MaddAddam (MaddAddam 3)

"Cleverer than that," said Adam. "They're using their vitamin supplement pills and over-the-counter painkillers as vectors for diseases - ones for which they control the drug treatments. Whatever's in the white ones is in actual deployment. Random distribution, so no one will suspect a specific location of being ground zero. They make money all ways: on the vitamins, then on the drugs, and finally on the hospitalization when the illness takes firm hold. As it does, because the treatment drugs are loaded too. A very good plan for siphoning the victims' money into Corps pockets."

"So those are the white ones. What about the reds and the blacks?"

"We don't know," said Adam. "They're experimental. Possibly other diseases, possibly a faster-acting formula. We aren't even sure how to find out in any safe way."

Zeb took this in. "This is large," he said. "I wonder how many brainiacs it took to think that up."

"It's a small, designated group within HelthWyzer," said Adam. "Directed from the top. Glenn's father was being used by them. He thought he was working on a targeted cancer-treatment vector. When he realized the nature of it, the full scope, he couldn't go along with it. He slipped these to Pilar, before ..."

"Shit," said Zeb. "They killed her too?"

"No," said Adam. "They don't even know she knows, or so we hope. She's just been transferred to HelthWyzer Central, on the east coast."

"Mind if I have a beer?" said Zeb. He didn't wait for an answer. "So now that you have this stuff," he said after the first refreshing swallow, "what next? You going to sell these things on the grey market? Foreign Corps would pay a lot."

"No," said Adam. "We couldn't do that. It would be firmly against our principles. All we can do in this world, now, is to learn what to avoid. We'll warn others about the vitamin supplements if we can, but if we were to try going public with this information we wouldn't be believed. We'd only sound paranoid, and after that we would have unfortunate accidents. The press is Corps-controlled, as you know, and any independent regulation is independent in name only. So we will keep the pills hidden until they can be analyzed without danger."

"Who's this we?" said Zeb.

"If you don't know, you can't tell," said Adam. "Safer for everyone, including you."

The Story of Zeb and the Snake Women

"How do I explain all of that to them?" says Toby. "The Scales and Tails girls, dressed up like snakes?"

"You could just leave it out."

"I don't think so. It needs to be in. It seems appropriate, a woman who is also a snake. It goes along with the Meditation, and whatever happened with that animal. With that sow. It ... She really seemed to be communicating with me. And with Blackbeard."

"You think that thing is part human? A Pig Woman? You really drank the Kool-Aid." A chuckle.

"No, not exactly, but ..."

"Too many peyote buttons in that mix of yours. Or whatever you put in."

"Maybe. No doubt you're right."

The story tells itself inside Toby's head. She doesn't seem to be thinking about the story, or directing it. She has no control over it; she just listens. Amazing what a few plant molecules will do to your brain, and how long that lasts.

This is the story of Zeb and the Snake Women. The Snake Women do not come into the story at first, they come in later. Important things often come into stories later, but also at the beginning. And in the middle as well.

But I have already told the beginning, so right now it's the middle. And Zeb is in the middle of the story about Zeb. He is in the middle of his own story.

I am not in this part of the story; it hasn't come to the part with me. But I'm waiting, far off in the future. I'm waiting for the story of Zeb to join up with mine. The story of Toby. The story I am in right now, with you.

Pilar, who lives in the elderberry bush and talks to us through the bees, was once in the form of an old woman. She gave Zeb a special important thing and told him he had to take care of it - a little thing, like a seed. And the seed would make you sick if you ate it. But some bad people from the chaos were telling all the other people that this seed would make them happy. And only Pilar and Zeb and a small number of other people knew the truth.

Why were the bad people doing that? Because of Money. Money was invisible, like Fuck. They thought that Money was their helper; they thought he was a better helper than Fuck. But they were wrong about that. Money was not their helper. Money goes away just when you need it. But Fuck is very loyal.

So Zeb took th

e seed, and he went out through the door, because if the bad men knew he had it they would chase him and take it away from him, and then do something very hurtful to him. And he was hurrying without seeming to hurry, and he said, Oh Fuck, and Fuck came flying through the air, very fast, as he always does when you call him; and he showed Zeb how to get to the house of the Snake Women. And the Snake Women opened their door, and took him in.

The Snake Women are ... You have seen a snake, and you have seen women. The Snake Women were both. And they lived with several Bird Women and Flower Women. And they hid Zeb inside a giant ... Inside a great big ... A clam shell. No, a sofa. Or maybe they hid him inside a great big, an enormous ... A flower. A very bright flower with lights on it.

Yes, a light-up flower. No one would look for Zeb inside a flower.

And Zeb's brother, Adam, was inside the flower too. That was nice. They were very happy to see each other, because Adam was the helper of Zeb and Zeb was the helper of Adam.