Patricia Cornwell - Unnatural Exposure

The agent at the console said, 'Camera on. Mikes on. Someone want to count for me.'

'Five-four-three-two-one,' the S.A.C. said into his mike.

'How's that level?'

'Fine here,' Fujitsubo said from Frederick, Maryland.

'Fine,' said Martin from Atlanta.

'We're ready anytime.' The agent at the console glanced around the table.

'Just to make sure all of us are up to speed,' I began. 'We have an outbreak of what appears to be a smallpox-like virus that so far seems to be restricted to the island of Tangier, eighteen miles off the coast of Virginia. Two deaths reported so far, with another person ill. It is also likely that a recent homicide victim was infected with this virus. The mode of transmission is suspected to be the deliberate contamination of samples of Vita aromatherapy facial spray.'

'That hasn't been determined yet.' It was Miles who spoke.

'The samples should be getting here any minute,' Martin said from Atlanta. 'We'll begin testing immediately, and will hopefully have an answer by the end of tomorrow. Meanwhile, they're being taken out of circulation until we know exactly what we're dealing with.'

'You can do PCR to see if it's the same virus,' Miles said to the video screens. Martin nodded. 'That we can do.'

Miles looked around the room. 'So what are we saying here? We got some loonytune out there, some Tylenol killer who's decided to use a disease? How do we know these little spray bottles aren't the hell all over the place?'

'I think the killer wants to take his time.' Wesley began what he did best. 'He started with one victim. When that paid off, he began on a tiny island. Now that's paying off, so he hits a downtown health department office.' He looked at me. 'He will go to the next stage if we don't stop him or develop a vaccine. Another reason I suspect this is still local, is it appears the facial sprays are hand-delivered, with bogus bulk-rate postage on the tubes to give the appearence that they were mailed.'

'You're definitely calling this product tampering, then,' Colonel Fujitsubo said to him.

'I'm calling this terrorism.'

'The point of it being what?'

'We don't know that yet,' Wesley told him.

'But this is far worse than any Tylenol killer or Unabomber,' I said. 'The destruction they cause is limited to whoever takes the capsules or opens the package. With a virus, it's going to spread far beyond the primary victim.'

'Dr Martin, what can you tell us about this particular virus?' Miles said.

'We have four traditional methods for testing for smallpox.' He stared stiffly at us from his screen. 'Electron microscopy, with which we have observed a direct visualization of variola.'

'Smallpox?' Miles almost shouted. 'You're sure about that?'

'Hold on,' Martin interrupted him. 'Let me finish. We also got a verification of antigenic identity using agar gel. Now, chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane culture, other tissue cultures are going to take two, three days. So we don't have those results now, but we do have PCR. It verified a pox. We just don't know which one. It's very odd, nothing currently known, not monkeypox, whitepox. Not classic variola major or minor, although it seems to be related.'

'Dr Scarpetta,' Fujitsubo spoke. 'Can you tell me what's in this facial spray, as best you know?'

'Distilled water and a fragrance. There were no ingredients listed, but generally that's what sprays like this are,' I said.

He was making notes. 'Sterile?' He looked back at us from the monitor.

'I would hope so, since the directions encourage you to spray it over your face and contact lenses,' I replied.

'Then my question,' Fujitsubo went on via satellite, 'is what kind of shelf life might we expect these contaminated sprays to have? Variola isn't all that stable in moist conditions.'

'A good point,' Martin said, adjusting his ear piece. 'It does very well when dried, and at room temperature can survive months to a year. It is sensitive to sunlight, but inside the atomizers, that wouldn't be a problem. Doesn't like heat, which, unfortunately, makes this an ideal time of year.'

'Then depending on what people do when they have these delivered,' I said, 'there could be a lot of duds out there.'

'Could be,' Martin hoped.

Wesley said, 'Clearly, the offender we're looking for is knowledgeable of infectious diseases.'

'Has to be,' Fujitsubo said. 'The virus had to be cultured, propagated, and if this is, in fact, terrorism, then the perpetrator is very familiar with basic laboratory techniques. He knew how to handle something like this and keep himself protected. We're assuming only one person is involved?'

'My theory, but the answer is, we don't know,' Wesley said.

'He calls himself deadoc,' I said.

'As in Doctor Death?' Fujitsubo frowned. 'He's telling us he's a doctor?'

Again, it was hard to say, but the question that was most troublesome was also the hardest to ask.

'Dr Martin,' I said as Martinez silently leaned back in his chair, listening. 'Allegedly, your facility and a laboratory in Russia are the only two sources of the viral isolates. Any thoughts on how someone got hold of this?'

'Exactly,' Wesley said. 'Unpleasant thought that it may be, we need to check your list of employees. Any recent firings, layoffs? Anybody quit during recent months and years?'

'Our source supply of variola virus is as meticulously monitored and inventoried as plutonium.' Martin answered with confidence. 'I personally have already checked into this and can tell you with certainty that nothing has been tampered with. Nothing is missing. And it is not possible to get into one of the locked freezers without authorization and knowledge of alarm codes.'

No one spoke right away.

Then Wesley said, 'I think it would be a good idea for us to have a list of those people who have had such authorization over the past five years. Initially, based on experience, I am profiling this individual as a white male, possibly in his early forties. Most likely he lives alone, but if he doesn't or he dates, he has a part of his residence that is off limits, his lab…'

'So we're probably talking about a former lab worker,' the S.A.C. said.

'Or someone like that,' Wesley said. 'Someone educated, trained. This person is introverted, and I base this on a number of things, not the least of which is his tendency to write in the lower case. His refusal to use punctuation indicates his belief that he is not like other people and the same rules do not apply to him. He is not talkative and may be considered aloof or shy by associates. He has time on his hands, and most important, feels he has been mistreated by the system. He feels he is due an

apology by the highest office in the land, by our government, and I believe this is key to this perpetrator's motivation.'

'Then this is revenge,' I said. 'Plain and simple.'

'It's never plain or simple. I wish it were,' Wesley said. 'But I do think revenge is key, which is why it is important that all government agencies that deal with infectious diseases get us the records of any employees reprimanded, fired, laid off, furloughed or whatever, in recent months and years.'

Fujitsubo cleared his throat. 'Well, let's talk logistics, then.'

It was the Coast Guard's turn to present a plan. Martinez got up from his chair and fastened large maps to flip charts, as camera angles were adjusted so our remote guests could see.

'Can you get these in?' Martinez asked the agent at the console.

'Got them,' she said. 'How about you?' She looked up at the monitors.

'Fine.'

'I don't know. Maybe if you could zoom in more.'

She moved the camera in closer as Martinez got out a laser pointer. He directed its intense pink dot at the Maryland-Virginia line in the Chesapeake Bay that cut through Smith Island, just north of Tangier.