“He’s the last one.” Jimmy gestured towards the ani- mal’s head, and earned a fresh snarl and a loud snap of the jaws. Jimmy seemed unconcerned.

Flint couldn’t keep his eyes off the dog. It seemed that once this had been a German shepherd, but now…

“How many have died?”

“Seven, four of them today. Hemorrhaging from every orifice. Five mice, a cat, and a guinea pig. The cat was the latest one to go. The bigger they are, the longer they survive.”

The dog watched them through bloodshot eyes that still held a glint of intelligence. Flint shivered. This thing may be ready to die, but it knows what’s happening, and it’s going to fight us to the end.

“The hound from hell, eh?” Jimmy said, and Flint felt a momentary disgust at the man’s callousness. “He’d kill you if he could, in a second. Damn near took The- resa’s face off earlier today.”

“Just give me the facts.”

Jimmy walked over to the machine on the floor, and Flint followed him around the table. Closer to the screen, the man’s face took on a slightly greenish hue as he bent to study the spiking lines.

“Brain activity shows some unusual patterns closer to REM sleep than a conscious state. Brain waves are jumping all over the spectrum. Normally, we see high points here and here”—he gestured to blank spots on the readout—“but now they’re much higher, as you can see. What this probably means,” he said, pausing for emphasis, “is that our little friend is hallucinating.”

“Hallucinating?”

“You got it.” Jimmy let the computer printout fall, and turned back to the dog. “Dancing dots, tunnels, smells, the works.”

Flint watched as the dog fell into a momentary period of quiet. Its sides still heaved, but the snapping jaws were still.

“This is some pretty nasty stuff. It’s different from anything I’ve seen before. It’s similar to 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, or 2,4-D, a common enough herbicide—mixtures of that and 2,4,5-T, another one, was used in Vietnam. Nasty little gem called Agent Orange. But I’ve never seen this exact structure in my life.”

When Flint nodded, Jimmy continued. “As we all know now, dioxins turned out to be pretty toxic, but not at low levels. It was used for a long time in commercial herbicides here at home, even while they were spraying it over there.”

“But…”

“But, this stuff is different. Agent Orange was pretty short-lived in the topsoil, maybe a few weeks at the most. Picloram was another, and that stayed around a while longer, maybe a couple of months. This stuff we have, I don’t know when it will ever break down. We’ve only had it a few days, but who knows how long it’s been in the water out there, and it’s still going strong.”