The Map of Chaos (Trilogía Victoriana #3)(140)
They spent the next few minutes shouting and gesticulating to each other to calm down, though neither appeared to be listening to the other. When they finally composed themselves, they decided that they had to trawl through other worlds, as many of them as possible, to find out whether the same thing was happening in the rest of the universe. It was essential they weigh up the true significance of what they had just seen, and if they wanted to proceed in the most scientific way possible they must stay calm. And so each set off on a frantic search that lasted several hours and left them exhausted and shaking. Alas, the results of their search were as revealing as they were terrifying. Of the three thousand or so twins Wells had been able to connect with that night, five had jumped into a parallel universe at some point during the past few weeks and were wandering around in their new worlds scared out of their wits, unable to understand what was happening to them. Two thought they had traveled in time, and of the three who didn’t know what to think, one appeared to have gone mad. Jane had also connected with thousands of her twins and like Wells had come across several of her doubles who had strayed onto stages they should not be on, as if they had fallen through hidden trapdoors no one had warned them about. The couple looked at each other uneasily. Wells was the first to express in words what they both already knew.
“It’s the virus . . . ,” he murmured.
“It’s our virus . . . ,” Jane corrected, rubbing her temples. “Newton must have transmitted the virus to the Wells he attacked . . . Your twin didn’t develop the disease himself, but he became a carrier and has infected others . . . in parallel worlds! How can that be?”
“The virus may have mutated and is now highly contagious,” Wells suggested. “Perhaps, after the first case of infection, everyone in that London rapidly become carriers, and it would only take one carrier to develop the disease and jump into a parallel world for the virus to spread in that universe as well. And so on . . . until it became an epidemic, which is now ravaging all the possible universes,” Wells said, unable to conceal his horror.
Jane cried out, shaking her head. “How could we have been so reckless, so . . . foolish? We were content to watch over that Wells for a few years, and when he showed no symptoms, we decided not to worry . . . The fact is we so were so eager to live a quiet life that we convinced ourselves everything was all right. And in the meantime a universal epidemic was unfolding right under our noses.”
“How could we have possibly known?” protested Wells, who refused to take the blame for everything. “Take into account that the first person to jump might not have been one of our twins, in which case we couldn’t possibly have sensed it, since we are only able to establish a connection with our doubles.” He paused for a moment to reflect. “It must have been a while before our infected twins developed the disease and started jumping. And as we have just seen, the percentage is still relatively small. In fact, it was only by chance that we connected with some of them today. We could have found out before, it’s true, but also much later . . . We can hardly blame ourselves for that, Jane . . .”
“Oh, can’t we? Then who is to blame?” she erupted. “We are scientists! We should have considered all the variables, and we didn’t. This epidemic is our doing,” she declared harshly. “We brought the virus with us; our dog infected the first patient. Everything that happens as of now will weigh on our consciences.”
“Let’s try to look on the bright side,” Wells protested feebly. “What is the worst thing that could happen? A few poor wretches will jump into parallel worlds and be forced to rebuild their lives there. No easy feat, I admit, but not insurmountable either. We managed it, didn’t we?”
“Yes, but what if it isn’t as simple as that? What if that affected . . . the fabric of the universe? What if we were all carrying the virus, and it was only a matter of time before everyone started jumping uncontrollably? Heaven help us if that happened . . . It would be chaos.”
“But it needn’t be like that, Jane . . . For example, the first patient never developed the disease. This could mean that the number of cases in which the virus becomes active is small. Granted, it might spread fast, but the majority of those infected may never develop the disease. Besides, there is no way of knowing whether we have all been infected. So let’s not jump to conclusions, my dear . . .”
“I don’t know why, but something tells me we have been,” Jane whispered. “Goodness me! The colds we had!”
“What? People catch colds all the time, Jane. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Or perhaps it means everything.”
Wells looked at her uneasily.
“Think back, Bertie: since the first infection, all the twins we have connected with were either suffering from or recovering from that strange cold we caught, or their relatives were . . . and they all showed identical symptoms: the sudden onset of the illness, a fever, followed by a swift and complete recovery . . . Your fellow teachers at the school all came down with that same cold last term . . . And our twins in this world had a cold when we went to see them last month!”
“But, Jane, it is winter. Lots of people get colds!”
“And do lots of people get colds after being bitten by a dog from another world?” she asked ironically.
“We don’t know whether that cold was caused by the virus, damn it!” cried Wells, springing out of his chair.