‘Yes, Sir.’
‘I should tell you I’m extremely agitated and upset.’
‘We’re making a second note of that, Mr. Director, Sir, for emphasis.’
‘I don’t believe the effects have entirely worn off yet.’
‘Just proceed on the assumption that we’re the ones in the middle, please, Sir.’
‘I spoke with law enforcement agents, I believe, unless that was the effects.’
‘That was several hours ago, Sir. We’re with the Service. I am Agent Clothier, this is Special Agent Aylortay.’
‘Pleased to meet you, Sir, although it’s damn unfortunate it has to be under these circumstances.’
‘You’re CID?’
‘No, Sir, we’re Inspections, out of Chicago, Post 1516.’
‘They brought you down.’
‘Everyone’s very concerned, Sir, understandably.’
‘Mosquitoes are just needles with wings.’
‘Not entirely sure how to respond to that, Sir.’
‘There were no CID at the picnic.’
‘No, Sir, as you might recall CID had a forensic accounting in-service this weekend at Region, Sir.’
‘They don’t mix well, as a rule, CID.’
‘No, Sir.’
‘Hold themselves a bit aloof if you know what I mean. Vomiting.’
‘Vomiting, Sir?’
‘When they rub their legs together. It looks innocuous, but the flies are in fact vomiting digestive juices onto their legs and applying it to the food. They’re one of the animals which pre-digest. Mosquitoes do the same thing.’
‘Sir, I—’
‘Vomit inside you. That’s what raises the lump. They’re pre-digesting the blood before they suck it out of you. Great hairy-legged things. They breed in the fields, you know. Needles with wings. Disease-vector. None finer. Whole civilizations down. Read your history.’
‘We can appreciate the bug situation down here, Sir.’
‘I was grilling. Brats and patties. At least for a time. They gave me an apron. Something witty on the front. A certain impertinence permissible at picnics, the Christmas party. Let everyone’s hair down a bit if you get me.’
‘You estimate you were grilling throughout the early intervals of the picnic, then, Sir, which would square with Mr. van Hool’s account.’
‘The iced tea was brewed, not that horrible mix iced tea with the slight scum on top.’
‘The iced tea was consumed by you’d say how many at the picnic, Sir?’
‘Copious. Terribly hot you understand. No one wants pop when it’s hot, except of course children, which then they have sticky mouths, which then the sugar in the pop excites the bugs.’
‘Jesus, Clothier, now with the bugs again.’
‘Utitshay.’
‘Nothing against CID, you understand. Indispensable part of the mechanism. Fine hardworking fellows. Notwithstanding all the junk cases, deplorable waste of resources, Region had figures on—’
‘So if there was a common denominator, Sir, you might point at the iced tea, you’re telling us.’
‘We all drank it. Ungodly hot. Who wants beer under a sun like that? Do either of you hear a — a sound?’
‘And yet you yourself you’re saying did not see anyone bringing the iced tea into the picnic area or making the iced tea.’
‘An urn. Dispenser. Orange pebbled plastic, nozzle like a barrel’s bung, yes?’
‘The iced tea, you’re saying.’
‘I don’t know that I’ve ever felt this agitated. It’s as if.’
‘They tell us it will come and go for a time, Sir, as the blood level stabilizes.’
‘You’ll be up and around in no time they tell us, Sir.’
‘Trying to be glad to be of help. Our boys in uniform.’
‘Clothier, what say—’
‘You were helping us identify the urn, Sir, with the iced tea.’
‘Orange dispenser that said Gatorade on the side. Some of the older children were excited; they thought it was Gatorade.’
‘No children drank the tea.’
‘The examiners call their children their little Line 40s. That’s of course where you enter your CCDC from Form 2441 on the 1040. Some of the children were playing Collections. Near the horseshoe courts. Some of the older children. Liens on the toys, a jeopardy assessment and seizure of some of the smaller childrens’ plates; there was some of the usual crying.’
‘And you’d say you might first have noticed any unusual effects or anything out of the ordinary when, then, Sir, if you had to say?’
‘Terrible activity to teach children. Collections is Ghent’s problem. Was Ghent’s. I avoid Collections.’
‘Understandable from our vantage, Sir.’
‘Are those sunglasses, then?’
‘Sir, we’re not wearing eye protection of any kind.’
‘My nose itches something awful.’
‘I’m afraid we aren’t permitted to touch any part of your person, Sir.’
‘My thoughts are normally so much more organized than this.’
‘Please take all the time you need.’
‘They seemed just awful. Whole clouds of them. Shrouds, clouds, crowds of them. They’re a disease-vector you know. Read your history. Breed in the trees. When I looked in one of their shades two of the smaller children were covered. A shroud of them around both, in their eyes, nose, smothering them — I saw one of them fall; it couldn’t cry out. Pendleton’s little Line 40.’
‘So then you’d say that was the first observable sign of any effect, then, Sir.’
‘I had a very long fork, you know.’
‘For the grilling you mean, Sir.’
‘Let’s didi, Norm, man. This guy’s still gone. Scratch his nose and let’s go.’
‘Aitway, Aylortay.’
‘The Culex and malaria. The Aedes aegypti and dengue. Read it. It’s written. Fork or no.’
‘For your duties at the grill at the picnic area’s southeast quadrant according to this schematic, Sir.’
‘A very long fork. I don’t think you can appreciate. Jagged tines. It cast a shadow.’
‘And were — were you able to observe at this time any of the other agents or families behaving in any way out of the ordinary or engaged with the iced tea in any way, Sir?’
‘Though I did notice the settings. At the tables. With checked cloths. The settings were all knives. No spoons, no forks. I had the fork. Knife, plate, knife, knife. Three wicked knives at each place. Some years the breeze blows the plates away. Not this year, I can tell you.’
‘So this was an effect, or you were observing an effect, Sir, can you say which?
‘Fechner has a glass eye.’
‘That would be Revenue Agent Fechner, Sir. You observed him setting knives at the tables?’
‘Lost an eye in the war. How he put it: “Lost an eye.” The idea. Say there, fellows, anyone seen my eye by any chance?’
‘So you hadn’t observed any person or persons actually setting the table with all knives, then, Sir.’
‘Norm, man, what knives? Let’s didi.’
‘That’s a war term if I’m not mistaken. Agent Taylor. You think I don’t know what this is?’
‘It’s Aylortay, Sir. Pleased to meet you, Sir, although it’s damn unfortunate it has to be under these circumstances.’
‘They were coming out of the trees.’
‘They were rappelling, Sir. The incursion may or may not have been tactical, that much we know.’
‘There was an egg-toss and gunny — the egg wouldn’t move; it stayed there in midair. The three-legged race under way when they came from the trees and they were trying to run away, to get to their children but their legs were tied together. It was a feeding frenzy, the mosquitoes — I was waving the long fork around.’