Page 73 of Night of the Living Manny
He added a drop, and he got it again. The change in the blood.
Okay. He sat back. Okay, this was good. He could work it up into an injection, and they could test it on a live subject. Someone already sick. Someone they might help.
He picked up his phone and dialed nine. “I need to talk to the general.”
“Yes, sir. Just a moment, please.”
That moment wasn’t long either, the general right there. “Yeah, son?”
“I need a live test subject. There’s not enough yet for anything major, but if you have an infected person isolated….”
“Not a problem. You ready now?”
“Now. If this works or not, I need to know.”
“Okay. Load it up. I’ve got a detail of medics who were in various special forces. They’ll administer it.”
“Works for me.” He didn’t want to be in a situation where they tried to inject him.
“Good deal. We have some—well, we need to save as many as we can, son.”
“God, yes. I can replicate it, if it works. If it doesn’t, I’ll fix it.”
“Well, let’s do it, then.”
“I’ll be ready.” He loaded a syringe with half his product. He had no idea how much it would take to fully cure someone or how far gone his patient was.
He closed his eyes for half a second, breathed, and said a little prayer.
Then he opened up his computer and sent an email to his kids. Nothing anyone could decipher, and hopefully nothing they could trace.
Just a “Hey, we got this” and “I love you all” and “Keep the faith.”
He closed down the email program and scrubbed his history. Couldn’t hurt.
Please. He needed this antidote to work.
Needed it.
Chapter Nine
LIGHTNINGin a bottle.
Brenden sat back from the microscope, which was in a makeshift fume box with gloves that went inside so nothing was open to infect him. According to Liam’s notes, he’d just had the reaction he was supposed to have. That meant it had tested true on two samples.
He breathed a sigh of relief. Okay. He could load this up and keep it safe. Just in case. Brenden rolled his head on his neck, his tension level vicious.
Peter and Britt refused to get off the couch, and Susanna was patrolling like a Green Beret. He would laugh if it didn’t make his belly hurt. She was a warrior.
She was supposed to be a teenager, dammit.
He shook it off. Okay, make up the syringes. He was supposed to mix the serum with a stabilizer, then load four syringes. Then he could put them in the fridge.
Please, God, let him have done this right.
Taking his time, he loaded up the syringes in the safety box, then wrapped them in the zipper pack Liam had left for him. He placed that in the fridge before locking it.
Okay. He would wash up so he could run upstairs and make…. Lunch. God, he’d been up forever.
