Chapter Three
Several hours later Ricard paced the floor of the lab.
Raymond Tyrone’s experiments were growing stronger, more viable with each round. The scientist may be dead, but his experiments would continue with Rollins and the devil only knew who else.
All the tireless work to unlock the answer to what Tyrone was using to infect innocent humans in order to build his army seemed futile. Rather than getting closer to an answer, Ricard was more confounded.
“You’re going to walk a hole in the linoleum,” Lawrie Tyrone said. The young scientist and daughter of Lawrence Tyrone, founding partner of Panthera Laboratories looked up from the microscope. “You’re letting my uncle get to you.”
“How would it be possible for that young man to have TB, polio, and MS? It’s impossible. Never happened before in the history of the world.” Ricard rubbed his trapezoid muscles, trying without success to remove the hard lumps that instantly formed the very second he heard Jessica scream for the first time.
“Look at this.” Lawrie turned the microscope toward Ricard. “She is right.”
Once again he peered into the viewer, his eyes automatically adjusting to the magnification. Years of studying cell biology had gifted him with the ability to bring anything into focus.
Jessie was right. These cells each showed evidence of all three diseases.
“It makes no sense. That boy should have been dead already. This should have killed him.” Ricard pointed at the microscope.
“What makes you think it didn’t,” Serge asked. The leader of The Vampire Guard was also a studied scientist, one with an even greater interest in cell biology.
“What do you mean?” Ricard turned to see Serge pulling on a lab coat as he crossed the room.
The two men had known each other for many years, far longer than most vampires knew either man. That, of course, meant they knew details of the other no one else knew.
Ricard understood better than anyone Serge’s quest for a cure to vampirism. He also made it very clear to his old friend he would not participate in any experiment to find one. This had been a bone of contention between them for centuries.
“Jessie has not told us how long Joshua was ill. What if he contracted these illnesses later? What if one was cured before another came on or nearly cured as another was added?” Serge looked into the microscope. “It’s quite possible this poor boy was simply an experiment of the worst order.”
Ricard leaned against the table. “You mean to say you believe Tyrone did all this to him? These diseases, plus the serum to make him a revenant?”
“There had to be something quite important about this particular revenant for Raymond to leave Panthera and enter the heart of Central City.” Serge looked from Ricard to Lawrie. “Important enough that he died for him.”
Lawrie whistled. “But what? My uncle was a madman, but I never believed he thought anything was worth him giving his life. He was far too important in his own mind.”
“Rollins,” Ricard said. “Remember how the henchman had always wanted more than Tyrone would allow? Rollins must be behind Tyrone’s death. There’s no way the scourge will end simply because Tyrone’s ego killed him.”
“Agreed.” Serge looked back through the microscope. “I’ve sent a team out to do a little reconnaissance at the lab. There must be some hint of what’s going on since Tyrone’s demise. We’ll know more in the coming nights. For now, we need to figure out what Tyrone was up to with Joshua.”
“Right, but how does one person have three diseases like this?” Lawrie asked.
“The young woman said Joshua’s illness was permanent. That is true of MS. The other two are curable, though there may be lasting side effects.” Serge swapped out one slide for another.
“Lasting?” Ricard asked. “Lasting like becoming a vampire has a lasting side effect?”
“Or a revenant,” Lawrie said.
“I didn’t say the effects were kind, just that they would remain.” Serge did not look up but rather scribbled some notes on a pad.
“It cannot be possible that giving these revenants TB, polio, and MS is helpful to making them viable. The molecular structure of the revenants would destroy the weakened…”
All three scientists stopped and stared at each other.
Serge shrugged. “It’s quite possible that weakening the human system to a point where the body begins to destroy itself and then introducing an organism already far superior to the strongest human cell could be the answer to Raymond’s search.”
“Good God. The revenant cell would simply attach itself to the killer cells trying to destroy the body, then it could multiply at an exponential rate.” Ricard turned to face the workbench, letting his shoulders hunch.
The theory was brilliant, brilliantly demonic and evil beyond reason.
Lawrie retrieved a case of slides from the cabinet on the far wall. “We might as well look at these, too. We never considered determining if the revenants had other illnesses in combination with the serum.”
“You’re theorizing that weakening the system to such an extreme point would allow for the stronger cells to take over. Those stronger cells being the revenant vampire cells.” Ricard grabbed two more boxes of slides, handing one to Serge and taking the other to a microscope across the room.
If the theory was correct, a plague was about to befall all of Central City.
Serge nodded. “If I’m correct we either need to stop Rollins or find cures for every illness that befalls man.”
“I’m pretty sure we should kill Rollins and burn Panthera to the ground. Somehow that seems like a more achievable goal.” Lawrie opened a box and pulled out the first slide of thousands the team would review.
As the night continued Ricard’s mind vacillated between several thoughts. Serge’s theory consumed most of his time. The chemistry of the serum Raymond created took up another large percentage. But the last little bit focused on Jessica.
He could not stop his thoughts from returning to her. The very moment the woman screamed, something inside him clicked. The little piece of him that had lain dormant for so many years as he focused on a cure for vampirism or at least an explanation for how he and his friends had come to be, was now awake.
That bit of him he forced to be quiet and stay out of the way would no longer remain off to the side. It now wanted his attention and it would have what it wanted whether the scientist in him liked it or not.