aloud.
“Everyone, wait.”
Becan and Galina stopped. David, Travis, and Esther turned around.
It was Oleg. The soldier leaned forward over the table, where his eyes bored into the empty space in front of him. His fists cupped anxiously together.
David swapped a look with Becan, and the Irishman inched to the table.
“Oleg?” Galina asked. She scrutinized him uncertainly.
“Please, everyone,” Oleg said, holding out a tense hand. “Do not go yet.”
No one moved. The entire room’s attention zeroed upon him.
“Oleg,” David said, “is there something you think we should know?”
For several moments, Oleg didn’t answer. He simply stared down at the tabletop, as David and the others cautiously neared him. When he finally spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically low. “Please. Sit down. Please.”
“You know,” accused Becan. “You know, don’t yeh?”
“Oleg…” breathed Galina.
Oleg’s gaze lifted only to regard the lounge door. “Please, lock the door.”
David did as requested.
“Everything in me tells me, Oleg, be quiet,” Oleg said. “This is not for me to speak. It is not even for me to know. But I cannot say nothing.”
David lowered into a chair across from him. Galina sat beside him, as Becan, Travis, and Esther watched from their feet.
“I will tell you something now, but you must swear. You must swear to your grave that you did not hear this from me. That you did not hear it from anyone.”
“What?” asked David.
“You must swear it. Al
l of you.”
David and Becan exchanged a hesitant look, before David sighed. “All right, Oleg. I swear.”
“I swear,” Galina said. Travis and Esther said the same.
Oleg’s eyes turned to Becan, who stood before him with arms folded across his chest. “Becan?”
Becan said nothing.
David turned to him. “Come on, Becan.”
“I swear.”
Oleg nodded and prepared his words. His eyes returned to the tabletop for several seconds, then he breathed hesitantly. “I came to you from the First. You all know this, it is not secret. But do you know what the First is?”
None of them answered.
“The First is one of most Nightman-occupied units. The captain, the commander, both lieutenants, and half of the soldiers, they are all Nightmen. The captain and commander are fulcrums. The others are all slayers.” His fingers played together. “I was never one of them, but I lived among them. I slept next to them. I ate with them.
“There are few whom I became good friends with. I will not tell you their names, but…after missions, I would converse with them in the lounge. We would joke and laugh. It became like I was no different. They treated me the same as their own.”
David’s eyes remained fixed on Oleg.
The Russian checked the lounge door, then he continued. “One night it was late, very late. I could not sleep. So I got out of bed and walked to the lounge.” His fingers continued to fiddle. “When I walked in, there were three Nightmen around the table—one of them was my good friend. This was not unusual, because on many nights operatives who cannot sleep talk in the lounge. But as soon as I walked in, they stopped talking. It was odd how it happened. It was as if I stepped into secret meeting, but…it was not secret meeting. It was just talking in the lounge.
“They invited me in, and we talked for a while. It was about nothing, just weather, and girls, and Novosibirsk. We always talk about these things.
“I went back to my bed to sleep quickly, because I knew that even though they were talking to me, they did not want me there. It is foolish to stay where you are not wanted, but it is double foolish to do this with Nightmen. So I did not want to trouble them and make enemies.”
“Get to the bleedin’ point,” Becan said.
“Becan, can it,” said David.
Oleg sighed. “That night, I lay wondering what they were talking about. For hours, I could not sleep. I was curious, but I was also afraid. I was afraid that they thought I heard something, and they would try to silence me.” His eyes lifted to meet them. “But the days passed, and they said nothing to me. So I knew it must have been okay.
“But still, I kept wondering…what were they talking about? Why was it big secret? I was afraid, yes, but more than I was afraid, I wanted to know. So one day, me and the Nightman who was my good friend, we went for a walk outside. We did this every now and then, when one of us has problem. About work, about girls, about anything. That was when I asked him. I asked him if they were upset with me for walking into the lounge.
“He said they were not, and we continued to walk. I thought maybe he would say more, but he did not. That was when I decided, I must ask him what it was they were talking about.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I do not know why I asked this. It was stupid. It is stupid to ask Nightmen such things. But I thought, ‘this is my friend, he will not hurt me.’
“So I did it. I asked him what it was they were talking about. As soon as I asked the question, I thought, ‘Oleg, you are fool.’ I wished I had said nothing. But my friend did not get angry. We walked on for a moment longer, until he asked me, could I keep a secret?”
At that moment, Oleg stopped. He shut his eyes, casting them down at the table. His teeth gritted together.
“Oleg?” asked Galina.
“I don’t want to say it,” he said to her in Russian. “I wish I had not said anything.”
“You must,” she replied, also in Russian. “If you know something, you must tell us.”
The others listened, the meaning of the conversation lost to them.
“If they know I told you, they will kill me.”
“Oleg, please. This is for Scott. He must know the truth.”
“He told me,” Oleg answered in English, his frightened eyes opening to them. “He told me what it was. They were talking about the Silent Fever. When I asked him if they knew what the cause of the virus was, he smiled. And he said, ‘You talk to it now.’”
David felt a horrible chill grip him. Behind him, Becan and Travis felt the same. They were paralyzed. Galina sat upright.
“It was what they use,” Oleg said. “It is what they kill with.” His gaze focused on them. “It is how they fulfill the Rule.”
Galina gasped. “The Murder Rule?”
“Da.”
“Oh my God,” said David.
The others stood stunned in silence.
“It is disease that they made,” Oleg went on. “There is no cure, there does not need to be. It is not disease that can spread.”
“But how did she catch it?” asked David.
“I do not know. It must be some kind of injection.”
“But she would have felt it,” said Becan. “Wouldn’t she?”
Oleg shook his head. “I do not know.”
“It could have numbed her,” Travis said. “Some spiders are like that, I think some other animals too. The victim doesn’t know they’ve been stung.”
“So that’s how they do it?” asked David. “They use the Silent Fever?”
“That is not only way,” said Oleg. “I asked him that very question. He told me that there are many ways they murder. The Silent Fever is just one of them.”
“So some dregg hopper just became a Nightman,” growled Becan. “An’ murdered Nicole to do it.”
“If she died of Silent Fever,” Oleg said, “then that is what happened.”
“We have to tell him,” Becan said. “We have to tell Remmy.”
“If we tell him, he’ll kill the guy,” said David.
“Grand, maybe he should!”
Galina rubbed her forehead. “Scott does not even know who did it. We do not even know.”
“He’s going to want to find out,” said Travis, turning to Esther. “Don’t you think?”
“Absolutely,” she said, nodding.
Oleg pleaded. “Please, do not say that I told you this. Do not tell him my name.”
“We don’t have to,” answered David. “He told Esther to find out what the Silent Fever was. She found out. I don’t think he really cares how.”
“We have to tell him,” said Becan. “Nicole’s dead, for cryin’ ou’ loud.”
“Becan, think about this for a minute.”
“Wha’s there to think abou’, Dave? She’s dead. His fiancee is dead. Wouldn’t you want to know if tha’ was your wife?”
“Yeah, I would. And my motivation would be to strangle the guy who did it.”
“He will kill him,” said Esther. “I saw that in his eyes.”
“I think we should wait,” David said. “I don’t think he has to know about this right now.”
“If not now,” Travis asked, “when?”
“I don’t know. Maybe not at all.”
“That’s not fair to Scott, though.”
“I’m saying this in Scott’s best interests.”
Travis shook his head. “I just think he would tell me, if the roles were reversed. He’d tell you. He wouldn’t lie and keep it from you.”
“Let’s hold a vote,” said Becan.
“No,” the others answered simultaneously.
“Wonderful, thanks.”
Galina sighed and leaned against the table. “Here is the problem with not telling him. The longer we do not tell him, the longer he will be angry at Esther.”
Esther looked at Galina as her name was mentioned.
“He told Esther to find out the truth. I saw in his face, he is serious right now. If she d
oes not find out what Silent Fever is, he will get angry with her. I do not know what he will do.”
David frowned. “So you think we should tell him?”
“I do not know what to think. This is not normal situation. But I know that this is just as important to Esther as it is to Scott. The longer he does not know, the worse it will be for her.”
David turned to face Esther. “You said he was forceful with you, wasn’t he?”
“Yes sir. I thought for a moment he’d strike me.”
“Even if we tell him,” Galina said, “he will not know who did it. He will not have a face for his anger.”
“He might take it out on Dostoevsky,” David said.
“Bloody grand!” said Becan. “I’ll help him ou’.”
David shot him a look. “And Dostoevsky will kill him. Happy?”
“Here is what we should do,” said Galina. “When he asks, we will tell him. The longer he does not know, the worse it will be for him. This is certainty. Will it be worse for him if he does know? I do not know. But unless he has a name, it does not matter. We do not tell him anything, until he asks us for it.”
“What if that’s the next time we see him?”
“He should not ask most of us anything. The only one he spoke to about this was Esther. If he asks you, Esther, you have to tell him.”
She swallowed. “I will if I must, but I’m not sure how he’ll react.”
“Refer him to me,” David said. “If he asks you, tell him to come to me. I’ll talk to him.”
“This is best thing for us to do,” Galina said. “Is it what we all want to do? No. But what we all want to do is go back in time and save Nicole, and that is not possible. This has been done. We cannot pretend it has not.”
“We’ll tell him because it’s the right thing to do,” David finally agreed. “I don’t like it, but I concede to your point. Now what about this memorial? Is this something we can do?”
“I will talk to the captain,” Galina said. “It is not normal to have such a thing, but I believe he will make an exception.”
“What should I do?” asked Esther. “Until he asks me for information?”
“Disappear,” David answered. “Go running, go swimming, go off reading somewhere…do something to make yourself invisible. He’s got to think you’re out there looking for answers. The last thing Scott needs is to think he’s not being adhered to.”
