The Tiger Flu

Chapter 18 is set in Pente-Hik-Ton and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 7 of the node “Grain in Beard.”

Together, Kiri and Calyx march toward the New Origins Archive. Calyx cannot stop crying, which irritates Kiri. Kiri realizes she must have patience if she is going to exact her revenge on the Salty and all the Saltwater Flats for infecting her beloved Peristrophe. Kiri and Calyx rest in an old woven tent made by Peristrophe, which smells faintly like her and triggers sadness in Kiri.

In the morning, there is a thump that hits the top of the tent. It is Billy Johnson, the leader of a rogue group who controls the territory surrounding Pente-Hik-Ton, where Kiri and Calyx are currently passing through. Billy, very formally, asks Kiri about her intentions; he tells them they must be careful and that HöST attacked and burned much of Pente just days ago. He allows them to pass through.

Chapter 19 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kora’s perspective on Day 10 of the node “Grain in Beard.”

Kora sneaks out of the building while the rest of the girls sleep. She wants to see her family. Just two blocks away from the school, she runs into Stash, who claims that K2 found a way to cure the flu; Kora says that is rubbish. He insists that she join him for a drink, and she reluctantly agrees. They go to a tiny bar called Sleeping Sparrow; she orders a drink called Psyche’s Labour. She notices that all the men in the bar appear to have, or have once had, the tiger flu: “She’s never seen so many men in one place before—young and old, all and short, all gaunt faces and skin lesions that are the trademarks of the tiger flu” (125). Stash tries to convince Kora that she should join him and his friend Oscar in “going over” using a “two-way open scale” (126). Modesta and Soraya suddenly appear. They tell Oscar he’s a fool for believing that the two-way scale is anything but a little toy, and they take Kora back to Cordova.

Chapter 20 is set in Pente-Hik-Ton and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 7 of the node “Grain in Beard.”

Kiri and Calyx make the ascent up the hill toward Pente-Hik-Ton; the ground is muddy from the recent monsoons. They pass through a village that has been decimated and is filled with rotting corpses. Suddenly, Kiri’s mouth “fills with fur,” and she shouts that she is being attacked by a “catcoat” (129). A “catcoat” is a magical coat whose wearer can move undetected and with increased stealth.

Kiri throws the catcoat off her and goes to help Calyx, who is also being attacked by a catcoat. Kiri stabs the one attacking Calyx with a needle; she hits it right between the eyes, which releases the human from within the catcoat: “On the ground, a large cat writhes, the size of a small human. I pop a needle between its eyes, and the head folds back like a hood. Inside the skin lies a slender, dark-haired girl, eyes wide and staring” (129). Calyx recognizes the catcoat as a Cordova girl (130). Kiri ties the catcoat’s hands behind her back and adjusts her foot bindings so she can take small steps.

Kiri walks ahead of Calyx and the catcoat, and Kiri can hear them whispering as if they are in cahoots. It appears that Calyx is very familiar with this catcoat. Interrupting them, Kiri demands that the catcoat give her back their tent, crafted by Peristrophe, immediately. Kiri gets angry and goes to choke the captive catcoat when she is overtaken by another catcoat. Kiri is bound inside the tent. The second catcoat, called Myra Mao, tells Kiri that not all Salties are the same and that she is going to have to let go of her bigotry. They dose Kiri with her own forget-me-do tea, and she passes out.

Chapter 21 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kora’s perspective on Day 11 of the node “Grain in Beard.”

Modesta tells Kora that she cannot just eat without working at all. Kora replies that of course she is willing to work, though she needs a catcoat first. Myra explains that she does not need a catcoat; she must learn first to forage without one.

Modesta, Kora, and Soraya take the school’s truck with two “furry, mewling catcoats” in the back (136). They drive into deserted, abandoned suburbs. Soraya drives them to the very edge of the first quarantine ring, and she reveals to Kora that they are taking her to the plague house, not a supermarket to forage. Madame Dearborn would not approve of foraging from a plague house, but they do it anyway since there are no supermarkets left in the first ring.

They break into the plague house, cleaving through vines and overgrown bushes. They pick the lock to gain entry. Inside, the house is full of corpses that are rotting in the advancing summer heat. Kora hopes that her immunity against the flu continues to stay strong. Modesta fits a headlamp over Kora’s head and tells her to go downstairs, after also outfitting her with a gun in case “nature needs a little help” (139).

Kora heads downstairs, and the smell of rotting flesh makes her gag. The first two rooms in the basement corridors are filled with the decaying bodies of men, women, and children. In the third room, there is a storage room full of cans, bottles, and jars of “everything the Cordova girls could dream of” (140). Kora begins stuffing her bags filled with cans when a sick elderly man comes up from behind and asks her if she has everything she needs. He barrels toward her and accuses her of stealing from the dying. He grabs her ankle on the stairway, and she kicks him off as he slips back down the stairs. Kora struggles with the door, which is now locked, but finally shoots the gun at the door to get out. Modesta and Soraya laugh with amusement, having pranked her by locking the door to the basement. They jump in the truck with their loot and take off.

Chapter 22 is set in the New Origins Archive and the Cosmopolitan Earth Council and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 19 of the node “Grain in Beard.”

Kiri has intense dreams from the forget-me-do tea. Two weeks pass, and Kiri awakens at the New Origins Archive. At her side, Calyx says Kiri woke up with no time to spare because they need to move quickly across the Cosmopolitan Earth Country (CEC) before the borders close. The fourth wave of tiger flu has officially reached Saltwater City, and the CEC is closing their borders to prevent infection from spreading to the other plague rings (143). Elzbieta Kruk, the high priestess of the New Origin Archive, tells Kiri that she took the liberty of paying passage for them to go from the Third Quarantine Ring to the Second because Glorybind was a friend to her. Elzbieta further explains that four days ago, there was a major offensive through the quarantine rings by HöST.

Kiri, Calyx, and the two girls in catcoats—named Myra and Tania—are allowed passage on the condition that they be blindfolded as they make their way through the CEC to Saltwater City, per the UMK’s legal decree. Myra and Tania steer a wheelbarrow containing Kiri and Calyx. Kiri peeks beneath her blindfold on the road and sees the highway is dense with rickshaws and messy clusters of travelers. She catches a glimpse of the red-haired starfish Salty. Kiri loses her calm upon seeing the Salty and says she needs to capture it. Myra and Tania hush her, and a UMK soldier approaches and says she saw Kiri take her blindfold off. Using their connections (Tania is the niece of General Manuel, a figure in the CEC) to get out of the situation, they continue in exchange for some of Kiri’s forget-me-do tea. Additionally, they assure the soldier that they will give Kiri some of the forget-me-do tea, as well, to make her forget whatever she saw when she removed her blindfold. They force Kiri to drink the tea before leaving the UMK soldier’s watch.

Chapter 22 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kora’s perspective on Day 1 of the node “Minor Heat.”

Kora styles herself like a typical Cordova girl. Though she tries to fit in at Cordova, she is homesick for her family. Trying to see them, she steals a catcoat and makes her way outside, into the night and onto the streets of Saltwater Flats. She comes upon an angry pack of street dogs attacking their prey. She slips out of her catcoat and uses a stick to smack at the dogs’ rumps, heads, backs, and legs, to help release the prey. One dog catches her hand, wounding her just below her pinky finger. When she pulls the dogs away to reveal the prey, she sees it is a man who is a “gory mess” (155). She realizes the man is her “flea-bitten brother” K2 (155).

K2 tries to run away, but Kora catches him. K2 tells her that he is part of the “tiger men” now; he does not live with Charlotte and Wai anymore at the Woodward Building. Kora tells him that she wants to see Charlotte and Wai again, just once more. K2 tells her to go back to the Cordova School, that it is not worth going back to see them again. He reminds her that Charlotte and Wai wanted her to go to the Cordova School and dismissively assures her that they are fine. K2 says he saw them just two weeks ago. Kora insists that she wants to see them. K2 reluctantly agrees. They depart for the Woodward Building, and Kora forgets her catcoat on the ground.

Chapter 24 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 15 of the node “Grain in Beard.”

Kiri awakens in the Cordova School of Dancing Girls and meets Madame Aurelia Dearborn. Madame Dearborn explains that in Saltwater City, “grooms” are called “doctors,” so rather than Groom Kirilow, they will refer to her as Doctor Groundsel. Myra invites Kiri to live at the Cordova School as their resident physician. Kiri misses Glorybind and her Grist sisters dearly, but she agrees.

Depressed, Kiri situates herself in her room and thinks about how the Cordova girls are a “thuggish” lot (160). When Calyx comes to deliver Kiri some food for the evening, she tries to convince Kiri that the girls are not so bad.

The Cordova girls visit Kiri for the wounds they procure while foraging. Kiri asks each girl who visits if they know anything of the whereabouts of Glorybind or if they have ever seen an “ugly red-haired Salty” (164). Kiri still wants to exact revenge on the Salty, in addition to finding Glorybind and her Grist sisters. Madame Dearborn tells Kiri that she cannot continue asking the girls these probing questions. If she persists, Kiri will not be able to continue at the Cordova School as their doctor. Kiri stops asking questions.

Chapter 25 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kora’s perspective on Day 1 of the node “Minor Heat.”

Kora and K2 enter the iron gates of the Woodward Building. As they ascend the stairs toward their apartment, K2 says that their family was the only family left in the building. They make their way to the 40th floor and enter their apartment. Kora calls out to Charlotte and Wai, but she notes the apartment is very dark, quiet, and dusty. Kora’s initial unease turns to fear as she and K2 move through the rooms of the apartment. They head up to the rooftop garden, and Kora notices her uncle’s boots have been placed tidily at the top of the steps. She realizes that if her Uncle Wai is not wearing his boots, he certainly cannot be working.

Kora turns to K2 and asks if he thinks if Charlotte and Wai moved or if they were abducted. He says nothing, and Kora notes that his pupils shrink. He gazes at her, “a long gaze full of grief,” and then darts off running down the stairs and out of the apartment building (167). Before leaving the apartment, Kora finds an open scale on the kitchen counter, which she picks up and puts in her pocket. She begins to make her way back to the Cordova School when she remembers that she forgot the catcoat by the roadside hours ago: “Madame’s going to be killing mad. And the Cordova girls will have a field day” (168).

Chapter 26 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 9 of the node “Summer Solstice.”

Kiri wakes early in the morning when Tania comes racing to her room. Madame Dearborn has fallen ill in her lab where she makes the catcoats. When Kiri arrives on the scene, Madame Dearborn has a swarm of 30 kittens around her, all emaciated and mewling. Madame Dearborn is passed out in a bloody heap, covered in scratches. Madame comes to and explains weakly that the kittens attacked her. Kiri cleans her wounds and explains that infection could be an issue. She administers morphine for the pain.

Later that evening, Tania returns to Kiri’s room to say that Madame has taken a turn for the worse and she must come quickly. Now on her deathbed, Madame Dearborn explains that the Cordova School is the remnants of the Grist Commune, and she has brought in orphans from the neighborhood to pass on Grist history and survival techniques. Madame Dearborn reveals that the Cordova School lost their last doubler three years ago and that the girl who came to Grist Village—the red-haired Salty—was a member of the Cordova School and their last starfish who came to Grist Village to try and unite the Cordova School with their sisters in the village. Madame Dearborn is the Grist Commune’s last groom. Madame Dearborn reveals that the starfish’s name was Carmela Sweetwater and that she “paid with her life” when she found the Grist Village (173). Madame Dearborn expresses gratitude that Kiri and Calyx came to the Cordova School, especially since it means her beloved Carmela did not die in vain.

Madame Dearborn further explains that she thinks the attack on Grist Village was the doing of Isabelle Chow and the HöST army because Isabelle has created a new technology that is said to “cure the mind of the body” (174). She further explains that the technology needs Grist sister DNA to make it “feel real,” which is why the Grist sisters have suffered from relentless kidnappings and experiments (174). Madame warns that Kiri is in grave danger; she dies soon after.