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Spider, Kipling, and Danielle stood outside the hot zone lab window in the basement of the Archer Foundation, three levels below ground. Inside, lying on a table where the HAZMAT team left them, were two black body bags containing the remains of Karl Novak and Dorothy Miller.
“I’m opening the bags and take some tissue samples from the bodies,” said Spider, looking at Kipling. “I need someone to help me.”
“Better me than Danielle,” said Kip, looked at her. “Spider’s still smitten by your charms. I don’t want you two alone again.”
“Fine,” said Danielle, turning away from the two men. “Just be quick about it. We need to know what killed them and how to combat it. We can’t stay holed up in here forever.”
She walked away, down the hall.
“You forget about her, Spider. Keep your focus on those bodies in there.”
“Easy for you to say, Kip. I can’t help it if I love her,” said Spider.
“You can’t afford to be in love right now. I can’t afford it. A man out there tried to kill us once. Now he’s got this unholy poison that we can’t fight. One sip of coffee and we’re dead. So let’s get to work.”
“What chance do we have?”
“He’s exposed himself. He made the easy kills,” said Kip, matter of fact. “Novak should have changed his routine. He was a field agent. He knew better. He was careless. Now he’s dead.”
“That’s cold, Kip,” said Spider.
“Just the plain truth. At least we have some idea now about what we’re dealing with.” Kipling pointed over at the plastic bags of Novak, “Now that we know how it’s delivered, maybe you can figure out how to stop it from working.”
“I’ll have a look, but it attacks so fast,” said Spider, shaking his head.
“Don’t accept defeat, Spider. You’ve got the best lab on the west coast here. Use it to break this down. I know you can do it.”
“Let’s get suited up and collect the samples,” said Spider, reaching for the door to the hot zone outer chamber.
The two men stepped inside. On one side was a row of protective suits, hanging on hooks. On the other side were benches to sit on. The suits were bulky, like beekeeper outfits with sealed gloves, boots, and helmets with large plastic faceplates.
Kip and Spider dressed up, checking the seals of their gloves, boots, and helmets. They opened the door to the scrubbing chamber. Nozzles sprayed disinfectant bleach on their suits and air jets dried them. Vents sucked the air out and a green light flashed on top of the next door. It was a metal door with a round wheel in the center to open and close it.
They stepped into the last chamber. It was large, with the two body bags in the center, lying on stainless steel tables. Air hoses hung from the ceiling. They hung to the outside of the room with mechanical arms. Kip and Spider snapped a hose into their suit to give them pure air to breathe inside their suit.
Both men walked around the outside perimeter, around a railing separating the center from the edges. They stepped down from the walkway, towards the tables where the bodies lay. Kipling stood back, letting Spider lean over the body bags.
Spider reached out, using his right gloved hand to pull down the zipper of the first body bag. He dragged the zipper down halfway and peeled back the sides of the bag. He took a step back as he saw the remains of Novak, the dry flesh peeling away from the bones.
Kip had moved closer to look at the body.
“What could do that?” asked Kip.
“I’ll know for sure later, but Novak has all the symptoms of advanced leprosy. Very, very advanced.”
“Not normal, you mean?”
“Hell no. Most lepers live long lives. The disease is not lethal, but it causes tissue degeneration. It is usually a slow-acting disease, taking years to develop.”
“So figure out what makes this bug work so fast, Spider.”
“It could be the death angel toxin. But I do not understand how it works.”
“Figure it out and be quick about it.”
“What is scary is not that it works, but how this Witch Doctor figured out how to make it work.”
“What’s the big deal? You just slap it together and dump it in somebody’s coffee,” said Kip.
“But how much do you use? How do you know the coffee won’t kill the bacteria? How long does it take to kill someone? Is it contagious? You answer a million questions before you use a weapon like this. That’s the scary part.”
“What?”
“The Witch Doctor must have tried this bug out on others first. Novak wasn’t the first person to die like this.”
Kipling looked down at the body, shaking his head. “Well, let’s just make sure he’s the last one, Spider.”