The door opened and Draycott entered, flanked by Wayte and Birkett.

“What’s going on in here?” demanded Draycott.

Dmitri, who had been tending to Claudia looked up, “Draycott, we-“ he started only to be interrupted by Draycott.

“Release your heretical magic! And address me as Lord. While you are in my domain, you will follow my rules!” demanded Draycott, spittle flying as he raged.

Reluctantly in front of the madman, Dmitri released the magic. Unfortunately, it was this magic that had been containing the infected rats. The sphere of air that had previously contained a pool of thick infected rat blood churning with infected rats, dissipated. It hit the workbench with a splash, the rats, now free, scurried away as quick as their pain wracked bodies would allow, their fur matted with blood and black sores clearly visible. Claudia, who had almost recovered, retched once more at the sight of this.

Draycott raged, “What is the meaning of this?”

Cautious around someone as volatile as Draycott, Dmitri explained, “The rats are the infection that Arcaedus asked for. We’ve completed it.”

Draycott brightened up somewhat, the madness in his eyes dimmed, “Have you now? Show me.”

Dmitri, unprepared for such a request so soon rushed around and quickly gathered one of the enhanced samples of the disease along with one of the miraculously uninfected rats.

“First of all,” he explained breathlessly, “the rats have a higher heart rate than humans.”

“What does that mean to me?” demanded Draycott, his eyes gleaming with madness once more.

Stolen novel; please report.

“It means that you will see the effects of the disease faster than you would in a person. It should be the same in a human subject,” explained Dmitri.

“Should be?” asked Draycott sceptically.

“Well yes,” said Dmitri, “we don’t have anyone to test it on.”

“What about her?” asked Draycott seriously, indicating Claudia.

Claudia’s eyes opened wide at the prospect. “No!” said Dmitri firmly, “I need her.”

“You need her?” repeated Draycott.

“Yes,” affirmed Dmitri, “I would not have been able to do this without her.”

“Bah!” said Draycott, “Stop wasting my time! Show me the disease, kill the rat with it.”

Dmitri put the sample in the rat’s cage. Seeming to have learnt from the other rats, this rat didn’t approach the sample.

“Well?” demanded Draycott, “why isn’t it dying yet?”

“It needs to ingest the disease, or be infected by another rat,” explained Dmitri.

Draycott stalked over to one of the beds and heaved it onto its side; he bent down and snatched up a rat that had been lurking beneath the bed. It squirmed and tried to wriggle free as Draycott marched back towards the cage containing the healthy rat. He thrust the rat inside and squeezed it. In retaliation, it tried to whip around and bite him, knowing this would be the rat’s reaction, Draycott had withdrawn his hand, and the rat had bitten the healthy rat. The healthy rat turned around and sunk its teeth into the offending rat. Its teeth pierced one of the lesions and the rat caught a face full of the black ooze.

“See,” said Draycott with a smirk at Dmitri, “It wasn’t hard at all.”

Dmitri shook his head numbly, having not expected even that level of callousness from the madman.

“How long will this take?” asked Draycott, showing signs of irritability.

“In rats,” Dmitri began, but he was quickly overridden by Draycott.

“I don’t care about your damn rats. It’s the damned French I want to die,” stormed Draycott

Out of the corners of his eyes, Dmitri saw Claudia open her mouth to say something, but Dmitri signalled her quiet with a wave of his hand. “My Lord,” said Dmitri, trying another approach, “We must look at this the correct way. The rats compared to the humans.”

“Very well,” said Draycott gruffly, “continue.”

“Thank you my Lord,” said Dmitri bowing his head slightly; whatever he had to do to rid himself of this madman was worth it. “As I was saying,” he continued, “In a rat, this original disease would kill it in around an hour. This new version we have made does it in two.”