Eric nodded, understanding Charlie’s concern.
“How long has it been since you gave him the injection?” Eric asked.
“Twenty-two minutes ago,” Charlie replied.
“I think it is time to give him the second injection,” Eric said. “He is showing signs that the infection is taking hold. Twenty minutes should also be a realistic time for anyone being attacked in a confrontation with the infected to seek help and receive an injection to counter the agent. If he starts the final transition, the injection may kill the infected cells and the subject.”
Charlie got up and left the lab, “I’ll take care of it right away.”
Eric sat back and watched on the monitor as Charlie walked in to the holding area and entered the subjects cell.
Charlie administered the second injection to Mr. Evans.
Eric looked at the subject’s vital statistics at the bottom of the screen.
Heart beat was down to fifty-seven, blood pressure was sixty over thirty, respiration was at twenty-five breaths per minute.
“If this works, I should start seeing these numbers begin to improve,” Eric thought and watched the monitor with anticipation.
Charlie came back in to the lab and sat down next to Eric and both men stared at the monitor.
Five minutes later, the numbers on the monitor began to change.
“Heart rate up to seventy,” Charlie said, “blood pressure up to seventy-five over thirty, respiration now up to thirty-five breaths per minute.
“It looks like the this is going to work,” Charlie said.
Eric didn’t respond, he just watched the numbers on the screen and the subject lying on his cot. Evans was turning from side to side, still in obvious discomfort.
Suddenly the man on the screen stopped moving.
He was now laying on his back, unblinking open eyes were staring at the ceiling in his cell.
Eric looked down at the numbers below the video feed.
Charlie reached over and tapped the monitor.
“I think the computer froze,” Charlie said.
Eric looked at all the readouts, “No, I think the computer is fine. I believe our subject is now dead. I was afraid this was going to happen, but with the potential benefits I couldn’t resist. I’m afraid I rushed into this test before confirming the other variables that should have been tested first.”
“What do you think happened?” Charlie asked.
“Using the original biological agent on a subject that had gone through at least one mutation,” Eric replied, “There was a high probability that the agent would destroy the mutated cells. We verified that with the injection to Robert’s severed foot.
Our new subject presented us with a catch twenty-two like dilemma.
If we waited until the subject’s cells had all absorbed the agent, giving a second injection would not do anything to save the subject since all the normal cells had already been compromised.
Giving a second injection too soon after the first injection would only add to the agent’s abilities to compromise the subject’s healthy cells.
In giving our subject the second injection, I had ignored my original theory that the mutations programmed into the agent would make the infected cells vulnerable to the agent in its original form.
The cells in subject had not yet gone through the first mutation, so by giving him the second injection when we did, the effect was only to accelerate the effects of the first infection.
It was logical that this would be the result, but I was hoping against the odds that this would somehow work and give us a way to save someone infected by the agent.”
“We have been under a lot of pressure to come up with a solution,” Charlie said.
“Pressure or not, it is no excuse to get careless and take unnecessary shortcuts,” Eric replied.
“I understand you are upset about Mr. Evans, but you made a judgement call,” Charlie said. “It’s unfortunate it didn’t work out, but don’t beat yourself up. It was a calculated gamble. Your calculated gambles have resulted in the fantastic progress we have made in only a few days.”
“I’ve been wrong more than I’ve been right,” Eric replied.
“But you’ve been right a lot more than anyone else,” Charlie replied. “If I was running this project, we would still be trying to find a way to get Joe Reynolds out of observation room one. If we don’t discover another thing about this biological agent, I believe we have enough to keep a major outbreak from spiraling out of control.”
“I appreciate the pep talk,” Eric replied.
“I’m sorry this test didn’t work out, but I feel you are on the right track,” Charlie added. “My money is on you to break this thing.”
“Then we better get back to work,” Eric sighed. “Let’s get back to basics. Would you bring me a sample of the cells from Robert’s arm? I think we need to take a fresh look at how the original agent attacks and destroys the mutated cells.”
Miles Davis walked into Lab at the hidden San Bernardino facility.
He was accompanied by Specialist Cooper and two slightly built men, one of which had a bandage on his shoulder.
Doctor Michaels was waiting to receive a report on Miles Davis’s visit to the Davis Bio Enterprise’s facilities.
Doctor Michael’s was the man in charge of special projects.
He had come to the base a few months back, about the time when the biological agent was discovered in Syria.
Until that time, no one at the base had ever worked with him before, but in the military, that wasn’t all that unusual.
When someone worked in special operations, as far as everyone else was concerned, you only met those people on a need to know basis.
“Miles, what do you think?” Doctor Michaels asked.
“He is quite intelligent,” Miles replied. “He seems confident that he will be able to break down the agent.”
“I don’t believe that is possible,” Michaels replied, “However Doctor Eric Brady is very insightful. I almost shit myself when his first report suggested that the agent could burn itself out after a specific time. I thought it would be impossible for anyone to figure that out. The code is buried deep within the molecular structure of the agent and protected against analysis.”
“After talking to him, I feel it was just a lucky guess. He has discarded that theory and moved on,” Davis added.
“Any chance he could stumble onto something by accident and actually be able to stop the agent?”
“Again, that will not be possible,” Michaels replied. “In nine days, the agent will destroy itself and the infected hosts. At that point there won’t be anything left to analyze. He is good, much smarter than I expected. If he can’t figure a way to stop the agent within nine days, I don’t believe we need to worry about the enemy being able to find any way to defend against the agent’s effects before they succumb to the infection.
After nine days, other than a few dead mutilated bodies, there won’t be any evidence left to indicate what had really happened.”
“Did you see any evidence that made you believe he was suspicious about our role in this matter?” Michaels asked, looking at Davis.
“No, he has bought in to the idea that the Russians are behind the construction of the biological agent. He believes the Air Force is incompetent and at worst is responsible for starting the spread of the agent,” Davis grinned, “Our two friends here did a good job of selling the incompetent angle.”
The smaller of the two men spoke up.
“I don’t understand why I had to let that sick bastard bite me,” he griped, “I thought I had that doctor convinced that we didn’t know what we were doing without letting myself get bit by that animal Joe Reynolds.”
Michaels chuckled, “We had to make them believe that the infection was started because of your accident. If our tests somehow get out of control, we needed a plausible story to explain what happened.”
“Well it hurt like hell,” the sma
ller man added. “The body armor you gave me to wear protected my skin but it didn’t do much for the pain. Next time maybe you could volunteer someone else.”
“Eric Brady thinks he gave us a way to stop the infection,” Davis added. “After nine days, when this is all over, he will assume that we were successful.”
“His subjects will self-destruct so he will find himself at a dead end at that point. He may try to continue his experiments, but if we tell him it isn’t possible to supply him with any new subjects and start to swamp him with a flood of unidentified crap to analyze from the Middle East, I believe he will eventually give up,” Michaels added.
Davis looked at Michaels.
“We deployed the biological agent at the four locations west of Lake Arrowhead as you suggested. The mountains should contain the spread of the infection during the nine days it will be active. We have dispatched men to set up road blocks on all access roads about ten miles out. The communications systems have been jammed as of nineteen hundred hours so no one will be able to communicate with the outside world before your test has been completed.”
Michaels nodded, “After nine days, if all goes well, we will have the dream weapon we have always wanted. A smart weapon that when deployed by one of our stealth drones, will wipe out an enemy and the best part is, no one will ever know what happened or that we were even involved.”
“What about the Lake Arrowhead survivors?” Davis asked.
“If there are any survivors, we’ll deal with them when the time comes. It is wildfire season in California. I have an idea Lake Arrowhead may end up suffering some major damage when one of this year’s wildfires spreads out this way,” Michaels replied. “For now, we just need to monitor the progress of the tests and identify any potential weakness in how the infection spreads. This is meant to be a complete and efficient operation. It has been engineered to attack, eliminate the enemy and then destroy all traces that it was ever there. We can work out whatever cleanup is required later.”
Miles Davis looked at Michaels, “That is an amazing piece of work, Doctor. How long did it take you to develop such a complex mechanism?”
“It has been my life’s work,” Michaels replied. “I have been working on it for over twenty years. It was the recent advancements in computer technology that finally led to me discovering the final piece to make it all work.”
“I never had much interest in that kind of research myself but I can still appreciate the work and knowledge needed to accomplish such a feat,” Davis added.
“Thank You,” Michaels replied, “but I guess not all of us are cut out for such complex work.”
Davis smiled and left the room.
As he left he uttered under his breath, “And some of us also don’t have a God Complex and think we can play with fire and not get burnt.”
Chapter 19
Logan sat with his arm around Jamie as they huddled in the dark corner of the room that overlooked the reception area and the small amphitheater where the wedding took place earlier today.
The room below them echoed with groans, pounding, crashes and other terrifying sounds.
Jamie sat cuddled up next to Logan, holding her hands over her ears.
The sounds from below were scary, but Jamie was covering her ears because the Macarena, repeating over and over, was now starting to get on her nerves.
“If this is how Logan feels about the Macarena,” Jamie thought to herself, “I promise I will never make him listen to that song ever again.”
Logan brought Jamie up to this room about twenty minutes ago to escape the mob that was trying to break into the ready room where Jamie had stopped to go to the bathroom.
Logan had been terrified and confused and didn’t know what else to do.
Jamie wasn’t sure what was going on, but after seeing her maid of honor, Danielle, bloody and mangled, looking more like a character in a haunted house than her maid of honor,
Jamie was too scared to do anything but sit and listen to all the strange sounds and pray.
Logan jumped when they heard what sounded like someone falling down the steps on the other side of the door that led back down to the area below.
He got up and tested the couch that he had pushed against the door to make sure whoever was on the stairs couldn’t get in to their room. He didn’t know what they wanted or what they would do if they got in, but right now he didn’t want to find out.
Before sitting back down next to Jamie, Logan took a quick glance out the window that overlooked the reception area and the dance floor.
Jamie was starting to regain her composure and now she was asking herself questions and she wanted some answers.
She got up off the floor and walked over to the window next to Logan.
He let the blinds fall back in place and moved in front of Jamie to keep her away from the window.
“I want to see what’s out there,” Jamie demanded softly. “I’m not sure what I saw down stairs, but something out there scared the hell out of you and I want to know what it is. What happened to Danielle? What happened to our wedding reception?”
Logan looked at Jamie, “You don’t want to look out there, trust me.”
“I certainly do want to look out there,” Jamie said looking determined. “It smells like hell around here, there is a mob trashing the downstairs, you’re acting crazy, Danielle is, I’m not sure what she is. This is not how I envisioned my wedding day and I want to know what’s going on.”
Logan too was beginning to regain his senses and thought about everything he had seen.
He looked at Jamie and said, “OK, I guess you should see what is out there, but before you look, let me prepare you.”
“Prepare me for what?” Jamie replied starting to sound frustrated.
“Jamie, I don’t know what happened here. All I know is that everyone out there is dead,” Logan said. “From the looks of things, it was if a pack of wild animals attacked and tore everyone to pieces. There is blood everywhere.”
Jamie stared at Logan. She knew something bad had happened, but Logan wasn’t making any sense.
She couldn’t possibly imagine or believe what Logan was telling her. She knew he wouldn’t lie to her, but until she could see for herself, none of this was making any sense.
“And that isn’t the worst of it,” Logan added.
“I’m going to look outside,” Jamie said and started to push past Logan.
“Give me one more minute then you can look outside, OK?” Logan asked.
Jamie sighed and looked around the room to hold back her confusion and frustration.
She looked at Logan again and waited for him to continue.
“I was waiting for you to come out of the bathroom. I thought I would go see what Connor was up to while I waited. As I walked around the building I found the photographer lying on the ground. She was face down in a pool of blood. Then I spotted Connor. He was lying next to a pine tree with his insides lying on the ground next to him.
It was horrible, I just couldn’t believe what I saw.
I took a quick look out towards the tables and there were bodies everywhere. Then Connor started to get up off the ground. He started coming my way, dragging his intestines behind him. Honest I’m not crazy, but I know how this all sounds,” Logan said. “You can look out the window now if you want, but what you are going to see is going to make you sick. It is going to hurt like hell and I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Jamie looked at Logan.
He could see the flood of emotions running through her mind. He wasn’t sure if she was going to cry or tell him he was crazy.
Logan wasn’t sure if he should tell Jamie or not, but she was going to see it, whether he told her or not, and maybe hearing it from him first would dull the pain.
“On the ground below the window, you are going to see your brother Jason,” Logan said softly as he held on to Jamie’s shoulders. He could feel her begin to shake.
Finally, Jamie moved over to
the window and slowly pulled the blinds back a few inches from the window.
She stood quiet for a moment and then began to sob loudly.
Logan moved in close behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
After the sobbing quieted, Logan said, “I saw your sister’s body lying in the middle of the dance floor earlier, but Andrea was gone when I looked out a minute ago.”
Jamie turned and looked at Logan with a hopeful look on her face.
“Maybe they aren’t dead,” she said. “Maybe they are all just unconscious. Maybe there was a gas leak and the gas just made everyone pass out.”
“Not with all that blood out there. It looks like someone painted the dining area red with blood,” Logan replied. “The condition of most of the bodies is pretty gruesome. That is why I didn’t want you to look out and see this. This wasn’t a gas leak.”
Jamie started to sob again. She looked back out the window at all the bodies.
Her eyes settled on her brother. The day that was supposed to be the happiest day of her life had become the worst nightmare she could have ever imagined in a million years.
She felt as if all her life’s good memories had been painfully destroyed right in front of her. Everything that had been part of her past life, now no longer existed. Her past now laid in front of her in the form of bloody bodies that had suffered a horrible death.
Jamie turned to look at Logan, “Did you see my Mom? Or your Mom and Dad?”
“No, I haven’t seen them,” Logan replied. “I think their table was up on the second level. I haven’t been able to see up that far without going outside.”
“Maybe they are OK,” Jamie said.
Logan shook his head, choking back his emotions, “I haven’t seen any evidence that anyone survived. I saw Matt’s body on the ground near the bar. If my Dad was alive, he would have tried to save Matt. I have to believe they are all gone.”
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