“Prions?”
“They’re small enough to pass through water filtration and gas masks.
Ah, thus answering Taylor’s question earlier about how the miasma was affecting the people with gas masks to help against smoke.
Badly folded proteins that force other proteins into identical shapes, perpetuating the problem. If she found a way to guide them, or specifically target the parts of the brain she wanted, she might get results like we’re experiencing. In a really bad case, it’d cause lesions in the brain and give you hallucinations.”
Makes sense.
I looked around. “How long does it last?”
“Forever. It’s incurable and it’s terminal.”
Well, fuck.
I swallowed. “But Panacea could fix it.”
If you can figure out who Panacea is and get her to trust you.
She nodded, then smiled wide. “There’s hope, right?”
“Right.”
She jerked her head to one side, then used one hand to brush the hair back out of her face. “Let’s grab Grue and formulate a plan.”
Or, I suppose, let Grue borrow Panacea’s power to fix it, but if she’s not confident when dealing with brains…
She turned to leave, but I stayed where I was. After three steps, she turned around. “What’s wrong?”
“How can I trust that you’re not leading me to the Nine’s clutches?”
I didn’t lower the gun. “Sorry, a little paranoid.”
She frowned. “That’s fair, but we’re short on time. If others are getting lesions on their brain, then that means they could die soon. Seizures, violent mood swings, loss of motor control… Creutzfeldt-Jakob was a prion disease, but the progression here’s faster.”
I suppose the mood swings are part of what would make Legend act more irrationally than usual.
I shook my head. “Crews-what?”
Yeah, I’m not familiar with it either. But I can tell you’re probably saying it wrong, Taylor. It’s clearly a German name, so it’d be pronounced “Croyts-felt (Yah-kob)”.
“Neurological disorder caused by eating the meat of a cow infected with mad cow disease. You get the prions in your head, and you slowly die while suffering personality changes, memory loss and vivid hallucinations.”
“And it’s faster here.”
Eesh.
Actually, now that mad cow disease is mentioned, I think I might’ve heard about it after all. Just sat way back in my head.
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