a negative pressure ventilation system that must be properly filtered.'
'All right, stay there! ' Stan ordered.
'Do not leave the house. We will come to you. Understand? '
'I suppose, ' Jack said. 'I thought it best to get back to the morgue.
I'm here with Dr. Laurie Montgomery. The morgue is going to need all the help it can get.'
'After you've been deconned, ' Stan said. 'For now stay put. We'll be there in minutes to secure the area.' The line went dead.
Jack shrugged his shoulders, hung up the phone, and sighed. 'We missed it, ' he said with a voice that broke. Laurie put her arms around him and hugged him. He was choked up, and tears came to her eyes in sympathy.
'Hey, man, ' Warren said. 'I think you better tell us what's happening here.' Jack nodded and took a deep breath. He started to speak but had to fight off more tears. After another sigh, he got ahold of himself. 'Warren, I told you the next time someone had to be saved, it was my turn to save you.'
'Yeah, well I'm not as stupid as you are, Doc.'
'If you'd only gotten here an hour earlier.'
'So now it's my bad, ' Warren commented.
'No, I don't mean to imply that, ' Jack said. 'Believe me, I'm thankful you came at all.'
'I had to wait to see if you two were going to show up at work, ' Warren said. 'When you didn't, I thought maybe something strange had happened.
I saw early this morning that my wheels weren't back, and I knew from Spit you hadn't come back to the neighborhood, but hell, I thought maybe you two shacked up at a hotel or something, making up.'
'I wish that's what this evening had been about, ' Jack said. He looked at Laur
'Me, too, ' she added.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21
12:45 P. M. Stan Thornton had not been exaggerating when he said they'd be there in minutes. Jack, Laurie, Warren, and Flash had barely had time to sit themselves down on Yuri's couch and chairs when local firemen in class A hazmat suits showed up outside to cordon off the area and empty the neighboring houses of their occupants. It seemed surreal for those inside to watch all the activity because none of the firemen approached Yuri's house.
Some time later, the percussive beat of helicopters hovering above filled the air before they slid off to land on the nearby boardwalk at the beach. A half hour after that, a group of men appeared in more seriouslooking biological containment suits wielding HHAS, or handheld assay instruments. This group split, with half going into the garage and the other half coming into the house. Several of those going into the garage were bomb experts checking to make sure there was no triggering device in the pest control truck.
Those that had come into the house briefly introduced themselves before spreading out to the various rooms and going down to the basement laboratory. They ignored Yuri's body. Ten minutes later the leader of the house group met in Yuri's kitchen with his counterpart from the garage.
They conferred briefly before the leader of the house group used a handheld radio device to communicate with a distant command post, presumably in Manhattan.
'We've got two hot areas, ' the man said. 'The agent in the pest control truck is definitely weapon-grade anthrax. That is confirmed.
There is no triggering device. The lab has two active fermenters with anthrax cultures. There's a jury-rigged pulverizer contaminated with anthrax powder. There's also a hood similarly contaminated.
There's an active negative pressure ventilation system with HEPA filters in place. There's no contamination in the rest of the house. Over.' Jack and the others couldn't hear the response because the man held the radio up to his ear. They saw him nod a few times, then verbally agree before signing off with the typical 'over and out.' He came directly over to the group. His face was mostly hidden by the glare of the clear plastic face mask.
'All of you are to leave the house, ' he said. 'In the alleyway, turn to the left. Pass under the caution tape. That divides this hot area from the warm area beyond. Where the alley joins Oceanview Avenue you will see a decon tent. It's red, you can't miss it. They will be waiting for you.' The group got to their feet and started toward the front door.
'Thank you, ' Laurie said to the man, but he didn't respond. He was already on his way back through the kitchen on his way to the basement.
'Man, they are serious, ' Warren commented as they walked down the front walk.
'For good reason, ' Jack said. 'This is the real thing. New York could be seeing casualties in the tens of thousands, if not more.'
'Shit, man, ' Flash complained. 'I told you guys this Yuri was a bad mother. You should have let me come out here and taken care of him.'
'He had a gun, ' Jack said. 'And he didn't seem too reluctant to use it.'
'Yeah, well, I wouldn't have come out here empty-handed neither.
' As the group walked they couldn't help notice that the whole area was deserted. They saw no one, not even any dogs.
'This is kinda weird, ' Warren said. 'Like we're all alone.' Just as the group had been advised, they found a red tent in the middle of a completely deserted avenue.
'Where did everybody go so fast? ' Warren questioned.
'I don't think they had any trouble getting people to leave, ' Jack said. 'People are terrified of contagion. I shudder to think of the panic in lower Manhattan right now.'
'It reminds me of an old science fiction movie, ' Flash said. 'I think it was called The Day the Earth Stood Still.' The group was greeted by a small team of people in lower-level biocontainment dress than those in Yuri's house. The person in charge was a woman who introduced herself as Carolyn Jacobs.
She had the group strip and stand under makeshift showers of weak bleach solution where they were forced to scrub themselves. Then, after dressing in government-issue coveralls, they were immunized against anthrax and started on a course of ciprofloxacin.
'Man, I never expected all this, ' Warren complained.
'You should feel thankful for the vaccine, ' Jack said. 'They don't have a lot of it, and I'm sure they are going to run out in Manhattan.
There's no way there's enough for everyone.' The flap covering the entrance-to the decon tent was suddenly pulled aside. In walked a lean, clean-cut, martial-appearing African-American man in his thirties. He was dressed in an orange jumpsuit with the acronym CIRG on his left upper arm. Sewn above a zippered breast pocket was a name tag, Agent Marcus Williams.
'I'm looking for Dr. Stapleton and Dr. Montgomery, ' he said crisply.
Jack raised his hand. 'I'm Stapleton.'
'I'm Dr. Montgomery, ' Laurie said.
'Excellent, ' Marcus said. 'Would you come with me? ' Jack and Laurie immediately got to their feet.
'What about us? ' Warren questioned.
Jack looked at Marcus and raised his eyebrows.
'Your name, sir? ' Marcus asked Warren.
'Warren Wilson, and this is Frank Thomas.' Warren pointed at Flash.
Flash raised his hand.
'Sorry, I have no orders for you people, ' Marcus said. 'I would assume you should remain here.'
'Damn, ' Warren said. 'Doc, make sure they don't forget us.'
'Don't worry, ' Jack said.
Jack and Laurie emerged back out in the daylight. They had to hustle to catch up with Marcus, who'd strode off toward the waterfront.
'Where are we going? ' Jack asked.
'I'm to escort you back to the temporary command center, ' Marcus said.
'Where is that? ' Jack asked.
'Lower Manhattan, ' Marcus said. 'In a trailer in front of City Hall.'
'Can we slow down a little? ' Laurie questioned. She was having to run every couple of steps.
