‘Thanks,’ said Leaf, with surprise. She hadn’t expected Sylvie to get so involved. ‘Uh, I don’t want to actually hurt them …’
‘I know, I know,’ said Sylvie. She sat back in a kitchen chair and started making noises like a small, sick cat. They were so realistic that Leaf was worried for a second, till she saw Sylvie wink.
Leaf opened the door. There were two paramedics, both in full quarantine gear, only their eyes visible behind their face masks.
‘It’s my grandma!’ said Leaf. ‘In the kitchen!’
The paramedics hustled past her, the second one noticing her bandaged head as he went past.
‘What happened?’ asked the first paramedic.
‘She blacked out,’ said Leaf. ‘It’s her heart, I think.’
‘Oh, oh, oh, oh,’ mumbled Sylvie.
‘We’d better take her in,’ said the first paramedic as he ripped the plastic covering off a diagnostic unit and attached it to Sylvie’s wrist. The second paramedic nodded and went back out. ‘Yeah, pulse very elevated, blood pressure okay. Could be some kind of heart episode. You’ll be all right, ma’am. My name’s Ron and I’ll be taking care of you. Just relax and we’ll have you in the ambulance very soon.’
Sylvie’s pathetic mewing quieted as the paramedic patted the back of her hand. Her other hand lay hidden under her shawl, holding the auto-injector.
‘Can I come too?’ asked Leaf.
‘You understand that with the quarantine, if we take you to a hospital you may end up having to stay there? And we’ll have to spray you first.’
‘Sure,’ said Leaf. ‘Long as we don’t go to East Area.’
‘No way,’ said Ron. ‘There’s some serious stuff going on there. We’re working out of Lark Valley Private now. Okay, stand back. We’re going to lift you now, ma’am, onto the stretcher.’
The second paramedic had returned, pushing a rolling stretcher. The two of them expertly picked Sylvie up and put her on it, lightly strapping her in. The diagnostic unit beeped as they did so.
‘Pulse spike,’ said Ron. ‘We’ll have you hooked up to a couple of our miracle machines in a few minutes, ma’am. You’ll be fine.’
Leaf had been worried that some neighbours might ask who she was when they got outside, but she had nothing to fear. Though there were faces at various windows, no one came outside. They were probably all wondering if Sylvie was a victim of the new bioweapon.
They would not be reassured by the sight of the second paramedic handing Leaf a pair of goggles and a face mask and then liberally spraying her all over with something that looked bright blue when it came out but was colourless when dry. It did have a faint odour, though, of wet newspaper. Fortunately it didn’t leave any residue Leaf could feel.
After the spraying, the paramedic went to the front and got behind the wheel. Leaf climbed in the back, where Ron was bringing online a device that swung out above the stretcher and had half-a-dozen hanging tubes, leads, and sensors.
Leaf shut the door behind her, and the ambulance took off, the siren coming on once more. As they rounded the corner, she bent over and undid the straps around Sylvie’s arms, just as the paramedic on the other side was unscrewing the lid of a tube of conductive gel.
‘What are you –’
‘Don’t move!’ hissed Sylvie, rearing up and pressing the auto-injector hard against Ron’s thigh, where the needle would easily strike through his protective suit. ‘This is a two hundred and fifty milligram dose of Rapyrox. Tell your partner not to radio or hit an alarm either.’
The paramedic froze, then slowly turned his head to the front. Leaf didn’t know what Rapyrox was, but Ron certainly did and he was afraid of it.
‘Jules, the old lady’s got an injection unit of Rapyrox against my leg. Don’t do anything … I mean anything.’
‘What?’
‘I’ve got two hundred and fifty milligrams of Rapyrox here and I’m not afraid to use it!’ screeched Sylvie, scaring Leaf almost as much as Ron. ‘I want you to drive me somewhere. And you keep quiet, young lady!’
Leaf nodded, suddenly unsure how much of this was an act.
‘Anything you want, lady,’ said Jules. Leaf could see his eyes in the rearview mirror, flicking nervously from that to the road ahead. ‘Where do you want to go?’
Sylvie gave an address two doors down from Arthur’s house. Leaf looked at her when the old lady said the wrong street number, then slowly nodded.
‘I read a lot of detective stories,’ said Sylvie, apparently without reference to anything.