The Chosen Seed Read Free

started showing.’
    ‘You’re saying someone’s somehow mutated the bug?’ Hask’s stomach felt heavy. Strain II was dangerous enough without people messing around with it.
    ‘Something’s certainly given it some punch.’
    ‘Like it needed it,’ Armstrong muttered.
    ‘Who knows about this?’ Hask asked. The increase in infection rates had been all over the news in the past few days, but he hadn’t seen anything about a mutation.
    ‘Everyone important,’ Ramsey said, ‘and now us.’
    ‘So we can presume that within twenty-four hours it’ll be public knowledge – or at least rumour.’ The profilersipped what was left of his coffee. ‘What was the second thing?’
    ‘The ward sister said she’d heard something – a similar story, from three different patients, all talking about someone who gave them drugs. It sounded odd to me.’
    ‘Junkie stories?’ Hask sighed. It was almost impossible to get any useful information out of addicts – especially sick ones. Their perception was generally shot to hell.
    ‘It’s not just junkies, not any more. We’ve had a female patient brought over. Want to hear for yourself?’
    Hask smiled. ‘Lead on, Macduff.’
    ‘I’ve lost everything.’ Michaela Wheeler’s eyes were red-rimmed, and dark shadows sagged beneath them.
    ‘At least I didn’t give it to my family.’ Her voice was weary. ‘That’s one advantage of a stale marital sex life, I suppose.’ Her breath hitched. ‘But I did give it to my boss, and he gave it to his wife.’ She looked up hopelessly. ‘At least I won’t have to live with that guilt for long.’ She shook her head slightly. ‘Most of the time it just seems surreal.’
    Her hand was shaking as she sipped her tea. That mug would go straight into the bin when she was gone; these days no one would risk reusing a mug touched by someone with Strain II, even if the chances of catching the disease that way were so remote as to be practically impossible. The only good thing about Strain II was that it made the original HIV look almost harmless in comparison.
    ‘How can you be sure that he didn’t give it to you ?’ Hask asked gently.
    ‘I only slept with him once,’ she said. ‘It was two weeks after his wife had given birth to their second child – and they were both healthy. Plus, we have regular checks at work, company policy. We’d been out for a drink after work. Itwas Hallowe’en, and he’d been asking if we should decorate the office, or maybe throw a party. You know, cheer people up a bit.’ She chewed her bottom lip, and Hask couldn’t stop himself hoping it wouldn’t start bleeding.
    Ramsey, sitting next to him, had his arms folded. Armstrong had stayed standing by the door. Their body language said everything about how people perceived Strain II victims. Hask let his arms rest on the table and leaned in slightly. This woman was now a pariah, but he at least would do his best not to make her feel like one.
    ‘We ended up back at the office.’ She smiled softly. ‘It wasn’t even all that good, that’s the irony. I should have kept him in my fantasy.’ Her eyes filled slightly, but she swallowed back the tears with a sniff. ‘I’d never been unfaithful before. Not in ten years.’
    ‘DI Ramsey tells me that you believe someone intentionally infected you?’
    ‘Yes.’ She coughed – a phlegmy, wet sound – and the room flinched. Michaela Wheeler either didn’t notice or was past caring. ‘That night – although I didn’t really think about it until a nurse on the ward told me what some of the others had been saying.’
    ‘So, a nurse prompted this memory?’ Ramsey asked.
    Hask knew what the DI was worried about: if they caught whoever was doing this, then her testimony could be ruled invalid. But the whole point was invalid, Hask wanted to say: this woman wasn’t going to live long enough to get to trial, not even if they had the offender in custody right now.
    ‘Do carry on,’ he said