Medical Conference with Prions

Marius Lecks was attending a medical conference, networking, and getting a little drunker than he'd planned. It wasn't just the alcohol he'd consumed; it was also the effect of being an empath in a crowd where a lot of alcohol was being consumed.

Nevertheless, he was not so inebriated as to miss the announcement about food poisoning and the chicken hors d'oeurves. Fortunately, he hadn't eaten any of the bad food. Unfortunately, someone had clearly infected the food. Something to do with prions and an uncured disease not dissimilar from hoof and mouth.

Marius contacted Jealousy Jones. The two of them worked with Dr. Zy Blan of Thanatos Corporation, for whom Marius had obvious affection.

At one point, Marius tracked down someone involved, stunning him, and called Zy to let her know this and that the authorities were on the way.

Zy: Marius, I know how you feel about corporations, but would it be useful for you to be on Thanatos' payroll for a week?

Marius: Why?

Zy: We can make sure you have a lawyer.

Marius: I have Fifth Eye on retainer.

Zy: All right.

Marius: The police are here -- talk to you later.

Marius let the somewhat nervous police take custody of his weapon and of him. As the person he'd stunned had been trying to stun him, the police contented themselves with slapping a large nuisance fine on Marius. Zy explained to him later that the correct procedure was to lay one's weapon on the ground before the police arrived.

It turned out that the food at the conference had been infected a bunch of people who had or whose relatives had the same thing that the doctors who'd eaten the food now had. They figured that the doctors would be far more motivated to find a cure given a personal reason.

Marius found himself simultaneously displeased and understanding. He noted to Zy that, Ivic attitudes toward blackmail notwithstanding, odds were the perpetrators would indeed get the cure they wanted, pronto. Zy agreed, but pointed out that no one would ever know the full cost in terms of the medical research that didn't get done because of this. Marius agreed with that.

Medical Conference Aftermath with Propositions

A day or two after the food poisoning had been as resolved as it could be, Marius and Jealousy were eating dinner in a restaurant near the conference facilities. Marius reflexively checked his food, and discovered that it had been tampered with. He did a quick empathic scan, then, he and Jealousy stunned a fair number of thugs who'd threatened the person preparing the food.

I forget what the food would have done. I think it had an addictive effect, and would have been fairly nasty for Marius to kick. As it was, he had an unpleasant day while whatever it was got flushed from his system. I think it had to do with whatever drug lord he'd annoyed. Said drug lord had a contract that paid on a sliding scale for any inconvenience inflicted on Marius.

Zy Blan from Thanatos ran the medical tests on him. She and Marius were attracted to each other, but had not yet done anything about this. I'm hazy on some details, but I think some of Thanatos' people were implicated in something, and Zy, Jealousy, and Marius kidnapped the head of security at a local office to rule him out. He congratulated them on the smoothness of the operation, and proved innocent, so could help work to find out what was going on with the other suspects.

Thanatos let Marius stay in a safehouse, and I forget much of the details. I know he was working with Thanatos as payment, and some wrangling over contracts, but an accommodation that pleased everyone was reached. During this time, Zy made a pass at Marius. It took him a couple of minutes to figure out that she'd done this.

Marius (a moment or two later): Dr. Blan, did you just proposition me?

Zy said something about it being about time that one of them did that. Marius was startled. He contacted his family to say that he needed more training in evading the various people who were trying to inconvenience him, and, when invited to return home for a family seminar on this sort of thing, received permission to bring Zy and Jealousy. Mostly, this was to introduce Zy to the family, but it was also partly because the women wanted to play in Ivic training exercises.