Schubert’s mouth was slack. “Oh my God.”

Everyone stared at him.

“Communion! That’s how the Church infects people!”

Sauer said, “That does not make sense. Fischer is definitely not a member of the Church, so he should not be infected.”

“And wouldn’t you be infected?” Reist asked.

“No, the communion is just a front. When someone joins the Church, they go through a ritual to dedicate themselves to the Beanmeister. I never did it. They said I didn’t meet the requirements to become officially initiated. But, during the ritual, they do communion. They eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Beanmeister. I didn’t think anything of it, but—”

“You sound insane,” Rolf said.

“It’s the flesh! The food! That’s how they infect people! They give out food to the families of Church members, meaning that anyone associated with a Church member could be infected! Or anyone that eats infected food!”

A look of horror crossed Sauer, Reist, and Bösch’s faces.

“The food at the party—” Sauer began.

“The party that Krüger wanted to hold—” Reist continued.

“In the church controlled by the Bean cult—” Sauer added.

“Was infected…” Bösch finished.

“Krüger wanted you to eat his food in private to get you infected as well,” Sauer said to Bösch.

“And Kaplan was at the party,” Greg said. “I remember when we got there he said he couldn’t wait to eat. That would line up with his change in personality, meaning that he was most likely infected at the party.”

“Oh, God…” Rob said. “Is… everyone who ate at the party infected?”

Silence.

“We were all at the party,” Rob said. “Who ate? I’m fine, I forgot to eat before I left.”

“I wasn’t there, so I’m fine,” Rolf said.

“I got a plate of meat…” Schmidt said. “But as far as I can remember, I didn’t end up eating any of it.”

“I was too busy discussing the Beans with Robert to eat,” Sauer said.

“I didn’t eat either,” Bösch said. “I didn’t attend the party for long, and all I did was drink the wine.”

“How do we know the wine was safe?” Reist asked. “I didn’t eat, but I had a glass of wine before I left. What’s stopping both from being infected?”

“No,” Marvin said. “The wine couldn’t have been infected. Whoever was drinking it would’ve noticed.”

“Noticed what?” Greg asked.

“The… beans?”

“Are you suggesting that eating the beans is how someone is infected?” Sauer asked.

“Schubert said that eating the flesh was how they infected people,” Marvin said. “Wouldn’t the beans be the Beanmeister’s flesh?”

“We’re gettin’ off track here, we can talk about that later,” Rob said. “Did anyone eat at the party?”

“I went looking for Bösch before I ate anything, then left after I harassed him,” Schubert said.

“I got lost looking around the headquarters and the food was gone by the time I got back,” Marvin said.

Greg was silent.

“Greg, man,” Rob said, his voice pleading. “You… didn’t eat anythin’… did you?”

“Cheese.”

“Holy shit.”

“I remember eating cheese.”

Everyone was silent. The dying fire was behind Greg, shrouding his face in shadow.

Greg spoke. “N-No… No need to fret on my behalf, cohorts.” He paused. “I shall overcome this… sickness.” No one said anything. “We should… transition to another topic for the time being. This point seems to have been exhausted.”

After a moment, Schubert asked, “What about the bean growths?”

“The growths aren’t on everyone,” Reist said. “Kaplan didn’t have a growth even though he was infected.”

“It could be random,” Marvin suggested.

“No,” Sauer disagreed. “Everything has been too deliberate… The growths may be a way to make us think less people are infected than there actually are. Only some people have them to give us a false sense of security. If everyone who ate at the party is infected…”

“How would they even get enough beans to infect all that food?” Rob asked.

“The beans are multiplying, remember?” Schubert replied.

Schmidt said, “That could also explain how the infection works.”

“Some beans get inside a host and multiply, and boom, they’re infected,” Rob said.

“And that would explain how there’s enough beans to cover the… corpses of all the people that are Beans right now,” Schmidt added. “Wait, how are they multiplying?”

“We do not know that yet,” Sauer replied. “Fischer is in the research facility attempting to figure that out right now.”

“Then all that’s left to discuss is the flying Bean,” Bösch said. “I assume that all of these factors mean that the Beans are planning an attack for tonight.”

“What factors?” Rob asked.

“Our forces are advancing on Bean territory. The bean samples are multiplying. There’s a previously unknown, assumedly powerful abnormal Bean waiting in the skies above Stuttgart.”

“And Aaron said that the Beanmeister will see his followers soon,” Schubert added. “The Church is working on setting something into motion right now.”

Bösch pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Thomas, I hope you can make us another plan to fight the Beans.”

Sauer looked grim.

“It was a joke, son.”

“Not a very good one.”

Bösch sighed. “No, it wasn’t.” He leaned down, opening a drawer under his desk. “I didn’t get to finish my story about Krüger. You don’t need to know everything, so to make a very, very long story short…” Bösch placed a set of papers on his desk. “I started a plan.”