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| PAGE THIRTY TWO |
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"Oh, yes.. Now there's one answer even I wish I had. I wonder what's happening out there?" and Captain Stanley lifted his HT to his mouth. "Station Eight, this is Engine 51. Got an update for us? It's almost daybreak. Your station still light on a few hands..?" Gil, Roy and Chet and Brice all waved in protest and frantic denial, anticipating that Cap was actually going to have them reassigned to outside disaster detail because of the lifted quarantine. They all shook their heads rapidly and made all sorts of negative signs to silently block such a captain's action. ##This is Stone. Hank? We heard. The quarantine's over. Good going. Rooting for ya. Yeah, we're light staffed but upstate companies and crews are on their way to relieve us, even the Pasadena FD's on their way.## "Oh,..uh....just checking to see how you were. Captain Stanley out.." ##10-4, Engine 51.## Captain Stanley parked the HT onto one knee and levelled a look of "this better be good." at his men. Chet voiced their excuse perfectly. "Didn't I hear a particular fire house captain among us say that a firecrew doesn't abandon one of their own?" "Yep.." Roy and Mike said at the same time. Cap just harrumphed and got up to turn off his own oxygen tank sitting by his feet. "Man, I'm hungry.. Did they give us some chow here anywhere?" Three arms pointed to a nondescript crate by the water cooler. "Oh, thanks.. Smelled the soup, Stoker made Cindy earlier. Anything else to go with it..?" Cap said, rubbing his stomach. "Does it look like we had time to even think about food? Some of us haven't even slept yet.." Roy said without sting. "Yeah, well. I was walking wounded there DeSoto. And I'm a glowing testament to your paramedic skills if I got my appetite back. right. Now,..who'd like some soup and whatever else I can scrounge up? Hmmm?" Cap asked. Three sets of hands rose instantly.. "Fine.. I'm assigning myself chow detail for the day since I'm not cleared to captain anything yet. Just called me Cook if you want anything sooner.." he joked. And he moved off to get his men, and everyone else able to eat and drink, some hot meals. -------------------------------- Cindy was talking fast with Dr. MacPherson and Dr. Taylor. She was actually getting on their nerves with questions and nagging for details about Marco's bug. ".....so, your people have seen three cases like his..That's interesting. Hhmm. What I mean is..How truly were those cases like our situation? Were they in Mexico, away from professional help and treatments? I find it hard to believe that a bug like the Marburg would be singularly lumped in with Ebola, and Hanta and other virulent strains on a whim just based on a pathology report.." Jamie MacPherson slammed down her file onto the table and she finally faced the teacher standing before her. "Listen,..Miss Thorne. My colleague and I have been trying to work around your prattling for the last five minutes. Now I draw the line on a civilian who's a little nervous when that same civilian accuses me and my organization of not doing a proper job." "No offense meant, doctor.." Miss Thorne said genuinely.. "I'm just trying to plug for answers on behalf of a firehouse full of frightened firefighters who are sitting on the edge of their wits because an earthquake jarred them out of their normal lives like a bull in the china shop! I'm a teacher, and teachers question everything. Makes me very practical and worldly for my students if I'm absolutely certain of where I stand with any one subject. So I'm not questioning anyone's credibility here nor the CDC's tactics.. I'm only digging for a wider view.. Since when has any paper on a contagion written by someone else, ever stopped YOU from pushing the envelope..?" |
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Steven actually smiled as he continued making test slides of Marco's blood to find an effective dose of Idouroxidine to slow the Marburg's meiosis. "She's got you there, Jamie. Let see, you bucked heads with boss, what... seven times already this year on various subject matters??" he poked. "Ohhh..." she huffed. "Stop ganging up on me, Steven Taylor. All right.. " Jamie said, dropping her work and snatching up Johnny's pot of luke warm coffee from the table. She poured out the plaster dust that was floating on its liquidy surface and grabbed a mug from the cupboard. Changing her mind, she grabbed three of them. And started pouring.. "Ok,..You got my full attention Miss Thorne. And Steven's.. I always claim that I have an open mind across professions, so here's putting the money where my mouth is. So, shoot. What questions do you have about our poor sick fireman and his dead little cousin? I'll answer anything that isn't classified material.." Miss Thorne wasted no time. "The Red Devils.. Were they present for your other three Marburg victims? Did you know about them..?" Jamie's face registered respect and a little surprise that Cindy went right to the heart of the same thought that had been nagging in her own mind ever since Marco's astounding account of them. "What??" she gasped. A sudden fax from a battery generator run machine across the room, bleeped and came to life by the microscope. It got all of their attentions when it lit up with a transmission. Steven walked over to it and waited for the sending to complete. "Wow, the main phone lines are up in the neighborhood. That was fast.. Italy's last quake took a week to reestablish full land line telephone service.." "Like our firemen, " Miss Thorne sighed. "Our phone and power companies are the best in the country. They'd have to be, being under the gun of earthquakes all the time in our state.." Steven snatched up the still warm sending from Atlanta.. "This is from Mexico.. Forensic photos of the vineyard.. " "Let me see.." Jamie said, taking one and moving over to the dawn's rising light by the kitchen window. Natural debris settling in the night had freed up some daylight there. "They're all adult bats.. No juveniles.." Steven looked up from another fresh report from the Mexico CDC team. "No fatalities as yet. Those seven are still holding. These vitals sets seem to be matching Marco's so far.." Cindy walked over to Jamie, and handed her the cup of tepid coffee the doctor had left behind on the table.. "Here.. May I see that?" "Huh.. ?" Jamie said, from a long distance away.. "Yeah. Sure.." and she saw the cup Cindy was handing her.." Thanks.." "No problem.." Miss Thorne delicately took the color photo showing the decaying bats in the vineyard lying on the ground in the Lopez garden, and immediately noticed something.. "Doctor...." "Yeah?" Cindy said, looking at aerial photos of the Lopez villa and the surrounding streets leading up into the mountains surrounding the city.. "Tell me something..I'm no bat expert here. But aren't all of these bats here males? I don't see any sienna furred females with them.. One of my students did a report on Flying Foxes last week and I clearly remember there being color shade distinctions between the sexes..." "What?!" MacPherson shouted. She grabbed the vineyard photo back and peered at it with a hastily snatched magnifying glass. Then she gasped and placed a hand on her mouth. "Steven!! Get over here.." "What is it? " Dr. Taylor shouted, running over to them from the other side of the room, he stripped off his latex gloves and tossed them into a disposal bin near the microscope.. "I'm coming. I'm coming.." "Look.. Miss Thorne's noticed something about the bats. They're all males.." |
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