Virals(65)

"Mm."

"I can't believe I tripped. I have a knot on my head the size of a kiwi." He snickered. "I'm telling everyone it's a lacrosse injury to save myself the embarrassment."

My breath caught. Jason didn't realize what really happened. If no one else saw, I was in the clear.

"Anyway," Jason said, "Chance wants to meet before practice tomorrow to give you the info. That work?"

"Definitely. Tell him I really appreciate his help. And thank him for the ride last night. Mr. Baravetto was a godsend."

"No problem. And don't worry about the gossip girls."

Ahh. So I hadn't escaped.

"Oh?" Feigned indifference. "What's the word on the street?"

"It's nothing." Jason had assumed I already knew. "Those chicks just like to pick on people. Makes them feel better about themselves."

"Tell me. I can take it." Lie.

"It's nonsense." Jason sighed, clearly uncomfortable. "A few of them said you pulled a Cinderella. That you had to return your outfit before the stores closed."

I felt my face flame. How humiliating. Worse, it was kind of true.

I wanted to crawl under a rock. To transfer. To die. But anger pushed aside the embarrassment.

"Who said that?"

"Forget it. You looked great. They were just jealous."

"Jason, please. Who?"

"Madison and company. Courtney and Ashley."

The Tripod again. No matter what I did, those three had it in for me.

I'm not letting this one slide. Game on.

"Whatever floats their boat, I guess. Thanks for telling me." I forced a smile. "Tell Chance I'll meet him right here, if that works."

"Will do. Take care." Jason walked a few paces, turned. "And don't worry about Maddy's BS. No one believes it."

"Thanks," I said.

Walking toward the marina, I vowed to take action against the Tripod. I was done being badmouthed.

But not today.

Today I had a crime to commit.





CHAPTER 47


Hi and Shelton hurried along Beaufain Street. They the passed crew teams rowing on Colonial Lake, a man-made oval stretching a full city block. Ducks paddled in noisy clusters of two and three. Intent on their task, the boys barely noticed.

Near the shopping district, single-family homes gave way to townhouses arranged in orderly rows. Window boxes overflowed with petunias, marigolds, and lantana. Honeybees worked overtime in the warm afternoon sun. The beauty of the day was lost on them.

Hanging a left on King, Hi and Shelton finally reached the CU campus, three square blocks of Gothic stone and ivy rubbing shoulders with modern brick and glass. Beneath ancient oaks and magnolias, dogs chased Frisbees hurled by college kids.

A sign directed the boys to a massive stone building on the eastern edge of the common.

"Any blackouts today?" Shelton asked as they hurried along the path.

"Nope, but I had a flare. For few moments I could read the answer key on Mr. Hallmark's desk. I was in the back row."

"Mine was auditory," Shelton said. "In the bathroom I heard a ripping noise, like a power saw. It was Kelvin Grace, unzipping his fly. Ten feet away, outside the stall. Crazy, huh?"

"Barking mad."

In the bio-med library, the boys asked and were directed to the veterinary wing. There, they divided topics and set to work. Two hours later, they compared findings.

"I scoured a billion medical journals," said Shelton. "No disease matches our symptoms. I couldn't even find some of them."

"Here's what I got on parvo," Hi said, shuffling papers. "They're tiny buggers, some of the smallest viruses in nature, with only a single strand of DNA. Parvus means small in Latin."

"Fascinating," Shelton deadpanned. "How does that help?"

"Different species have different strains. Dogs, cats, pigs, even minks. And listen to this." Hi read from his notes. "Parvoviruses are specific to the life forms they infect, but this is a somewhat flexible characteristic.'"

"What does that mean, flexible?" Shelton asked.

"It means the viruses aren't completely species-specific. Canine parvo usually affects only dogs, wolves, and foxes. But certain strains can infect other animals, like cats."

"So if the dog version can jump to cats, why not to people?"

Hi shrugged. "Beats me. But Tory was right. Canine parvovirus isn't supposed to affect humans."

"Then that's a dead end." Shelton sighed. "We'd better keep looking."

Shadows deepened, lengthened, eventually shot like dark arrows across the wooden tables centered in the room. Shelton had almost given up when he stumbled upon a new lead.

"Hi. Look at this."

Hi leaned over to read the page under Shelton's pointing finger.

"Humans can't be infected by canine parvo, but they can catch viruses from the same family." Shelton sounded excited.

"Really?"

"There are three types: dependoviruses, bocaviruses, and erythroviruses. The last type has a bug called Parvovirus B19."

"Parvo B19." Hi rubbed his forehead. "Why does that ring a bell?"