Indexing by Seanan McGuire

Author:Seanan McGuire [McGuire, Seanan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: fantasy, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2013-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

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The cleanup crew cordoned off the entire block surrounding the hospital, buying off the inevitable media and local police with stories about a natural gas leak. “Radon gas,” said Andy to a dewy-eyed reporter who looked like she had six brain cells to knock together, all of them devoted to keeping her from falling off her stiletto heels. She was nodding gravely in time with his words, making me faintly seasick. Andy can be damn convincing when he wants to be. “It’s invisible, it’s scentless, and . . .” he stepped forward, moving in for the kill, “it’s deadly.”

The reporter took an unconscious step back, dewy eyes widening even further. She looked like a startled deer. “Where did it come from?”

“Natural caverns, ma’am. The city’s riddled with them,” said Andy. I groaned to myself, making a mental note to tell our media division to plant some old city records about natural caverns. Undaunted, Andy continued, “Don’t worry. As long as we can keep this area clear of civilians, we’ll have this all cleaned up in a matter of hours.”

The reporter nodded, thrusting her microphone into his face as she recovered her composure enough to start asking inane questions about the supposed gas leak. I turned my attention from Andy to Jeff, head of the on-site cleanup crew.

“It’s not really radon gas, is it?” I asked. Stranger things have happened once a four-ten shows up on the scene. As long as people fall down and don’t get up again, it falls within the borders of the story. The narrative doesn’t care how little sense it makes.

“No,” said Jeff. I let my shoulders start relaxing. “It’s a new strain of sleeping sickness that’s somehow managed to hybridize itself with the H1N1 flu.”

I stopped relaxing. “You’re saying we have an airborne Sleeping Beauty?”

Jeff nodded. “Her influence is confined to the hospital right now, probably because the vents were closed when she went fully infectious, but eventually it’s going to start spreading.”

“How bad could this get?”

“Bad enough.” His expression was grim. “There’s no vaccine, since it’s a new disease. Antibiotics won’t work on a virus. It seems to spread through the air. One little crack and we could have a citywide outbreak. City turns to state, and hell, we could lose the whole seaboard. This thing wants to spread, Henry. It wants to get bad enough—”

“—to attract a Prince,” I finished grimly. “Some opportunistic son of a bitch out to nail a Princess for the sake of a payoff. I hate Princes. The goddamn things are worse than rats.” I froze, considering the implications of that statement.

“I don’t like them much either, Henry, but I don’t see how else we’re going to stop this story before a lot of people get hurt.” Jeff gave me a sidelong look. “I don’t like that look on your face. What are you thinking?”

“Get me Sloane,” I said, my own gaze swinging toward the hospital. “I have a job for her.”

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