CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR – In sickness and in stealth
The Lake Cumberland lab culture confirmed the patient, Mayes, carried infectious agent H7N9. State mandates required that the patient be placed in an isolation facility, and that Standard Precautions be elevated to Transmission-Based Precautions. The patient was moved from 218 to 240, a specially equipped AIIR, meaning an airborne infection isolation room, which room’s air handler would exchange the air twelve times per hour through a HEPA filtration system. Health care workers assigned to an AIIR followed a strict protocol. A disposable gown, disposable gloves, and disposable facemask must be donned before entering the room, and disposed of before leaving. Visitation by anyone, even an immediate family member, was prohibited.
Grace Clephane, RN, checked the patient chart hung outside 240. In large red letters, III.B.3 appeared at the top of the chart. III.B.3 alerted her that Transmission-Based Precautions were required. She put on the gear and entered the room.
“How you feeling, Charlie?”
“Not much better. Still having a tough time catching my breath.”
Nurse Clephane checked the monitoring system, the drip bag, inserted an oral thermometer, and emptied the bedpan. She waited a minute, retrieved the thermometer, and made a mental note to add 102.3 on the chart outside the room. She was about to dispose of her precautionary gear when she noticed a half filled jar on the nightstand.
“What’s this, Charlie?”
“Oh, that’s my liquid I take for dry-mouth. It really helps prevent chapping.” Charlie tried his best to remember what his wife had rehearsed him to say.
“How did it get in here?”
“Tammy, that’s my wife, she brought it in.”
“Now Charlie. No one is allowed to visit you. You were told that, dangit. Did she touch you at any time when she was in here?”
“No.” He lied.
“She still may have carried bacteria with her when she left. What is it exactly, this in the jar?”
He wracked his brain trying to remember what Tammy told him to say. “It’s just mineral water from down in McCreary.” He thought that was about right. Frankly he didn’t feel like caring.
Grace thought a moment. She wondered how this man’s wife got by the nurse station. She couldn’t take the jar out of the room. She decided to make a note on the chart that would warn the next shift of the jar. She washed her hands in the patient’s bathroom, disposed of the garments in the special hazardous materials container, and left the room. She made the notations on the chart, then immediately walked a direct route to the nurse station and barked out her disapproval. She then marched to her supervisor’s office and told her about the jar in 240.
“Does it look like a Ball jar?” The supervisor queried.
“Yes, I’d say that is exactly what it is.”
“I know what it is. Leave it there. It might help. Did the patient say what it is, by the way?”
“Mineral water from McCreary to help him with dry-mouth.”
“The supervisor laughed. Ok. Just let it be. How did it get in there?”
“His wife snuck it in there.”
“Now that’s a problem.”
+ + + + +
FACT: The Mehras were using the last name of Singh; first names; Rakesh, Divya, and Rhea. Khalil and Ankur had agreed on that easily.
FACT: All four targets were at one time together in Orlando.
FACT: The Dobbelaere woman’s last provable location was Knoxville, and the teenage target, Namanda, a/k/a Rhea, accompanied Dobbelaere on the flight from Orlando to Knoxville.
Those were the only factual details thus far. Just because the Dobbelaere woman texted that the parents were in Florida and that she and Rhea were in the hills of Kentucky could not be taken as factual. It was a lead, not a fact.
Akanksha Ankur had repeatedly attempted to triangulate the Dobbelaere cell phone, and come up empty each time. Either the phone was disabled, or the phone was in a dead zone. If the latter were the case, it would lead credence to the supposition that the phone was located in the sparsely populated, mountainous region like that of a great portion of Kentucky. On the other hand, Khalil’s attempts to text Dobbelaere, using Rahul’s phone, were not received, indicating the target’s phone was possibly disabled. Ankur chose to believe the phone had been disabled. But why? And by whom? Could it be that Dobbelaere had been informed that Rahul had gone missing? Was she having a change of heart? Had the Mehras caught on to her deception? Or were other forces at work, such as the NSA or Homeland Security? Perplexed, Ankur left his office and returned to oversee the kitchen operation.
At 9:45, shortly before closing the restaurant for the night, Ankur’s cell buzzed. It was a text message from one of the Orlando operatives. ‘Rakesh Singh, Budget Rental Car, white Taurus, FL tag ETY-F29, date 6, 10, cash, future drop St. Louis, date unknown, uncooperative agent on tracking, will try again at shift change.’
At last, Ankur thought, it won’t take long now.
Mike Littleton noticed the blinking box at the lower right corner of his monitor. He clicked on it, and the Mehra file opened. The new insertion was an exact duplication of what Ankur had received less than a minute prior. Littleton transmitted the message to his night supervisor, who in turn printed out the message and walked it to the communications room. “Get Budget on the hook and have them track this vehicle. Time critical,” he said to the man at one of the many phone banks. “Report back to me at once when you have the vehicle located.”
+ + + + +
Adele called Joshua at shortly after 9:00 pm. He was surprised it was her voice on the line, for it wasn’t her usual number.
“First things first, kiddo. Jack is worried sick about that dad gum car. He told me to cut out some words, so if you don’t understand, say something. He has an off duty blue on his way down there with a replacement vehicle. Have dad get anything that belongs to him, or to others, out of the car and leave the keys in the ignition. The turnaround is going to be quick. You won’t even see the guy…..there will just be another car left there…..one that is reliable and less modern. Did you get all that?”
“I get it. Hang on, I’m going to tell someone to go find dad and tell him the whole story. Be right back.” Joshua made sure Namanda, and then Amit understood the scenario before returning to the call. “Ok, I’m back. What is going down?”
“That’s all on that, except when the car shows up, make sure you check the glove box. What a day, huh?”
“Adele, I started thinking about the attorney you and Pat talked with. If he has the manual I gave Pat, it is wrong. I need to finally determine what the ingredients will be. For sure the cactus is out and hemp is in. There are a couple of other little things to modify also. I’m just not sure what to do about the limpet.”
“I hear you. Yeah, I know. Let’s not let the tyranny of urgency rush us. Don’t let it bother you all that much. The attorney will outline a program in the next couple of days. Nothing needs to be finally decided before then. Now look, hun, when the car shows up, check the glove box, and call me back. You see this number I’m calling you from, right?”
“Yeah, you surprised me with it.”
“Jack’s idea. Call me later.” She hung up.
It was, according to Joshua’s watch, 9:43 when the exchange car was climbing the entry road. He gathered the Mehras together and led them out the front door. A few seconds later the car appeared at the top of the rise, pulled aside the rental car, and the driver quickly jumped out. He waved to the people watching, but did not speak. In less than ten seconds he was driving the white Taurus back down the mountain road.
They approached the new car…..a Dodge Intrepid, purple, four door, with Kentucky plates. Joshua opened the glove box and was not surprised by the first gift, which was a cheap cell phone. The handgun, a .38 snub nose, loaded, was very much a surprise. There was also a box of bullets. Joshua had a shotgun, rarely used, in the loft. What he didn’t possess was a rifle, a longer range weapon. He didn’t
like guns, and hoped there would never be the need to use any weapon to protect himself.
Jerry Johnson, the off-duty Lexington patrolman, drove the hunted car to the Parkers Lake intersection, turned south on 27, then turned east on lightly traveled 1045. The plan was to make it to Corbin, park the car at the Days Inn, where another car and driver would be waiting to take him back to Lexington. He didn’t mind the three hundred mile round trip, especially with the two Benjamins that Meadors had stuffed in his pocket. But he knew the operation was under the rug, and if it turned sour there would be a major hand slap or worse from the department. Meadors wasn’t in the clear either.
Budget Rental Car furnished the NSA operative the code to track the car of interest. The op plugged in the code, waited, then a map appeared showing the location of the vehicle, which was shown as a white circle on the map. While he was zooming out in order to show a larger geographic area, he noticed the white circle moved slightly. He sat back in his chair and watched. In ten seconds the circle moved again, and again, and again. Each move was about ten seconds apart. The car was on the move, travelling east, a little past midway between Somerset and Corbin, Kentucky. He printed out the map and walked it to his supervisor, who immediately looked up a directory of phone numbers, picked up the phone and dialed the Kentucky State Police headquarters in Frankfort.
Johnson pulled into the Days Inn at 11 pm. The fog had settled in and the parking area surrounding the motel was cast in an orange hue from the security lamppost lighting. A car flashed on its lights briefly. That would be Ramirez. Johnson jumped into the waiting car, and as they were pulling out of the motel property, which was located at an Interstate 75 intersection, there were three different sets of lit up squad cars converging on the area. Johnson looked back over his shoulder as the blue lights united in order to set up a roadblock.
“Have any trouble?” Ramirez asked
“Nada. But there was something strange. At the car exchange I saw Jesus and three of his disciples.”
“You are one weird dude, Johnson.”
+ + + + +
Joshua called Adele at 10:15. He had waited to call her until the Mehras had retired for the evening.
“Thanks for the phone and the other surprise gift, which I hope I will never need to use.”
“Jack is just making sure. Joshua, since we last spoke I received a call from a convenience store clerk in Somerset. The guy’s name is Cecil. He has a friend that is in isolation at LCH, and diagnosed with the avian flu. I gave that clerk a jar of NIL. That happened before Pat and I came back to deal with Tracy. Since then the clerk kept half the NIL for himself since he wasn’t feeling all that hot, and then had his friend’s wife sneak the rest into the hospital. Here’s the clerks cell number. I think you should follow up to see if the NIL is helping either person.”
Joshua jotted down the number. “Now that we both have secure lines, hopefully, did you mention to Jack about the name change?”
“Yes. He can get that done, if necessary. Joshua, I regret having set up this whole thing about Namanda and her parents coming here. I had no idea this would put such a wrinkle in our plans. Jack is not a happy camper about it, and at first he bowed his back about helping the Mehras any further. He’s already spent some cash and taken some risks which could come back to haunt him.”
“I can understand how he feels. The way I see it, we could take two different stances: shoo the Mehras away and let the chips fall where they may; or continue to do our best to protect them. One thing you should know. Namanda has an attachment to me that is beyond what it should be.”
“She’s fourteen, Joshua. It happens to every fourteen year old girl. She will get over that in a jiffy, but don’t you encourage her. You hear me?”
“Don’t worry about that. Adele, you said there was more to talk about. What’s up?”
“Well, Pat presented an idea which is way beyond what we’ve ever planned. She brought up how Gatorade has filled the coffers at the University of Florida. She then proposed involving the University of Kentucky as a co-patent holder with you, Jack and me. She says the Ag department at UK has many of the NIL ingredients already, so that production would not be a major waiting game. She also said that she has access to the State Educational Fund, and that buying what the Ag department would need is not beyond reason. Then she said we should first obtain the patent, set up our legal situation, and then let the University deal with the FDA.”
Joshua did not respond at first. Then, “Let me think about that. I see that it could have some merit. If it could be worked out that I could continue with what I would like to see accomplished, it is worth considering. You and I both know we weren’t clear on how to expand. We want to obtain new distributors, but the waiting that it would take to harvest mature ingredients was going to be painfully slow. Regardless, the phase we are in now is building testimonials. I want to keep pursuing that, so remember, we have Nebraska and Michigan to deal with this coming week. Let me think overnight about Pat’s idea and I’ll get back with you tomorrow. Pat asked me to call her tomorrow so I may talk to her about it more then.”
“So what are you going to do about the Mehras?” Adele asked.
“Do you remember hearing Patricia say that she’d like Namanda on her campaign team?”
“Sure.”
“That may not be a bad idea if the Mehras would agree to it. Namanda can’t stay in this area. There is nothing for her here. Pat said she knew of a safe house in Frankfort. Think about that overnight and we’ll talk tomorrow.” Joshua hung up before Adele could respond. Turnabout is fair play.