Pestilence: The Infection Begins (5 page)

And that’s why he changed sides halfway through the game. He felt he hadn’t been rewarded for his hard work; getting on side with Thorncroft would change all that. He had become the leading advocate for the development of a vaccine throughout Europe, and when the United States government wanted an expert opinion it was he who was asked. He pushed ahead with the proposal for the use of the drug before the proper test had been carried out. The vaccination of more than half the population of America would be a financial windfall, and as long as the menace of the Baltic flu hung around a bit longer they (Thorn) could probably squeeze in another year of vaccinations, perhaps even two if people were concerned enough about the death toll in Europe.

He had overheard Thorncroft mention that very thing a few months ago when the first overtures were made by the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Andrew Calgleef. This got Moya to thinking. If a vaccine was to be rushed ahead, it would only be for the markets that hadn’t suffered any cases of Baltic flu, and the only one that was worthy of profit was the US market. It made perfect sense; the more who suffered the more vaccines would be sold and the more likely it would turn out to be annual. Thorncroft knew how to turn a profit; he granted him that.

When his cell eventually rang he expected Thorncroft to be on the other end.

“Yes, sir?”

“Ah, good day or evening as it may be. It’s Waddell here, Dr. Moya.” Waddell was one of the head researchers at Thorn labs. “Mr. Thorncroft asked me to call you immediately.”

Moya had no time for introductions or small talk. “What have you got?”

“Apparently your assumption was correct. The virus cells are active and they’ve multiplied extensively.”

Moya knew that when a scientific researcher used the word extensively it meant more than a factor of ten.

“Okay, thank you, Dr. Waddell, I assume you’ve informed the old man?” Moya’s reference was to Thorncroft and was answered in the affirmative before he asked if there was anything else he should be aware of.

“Well, further tests have confirmed the virus cells are the cause for the low iron count in the sufferers and not, as first suspected, that those with a low count were merely more susceptible.”

“And how’s that?”

“The virus organism seeks out the iron in the red blood cells, consumes it, and then multiplies in the process. The reason for the attraction to the iron has yet to be determined but—”

“You’re working on it!” Moya wasn’t concerned with why or with Waddell himself and cut him off. What did concern him, however—and he knew it would be the same for Thorncroft—was that if this news got out, the vaccine and the program would be canceled and a fortune would be lost.

Moya paced the room as he pondered how he could cover this and make it out to be an isolated event—just enough so that the program would be completed across the country. There would be a chance to refine the vaccine for next year and…

“Buy some time, buy some time…” He paced his room, then came to a sudden halt by the window. “A smoke screen, damn it that’s it!”

He picked up his cell phone and called Calgleef.

“Do you have an emergency response team for hazardous material spills in Des Moines?” he said before Calgleef answered.

“Well not in Des Moines specifically but—”

“What do you mean?” for Moya’s plan to work, immediate action had to be taken.

“Well, a team can be arranged in an extreme—” Calgleef sensed the urgency in Moya.

“Do it!” Moya ordered, then explained how best to handle the situation at Riverside Hospital.

“
D
octor
, Doctor!” a nurse stepped from one of the consultation rooms, her voice distressed.

Isaac Tilford had just entered the waiting room on his way back from the canteen when he heard her cries. Expecting to be told she felt the flu coming on, Tilford pulled his surgical mask back over his face and sidestepped a couch, a wastebasket and a few patients in his effort to reach her.

“Yes, Nurse, are you all right?”

“It’s not me, inside quick.” She pointed inside the consultation room.

“What the…?” He choked back his words when he saw a female patient, about his age, hunched over on the examination bed, her head down. He also couldn’t help but notice, with more than a passing interest, she was completely naked save for her tiny panties. He may have been a doctor of only one year’s experience, but he’d been a man for much longer.

Though her head hung low and her arms were limp at her side, Dr. Tilford nonetheless could see she was quite an attractive woman in her mid-twenties. Her dark brown hair was pulled back from her face, and braided behind. He was unable to see that, but he could certainly see her petite shoulders, smooth clear skin and small but enticing breasts. Tilford hadn’t been exposed to many naked women and definitely not one as nubile as this young lady.

“Her eyes, Doctor, her eyes!” the nurse informed him but stayed well back.

“Yes, let’s have a look, shall we?” He took a step toward the patient. “Nurse, do we have a coat for her?” He knew that to act like a doctor should, he would have to keep his eyes off her tits.

He put the stethoscope to his ears and took a step toward the patient who lifted her head sharply and snarled. Her eyes were red—blood red. Her entire eye, the pupil, iris and the sclera were full of blood, a single bloody “tear” dripping from her right eye. She bared her teeth and lunged at Tilford, who jumped back awkwardly. He had quickly lost interest in her bare breasts.

“Back, stay back, Nurse!” Tilford flung his arms outward.

The blood-eyed woman with enticing breasts jumped from the examination bed and thrust her arms at Dr. Tilford. She was more a wild beast than a suffering patient. The ferocity displayed convinced Tilford he didn’t want to tangle with her, no matter how enticing her tits were. He had no idea why her eyes would be filled with blood—it didn’t seem to affect her vision at all—but the word contagion came to mind, especially after what Dr. Delaney had told him.

This particular consultation room had an adjacent “secure” observation room for troublesome patients like violent offenders, those suffering the ill effects of drugs, or patients who exhibited infectious and communicable diseases. It had two doors and a long glass observation area between; and it could be locked from the outside.

Tilford moved quickly; he had to, Ms. Enticing Tits moved as fast.

“Open the door to the other room,” he yelled to the nurse. “Do it, do it now!”

As soon as the nurse opened the door, Tilford followed her. He waved his arm about as he beckoned the woman whose only crime had been that she was chosen for a free vaccination against the Baltic flu.

“What are you doing, Doctor, what…”

“Go to the other door. When I tell you, you open it then run around and lock this door from the outside okay?” He stood in the doorway, his voice edgy as he kept his eyes glued on Ms. Enticing Tits.

“Come on, bitch, you want to take a bite out of me?” He wasn’t sure that’s what she wanted, but that was the impression she gave.

* * *

D
elaney had
no idea Tilford was engaged at this moment with a half-naked woman in one of the consultation rooms. She was unaware the danger in the hospital had turned into an immediate life or death situation.

From her office, which was positioned behind the nurses’ station on the first floor, Delaney heard several screams but didn’t investigate. It was a hospital after all, and tragic events happen, even without the possibility of a highly contagious flu breaking out. But this time the screams grew were louder and closer than usual, and when every telephone in the building rang at once—or certainly seemed that way—she knew it was more than a tragic event at a hospital.

The moment she left her office, the beleaguered looks of the nurses on the phones at the station were confirmation of the worsening crisis. “Slow down, you’re not making sense,” she heard one nurse on the phone say.

Doctors, Nurses and other staff members ran toward outpatients’ clinic, one doctor shouted. “They’re bleeding from their eyes, their noses, everywhere. It’s, it’s a fucking mess!” More confirmation the vaccine was unsafe.

Why didn’t they test, why?

She stopped at the nurses’ station for a quick report, and the youngest nurse, Beth Sanders, informed her that the patients who had received the vaccine this morning had attacked staff and even tried to “drink their blood.” Before Delaney could investigate these claims, her attention was directed to the foyer where an orderly reported that there were men in uniform surrounding the hospital.

It was all going too fast, too damn fast, but Calgleef was behind this latest action. The sight of police and the National Guard told Delaney confronting them would not be wise. She needed to call Calgleef.

That asshole!

She marched back to the nurses’ station and demanded a phone. She heard several beeps on the line as the call was connected, but paid no attention.

“This is Delaney, I need to speak to Director Calgleef immediately, do you hear, immediately!” She picked up a ballpoint pen from the counter and anxiously depressed and released the button on the top.

“What’s going on, Calgleef, why are you sealing off the building?” she appealed to her director. “And how did you know the outbreak had worsened—do you have someone working for you inside?”

Calgleef chuckled before he answered. “Of course we do, Miss Delaney. You! And as you know I’m bound by CDC rules to seal off any building where an outbreak of a contagious disease occurs. Unfortunately this means you and your team will have to remain inside until the all-clear is given.” Calgleef sounded calm, too calm for the director of the CDC facing an outbreak of a major contagion.

“Do you intend to inform the public of the possibility of the Baltic flu right here in downtown Des Moines?”

“Have you gone mad, do know the panic that would ensue?”

“That’s not what I meant and you—”

“Dr. Delaney, quick come. There is something I’m sure you’ll want to see.” Tilford came running from outpatients.

“I can see you have your hands full, Miss Delaney. I’ll call you soon. This is strictly precautionary, and as soon as we can confirm there is no danger of an influenza outbreak, the quarantine will be lifted. Until then.”

Calgleef took the opportunity to beat a hasty retreat.

“Wait, hold on you… bastard!” She slammed the phone on top of the counter.

“Dr. Delaney, Dr. Del—”

“Oh for Christ’s sake, stop calling me that. It’s Grace, okay?” She was in no mood for the “Dr. Delaney” bullshit. She would have preferred they got to first-name basis in more intimate surrounds.

Well if we get out of this in one piece, it’ll definitely be intimate, that’s for sure.

“Sure, sure. Grace it is, but you gotta hurry!”

T
ilford had left
the nurse on her own to watch over Ms. Enticing Tits. He thought it was a bad decision at the time; he was about to discover exactly how bad.

* * *

“
Y
es
, yes indeed. They’re on their way as we speak, Mr. Gerard,” Calgleef informed the hospital CEO.

Gerard didn’t like losing, especially to a woman and a smart-ass first-year doctor, and as soon as he left the out patients clinic he called the director of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. He told the clerk who answered, his call concerned the vaccination program taking place in his hospital, and he was put through instantly.

“Just sit tight, Mr. Gerard, let us handle it from here. It appears there has been a mix up in the vaccines, but please, a word to the wise,” Calgleef was the perfect silver-tongued devil, “don’t call anyone. If the media gets hold of this, they’ll blow it out of proportion, and that will only hinder our efforts and that could damage your reputation as well as the your hospitals. You wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?”

Calgleef was a man who knew how to use the right words to extol and to caution at the same time. A wiry, thin man in his midforties with a receding hairline, he was thankful for his family wealth; with thick creases across his forehead, a long, pointed nose, and beady eyes set far too close together, money was all he had going for him.

The instant he ended his conversation with Gerard, the CDC director called Dr. Moya.

“I just spoke with the hospital CEO, he knows there are problems with the vaccine.”

“Well if the patients are becoming ill after receiving the shot, I’m sure half the hospital knows by now,” Moya reasoned.

“He called me with his concerns, but I’m afraid this man might go to the governor’s office, he—”

“We can’t risk that for a moment, not for a moment. You have the power to isolate the hospital, do you not?”

“I’m not sure I follow you. I’ve arranged for a biological team to go in now and seal off the building. The governor has agreed to send a contingent of police to—”

“There you go,” Moya pointed out to him, like a teacher explaining rudimentary addition, “now to add the National Guard it has to be declared an emergency, right? So there is your reason to prevent telephones calls going out. That will alleviate our problem.”

“It’s not that simple, Dr. Moya,” Calgleef countered, though he was impressed with Moya’s knowledge of US martial law. Calgleef didn’t know if he was correct or not. “It’s a hospital, so it has emergency communications, two-way radio, and people have cell phones. Switching off the telephones won’t prevent any calls going out.”

“Then you’ll have to use the CIA or NSA to monitor all hospital frequencies and cell phones and prevent any calls from going out. I don’t need to remind you, Calgleef, that if this fails, then we’re talking a loss of billions in the first year alone!” Moya showed he knew even more about the US system. He spent a considerable amount of time researching the US intelligence apparatus and how it operated. He knew more about the way the US government—and its close association with big business—operated than most Americans.

“It’s an emergency, Calgleef, you have their numbers… make the call!”

Moya pushed the button to end the call. He’d had enough of these phone calls. He wasn’t good with telecommunications, hated using them; he was an “in-person” man.

He walked over to the small fridge in his room and got another bottle of cold water when his cell rang again. He picked it up, looked at the number shown on the display and tossed it on the bed. It was the CDC woman at the hospital, Delaney. He wasn’t interested in her histrionics either.

He slid open the glass door to the balcony, sat down on the stool and drank his water. He thought of making plans to get out of the US while his health was still good. If this was the full-fledged Baltic flu, it wouldn’t take long for the US to close down outbound flights and he’d be stuck here—another thing he knew about the US government.

“No… life with your own peace of mind and a semblance of sanity is worth more than all the money there is—and that’s a fact!” He toasted the air and took a mouthful of regular tap water sold as mountain spring water. Like everything else, just another scam. Swishing the water around in his mouth, he asked himself why, at this late a stage in his life, he had become a whore and sold out his ideals.

Not finding an answer, he stood and walked to the balcony and looked down to the parked cars below.

“Fuck it!” He tossed the bottle and watched it explode on a silver Buick. He was becoming less and less interested in this project the more it went on.