Chapter 1

I went out to a big livestock farmer's place to deliver a sow's litter, and the sow gave birth naturally to eighteen piglets.

The boss lady insisted the piglets' bad coloring was because I'd used the wrong drug and ruined their looks.

She not only refused to pay my fee, she flipped it around and demanded I pay her five hundred dollars in nutrition compensation.

I let out a cold laugh, picked up my instrument box, and left.

Three days later, the next village over was hit by a terrifying swine plague, and for ten miles around, I was the only one who could mix the cure.

The boss lady video-called me in tears, saying if I'd only save her pigs she'd wire me five thousand right away.

I looked at the fat hogs rolling around all over the ground and lit a cigarette, slow and easy.

"Too late. Your pigs have real nice coloring now. Gone all purple. A one-of-a-kind edition."

......

"Cut the crap. These piglets have a green tinge, which means you used the wrong drug during the delivery and ruined their looks."

"Today you don't leave through this door until I get every last cent of that five hundred in nutrition money!"

The boss lady, Meg Lawrence, was blocking the door to the pigpen.

I'd been crouched in that stifling, reeking pen for seven straight hours.

The shirt on my back was long since soaked through with sweat.

Eighteen newborn piglets lay on the ground.

Crowded together, nursing.

It broke the whole town's record for a single natural litter from one sow.

I wiped the sweat off my face.

Forcing my temper down, I spoke.

"Boss Lawrence, take a good look for yourself."

"The piglets were just born. They've left the mother's amniotic fluid, and a faint greenish-red tint to the skin is a normal physical reaction."

"Two days at most, and the coloring will turn to a normal pink-white."

Meg's eyes bulged, hands planted on her hips, spit practically flying into my face.

"You trying to pull one over on me! I've raised pigs for years. You think some green kid knows more than I do?"

"When I say the looks are ruined, they're ruined!"

"The way I see it, you're just some fresh-out-of-school quack, using my valuable breeding stock to practice on!"

That screech of hers.

It pulled in the people outside in an instant.

Her husband, Cary Chavez, came over with three farmhands.

Shovels and spades in their hands, they closed in around me.

Cary shoved me in the shoulder.

"Kid, you got the nerve to raise hell on my turf?"

"No money today, you're not walking out of here on your own two feet!"

The men were rough about it.

They marched right up and pushed my beat-up electric scooter into the corner.

The farmhand called Quinn Finch.

He went further and snatched my big delivery instrument box.

"Give the box back. That's not something you people get to touch."

My face went cold.

Seeing this, Meg got even more smug.

She just plopped down on the pigpen threshold.

Throwing a screaming tantrum.

"Everybody come look, the out-of-town vet ruined our pigs and now he wants to run!"

"Somebody, call the cops, have him arrested, throw him in jail!"

The town was out of the way to begin with.

I'd only just arrived.

I had no enforcement power in my hands.

Going head-to-head would only get me hurt.

Looking at their shameless faces.

I felt around in my pocket.

All that was in there was the five hundred in cash I'd just taken out for rent.

I pulled out that five hundred.

And threw it down in front of Cary's rubber boots, caked with pig manure.

"Consider this five hundred an early down payment on coffins for these pigs."

Cary crouched down and picked the bills up off the ground.

Wet a finger and counted them.

"Smart of you. Now get lost, fast."

"And don't let me see you in this town again. Every time I do, you get a beating!"

I turned around and picked up the small medical case at my feet.

And strode toward the yard gate.

Just as I passed the sow's feed trough.

My eye caught something behind the big sow's ear.

Tucked in the folds.

A faint scatter of purplish-red spots, each about the size of a soybean.

The color of those spots ran very deep.

Like poisoned sores soaked down into the flesh.

I laughed to myself, cold.

This disease was going to break out in full within three days.

By then, your whole family would be down on your knees begging me.