The Black: Arrival

by Paul E. Cooley

  There was a pause on the line. “What kind of sick? Not food poisoning, I hope.”

  Jay laughed. “Nothing like that. It’s the flu or something. She’s running a fever and coughing her lungs out.”

  “Where is she?” Darren asked.

  “Kate’s daughter has her in the mother’s room. I think she’s sleeping now, but we might need to get her to a doctor.”

  “Ugh.” Darren clucked his tongue. “I can take her to the emergency room. Is it really that bad?”

  “I think so,” Jay said. “It came on really really fast.”

  “Okay. Let me tell Mike what’s up and I’ll go down and see her.”

  “Thanks, Darren. If we need to, Kate and I can stop what we’re doing and—”

  “Absolutely not,” Darren said. “Mike’ll have my balls if you guys do that. Keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll be in touch.”

  Jay smiled. “Thanks, Darren. You’re a life-saver.”

  “Remember that,” Darren laughed. “Talk soon.”

  “Cheers,” Jay said and hung up the phone. “Okay, Kate. Darren’s got it covered.”

  “Good,” Kate said. “If she’s really that sick, we need someone other than Maeve taking care of her.”

  “Agreed.” Jay hoped Darren and Mike would handle it. Mike was very protective of his employees and Darren was an extension of the CEO. Sometimes Jay wondered which of them really ran the company.

  Kate ran a hand through her hair and checked the readout. “Vacuum is holding. The temperature is over 100°C.”

  “That was fast. That means the oil is pretty damned thin.” He walked to the distillation tower and peered at the container. He frowned. “Kate? It’s doing it again.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Moving.”

  She looked beneath the table and at the sample container. Her skin popped into gooseflesh. The heavy iron container trembled. “Stupid question, but are you sure whatever came out of that spigot was oil?”

  “Yes.” Jay tugged at the lab coat’s collar. “Which is why I’m suddenly wondering why we aren’t burning this shit instead of trying to figure out what it is.”

  The container rattled again and then stood still. The computer beeped and she swung her eyes back to the display. “200°C.”

  Jay slowly stood. He wiped sweat from his forehead. “Jesus, Kate. What is going on here?”

  “I don’t know. But we need to figure it out.”

  *****

  The hall lights rose in brightness as he walked to the mother’s room. After he checked on Marie, he’d make sure Maeve was okay. But the way Jay spoke on the phone had him worried. Mike too. When he’d told Mike that Marie was ill, the CEO had paled considerably. Darren couldn’t remember the last time one of the chemists, or the biologists for that matter, bailed on a hot-shot. And while Marie hadn’t been with HAL more than a year, she worked hard. Jay and Kate consistently submitted her for raises and title promotion. For her to be absent from the lab, she had to be really sick.

  Darren stopped. For a moment, he wasn’t sure what he was hearing from down the hall. And then he smiled. Maeve must be playing a video game. In addition to the wind and rain pelting the sides of the building, the sounds of things blowing up and shots being fired sounded like crackling kindling. At least she’s keeping herself entertained, Darren thought.

  The hallway ended at the mother’s room. The lights were off in there. Darren slowed his steps. If Marie was sleeping, he didn’t want to wake her. He reached the mostly closed door and slowly pushed it open. Instead of the squeak and squeal of hinges, the building super had made sure this door was well oiled. Darren would have to thank him for that.

  When the door was wide enough for him to see in, he stepped to the side to allow the hall light to filter in through the crack. A narrow, oblong ray of light started at the doorway and made its way to the wall. Darren frowned.

  Marie was sleeping, all right. But something was very wrong. The covers were flung to the floor. The sheets were drenched with sweat. And her breathing sounded like a bellows.

  “Jesus,” he whispered. He hurried to the bed and placed his hand on her forehead. Her skin felt like it was on fire. Darren pulled out his cellphone and dialed 9-1-1.

  “She okay?”

  Darren nearly dropped the phone. Maeve leaned against the doorjamb.

  “No, she’s not.” He put the phone to his ear. The operator picked up.

  “9-1-1. What is your emergency?”

  Without a beat, Darren told the operator the building’s address and Marie’s condition. She promised an ambulance in fifteen minutes or less and asked for Darren to stay on the line.

  “Maeve?” he said while cupping his hand over the receiver. She blinked at him. “I’ll need you to go to the front entrance and get Jakob to let the EMTs into the building when they get here.”

  She frowned. “I don’t have a card key.”

  Darren reached down and unhooked his card from his chinos. “Catch.” He tossed the card to her. Maeve caught it in the air. “That’ll let you through the door if you get locked out.”

  Maeve nodded. “Okay. What else can I—”

  He smiled. “I got it, dear. She’s very sick, but I don’t think she’s dying.” The words sounded like a lie the moment they left his mouth. “Now go on and wait for them.”

  “You want me to tell my mom?”

  Darren bit his lip. “No. Let’s wait until after the EMTs get here.”

  “Okay,” Maeve said. She hurried away from the door.

  Panic. That was the real enemy here. If he panicked, Maeve would panic. And no one needed that. But his heart pounded in his chest and he felt damned hot. Of course, that could be because he was hunched next to a human furnace.

  He turned away from the door and looked back at Marie. Her eyelids fluttered. Darren slid one of them up and looked into her eye in the dim light.

  Flecks of something danced in the whites of her eyes. What the fuck did you catch, girl? Darren closed the eyelid. Her breath hitched and his heart stopped. It seemed like an eternity before her chest rose again in a shaky rhythm.

  Seconds ticked off and turned into minutes. He held Marie’s hand in his and whispered a prayer. Regardless of what he’d said to Maeve, Marie was dying. And he knew it. With his closed mouth moving as he spoke silent words and pleas, he didn’t notice the movement in her leg. He didn’t see the way her foot jerked and then turned sideways as the bone fractured and dissolved. But he heard the fracture’s crack and crunch.

  Darren opened his eyes and looked down at the bed. He didn’t notice her foot was turned the wrong way, but he did see the blood seeping out of her skin. “Jesus.” The word was barely audible even to him.

  “Sir? Are you still there?” a tinny voice said through the phone.

  He brought it back to his ear. “Yes. Yes, ma’am.”

  “The ambulance has arrived and they’re heading to your location.”

  A relieved sigh escaped his lips. “Thank you.”

  “I’m going to hang up now. Please tell the EMTs everything you’ve told me.”

  “I will,” Darren said. “Thank you.” He ended the phone call and pocketed the phone.

  “Hello?” a voice yelled from the hallway.

  “Here. We’re down here!” Darren yelled through the open doorway.

  A moment later, two paramedics walked in, Maeve in tow. She flipped the light switch and the fluorescents bathed the mother’s room.

  One medic carried a large bag, the other rolled a stretcher. The first EMT asked what Marie had taken, how long she’d been ill. “What’s her name?” the paramedic asked.

  “Marie,” Darren said. “Marie Krieger.”

  The medic crouched next to the bed. “Marie? Can you hear me?” He slid up an eyelid and shined an LED flashlight in her eye. “Marie?” He turned to Darren. “How long has she been unconscious?”

  “Don’t know. Didn’t realize she wasn’t sleeping until I call
ed 9-1-1.” Darren’s lip quivered. “Is she—”

  “She’s non-responsive,” the red-headed EMT said. He put a hand on her forehead. “Holy shit. Joe?”

  The EMT named Joe raised his eyebrows.

  “We have to get her out of here. Now.” Joe nodded and unfolded the stretcher. The other EMT looked at Darren. “We’re going to take her to the nearest ER. Do you have someone to come with us?”

  “I’ll go,” he said. “I’ll make a call from the ambulance.”

  “Good.”

  Joe reached for Marie’s legs and stopped. “Holy shit. Is that blood?”

  “Doesn’t fucking matter, man,” the red-head said. “She’s going to die if we don’t get her temp down.”

  Joe carefully put his arms beneath her legs while the red-head slid his under Marie’s torso. As the two men lifted her onto the stretcher, Marie’s body cracked and crunched. “What the hell?”

  “Shut up, Joe. Let’s go!” the red-head yelled. The two men rolled the stretcher from the room and to the elevator.

  Darren stood, phone in hand. Maeve was just outside the door, face pale and eyes wild. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Maeve? You did good.” She handed back his badge. Darren tried to smile and failed. “Let your mom know we’re taking Marie to the hospital, okay? I have to go.”

  Maeve said nothing, only nodded.

  He ran down the hallway. The EMTs had barely managed to get the stretcher into the elevator. Darren slammed the “G” button and the elevator began its descent. The red-head was on the radio telling the ER Marie’s condition and that they were on their way. Darren hoped they’d arrive in time.

  *****

  The temperature widget blinked. “350°C,” she said and smiled at Jay. “Let’s see what we’re getting.”

  He stood next to her and peered over her shoulder. The pair of chemists watched and waited for the analyzers to display the results. The bottom of the curve blinked and showed the first cut range of 60°C.

  Kate sighed. “What the hell? We should have something here.”

  Jay hissed through his teeth. “Remember how light the oil is? Maybe there’s no lighter hydrocarbons in it.”

  “Maybe.” Kate tapped a finger on the keyboard’s edge.

  “What are you thinking?” Jay asked.

  She shrugged. “I’m thinking we need to try another cut.”

  “Okay. Let’s reset the analyzer and get the next—”

  The analyzer graph changed. A tiny curve appeared. Jay and Kate waited for it to move again. It didn’t. Frowning, Kate zoomed in on the graph.

  “What. The. Fuck.” Jay’s voice was a guttural whisper.

  Kate shook her head. “Tell me that doesn’t say what it’s saying.”

  “Goddammit.” Jay stood to his full height and stretched. “Explain to me how a hydrocarbon changes to water?”

  “Does anything with this shit make sense?” Kate asked.

  At 60°C, they should be catching hexane and light gasoline. Instead? Water vapor.

  “Boiling oil turns into water vapor.” Jay grinned. “That’s just not possible. Chemically speaking, it’s just not goddamned possible.”

  Kate saved the analysis to the RAID drive and swiveled in the chair. She clasped her hands together and stared at her partner. “This isn’t oil,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not oil.”

  “No shit.” Jay scratched at his scalp through thinning hair. “So what do we do now? Seems to me the only things left are NMR and a light test.”

  She nodded. “If Chuckles has the computers ready, NMR will at least give us some idea of the molecular composition. A light test?” She bit her lip. “That will show us what it reacts to. How it flows.” She thought for a moment and then nodded. “Okay. I agree. Let’s get set up for those.”

  Jay shook his head. “Not yet. We need to see something first.”

  “Which is?”

  A grin slowly spread over his face. His white teeth gleamed in the light. “We need to see what’s left in the reflux. The oil boiled. So what’s it look like now?”

  Kate opened her mouth to reply, and then stopped. Analyze the reflux? If the oil produced water vapor, did it break down under the heat? Did the chemical composition somehow change? She smiled. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s take a look at this stuff. But I think we need to stop calling it oil.”

  Jay chuckled. “M2. It’s M2.”

  “Yes,” Kate said. “M2 it is.” She moved the mouse and clicked a few icons. The gas heater whumpped as the flames went out. “It’s going to cool down now. Let’s give it—” Kate’s phone chirped. She pulled it from her pocket and stared at the screen. “Shit.”

  “What is it?” Jay asked.

  Kate looked up from the phone. “Marie. Darren called an ambulance for her. Maeve said they’re heading out now.”

  Jay shook his head. “Goddammit. You think we should leave? Follow or something?”

  “Hang on.” Kate texted Maeve and waited. Her phone lit up with a new message. “Maeve doesn’t even know where they took her. I guess Darren will call Mike and let him know.”

  “What the hell kind of flu takes her down in a few hours and sends her to the hospital?” Jay clenched his fists. “They better have taken her to the med center.”

  Kate sighed and looked back at the screen. “She’ll be okay.” Even as the words came out of her mouth, she knew she didn’t believe them. Something was wrong. The oil. The goddamned oil. It had to— “Jay?”

  “Yes?”

  She swiveled in her chair. Jay flinched from her stare. “She cut herself, right? When she opened the barrel?”

  Jay frowned. “Yeah. That’s why her hand was bandaged. But—” He chewed the side of his mouth. “What? You think she got infected by something? Like mud fluid? Or—”

  “Or something else,” she said. “Maybe some bacteria from a volcanic vent somehow got in the oil. Or something like that.”

  “Hmm…” Jay thought for a moment and then shook his head. “That’s crazy. You punch down into the trench. If they’d hit a volcanic vent, the drill string would have been vaporized.”

  “Okay, I get that,” Kate said. “But what if the oil reservoir congealed around one? Or the vent went dormant? There’s anaerobic bacteria down there. It could have sat in the oil for, well, who knows how long.”

  “Kate, that kind of bacteria feeds on particles of organic life. Usually. I know some of them can feed on sulfur and other chemicals, but if it fed on the oil, it would have eaten the oil. M2 is a closed system. There wouldn’t be any left.”

  She spun in her seat and stared back at the monitor. “Yeah. You’re right.”

  “But,” Jay said, “there could have been something else on the container cap. Like maybe it picked up something on its way here?”

  Kate picked up her phone, unlocked it, and went through her address book. When she found Darren’s number, she stood and walked to the control console. “I’m calling Darren.”

  “Good idea,” Jay said. “I’m going to go talk to Neil. Maybe see if he can get something off the cap.”

  Jay touched her shoulder as he walked out of the lab. Despite the contact’s brevity, it felt reassuring. As she dialed Darren’s cell phone number into the cordless land line, she hissed a sigh through her teeth and wondered how the night could get any worse.

  *****

  The hallway was brighter than the lab. Jay squinted as he walked between the two labs and headed for the secure holding area. He swiped his card at the heavy steel door. The reader beeped and the lock clicked open.

  He pushed on the door and it swung wide. Jay walked into the room and shivered. Although the area was secure and as airtight as the construction crews could make it, it wasn’t well insulated. The dropping temperature outside had left the room colder than usual. On top of that, the wind must have been blowing the rain sideways. He heard it slamming against the building’s steel walls.

  The bright light shined off the steel shelves
, but he saw what he was looking for through the glare. The tool, the one he designed and put together, sat on one of the shelves. Jay started walking toward it and then slowed. What if it’s infectious? What if it’s airborne? He paused for a moment and then grunted. If it’s what made Marie sick, then it’s definitely infectious. But airborne? All the talk in the lab about anaerobic bacteria living on volcanic vents thousands of feet beneath the ocean surface had his mind racing.

  He checked his gloves. The corrosive/chemical resistant protection would keep him safe from anything that had been in the barrel. He hoped.

  He pushed his glasses up with a gloved knuckle and stared through the bottom of the progressive bifocals at the metal tool. Marie hadn’t detached the lid. It was still there, its bottom stained with a black film.

  Jay looked around the storeroom and found what he was looking for. The supply cabinet was ajar. He smiled and opened the door. A small box of heavy plastic zipper bags stared back at him. He pulled out a fresh bag. The plastic slipped easily from its container. Jay grabbed a black marker from the shelf and marked it “M2” with a barely legible scrawl.

  Opening the bag was much more difficult than he had expected. The glove’s fingers weren’t exactly thick, but they were thick enough to make the task more difficult than it should have been. Jay sighed. When he finally managed to open the bag, he headed to the shelf with the remover.

  A drop of oil sat on the shelf next to it. Jay’s eyebrows raised. Had that been there before? He frowned and then looked at the plastic. What if the barrel hadn’t contained oil after all? What if Kate was right and something else was in the barrel other than crude? Would it eat through plastic?

  Jay tapped his foot. Yosemite Sam’s voice screamed “Tarnation!” in his mind. Well, genius, besides breaking down its molecular structure, how are you going to know? Simple. Test it.

  He fought a shiver of fear and moved a step closer to the shelf. The black, teardrop shape didn’t move. He had expected it to. He really had. But didn’t understand why. Kate has you completely freaked out, he thought. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just some goddamned sludge from a goddamned trench in the goddamned ocean. It might be strange, but it’s just another fucking hydrocarbon. GET OVER IT!