‘Come to the City,’ said Michael.
I stared at his face on the floater terminal. He was in his office, or at least he’d programmed his image to make it appear that he was. I suspected that most of the City Admin now worked from their safe sealed quarters, rather than take the trek in to work and risk infection. ‘Why on earth should we come to the City?’
‘Better medical facilities here if you’re infected.’
‘You said there was no cure yet.’
‘There isn’t. But you’ve still got a better chance of survival with TotalMed here than haphazard treatment by an Outlands Meditech.’
I considered. There was something in what he said. Even though part of me would far rather have been treated by Elaine, she didn’t have the qualifications or resources of a City doctor. And what if she too were infected …
‘If we come in to the City, will you send a team out to follow up the camp’s contacts?’
‘When I can. If I can.’
I raised an eyebrow.
‘The news has got out,’ said Michael briefly. ‘People are panicking. Resources are strained at the moment, to put it mildly. The plague’s spread to the Burbs too. We should be able to get you in here safely now. In a few days … I don’t know.’
I glanced at Neil. He nodded.
‘Look, give us another forty-eight hours.’ I tried to keep my voice matter-of-fact. ‘We’ve got a diagnostic, we’ll test ourselves. If either of us shows signs of infection, we’ll come on in straight away. Otherwise, we’ll keep looking for another two days. Okay?’
‘I hope …’ began Michael, then stopped. I had never had difficulty reading his face before. But then for most of my life I’d been able to read the emotions that lay behind it too.
‘You hope what?’
‘Nothing.’ He hesitated. ‘Good luck. To both of you.’
The screen went blank. The floater headed to the nearest of the hunting camp’s most recent non-City customers.