The Genesis Plague (2010)

kick in the balls?’ the second marine said. ‘Finding this douchebag and having him die like this.’
    ‘You’re not helping matters. So please shut up,’ Levin snapped. Frantic now, he was trying to figure out what else he could do. Whatever was making Al-Zahrani haemorrhage internally might be visible under a microscope, he reasoned. With the constant threat of weaponized biological agents turning up in Iraq, Levin’s acclimation training had also included advanced microscopy. So if he could isolate and identify the culprit …
    Collecting himself, Levin swiftly unpacked the battery-powered microscope, which resembled an espresso maker - a state-of-the-art tool developed exclusively for the US military in response to the growing need to assess bioterror threats in the field. Next, he turned on his laptop and connected the microscope’s USB cable. Within seconds, the operating system identified the plug-in device and launched its associated software application.
    With renewed vigour, Levin pulled on a fresh pair of Nitrile gloves and peeled open a lancet. Grabbing a glass specimen slide, he went over to Al-Zahrani, pricked his finger and squeezed a blood drop on to the slide.
    Without warning, Al-Zahrani’s wounded hand arced up and clamped down on Levin’s wrist. Levin reeled, tried to pull free from the iron grip. Their eyes met and Levin noticed immediately the tiny veins webbing out from the prisoner’s irises. There was raw terror in those dark eyes and for just that moment it so satisfied Levin that he couldn’t help but grin.
    The marine reached over and yanked Al-Zahrani’s hand away. ‘Looks like he’s still got some fight in him.’
    Levin hastened back to the table, placed a second glass slide over the first, and gently sandwiched the specimen into a dime-sized splotch. He centred the specimen over the microscope’s diffusion screen. Then he used the software controls to adjust magnification. A darkfield condenser lit the specimen from the sides, so that bands of light fluoresced the blood’s living components.
    Since viper venom attacks blood cells, Levin expected to find visible proof in the specimen: sphero-echinocytes, or compromised red blood cells that had lost their definitive doughnut shape and sprouted short, blunt spicules. As he adjusted the resolution, he immediately spotted anomalies. And the damage wasn’t limited to the red blood cells.
    Many of the red cells were indeed misshapen and coagulated into clumps, plus many spiny platelets’ and ovoid white cells’ membranes had also been compromised and were lysing - proof that a foreign invader was aggressively killing the cells from the inside out.
    ‘What in God’s name…?’
    He set the microscope to its maximum magnification. In micro-scale, an invading force - definitely not venom - was engaged in a fight to the death. But he’d need an electron microscope to effectively analyse the virions. Whatever it was, its primary objective was plainly evident: replication.
    Dread poured over him. ‘Jesus,’ he gasped.
    ‘Everything all right, Doc?’ the guard nervously inquired.
    A pause.
    ‘No,’ Levin replied grimly, his complexion ashen. Would the troops’ inoculations protect against this elusive killer? If not, the repercussions were unimaginable. ‘My God, we could all be infected.’
    ‘Infected?’ The marine shifted uneasily. ‘Wh-what do you mean by that, Doc?’
    But before the medic could respond, the sound of gunfire pierced the night.

50
LAS VEGAS
    Agent Flaherty accelerated the rented silver Dodge Charger and smoothly manoeuvred around a tractor trailer that was moving sluggishly north up Interstate 515. He checked the display on the dashboard-mounted GPS unit the rental agency had provided. Only eight miles to go, he thought.
    The GPS software still registered Our Savior in Christ Cathedral as an unknown parcel along North Hollywood Boulevard. So Flaherty chose a random street number that was in the same range as the cathedral. Plenty of signboards along the interstate pointed to another major landmark immediately north of the cathedral, which did show in the GPS’s outdated database: Nellis Air Force Base. Isn’t that convenient for Stokes, thought Flaherty.
    In the passenger seat, Brooke held Flaherty’s laptop and was studying an enlargement of one of the pictures transferred from his BlackBerry. Even when they’d driven past the opulent resorts and casinos along the Strip, her focus hadn’t