Irving Waters - The Wuhan Mission

The two prisoners looked like typical suburban Americans. Being in their mid-fifties they shouldn’t be much of a flight risk, but there was probably an American team in the planning stages of some kind of attack or a rescue. For the Chinese it was best if the situation did not escalate beyond a simple ‘swap.’ Two American CIA operatives for the three stolen vials, but they were prepared for a heavier scenario.

Sam looked out the window at the passing clouds below, feeling impatient and helpless as he waited for the geeks to find the GPS database. He opened the bag and checked and loaded all the weapons and double checked magazines. Then looking for something else to keep him occupied he remembered that he had to look over the footage of the interview with Dr. Wu so he could report back.

“Hey, Snowflake, toss me that video camera. I have to watch that interview of the Doctor.”

Xue Lin dug the camera out of her backpack and lobbed it over to him.

Sam found the start of the interview and sat quietly watching Wu’s amicable exchange with Xue Lin recounting the Communist plot to intimidate it’s own population using the virus that he had made. Wu elaborated about the vaccine and the heavy metals in it that could interact with different radio frequencies. It was all surprisingly diabolical stuff. Xue Lin had done a pretty good interview for a rookie.

Sam yelled “Nice job!” over at Xue Lin.

Sam kept watching.

Dr. Wu said: “Xue Lin, if your colleague Sam would like to come in and join us, I would be happy to speak freely with him. He seems to be a nice man, and I trust him.”

“Great! I’ll go get him. He’s right outside.” Xue Lin got up from her seat, turned and banged on the inside of the door. The guard opened and Xue Lin left the room. Sam was about to shut off the camera, having seen everything that he had missed, but then Sam saw something happen that curdled his blood:

The moment the door closed behind Xue Lin, Dr. Wu leaned forward and opened the case containing the virus. He extracted the vial opening it up. Then he sprinkled a small amount on the table and wiped it all over the surface of the table before resealing the vial and returning it to its case.

“Shit Xue Lin! You need to see this!”

Sam rewound to the moment Xue Lin left the room.

“Oh my God! Oh my God I am so stupid!” Xue Lin yelled, as she watched what Wu did with the virus. “I am so stupid. I can’t believe I left him alone with the virus! Oh Jesus. Sam! That means you are infected.”

Sam thought for a moment about his own typical behavior in an interview: hands on the table, chewing a pencil, touching his lips, licking his finger to turn a page in his notebook… definitely infected.

“What about you Xue Lin?”

“I was given the antidote by Dr. Wu in the lab when we were about to escape.”

Sam paused for a second: “We do have that antidote right here, you know?” Sam said a little too calmly.

“Right. Right! Let’s get that into you. I can eyeball the dosage from memory. Do we have syringes on the plane?”

“Probably. Go ask the co-pilot. Meanwhile I had better call this in. I have to retrace my steps and remember who I was in contact with.”

“What about Roet?” Xue Lin asked.

Sam looked at his watch. “Shit, he might be there already. I’ll call him.”

Roet’s phone went straight to voicemail. Sam left a message. Hopefully Roet would listen to it sooner than later. Maybe he hadn’t landed yet.

Sam looked up the base’s main switchboard number and called. It would take an hour before the base commander had his staff track down everyone who had been into the armoury since Sam was there. Roet was reported to have just gone in to conduct his interview with Dr. Wu.

Marcus Roet had slept a few hours on the plane to Korea but realized how tired he still felt as he was met on the tarmac and driven to where Dr. Wu and Jimmy were being held. Roet decided to go straight in and talk to Wu without trying to find Sam or his operative, Xue Lin. He didn’t need them for this.

Dr. Wu was resting in his quarters where Sam and Xue Lin had interviewed him a few hours earlier. He heard the guard unlock the door and there stood a man he had never seen before, smirking.

Roet turned his phone off and paused for a moment and then introduced himself as ‘Marcus’, but Dr. Wu already knew who he was. He recognized his snide way of speaking and the pitch of his voice from the regular phone calls.

Roet sat and placed his folder of notes on the table in front of him. His hands were dry from the long flight, and he found himself having to lick his fingers to turn the pages on his notepad and to move his papers around on the table. Dr. Wu paid great attention to Roet’s finger licking, and nodded in approval.

“Please have a seat Doctor Wu. We have a few things to discuss.”

“Very well Marcus. What do you have there? Is that some kind of written apology letter?”

“What on earth do you mean?” Roet asked, annoyed.

“I’m told that you shot and killed my daughter. What do you have to say about that you mother fucker?”

Roet was a little taken aback. He wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead and put his hand back flat on the table. “She caught a bullet from one of your Chinese guys, actually. I didn’t shoot her. I’m sorry that you have been misinformed. It was a terrible thing. Such a pity.”

“You have something in your teeth Marcus. Maybe some kimchee or spinach?” Dr. Wu pointed at his own mouth to help him locate the stuck food that wasn’t there. Marcus picked at the gaps in his teeth with his fingertips.

“It’s seaweed salad probably. I ate on the plane,” Roet said, continuing to pick.

“Almost gone. A bit more there still,” Wu encouraged, trying not to smile as he saw in his mind’s eye the SARS-CoV-X journeying through Roet’s body.

There was a loud knock at the door. “Come!” yelled Roet, a little peeved that he was being interrupted already. Maybe it was Sam coming to complain about not being invited to the interview.

The door opened and two soldiers in full hazmat suits were standing there.

“Sir, you need to come with us.”

Xue Lin saw that there were indeed a couple of syringes in the medical kit. She estimated the dosage from the green vial and swabbed Sam’s forearm before giving him the shot.

“Any idea how contagious this virus is?” Sam asked hopefully.

From what Jimmy and Wu said, it can live on surfaces for days. Transmitted through eyes, nose and mouth. It can move through space in sputum, especially in enclosed unventilated spaces. That’s about all we know.”

“OK, so Roet’s screwed,” Sam said. “The base Commander told me he was already in with Wu when the call came in. I’m sure they will have him locked in quarantine within the hour.”

Xue Lin was shaking her head: “Shame about Dr. Wu though. He just bought himself a one way ticket to some black site for a nice interview with some simulated drowning.”

Sam looked grimly back at her, nodding. “Jimmy said that Wu gave him the antidote. He has no reason to lie about that right?”

“Yeah, Wu immunized him before he went on that joyride with a spray bottle in Wuhan. I’m certain he wouldn’t lie about it,” answered Xue Lin.

“Well, nothing more can be done about that now. At least we are all good here. Let’s get back to the matter at hand,” Sam said, scrolling on his laptop.

“Ah, good news. Looks like they have found them!”

Sam clicked the link that the tech had just sent through from Langley. A map opened. Sam saw the red dot in the middle of Milan’s tiny Chinatown.