Starting the Slowpocalypse (Books 1-3 Omnibus)

by James Litherland

  “The director already knows far more about the law than I ever will—they should ask him.”

  “Somehow I doubt they will want to consult him about legal issues.”

  Waiting until he’d swallowed another mouthful to speak, David thought about the questions he had been asking today. “Not that they could right now if they wanted to. I needed to ask him some questions myself, but he hasn’t been feeling well enough.”

  Amita looked at him with an odd expression on her face—she knew more about the director’s condition than she could say. “I appreciate your continuing to look into the original cases, David. Still, your first priority must be interviewing all of the new flu victims.”

  “I know, and I’ve been zipping all over the compound all day doing just that. I’m sure Michelle told you that the flu swept through the detention center, and since I’m immune and a security officer I had to make sure they were getting the care they needed. I even had to set up some with IV fluids.”

  “On your own? That sounds dangerous, David.”

  “For me or them?” He smiled, shaking his head as he remembered. “Those sad souls weren’t feeling well enough to cause me any problems. And I managed not to kill anybody by accident. By the way, it was Officer Kirkland who had infected them, but Lt. Miles seems to be blaming herself.”

  “And who did she catch the virus from?”

  David sighed. “Apparently it was Chief Nelson’s fault, although she’s trying to take the blame on that one too. She was rather vague about how that happened though.”

  “I would’ve let him leave the clinic if he could’ve convinced me he would self-isolate, but then somehow he slipped out on his own. And Director Miles asked me to let him be, promised the man would be careful. Obviously I shouldn’t have gone along with it, but he didn’t give me much choice.”

  Neither of the chiefs were men who let anybody get in the way of their doing what they needed to do either, but he didn’t think Chief Nelson was nearly as bad as Ken about it.

  David nodded and changed the subject. “While I was working I was thinking too, and when I had a spare moment, I tried asking a few more questions of the original patients.” He had another forkful of potatoes and washed them down with a swig of coffee. “What about Michelle?” He looked around the cafeteria for any sign of his partner. “Won’t she be joining us? I’d like her to hear this too.”

  Dr. Harker leaned back and squinted at him. “I sent Officer Mori home already. Between going out to interview the more recent potential contacts and helping in the lab, she was exhausted. Besides, I’ve got something I want to talk to you about alone. But first, if you’ve come up with something about those original cases, I want to know what.”

  “Sure. Reinterviewing them, some recalled being given their regular checkup by a sister who came around on Sunday afternoon. Just the same as with me and Chief Nelson.”

  Amita was already shaking her head before he’d finished speaking. “If a nurse had contact with several of those original patients on Sunday afternoon, that would be too late to have transmitted the virus to them. Except for you, every single one was showing symptoms early Sunday evening. And whoever she was, she could hardly have avoided infecting at least a few others at the clinic, and so far we’ve only had the one case.”

  “Michelle mentioned that last point herself, and the other patients must’ve thought the same at least subconsciously—they’d assumed I would’ve already known about the nurse—which is probably why nobody seemed to recall her the first time I asked. And I was able to confirm with all the rest except for the director. They all received checkups that afternoon. Although I haven’t been able to establish if the same sister conducted each one.”

  Amita had leaned forward with interest. “Have you talked to the one you know about? She ought to be able to tell you. And we need to test her blood. If she was somehow the carrier, there should still be a sufficient amount of the virus to show up.”

  David shook his head. “I haven’t yet been able to identify the nurse who gave me my checkup. And though I can’t access patient records, I have got security access to the clinic’s logs, and there aren’t any records of a sister performing any checkups on Sunday at all. Much less who she might be.”

  “An imposter? If this was some kind of biological attack, it might explain why symptoms appeared so quickly.” But she was shaking her head while she was speaking. “That doesn’t make any sense. Anyone who could be responsible for such a sophisticated operation surely wouldn’t settle for giving just a handful of people a mild case of the flu. And no one could have foreseen what happened with you.”

  He would have to take her word for that. “Until we locate the person or persons who came and gave us those checkups, whether they were or weren’t an actual nurse, all we can do is speculate. But for what it’s worth, I think she was a real sister.”

  “I’ll send the roster of all the clinic personnel to your pad. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can pick out the sister who visited you Sunday afternoon. She’s the same one who saw Chief Nelson?”

  David nodded. “She came to headquarters and gave us both our exams, me right after the chief.”

  Amita leaned back again and nodded. “Find out who she is if you can, but it’s still more important to process the latest potential flu cases. I’m sure you’ll be able to manage both, though. Which reminds me of a third task I’d like you to take on, and it might be related to the lack of log entries for those checkups.”

  Now she had him leaning forward in his seat to listen. “What’s that?”

  Leaning forward again, she brought her face up close to his and spoke in a low voice, almost a whisper. “Trying to understand this outbreak, I’ve been comparing the before and after blood samples taken from a few people, like yourself and Lt. Miles. I also wanted to compare what I was seeing with previous panels.”

  “Panels?” He really hadn’t had the time to continue learning all the medical terminology.

  “When anyone gets a full examination, or when they’re admitted to the clinic for anything but some minor scrapes and bruises or such, the sisters run a routine series of blood tests. Those samples usually aren’t kept, but the results of those blood panels are stored in the patient files. So while I wouldn’t have the chance to put anything under the microscope to examine, I might see some indications.”

  David nodded, slightly, so that they didn’t bang foreheads. “Clues. You didn’t know what you were looking for, but hoped to find some anomaly to help explain—what?”

  Amita sighed. “I found high levels of stress hormones in the results for both you and Lt. Miles, but considering that those most recent tests were taken when the two of you had been hospitalized the night of that one attack, and the previous panels from the night of the assault before that—well, the results are what I would’ve expected.

  “And then I particularly wanted to know if there was something in your bloodwork—a clue as to why such an unprecedented and extraordinary mutation of the virus occurred.”

  “And?”

  “I still have no idea. But I uncovered something just as inexplicable. The most recent bloodwork for both you and Lt. Miles had both of you testing positive for one thing, the same thing.”

  He was confused. “Positive for the flu? But not from that long ago, it couldn’t be. And the sample I took from Lt. Miles a few days ago came back negative for the virus.”

  “No, the routine blood panel doesn’t include the tests for any of the influenza strains. At least I don’t think so. That’s the problem—there was a test being run on your blood that I have no idea what it’s supposed to be for.”

  David gulped. “I tested positive for something, and you don’t even know what it is?”

  “More than that—no one seems to know. I tried to locate in the logs when and by whom that test was added to the panel, but there was no entry. One day it just appeared as part of the regular bloodwork. Is it possible someone hacked th
e FURCSnet? Erased part of the logs?”

  David leaned back and drained his cup of coffee while he cogitated. He hadn’t found any logs for the checkups he and the others had received—and now Dr. Harker had unknown blood tests appearing out of nowhere, also without any records to account for them. But it was impossible.

  “After everything, we can be fairly confident the FURCSnet hasn’t been hacked. And the only people with the access to actually erase something from the system—” He paused. There were only a few. “The director himself and my mother. Maybe Chief Nelson, I’m not sure. And Ben Laskey who handles the FURCSnet security could probably manage it.” And possibly Lt. Miles. But why would she, or anybody? And to what purpose?

  Amita leaned closer. “What’s more—and I find this very interesting—when I went through all of the results from this specific test, I noticed that in addition to you and Lt. Miles, a couple dozen others had tested positive. Including nine more of the original flu cases.”

  David set his empty cup down, shaking his head in confusion. “Until we know what that test was for, how can we begin to understand the why or the how of it?”

  “I’ll try to figure out what the test might’ve been for, but without an actual sample to study, it will be difficult. What I was hoping you might be able to do was look into the FURCSnet aspect of it all.”

  At least that wasn’t a job that would require him trying to memorize a medical textbook. David knew enough about the net to understand what the problem was and where he could start looking. Director Miles might have the necessary access, but he didn’t seem to have the technical savvy to do this himself. He or Chief Nelson or Lt. Miles would probably rely on Ben to perform such a task for them.

  David’s mother was the only other person capable of tackling it themselves, but while he knew she could be trusted to do what she believed best for the community, he wasn’t confident she would tell him. He’d wait to ask her any questions.

  Ben would be his best bet. David couldn’t imagine the genius doing something like this on his own, but if he’d done it at someone else’s request, then he would likely acknowledge that. Or if he tried to hold back, David expected he could tell. And if someone else was responsible, Ben would be the only person who might be able to trace it back to them, or recover any deleted data. If it could be reconstructed.

  David gave Amita a slight nod. “I’ll look into it.”

  “Just be careful and discreet, since we’re in the dark about what’s going on and who’s behind it and why.”

  “Of course.” He had a lot on his plate, including food, which he started digging into, but it needed to be done. At least now it was getting interesting with a proper mystery to investigate. He just hoped this one didn’t end up leading back to his mom. Again.

  Chapter 15

  More Headaches

  9:35 p.m. Friday, May 23rd

  ANTHONY unlocked the door as quietly as possible and slipped silently into the Resource Room, to avoid disturbing Ben’s work. What he saw when he entered was Sara standing behind Ben’s chair, with one hand in the boy’s hair and the other stroking his neck, as Ben stared intently at his workpad trying to concentrate and clearly having a difficult time of it. No surprise that the boy wanted to work, even now, or that he was having trouble.

  Clearing his throat to get their attention, Anthony was pleased to see Sara snatch her hands back as if it weren’t too late to hide what she had been up to. Then she squinted at him as if he’d done something wrong. Ben jerked like a startled rabbit before turning to see his boss, the boy’s open face filled with an expression of relief.

  The paper mask he wore helped Anthony growl softly at Sara. He even thought it made it easier for him to glare at her—though that might only be how he was feeling at the moment. “I was trying to keep from interrupting Ben’s work, but I’m glad I barged in now. Didn’t you just dump Paul yesterday?” He reached behind his back to grab the knob, swinging the door open wide as he stepped to the side. “Out. Go down and wait in my office. Go now.”

  She opened her mouth as if to argue but hesitated. Glancing down at Ben, she smiled and shrugged before sauntering out of the room.

  Anthony shut the door firmly behind her. Then he considered Ben. “What was that all about?”

  The boy blinked several times before answering the question. “She offered to give me a backrub and then—”

  “That was no backrub.”

  “I know. Sir. But I wasn’t sure what to do, what I could do.”

  Anthony had never been faced with this kind of problem before, and he wondered how best to handle it. “I think you need a girlfriend, Ben.” As long as it wasn’t Sara. “I take it you were simply focusing on your work and hoping she’d go away?”

  The boy blushed. “I admit I was uncomfortable, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. As far as a girlfriend goes—” He blushed brighter and fell silent.

  “There’s someone you like then?” Anthony saw Ben becoming deeply embarrassed and relented. “I really don’t want to interfere in your personal life so don’t tell me. Despite what I just said. Forget that I asked.” He certainly wasn’t in a position to offer relationship advice to anyone. “But what was Sara doing in here in the first place? She’s still only a trainee, and this room is restricted. You let her in?”

  Pale again, Ben nodded. “Sara’s also a member of the council, and she said it was in that aspect she came up here. Apparently the question of the security of the upcoming vote was raised today, and she wanted me to explain what measures would be taken to ensure the election’s integrity. To satisfy people that the FURCSnet’s tallying of the vote couldn’t be interfered with.” He straightened his spine as he sat up in the chair. “And don’t forget I was a trainee myself when you started me working in here, trying to stop that hacker.”

  While Anthony was pleased to see Ben standing up for himself, he couldn’t help but sigh about Sara. This was the problem with having a junior employee who was also a civic leader. He wasn’t sure he could treat her how he would otherwise.

  Ben appeared to think the sigh was for him, but at least it didn’t have him shaking in his boots. “I’m sorry, sir, if I shouldn’t have let her in.”

  “No, it’s alright.” How could he expect this boy to stand up to Sara? “But both you and Sara should know this is not an appropriate place for the kind of behavior I saw when I walked in.” Talking that way made him sound like an old man. Worse, it reminded him of Kat’s behavior yesterday in his office.

  “Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”

  Anthony sighed again—it was becoming a habit of late. “Don’t worry, Ben. I know you wouldn’t act that way on your own.” Once the kid got a girlfriend though, it would be a different story. Now he wanted to change the topic. “Anyway, since the question has been raised now—how secure is the net for next week’s vote?”

  Ben finally grinned. “I’ve set the protocols, and they’ll run automatically to record the votes and announce the tentative tallies according to this procedure everyone’s agreed upon. And I’ve set up a secondary firewall just around the election subroutine, to make sure there’s no interference, even by someone with admin access. The FURCSnet itself is programmed to continually check for anomalies, and to confirm the count. No one can cause any problems, not from this end. Even the director himself would have no way to fix the vote.”

  Anthony shook his head. “He wouldn’t want to. He’s not worried about who wins, because he’s only giving them non-critical authority anyway.” Another thought occurred to him. “Did Sara say anything about the director trying to tamper with the votes?”

  “Not exactly, sir. She wanted to know who had administrative access to the FURCSnet, and whether or not that meant they might be able to interfere with the election results.”

  “And you told her what you just told me?”

  Ben blinked. “Yes, sir. The only person capable of meddling with the process now would be myself—since I designed the
security, I suppose I could find a way.” He cocked his head. “She asked me how I’d react if someone approached me about making sure the election went the right way.”

  “I see.”

  “Sir, what did she mean by the ‘right way’?”

  That naiveté brought a smile back to Anthony’s face. “Who knows with Sara.” Explaining the political situation would have to wait for another time. “I should let you get on with your work. But Ben, don’t stay up too late. You need to make sure you get sufficient sleep.”

  Ben nodded, in acknowledgement of the advice if not in acceptance, and Anthony turned to go. He left the room shaking his head at himself. It seemed he sounded more like an old man every day, but Ben and Sara probably made Kat feel old as well—which was a road he didn’t want his mind to continue to go down. So he was pleased to be provided with a distraction as he padded downstairs.

  Encountering young David trudging his way up the steps, Anthony grinned and stopped him on his way. “Officer Belue, I didn’t think I’d see you hanging around here after hours. Especially since you’re spending your shift at the clinic.”

  David lifted up the small med kit he carried. “I haven’t finished for the day yet. I’m just heading up to take a sample of Ben’s blood for testing.”

  “It sounds like Dr. Harker’s working you pretty hard, then. By the time you’re back with us, I expect everything will seem easy by comparison.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll be glad to be back. If you need me on regular duty, all you have to do is say so…”

  Anthony nodded. “We’ll manage without you. I want you to continue at the clinic for as long as they need you there.”

  Leaving the boy on the stairs, Anthony continued down to the first floor and went straight to his office. There he found Sara standing on the carpet in front of his desk, tapping her toe and doing a fair imitation of Kat—but at least she’d done what he’d told her to do, which was more than he could say for Kat these days. He circled around to sit behind his desk so he could lean back and glare up at her.