Eph looked at Jim. Jim’s eyes were open, his pupils dark, the sclera around them turning grayish orange, almost like an uncertain sky at dusk. He was staring at the ceiling.

Eph felt a spike of fear. Setrakian stiffened, his gnarled hand poised near the wolf’s-head handle of his walking stick—ready to strike. Eph felt the electricity of his intent, and was shocked by the deep, ancient hatred he saw in the old man’s eyes.

“Professor…” said Jim, on a slight groan escaping from his lips.

Then his eyelids fell closed again, Jim lapsing back into a REM-like trance.

Eph turned to the old man. “How did he…know you?”

“He doesn’t,” said Setrakian, still on alert, poised to strike. “He is like a drone now, becoming part of a hive. A body of many parts but one single will.” He looked at Eph. “This thing must be destroyed.”

“What?” said Eph. “No.”

“He is no longer your friend,” said Setrakian. “He is your enemy.”

“Even if that is true—he is still my patient.”

“This man is not ill. He has moved into a realm beyond illness. In a matter of hours, no part of him will remain. Apart from all that—it is supremely dangerous, keeping him here. As with the pilot, you will be placing the people in this building at great risk.”

“What if…what if he doesn’t get blood?”

“Without nourishment, he will begin caving. After forty-eight hours without feeding, his body will begin to fail, his system cannibalizing his body’s human muscle and fat cells, slowly and painfully consuming itself. Until only the vampiric systems prevail.”

Eph was shaking his head, hard. “What I need to do is formulate some protocol for treatment. If this disease is caused by a virus, I need to work toward finding a cure.”

Setrakian said, “There is only one cure. Death. Destruction of the body. A merciful death.”

Eph said, “We’re not veterinarians here. We can’t just put down people who are too ill to survive.”

“You did so with the pilot.”

Eph stuttered, “That was different. He attacked Nora and Jim—he attacked me.”

“Your philosophy of self-defense, if truly applied, absolutely holds in this situation.”

“So would a philosophy of genocide.”

“And if that is their goal—total subjugation of the human race—what is your answer?”

Eph didn’t want to get tangled up in abstractions here. He was looking at a colleague. A friend.

Setrakian saw that he was not going to change their minds here, not just yet. “Take me to the pilot’s remains, then. Perhaps I can convince you.”

No one spoke on the elevator ride down to the basement. There, instead of finding the locked morgue room, they found the door open and the police and the hospital administrator huddling around it.

Eph went up to them. “What do you think you’re doing…?”