“That's pretty crazy,” Seth said. As he watched the looped footage of the dead bodies shuffling through the corridor, his blood turned icy and a knot formed in his guts.
He'd heard once before of somebody who could animate the dead—Seth's own great-grandfather, who had used zombie labor to work his more remote fields. Seth had only recently learned this from his father.
“You know something,” Dr. Reynard said.
Seth just gaped and shook his head.
“Say something,” Dr. Reynard said. “Who is this guy, Seth?”
He used to be one of my ancestors, Seth thought. Now he's back in a new body, with a new name.
“I've never seen him before,” Seth told her.
“Bullshit.”
“Who is he?” Seth asked.
“I want you to tell me everything,” she said.
“About what?”
“Here's what I think, Seth. I think Jenny was planning to see how much damage she could really do, how many people she could wipe out at once. And when the heavy Homeland Security presence showed up, you people somehow started this riot as a smokescreen to help her escape. And she slipped away—if not with you, then with him.” She tapped the young man on the screen.
“With him?” Seth asked, feeling alarmed. If this guy really was the reincarnation of the first Jonathan Seth Barrett, then he might be very dangerous. Seth's great-grandfather had been a tyrannical man, feared by his own children and grandchildren.
“Do I have things right so far?” Dr. Reynard asked.
“Definitely not. Jenny would never want to hurt anybody.”
“Except your neighbors here in town. The mayor, the police...a lot of kids from your school. Guys you used to play sports with.” Her eyes narrowed. “She's a mass murderer, Seth. You seem like a decent kid. I can't believe you'd protect someone with so much innocent blood on their hands.”
“Innocent?” Seth snapped. “How would you know? What if it was a lynch mob screaming about witchcraft? What if they tried to kill her, and she was just defending herself?”
“Is that what happened? A lynch mob?” Dr. Reynard drummed her fingers on the table for a minute. “So that's why nobody in town wanted to talk. They didn't want to tell us about their relatives trying to kill a teenage girl. Is that it?”
“It was just an example.” Seth tried to make himself calm down, but the things she'd said about Jenny were getting under his skin.
“A pretty specific example. So your view is that Jenny acted in self-defense?”
Seth took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed to be smart about this. “Jenny didn't do anything.”
“Aren't we a little past that now, Seth?” she asked. “I know Jenny has something deadly. I watched her blood cells destroy healthy cells under a microscope. Honestly, I'm getting sick of all this horror-movie crap. Diseases with no vector. Zombies marching through the streets of Charleston. I want a straight story from you.”
“You wouldn't believe a straight story from me.”
“I'm all ears.” She stared at him, waiting.
After a minute, Seth shrugged. “There's nothing to tell.”
“Fine. You can get charged with two hundred counts of murder along with your girlfriend. I'm pretty sure they have the death penalty in this state.”
“She's not even my girlfriend. She broke up with me last week.”
“Did she?” Dr. Reynard rolled her eyes.
“Seriously. She was mad at me because I'm leaving for college. And that was it.”
“Why doesn't she infect you, Seth? Are you immune? Or can she decide when she's contagious and when she isn't?”
“Infect me with what?”
“The Jenny pox.”
Seth flinched a little at that. How did Heather know those words?
“Talk to me, Seth.”
“You want me to talk?” Seth asked. “I'll talk. You people just ripped through our house for no reason. You come in here and talk to me about zombies? Zombies? And accusing my ex-girlfriend of murder, when everybody knows it was some crazy chemical leak?”
“Come on, Seth—”
“Maybe you didn't check into my family,” Seth said. He leaned forward, pressing his counterattack. “My great-uncle Junius Mayfield is a sitting United States senator. He's not going to like hearing how his niece and her son were attacked in their own home for no reason. If I were you, I'd stop harassing people with your crazy ideas. We can bring the hammer down on you. We can destroy you. Who are you to go to war with my family? You're a nobody.”
Dr. Reynard was deep red and shaking with rage. “You're not going to get away with anything. And neither is Jenny.” She stood, slammed her laptop closed, and tucked it under her arm. “My job is to find and eliminate threats to public health, and that's what I'm going to do. I don't care who you are or who you know. The President has declared this a national security issue. Now go whine about that to your uncle.”