Laughing Wolf. Nicholas Maes

Laughing Wolf - Nicholas Maes


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described his father’s routines, how he’d worked in the Depository, brought home piles of books and taught his son both Latin and Greek. The point was, Felix added, as Angstrom shifted restlessly, that he’d stumbled on an ancient text that cast some light on the plague.

      “Let me get this straight,” Angstrom interrupted. “You’re saying a book that was written in the past has something to say about the disaster we’re facing?

      “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

      “Then I’ve heard enough,” Angstrom smirked, leaning forward to press the disconnect button.

      “You don’t understand!” Felix said sternly. “I’m saying this same plague struck two thousand years ago!”

      At this news Angstrom flinched, while the doctor sat up straight in his chair.

      “It will become clearer if I read to you,” Felix explained, opening the Historiae to the page with the bookmark. Angstrom and the doctor leaned forward in their seats.

      “‘Two days after the death of Spartacus,” he read, “a plague broke out near the town of Panarium, a small but prosperous farming centre. Without warning, people in the town fell ill. Spots erupted on their faces, their necks grew swollen, and their fingertips turned red, as if they’d been immersed in blood. Its victims also lapsed into a sleep so deep that no amount of shaking would possibly rouse them.’” Felix paused for breath and addressed Angstrom directly. “Notice the symptoms. Facial spots, red fingertips, coma …”

      “Are you a doctor?” Angstrom asked.

      “No.”

      “Then you have no right to jump to conclusions. In fact —”

      “‘For a month,” Felix went on reading, to prevent himself from being cut off, “the plague rampaged like a conquering army. Rich and poor fell ill, Roman and non-Roman, slave and master, honest folk and criminals. Offerings were delivered to the gods, but still the plague continued, drawing strength from every victim it claimed. Hearing of this sickness, officials in Rome grew worried. If the plague reached the capital, it would kill people by the tens of thousands. Rome’s foes might attack it in its weakened state, and slaves might remember Spartacus and continue his rebellion. The fate of the empire seemed to hang in the balance.’”

      “Slaves, war, invasion!” Angstrom growled, his 3D image recoiling in horror. “I think you’ve tried our patience enough!”

      “I’m getting to the important part —”

      “Finish quickly,” the doctor broke in. “This talk of the past is most unpleasant.”

      “‘In the third week of the crisis,’” Felix pressed on, “‘The plague struck the capital. Within days three thousand Romans lay dying. As officials struggled to halt the disease, and citizens prepared to flee the city, a farmer from Panarium made the strangest claim. Some months before the plague had started, his entire crop had failed. His fields had produced, not wheat and barley, but an ungainly flower called lupus ridens, so named because its petals resembled a laughing wolf. His neighbours had assumed he had offended the gods and refused to provide his household with grain. In desperation, the farmer had fed his family this flower, whose bulb, though bitter, was highly nutritious. The results were startling. Whereas every neighbour had fallen ill, the farmer was in perfect health. Far from being a curse, the lupus ridens was a blessing.’”

      “What barbarians!” Angstrom snorted, “To believe in gods …!”

      “‘Hearing this tale,’” Felix concluded, “‘the senator Gaius Julius Caesar bought the flowers from the farmer and distributed bulbs throughout Italy. Within weeks of eating the lupus ridens, citizens were delivered from the brink of death: they awoke from their sleep, their spots disappeared and their red fingertips regained their normal colour. And thus it was that a simple flower saved the empire in its hour of need.’”

      Felix closed the book. “So you see,” he concluded, “this plague does have a cure. We only have to find this lupus ridens and —”

      “Enough!” Angstrom cried. “How dare you mention … fairy tales! If you’d undergone ERR, you’d be thinking with your head and not your emotions!”

      “This is no fairy tale!” Felix said hotly. “Just because it was written —”

      “At a time when people thought the sun was a god,” Angstrom sneered. “And when slavery and war were everyday occurrences.”

      “But the story tells us something,” Felix cried. “Don’t you think so, Doctor?”

      “I think,” the doctor mused, “that we’ve heard enough superstition for one day.”

      “My feelings exactly,” Angstrom agreed. “Now if you don’t mind, Felix, there are other callers on the line.”

      Felix was about to protest, but Angstrom pressed a button and his holographic image popped like a bubble.

      As he sat on the couch without moving a muscle, other guests connected and ridiculed his tale about the lupus ridens. A few suggested that Mr. Taylor should be jailed for having taught his son such absolute nonsense and that all ancient texts should be thrown into a furnace. Felix asked Mentor to turn the EC off.

      The sun was setting. Shadows were gathering in the room. His loneliness a crushing weight on his shoulders, Felix curled into a ball and slowly drifted off.

       H e was standing in a desert. Around him was a crowd of legionnaires, who looked tired and … apprehensive. They were staring in front of them, with such concentration that they failed to notice Felix. Curious, he moved through their ranks, and still they continued to direct their gaze forward. What WERE they looking at?

       Wait! The troops were suddenly changing: their faces were spotted, their fingertips were reddening and many were collapsing! He sprinted toward the foremost ranks where a figure was surveying the plain before him. Felix knew this was Marcus Crassus and that the battle of Carrhae was about to begin, one of Rome’s more troubling defeats. Even now the Parthians were approaching, with their fifteen-foot pikes. What was on the end of each? It couldn’t be! Hoisted on high, beneath the blinding desert sun, his father’s head stared lifelessly at Felix.…

      Felix awoke with a cry. He’d been napping on the couch and, with the night’s onset, the unit was steeped in shadow. Wait, no. A flashing light intruded from outside, and an angry buzzing was making his ears ring — as if a hive of bees had broken into their dwelling.

      “Mentor? What’s happening?”

      The flashing light grew brighter. The buzzing, too, rose in volume, until Felix could feel his insides tingle. He struggled off the couch and studied the room. His instincts told him something was wrong.

      “Mentor! Answer me! What’s going on?”

      Wait. Mentor’s light ports weren’t blinking; a sign his power had been cut. But how? The system was linked to three separate generators, and a short like this was out of the question — unless it had been engineered.

      Felix’s hair stood on end. Somehow someone had … murdered Mentor!

      “Felix Taylor!” a voice hailed him from outside, “This is Medevac 125037. We are here to transport you to a health facility.”

      A Medevac? Here? It was going to transport him? Felix felt his neck and scalp bristle. There could only be one explanation: he’d come down with the virus!

      He hurried to a mirror beside the front entrance. Although the only light was from the flashers outside, he peered into it anxiously and tried to spy his features. Were there blisters on his cheeks? Had his fingertips turned red? It was difficult to tell, but everything seemed normal. And far


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