H10N1 Read Free

the sick to the Center, flatbed trucks hauled the dead to makeshift crematoriums. Both the CDC and World Health Organization had urged other countries not to resort to mass graves. This pathogen was way too virulent to be buried in the ground. Taeya wasn’t even confident that incineration was a hundred percent effective.
    Darryl from security skidded to a halt at her door, dancing impatiently from foot to foot. She waved him in and pointed to a chair. He stood as Taeya continued her telephone conversation.
    “Then tell Markham to reduce his hourly body count.”
    She watched Darryl drift around her office, feigning interest in the pictures hanging on the wall: the snapshot of her brother and parents dwarfed by a giant redwood in Muir Woods, Mai standing outside a Red Cross tent near Calang in Sumatra. Darryl hovered at the photograph of Taeya and her husband Randall, standing in front of a pagoda in Fukutsu. She was wearing a tank top in the picture, and she was sure Darryl was checking out her breasts.
    He was supposedly head of security, but from what she observed, he spent most of his time hiding out in the old neonatal wing. He wore his uniform too tight, accentuating his bulging biceps, preening in front of the younger nurses.
    “Look!” she barked into her headset. The outburst startled Darryl and he stepped away from the picture. “This isn’t a race with New Jersey to see who can dispose of the most corpses. You tell him this is my last warning.” She disconnected without waiting for a reply.
    What were they thinking? The whole purpose of incineration was to destroy. If they didn’t reduce the contaminated tissue to ash, the possibility for mutation occurred. Then they’d have still another viral strain on their hands. Taeya had argued, futilely, that they continue picking up corpses reported by the suicide centers, but Doctor Sherman insisted they didn’t have the manpower for such a monumental task. In the end, he decided that at the rate Manhattan was burning, all the corpses would eventually be obliterated. Had she actually called him a moron?
    Darryl laid his hands on her desk and leaned forward, going for the dramatics. “Doctor Sanchez, we’ve got a problem in pathology.”
    “I saw.” Most likely, he was referring to the corpse she’d seen out on the sidewalk. Johnson hadn’t wasted any time dissecting this latest casualty. “Maybe it was a drive-by dump.”
    “No. There’s nothing on our cameras. Plus, we got a guy who says he was there when this dude collapsed. Johnson’s sure we’ve got a new one.”
    “I’ll bet. He’s probably already named it.” She looked at her watch. “Okay, I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes. Tell him I’ll be down in an hour.”
    She tried herding Darryl toward the door, but he had more news.
    “We had a real nasty one down in the lobby this morning. This woman had three different scarves tied around her face. And she was wearing this insulated parka like the Eskimos wear. Can you imagine? In that heat?” Darryl puffed out his cheeks and blew. “When the data clerk gave her the green light for Long Island, she refused. She was afraid Brookhaven was contaminated, too. Said she wanted in here, where it’s safe.” Darryl waved an arm at Taeya’s office. “She offered to sweep floors. Anything. When the data clerk said we weren’t hiring, she slashed the computer’s plasma screen.”
    “Where is she now?” Taeya asked.
    “I had a couple of the boys toss her into a red-code ward.”
    “What?”
    “Believe me, Doctor Sanchez, you don’t want a psycho like her in your Brookhaven colony.”
    Taeya pressed her fingers into her forehead and rubbed. Who wouldn’t be hysterical in a situation like this? If Darryl suddenly found himself out in that madness, what would he do?
    But there was no point in trying to coax some humanity from Darryl. Chances were, that trait didn’t exist. As she ushered him out, she spotted a man in low-slung blue jeans and