BOY
.
The tickling sensation, a whispered breath, always made Alex swipe at imaginary gnats. “Maybe we should talk alone,” Alex said to Lucas, as if it were her own inspiration, not Dawit’s.
“Looks like we better,” Lucas said. He couldn’t read minds yet, but he wasn’t fooled.
The young man shrugged, standing. “I’ll walk to the lobby,” Moses said. “Mr. Wolde, please tell your daughter hello from her friend Moses. She was an amazing child. So amazing!”
Dawit didn’t answer, staring straight through Moses as if he weren’t there. Sometimes Dawit seemed not to see people at all, his eyes bypassing everyone like they had at her mother’s Sunday dinners. Everyone except Jessica; you had to work to pry his eyes away from his wife.
The door closed behind Moses.
I’VE SEEN THIS VIRUS
, Dawit said silently.
ONE LIKE IT
.
Air seeped from her lungs. Another surprise! The world reinvented itself daily.
“When was the outbreak?” Lucas said. “Where are the records—”
Sometimes her husband’s naïveté drove Alex crazy. He reminded her of the way Jessica had been, once upon a time. “What’s the rest of the story, Dawit?”
“It may be ours,” Dawit said quietly.
“Lord Jesus,” Alex whispered, eyes wide. She’d known what he was going to say, but it still hurt her ears.
“Define … ‘ours’?” Lucas said, still not wanting to face it.
“From the House of Science,” Dawit said.
Alex and Lucas had been invited to the repository of technology and scholarship in the House of Science’s underground wings in Lalibela, but they had been given very limited access to the treasures. Unrestricted areas only, always under escort. Alex had been waiting for permission to see the colony’s HIV research. Lucas blamed their cultural prohibition against sharing with mortals, but to Alex it had always looked like hiding.
“Developed at least eighty years ago,” Dawit explained. “Not an identical strain, but very close. There have always been factions …”
“Ready to wipe us out,” Alex finished. Hot dust seemed to coat her throat.
Dawit nodded. “Only small factions. Our recurring debate.” He sounded unapologetic.
Anger lifted Alex to her feet and seemed to raise her height. “Was AIDS yours too?”
“No,” Dawit said, his eyes unblinking and impassive. It wasn’t the first time she’d asked, and the answer was always the same. She was a fool for having believed him.
Alex wanted to leap on Dawit, to slap at him or pound him with a fist, although she never had before—not even after Dawit killed her niece, accident or not. Now Alex understood what Jessica meant about the past feeling fresh enough to smell and touch: she could
see
Dawit’s hands around poor Kira’s throat. The coroner’sreport said he’d strangled her in his badly failed quest to give her immortality.
“Explain this, Dawit!” Alex said. Lucas hooked his arm around her waist to hold her.
“Try right goddamn now,” Lucas said.
Dawit blinked with his own anger. “You’re making it too simple,” he said, struggling to sound measured.
“Simple?”
Alex said. The urge to strike at him reared again.
“Yes, Alex,
simple
,” Dawit said. “Because if it were my Brothers, we could contain it. But I believe this virus is in the hands of someone outside of Lalibela, which is a significant complication. So we don’t have the luxury of raw memories.”
Fear curled Alex’s stomach into an icy fist. “You think it’s Michel?” she said.
As Dawit nodded, Alex’s anger at him melted.
“Fana thinks so,” Dawit said. “Michel might have access to our research, with or without help. If he’s following Sanctus Cruor doctrine, expect bigger outbreaks soon.”
Michel.
One man had overwhelmed all of Dawit’s people in Washington from thousands of miles away. Lucas had told her he’d been as helpless as a child when he lost his eyesight for a harrowing moment, struck blind by a Life Brother acting
.
The tickling sensation, a whispered breath, always made Alex swipe at imaginary gnats. “Maybe we should talk alone,” Alex said to Lucas, as if it were her own inspiration, not Dawit’s.
“Looks like we better,” Lucas said. He couldn’t read minds yet, but he wasn’t fooled.
The young man shrugged, standing. “I’ll walk to the lobby,” Moses said. “Mr. Wolde, please tell your daughter hello from her friend Moses. She was an amazing child. So amazing!”
Dawit didn’t answer, staring straight through Moses as if he weren’t there. Sometimes Dawit seemed not to see people at all, his eyes bypassing everyone like they had at her mother’s Sunday dinners. Everyone except Jessica; you had to work to pry his eyes away from his wife.
The door closed behind Moses.
I’VE SEEN THIS VIRUS
, Dawit said silently.
ONE LIKE IT
.
Air seeped from her lungs. Another surprise! The world reinvented itself daily.
“When was the outbreak?” Lucas said. “Where are the records—”
Sometimes her husband’s naïveté drove Alex crazy. He reminded her of the way Jessica had been, once upon a time. “What’s the rest of the story, Dawit?”
“It may be ours,” Dawit said quietly.
“Lord Jesus,” Alex whispered, eyes wide. She’d known what he was going to say, but it still hurt her ears.
“Define … ‘ours’?” Lucas said, still not wanting to face it.
“From the House of Science,” Dawit said.
Alex and Lucas had been invited to the repository of technology and scholarship in the House of Science’s underground wings in Lalibela, but they had been given very limited access to the treasures. Unrestricted areas only, always under escort. Alex had been waiting for permission to see the colony’s HIV research. Lucas blamed their cultural prohibition against sharing with mortals, but to Alex it had always looked like hiding.
“Developed at least eighty years ago,” Dawit explained. “Not an identical strain, but very close. There have always been factions …”
“Ready to wipe us out,” Alex finished. Hot dust seemed to coat her throat.
Dawit nodded. “Only small factions. Our recurring debate.” He sounded unapologetic.
Anger lifted Alex to her feet and seemed to raise her height. “Was AIDS yours too?”
“No,” Dawit said, his eyes unblinking and impassive. It wasn’t the first time she’d asked, and the answer was always the same. She was a fool for having believed him.
Alex wanted to leap on Dawit, to slap at him or pound him with a fist, although she never had before—not even after Dawit killed her niece, accident or not. Now Alex understood what Jessica meant about the past feeling fresh enough to smell and touch: she could
see
Dawit’s hands around poor Kira’s throat. The coroner’sreport said he’d strangled her in his badly failed quest to give her immortality.
“Explain this, Dawit!” Alex said. Lucas hooked his arm around her waist to hold her.
“Try right goddamn now,” Lucas said.
Dawit blinked with his own anger. “You’re making it too simple,” he said, struggling to sound measured.
“Simple?”
Alex said. The urge to strike at him reared again.
“Yes, Alex,
simple
,” Dawit said. “Because if it were my Brothers, we could contain it. But I believe this virus is in the hands of someone outside of Lalibela, which is a significant complication. So we don’t have the luxury of raw memories.”
Fear curled Alex’s stomach into an icy fist. “You think it’s Michel?” she said.
As Dawit nodded, Alex’s anger at him melted.
“Fana thinks so,” Dawit said. “Michel might have access to our research, with or without help. If he’s following Sanctus Cruor doctrine, expect bigger outbreaks soon.”
Michel.
One man had overwhelmed all of Dawit’s people in Washington from thousands of miles away. Lucas had told her he’d been as helpless as a child when he lost his eyesight for a harrowing moment, struck blind by a Life Brother acting
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