Chapter 7: Finally We Got One.
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Max Brown had been Josh’s father’s friend for many years and he had experienced many things in life with him that are only experienced with friends. Now he had left Max alone to deal with those matters of national security that only certain type of person can carry out. Max had been called to the health protection agency headquarters to complete a full investigation into some strange and unusual deaths, unlike any anyone had seen before. This was one a weird job but somebody had to do it. Basic spying was always assigned to those who were good liars and everything else went to those who had specialties’ and talents. Max was the first point of contact and had a direct line to the government. He always had to investigate threats to the national security of the country. Chemical weapons and biological weapons were his first priorities along with unexplained deaths. It was common for him to investigate deaths caused by anthrax infected letters, deaths he had to conceal to prevent mass panic but it was unusual to find cases such as these, where the victim appeared to be under some sort of parasitic control. There were apparently forty victims in total who had all been ill, terminally or otherwise, and had died from natural causes or accidents. This seemed to be the main link between them. However the information they had obtained at Coroners Office showed that the common link was that they had all been given an MRI scan recently somewhere in the country.
Max charted the locations of the recent parasite victims. They seemed to be spread out across the country but were centred in just one county; twenty four of the dead were from Nottinghamshire. He brought up a list of all the MRI units in the county and cross referenced it with a list of patients who had been scanned recently. He found Josh's name and Chloe's name on the list. Max was frustrated; he couldn't just wander around to people’s homes and check if they were carrying a parasite, he thought, there must be a way of telling who was infected. Musing on this, Max found Dr Bernstein his office at the health protection agency headquarters.
"Dr Bernstein, I’ve read your reports and your analysis of the parasite victims. Is there a way to tell if someone is infected?" Max came straight to the point.
"Well, there may be a way by testing the dopamine levels. I think they would change to allow the parasite to control its host," Dr Bernstein explained.
"How would the dopamine levels affect the host?" asked Max.
"The increased dopamine levels could explain the erratic behaviour of this gentleman who attacked two young people in the car park in Nottingham," Dr Bernstein said looking at his wall chart. Max looked carefully at the reports and then noticed a link; it was Chloe and Josh who had been attacked. They had also been involved in an attack by a man the day before.
"I think I have something, or should I say someone," Max sounded excited as he opened his briefcase and sifted through piles of paperwork, eventually pulling out a phone number. He went through the list of people who had scans again and then phoned his contact in the police force to get the information he needed. Within minutes his contact rang back and he had a match with a man on the list currently in custody.
"Frank Boers is being held at Oxclose police station. If I get him can you test him or do you want to go to him?" Max asked.
"Yeah, I need a laboratory. They can bring him here, we’ve got shrinks who can observe him or even sedate him if we need to," Dr Bernstein explained.
"I'll see you in an hour with our man then. How long will the tests take?"
"About an hour," Dr Bernstein replied.
Max got in his car and drove quickly towards Nottingham and the Health Protection Agency. He needed clearance and phoned the transfer request through while he was driving. Very quickly his in-car computer showed that the transfer had been approved and started printing out the transfer papers. His little digital computer was invaluable.
There was a shipload of paperwork even though it was the minimum he could get away with. The prisoner was apparently been held for psychiatric evaluation as he was a family man who liked gardening, fishing and was respected member of the Allotment Association. This was until he was diagnosed with cancer and was underwent treatment at the QMC. His behaviour had changed after the last of his Chemotherapy sessions. He had developed an apparent lack of memory, and a disregard for his family. He had attacked his younger daughter in a sexual frenzy and was being held in custody for the attack on his daughter rather than for the assault on Josh. Max wasn't particularly looking forward to handling this man but had a car full of equipment and gadgets that could restrain him if he got out of hand.
At the police station he presented the custody Sergeant with his identification and the release papers for the prisoner. The Sergeant made a quick phone call and the prisoner was escorted to the front. He handed Max the prisoner’s personal possessions and yet more paperwork to sign. Max put his cuffs on the man who was cooperating without any coercion Max was relieved to see. Max had brought his American-style ankle and handcuffs. He thought that it wasn’t worth taking chances. He had the luxury set with a little pole to walk your prisoner without them grabbing at you. Max had no problems putting the prisoner in the car and he drove swiftly towards the health protection agency local operations unit. After an uneventful drive they reached the health protection unit which was set up just outside Nottingham in an old disused private hospital. As soon as the HPA had suspected that something was amiss they set up a temporary base of operations so that they could operate without risk of contamination in public hospitals and primary health care. Army labs and equipment had been hurriedly flown in to tackle the problem. This, of course, meant they were more conspicuous than they would have liked. Reporters were even now hovering around the hospital to try and get a story. They knew something was happening, but weren't sure what. The nice thing though, Max thought, was he had plenty of security when he got back to base.
CCTV
Subject has been acquired; we are track switching to military satellite number five two seven, tracking.
Max was only moments away, just a few more turns down a country lane, when out of nowhere a lorry jumped the lights and Max was forced to use his emergency brake, slamming it to the floor as the lorry loomed closer. He managed to steer and brake to a halt with just enough room to avoid a collision. Shaken, he got out and saw that traffic had come to a standstill. He saw that all traffic lights were on green. It had been a technology problem and no one's fault. Traffic cautiously began to move and a police car pulled up to deal with the traffic light failure. Max drove on and arrived back at HQ where He led his still compliant prisoner through the old mansion house to what had been the old ballroom. Equipment had been set up to test and analyse his every aspect. The prisoner had been told he was being assessed to determine his psychiatric fitness for trial and to check his physical fitness while they were there. The army, as you would expect, had everything; portable x-rays, an MRI scanner and a full working lab, everything in fact every budding scientist could dream of. When Max entered the room he saw it was humming with energy. Dr Bernstein had organised a full medical including blood tests. It was so well organised that it was as if the prisoner was going along a conveyor belt of workers, each one carrying out a different task and recording the data. Dr Bernstein took the bloods and started working on the tests, plus a few extras, as quickly as he could. An x ray proved a little more conclusive. Suddenly it seemed as though everyone was talking at once and looking at the x-rays.
"Well, we got a live one," Dr Bernstein wore an expression mixed of joy, fear and excitement all at the same time. They would call it Bernstein parasite or Bernstein syndrome he thought delightedly.
The x-rays showed the network and its route, which travelled the full-length of the body. Assistants started taking blood samples to send it off to another lab firm to confirm the tests they were running at this one.
"We’ll run an MRI and see what’s happening while the parasite is in there. Please retrieve the full MRI readings from Hastings database for comparison," Bernstein ordere
d.
"The next step will be to find a cure no doubt," Max prompted the doctor.
"Well yes, we need to scan all recent MRI patients to find the affected ones before the parasite takes hold," Dr Bernstein explained.
The man was still fully cooperative and compliant with all requests to the extreme and laid perfectly still inside the MRI scanner whilst it scanned him.
Then out of nowhere he started to fit and convulse, his hands, arms and legs shaking and head thrashing from side to side. Doctors and medical staff frantically attempted to stop the scan, to treat the man for his seizure, but to no avail. He died there in the scanner, monitoring equipment beeping frantically to signal the cessation of life signs. Medical staff tried desperately to shut the equipment down, finally succeeding.
"What happened?" Dr Bernstein asked, looking at the army radiography technicians.
"I don't know, sir, but whatever happened, it wiped all the information from our hard drives," the technicians replied.
"All the x-rays?” asked Bernstein.
"Yes, the x-rays have gone, everything’s gone including the operating system," the technician replied, a look of astonishment on his face.
"Autopsy now please,” Dr Bernstein ordered. “I need to know the cause of death. Take blood and tissue samples straightaway."
Shaken, Bernstein continued his blood work analysis, trying to get information from what seemed like another dead end. They had proved one thing though; infected people could be indentified by using x-rays. Bernstein frantically worked through the blood analysis and found absolutely nothing. The computer showed him results that basically read that there was nothing wrong or out of balance.
This created a quandary for Max. He couldn't just go round x-raying people to see if they were infected. Suddenly an idea stole into his consciousness. He had come up with a brilliant plan.
"Dr Bernstein, would you like another live parasite to work on?" Max asked.
"Why yes of course," came the expected reply.
"I propose we go through the MRI scan list and we call everyone for x-rays as well as scans." Max suggested.
"It's timing,” Dr Bernstein explained shaking his head, “it would take too long. We don't know how this thing is transferred. We need information now and we could do with going public."
"That isn't an option, not yet anyway,” Max insisted. “I have protocols to follow," He needed to have answers for the politicians or he would be looking for a job within a week. The plain hard facts were that there is that a certain amount of social control was needed and the less the public saw of it, the better. If people begin to think the politicians aren't doing their jobs someone else would get power and Max’s bosses would not tolerate that. Dr Bernstein agreed to get his team scanning people who had recently had scans as quickly as possible.