F. Paul Wilson - All the Rage

She gave her head a vehement shake. "Never. Not Doug. He was thinking of picking up some GEM stock on the chance that what he'd learned meant it was going up, but I know blackmail would never ever cross his mind."

"You're sure?"

"Without a doubt."

Nadia could have been kidding herself, like the mother of the school's biggest pothead saying, Not my kid. But Jack didn't think so.

"So I doubt it's GEM."

"Don't be so sure," Nadia said. "Milos Dragovic is somehow connected to GEM, and GEM is connected with"—she took a deep breath—"Berzerk."

"Damn!" Jack said, slapping the table. "I knew it! That sample I gave you matched up, I take it."

She nodded reluctantly. "It's my project at GEM, the very molecule I'm supposed to be stabilizing. It's called 'Loki' there."

"Loki… makes you loco. And stabilizing it makes sense. The guy who sold it to me told me about how it all changes to something useless after a certain time."

Nadia rose from her seat and wandered out from behind the deck, rubbing her hands in a washing motion. She looked agitated, too agitated to sit.

"Every twenty-nine days, twelve hours, forty-four minutes, and two-point-eight seconds."

Jack blinked. "How—?"

She seemed to be on automatic pilot as she moved to the coffee setup and grabbed the mug with nadj across its front.

"And it's not just the molecule itself that changes. Every representation of the structure of the active molecule, whether it's a drawing, a model, a computer file, even human memory of it, changes along with it."

She stopped pouring her coffee and turned to stare at him, pot in hand, as if waiting.

"Go on," he said.

"Aren't you listening?"

"To every word."

"Then why aren't you telling me I'm crazy?"

"Because I believe you."

"How can you believe me? What I'm telling you is impossible—or should be."

"Yeah. And the same could be said for the beastie your buddy Monnet gets his Loki from."

"'Beastie?' You mean it comes from an animal?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of what?" Nadia was saying, and sounding a little annoyed as she went back to pouring her coffee. Good. Better than crying. "It 'sort of comes from an animal, or it comes from a 'sort-of animal?"

"A sort-of animal that doesn't follow any of the rules, just like this Loki stuff."

Things were beginning to make sense now… sort of. Jack told her how he'd followed Monnet out to the freak show, and what the boss there had later said about a research scientist who'd found some "fascinating things" in the dying rakosh's blood.

"Doc, I'm willing to bet that one of those 'fascinating things' turned out to be Loki or Berzerk or whatever it's called."

She turned, holding her mug with both hands. "But what kind of animal—?"

"I wouldn't call it an animal— animal might make you think of a rabbit or a deer. I'd call it a creature or a thing. The only one of its kind left. And it's not like anything else that's ever walked this earth." He could have added that he had it on good authority that a rakosh wasn't completely of this earth, but he didn't want to get into that here. "Let's just say anything is possible where this thing is concerned."

"Even altering memories?"

Jack shrugged. "Nothing connected with that creature would surprise me."

Nadia looked at Jack, then at her mug. "Why did I pour this? I was too jumpy for coffee before and I'm way too wound up now." She half turned toward the door, then rotated back. "Do you want it?"

He'd already had a couple of cups, but it was always a shame to waste good coffee.

"How'd you make it?"

"Just black."

"Add a couple of sugars and I'll take it off your hands."

Nadia emptied two packets into the mug, then handed it to him. He noticed her hand was trembling. Looked like the last thing she needed now was caffeine.

"The good news is it's dying," he said.

"Dying?" Her hands flew to her face. "Oh, God! That's why he wants me to stabilize the molecule! He's going to lose his source!"

"And soon, I think."

"Dragovic's behind it all. He's forcing Dr. Monnet to do this. I know it, I know it, I know it."

"I don't," Jack said. He sipped his coffee: good and strong, the way he liked it. "And besides, Mr. Dragovic has other matters to occupy his mind at the moment."

Nadia brightened. "Yes! I heard about that." She narrowed her eyes as she looked at Jack. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with his troubles, would you?"

"His troubles are with the law and his image," Jack said and drank some more coffee.

"Anyway," Nadia said. "We've got to stop him, stop the drug."

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"All right, you. I wouldn't know—" She stopped as Jack began shaking his head. "What's wrong?"

"I don't do drugs… other than caffeine"—he hefted the NADJ mug—"and ethanol, that is."

"Well, good… great…"

"But what I mean is I don't sell them and I don't stop other people from selling them."

"But Dragovic's forcing—"

"You don't know if Dragovic's forcing anything, Doc."

"All right then, forget force. The thing is, Dragovic has somehow involved himself in GEM and GEM is somehow behind this Berzerk poison."

"Which people are buying and ingesting of their own free will."

Nadia turned and stared at Jack, disbelief scrawled across her face. "Don't tell me you approve."

"I think drugs are stupid as all hell, and I think people who drug themselves up are dumb asses, but people have a right to control their own bloodstreams. If they want to pollute them, that's their business. I'm not a public nanny."

"You mean if you saw someone selling Berzerk to a twelve-year-old, you wouldn't do anything?"

"Never been there, but I might break his arms."

Jack thought of Vicky. And maybe his legs. And his face.

Nadia smiled. "So you would make it your business."

"We were talking adults before. Now we're talking kids. I'm not into crusades, but certain things I will not abide in my sight."

She cocked her head and stared at him. "Abide … that's a strange word from you."

"How so?"

"It's something I'd expect to hear from a southerner, and you're very much a northeasterner."

Good ear, Jack thought. "A man who taught me some things used to use that word."

She looked as if she wanted to pursue that but changed her mind. Good.

"But back to Dragovic. His customers are committing crimes because of what he's selling them."

"And going to jail for them." Jack finished his coffee and stood. "As for me, I believe I've seen enough of Dr. Monnet and Mr. Dragovic for a long time."

"But it's not finished."

Jack sighed. "Yeah, it is. You wanted to know the connection between Dragovic and Monnet. It's this drug. You wanted to know what Dragovic has over Monnet: nothing. They're in this together, as in partners."

"I can't believe that."

"Monnet's the guy who discovered the stuff, he's the guy who's testing the stuff, and if you take a trip out the GEM plant in Brooklyn I bet you find he's manufacturing the stuff. Be objective for just two seconds, Doc, and there's no other conclusion."

Nadia half sat, half leaned on the desk and stared at the floor, saying nothing. Jack didn't like the job of telling her that her hero had clay tootsies, especially with her fiance missing…

"Tell you what, though," he said. "I'll ask around, see who's been boosting in the DUMBO area, and find out if anybody knows anything about Sunday night."

She looked up and smiled for the first time since he'd arrived. "Will you? I'd really appreciate it."

Jack left her with at least a little hope. He emerged onto Seventeenth Street with the morning sun warming the air and the traffic back full force after the holiday. Had the rest of the day pretty much to himself. So why not drop in on Gia? Vicky would be off to school by now. That meant they'd have the house to themselves.