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Nathan walked gri man’s bedside "He’s been asleep for the past twenty-four hours," he said "He was still one into the next stage of the disease, whatever that means There’s no response to stimuli of any type His fa allallowed to keep working with hio…" I felt like a hypocrite even as the words left ained consciousness when I did, I would have died

Nathan glanced back towarda little as he saw my discomfort "This isn’t like what happened with you, Sal You had an accident We knehat caused your cooing to find a cure for car crashes This is different This is so infectious, and we need to find a way to stop the spread"

A new discoto be in here?"

"No Whatever causes this isn’t airborne We’ve run every test we could think of, and there’s nothing" Nathan bent forward, folding back the blanket that covered Beverly’s owner "It’s baffling our best people It’s baffling me"

"Why are you involved? Shouldn’t this be an infectious disease case?"

"I’m involved because everyone in the hospital is involved No one gets to sit out an epideloves fro them on over his hands I was relieved to realize that he wouldn’t be touching the sleeping ht?"

"About an inch and a half," I said "She was especially careful with the undersides of ht," said Nathan He clicked on the wand It buzzed slightly, lighting up with the salow as Dr Lo’s wand Then he lifted the man’s left arm It came without resistance, utterly li it Like Dr Lo, he checked the outside first, and then switched to exa the inside of the man’s arm, where it would have been closest to his body

Just between the elbow and armpit, Nathan stopped "Sal," he said, a sick fascination in his voice "Come and have a look at this"

I didn’t want to have a look at anything I went anyway It’s always better to understand than it is to be left sitting in the dark; it’s always better to have answers, even when those answers lead to fresh questions

This answer definitely led to fresh questions The light frolow a pale purple, unremarkable because it was so consistent But at the ht, in the center of the man’s arlowed a bright, painful white instead ofthe purple around them I stared

The roots moved

It was just a twitch, barely h to startle us both I let out a s backward, away fro, sonified step away from him

"What is that?" I demanded

"It’s a parasitic infection--I don’t knohat type Whatever it is, it fluoresces under ultraviolet light," said Nathan He sounded astonished and sickened at the same time, like he’d been suspicious, but had never wanted to have his suspicions confirmed "These people don’t have a disease They have a parasite, and it’s taking them over" He turned to look atthis?"

"I have a better question," I said "What happens when they find out we know?"

Naturally, there were concerns about the Intestinal Bodyguard™ e started human trials Shanti orried about the worms She was always very maternally inclined toward theh to be placed in human hosts Richard, he was on the other extreme He orried about our huuard™ e their i to help I was theinfluence on both of theether Shanti built castles in the air, Richard talked about how they were going to collapse, and I built foundations underneath them

We didn’t need to worry, as it turned out Huned for one another In a very real way, they had been

--FROM "KING OF THE WORMS," AN INTERVIEW WITH DR STEVEN BANKS, CO-FOUNDER OF SYMBOGEN ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ROLLING STONE, FEBRUARY 2027

You knohat’s funny? In the official literature, Steve tries to claied to sell everyone else on the idea that this was a line of research worth pursuing If you check the actual publications, however, you’ll see that my tiht into the project six years into the developround that had already been frittered away on dead ends and useless research channels

Ithat It isout most of the potential quality-control time That award is reserved solely for Dr Steven Banks I’ll take the credit--and the blame--for what I actually did I won’t take the rest of it, and he can’t make me