Chapter Twenty-One
M ax woke to the sound of his name. He forced his eyelids open, though they seemed to weigh far more than gravity could explain.
Ali knelt next to him, a small smile curving up one corner of her lips. “Hi, sleepy head.”
Relief surged through him. She was here. She was safe . “How long did I sleep?”
“Thirty minutes, as ordered.”
He pushed himself into a sitting position then took in a couple of deep breaths. Ali was only a couple feet away. Behind her sat a line of laboratory equipment and the sight brought the situation into clarity.
He refocused on her face and realized there was one other thing he could do to help the people who lived here.
“Do you have the flu?” he asked her.
“I feel fine, normal, so I don’t think so.”
“What about Hunt, Tom, and Bull, do either of them have it?”
“Hunt thinks he might be coming down with it. Tom isn’t sick, but I don’t know about Bull. He’s sleeping”
Max pushed to his feet. “Let’s ask them.”
“You thought of something?”
“Yes,” Max said, walking out of the room and into the one where Tom, Hunt, and Holland were collecting blood from the last person.
Max walked up to Hunt and put a hand on the other man’s forehead. “You’re a little warm. Are you coughing? Any trouble breathing?”
“The cough only gets bad when I lie down. No trouble breathing so far.”
Max put his stethoscope in his ears and got the other end past several layers of clothing so he could listen to Hunt’s lungs and heart. “Chest is clear.” He removed the stethoscope and wrapped it loosely around his neck.
“Here’s the big question. Have you had a flu vaccination in the past six months?”
Tom’s confused face cleared. “Yes, sir.”
“Does that mean...” Ali began.
Max was quick to cut off that thought. “I don’t know. The vaccine you got was for a different strain. It was close, but not quite the same. Still, it might provide some protection.” He looked at her, Tom, Hunt, and Holland, and held their gazes so they paid attention. “One case doesn’t mean we’re in the clear.”
“But, there’s hope?” Hunt asked.
“There’s hope,” Max assured him. “I need you to keep a detailed journal of how you feel. If it gets worse, I need to know how it gets worse. Okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
Max looked around, but Bull wasn’t in the room. “Where did Bull go?”
“Next room over,” Tom said. “He complained that it was too crowded in here.”
Max got up and went to the next room. Bull was a dark, quiet figure on the floor.
“I’m sorry to wake you,” Max said as he crouched next to the big soldier.
No response.
Max shook the other man.
He felt cold, his muscles too lax.
The stethoscope told him what he already feared. He looked over Bull’s body to see if there were any physical indicators of what killed him, and discovered a trail of blood from one ear. When Max turned him over, blood had leaked out of his other ear as well.
Max got to his feet and walked back into the other room. Everyone’s energy levels seemed a bit higher.
This was going to suck.
“Bull is dead.”
Every American turned to stare at him. No one moved for two seconds, then Tom exploded to his feet and was out the door and in the next room before Max could take another breath.
Max followed, but didn’t approach. Most soldiers needed space at a time like this.
“Was it the flu?” Tom asked staring down at Bull’s body.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to do an autopsy to determine the cause of death, but I don’t remember hearing him cough a lot.”
“He did have one, but it wasn’t bad.” Tom shook his head. “He said he felt really tired and had a bad headache. That was a couple of hours ago.” He turned to stare at Max, a resigned expression on his face. “He had his flu shot.”
“It might not protect everyone. I won’t know more until an autopsy is done. It’s too early to speculate.”
“How could he die in just two hours?”
“During the Spanish flu pandemic at the end of the First World War, millions of people died. Some of them died within hours.”
“Why is there blood coming out of his ears?”
“The virus must cause damage to the mucous membranes, leading to hemorrhages. I’m very sorry.”
“Not your fault, Colonel. He knew the risks just like the rest of us. But if you find out this bug was man-made, I want a crack at the fucker who cooked it up.”
“There’s a lineup for that, but I think I could squeeze you in.” Max took a good look at Tom’s face and saw anger and grief, but what one would expect. “I have to call the base. Can I leave you in charge of the body?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very good.”
When Max turned to leave, he found Ali in the doorway. She looked sad and angry, but the expression she gave him was supportive.
“Reporting this to the general?”
He nodded and went around her to go to his lab. “I’m going to ask for another supply drop. A small one this time.”
She followed. “How small?”
“I’m thinking it could be dropped by a drone on a specific target.” He began to clear a space to set up the equipment he was going to need to blood type the donated blood. He couldn’t do a complete phenotyping, but he could determine the ABO and Rh factor blood types. He had the right reagents and lab equipment for that.
“That would be better than the stampede we had for the last one.” Her voice was dry.
“Yes and no. The distraction was valuable.” He glanced at her and she seemed awake and very able to do anything needed. “There’s one thing I’m going to need if I’m going to try to create a vaccine from this specific virus. Something that would not likely survive a supply drop.”
“What’s that?”
“A dozen or more eggs.”
“Eggs? Like chicken eggs?”
“Yes, fertilized.”
“I’d be happy to go shopping for you, Colonel, but how can you tell a fertilized egg from an unfertilized one?”
“It’s called candling. You literally shine a light behind the egg and look for shadows that aren’t just a yolk and egg whites. With so many people dead, I think we should be able to find enough eggs from chickens with no current owners.”
“Yeah, probably.” She sighed. “I suppose you want these eggs sooner rather than later.”
He smiled. “You read my mind.”
She sighed and sang, “Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to grab eggs I go.”
She was almost out the door when he called out to her. “Ali?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “Yeah?”
“Be careful.” He couldn’t show her how worried he was, couldn’t tell her that if she didn’t take care of herself he’d be very, very angry. Couldn’t tell her she was important to him. All he could do was ask.
She paused, then walked back toward him.
And kept coming until she stretched up on her toes and kissed him square on the mouth. “I,” she whispered against his lips, “will be very careful if you promise to do the same.”
“Deal,” he breathed, then cupped her head and ducked down for another kiss. He could nibble on her soft, full lips all day.
And then she was gone.
Max stared after her for a moment, then moved to a part of the building away from the rock face where he could get a signal and pulled out his satellite phone.
“Stone.” The general’s voice was as professional as always, but there was a note of worry or perhaps impatience in it.
“Sir,” Max replied. “I’m requesting a quarantine of this area. I’ve identified the virus and if it gets out the death toll could be catastrophic.”
“Define catastrophic.”
“Millions, sir. Hundreds of millions dead. Everywhere.”
“Is it Akbar?”
“My gut and the message Ali found on a body earlier are telling me it’s him.”
For a moment Stone didn’t say anything, then his voice came back over the connection. “What do you need?”
“I need vaccination supplies and enough doses of the latest Influenza A H5N1 vaccine for three hundred people.”
“Will that vaccine help?”
“It’s a long shot, but it’s better than doing nothing at all. None of the locals here have been vaccinated and the mortality rate is around thirty-five percent.”
“Is it contagious?”
“Extremely. One of our own appears to have died of it about hour or two ago. He’d reported a slight cough, headache, and tiredness. He went to grab a few hours of sleep and died. Another of the men is reporting flu-like symptoms, but his illness isn’t progressing. His appears to be like any other flu in a healthy adult. Irritating, but not lethal.”
Max took a deep breath and continued. “But two cases don’t tell me much. That’s why I want to attempt to vaccinate the remaining population here.”
“What’s your plan B?”
“That is plan B. Plan A is two-fold. We’re collecting blood from survivors to use as a treatment for those who are gravely sick. I’m also going to try to culture a vaccine here from the full virus. In case plan B doesn’t work. That’s forty-eight hours away, though.”
“Which soldier died?”
“Bull. I mean, Sergeant Bullard.”
“Good man.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m going to give the phone to your assistant so he can get your list of supplies. We’ll have to coordinate a covert drop for this one.”
“My thought as well, sir.”
“Don’t risk yourself or any of our soldiers if you don’t have to.”
He didn’t say “take care of my daughter,” probably because that sentiment would earn him a nasty reaction from said daughter, but Max didn’t have difficulty in inferring the meaning.
“No, sir, I won’t. I need every one of them able to perform at their current impressive level.”
“Good.”
There was a bit of static, then Eugene greeted him and Max began to list off the supplies he’d need.
“Sir, you need biohazard suits if you’re dealing with Akbar.”
“That would be like closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out. Too little too late.”
“Sir, is there anything else I can send? Antibiotics or anti-virals?”
“Not in this drop, Eugene. I’ve got three Special Forces medics assisting me and Sergeant Stone is off right now gathering eggs for me. I’m good.”
“Eggs?”
He sounded flabbergasted.
“It’s a little old school, but I want to try to culture the virus. Once I have enough, I’ll kill it and use it as a vaccine.”
“Very good, sir. Anything else?”
“Not now. Thank you, Eugene, and carry on.”
“Yes, sir.” There was a pause, voices in the background. “Sir, I have the information on your covert drop.”
“Excellent.” Max took down the coordinates and time—just after sunset—then he ended the call.
He went out to Jessup, who was guarding the front door. “Can you get Nolan to come in? I’ve requested a covert drop and we need to send a team to intercept it.”
“He’s got eyes on the front door of the building, so that’s no problem.” Jessup went to one of the windows next to the door and moved the old, ratty curtain so it covered about a third of the window.
“That’s it?”
“Simple is always better. Of course the next signal isn’t the same.”
“Huh, you have a whole list?”
“Yeah, six or so.”
Movement outside caught both their attention, but it was Ali returning. She didn’t arrive via the shortest or most direct way. She zigged-zagged all over the place.
After a few minutes she walked slowly up to the entrance and eased her way inside carrying a sack filled with lumpy egg shapes.
“How many did you get?” Max asked, pleased to see so many eggs in the bag.
“A couple dozen,” she replied.
Max nodded at Jessup and led the way to the lab.
“You were right,” she added. “There were a lot of chickens whose eggs haven’t been collected in a few days. A lot of people are dead. If the sun ever comes out, it’s going to stink worse than a funky Cadillac for miles.”
“Did you see any militants?”
“Not close up. They seemed to be moving though the tents. I hope Nolan isn’t in their sights.”
“No, I had Jessup give the secret handshake to call him in.”
Ali began pulling eggs out of the sack and placing them carefully on the plastic-covered counter. A few of them had cracked, but most, twenty-three, were intact and appeared to be fertilized.
Max smiled and turned to thank her for a job well done, when a deep-throated explosion rolled through the air and shook the building.