The APOCs Virus (11 page)

  "Oh that's not all, Dr. Puck, there is another group, less than one percent actually, that have suffered exposure to the virus and have successfully fought it." 

"A group of people with a natural immunity?" 

"It appears so.  There have just been a few cases.  I have a meeting with one of them later today.  I would like to bring him here to the temporary research facility and run a battery of tests on him.  His name is—let me see here
--
” She shuffled through the reports, until she came up with the right report. "Ah yes, his name is Pigott, Henry Pigott, and he's over at Humana Bayside. They're very cooperative over there.  They've lost four doctors and seventeen orderlies, interns and nurses so far to surprise Apoc attacks. I’m planning to approach him tomorrow morning." 

"Why is there a natural immunity?" 

"I don't know, Doctor." 

"‘I don't know Doctor’, isn't a scientific response," he said. His tone was sharp and ugly. 

 "I don't know.  I can't say it any more academically than that.  Any hypothesis or conjecture at this point would be purely that, a speculation."   

"Speculate, then dammit!  The president's riding my ass.  He wants to put this problem to bed as quickly and as quietly as possible" 

Bells and whistles went off in her head. Ava wondered if this was the only reason her normally cool and collected boss was reacting so strongly. The president had issued strong words before to the Center.  It was especially bad when the swine flu looked like it was going to be a world-wide epidemic.  It was always election time.  There had to be something else behind this outburst.  She remembered Puck literally laughing on the phone to the President saying if he wanted a cure by the primaries he would have to increase funding by tenfold. That, of course, was the end of that conversation.  So why now would Dr. Puck be so shaken up over this?  An idea sparked in her head. I'll have to check this out, she said to herself. 

"It seems Dr. Puck, that of the fifty percent that die, forty percent of those would have died due to their injuries anyway.  The other ten percent die of exposure.  Evidently their physical makeup is not compatible with the MDR
-
V6 virus." 

"Miss Porter, you've already said all of this.  These are just reiterations.  Tell me something I don't already know!  Are the injuries of those that die, the ten percent that show a negative reaction to the virus, are they different from those that survive?" 

"Well, a tell-tale sign of an Apoc attack is when flesh of the victim has been consumed.  But in the ten percent of those that die of exposure, and the three percent that survive
-
only later to make the turn, they have experienced a excessive blood loss." 

"Just as I suspected," he said.  "And what about this Pigott you're going to see?" 

"Yes, he has experienced the same trauma.  Just what did you mean by that's what you suspected?"  Ava wondered how he could have known. 

"There has been an update on the Yellow Team.  It seems indeed, that diet is a very strong factor in the development of the MDR
-
V6 virus.  Daniels and Myles had been separated and given radically different diets.  They were driven almost to the point of madness by what they complained of as the 'thirst'." 

"Then they remain cognitive?" 

"Especially so after feeding, they remember; who they are, who we are, even their condition." 

"You said feeding?  Just what are you feeding them?" 

"At first it didn't seem to matter
-
as long as it was alive.  Both Myles and Daniels had a severe reaction when we tried to feed them what we know as regular food.  We have since found the reason why.  The liver is the first organ to change over; then the supple walls of the intestines and stomach." 

"You mean to say, they have no means of digesting it?"     

"Exactly.  They can consume only those things that the enzymes of the virus can disseminate." 

"And they don't do dead?"  It was out of her mouth before she could stop.  She didn't feel quite as much under Puck's thumb the way she had at the Center. 

"That was very unprofessional," he said sternly. 

"I'm sorry, please continue, Dr. Puck." 
Or is that Angus like you wanted me to call you  the day you tried to put the moves on me in the laboratory
, she thought. 

 "As I was saying, we got the idea for the change in diet from observing their eating habits.  They would consume a live mouse, and later spit out the useless fur, bones, and anything else the MDR
-
V6 couldn't break down.  We continued feeding Daniels the live laboratory animals, but with Miles, we started feeding him pure blood.  Since the virus basically consumes nothing but the red and white corpuscles in the experiments we have performed, excreting the fluids, we thought we would make the process easier." 

She found it unbelievable they were talking about members of their own staff—former members?  She also found it repulsive.  "Dr. Puck, why haven't you tried the cleansing process with the Yellow Team?" 

"They were the only two controls we had for experimentation.  That is, that we could track the run of the disease from start to finish.  Let me add this Miss Porter.  Your figures and our figures here at the Center are in agreement.  Of course, we don't quite have the mortality rate that you do there.  It's easy to speculate that is because the Apocs that are doing the infecting, are just not as contagious—or as highly advanced as the Norfolk victims.”

"Since we last spoke, three more members of the yellow team have been infected.  One has since succumbed to injuries sustained while contracting the disease, another because he was decapitated by Miles.  The third, Howard Roland, will be undergoing the cleansing process in the next twelve hours. There is good news in the wake of this disaster, though.  We now have a more accurate way of charting the progress of the disease." 

Leave it to Puck to see the silver lining, she thought. 

"Instead of taking and measuring the drop in fluid content of blood samples from the patients, we use a hypodermic needle to extract cells directly from their liver.  I will fax you the graphs and information at the end of this call.” 

"It's safe to say any Apoc that has consumed vast amounts of blood, whether it be human or otherwise, is more likely to spread the disease.  And Miss Porter, I might add that mind control was used to compromise the other members of the Yellow Team.”

Ava held out her phone, stared at it, and shook her head. Puck was not only giving in to the possibility of mind control, but acted as if it was a forgone conclusion. 

"Miles is highly clairvoyant.  So much so, we were keeping him under security that required both members of the team to use their keys to unlock his cell. The advanced case of MDR
-
V6 we sent you up there to retrieve is likely to be a very dangerous individual indeed. What have you and your team done to move you toward that objective?"

"Like you stated before the MDR
-
V6 Virus rapidly deteriorates in a dead host, a live capture is our only alternative.  How about sedate them? With say a tranquilizer gun?" 

"There's something you should know.  The regenerative process of the Apoc is astonishing.  By the time we were able to enter the observation room,  Roland's injuries were almost completely healed.  That's why I think your original estimate of one-hundred cases was grossly underestimated.  In most cases when a person is infected with the MDR
-
V6 Virus, the 'turn' is essentially instantaneous.  I believe that most of the cases simply get up and walk away as Apocs.  But no, getting back to the point I don't think that sedation is a viable alternative to a live capture.  We had to pump in massive amounts of sedative through the ventilation system in order to enter the observation room.  If the second member of the Yellow team would have already been dead, the amount of sedative we pumped into those rooms would have surely killed him." 

"Well that sort of complicates things, doesn't it."  She finally started realizing completing the job she was sent to do was looking less and less likely—maybe impossible. "We know the Apocs possess extreme powers of deception as well as phenomenal physical strength.  Basically you cannot kill them—at least for our purposes, and sedating them is highly risky.  The MDR
-
V6 is extremely contagious.  It sounds like our—excuse me—my only alternative is to do the Turtleman on him," she said.  

“What are you talking about Mrs. Porter?”

“It’s a show on Animal Planet where the host, Ernie Brown, Turtleman, captures wild animals without regard to his own safety in order not to endanger the animals.”  

“I don’t even know how to respond.  What are you going to use as bait to lure them in?" 

"I've got an idea.  I've seen the Apoc that calls himself the leader.  He's convinced that he is the antichrist." 

"Be careful." 

It actually sounded to her like he had genuine concern in his voice.  Why the sudden change?  In the entire time she was acquainted with him he had never displayed feelings for anyone or anything.  He was like a coroner cutting up dear old dad, saying very unsympathetically, ‘yes, he did die from swallowing that chicken bone, that will be five hundred bucks and who's buying lunch?’”  He had a wife and son.  It was a running joke at the Center that they must have adopted because no one could imagine Angus Puck actually having sex.  Why was he being so human now? 

"What is your idea?" 

"There are these two men.  One is the director of public information for the city.  He's a Lieutenant on the police department.  The other is a writer.  They are both ex-Special Forces and I’m pretty sure one or both of them still work for the Pentagon. It's through the Lieutenant's computer  that I got hooked up with the city's data bank, they’ve been sharing with the military.  He left a backdoor for this writer, Bell, to get through, and I just slipped in too. These men are highly competitive, real risk-takers. Everything I've seen in the last few days says that they are the ones for the job.  They are either courageous as hell or completely foolish, and I'm willing to bet on the first." 

"How did you gather this information about them?" 

"They always drive Bell's jeep.  So I cross checked his license plate number with the Department of Motor Vehicles.  I took a chance and ran his name through the armed forces computer and bingo. And the Lieutenant is on every TV station and newspaper in town.  So when I was checking Bell's service record I ran Lieutenant McCullough's also.  They were both officers, both from Virginia, and both highly-decorated." 

"So what do these two have to do with our objective of capturing this Apoc?" 

"They know him.  Or at least I mean they have spoken with him.  I don't know what I really mean.  They had a meeting with him—the one that calls himself Abaddon, earlier tonight." 

"In what capacity did they meet with him?" 

“Hostage negotiations.  The Apocs, Abaddon, had taken several police officers and members of the military hostage.  He is holding them for ransom.  The Apoc that calls himself Abaddon was doing the bargaining—or more appropriately making the demands." 

"They want money?" 

"No, equipment, I think they are going to try broadcasting something." 

"The Apocs?" 

"Yes." 

"They sound a lot more organized than I, or for that matter, anyone gave them credit.  That's just another reason to be careful.  Why do you think they would help you?" 

"It's just a feeling, and I'm not going to call it women's intuition either.  They're loners, I think that might be part of the reason they got out of the military.  And can they ever help!   Lieutenant McCullough has every bit of information about the Apoc's situation on his computer database.  He even has some of our classified files on it, some I don't even have."  

"Impossible!" 

"Remember Dr. Puck, McCullough has the full cooperation of every branch of the government at his disposal.  I've looked at the files; I've read some of the electronic letters he's received.  From what I can make out from them Admiral Prescott, the Secretary of Defense, and his father were old army buddies.  Someone even said they were related, I do know he calls him 'uncle'.  Anyway, his father had connections from Colin Powell to the First President Bush back in his CIA days, plus many members of the present ruling staff.  Apparently they all think quite a bit of the Lieutenant and his friend too.”

“We can dispatch a team down there for you.”

“I would appreciate that no matter what, but I'm telling you these guys are tough.  I've personally witnessed them eliminate two or three dozen Apocs.  For whatever reason the little mind games the Apocs play, doesn't seem to have an effect on them."  She wanted to tell him they reminded her of a couple of cowboys—riding, shooting, killing, and raising hell.  Watching them excited her, in a primal sort of way.  They were a different breed.  

"Plus it goes without saying, Dr. Puck, how well they know this area." 

"So when are you going to approach the lieutenant, Miss Porter?" 

“I don’t think McCullough, I'll try Bell first." 

"Good luck, and call me if there's anything to report." 

"I will  . . . and thank you Doctor Puck." 

"Just out of curiosity Miss Porter, what kind of books does this Bell write?  Technical manuals for the Military or something?"  

"Children's books . . . "

CHAPTER 12

HENRY AND THE HOSPITAL

  Henry tried to open his eyes, one at a time.  It was a supreme effort; his face and neck muscles cried out in pain.  This was also compounded by the fact that when he opened them he knew he wouldn't know where he was. 

The inner and outer corners of his eyes were crusted shut. Trying to open them reminded him of trying to open those confounded Tupperware containers of Nattie's. 

Nattie!  Where was Nattie?  The memory of what had happened began to flood his memory.  It was like drawing pictures on the corners of a stack of paper.  Each drawing was similar and yet slightly different.  Then when you flipped the pages they gave the impression of movement.