Chapter Eleven

A gunshot. Somewhere toward the village.

Eli’s first instinct was to run toward it, but he stopped himself.

He hadn’t realized how much noise there had been before. The chatter of insects and birds kept up a constant buzz. Now it was silent.

Riley appeared at the opening to the mess tent where he’d been heading—Shelly had called a meeting—her cell phone in hand. She glanced around, caught sight of him, and came over. Her face was blank of expression, which he was guessing wasn’t a good sign.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“There’s been a shooting. Some kid went crazy and ran out of the hot zone waving a knife. My guy ordered him to stop and he kept coming. He had no choice. This kid was just about foaming at the mouth.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah. This is going to change things. I’ve sent the rest of my guys to help out. So far, things are quiet. Most people were inside and don’t know what happened. Though it might not be a bad idea if it gets around. Might stop other people from thinking about running.”

“Doesn’t sound as though there was much thinking involved. Obviously, the symptoms are changing.” And not for the better.

“No.” She held the tent flap open for him to enter. “Come on in—we were just waiting for you.”

“I had a test that I needed to complete.”

“No problem, but we should get this done. I need to get over there and assess the situation and see what backup we’re going to require, but I want to hear what Shelly has to say first.”

He entered the mess tent, Riley close behind him. Tonight, the place was crowded. He’d been hearing vehicles coming in and out all day, bringing new staff. He searched the room, recognized a few faces, and nodded. Riley stayed at the back, leaning against an upright, same as the earlier meeting. Eli made his way to the front where Shelly had saved him a seat.

She stood up as he sat down.

“Okay, people. We’re doing this fast. There have been some changes, and we’re going to need to address them quickly. There has been the first confirmed death from the virus. Rosita Martínez died approximately ninety minutes ago. Cause of death was respiratory arrest.”

And that’s why it was best not to see patients as people. Like Sister Clara with her freckles and clear blue eyes. She was infected. How must she be feeling right now?

Maybe she was praying.

Shelly turned to him. “Can you tell us what you’ve found so far?”

He stood and glanced around the room. In fact, he had nothing of much use to say. Maybe it was better to stick to the truth. “So far, I have very little. I do know it’s not rabies. Rabies is almost always fatal, so that was good news until these new symptoms emerged. I think it’s safe to eliminate bacterial infection. No raised levels of C-resistant protein. The samples showed negative for bioluminescence. I’ve found evidence of an unknown viral pathogen in the samples, so we’re going forward with the presumption that it’s viral. Maybe not one we’ve seen before.”

“Could it be man-made?”

The question came from an earnest young man in the front. Eli’s gaze swerved to where Riley stood. She raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

“There’s no way we can tell that at this point,” he replied. “But also no reason to suspect it’s man-made.” Except maybe for Riley’s presence. He’d done a quick Google search on Riley that afternoon while he’d been waiting for a test to complete. She was military intelligence. What did that even mean? “It’s unlikely this is an act of terrorism. Too far off the beaten track to be of much interest and not far enough off the beaten track to go unnoticed as a testing site.”

“Unless they’re letting us know what they can do.” The young man again. He was eager, but Eli wasn’t going to start getting into conspiracy theories at this point. He’d have plenty of time later. Rosita’s death had seriously lowered his odds of getting out of here fast.

“Well, we’ll just have to wait until they contact us to know that. Meanwhile, although the symptoms are closest to rabies, the structure is different. So not rabies, or influenza, or any other of the usual suspects. Though structure-wise, it does show similarities to Ebola. That’s all we know for now. Samples are on their way to Johns Hopkins for sequencing. We should have the results sometime in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.” Shelly had organized delivery of the samples in person—they should reach the lab sometime tomorrow morning. He’d already spoken with his lab assistants—they would all be working on them full-time getting the results in as fast as possible. “In the meantime, we’ve started treatment of a test group with broad spectrum anti-virals. I’m not hopeful, but it’s all we’ve got right now. That’s it. I’m not going to go through the boring details, but I’ve made printouts of everything we know so far, including the tests I’ve done. I’ll leave them on the table at the front. Pick one up as you go out. Just a couple of things we all need to be aware of: the virus was present in all the samples I took, blood and saliva.” Though he hadn’t seen any virus in Rosita’s blood, he’d found it in Maria’s sample. Just a matter of luck. “This fucker is everywhere. We can also presume that it’s highly infectious. Not only from contact with bodily fluids but probably also by touch and, worst-case scenario, airborne. Maximum protection needed at all times in the hot zone. And it’s deadly. So don’t catch it, people.”

He nodded to Shelly to show he’d finished, and she rose to her feet.

“Adam, you’re next.”

Adam stayed seated. He looked unhappy, probably worried about missing his book tour now that people were dying. “My team finished the questionnaires this afternoon. It appears we have this thing isolated. The area is mainly subsistence farming and, with the exception of the driver who took the samples to Mexico City, no one has traveled outside the area or visited from the outside since the first case was noted.”

He turned to Eli, gave a small, tight smile. Superior bastard. “Unlike Dr. Vance, I’m not convinced this is airborne. If that were the case, then I would expect to see occurrences outside the hot zone by now. I’m sure we’re looking at an animal vector, likely something with a means and rate of transmission similar to Ebola. Maybe a mutation, as the structure is similar.”

“Really?” Riley spoke up from the back of the room. “I’ve been to an Ebola camp, and this is completely different.”

“To the uninformed, maybe. We need to look beyond the obvious.” Another of those tight, superior smiles.

Riley clearly wasn’t satisfied. “With Ebola, don’t you just treat the symptoms and give the patient the chance to fight back? Is that what you’re suggesting here? Didn’t we treat Rosita’s symptoms?”

It was a good question. Eli sat back and waited for Adam’s answer.

“The symptoms are completely different, so—”

“You just said there were similarities.”

“Some similarities—”

“Perhaps this is a discussion for another time,” Shelly interrupted. “We need to finish this. We have things to do. Adam, complete your report.”

“At the moment, we’re presuming Rosita is patient zero. Subjects become infectious shortly after they come in contact with the virus. I’m talking about a day, maybe less. The virus begins shedding—and thus is contagious—around the onset of the first symptoms. And the first symptoms are relatively mild, which is a problem if people get out, as they can move around without any obvious sign of illness. But that won’t be an issue.”

“No outsiders coming in?” Eli asked.

“We’ve gone back just over a week, which is adequate with the incubation period we’re looking at. In that time, the only outsiders was a group of American students, hiking.”

“Any names?”

“Not that anyone can remember. But they were all healthy when they arrived and healthy when they left, which was eight days ago, two days before Rosita showed symptoms. They were clear of the area before the infection began.”

“Shouldn’t we trace them anyway?” Riley asked. “Cover all bases.”

“The timing is wrong. It’s my belief it would be a waste of resources, especially with what little information we have.”

“Don’t make it a priority,” Shelly said, “but keep looking for them. I don’t like loose ends.” She ran a hand through her hair. This was her first post in charge, and Eli was guessing, right now, it felt as though things were getting out of hand. “Is that it?” she asked Adam.

“Just that we’ve sent alerts to all hospitals in the area with the symptoms. So far nothing. I believe we can safely contain this. The chances of it breaking out are extremely low. We should be on our way home soon.”

Eli wished he was as optimistic.

“When everyone is dead?” Riley asked.

Adam ignored the question.

“Leo, do you have anything to add?” Shelly asked.

“Just keep it confined. If this virus gets beyond our quarantine limits, then, with the infection rates we’ve seen so far, we could expect a global pandemic within weeks.”

“Great,” Shelly muttered. She smiled. “That’s a military problem, thankfully.”

Leo continued. “I can’t be more specific. I’m putting together a simulation, and I should have that for you soon. We do know we’re looking at a highly contagious pathogen. If it gets to any hub spots, it’s going to spread exponentially.”

“The likelihood of it getting to those hub spots is almost nonexistent,” Adam put in. “We have it contained.”

“Let’s make sure it stays that way,” Shelly said. “There’s one more thing.” She glanced to the back of the room. “Captain Hawkins?”

Riley threaded her way through the people and came to stand beside Shelly. “About fifteen minutes ago, a thirteen-year-old boy ran out of the hot zone with a knife. He was shot dead. I know this sounds harsh, but we have to keep our eye on the bigger picture here. The boy was clearly infected, hallucinating. My guy had no other option. Up to now, things have been peaceable. That is likely to change. Two main reasons—the next symptoms and the fact that once more people start to die, there’s going to be a panic. Anyone capable of rational thought, and still moving, is going to want to get out of there. It can’t happen. So if you’re working inside the hot zone, you need to be aware, and you need to have backup at all times. We have reinforcements coming in the morning. Any questions?”

She fell silent.

Eli looked out over the group. They seemed in shock. He couldn’t blame them. This was getting real. A person dying of a disease seemed vaguely normal to medical staff. People got sick all the time. You couldn’t save them all. But a teenager being shot by an American soldier? Not so much in a doctor’s usual day-to-day routine.

“Should we be armed?” The young guy from the front again.

“No,” Riley replied. “Only military personnel will carry. We’re actually doing a sweep of the village right now and removing any weapons we can find. You don’t need to be armed. We’ll keep you safe.”

He wondered if she really believed that.

“What about the virus?” a woman asked—one of the new medical staff who had come in that day. They were all volunteers who registered with WHO and were pulled in from their regular jobs in situations like this. They underwent additional training and knew what they were getting into. “Are we safe here? Are we far enough away? What about insect transmission?”

“We’re as safe as we can make it,” Shelly said. “The camp is being sprayed, which will keep the insects out. Just follow protocols, and you should be fine. Anyone suspects they have any symptoms—report it immediately. Now, we need to get to work, so that’s it for tonight. We’ll have another briefing in the morning.” She sat down and turned to him. “I want you to come and help me do the autopsy. I take it you’re okay with dead patients?”

He was going to have words with Shelly about her attitude sometime soon. He just couldn’t face it right now. While he’d thought this would be a couple of days, he’d figured he could put up with it. But a quick escape looked highly unlikely right now, and he was getting pissed off at her sniping at him. Their time together had been just that—time. He’d never offered her anything remotely like a relationship. She’d dreamed that up herself. At their last meeting, she’d accused him of wasting the best years of her life. Jesus.

And he’d already decided he wanted to be in on the autopsy. He needed to get some tissue samples, brain and lungs, and spinal fluid. He could set up some tests to run overnight. He yawned. He’d hardly slept last night, and it looked like tonight was going to be late. His tent was starting to seem like a little oasis of paradise. “When?” he asked.

“Now. We’ll have to set up artificial lights, but at least it will be cooler than during the day.”

There was that, though only marginally.

“There’s another thing you can do while we’re there.”

“There is?”

“Talk to Sister Clara.”

He frowned. “About what?”

“Leaving. You seemed to have a connection with the sister this morning; maybe you can persuade her to go.”

He had? Or was this more sniping? “Go where?”

“Apparently, Sister Clara’s father is a general and he’s not happy about his little girl being in the middle of a plague outbreak. He wants her home. There’s a plane set up for quarantine on its way to Mexico City right now and an ambulance setting off from the city as we speak. She’ll be taken to Johns Hopkins, since they already have a quarantine unit.”

“And you don’t think she’ll agree to go?”

“Probably not. You know what these religious types are all about. Self-sacrifice. God will look after them, blah, blah, blah.”

He knew better than she could understand.

“Anyway, see if you can convince her to take the flight out. You can be very persuasive. Just flutter your eyelashes at her, and she’ll no doubt agree to anything.”

“Jesus, give it a rest.”

She grinned. “Not yet. Maybe tomorrow. The plane’s scheduled for the early hours of the morning. Chances are, she’s going to be too sick soon to do any good here anyway—tell her that. There’s a possibility they might be able to do more in a decent hospital. I know it’s not rabies, but many of the symptoms are the same, and there’s been some success treating those.”

Yeah, a few people had survived, but not many. An induced coma might give them more time to find some sort of cure and wasn’t something that could be done in a field hospital in the middle of nowhere. “I’ll talk to her.”

“Good. Now, let’s go cut up a dead body.”