Hollowpox The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend Page 0,138

a student, and the lionwun himself. The Stealth took him down.’

Jupiter made a strangled sound. Morrigan leaned against the back of an armchair, gripping the leather to stop herself swaying. Steed’s voice carried on.

‘—and therefore as of today, my government is announcing new extraordinary measures to combat this disease. We are ending the sunset curfew and instating a twenty-four seven lockdown for all Wunimals. Effective from midday today onwards, any Wunimal found outside their home will be arrested and could face up to a year in prison. These measures will continue until we are able to contain the Hollowpox. I will not be taking questions at this—’

Jupiter reached out and turned off the wireless.

‘What does he mean, “until we are able to contain the Hollowpox”?’ Morrigan frowned. ‘Everyone must know by now that Wintersea offered him the cure! Hasn’t he seen the papers?’

‘He’s absolutely seen them,’ muttered Jupiter. ‘That’s why he’s talking about curfews and lockdowns. He’s taking a page out of the Wundrous Society’s book – trying to distract people, to change the conversation, but it’s not going to work.’ He paused, gathering up the newspapers and heading for the door. ‘This will only make things worse.’

Jupiter disappeared again – presumably to rally the task force and the Elders to talk some sense into the prime minister, or at least that was what Morrigan hoped. Meanwhile, she and everyone else in the Hotel Deucalion spent the rest of the day glued to the radio, absorbing a constant stream of terrible news.

The Stink began making arrests before the ban on Wunimals in public even went into effect. By ten o’clock, the news was reporting that seventeen Wunimals were already in lockup.

Everything seemed to snowball after that. In solidarity with those wrongly arrested, more Wunimals came out in protest, ignoring the lockdown order and swarming the streets.

Later that morning, there was a news broadcast live from the Senate, where Guiscard Silverback gave a surprising speech in which he urged Prime Minister Steed to put aside his pride and accept Wintersea’s offer.

The prime minister responded to Silverback’s mild criticism by having the police storm the Senate at precisely one minute past midday – before his speech had even ended – and arrest him for flouting the lockdown. The arrest, too, was broadcast over the radio.

Silverback went quietly, but the same could not be said for his supporters. His arrest caused outrage, doubling and tripling the numbers of Wunimals out on the streets by mid-afternoon. Soon humans came out to protest in solidarity, and to demand Steed accept the cure from the Wintersea Republic.

Marches were broken up all over Nevermoor, and some of them turned deadly. In Begonia Hills, a large dogwun turned on her fellow protestors. In Highwall, an elephantwun tipped over a carriage (nobody seemed certain whether he was infected with the Hollowpox or simply furious).

The attacks kept coming. It was as if the Hollowpox had read Nevermoor’s mood and responded in kind, suddenly culminating in dozens of infected Wunimals at once, then hundreds, creating a citywide emergency that was impossible to contain.

Jupiter sent a messenger to the hotel around lunchtime with strict instructions for them all to stay indoors, but he needn’t have bothered. Even as the lobby battled for their attention, transforming around them from hour to hour – from a miniature golf course to a casino to a three-ring circus – nobody moved from the radio.

Jack was due home from the Graysmark School that afternoon, but at Jupiter’s request, Charlie went to fetch him home in a motorcar so he wouldn’t have to take the Wunderground. Morrigan was relieved to see him, but she also worried about Hawthorne and Cadence and the rest of her unit. She had no way of checking on them – her door to Station 919 remained locked. All she could do was hope they were safe at school or at home, and pace around the concierge desk like a caged unnimal, and chew her fingernails down to nothing.

All day long they waited for some spark of hope, a bit of good news. What they got instead was the declaration of a citywide lockdown for all citizens, Wunimal and human alike.

‘Prime Minister Steed has ordered all residents of Nevermoor to stay inside their homes on what promises to be the most dangerous night of the Hollowpox epidemic so far,’ announced a grave female voice.

That was when Dame Chanda decided she’d had enough.

‘That’s IT!’ she snapped, getting up to turn off the radio. ‘No more.