Page 72 of Smoky Lake

Victor continued. “I figured I’d be able to follow you. I tried to catch up with you after you left Blackbear but you’re too fucking good at escaping.”

“We went to Fairbanks looking for you,” Gil said impatiently. “Where were you?”

“I’ve been hiding out at Willow Lake this whole time. I came in for supplies and saw you walking into the Wagon Wheel. Fucking stroke of luck. But then I lost you. Here we are, though. All together. I’m telling you, I never knew I was such a goddamn mastermind. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a movie. Like I can see what’s going to happen before it does. Like my mind is making the movie.”

Gil wished he could shake some rational sense into the guy. Was this delusional thinking Victor’s way of coping with the situation?

“I need to know everything. Start with why you were at Carlo Creek.”

“I found him in an online forum,” said Ani, almost apologetically. “I was looking for help about the virus, and he was the only one who seemed to have any knowledge about this particular virus.”

“I’m PetriFied, nice to meet you,” said Victor, presenting his hand from the backseat. “I check that forum whenever I can. I didn’t know it was Ani until I showed up here.”

“You didn’t think that was risky?”

“I took precautions. I wasn’t followed. I’m good at this shit, I’m telling you, Gil. Mastermind. I trust no one except myself.” Again with that cheeky smile.

Gil didn’t point out that Victor had walked right into a trap. What was done, was done. “Did you have the omegavirus when you talked to Ani at the airport?”

“I can’t say for sure. I don’t have an electron microscope or other detection mechanism at Smoky Lake. But I certainly have had it.”

“Did you get it in Ninuk?” Ani asked.

“Nope. I injected myself with it.”

Gil nearly drove off the road. They were traveling through a cut in the mountains, with scarred rock rising sharply on either side of the highway. The guardrails could only do so much to hold back the occasional slide of loose rocks. As he fought for control, the Ford skidded across a spray of scree.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” he demanded when they were back on track.

“I’ve been working on something, a massive breakthrough, and I wanted to test it. I know, I know, some would call that insane. But there’s a long history of researchers trying out their treatments on themselves. That’s how Barry Marshall won the Nobel prize for proving that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria. He drank the damn bacteria himself. I couldn’t exactly ask someone else to test it, could I?”

Ani turned toward Gil, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Victor was just about to tell me about his discovery when you appeared on top of that RV.”

“Okay, then shoot. What’s the breakthrough?”

“It’s incredible. It’s going to change the world. And it’s all because of my work.” He scooted up close to the front seat and spoke a rapid-fire bursts of words. “I’d been studying medicinal plants used historically by the northern Ahtna. When I heard about the Ninuk outbreak, right away I switched gears and went into harvest mode. I gathered plant samples and got to work on a sort of cocktail that matched the description I’d gotten from the Ahtna healers. But I didn’t have a test subject.”

“Hang on a minute,” said Ani. “If you know so much about this virus, why have you been avoiding the CDC?”

“This is bigger than them. They’ll just get in the way.” He waved a hand through the air, as if swatting away the CDC. “Luckily, I managed to acquire a sample of the omegavirus.”

Victor didn’t elaborate, but Gil could read between the lines on that one. He’d done something unethical and probably illegal. “So you injected yourself to test your treatment?”

“Yes. But that was when something else clicked.” He grinned. “Sometimes I think I’m a genius. Lachlan can eat his heart out.”

“Just tell the fucking story,” Gil snapped. He swerved around a semi-truck that was sticking painfully close to the speed limit.

“Right. The Ahtna healers talk about a condition called ‘wrong tongue.’ I assumed it was the virus, because of the fever it causes. But it wasn’t until I started taking that plant cocktail that I started hallucinating. It was wwiiiiiiilllld.”

Gil kept checking the rearview mirror as he listened. At some point the man in camo would realize that none of them were at Carlo Creek anymore and take off after them. So far, the road was clear.

Ani asked, “So if I understand this right, you’re saying it’s this plant cocktail that causes the hallucinations and delusions, not the omegavirus?”

“That doesn’t sound right,” said Gil. “I was hallucinating all kinds of shit when I had that damn virus.”

“Exactly. In severe cases, the virus can cause disordered thinking, but only temporarily. But the plant cocktail, though…hoo boy, that’s another story. It amplifies the effect.” His eyes were shining like twin black suns. “I tried to document my experience as much as possible, but I honestly don’t remember all of it. That’s why I’m hoping to get my notes from you, Gil.”

Gil thought about the binder. Were those notes even understandable? Victor must have written them during the peak of his hallucinations.

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