He was sick as a dog

For the second night in a row, the bio-DNA hit him like an uppercut from Mike Tyson.

He gagged, **** him to swallow the acidic bile that piled up in his throat and mouth, and shook like an earthquake was rocking his car.

The pain went on and on. Every minute, he assured himself that it couldn't get worse. Then the next minute it did.

The previous evening, he'd bled from his eyes. He did again, of course, but this time every pore in his body exuded blood turning him into what looked like a human being turned inside out.

He managed not to puke up the pill but he couldn't hold back the screams.

After what felt like a decade or so but his car's clock promised had only been an hour, someone knocked on his window.

Rick did his best to pull himself together and rolled down the driver's side window just a crack. "Yeah?"

"Police. We've had reports of a problem here."

Sure enough, at least eight of Plano's finest squad SUVs surrounded his car. The one who'd knocked on his window was female, blond, and looked to be in her late twenties. She had hazel eyes, a slender face with a nose maybe just a little two big and, from what Rick could tell, no figure at all. At least he couldn't see one underneath the Kevlar armor she wore.

"Sorry, officer..." he read her badge which, at least, was not taped over. He'd read about how cops put electrical tape over the names on their badges when they intend to get violent and don't want to be called in over it. "Officer Lopez," he continued. "I, ah, get into my music. I guess I must have gotten a little loud." He thought that was pretty good improvisation but from the narrowing of her eyes, he guessed he'd been less convincing than h

"Yeah, well step out of the car and let's take a look."

He didn't want to get out of his car. He also didn't think they had a right to demand he do so. After all, he hadn't been driving. On the other hand, having a legal right didn't stop cops from beating the shit out of anyone who refused to obey their orders. So, reluctantly, he unlocked the driver's side door and stepped out.