Doomsday Book

"Read me Luke 11:9," Dunworthy said.

She looked it up. "'And I say unto you, "Ask and it shall be given you,"'" she read, glaring at him suspiciously. "'"Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."'"

Ms. Taylor came at the very end of visiting hours, carrying a measuring tape. "Colin sent me to get your measurements," she said. "The old crone out there won't let him on the floor." She draped the tape around his waist. "I had to tell her I was visiting Ms. Piantini. Hold your arm out straight." She stretched the tape along his arm. "She's feeling a lot better. She may even get to ring Rimbaud's 'When At Last My Savior Cometh' with us on the fifteenth. We're doing it for Holy Re- Formed, you know, but the NHS has taken over their church so Mr. Finch has very kindly let us use Balliol's chapel. What size shoe do you wear?"

She jotted down his various measurements, told him Colin would be in the next day and not to worry, the net was nearly ready. She went out, presumably to visit Ms. Piantini, and came back a few minutes later with a message from Badri.

"Mr. Dunworthy, I've run 24 parameter checks," it read. "All 24 show minimal slippage, 11 — slippage of less than an hour, 5- slippage of less than five minutes. I'm ru

I know what it is, Dunworthy thought. It's the Black Death. The function of the slippage was to prevent interactions which might affect history. Five minutes' slippage meant there were no anachronisms, no critical meetings the continuum must keep from happening. It meant the drop was to an uninhabited area. It meant the plague had been there. And all the contemps were dead.

Colin didn't come in the morning, and after lunch Dunworthy walked to the public phone again and rang Finch. "I haven't been able to find a doctor willing to take on new cases," Finch said. "I've telephoned every doctor and medic within the perimeter. A good many of them are still down with flu," he apologized, "and several of them — "

He stopped, but Dunworthy knew what he had intended to say. Several of them had died, including the one who would certainly have helped, who would have given him the inoculations and discharged Badri.

"Great-Aunt Mary wouldn't have given up," Colin had said. She wouldn't have, he thought, in spite of the sister and Mrs. Gaddson and a band of pain below the ribs. If she were here, she would have helped him however she could.

He walked back to his room. The sister had posted a large placard reading, "Absolutely No Visitors Allowed," on his door, but she was not at her desk or in his room. Colin was, carrying a large damp parcel.

"The sister's in the ward," Colin said, gri

"Where did you get this?" Dunworthy said. "A production of Hamlet?"

"Richard III," Colin said. "Keble did it last term. I took the hump out."

"Is there a cloak?" Dunworthy said, sorting through the clothing. "Tell Finch to find me a cloak. A long cloak that will cover everything."

"I will," Colin said absently. He was fumbling intently with the band on his green jacket. It sprang open, and Colin threw it off his shoulders. "Well? What do you think?"

He had done considerably better than Finch. The boots were wrong — they looked like a pair of gardener's Wellington's-but the brown burlap smock and shapeless gray-brown trousers looked like the illustration of a serf in Colin's book.

"The trousers have a strip," Colin said, "but you can't see it under the shirt. I copied it out of the book. I'm supposed to be your squire."

He should have anticipated this. "Colin," he said, "you can't go with me."

"Why not?" Colin said. "I can help you find her. I'm good at finding things."

"It's impossible. The — "

"Oh, now you're going to tell me how dangerous it is in the Middle Ages, aren't you? Well, it's rather dangerous here, isn't it? What about Aunt Mary? She'd have been safer in the Middle Ages, wouldn't she? I've been doing lots of dangerous things. Taking medicine to people and putting up placards in the wards. While you were ill, I did all sorts of dangerous things you don't even know about — "

"Colin — "

"You're too old to go alone. And Great-Aunt Mary told me to take care of you. What if you have a relapse?"

"Colin — "

"My mother doesn't care if I go."

"But I do. I can't take you with me."

"So I'm to sit here and wait," he said bitterly, "and nobody will tell me anything, and I won't know whether you're alive or dead." He picked up his jacket. "It's not fair."

"I know."

"Can I come to the laboratory at least?"

"Yes."

"I still think you should let me go," he said. He began folding the tights. "Shall I leave your costume here?"

"Better not. The sister might confiscate it."

"What's all this, Mr. Dunworthy?" Mrs. Gaddson said.

They both jumped. She came into the room, bearing her Bible.

"Colin's been collecting for the clothing drive," Dunworthy said, helping him wad the clothing into a bundle. "For the detainees."

"Passing clothes from one person to another is an excellent way of spreading infection," she said to Dunworthy.

Colin scooped up the bundle and ducked out.

"And allowing a child to come here and risk catching something! He offered to come and walk me home from the infirmary last night, and I said, 'I won't have you risking your health for me!'"

She sat down next to the bed and opened her Bible. "It's pure negligence, allowing that boy to visit you. But I suppose it's no more than what I should have expected from the way you run your college. Mr. Finch has become a complete tyrant in your absence. He simply flew at me in a rage yesterday when I requested an extra roll of lavatory paper — "

"I want to see William," Dunworthy said.

"Here!" she sputtered. "In hospital?!" She shut her Bible with a snap. "I simply won't allow it. There are still a great many infectious cases and poor Willy — "

Is in the linen room with my nurse, he thought. "Tell him I wish to see him as soon as possible," he said.

She brandished the Bible at him like Moses bringing down the plagues on Egypt. "I intend to report your callous indifference to your students' well-being to the Head of the History Faculty," she said and stormed out.

He could hear her complaining loudly in the corridor to someone, presumably the nurse, because William appeared almost immediately, smoothing down his hair.

"I need injections of streptomycin and gamma globulin," Dunworthy said. "I also need to be discharged from hospital, as does Badri Chaudhuri."

He nodded. "I know. Colin told me you're going to try to retrieve your history student." He looked thoughtful. "I know this nurse…"

"A nurse can't give an injection without authorization by a doctor, and the discharges will require authorization as well."

"I have a friend up in Records. When do you want this by?"

"As soon as possible."

"I'll get right on it. It might take two or three days," he said, and started out. "I met Kivrin once. She was at Balliol to see you. She's very pretty, isn't she?"

I must remember to warn her about him, Dunworthy thought, and realized he had actually begun to believe he might be able to rescue her in spite of everything. Hold on, he thought. I'm coming. Two or three days.

He spent the afternoon walking up and down the corridor, trying to build his strength up. Badri's ward had an "Absolutely No Visitors Allowed" placard on each of the doors, and the sister fixed him with a watery blue eye each time he approached them.