Waterkill (Dave Henson Series) (11 page)

“I am sorry, but I must go. These people need my help urgently.”

“I understand doctor. Thank you for your time.”

As the doctor started to rush off he shouted out to them, “I advise the three of you to head back to Berlin before you too become patients.”

Dana looked back at Sam and Denzel for their opinion. Their expressions said it all.

“Okay, we are out of here. I won’t have us wait until the hospital administrator’s report.”

The two men looked relieved and began packing up their equipment. A few minutes later they began making their way back in the direction of their vehicle. As they walked, a steady stream of traffic, including ambulances, drove in the opposite direction, towards the hospital.

“Do you think we may have contracted the disease just by being here?” asked Sam somewhat nervously.

“No, you heard the doctor,” responded Dana. “He seems to think it’s the water. And as long as we don’t drink or touch it, nor stumble into the waste of an infected person we should be okay.”

“Well, I will feel better when we are back in our car and headed back to Berlin,” commented Denzel.

As the three approached an intersection with another small road, two men turned the corner from the side road and began walking in their direction. They were dressed in dark rumpled clothes that looked as if they had slept in them all night. Each man was wearing jeans, sneakers, a sweatshirt, an open dark leather coat and a hoody that flopped out over the back of the coat. Each was also carrying a knapsack, and one was carrying a video camera in his hand.

As the two men got closer to them, the man holding the video camera looked familiar to Dana. Similarly, the man seemed to recognize Dana as they approached each other.

“Spencer. Spencer. Is that you?” asked Dana in total surprise.

Spencer hesitated before saying anything as his mind raced and began calculating what to say.

“Dana. What are you doing here?” asked Spencer in similar surprise.

Dana, still in a bit of shock said, “I, … we came to report on what is happening here. Why are you here?”

“I have been on vacation the past couple of weeks touring Germany ever since the International Conference on Nanostructures ended.”

“So how did you end up here in Eberswalde today?” she asked in amazement.

“Like you, I was curious. My friend here, Abdul, and I were visiting in a nearby village last night when we heard about the news in Eberswalde. We decided to come this morning to learn more about the situation and to see if we could help.”

Abdul raised his hand slightly in acknowledgement of his introduction to them, but kept his eyes darting left and right, as if he was looking out for something or someone, or determining his next move.

“Well, we just got a full report from a doctor at the hospital and we are taking his advice and leaving town. You may want to do the same.”

“Yes, Abdul and I had pretty much seen all we needed to see and were about to head out as well.”

Dana looked down briefly at the video camera that Spencer was holding in his hand. The look did not go unnoticed by Spencer.

“Spencer, can we speak for a moment privately? I need to talk to you about something personal.”

Dana walked down the side street with Spencer by her side, leaving the other men standing where they were. When they had walked about thirty-five meters away from the others she stopped and turned to face him. She sensed something was wrong with him. He seemed to be very distant and strange acting. She noticed that his eyes were not initially focused on her as she faced him. He was looking past her, toward the wooded area adjacent to the Oder River. She could see the Oder River flowing just beyond the tree line.

“Spencer, I wanted to talk to you about Dave for a moment privately.”

Spencer shifted his eyes from the river to Dana.

“Why, is there something wrong with Dave?” asked Spencer in a mechanical sounding tone.

Dana hesitated before speaking as she measured Spencer’s response. “Spencer, are you okay? You seem to be out of sorts for some reason.”

“No, I am good. As good as one can be when standing in the middle of a town with an epidemic in progress.” He quickly glanced up the street, towards the corner where Abdul and the other two men were standing.

“I understand your point,” said Dana as she looked up the street and saw another ambulance drive by the three men at the corner. “I wanted to talk to you privately about Dave, because at this moment he is up in Alaska working with Homeland Security. Actually, a Border Patrol Special Ops group.”

The hairs on the back of Spencer’s neck went up when he heard Homeland Security.

“What is he doing in Alaska with the DHS?”

“He has been helping them find a small aircraft crash site and recovering what is believed to be a biological weapon of some sort.”

Spencer’s body stiffened at her response.

“Did they find the crash site?” he asked in an urgent sounding tone.

“Yes. Yes, they did.”

“Did they find a biological weapon?”

“They found something suspicious and are bringing it back to Washington, D.C. for analysis. But that is not all they found while they were there.”

“What else did they discover?” asked Spencer in an alarmed sounding voice.

“They stumbled upon what they believe was a terrorist cell at the crash scene.”    

Dana noticed a slight increase in the level of concern and interest in Spencer’s demeanor with her last statement.

“What happened to them?” asked Spencer with a bristled level of agitation in his voice.

“Dave did not elaborate too much with me over the non-secured phone, but apparently they were rendered a non-issue. Those were the specific words he used. Rendered a non-issue.”

Spenser flinched at her response, and then quickly spied a quick look back in the direction of Sam, Denzel and Abdul. They were walking towards them.

“Are you okay Spencer?” asked Dana again as she sensed something was wrong with him. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes, yes, I am fine,” he insisted as he looked back at her. “I am just worried about spending any more time in this town than I have to.”

“I understand. I am sure Sam and Denzel are walking this way because they too are anxious to get out of here.”

Spencer glanced again in the direction of the Oder River. “I do, however, have something I want to show you first before we leave,” replied Spencer. “It is down by the river. I think you may find it useful for your report on this situation here in Eberswalde. Your cameraman will want to film what I have to show you.”

As Spencer turned to face the approaching men, Spencer’s unzipped coat parted open briefly.  As it did, Dana noticed a large gold chain hanging from Spencer’s neck and resting on the outside of his sweatshirt. Dangling from the end of the chain was a pendant. She only got a brief glimpse of the pendant before Spencer’s coat closed up around it again. However, it was long enough for her to observe that the pendant was comprised of Arabic lettering and surrounded on one side by a crescent moon.

Before she could respond, Spencer said as the three men approached them, “Abdul, I want to show my friend Dana and her colleagues what we saw down by the river earlier this morning.”

Abdul gave a slightly confused look for a fraction of a second but went along with Ahmad. “You mean down near the water treatment facility?” asked Abdul.

“Yes, it is only a short walk from here. Dana, you and your colleagues must follow us.” Spencer’s tone sounded more like a command than a request, but Dana did not hesitate to follow his lead as both Spencer and Abdul began walking in the direction of the river. Sam and Denzel also began to follow the two men and Dana. However, Sam reached out and tapped Dana on the back of her shoulder to get her attention. Spencer and Abdul continued walking while the other three paused for a moment to talk.

“What are we doing?” asked Sam in a rushed and whispered voice. “We need to get out of here now. You heard Doctor Walters.”

“And your friend’s buddy Abdul gives me the creeps,” chimed in Denzel. “He just stared at us up there while you talked to your friend. That’s why we decided to walk down to you and interrupt your private conversation.”

“I know, I know, but Spencer wants to show us something that he thinks we’ll find useful for our report. It will only take a few minutes.” Dana continued walking again, picking up her pace to catch up to Spencer and his side kick. Sam looked briefly at Denzel before the two followed in close pursuit of Dana.

Dana and her two colleagues’ brief conversation did not go un-noticed by Ahmad. He immediately had sensed their loss of presence while Abdul and he had continued to walk. Ahmad took advantage of the separation to quickly brief Abdul on his plans. A slight grin appeared on Abdul’s face as he turned slightly to see the three reporters catching up to them.

“Here, we need to go through these woods and down the embankment to the river,” said Spencer.

Dana, feeling increasingly nervous asked, “Spencer, what is it that we really need to see down there?”

Spencer stopped and turned to her, his face rigid, his eyes fierce looking. “Bodies, many bodies” responded Spencer. “The extent of the disaster that has happened here in this village cannot be fully appreciated until you see with your own eyes the true number of victims. Victims floating down the river, bloated corpses lying along the river banks.”

Dana turned for a second towards Abdul who had briefly said something that she did not understand. He smiled at her as she turned her eyes back to Spencer.

Abdul signaled for Sam and Denzel to follow behind him as he began to lead them down the embankment and through the woods to the river’s edge. Dana followed behind with Spencer bringing up the rear. As Spencer started his descent down the embankment he glanced back behind him briefly to see if anyone saw their descent to the river. The road along the river’s edge was empty. He turned back and continued to make his way down the embankment to catch up to Dana who was slowly working her way down it.

Abdul, Sam and Denzel had made it down to the river’s edge much more quickly than her. She could see they were looking out in the direction of the river.  Dana was still fifty or so meters away from them as she continued to make her way carefully down the bottom portion of the embankment. From her vantage point she could not see any bodies floating on the river or lying at the river’s edge due to the tree foliage. The pine trees that rimmed the river in this area were low and thick with needles, making it hard for her to see more than ten meters in front of her.

Just as she neared the bottom of the embankment and could begin to get an unobstructed view of the river she noticed that Abdul had moved behind Sam and Denzel. She also saw that he had pulled out something from behind his back and silently raised it to the back of Sam’s head. In the blink of an eye, and in silence, a pink mist sprayed out in front of Sam’s head. His limp body immediately fell to the ground. Frozen in shock, she watched Denzel begin to turn his head back towards Abdul, his face in terror. As he did, Abdul shifted his raised arm a few degrees to the left. Dana witnessed a second puff of red blood mist fill the air behind Denzel’s head. Abdul had shot him directly in the face. Denzel’s dead body fell backwards onto the lifeless form of Sam, blood continuing to spurt from the entry wound in Denzel’s forehead.  

Dana, in panic, turned to run back up the embankment, but immediately stumbled into the strong arms of Ahmad. Still in shock she looked up at Spencer. She found no look of sympathy, compassion, or fear in his eyes. Instead, she saw loathing hatred staring back at her.

Chapter 18 (April 15, Friday 7:00am, Yemen)

The Toyota Land Cruiser bumped violently along on the uneven dirt road between Mocha, Yemen and the small village north of it that suffered the first attack. Dave looked out at the vast openness in front of him while CIA agent, Ben Harper, held the vehicle’s steering wheel in a death-grip to keep the vehicle under control. The land was a barren wasteland. Flat, sandy, and with little sign of life of any sort. Fortunately they were riding in an air conditioned vehicle, as the outside air temperature hovered near thirty five degrees Celsius with the humidity level above ninety percent.

It had been a whirlwind twenty-four hours for Dave and he was suffering intensely from jet lag. It was taking all of his will power, and the large cup of Arabian coffee in his hands, to keep his eyes open. After being rescued from the eastern mountains of Alaska and returning to the temporary U.S. base in Chicken Airport, he had immediately been flown back to Washington D.C. While there he had met with Eric McDonald and John Bates at the Department of Homeland Security, along with the CIA Director John Cote. He had explained in detail to them their run-in with the terrorist cell at the aircraft crash scene. Director Cote had already received an initial field report from his office on the man Ron had killed. The report had indicated the man was from Iran and had past ties with Al Qaeda.

They also discussed the bioterrorism weapon that they had recovered. It was being sent to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) for analysis. They hoped to have an initial understanding of what was in the metal cylinder in the next twenty-four hours. They had also discussed the new cholera-like outbreak in Eberswalde, Germany. Dave had suggested that he travel to Germany immediately to conduct some field tests on the public water supply there. He explained that NSurv, in conjunction with a research university, had recently developed a unique technique and test kit for detecting the presence of diseases like cholera in water, a technique that could detect even the smallest trace amounts of the deadly disease. Director Cote, however, had pushed back on that idea due to the fact that at the moment there was absolute chaos going on in the small German town. Hospitals and first responders were being overwhelmed with patients and the German government had quarantined the town two hours earlier.

Dave had subsequently urged the Homeland Security Director to allow him to go to Yemen for a site visit there. Though traditional tests had indicated that the water supply there had shown negative for cholera, it was still believed by the village survivors and Yemenis government officials that it was the public town well which was the source of the disease outbreak. Dave had explained that NSurv’s special water diagnostic equipment would be able to detect extremely low trace levels of the disease, trace levels that traditional test equipment would never be able to detect. If his tests could detect any cholera toxin in the well water from Yemen, then the chemical makeup of the toxin could be compared with the contents of the cylinder they recovered in Alaska. If there was a match, then they could confirm the attacks were related and know where to concentrate their efforts to find the source of the weapon.

Eric McDonald and the CIA Director had agreed for Dave to go to Yemen, and had worked with the Yemenis government overnight to get him an emergency Visa so that he could enter the country legally. He had departed the states on a U.S. military transport aircraft out of Andrews Air Force Base located just outside of Washington D.C. The plane had made a brief refueling stop in Spain, and then landed at a secure military base in Yemen. From there, he met up with CIA agent Ben Harper who had driven him into Mocha to pick up a local Arabic-English interpreter. And they were now on their way to the small village that had represented Ground Zero of the bioterrorism attacks.

While he fought to keep himself awake he thought about Dana. He had not yet heard back from her. He had left a message on her cellular phone when he landed in Spain, and similarly again when he had arrived in Yemen. He was starting to get concerned, but had suppressed becoming panicked yet, due in part to the fact that he was so exhausted. He also knew that Dana was a very capable person when it came to being a survivor. Consequently, he had remained confident that his lack of hearing back from her was of no real concern, yet.

The Land Cruiser came to an abrupt halt. After thirty minutes of banging around so hard in the front seat of the Land Cruiser that Dave’s kidneys felt like they were worn out punching bags, they had arrived at the small village. Dave’s immediate impression was that the village had been abandoned, as he panned his eyes over the village center from the inside of the Land Cruiser. There was no one in sight. They had driven into the village center and had parked next to a building that looked like it could be a small food store of some sort, or at least at one time. Across the way from where they were parked the infamous village community well stood. It was centered in the middle of three intersecting roads, if you could call them that. They were more like stone goat paths, which came together in a manner to form a kind of a round-about. Like the streets, there was no one at the community well.

“Has this village been abandoned?” asked Dave.

“No, there are still around thirty residents living here,” responded agent Harper. “Most of them are men and older people who have nowhere else to go, or simply lack the physical or mental strength to move on from here after the loss of their loved ones.”

Hmm, thought Dave to himself. “I can sense sadness just being here,” he said out loud.

“Yes, the majority of the town’s residents died from the attack,” responded Agent Harper. “Mostly women and children.”

Dave stared out the vehicle’s front windshield for another few seconds before finally saying, “Well we might as well get to it. I want to first test the water and then try to talk to any of the survivors, if we can find some.”

“And if they are willing to talk,” chimed in Agent Harper, as he looked back at the Yemenis man named Murad who was sitting in the back seat of the Land Cruiser. “These people are traditionally very private people.”
              “Very much so,” said Murad the interpreter. “There is a very good chance they will not speak to us due to the fact that the two of you are westerners.”

“Well, hopefully we can find at least one survivor willing to talk with us,” responded Dave.

Dave opened the front passenger door and was immediately blasted by an intense humid heat. It felt like he had opened the door to a sauna.

“It has to be well over a hundred degrees,” said Dave as he acclimated himself to the heat before stepping out of the vehicle.

“It is,” said Ben Harper. “Here, take one of these.” Agent Harper handed Dave and Murad each a liter bottle of water.

Agent Harper and Murad opened their respective doors and stepped out into the dusty road. Dave had already opened the back hatch door of the vehicle and was pulling out the NSurv water test kits along with a knapsack filled with other ancillary items. Before he left Alaska he had asked Ron to have the test kits shipped overnight from NSurv’s facility in McCall, Idaho to John Bates’ office at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters. John had already received the water test kits before Dave had arrived at Homeland Security headquarters the night before, courtesy of his own Cessna Citation M2 business jet. Dave had subsequently taken the kits with him on his flight to Yemen.

Harper and Murad approached the rear of the vehicle. “So what makes your water test kits so special?” asked Harper nonchalantly.

Dave turned and faced Ben and Murad, and contemplated how to respond. He’d give them the detailed answer, since Ben had asked.

“These unique water testing kits are as high tech as it comes for detecting the presence of cholera-like toxins in water. Each kit is comprised of a mobile detection instrument, a small water sample container, an eye dropper and a vial that contains iron-oxide nanoparticles coated with the complex sugar dextran. When a vial of dextran coated iron-oxide nanoparticles is introduced into the test water sample, any cholera-like toxins present in the water sample quickly bind to the coated nano-particles, which are then detected by the mobile detection instrument. The science behind the technology is that the complex sugar dextran looks similar to the cholera toxin receptors found on cells' surfaces in a person’s gut. Thus the technique mimics the human body by having the dextran attract and concentrate the cholera toxin on the iron-oxide nanoparticles. The mobile test instrument can then examine the dextran coated iron-oxide nano particles to see if any binding of the toxin has occurred. If it has, then the water supply has been definitively determined to contain cholera.”

“Wow, I’m sorry I asked,” laughed Harper when Dave had finished answering his question.

“Hey, I figured I’d give you the science straight up,” responded Dave with a smile as he hefted up the equipment in his arms.

The three men walked over to the community well. There was a sign with a handwritten Arabic message scribbled on it and fastened to the side of the well’s hand crank. Murad did not need to translate the message for Dave and Ben to understand what the writing meant, for underneath the writing was the universally familiar image of a skull and crossbones making the signage crystal clear. Poison.

“I thought this water was tested by the Yemenis government and determined to be safe?” asked Ben out loud.

“The water may well indeed be safe,” said Dave. “And we shall find out shortly. But if you were one of the survivors of this little village, and had come to the conclusion that this community well was the only common denominator for the loss of your family and friends, then you too would probably steer clear of it.”

Ben nodded his head in agreement. “But what do the survivors do for water?” he asked.

“It is trucked in from Mocha,” replied Murad.

“That must take a Herculean effort, and cost a fortune for these people,” replied Ben.

“Not as much as you think,” said Murad. “The Yemenis people from this region require much less water than you Americans.” Murad drew Ben’s eyes back to the well. “Also, what other choice do they have if they want to live?”

Dave set the kits and knapsack down on the ground near the well and immediately got to work. First he opened up his knapsack and grabbed three pairs of surgical gloves and goggles. He handed a pair of each to Ben and Murad.

“Though we have reports this water is safe, it’s a wise idea to respect that sign,” said Dave as he pointed at the skull and crossbones image.

The three men donned the gloves and goggles. Dave then opened up one of the water test kits, while Ben picked up the water bucket sitting on top of the well. There was a rope tied between the bucket and the side hand crank. He dropped the bucket down into the well. The bucket splashed onto water a second later.

“Sounds like the water is only about five meters down from the surface,” commented Dave nonchalantly as he prepared the water test kit.

“That’s sounds pretty shallow for this region of the world,” commented Ben as he turned the hand crank to recover the water laden bucket.

When the bucket had reached the surface of the well Murad reached out and grabbed the bucket taking care not to spill its contents on any of the men.

Dave picked up the test kit’s water sample container and quickly filled it with well water collected from the bucket. He then poured the vial of dextran coated iron-oxide nanoparticles into the water sample container before closing the lid on it. He shook the container vigorously for a few seconds and set it to the side. He then opened up a second test kit and repeated the process.

After preparing the second water test kit sample he waited several more minutes before opening the first container. He dipped the glass tube end of an eye dropper into the container, squeezed on the vacuum ball, and then released it slowly to draw a small sample of the water up into the tube. He then squeezed again on the vacuum ball to place a couple of drops of the liquid into an opening in the water test kit’s detection instrument. After pushing a couple of buttons on the instrument its digital screen display reported the results.

“Well gentlemen, there is indeed a slight trace of cholera still present in the well. It is at a level so small that traditional water testing methods for checking for the bacteria would not have detected it, but nevertheless it is present in this water sample according to the test kit instrument.”

“So the survivors of this little village were right to put up that sign,” said Murad with a touch of pride in his voice.

“Yes and no,” said Dave. “In general it is wise to quarantine any water supply suspected of carrying cholera bacteria. However, based on the readings I am seeing on this water sample it appears that this particular strain of cholera bacteria is slightly different than the common ones associated with cholera epidemics. This particular strain of cholera may or may not be a contagion type. We will need to bring it back to Washington for additional analysis.”

“How about the second sample?” Ben asked.

“Yes let’s take a look at it,” said Dave as he reached out for the other test container.

He repeated the test on the second sample of water using the mobile detection instrument that came with the other kit. A few minutes later he had the results.

“Positive again,” reported Dave.

As Dave held up the detection instrument for Ben and Murad to see, he noticed a lone man walking down one of the roads in their direction.