Four showerheads hung suspended from pipes on the ceiling in the space between the two walls. Pegs for hanging the rubber suits jutted from the walls. A bin emblazoned with the biohazard symbol stood at one end. Their heads covered by the large green rubber hoods, and hands sheathed in thick black rubber gloves, the two soldiers’ bodies were totally wrapped in the bio suits, giving them the appearance of old-time astronauts. The hump of self-contained breathing tanks protruded from their backs as they moved around in the lab room.
Detrick removed the vial from the thick, protective wrapping Marcus had rolled around it. He opened the inner case and put the tube in a vise-like apparatus. He gingerly cut the waxy seal away from the top with a razor blade. Once the seal was removed, he slowly and deliberately worked to extract the fitted glass stopper that filled the top of the tube like a cork. Once that was off, Argis approached with a tray indented with rows of small, bowl-shaped pits. Into each of the tiny pits, he placed several drops of the liquid from the test tube with a small glass pipette.
He picked up the tray and inserted it into what looked like a stainless steel toaster oven. Argis closed the device’s door and pressed several buttons on a panel to one side. He then went to a computer terminal at the end of the table and watched the monitor.
Detrick took three Petrie dishes from a shelf above the work area. He placed several droplets of the liquid into one of them and set it aside. Nothing noticeable happened.
He placed the same amount of liquid into the second, added purified water from a labeled bottle on the counter top, and set it aside. It likewise did nothing visible.
To the third, he did the same, but when he added a few drops of water, a thin wisp of pale orange smoke curled up from the dish. Detrick motioned for Captain Argis to come over and gestured toward the sample.
Detrick took the second and third dishes to another corner of the room and placed them on the tray beneath a microscope.
Captain Argis glanced over at the computer monitor next to the toaster oven-looking device. Something caught his eye, and he walked away from Detrick. Lonnie saw his face through the clear plastic shielding of his bio suit. Intense concentration burned in his expression as he looked at the screen.
Major Detrick dropped another amount of liquid from a dropper onto the second Petrie dish. Like earlier, a light puff of pale orange smoke rose into the air. He stood from the microscope and crossed the room to where Argis stood. He looked at the screen at which Argis stared. His mouth came open as his eyes registered the output on the screen, which was out of the view of Lonnie and the others.
Argis pressed a button on the desktop and his voice came over a speaker in the side room.
“There is definitely TZE in it—we saw that on the spectroscope. And Mr. Choi was right—it is a vehicle for something else. You guys saw the three dishes we set up, right?”
“Yes,” Wyatt Lonnie replied.
“The first one had nothing but the substance in it, it did nothing when in contact with air. The second one had water added to it. Whatever the additional component of that compound is, it reacted to the water, but only by reproducing. We could see it under the microscope as it rapidly duplicated itself. In the third, I put a small sample of human skin cells. That’s where things went wild. Did you see the little puff of smoke that came out?”
They all nodded.
“That was those cells exploding.”
Detrick pointed back to the microscope in the corner. “At the microscope, I put the same skin cells into the second dish and watched the process with my own eyes. It was practically instantaneous, like a carcinogenic reaction on fast-forward. The cells duplicated, grew, split and died so rapidly that I hardly had time to register what I had seen.”
Bell replied, “So, that was human skin. And this TZE stuff smoked it like that on contact?”
Argis stepped into the viewing window. “No. The TZE didn’t react—the bacteria that is mixed with the TZE did. The TZE seems to be, like Choi said, probably in there to dissolve plastics to help this stuff move along to its destination. I’m looking at a magnified image of the cells of this bacteria on my monitor, and I have no idea what this little critter is. I’ve never seen it before. But what happened in that third dish indicates that you need to find this stuff ASAP.” He continued, “Judging by the looks of the cells of this bacteria, it’s probably very contagious.”
Wyatt spoke. “You’re telling us that this stuff is a form of cancer-causing bacteria that can spread?”
“Exactly. I think Choi was right. They’re probably going to put it into the water supply. Once it comes in contact with the water, it spreads like crazy, totally contaminating the water supply and any peripheral water it comes in contact with.”
Detrick added, “When it comes in contact with human flesh, it will instantly start a cancerous reaction that will literally cause humans to explode into a mass of bloated and replicating cells that spread to any other person, and possibly even any living organism.”
Chapter 34
The phone on the commander’s desk rang. He picked it up, motioning to Wasner and Marcus to wait. “Commander Stark.”
“Sir, this is Glenda in dispatch. The white suburban has been sighted in a driveway on Panorama Drive off Farmer’s
