Page 33 of Devil
“I want to know if they ordered a smallpox test. Can you check that?” Devil asked Cyn, talking into her Bluetooth as she drove home to Cos Cob. She’d stopped by to see Gerard Pritchard and spoken to the attending physician, Will Barnhart. She’d gone to school and through residency with Will, and although she’d tried to lead him to the idea of testing for smallpox without outright saying it, she wasn’t sure she’d succeeded. The only way she’d know was if he actually ran the test.
“Of course,” Cyn replied. “I’ll get to work on it now. Should have it by the time you get home. Is Darius with you?”
Devil slid the screen in her car a flat look—not that Cyn could see it, but it made her feel better. “He is not.”
“Might be a good idea to keep him close. You never know when you might need him.”
“Stop being annoying, Cyn. I’ve lived thirty-eight years without him and have been an active agent for twenty of those. I think I’ll survive a night on my own.”
“It’s not about surviving, luv, it’s about enjoying.”
Yet one more thing her family never believed. Life wasn’t meant to be enjoyed in the Devillier family. Life was meant to be conducted in such a way as to benefit the family.
“Jennifer Pritchard was at the hospital when I stopped by,” Devil said, cutting off Cyn’s conversation train.
“Not all that surprising. She and her father may not be close, but it didn’t seem like their relationship was so strained that she wouldn’t come to visit him in the hospital. How’d she seem?”
Devil gave her answer some thought. “A bit put out actually. I got the sense she was only there because it was expected, and she was annoyed that it had interrupted her weekend.”
“As you say, family relationships can be complicated,” Cyn said. “Why smallpox? You’ve never mentioned anything like that before, and as far as we can tell, she’s not working on any research in that area.”
Devil passed a slow-going tourist, no doubt in town to leaf-peep, then answered. “Darius and I saw a rash on his hand last night, and today, there was the remnants of one on his face as well. Given that he also had fever and chills, and his doctor mentioned nausea, those are all classic symptoms. Of course, they are symptoms of other viruses, too. But there’s been speculation for decades about smallpox making a comeback in the form of a biological weapon. I don’t know if any of it will add up, but I think it’s worth looking into.”
“Where would she get the virus?”
“She’d never be able to get her hands on the real smallpox virus strain. There are very few samples left. I seem to recall some research a few years back about a scientist being able to create the strain. I don’t remember the details, though, so I’ll have to look it up.”
“Could she extract the virus from a vaccine?”
Reflexively, Devil shook her head. “No, she could extractalive virus, but what’s used in the vaccine isn’t actually smallpox. Without going into the history and science of it all, it’s basically a related virus derived from cowpox.”
“And would cowpox cause the same symptoms?”
“Possibly, but it’s not a fatal virus. If someone is messing around with a virus and has any ill intent, I doubt making people only mildly ill would be the goal. Then again, it might be a good form of psychological terrorism.” She paused and considered that option. “This keeps getting more and more fun, doesn’t it?”
Cyn was clicking away on her computer, but muttered, “Let the good times roll.”
Devil sighed. “I’ll be home in thirty minutes or so. Depending on what you find in the tests, maybe we should meet up tonight?”
Cyn agreed and a few seconds later, silence filled Devil’s car as she drove north, giving her far too much time to ponder things she didn’t want to ponder. The situation with Jennifer Pritchard was her priority, but as the miles clicked by, much to her dismay, it wasn’t what she found herself thinking about.
Had she made a mistake starting this friends-with-benefits relationship? Would Darius really be happy with keeping things casual? Did she need to put some space between them so he wouldn’t get any ideas? But if she started throwing up artificial roadblocks, wouldn’tthatsay something about her? As ifshewas the one who couldn’t handle it?
Not for the first time did she curse her family for not giving her the basic skills to navigate relationships. Even when she’d been young, her parents had kept her and her brother apart except for specific occasions. They’d had different nannies and different schools, and often lived in different locations. So while she had a brother, they’d never learned how to be siblings. And if her parents spoke more than a few dozen wordsto heras a child, well, she couldn’t remember. They spoke at her, or around her, but never directly to her.
Grateful for the sights of Cos Cob as she arrived on the outskirts of town, she let the familiarity sink into her body and soothe her. People threw the wordblessedaround a lot, especially in her culture, but Darius was right. She was blessed to have found her friends and Cos Cob. Both grounded her, and challenged her, in a way her upbringing hadn’t, and she was thankful for it every day.
By the time she pulled into her detached garage, she was feeling much more settled. She didn’t have answers about what, if anything, she should do about Darius. But she’d decided to take a page from Nora’s playbook and embrace the fact that she didn’t need to make any big decisions today. All she needed to do was let herself experience this new thing—uncomfortable questions and all—and take things as they came. Which felt both right and convenient. Shedidhave a lot of questions about this new thing with Darius, but she also had a potentially serious situation that she needed to focus on.
Her phone rang as she set her bag down in the mudroom. Pulling it from her pocket, she made her way into the kitchen as she answered.
“Hey, Six.”
“I heard you had a good night.”
“Aside from Dr. Pritchard getting sick and passing out from what might be a case of smallpox, yeah, I did.”
Silence met her statement. As she’d hoped. There were very few ways to distract Six from talking about, or feeling, every emotion under the sun. Usually within the same hour. But Devil might have found one.
