Crown of Crowns

by Clara Loveman

  “Do you suspect foul play? Do you think their takeover of the industry was a precursor to the outbreak?”

  “I don’t know,” Raad said, “but I don’t like it. When I tried to figure out who the owner of VBione Corp is, I got lost in a web of fake names and addresses. There are backdoor dealings signed by twenty different people. There are mailing addresses in Surrvul, Krug, Shondur. I even found an address in Lodden that was devastated by an earthquake three years ago. It doesn’t even exist anymore! Whoever owns VBione Corp has put a lot of effort into not being found.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” I said. “Not one bit.”

  “Neither do I. It seems orchestrated to me,” Raad said. “I’m going over to VBione Corp with Protectors and some of my best Aska councillors straightaway. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. You work on containing the infection.”

  “Got it,” I said. I was coming up on the government building.

  “And one other thing,” Raad said. “I checked the news before I called. More people are dying. Five hundred people in Nurlie, fifty in Lodden, and thirty-eight in Surrvul. You need to get a message out and advise people to stay indoors. You can’t let this thing spread to the capital.”

  Torio greeted me as I entered my private council chamber. “Your Most Supreme Majesty, I have requested Dr. Weintag be sent for straightaway to assist in the emergency meeting. He should be arriving shortly. Dr. Weintag is an expert in airborne infections and viral mutations.”

  “Excellent,” I said. I took a quick look around to make sure everyone was present. All five of my councillors sat red eyed in their respective seats, waiting for me. “Let’s get started,” I told Torio. “We have no time to waste.”

  “The king?” he asked. “Shouldn’t the king and his council also be here?”

  “He’s busy,” I said, moving past Torio to take my chair. “All you’ve got is me. Now let’s get started.”

  We squabbled for a few minutes over the best way to proceed. Master Widrig suggested stifling the news so we didn’t cause a panic, but I quickly squashed that idea. I ordered Lady Katrin to put out a public warning for people not to go outdoors without breathing masks and to leave their homes only if there was an emergency. I had Master Widrig authorize huge overtime payments to doctors and nurses for the extra work, then had him order every able-bodied medical professional to their nearest hospital. “We need to be fully staffed and prepared,” I said, “even here in the capital.”

  Next, Torio sent out orders to the Protectors to begin door-to-door safety checks and take any infected people straight into quarantine. Special bubbles were already being put into use all over the globe to try to contain the virus. Still, I had Aska Nikhel put out a travel ban. No flyrarcs, no boats, no trains. As of that moment, travel between continents was off-limits.

  And that was when Dr. Weintag entered the room. He was an older gentleman with white hair and a dusty lab coat.

  “Good morning, Dr. Weintag,” I said. “Please take the floor. Tell us everything you know.”

  Dr. Weintag cleared his throat and activated his visin. He began talking us through the images on his screen.

  “We’re dealing with a sudden mutated strain of the flu virus, which we’re calling KS3. It’s airborne. That’s why we’re having trouble containing it. As far as we can tell, it has spread to all continents. We now have a global pandemic. This is a red-alert situation, Your Most Supreme Majesty. Testing from the last twelve hours indicates KS3 is continuing to mutate and evolve. None of our medicines are working. Upon entering the human system, KS3 bypasses all antibodies and attacks the central nervous system, causing fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, delirium, and ultimately … death.”

  “What’s the death toll at now?” I asked. “Someone check the damn reports!”

  Master Widrig said, “Four thousand in Nurlie, eight hundred in Krug, four hundred in Surrvul, two fifty in Lodden, one hundred in Shondur, and fifty in Gaard. The capital is no longer safe.”

  No one even gasped. They just blinked, eyes huge, breathing shallowly. Lady Katrin said, “At this rate, the world could be gone by tomorrow night.”

  “Not all of it,” Dr. Weintag said. “We will live, and the clan leaders, I’m sure, have already retreated to their secret underground bunkers. None of the clan leaders dare retreat to their remote lodgings or private sanctuaries, because of the Gurnot pyromaniac on the loose. The ones who will suffer seriously from this disaster are the commoners, all the people in the street who can’t escape the devastation of KS3. As for you, my queen, I suggest wearing a breathing mask from this point on.”

  A Protector then entered the room with a box full of sterilized items. My councillors and I each put them on, then exchanged frightened looks through our masks and visors.

  “We need an effective antiviral,” the doctor said, “and we need it now. This is the most potent flu we’ve seen in our time, much like the Great Destroyer Bug, which wiped out over half our population five hundred years ago. The basic reproduction number is very high. By our calculations, over five hundred million people will be dead by next week. We have roughly forty-eight hours to put a lid on this.”

  “What can we do in the meantime?” Nnati asked. “How can we protect ourselves and the people?”

  Dr. Weintag ran his hand through his wispy white hair. He was visibly trembling. I could understand why. This outbreak had the potential to end the world. “We need the Protectors to begin handing out antiviral sprays,” he said, “breathing apparatus, gloves, sterile wipes, and even flimsy bodysuits to keep the masses relatively safe. As for the nobility, I highly suggest refraining from touching or even being in the same room with others.”

  “Got it,” I said. Then I addressed my councillors. “From now on, all meetings will be held through visins. I want my staff barricaded in sealed rooms behind sterilized barriers. Everyone, take extra breathing masks with you when you leave and only let the Protectors into your rooms to deliver supplies.”

  I turned my attention to Torio, who had been listening while swiping the channels on his visin and responding to messages. “Any news of VBione Corp?” I asked.

  “They claim the test batch failed. They’re starting trials for another batch. They hope to have it ready within two days.”

  “Damn it!” I smashed my fists down on the table. “We don’t have two days! I want everyone on their visins right now. I don’t care who you have to call, who you have to pay, who you have to threaten with banishment—I want the old Medseet lab up and running by noon today. I want every available scientist, biologist, pathogen specialist, and medical expert in that factory working on a cure by tonight. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Your Most Supreme Majesty,” they all said, scrambling to get to work.

  I realized then that my breathing was erratic. I was all jacked up on adrenaline. It was the intensity of the moment, the whole world threatening to implode while my team and I scrambled to fix it. And where was Zawne during all this? He was hanging out in Shiol with his mistress. Maybe Lordin had been right in assuming Zawne was unprepared to be king.

  I pushed my chair back and stood up, feeling more like a fierce queen than I would have thought possible three years—no, three weeks ago! “And someone find out who owns VBione Corp,” I said. “I want a name within the hour!”

  “I just don’t get it,” Nnati was saying over the visin. We were both in our private quarters, waiting for the Protectors to finish sanitizing everything and lock us inside until the KS3 scare was over. “These are profit-making companies. VBione Corp should want to make money. Why are they being so stubborn about getting the product to the people? They could be making a fortune!”

  “I don’t get it either,” I said, sagging into my couch. Zawne had been placed in another part of the mansion under his own quarantine. If neither of us showed signs of infection after forty-eight hours, we would be allowed to rejoin each other. “I just really hope they’re being honest.
We haven’t seen this kind of outbreak in a long time, so it’s understandable if they were unprepared, what with so many people having immunity and the mandatory vaccinations. There shouldn’t even be a superbug!”

  “Yet there is,” Nnati said with a sigh. “I feel bad. I’ve been joking about it for years, and now …”

  “Don’t think like that,” I told him. “We are going to work this out. The councillors are hard at work containing this, while Raad is investigating VBione Corp, and Dr. Weintag is helping to get the Krug medicine plant back up and running. Together we will come through.”

  Nnati gave me a confused look. “Where the heck is Zawne? What is the king doing in all this?”

  Canoodling with Lordin, I wanted to say. But that wasn’t entirely fair. Zawne was trapped in a private quarantine, just like me. I was sure he was working with his own councillors to mend the situation. “He’s working tirelessly,” I told Nnati. I wasn’t about to start slandering the king, my husband. Not yet, anyway.

  “Good,” Nnati said. “I was beginning to think you were the only one ruling around here.”

  Just then Raad bleeped in on my visin. I told Nnati, “Got to go. Raad’s calling,” and switched lines.

  “You have news?” I asked as my brother’s sweaty face filled my screen. He looked crazed, stressed, totally frantic. I’d never seen him like this. I wondered how disheveled he would have been without the Aska training.

  “A lot of news, and none of it good.”

  Raad wiped sweat from his brow, closed his eyes to steady himself, and then said, “Someone’s out to incite global chaos. I can’t tell you why. It could be because they’re angry about you and Zawne taking the crown. It could be an idea that’s been fermenting on one of the continents for a long time, maybe a shadow government, maybe the Gurnots. I really don’t know. But listen to this, I got nowhere at the VBione Corp main factory. They have batches of the antiviral being made on the assembly line but claim they’re not ready. They claim it isn’t potent enough to halt the virus from spreading. They need to create an entirely new compound. I saw their scientists busy in labs, so they do appear to be working on a cure. Meanwhile, it’s not ready and people are dying.”

  Raad sucked in a gulp of air. “And it seems like no one is in charge. Or at least, no one knows who’s in charge. There are factory foremen, but the higher-ups all respond to a computer, to messages sent to their visins. I have my best techs working on triangulating the signal. However, it’s being bounced off satellites. It’s like we’re up against a supervillain or something. I don’t know what to make of it.”

  I didn’t either. A freaking supervillain? Why did disaster have to unfold under my watch? All I wanted was a peaceful kingdom. But no, I had maniacs unleashing viruses, polluting the planet with toxins, killing thousands. Never had I wanted to be in Zawne’s embrace more than in that moment, to have him hold me and tell me everything would be all right. But I couldn’t even do that. We were under quarantine for another forty-eight hours. I didn’t even care about Lordin anymore. I just wanted Zawne.

  I slumped into my chair. “Thank you, Raad. Will you let me know when your techs find a name? I want this person brought in for questioning and VBione Corp destroyed.”

  “You’ve got it, sister queen. But …” Raad hesitated, lips twisted in a scowl. “But that’s not all. There’s more.”

  “Oh dear.” I whacked myself in the forehead. “What is it? Give it to me straight, Raad. Things can’t get much worse.”

  “They can,” he said dourly. “They can and they have. Remember the dispute between Nurlie and the rogue islanders? Well, it’s elevated into rioting. The entire island is in upheaval. People have taken to the streets, burning vehicles and smashing windows. It’s anarchy. They’re demanding a referendum while the shadow government is gearing up for an invasion of the mainland. Nurlie is scared.”

  “Can’t we send in Protectors?” I asked. “Can’t they put a stop to the riots?”

  “Maybe,” Raad said, but it sounded a lot like a question. “The problem is that too many players have come onto the stage. With the KS3 virus ravaging Nurlie, all the little weasels have come out of their holes. The Gurnots have taken up arms on the mainland and on the island, inciting both sides of the conflict to all-out war. They’ve brought tech with them, high-end stuff that they shouldn’t have. I’m talking laser clubs, proton beams, mobile incinerators. We sent a legion of Protectors to the island, and they were disabled in just a few minutes, their circuits fried by camouflaged Gurnots with laser clubs.”

  Raad groaned. “And don’t even get me started on the fires. Whole squads of Protectors have been melted into mercury by an unknown assailant while the last few luxury retreats in Surrvul have gone up in flames, all of them belonging to clan heirs or heiresses. I know the media calls the arsonist the Dragon, and I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t true, if it isn’t a flesh and blood dragon.”

  While Raad explained, I divided my visin screen in half and turned on the news. P2 drones were recording the pandemonium in the streets of Nurlie and on the island. There were flyrarcs crashing and smoldering in buildings, waves of demonstrators waving the island’s flag and throwing bricks at the barricade of Protectors, sick people dying in the streets. It was absolute carnage.

  “I can’t believe this,” I said. “Who’s responsible? Who’s given them such high-tech weapons? I thought weapons were reserved for the Askas and highest level of Battle Protectors, the P5 Protectors.”

  “They are,” Raad said, and I could tell he was mad by the growl in his voice. “But one of my inside sources told me Surrvul’s new clan leaders are funding the rebels and maybe even the Gurnots. It sounds to me like this could have been in development for a long time. It could also be an opportunistic move by the eldest of the Surrvul Clan, who took power last month. Everyone knows they want the crown with a violent passion. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying to cause so much global turmoil that you and Zawne are forced to step down. Or worse, they could be planning an invasion of the Gaard continent and global war.”

  “They’d never,” I said. I was aghast. Not only was a deadly virus on the loose, but now I had enemies, and they were mobilizing. They could be coming after me and my husband. I had never even wanted to be the stupid queen. It was supposed to have been Lordin’s job!

  “They might,” Raad said. “And there’s another issue. The Protectors. Their armor plating is produced in—yup, you guessed it—Surrvul. They’ve been stockpiling the phosphorus we need to manufacture the armor, and the mines in Shondur are almost all dried up. There’s nothing left. If Surrvul has been giving anti-Protector weaponry to the rebels, and the rebels start to win the fight, we won’t be able to build any more Protectors. It’ll be like ancient times. It’ll be war like the world hasn’t seen in five hundred years. The streets will run red with the blood of our people.”

  “Unacceptable,” I said. “All of this. It’s all unacceptable. We need to put an end to the referendum in Nurlie before they start a war. We need to start restricting Surrvul’s access to our precious minerals. We need to take away the Gurnots’ weapons. We need to put a stop to whoever is burning down half the world, before they reach Gaard and burn down the palace. And we need to find a cure for this disease before it wipes out everyone in Geniverd.”

  “All in forty-eight hours,” Raad said with a hollow, hopeless laugh.

  I thanked him for the information and ended the call. I was at my wits’ end. Where did I go from here? I had to save the world, but how? I couldn’t even get my own husband to look me in the eye!

  Chapter 13

  Everything had spiraled out of control. It was about time I made it back to Shiol. By the time I ended the call with Raad, it was only four in the afternoon, but I recalled that the Crown of Crowns had told me I could take an emergency nap if I ever needed to speak with them. Well, if this wasn’t an emergency, I didn’t know what was.

  I lay on the sofa, let fatigue ove
rtake me …

  And Zawne called me. My visin bleeped, and I saw his name on the display. “Oh, great,” I said. “Here we go. Hello, Zawne,” I said, sitting upright so we could talk face-to-face.

  He looked upset. I could tell he was emotional. He said, “I’m sorry,” and I was taken aback. Really, Zawne was sorry? Sorry for what?

  Then again, if Zawne wanted to make amends, I was okay with that. “I’m sorry too,” I said. “I’m sorry I kept secrets from you. It was wrong, I know.”

  “And I’m sorry I was distant,” he said. “I’m sorry I lashed out at you. It wasn’t right. Our ex-lovers showed up as Min. We were both confused and conflicted, torn between two worlds. The fact is, Kaelyn, I love you. And we’re both here in the real world. It took this whole KS3 fiasco for me to realize how important you are to me. The world’s falling apart, and all I can think about is you.”

  Zawne had left me speechless. I moved my mouth, unable to make a sound. I wished he were beside me so I could reach out and touch him. Damn the blasted quarantine! “I … I love you too, Zawne.”

  We held each other’s gaze for a full minute, peering through the visin’s display into one another’s eyes. It was romantic. I wanted to somehow slither through the screen and kiss him.

  I eventually said, “It’s nice talking to you like this. We’ve been at odds, and it sucks. I wish we could be a team in this terrible time.”

  “We are,” he said. “You and me, king and queen for life. We’re the best team in Geniverd.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, and we’re trapped in separate apartments for the next forty-eight hours. The world will be on fire by then.”

  “I’ve started to put the fire out,” he said with a cocky smile. “I sent a delegation to Nurlie to try to calm the rebellion. There will be a meeting held later today between all parties to come to an agreement. If the fighting continues, we’ll use force.”