“What about the infants?” Iso cried. “Vetch, Kayle, and Saleen?”

“They’ve got it as well,” Vik admitted. “The reason, I’m guessing, is that it’s spread by contact. If I’m right it’s from an oily secretion generated by Donovanian bacteria in the skin and sebaceous glands.”

“That means that the parents would have been exposed as well,” Michaela said, as a cold wave ran through her.

“That’s next on my list,” Vik agreed. “I want each and every one of you upstairs. Now. I want a blood sample from everyone. We need to see how far this has gone.”

“Any of you been feeling sick?” Michaela asked. “Fever? Nausea? Sweats? Vertigo?”

Around the room, heads shook, another layer of anxiety brewing atop their previous discord. Bodies were shifting uncomfortably in the chairs.

“Felix has been strange,” Kevina blurted. “I set my alarm for early. When it went off, he was sleepwalking.” She shook her head, as if to rid it of some unpleasant memory. “I couldn’t sleep. Just kept seeing that thing grabbing Kim off the landing pad . . . I took a pill. So, I don’t know if he was up all night.” She winced. “I was just lying there in bed, feeling miserable. And Felix gets up. Walks to the door. He reaches up and unlocks it.”

She rubbed her grief-swollen eyes. “I asked where he was going. But Felix just froze in place with his hand on the door. I told him I knew what he was feeling. That I was just as horrified at Kim’s death. That Daddy would want us to go on. He never answered me. Like he wasn’t there. His eyes vacant.”

Kevina stared emptily at her hands, as if there was some answer hidden there. “I got up and physically turned him around and marched him back to bed. It was as if he was putty. I just sort of bent him back onto the mattress, covered him up.

“But the weirder thing was that when he got up again, he didn’t remember it. Wasn’t even concerned when I told him. Said it had nothing to do with his father’s death. He and Breez just sat there holding hands. Their faces . . . um, sort of blank.”

Michaela walked over, stared down at Kevina. “The boy lost his father last night. It’s shock.” She took a breath, looked around at the room, at the jumble of expressions. Some with weary acceptance, others broken, some scared, all of them desperate.

Michaela declared, “As far as deciding whether to stay or leave, let’s table that for now. Give it a couple of days to settle. In the meantime, everyone stays in. Nothing can get to us as long as we are protected by the Pod’s walls. Let’s see if we can get a handle on how the kids got infected, see if it’s spread to the adults.”