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Dr. Nikas exchanged a glance with Portia, but it was Rachel who spoke.
“What are you saying, Angel?”
I looked around the room as I tried to make sense of my thoughts. “I’m saying . . . maybe the mosquito bites aren’t mosquito bites.”
Chapter 33
Well, that got everyone’s attention. I gulped as the enormity of what I was suggesting hit home. But if there was any chance it was true, I had to keep going.
“What if someone is deliberately spreading the zombie epidemic using tiny little darts or something?”
“The CDC found traces of Aedes albopictus saliva at the bite locations of the deceased,” Dr. Nikas said gently.
“Seriously? How do they know it’s albopeck, er, mosquito spit?”
“The presence of certain enzymes.”
“Oh.” So much for that theory. “Maybe—” I paused to seize another thought before it flitted away. “Wait. I know it’s a stretch, but if I wanted to intentionally spread the zombie disease and make it look like mosquitoes were doing it, I’d make sure that my little infectious darts or needles or whatever came with a side of skeeter spit.”
Dr. Nikas’s brows drew together. “That is a fair point. I’ll ask Jacques to excise the bite area on Nick and test for Eugene and LZ-1.”
I blinked. “They’re different?”
“To the CDC, all cases are LZ-1 since they don’t know the cause and haven’t yet discovered the parasite. We, too, assumed Eugene was the universal pathogen until yesterday when I analyzed blood samples from the gym and the blood you recovered from the bowling alley.”
“Okaaaaay,” I said. “In other words, LZ-1 is new but kind of the same?”
“Correct. Eugene is the parasite mutation found in the cases we can trace directly back to you. Judd Siler from your bite. Douglas Horton and Deputy Connor from the alligators that consumed Judd’s remains. All other cases show a variation of Eugene.” A faint smile tugged at his mouth. “I would name it Eugene junior, but I fear that would sow confusion with outside authorities. Therefore, I have adopted their blanket designation of LZ-1 to use in reference to the new strain.”
Damn. Eugene junior had more zing. EJ-1? “But doesn’t a different mutation make it even more likely that someone purposefully caused the LZ-1 epidemic?”
“It raises many questions.” He patted my shoulder. “We will see what Nick’s mosquito bite shows.”
“Thanks,” I breathed, warmed to my toes that he was taking my concerns seriously—or at least seriously enough to run more tests to prove me wrong.
Dr. Nikas typed in a text message to Jacques.
“You know,” Portia said, head tilted, “just as a thought experiment, Angel’s deliberate inoculation theory could potentially explain how groups of people turned shambler within minutes of each other.”
Dr. Nikas took a step toward her. “You think all could have been inoculated with LZ-1 at the same time?”
“Not necessarily. You tested the water bottles for traces of LZ-1 and Eugene.” She said the name with no hesitation or scorn which made me love her all the more. “But what if the water contained a stimulant—a hormone perhaps—that could radically accelerate LZ-1 activation in someone already infected.”
The look on Dr. Nikas’s face was pure adoration. “Inoculate a group of individuals minutes to hours before, then trigger them all at once via an activator.”
“That makes sense, even to me,” I said. “Like soaking a sponge with gasoline. Nothing happens until you drop a lit match on it, then bam. Stick ’em with LZ-1 whenever, then the victims drink the activator water and they go shambly within minutes.”
“Or leave them be and they eventually turn anyway.” Dr. Nikas got that faraway look in his eyes that told me he was already leaps and bounds ahead and working through possibilities. “It’s quite likely the stimulating substance would be harmless to people who had not been inoculated, meaning entire cases of water bottles could be treated.”
“Yes!” Portia said. “That would eliminate the need to ensure only inoculated people drank the water.”
“And the victims who turned in groups yesterday were all together and drinking bottled water,” I said. “The bowling alley, the band. I’m betting the lawyers had bottled water in their meeting, too.”
“I have already confirmed the lawyers had Nice Springs water,” Dr. Nikas said as he sent another text. “The bottles you collected from the bowling alley are at the Tribe lab. I’ve asked Jacques to run full analyses on them as well.”
“Wait one sec.” I pulled out my phone and called Bear. “Hey, it’s Angel. When you were at the bowling alley, did you drink any bottled water?”
“They were giving away free bottled water, but I had a Coke Zero. Never opened my bottle. Why?”
