A moment of silence followed the young man’s pronouncement, after which a hubbub proceeded to explode, rippling outwards from the back of the room to the front. The DEATH agents looked slightly disconcerted, as though the young man had slipped something past them, which in a sense he had, while the mill representatives looked decidedly anxious. The teens behind the young man, who was named Clay, according to Officer Carlisle, had strangely triumphant expressions, mingled with pity.

The mayor was the first to recover himself, tapping a volume of the state code against the table for attention, since town hall lacked a gavel. It took a moment for the heavy thuds to penetrate the room, and then the talking slowly tapered off, and everyone looked expectantly forward.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” the official said, weakly, shooting a pleading look to the mayor, who appeared quite happy to lean back perilously in a folding chair and watch the situation unfold. “We will, ah, yes. Well. I suppose we should adjourn the meeting for the time being, Mr Mayor?”

The mayor looked almost reluctant, but eventually agreed that yes, the meeting should be adjourned, and the crowd began to shuffle out, regrouping in fevered knots on the sidewalk. Officer Carlisle and Henry Makepeace remained behind, as did Agent Parker and a weedy man who turned out to be the biology teacher from the high school.

Vague sounds could be heard from outside, where people seemed to be loosely divided into camps. Some clearly believed that the slick represented some sort of major threat, perhaps planted by capitalist thugs in the dead of night, while others thought it might be a bad thing, but were unwilling to commit, and a minority thought it was all hogwash, apparently, scare tactics on the part of the hippies. Parents in particular seemed to be gathering on the “major threat” side of things, and there was some talk of a parents’ organization, which smelled like trouble to Officer Carlisle.

Clay Harper also remained, with a few other teens, clearly planning to lie in wait for the DEATH agents, and Agent Parker drifted over, sensing that herein lay a story, before everyone in the room became riveted on the heated conversation between the biology teacher and the DEATH official.

The biology teacher, it turned out, had provided DEATH with the samples the class had taken on the day the slick was discovered, along with an assortment of earlier samples for reference, and he was curious to know what was going to be done about it, the slick, and why no one had alerted him or the class to the fact that the slick might be toxic.

“Well obviously it’s toxic,” Mr Delaney was retorting, “if a student died from exposure.”

“We are not yet ready to confirm the toxicity of the slick,” said the official, “as it is still under investigation. You were decontaminated, and your clothes were destroyed, and that seems to be enough, for the time being.”

“For the time being? What about this,” Mr. Delaney said, peeling his shirt sleeve up to reveal a swath of angry red skin, peppered with pustulating sores and half-formed scabs. “I’m not the only one, I’ll bet. I’m sure some of my students have it too. Starts out as a rash.”

The teenagers in the back of the room nodded assent, and the official started to look extremely uncomfortable, while the mayor looked on with unconcealed interest.

“This wasn’t reported to me,” the official said stiffly, trying not to look at the teacher’s oozing arm. “We were, ah, not made aware of this. Hospital personnel were alerted to inform us about any unusual skin-”

“Hospital personnel? You think I can afford to go to the hospital, on this salary? I was putting hydrocortisone on it and hoping it would go away!”

The DEATH agent blanched visibly, and one of the mill officials jotted something on the corner of his legal pad as the students in the back came forward, pulling up their sleeves and pants to display rashes of their own. One of the biologists separated from the pack of DEATH agents and officials to examine them, while another agent conferred with the first official, and then beckoned to Agent Parker, who was puzzled about why they would need him.

“I think we should quarantine them” the second agent said to Agent Parker.

“Them? The students?”

“No,” the agent said. “The whole town.”

“Are you,” the mayor said, “allowed to do that?”

“Like Eyam,” Kevin said, unexpectedly.

“Oh,” said the mayor.

“What,” said the DEATH official.