The Only

Chapter Nineteen - Neima

Neima leaned forward on the counter in the lab, her head resting in her hands, staring at Karl. She had just morphed a few hours ago, this time to a form with dark, thick hair and brown eyes – very much like Finley – and was still a bit groggy.

It was a lot of information to take in. The bad smell that she couldn't detect at all. The vials were under her nose and nothing, couldn't smell a thing. And all the business about Roland as a carrier. Roland brought the disease with him, but he wasn't suffering?

"I really need a blood sample from you, Neima," Karl said quietly.

Of course, he did.

"And we need Yasmin to recall her father and Roland," Cesar said, peering over his tented fingers. "If Roland is somehow immune, since he exhibited no symptoms when he was here, he may be the missing link in a cure. At least for Reza, since he too is Mutare."

Neima looked from Karl to Cesar and back to Karl. "Let me get this straight. You pieced this all together because Roland has bad breath?"

Karl laughed. "I know it sounds insane, but the stench is unbearable — at least to me and to Finley."

Finley was involved?

"She smells it too?" Neima said. Her forehead wrinkled in concern.

Karl nodded. "It's only detectable to humans, and only when an Experiment suffers from it."

Suffers? Was she suffering?

"She said I stank, or I used to stink," Neima said, anxiously. "Here," she leaned further on the counter. "Smell my breath."

Neima breathed in and then deeply exhaled into Karl's face.

He sniffed once and then again. "I don't smell anything."

She collapsed a bit in relief. "Finley told me I looked and smelled better."

Cesar examined her face. "Perhaps with your morphing into an Experiment hybrid you did contract the virus, but your quarantine allowed your natural defenses to take over and fight it, as it would with any other disease."

Karl walked to the other side of the counter and plopped himself on a stool next to Neima. "When the virus incubates in a human, it causes the blood to clot, inducing deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. When the virus infects an Experiment, it causes the white blood cells to increase, spreading the infection throughout the body, including the mouth, and causes a liquid to form inside the lungs — pulmonary edema. It's rather ingenious."

Ingenious was right. A virus that killed both humans and Experiments. It killed her beloved Alexandra. Deep in thought, she didn't hear Karl repeatedly try to get her attention. He touched her arm, pulling her slightly toward him.

"Neima, I need to take a sample of your blood."

Cesar bristled.

Karl glanced over at the odd man. "What's the matter?"

Cesar sighed and shook his head. "Your level of familiarity is just shocking, that's all."

"Excuse me," Karl said with hint of sarcasm, "I didn't realize that I was speaking to royalty." He bowed. "Your Majesty, Queen of the Massive House in Scotland and Guardian of Young Orphaned Women Everywhere, I implore you for a blood sample so I may examine it."

Neima burst out laughing. It was entirely ridiculous how the other Experiments treated her. She never asked for it. For whatever reason, they revered her, and she allowed it to happen. "Immortality comes with its privileges."