Episode 15

He sat watching the troops as the effective roadblock was set up as Harris received the shock of his life.

After phoning the reporter, his boss wandered over with a grim look upon his face.

“Don’t tell me you have worse news sir?”

“I need a volunteer to investigate the suspect’s bedroom. A medic team is on site but they are hardly trained.”

“You want me to go over, don’t you?”

His boss nodded.

“When you arrive, the boys will suit you up so there is no need to worry. Another thing, leave any evidence there.”

Harris nodded and had an idea.

“Look sir, we need the local press on our side during this crisis.”

His boss thought this over carefully.

“That is a pretty good idea. Any names?”

Harris smiled.

“I know of one sir.”

As his boss walked off, he phoned Ben for the second time.

“Get your arse to the compound mate. You are teaming up with me.”

He glanced around the office and sauntered outside.

When Ben stepped out of the press car, the detective was waiting for him.

“This must be a first mate.”

Harris smiled nervously.

“We need to check out that hotel. I thought that you would be interested.”

Ben’s face blanched.

“Thanks very much. I was hoping to reach retirement age.”

The detective laughed and said, “You are not the only one who’s worried.”

Ben shrugged his shoulders and joined him in the waiting patrol car.
When they arrived the detective showed his pass, and the armed cops directed him to the rear car park.

Ben spotted the decontamination van and saw two officials waiting for them.

“Just step inside a moment.”

The friends glanced at each other before following the instruction.
Once inside, they were quickly put into silver suits and directed to the rear door.

As they entered reception via the kitchen, the chief medic walked over.

“Detective Harris?”

“Sadly yes. What’s the situation here?”

The medic dropped her voice.

“The bell boy is definitely infected and has been taken to the hospital.”

“We need to see the manager.”

She pointed toward the office and found him sitting behind a desk lost in thought.

“Can I help you?”

“Detective Harris sir. We need access to the deceased’s room sir.”

The poor man nodded and led them towards the lift. He remained outside as the two friends wandered inside.

“He was found in the washroom,” Harris said coldly. “I’ll check there.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Ransack the place. We need to see everything.”

Ben nodded and ignoring the bed began checking the wardrobe. He was surprised to see it empty and turned his attention to the drawers.

When he discovered that those were also empty, he glanced toward the single bed.

“I’ll check that knapsack then.”

He spotted the small leather pill case and muttered, “It appears our man was on some kind of medication.”

He sat and began checking through the sack. Apart from travel documents and a passport, this too was empty. He was looking at the passport when the detective returned.

“Find anything?”

Harris shook his head.

“The damn cupboard was empty. What about you?”

“He flew from Moscow according to this and only brought the clothes he stood up on.”

Harris walked over and spotted the pill case. Picking it up he muttered, “This looks interesting.”

“Probably medication mate. “

The detective was suspicious nevertheless.

“We need that medic up here.”

He wandered to the door and spoke to the waiting manager. The suited woman arrived promptly and Harris showed her the pouch.

“Can this be tested?”

She frowned and said, “Why bother?”

“What if this disease was taken in a pill?”

The medic shook her head.

“That is quite impossible. No one can create such a thing.”

Ben glanced up and said, “He did come from Russia you know.”

The woman thought this over and said, “I’ll bring the test kit.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Harris nodded and muttered, “A professional hit.”

The medic returned with swabs and a rack of test tubes. She scraped the interior of the pouch and placed this inside a clear liquid.
After a moment she muttered, “No reaction I see.”

Harris had not expected that.

“Check for caffeine then.”

She shrugged her shoulders and repeated the operation using the fourth test tube. The liquid became a cloudy pink and she nodded.

“There was definitely a pill in there but no sign of Ebola.”

“What makes you so sure that pills cannot transmit the virus?” Ben asked.

“It originates in Rhesus monkeys. That’s why. No virologist that I know off could create a pill version.”

“How about a rogue Russian one?” Harris asked. “Bio warfare is fairly advanced these days.”

She screwed her eyes and thought deeply.

“A sample would have to be liquidised then dried into a fine powder.
After that, chalk would have to be added before it was coated in the caffeine shell.”

“That sounds fairly plausible to me,” the reporter commented.

“You don’t understand,” she protested. “I’ve been to Zaire. We caught and tested a hundred monkeys and not one of them had the virus. Ebola is quite elusive. “

“What were you doing so far from home?” Harris wanted to know.

“I was part of a ‘WHO’ team investigating a village outbreak. Sixty died and we could not even find the damn source.”

“Look my dear,” Ben said standing near her. “I know a bit about bio warfare. What if someone took an infected blood sample and then cultured it?”

“In that case it could just be feasible. It would still be ruddy difficult though.”

Ben glared at her.

“A weaponised version would spread and kill much faster than the garden version. Do we have the autopsy results?”

Harris shook his head.

“I’m told it’s far too dangerous. The corpse is now inside the deep freeze.”

Ben tried to suppress his rising anger.

“We need that report. Don’t you see? If a pill was responsible for this, the body would record the effects.”

The medic understood this at once.

“I’ll get one of my chaps to do that today. Though I suspect the victim caught it elsewhere.”

The friends followed her outside as the manager locked the door.

“Anything interesting?”

“We may have a significant clue,” the detective replied.

As they headed for the lift, the manager suddenly began coughing violently.

“Are you okay,” the medic asked with some concern.

The manager was sweating profusely and suddenly doubled over. Spots of blood appeared across his face and hands as he gasped for breath.

“That’s haemorrhagic fever!” the medic yelled as blood began pouring from the victim’s ears, mouth, nose and eyes.”

As he collapsed in a rapidly spreading pool of blood the medic muttered, “He crashed and bled out. I’ll carry out an autopsy myself.”

The two friends backed away as she dashed downstairs.
Ben turned to his terrified colleague.

“It’s worse than I thought mate. We are at ground zero of the damn storm!”