Free Zombies! (Episode 4): The Sick and the Dead by Ivan Turner Page B

don’t know,” the man answered. “He says he’s a geneticist. From London.”
     
    She and Naughton looked at each other. “Okay,” she said. “Put him through.”
     
    "Hello, hello?" came a new voice.
     
    “This is Dr. Luco.”
     
    “At last!” the man on the other end shouted in exasperation. He was definitely English. He had a very proper London accent. “It’s taken me two weeks to get your name and track you down.”
     
    “And who are you?”
     
    “Oh, pardon me. My name is Dr. Rudolph Ludlow. I’m a geneticist with…well, I suppose it’s not important. I haven’t been with anyone in almost a year.”
     
    “Okay.” Luco rolled her eyes. “Do you want to tell me why you’ve been trying to find me for two weeks?”
     
    “Of course!” he cried. He was a very enthusiastic man and didn’t seem to even notice, let alone take offense at, her cold tone of voice. “I’ve heard you’ve been having some trouble with zombies.”
     
    “That’s not news, Dr. Ludlow.”
     
    “Perhaps not in the States, but over here in England it’s news. May I ask, is it a bacterial infection as opposed to a virus?”
     
    “Yes it is,” she said, still unimpressed.
     
    Now his breathing changed and he became deadly serious. “Dr. Luco, I think I need to come to the States right away. Can you arrange that?”
     
    “Wait a minute. I don’t even know who you are, and, no, I don’t have any sway with the government.”
     
    “It is essential if we hope to beat this infection before it becomes epidemic.”
     
    “Well, what do you know about it?”
     
    He paused as if he didn’t want to say what it was he had to say. “I’m reasonably certain that I’m the one who created it.”
     
    ***
     
    LATE that night, after all of the day's events, Mikael Seaver let himself into his apartment. When Linda came out of the bedroom, he could hardly contain his excitement. He had pushed himself into the position of being Lochschenborg's attorney with the hopes of getting to meet Luco and hearing something about what went on in the labs beneath Arthur Conroy Memorial Hospital. During the conference, however, her silence had left him preoccupied. He hadn't even really been able to perform his job very well, his full attention on goading her into speaking. Well apparently she had just been waiting for the right opportunity. And it had provided him with something greater than his greatest expectations.
     
    "What?" Linda asked.
     
    "You'll never believe it," he told her.
     
    "Tell me. You got some information?"
     
    He smiled from ear to ear. "I got a tour of the facility."
     
    Smacking him in the shoulder, she shouted, "No way!"
     
    "I did. Luco was so pissed by the end of the conference that she brought us down there to show those Candid bozos just how serious this thing is."
     
    Linda sobered for a moment. She had a way of doing that, shifting her mood on a dime. It wasn't the same as being moody because she did it sort of voluntarily. Linda was the only person Mikael had ever met that could alter her emotions properly to fit any situation.
     
    "I saw the news. How serious is it?" she asked.
     
    He was far less successful at overriding his excitement. "It’s serious. And it's scary. But these are people , Linda. And you have to see how they treat them. They have a place where they cut them to pieces and they call it the Butcher Shop . The place where they hold them is called the Zoo ."
     
    "The Zoo ? That’s outrageous. Why is it that people have so much trouble respecting a life that isn't their own?"
     
    He shrugged. To be honest, it was a question he'd never asked himself until he'd met Linda. Even then, he hadn't really asked himself the question. He'd just sort of put on a bit of a show to try and win her over. But she was unwinnable. She was devoted to her cause in body and spirit and that devotion was infectious. After three long months of trying to bed her, Mikael had seen past his petty goals