Free Sea Sick: A Horror Novel by Iain Rob Wright

inconsequential.
    Eventually someone came out of a consultation room up ahead.  It was the two parents and their pigtailed daughter.  Jack knew that the little girl was one of the first to turn savage in High Spirits .  Whatever was wrong with her, the doctor obviously didn’t offer anything to help her, because every night her illness was the same.  Jack could only assume that every day this same family would be in this exact place, following their routine like everyone else onboard.
    Except the waitress.
    Jack was still eager to talk to the brunette,but right now he had other things to concentrate on.  The doctor had just entered the corridor.
    The towering medic was dark-skinned and heavily bearded, obviously from African descent.  When he asked Jack to follow him into the consulting room he spoke English very well, but with a French twang.
    “Are you the doctor?” Jack asked as he entered the confines of the small office.  There was a padded examination table in the centre of the room and several cabinetslined the walls.
    “Yes, I am Doctor Fortuné.  What is it I can do for you, sir?”
    “I need to know what was wrong with the little girl just in here.”
    “I’m sorry?  Are you ill, yourself?”
    “No,” Jack replied.  “But lots of other people on this ship are.  I need to know what is wrong with them.  I want to know what you know.”
    The doctor seemed irritated.  “I’m afraid I cannot discuss these things with you, sir.  If you are not ill then you will have to leave.”
    Jack sighed.  He respected the confidentiality of the Hippocratic Oath – as a police officer he abided by similar virtues himself – but this wasn’t the time for convention.  “Okay,” Jack relented, deciding to try a different tactic.  “But there’s definitely something nasty going around the passengers on this ship.  In the interest of my own health, can you tell me what I should look out for?  You have a duty to inform me if I am at risk.”
    The doctor let out a long breath and relaxed.  “Okay, sir.  What I can tell you is that there seems to be some sort of highly contagious cold virusaboard the ship.  There have been several cases, but none are at all serious.  It is just a cold, my friend.  Nothing to worry about, okay?  Wash your hands regularly and avoid touching your face.  You will be fine.”
    “It can’t just be a cold,” Jack protested.“People don’t turn into psycho killers because of the sniffles.”
    The doctor looked confused.  “I’m sorry?”
    “Oh yeah,” said Jack.  “That doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, does it?”
    The doctor just looked at him.
    “Look,” said Jack.  “Is there anything… unusual …about this cold going around?  You said it’s highly contagious.  Is that normal?”
    “No, it isn’t.  Cold virusesare often highly infectious, but the numbers of cases I’ve seen today is unusual. Still no reason to be concerned though.”
    Jack sighed.  This was going nowhere.  “Okay, Doctor.  Thank you for your help.”
    Jack was almost out the door when the doctor spoke again.  “Actually, there is one thing that I found a little strange.”
    Jack spun back around.  “What?”
    The doctor seemed to quickly change his mind about divulging his information.  “Who are you, exactly?  Why are you so interested in this?”
    “I’m a police officer, and I have a very bad feeling.  This isn’t just a cold virus.”
    “Do you know something I don’t?”
    Jack shook his head.  Of course he knew something, but there was no way to explain it and not seem like a whackjob in the process.  “No, I don’t,” he said.“Just, please, tell me what you know.”
    The doctor let out a sigh.  “There’s something strange about the virus.  The people that have it are suffering from elevated blood pressure.  The later it has gotten in the day, the quicker their pulses have been when I’ve measured them.  It’s almost like their hearts