Sequela (20 page)

I'm not sure how to put all this down. I've never written a report in my life so hopefully this will be OK. It's just a preliminary thing. Just wanted to check that it sent OK and whatnot. Have kept it short like you asked:

Met Doctor Lowe. Charming, though he doesn't know it. Scruffy. He doesn't spend much time in the booths but seems to want a reasonably close relationship with his test subjects, so that could be a way of getting close to him. Obviously some sort of thing going on between him and Alexis Farrell. She wears the trousers.

V building very secure and very white. All access to terminals is via biometrics so I won't be able to get in and look at anything, not that I'd know where to start anyway.

Will be quarantined for testing in two weeks' time for an unspecified amount of time. No outside contact possible during quarantine.

I'll be in contact again before I go into quarantine.

Blotch could feel his head getting hot. He read the last point again, then slammed his hand down on the desk.

Wouldn't it be more fun just to stay in and play games, Kester thought, his gaze alighting on the PlayStation icon projected on the corner of the window. He took his Book out of his pocket and zapped it at the off icon in the corner of the display.

'Stop taunting me,' he said to it.

Dinner at John's would normally have been a no-brainer but this time Kester wasn't sure how welcome he would be. He'd seen John and Sienna since he started at V, but he hadn't seen anyone else and he'd skipped a few of their regular meets. Betta had been one of Dee's best friends for a long time and was too scared to face Dee's wrath if she got in touch with him, so after a few initial texts she had gone quiet. She and Dee had fallen out once before and it hadn't been pretty.

Kester walked back across the room to the long mirror by his bed and
scrutinised
his image. He was already dressing differently. That would make things weird too. During work hours you had to wear clothes by the corporate sponsor and theirs was also the only casual range covered by the allowance. He was still wearing jeans and a shirt, but they were heavily branded and had ads on the pockets. The ads were for cool stuff and they were nothing by general City standards but it still made him feel like a human billboard. He wondered what Dee and her new man would make of it. He wondered if Sienna's reports of a new man were right and, if so, if he was still on the scene.

Kester pulled at his top pocket to see if the ad, or maybe even the whole pocket would come off without ruining the shirt. A stitch, just loose enough to cut, revealed itself at the top corner. Kester walked quickly into the bathroom and started unpicking the pocket with his nail scissors. After a focused five minutes of lip biting and swearing, Kester dropped the pocket in the bin. Back at the mirror, he smoothed his shirt back down. The fabric underneath was a different
colour
, but it looked like it was supposed to be that way, sort of. He walked away and then sauntered back past the mirror, trying to catch his image unawares, to see what it might look like to other people. Satisfied, he checked the clock, then struggled quickly out of his jeans and started unpicking some more ads.

Ad-free and still too early, Kester sat on his apple-green couch, one leg jiggling. He looked at his Book. He could leave in ten minutes. He didn't want to be on time. But he should go. It would be his turn to host the dinner party next time round and he'd like to reunite with his Institute friends on familiar territory first. Maybe he'd even have a date to invite by the time they came to him. Perhaps Alexis. Finding himself wishing she was coming with him tonight, he laughed. Neither she, nor his friends would be comfortable with it. And as for Dee – the thought of the two of them meeting…the thought of seeing her himself was bad enough…

A weight grew in Kester's stomach, prequel to letting down a friend. He got out his Book, picked John from his
favourites
and tapped 'call'. It rang long enough that he thought it would go to answer-phone and then John picked up, surprising him.

'Hello, mate,' John said. 'You all set?'

'Oh, hi,' Kester replied, as if he hadn't expected to speak to John. 'Actually I'm just calling to say I can't –'

'You can't come,' John cut in and then paused before he continued. 'Typical. Dee's just cancelled on me too.'

'Oh, in that case…'

'Don't worry, I get it. Yes, you can still come. You guys are like children you know.'

'I know.' Kester laughed. 'But you know what she's like. Did you really want your dinner party to end in blood and snot?'

John laughed.

'I'll see you at seven.'

Kester looked at his watch again. He sat for five more minutes before he left, figuring that would make him just late enough.

Unfortunately, everyone else was late for real reasons –
disorganisation
, the tube – so Kester made a lonely entrance.

'Finally, a guest!' John said, smacking him on the back as he came through the door. 'I was beginning to think nobody was coming.'

'I brought some wine,' said Kester, passing a bottle to John, who added it to the row on the worktop.

'I got a bit overexcited in the wine aisle,' John said, shaking his head.

'I don't think it'll be a problem,' Kester said.

The door buzzer went and John rushed past him into the hall.

'Don't be mad!' John called as he pressed the button on the videocom.

'What?' Kester asked.

'Hiiiii!' Betta's voice screeched through the speaker.

'Nothing!' John called. 'Not talking to you!'

John opened the front door and then hovered in the hall, waiting for them to make their way up the stairs.

'So are things, you know…have you spoken to her?' John asked.

'To Dee?' Kester said. 'You must be kidding. She totally went off.'

'But she'll be OK though. I mean you guys were drunk – and you said the virus was nothing, really.'

Kester reached for the decanter close to him and helped himself to a glass of red. 'She doesn't quite see it that way.'

The hall was small with voices. Betta and Sienna bubbled past John into the kitchen.

'Kester!' Sienna rushed forward and gave him a hug.

'No men with you?' Kester asked.

'Nope,' said Sienna, 'we've given up on the men thing. Every one we invite to one of these stupid parties high-tails it quick sharp afterwards. It's our intimidatingly witty banter.'

'So we're each other's dates tonight,' Betta said, swinging an arm around Sienna's shoulders and kissing her on the cheek.

'Fair enough.' Kester laughed.

'No lady with you?' Betta asked.

'Touchy subject,' John said, pushing past to get to the wine. He filled two more glasses and handed them out.

'Ooh, lovely,' said Sienna. 'I was getting bored of cocktails.'

'Shh,' said Betta, blushing. 'We went for just a little one before we came round. Girl stuff, you know.'

'You don't say,' John said. 'I could smell the fumes through the intercom. Right, everyone go through, take a seat. Dinner's nearly ready.'

Kester counted the place settings as they sat down. There were six.

'Who else is coming, John?' he called through to the kitchen, where John was rummaging in cupboards.

'Just the old guard tonight,' came a muffled reply, 'but no Calvin. You know he's gone to the Max Planck in Freiburg?'

'Fancy!'

The buzzer went a second time.

'Don't be mad!' John called again.

Kester could hear him answering the intercom.

'Hello, darling – oh you brought him!' said John. A few moments later, as the flat door opened, he said again, 'Don't be mad!'

Kester could hear voices in the corridor. There was chattering for a moment and then silence. There was some hissed conversation, followed by clanking in the kitchen and then Dee came striding through the door. Kester started. Her eyes were golden. The effect was fading but was still there.

'Hello everyone!' she said.

She put her arms out, then dropped them and moved to a chair before anyone had a chance to get up and greet her. She was followed closely by a man that Kester didn't
recognise
. He had the air of a stag about him, chivalrous poise worn over a pungent masculinity. Kester noticed his suit – the fact that he was even wearing a suit, for starters. It was expensive, but not ostentatious, with
colour
-co-ordinated ads and looked more like it was made from a beige liquid than from fabric. He wasn't an academic.

The man's eyes darted between the three guests. Sienna grinned at him and Betta blushed and smiled. He swung his jacket from his shoulders to the back of his chair in one fluid movement, putting Kester in mind of a matador. As he sat down, Kester thought he could see the shadow of some marking through his shirt – a tattoo? Or was he wearing?

Dee introduced him. 'This is Sebastian.'

'Hello, everyone,' Sebastian said and then turned his attention to Kester. 'I won't pretend I haven't seen your picture here and there – nice to meet you, Doctor Lowe.'

'Please, Kester,' Kester said, standing slightly so he could lean across the table to shake hands. Sebastian's handshake was a little more firm than necessary, but the smile never left his face.

The conversation was stilted at first and was only just kept afloat by John as he drifted back and forth from the kitchen, bringing the starters and various extras he had forgotten to put on the table.

'Jesus, John, sit down,' Kester said eventually. 'There can't possibly be anything left to bring through.'

John grinned and sat down to begin the meal.

'Get stuck in everyone,' he said and snatched up his knife and fork.

After a few moments of clanking cutlery and appreciative noises, Sebastian sat back in his chair and picked up his glass. He looked like he owned the place, made it feel like there might be many rooms beyond this one, long halls, a sweeping staircase, a library.

'So, Kester, tell me about your viruses.'

Kester, in the middle of a mouthful, tried to swallow quickly so he could answer.

'Obviously I've seen what you did with Dee's eyes – it's most impressive.'

Dee cut in, 'I explained to Sebastian that you needed a test-case for your interview.'

'She's very brave to offer herself up as a guinea pig like that, don't you think?' Sebastian looked over at Dee.

'Yes.' Kester glanced between the two of them, trying and failing to read them.

'You say that,' Sienna said, waving her glass, 'but scientists are always experimenting on each other. I remember when Kester was developing a vaccine for some nasty and we'd run out of funding for human torsos. You remember John? Oh – you know what a torso is, Sebastian?'

'Yes. A person with no head, no consciousness – for testing on, right?'

'A person? Let's not get controversial,' Sienna said. 'They just call it a torso because of the obvious resemblance – it's just a bag of humanoid bits and pieces that acts like a body. Anyway, Kester's at the end of an important project, making this vaccine and he runs out of funding. His trials are stuck in the mud and he needs to do one more clinical test to get the numbers up to the required level before it can be licensed. So what does he do? He tests it on himself.'

'You make me sound like a mad scientist,' Kester said. 'We knew it was safe by then – it was just a matter of getting the admin right.'

Sebastian laughed. 'And it wouldn't be the first time a scientist who was sure of him or herself put themselves in the hot seat, right? It seems like quite a lot of pioneering scientists have been forced to test their own methods and theories on themselves. I've read a bit about it. It's pretty gripping stuff.'

'Yes.' Kester held Sebastian's eyes to see if he was genuinely interested but it was Dee's face that confirmed it. She was pissed off that they had something in common. Kester smiled. 'I read a book about smallpox when I was doing my general education. That's what got me started down this path.'

'Yes,' Dee said, 'you were quite the idealist when you started out.'

'Yes, yes, it's fascinating,' Sebastian said. 'Jenner, wasn't it, who first managed to prevent it – he made a vaccine out of cowpox.' He turned to Dee as he said this. Misreading her expression, he added, 'But of course, you already know that.'

'Jenner made the first vaccine,' Kester replied, 'but it was actually a woman called Lady Mary something – a noblewoman who'd had smallpox herself – she started the ball rolling in the West.'

'Really?'

'She travelled to Constantinople – her husband was an ambassador, I think – and she saw people being inoculated against smallpox there.'

'Inoculated?' Sebastian said, puzzled. 'Isn't that the same thing?'

'They were using smallpox scrapings,' Kester explained, to various disgusted noises. 'You put a little bit of infected material into a person's vein. It's enough to produce a small scale infection and resulting immunity, but not enough to kill the host, usually.'