Hollowpox The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend Page 0,57

We remain hopeful that these effects may be temporary, but right now it’s impossible to know for sure.’

Morrigan thought back to Fen’s description of Victor the day before. All the life drained out of his eyes, she’d said. Didn’t blink. Barely breathed.

There was a rumbling of whispers, and people began to look around the room. There weren’t nearly as many Wunimals in the Society as humans, but those present seemed suddenly more visible than ever. Morrigan watched Elder Saga the bullwun closely. His face was inscrutable.

‘I know you must have questions,’ said Jupiter. A forest of hands instantly shot into the air.

‘What about humans?’ someone called out. ‘Could we catch this disease?’

‘How can we protect ourselves from catching it?’ called the meerkatwun, still perched on his neighbour’s head.

‘How can we stop the attacks?’

‘Do you need volunteers, Captain North?’

‘Is there a cure?’

Jupiter held up his hands. ‘One at a time, please. Firstly, no, the Hollowpox doesn’t seem inclined – or perhaps isn’t able – to invade a human host. We think it can only thrive in a Wunimal body. Although, again, we’re not ruling anything out.’

‘Because you don’t know anything,’ Baz Charlton jeered from a few rows behind Unit 919. ‘Bunch of useless know-nothings.’

Cadence made a quiet noise of disgust. ‘For goodness’ sake. He never shuts up.’

Morrigan snorted. She was glad Cadence disliked her patron as much as she and Jupiter did, because he was truly awful and deserved every bit of her scorn.

On the other hand, she felt bad for her friend. Morrigan was proud to have an excellent patron that other people admired. But Cadence was stuck with horrible Baz, who didn’t care about her at all, or about any of the other ten gazillion candidates and scholars he’d collected for himself. She deserved much better than him.

‘Correct,’ Jupiter agreed, looking Baz dead in the eye. ‘This is a brand-new threat that we are all seeing for the first time. If you think you have better information than we do, Mr Charlton, then by all means – come on up and share it with us.’

‘If this is only affecting Wunimals,’ Baz went on, ignoring the invitation. ‘Why don’t we just lock all the Wunimals up together? Dead simple. They can attack each other instead of us.’

There was a sudden BANG. The room went terrifyingly quiet as people looked to Elder Saga, who had stamped one of his great hooves on the dais and was glaring at Baz with a face like a thundercloud.

‘What?’ Baz said, trying to look innocent. ‘Don’t mean nothing bad by it, Elder Saga. Just meant … you know …’

He trailed off, and Elder Saga remained silent, staring at him until he sank down low in his seat.

‘Elder Quinn mentioned the Hollowpox task force earlier,’ Jupiter carried on. ‘Alongside Inspector Rivers from the Stealth, Elder Saga and I are leading the efforts to contain these attacks, to lessen their impact and hopefully to learn enough to prevent them before they occur. Dr Bramble and Dr Lutwyche are investigating the symptoms and origin of the pox itself, and Holliday Wu is managing the public distraction efforts.’

‘Not doing a very good job though, is she?’ Baz piped up again. ‘Considering we all read about it in the papers this weekend.’

Jupiter opened his mouth to say something, but Holliday didn’t need to be spoken for.

‘And what can you tell me about all the other attacks, Baz?’ she said coolly, not even bothering to stand up or turn around in her seat. ‘Same as what’s in your head: nothing. That’s because I’ve hushed them up. How about this? I’ll do my job, and you do yours … whatever it may be. Presumably something that requires you to smell bad and sound stupid.’

The Gathering Place erupted into laughter, easing some of the tension. Morrigan even spotted Elder Saga having a tiny chuckle.

‘What about the infected Wunimals, Captain North?’ a quiet, familiar voice called out as the laughter died down. Morrigan turned to see Sofia standing up on her seat, one paw raised, and felt a sharp pang of guilt for thinking anything about this could be funny. ‘The ones you said were hollow. What’s going to happen to them?’

Jupiter took a deep breath before answering.

‘We don’t know yet,’ he admitted. ‘But they’re safe and in very capable hands at the teaching hospital. And I promise you, we’re working hard to find a cure.’

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Gossamer-Spun Garden

Later that afternoon on Sub-Nine, Morrigan and Sofia flipped through The Book of Ghostly Hours, trying