Crystal Ice

by Warren Miner-Williams

  “Oh God, help me, please,” he groaned.

  Then he recalled the beeping, that interminable, persistent, demanding beep that seemed to synchronise with the pounding in his head. How could he stop it? How could he get a dialling tone? Why was it so difficult? An involuntary reflex caused Brian to momentarily replace the handset, before snatching it up once more. The beeping had stopped and was replaced by the familiar purring of the dial tone. Once again, he struggled to recall the emergency number

  9...1…1.

  “Help me, help me, please,” was all he could say to the emergency operator.

  “What service do you require sir?”

  Another fit of coughing wracked Brian’s body.

  The operator spoke again. “Can you tell me what is wrong with you?”

  But Brian couldn’t answer. He was on his back, unconscious, choking, suffocating.

  ***

  A rush of blood to his head caused a flash of burning, as if napalm had exploded in his face. As Viktor Czerny tried to steady himself, a wide-spreading cloud of yellow obscured his vision before he collapsed at his wife’s feet.

  “Viktor, Viktor, whatever’s the matter?” cried Lauren Czerny.

  Lauren was panic stricken. Knowing full-well about the ‘killer flu’ that had spread quickly across the North Eastern states of America she now feared that Viktor had succumbed to the disease.

  “Danijel, Danijel help me, your father has collapsed. Danijel help me get him to bed,” Lauren screamed to her son.

  Danijel Czerny rushed to his mother’s side.

  “Mom, ring for an ambulance. I’ll get him in bed.” Seeing the terror in his mother’s eyes, he gently helped her to stand, “Go on now, quickly” and gently propelled her towards the telephone on the nightstand.

  Standing astride his father’s limp body, Danijel squatted down and with a straight back easily lifted his father and crabbed forward towards the bed. Swinging his father’s feet onto the covers, he loosened his shirt and pants. He could see that his father had a raging temperature. Momentarily Danijel left his father’s side to retrieve a cold flannel from the bathroom. After gently wiping the flannel over his father’s reddened face, he was encouraged to see his eyes open, trying to focus and recognise his merciful helper.

  “Danijel, where is your mum?” he said weakly.

  “Calling an ambulance Dad. We need to get you to hospital.”

  “I’m fine, don’t fuss. Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be as right as rain.”

  But Viktor Czerny was far from OK. The first of the coughing fits were so powerful that small blood-red spots began to break out on his eyelids. Danijel hauled his father into a sitting position and supported his head on his shoulder so that he could slap his father’s back in an effort to loosen the phlegm that was clogging his airways. Viktor was too weak to argue.

  “The ambulance will be here soon,” Lauren told her son. By now she had calmed down a little, but when she spotted something on her son’s right shoulder, the panic returned.

  “Danijel, you’ve got blood on your back! He’s coughing up blood, Danijel! What are we going to do?”

  Unfazed by his mother’s panic, Danijel gently instructed his mother to retrieve his sister’s asthma inhaler.

  “Viktoriya’s nebuliser, Mum it might help dad breathe.”

  More powerful coughing sent Viktor’s body into spasms. The nebuliser helped a little until Viktor began vomiting. No sooner had Danijel cleared his father’s lips of the evil smelling vomit than his father was sick again. With mahogany-coloured spots slowly appearing on his father’s face Danijel realised that he might not live through this.

  The paramedics continued with the nebuliser and supplemented it with oxygen. At first Viktor stabilised, but before they could reach St. Luke’s Hospital bloodstained fluid had begun to froth from his mouth and nostrils. Viktor was now delirious and beginning to suffocate.

  As Lauren and Danijel Czerny followed the ambulance in their own car they prayed aloud that Viktor might live.

  ***

  Henry Govens and Melonie Kostermann were both enjoying each other’s company, and the football, at the Kostermann Ranch. Melonie’s father Tom had immediately taken a shine to Henry, who was welcomed into the Kostermann family with much back slapping and an ice-cold bottle of Budweiser. After the match and the Miami Dolphins win over the Denver Broncho’s Tom Kostermann hugged Henry and gave him another beer.

  “Come on Henry, let’s go and fire up the barbeque, get some steaks on the griddle. What do you say?”

  “Thanks Mister Kostermann that would be great.”

  Just as Henry was about to step forward and join the other men, Melonie held him back.

  “Oh, I see, someone else wants your company,” said her father, “never mind, you’ll meet Vinnie later, he’s coming back to our place for the after-match barbecue.”

  Once the men had departed Melonie grabbed Henry and drew him into the kitchen.

  “Now I’ve finally got you all to myself, I can really thank you for coming.”

  As the two of them embraced Melonie took a sudden step back.

  “Henry, you’re so hot.” She exclaimed.

  “That’s what you do to me, Melonie,” replied Henry.

  “I’m not the only reason; you must have… the flu?”

  “I’m OK, honest, really I am.”

  Melonie pushed him backward onto one of the sofas.

  “Stay there and I’ll get some ice.”

  “Melonie, don’t fuss. I’m OK, really I am.”

  “Stay there,” she commanded.

  When he thought a little more about it Henry soon realised, she had a point. He did feel hot. In fact, he could feel droplets of sweat coursing down his back.

  “Here, put this on your forehead and I’ll use this one on the back of your neck.”

  Henry felt a shudder down his spine as Melonie applied the ice to his neck and shoulders.

  “How do you feel now?

  “I’ve got a terrible headache.”

  “I’ve got some Tylenol in my bag. You’ve had a few beers; you may be a little dehydrated.”

  Three Tylenol had no effect on his headache at all, and by the time he and the Kostermanns had driven back to Melonie’s home for their celebratory barbecue Henry was in agony. With a temperature of nearly 39oC his pounding head coupled with nausea Henry felt terrible. Within half an hour of joining in the Kostermann celebrations Henry was hanging over the toilet, vomiting up his hot dogs and pizza. Having helped Henry clean up, Melonie called her mother, Dorothy.

  “Mum, Henry’s been sick and he’s burning up with fever.”

  “Well, let me have a look at him, where is he now?”

  “Upstairs, on my bed.”

  Dorothy Kostermann gave her daughter one of her enquiring looks, the sort that all mothers perfect.

  “It’s not like that mum, he’s really sick.”

  After confirming his fever and helping him back to the toilet again, Dorothy Kostermann realised that the boy wasn’t drunk, he was seriously ill. She called an ambulance, immediately.

  By the time the paramedics arrived, Henry had started coughing violently. Within minutes the paramedics confirmed that Henry had influenza.

  ***

  Captain Phillip James met Mariah Toombs at the James Lovell Street Milwaukee Greyhound Bus Terminal early on the Monday morning. He had been interviewing flu victims for a week, and was under great pressure to identify how the terrorist influenza virus had been released. He had worked for a solid 78 hours last week, interviewing and analysing the data he had collected. His superiors demanded an answer. Each night, after he and his colleagues had reviewed the information, they had collected, he often felt as if he had contracted the disease himself. He had a blinding headache and ached from head to foot. However, there was no sign of an elevated temperature. Yet.

  “Mariah, when we analysed the commonalties of six of the flu victims in the Milwaukee area, they had
all caught buses from this bus terminal on the same day, a Friday evening five weeks ago. Four of them said that they had all visited the toilets in the terminal, prior to getting on their buses. As you clean these facilities, I was wondering if you had seen anything suspicious, packages or people, during that time?”

  “No Sir. Since you rang, I’ve racked my brains for something that would help you find where the bug had come from, but I can’t think of anything. Nothing at all.”

  “How often do you clean the toilets?”

  “Well, all the time really. There are three gents’ toilets and four ladies.’ I start at nine in the morning with the gents and then I keep cleaning till my break at 1030. Then I go through till lunch at 1.00. In the afternoon I start again at two and continue till I quit at 5.30.”

  “OK, run through what you do please,” said James with a sigh. He had heard the same thing so many times in all the other interviews. Nothing gave any clue to the source of the disease

  “OK I have this cart here and it’s got everything that I need. I start by putting out the closed sign, that’s this thing here. Once I’m in the facility I start by cleaning each cubicle, I bleach the pan and brush it, clean the seat, then I check that there’s enough toilet paper. I wipe down the wall of the cubicle coz some people smear things on the wall you know, then I mops the floor before I move to the next cubicle. After that’s finished, I wash down the urinals in the gents, replace the disinfectant blocks before I cleans all the sinks. I check for soap and that the hand dryers are working before I mop the entire floor. Last thing I do is squirt the place with air freshener. The last thing I do is take the sign down and move onto the next toilet block.”

  “Can you show me the cleaners you use?”

  She wheeled her cart closer. “OK, this here is the bleach, this is the disinfectant I use and these are the brushes. This ammonia solution is for the mirrors and this “Mr Muscle” here is for the sinks. These are the disinfectant blocks for the urinals and this “Green Magic,” is the stuff I use for cleaning the floors. This is the Meadowsweet air freshener I use, once I’ve finished.”

  Phillip James wasn’t really concentrating, and Mariah Toombs monotone wasn’t helping. However, when she said Meadowsweet, a bell rang in his head. He picked up the can of air freshener and stared at the label, hoping that the bell he was hearing was a warning bell, “Melon Burst” scented spray. The bell stopped ringing.

  “Is this the only scented spray you use?”

  “No, I usually have Lavender Meadows, but a few of them seemed to gum up, so I stopped using them. We buy the stuff in bulk so I sent one of them back to Cooper’s, complaining that three of the cans were useless. I was waiting for them to reply before I used any more of that batch. They sent some of these melon things by mistake, they’re not as nice as the lavender. So, when I hear from them, I’ll stop using this melon rubbish go back to the proper lavender ones.”

  The bell had now started to ring out loud and clear, alerting Phillip James to the commonality between all the cases he had investigated, it was the lavender air freshener. As he tried to ask his final questions, he suddenly found himself stuttering.

  “When d…id the faulty c…ans appear and when d…id you stop using them?”

  “Well, that would be about five weeks ago. I used just three cans before I quit using them. So that would be a day and a bit after I used the first of them.”

  “What did you do with the defective cans?”

  “The duff ones I threw into the trash. Except for the third one, I sent that back to Cooper’s. But I have all the other cans from that delivery, they’re in the store just waiting for Cooper’s to make a decision before I send them all back.”

  “Mrs Toombs….”

  “Please, call me Mariah.”

  “OK Mariah, these air freshener cans from Meadowsweet are common to all the cases of flu I’ve investigated. I’m going to have to take them all off you,” Phillip James saw the consternation on Mariah Toombs’ face. “Mariah, they may be full of the flu bugs, they could be deadly.”

  “Well, what am I going to sweeten up the air with then?”

  “I suggest you use nothing, everything might be contaminated, even the Melon ones. Is that OK?”

  “Yes, for sure. I’m sorry, I can’t believe that stuff could be deadly. I use the stuff every day. So why haven’t I got the flu?”

  “It’s probably because you spray as you are leaving the facilities. You don’t breathe in much of the stuff. Or, you could have natural immunity. We’ll have to see if you are.”

  “Will that mean needles and things? I hate hypodermics.”

  “It could, but if you do have natural immunity the antibodies you have could help us develop a vaccine that could save thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands.”

  Mariah looked at Phillip James amazed. “Wow, that would be something now, wouldn’t it? Come with me and I’ll get you the other cans from the store.”

  “Thanks Mariah, this could be the big break we’ve all been hoping for. I’ll back my car up to the store so I can put them straight into the trunk.”

  28. The Breakthrough.

  The annoying tones of the Mexican Hat Dance rang out simultaneously with Lieutenant Colonel Mike Morrison’s cell-phone vibrating its way across the conference table like a bee in a bucket. Mike grabbed it as all eyes around the table focused on him. Mike Morrison felt the atmosphere in the room tighten as he flipped open the phone.

  “Hi Phil, you’re on speakerphone. I hope you’ve got some good news for us all.” Seated around the conference table were just about every expert epidemiologist in the country.

  “I do think we’ve got a genuine lead this time, Mike. I have a commonality that may well prove to be the initial method used to release the viruses. At least in the States.”

  “Come on then Phil, we’re all ears. Give us the worst.”

  “OK. This may sound a little bizarre but it could be air fresheners.”

  “Did you say air fresheners?”

  “Yes. Of all the interviews I’ve undertaken with staff and some of the original victims at the four-point sources we located, all mentioned a lavender air freshener that had been used during the week prior to the emergence of the first symptoms being reported. With the exception of the restroom attendant at the bus station, the references to the spray cans were embedded in anecdotal comments that I taped. It was only when this wonderful lady here at the bus station, Mariah Toombs, mentioned that she had encountered three faulty cans of lavender air freshener that the penny dropped and I recalled what I had transcribed from the other interviews. As I said, they had been mentioned in passing by the other interviewees but sadly I didn’t spot them as being of any significance until this last interview. Ms Toombs said that she stopped using the things after three of the cans were found to be faulty. She sent one can back to the customer care department of C & W Cooper and she’s been waiting for them to reply.”

  “What was the fault with the three cans?”

  “She said they became blocked by a yellow waxy substance. Even when she changed the nozzles they still wouldn’t work.”

  “What’s the significance of that?”

  “I’m not sure yet, but it may be that whatever was put in the cans has degraded or denatured as the spray is used, then some residue accumulates in the pressure release valve until the thing becomes completely blocked.”

  “OK, have you got any of the cans she hasn’t used or thrown away?”

  “Yes, as I said when they kept blocking up, she stopped using them. I’ve got two dozen cans from that same batch.”

  “Excellent. Bring them back and we’ll get them tested.”

  “I’ve already sent them with Lieutenant Bergen. She’s flying into Frederick airport as we speak and should be with you soon. In view of the significance of the air freshener theory, I thought that I’d re-interview the people at the other three points of release, and secure any other cans of the stuff they have.
If that’s OK with you?”

  “Excellent. If this turns out to be the initial vector of contagion release, you and your team deserve a bucketful of medals. Well done, Phil.”

  Phil smiled to himself, on the other end of the phone. His team had done a great job.

  “If this does turn out to be the method of release, then it won’t be the only good news. Ms Toombs here has survived the use of nearly three cans of the stuff and hasn’t even got a sniffle. So, if she’s immune to the virus we could have the means to generate monoclonal antibodies right from the get-go.”