by David Nadas
the magnet in his hand, it reminded him of his father, having the answers to everything; exactly what Matt needed right now. He walked back to the hood and slipped his hand and the magnet into the sleeve. Looking through the eyepiece, he edged the magnet near the petri dish and the crystals began to curve toward it. That gave Matt an idea and he ran a sample of the blood from the petri dish through the NIRS. There was very little ferrous oxide showing up on the graph.
"Do we have metal detectors here?" Matt asked.
"Somewhere, but I haven't seen them in awhile. Not sure they even work. Why?"
Matt placed the magnet in the center of the largest circle and spun it like a top.
"I want to take the skiff out. Right there." Matt said, tapping his finger near the bank of the Tuckahoe. "Did you notice any holes in your sampling grids?"
Dan squinted. "No, I wasn't looking for any but I see what you're getting at. Landing gear markings! Man, I hadn't thought of that!"
"Seriously dude," Matt chuckled. "You need to read something other than sci-fi. Like in meteorite impact channels. The crystals are magnetized and appear to be extracting the iron from the blood. That may explain why the bitterns were seeking out greater deposits of metal by clamping down on the cleat."
Beyond the bay, the sky was brightening. The horizon was a striation of orange and cobalt blue and the air was still. The temperature had risen to 29 degrees, cold enough for a thin collar of ice to form along the banks as they traveled across the bay toward the Tuckahoe River.
"I hope no one sees us in these hazmat suits!" Matt shouted over the whine of the outboard as their skiff glided full-throttle across the mirrored surface of the bay.
"We might run into some duck hunters when we get closer”, Dan shouted back. "They tend to use the Phragmites as a blind." Approaching the Tuckahoe, Dan dropped the throttle and the stern wave rode past them into the bank, lifting apart the thin sheets of ice. When their GPS indicated they were at the center of Dan’s largest grid, Matt lowered the metal detector into the water. They traversed from bank to bank for half an hour with no hint of metal below them.
"Let’s try your second coordinate." Matt suggested and pulled the detector from the water. As they motored up the Tuckahoe, they heard a series of shotgun blasts, but none close enough for concern.
When the GPS indicated they were near the center of the second grid, Dan cut the engine and raised it from the shallow water, allowing them to nudge the bow into the bank. Matt hopped out and secured the anchor into the black mud and waited for Dan to hand him the second detector and a fiberglass channel marker. They walked into the thrush of reeds, Matt looking up at the purple plumes of Phragmites, which stood a good two feet above their heads and thick with seed. His handheld GPS indicated they were near the center of the grid.
"Lots of trampled reeds here, Dan."
"The interns.” Dan replied.
"Shit.” Matt noted. “Remind me to check up on them when we get back to the lab." They began their inspection of the area.
"I’m not picking up anything," Dan said, sweeping the head of the detector from side to side. Matt pulled a collection bag from his waist and sampled the mud.
"If there was a breakup of meteorite carrying this stuff and it wasn't recent, we won't see any markings." Dan stated. "This area was flooded from the nor’easter a month ago so any holes would have been filled in by the silt." He was about to place the detector down when a sharp loop came through his headset. "Something here!" He waved the detector side to side to pinpoint the exact location. Matt poked the fiberglass pole into the mud until he hit something just below the surface.
"Got it!" Matt said, kneeling into the mud and carefully cutting through the rhizomes until he could lift the sample core and turn it over. Tangled beneath the rhizomes was an old tin beer can.
"So much for that." Matt said, as he bagged the cutout and labeled it with its GPS coordinates. "Let's move to the next one." Over the course of an hour they still had nothing but continued to collect soil samples and Phragmites plumes before heading back to the skiff.
The wind had started to pick up as they rode back across the bay, listening to the whine of the engine and dodging the spray as the flat hull slapped the surface of the water.
Back at the dock, they washed down the boat and gear, rinsing off the black mud that was everywhere. It already felt like they had put in a full day's work as they placed the collection bags under the hoods and started the process of cataloging. An hour and a half later, they were prepping new slides for analysis. The NIRS graphs of the soil indicated typical methane and other organics; nothing looked out of the ordinary. However, the plumes they collected seemed swollen with black beads and the seedlings were on the brink of releasing.
"Not good." Matt said, letting out a full cheek of air in frustration. “There’s nothing in the mud, so it's not coming up through the ground.”
"Yeah. Forecast for tomorrow is not good either." Dan said, reading from NOAA's weather site. "Clear skies overnight, morning temperatures in the mid-thirties with strong gusts out of the east. Perfect conditions. They would have lifted today had it not been for the light west breeze. Tomorrow's the day."
"What if this thing can jump to any living thing?" Matt said with defeat in his voice.
"You need to call this in." Dan said, much more rational than he was earlier in the morning.
"And say what to Andy? We've got a couple of twigs sticking out of a pair of bitterns and have traced the vector to an alien spore symbiotically living on Phragmites that turns their hosts into zombies that seek out metal in hopes of erecting an antenna to contact their buddies in space? Oh, and we think the alien spores can jump to humans,” Matt said sarcastically. "Do you want to make that call?"
"Just use the excuse that it's above our pay grade and dump it on Andy." Dan replied. "And I like your theory of the twigs setting up an antenna. Makes sense now.
"Dude. You are like no help with this alien thing. Knowing Andy, he's not even in the office yet, so can you put together some images of your slides and the bittern dissections and save them to the N drive in temp for me? I'll start drafting the write-up and analysis for Andy." An hour later the phone rang.
"Nice photo-shopping." Andy said, his tobacco voice rasping through the speakerphone. "Write up was good too." His laugh transitioning into a ragged cough.
Matt was not sure how to start. "Andy, you might want to come down here and bring the CDC gal with you. It's no joke Andy. Dan found something." Matt paused, searching for the right words. "Hate to say this Andy, but it's possibly extraterrestrial." He could hear Andy trying to gain control of his amused cough.
“Andy, you know me. I’m the straight guy in the act here. The contagion jumped. The crystals in slide 3A are lithotropic, extracting the ferrous iron from the blood. We can't quite put all the pieces together right now but it might explain why the bitterns were locked onto the dock cleat, as if searching out greater deposits of iron; for what reason I have no idea.” Andy was quiet.
“God help you if you’re pulling my leg, Matt.” Andy said much more seriously. “If I get down there, and drag the CDC chick with me, and this is your nut-job idea of a surprise retirement party.” Which got Andy to thinking. “It's not that Matt, is it?”
“Andy, it’s not. I’m serious. We might not have much time here Andy, especially if Dan is right about the time frame. The Phragmites are going to release their seed within the next 24 hours.” There was no sound on the other end of the phone.
“Andy, you there?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there within the hour. Who else have you called Matt? My wife, kids, neighbors?”
“Andy, I promise, this is no joke.” And the far end of the phone clicked off.
An hour later, Andy walked in, taking up most of the door. He was not a fat guy, just big. Standing at six-six, a former center for Stanford. His girth obliterated the CDC scientist behind him.
Dan jumped up from his chair. “Surprise! Come on out everyone!” Dan waving his arms, ready to usher out the guests from the back hallway.
Andy instinctively half dropped into a defensive position, his eyes pivoting, and the attractive CDC scientist behind him clutching her iPad like she received the hike. Matt turned to Dan in disbelief.
”What?” Dan said. A Cheshire grin only he could get away with. “You didn’t think that was funny?” his arms out, palms up in surrender.
Andy was relieved not to see family and friends pouring out of the back room in a cloud of confetti and balloons.
“Ferrigno!” Andy said, hiking up his suspenders. “The one thing I am looking forward to in my retirement is not having to deal with you.”
“I promise to call you every day to make sure you have everything you need, Andy. Hot soup, spare batteries for your TV remote and a subscription to Field & Stream.” Dan said, his sarcasm not winning Andy over.
“This is Asha.” Andy announced almost forgetting she was there. Matt shook Asha’s hand and introduced himself. She was buxom, more than pretty and her skin was the color of mocha. Dan slid in.
“Dan Ferrigno. Pleasure to meet you.” He said hanging onto her hand maybe just a second too long.
“I understand you have something unusual to show us.” Asha said in lilted English, the ends of each word clipped.
“Ah
