Lab Rats & Hens II -
A Changed World
Lora Mitchell’s mission is to find terrorists attempting to engineer a horrible disease. Chasing tantalizing clues from Florida’s swamps to the glamour of Hollywood, she sneaks into a secret lab, and discovers that the disease is ready for delivery.
Dr. Hammond gave a weak smile, and poured two shots of bourbon from a decanter on his desk. He offered Brett a glass, and held his up, “Congratulations.”
Brett stared, “What’s wrong?”
Hammond emptied his glass in a swallow, “Thirty pharmacies?”
Brett nodded.
“Four states?”
“Yes.”
“Is one of those states Florida?”
“It was.”
Hammond poured himself another drink. “I think we just found the distribution medium for the engineered Alzheimer’s virus,” he stared into his glass, “…Ground Zero for the new plague.”
U.S. National Library of Medicine - PSEN1 on Chromosome 14 (Alzheimer's Disease 3)
EARLIER....
Dr. Hammond laid out the newest intelligence on a despicable terrorist faction they had dubbed “AQ4”. He flashed images from a projector. “Using the rodent repair gene and an unknown protein, AQ4 has engineered a virus that appears to effect genes on chromosome 20.” He simplified, “They have developed a new and transmissible form of Alzheimer’s. They’re working to speed up the process between acquisition of the virus, and disease.”
As Director of Public Safety in Hillsborough County, Bill Jamison could see the ramifications beyond the physical debilitation, “The economic drain on the country would be staggering. The medical care alone would bankrupt the nation.”
Brett added, “That’s assuming doctors over thirty are still capable of caring for patients, and aren’t patients themselves. With everyone losing their minds, the population would be in a state of mayhem. Untold numbers would seek hospital care after acts of violence. Car accidents due to forgetfulness and uncontrolled fury would skyrocket. The domino effect would hit medical care, the legal system, and every public service. The military and government would crumble as executives fell to the disease. It would lead to total anarchy. And if the disease occurs at a younger age, the body will also be in better shape to do more harm, than say, a 70-year old woman that’s out of her mind.”
......The day before the meeting at Giant’s Camp with the Rat Pack, Lora set the stage. She called a few trusted friends and gave them a fast summary of what had happened to her, and enlisted their help. Lora drove the motorbike down treacherous back roads, and along muddy banks. The Alafia was at a low point. Florida was in the middle of a heat wave and drought. She hid the bike, and hiked along the riverbed until she reached the railroad overpass that ran near the Camp. She stayed in a small tent, away from the biting flies and insects.
The next morning, a vehicle drove up, and parked far from the small restaurant. The shiny black sedan was out of place against the mud-covered trucks and junkers typical to local anglers. They were either lost tourists, or up to no good. The sedan’s windows were shaded dark. Lora watched for activity, and there was none. An old pickup truck came down the road and parked behind the sedan. The fisherman got out, and lugged his tackle down the steep bank.
Disturbed, the sedan’s driver pulled back out, and went up the street a bit. Finding no place to park, the car crossed the street and stopped in a spot closer to where Lora was waiting.
“Perfect,” Lora breathed thanks to Kyle and his pickup. The car parked with its passenger side near the guardrail of the bridge, and she was right under it. She waited a moment more for other players to get into position before she crept out from under the bridge and popped up a few yards in front of the sedan.
Across the street, Ann, Katie, and Glenda chatted away. The women would deter a murder or kidnapping by their obvious presence. It was unlikely the two men in the car would shoot in broad daylight with witnesses, but Lora conceded that it was still a gamble. She waved at the sedan and its occupants. She held up a laptop and a cardboard sign: “Information you want.” She’d trade it for her life.
The driver’s window rolled part of the way down, and an arm frantically waved her over. Lora dropped to the embankment, put down the sign, and stuck the laptop in its case. She walked to the driver’s open window, and her heart felt like it was going to jump out of her chest. Before the men could speak, she dropped the case through the open window.
Kyle burned rubber. He drove his truck up, and almost hit Lora. Leaping to the hood of the car, Lora slid down the front. Kyle parked mere inches alongside the sedan’s driver side, pinning it to the guardrail. Lora raced to Kyle’s side. He hopped out, tossed her the keys, and sauntered inside the restaurant with Ann, Katie and Glenda.
Bam! Thump! Lora could hear frantic screams muffled by the sedan’s luxury. She leapt inside Kyle’s truck to prevent the car from escape. She didn’t want any of her friends implicated in the ominous plan. She didn’t even tell them what was going to happen; only that she had to “take care of business.”
From the passenger window of the truck, Lora looked down into the sedan. Her heart raced, and she worried as the car rocked with desperate activity. The vehicle’s doors were blocked between the guardrail and Kyle’s truck. The panicked men fought to escape. As planned, the sedan’s ignition never cranked. Lora sat in the truck a bit longer. The truck hid the view of the sedan from the road and the restaurant. Lora backed the truck a few feet, and picked up the fire extinguisher Kyle had left on the seat. She climbed over the guardrail to the passenger side of the sedan.
Watching for onlookers, Lora smashed the back passenger window with the extinguisher, and turned the CO2 full blast inside the sedan. She aimed the nozzle at four targets. She reached inside the broken window, grabbed two vipers, and tossed them to the grassy bank before they recovered from the cold spray. She had to lean inside to grab another snake coiled in the lap of the driver, and the last serpent was on the back seat.
Both occupants of the sedan were moaning with the shock of being bitten multiple times. The driver’s hands were swollen three times normal size. He wouldn’t be able to operate the keys to the ignition. Lora opened the rear door, rummaged the car, and their pockets. She dropped cell phones, wallets, and two revolvers next to her in the back seat. “You speak English?”
The driver nodded, “Yes – yes, call help!” The burning pain was excruciating.
“I will, as soon as you tell me something,” she held up a small business card. “Where are they based?”
The driver shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Those snakes were the most poisonous in the Eastern states,” she lied. “If you don’t get help soon – you will die a slow painful death.”
The passenger groaned and huffed, “Texas. They’re in San Antonio!”
Lora baited him. “I don’t believe you. I know they’re in Louisiana.” She sat back to enjoy their misery from the back seat.
“It’s Texas!” The passenger squealed. “The ones in Louisiana have moved to Georgia….”
“Shut up!” The driver groaned, and fired off a stream of Arabic.
Lora was surprised. “Where in Georgia?” She yelled.
The driver clubbed his passenger with a vicious elbow before Lora could stop him. The gutless one was out cold, and the driver yelled, “Shoot me or get out of the car – I am not telling you anything.”
Lora picked up a revolver and held it to his head. “Move over.” She got out of the back of the car and went to the driver’s side. Before she could ask him for the keys, she spotted them lying next to the empty laptop case. With an eye on the men, Lora retrieved the keys and tossed the empty laptop case in the back seat. She drove several miles before pulling off at the phosphate mine. By then, the passenger was conscious.
“Get out,” she told them both. The passenger wailed in his plea for life, and then he threw up. Lora took his cell phone, told him their precise location, and the type of snake that bit him. After she dialed, she let him tell the 911 operator.
It wasn’t until she heard the whine of an ambulance and saw flashing lights that Lora drove away.
Back at Giant’s Camp, she dropped the spent extinguisher off at the restaurant, left money from the killer’s wallets to pay for a replacement, and thanked Kyle for his help. He’d find the money she’d poked in his truck later. Mrs. Margaret had two huge biscuits wrapped in foil, and handed them to Lora, “Everything all right sweetie?”
Lora nodded, thanked her, and took a last look around Giant’s Camp. It was a changed world, and she didn’t know how much longer anything she loved would survive.
