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“Whoooo… are you? Who, who… who, who…” Nick sang as they walked through one of the biocontainment labs at the Toronto branch of the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control , where Jeanie was meeting them. Nick could hear a stifled giggle coming from whom he assumed was Red, walking behind him.

“Where is it?” Jeanie asked, when they entered the room. She could not hide the look of anticipation at having the slightest break in the case.

“Here.” Nick held it out to her as if he were a child, showing his mom an “A” on a test.

“Is the lab ready for testing?” Julilly asked Jeanie.

“We’re all set.” Jeanie led them out of the office and through the halls towards the lab she had prepared. The first set of doors they entered was the clean room, and it was here that Jeanie put on her own Hazmat suit, a little sleeker then the bulky, yellow ones the others were still wearing, despite Nick’s complaints about driving with the mask on.

When they were all through the second set of doors, Nick handed Jeanie the bag with the confetti strip inside. Carefully, so as not to disturb the white powder, Jeanie pulled the confetti out using a pair of tweezers and painstakingly cut small pieces off, distributing them among several different Petri dishes and test tubes.

Without words, the three women took samples to different stations within the lab and set to work testing the samples to determine what it was that they were dealing with. Nick watched as Brian took a seat, flipping open his phone to make a strange call through his Hazmat mask. Nick hovered between Red and Julilly, trying to watch what it was they were doing.

After at least an hour, Jeanie piped up, “Well, this is highly unusual. I thought the testing was going to take hours, but it seems the first ones I ran yielded results that shed some light on the situation.”

“Hrm, it’s almost as if we’re in a story, instead of real life,” Nick reflected.

Jeanie looked at the blond agent and chortled. “Like this could be made up.” She sighed, amused, and continued, “It seems we are dealing with two different strands of the same containment. Which makes sense, after studying the cases,” mused Jeanie.

“I have discovered that the powder contains a virus. It appears to be a new strain of virus, manufactured, not one that occurs naturally. Its genetic structure has been modified to shorten its incubation period and increase its rate of transmission. What I can gather is the confetti was coated in the powder before being shot over the crowd. We are looking at hundreds of infected from that concert alone.”

“So those that were at the concert were infected first?” Red questioned.

“Bree-Anna had a front row seat,” Nick piped up. “I saw a video with her holding the ticket and was able to catch that detail.”

“She would have received a high dose of the powder if that was the case. But that doesn’t explain how she passed it on to her sister, who wasn’t at the concert, nor does it explain how others at the hospital are getting sick without having had any contact with the infected patients. Which is why I’m hypothesizing that there are two strains, perhaps a mutation of the original strain that has caused it to go airborne. Whether accidental or deliberate, an airborne mutation would give whoever did this the perfect way of transporting the toxin to thousands of others.”

Clearing his throat, Brian chimed in, “I spoke with Terrance’s mother, and she found his ticket. He was at the concert; our hunch was correct. She did tell me that he was sitting pretty far back from the stage; she remembered hearing him grumble about how bad his seat was. The confetti cannons didn’t shoot that far up into the stadium. He would have inhaled the powder, but from what you’ve said, it shouldn’t have taken hold of him as fast as it did…” He trailed off, ending his observation with a strong cough that forced him to take a seat or fall over.

“There had to be another way he had it enter his bloodstream,” Red added. “Perhaps…”

“Brian!” Julilly shouted, as she watched the agent fall off his chair and onto the floor, pulling off his Hazmat helmet and letting a stream of bloody vomit escape onto the floor.

“No!” Nick had started towards him, moving to lift his helmet and help the downed agent. Before he could, Red grabbed his hands. “He’s infected, Nick.”

Jeanie was already on the phone with the hospital to get an ambulance. The three agents stood there, as Brian lay curled in the fetal position, feeling untrained and helpless to aid him.


  


“Go faster!”

“I am!” Nick snapped back at Red. Studying her out of the corner of his eye, as much as the Hazmat suit allowed, Nick noticed the doctor’s odd panic. For someone who was known to be the calmest among the agents, it was a behavior Nick wasn’t used to witnessing.

Shrugging, he kept his eyes on the road and the ambulance he was following closely. The loud siren of the ambulance was disturbing him; nonetheless, it also allowed them to clear the roads and make it to the hospital in the shortest period of time.

Red almost jumped out of the bright yellow Hummer before it came to a halt behind the ambulance when they arrived to the hospital and rushed to the paramedics who were taking Brian inside.

“Stay away, ma’am!” one of the paramedics yelled at Red, who was running next to the stretcher upon which Brian was lying.

“I WON’T stay away!” Red shouted back at the paramedic. “He’s my colleague, and we both work for US government, so I suggest YOU stay away!”

“Shitballs,” Nick muttered to himself, as he watched the scene Red had created in a mere matter of seconds. He got out of the Hummer and rushed inside to her side, only to see that the paramedic had blocked her way as the others took Brian away.

“Sir, it’s alright,” he said calmly, as he pulled Red gently towards him by the arm. “Lady here is also a doctor, and we’re supposed to stay with the patient at all times.” He searched through the suit’s pockets and took out his HimTak ID to show the paramedic. He knew the guy wouldn’t know what it was, but he also knew that whenever he flipped the ID, FBI style, people would be a bit intimidated and leave them be. As much as he hated the government, it always worked on his behalf when he pulled his government agent act.

Relenting, the paramedic sighed and moved out of their way. “Follow the corridor, go through the doors on your left, and turn right. It’s the third room on your left.”

Nick gave a small nod. “Thank you.”

Unexpectedly silent and unusually stressed, Red followed Nick closely to the said room. Nick was starting to get quite uncomfortable, and it hit the peak point when they reached the room Brian was supposedly in.

“Should you go in first, maybe?” Nick offered sheepishly. Through his Hazmat suit, he could feel that his palms were sweating with anxiety, and he would be a rather happy person if he just stayed outside.

Against his expectations, Red shook her head. “No, I don’t want to face it alone.”

Sighing, Nick turned on the doorknob and stepped inside the room.

There lay Brian on the hospital bed, across the room. His eyes were shut, his jaw was stretched, and his body was stiff. His eyebrows were frowning, showing the immense amount of pain he was in, even though he was not fully conscious. Afraid to go any closer, but not having the determination to stop, Red and Nick walked across the room to take a good look at the CIA agent.

Red gasped as she took a full look at Brian. “Oh no… This can’t be happening.”

Unable to dart his eyes away from the agent’s body, Nick muttered almost inaudibly, “You gotta be fucking kidding me.”

Red grabbed his patient chart from the foot of the bed and flipped through the pages quickly, mumbling to herself some medical terms that Nick could not follow.

“I hate to say this...” she started, as she came next to the bed again and checked Brian’s skin closely. “His fever is 105, and…” She slowly motioned to a black swelling on his arm. “… he has the black pustules.” She checked the monitor next to the bed and eyed Brian’s chest, which was moving up and down faster than normal. “His breathing is labored. He…”

“He’s infected; I can tell,” Nick finished her sentence, distressed.

“We need to find a cure imme-“ Before Red could finish, Brian’s body went into sudden convulsions, causing them to startle.

“What do we do?” Nick cried, horrified, as he watched Brian’s body spasm uncontrollably. He reached for Brian’s flailing arm, trying to pin it down.

“Don’t try to hold him down. Just make sure he doesn’t fall off the bed,” Red directed. “It’ll pass.”

It was torture, having to stand by helplessly and do nothing while Brian twitched violently, his head thrown back, his adam’s apple bulging from his throat, his hands clenched into tight fists, which he’d drawn stiffly to his chest. But Red was right, and within minutes, the seizure passed. Brian’s frown seemed to ease down a little as his expression got softer. His lips parted slowly as he let out a soft moan.

“Help me turn him on his left side,” Red said softly. “In case he vomits.”

They did this, but Nick could see Brian’s eyelashes fluttering. Was he starting to wake up? “Brian?” he asked, bending over him.

“Nick…” Red whispered tentatively.

Ignoring her, he leaned in closer to Brian’s face. Brian let out a soft moan again, before a small syllable that was all too familiar escaped his lips.

“Ash…”

Nick stood up straight; his eyes grew wide from what he’d just heard. A small relief filled him as he realized Brian was not fully unconscious after all.

A small tug on his suit caught his attention. Turning back, he saw Red, pointing at something before him with widened eyes. Following her motion, Nick eyes fixed on the catheter bag hooked up on Brian.

It was filled with purple liquid.

“We don’t have much time,” Red spoke slowly. “We need to find a cure, an antidote, before the virus infects his whole system.” Her voice was shaking with panic. “I need to go back to the lab and work on an antidote; Jeanie must need help… Give me the car keys, Nick.”

Hardly paying any attention to what she was saying, Nick took out the keys from his pocket and tossed them towards her. He had only one mission on his mind. Searching the room with his eyes, he noticed Brian’s Hazmat suit in the opposite corner. He walked across the room and searched through the pockets and found what he was looking for.

He flipped the cell phone open once he was out of the room. Checking the recent calls, he saw the name he wanted to call. He hit the yes button, and before the second ring, a chirpy but delicate female voice answered.

“Hi baby!”

Nick winced. “Opal…”

“Nick?” Nick was surprised that Brian’s girlfriend, whose real name was Ashavari, had recognized his voice immediately. After all, they had only met each other once. “What’s wrong?”

“I have some news. But please, stay calm-“

A soft sob came from the other line. “Is he gone? Nick… tell me, is Brian… is he… dead?”

Taken aback, Nick answered quickly. “What? No, no, he’s still alive. Believe me. Just… he’s not in a good condition…”

“Nick, tell me the truth. What happened? Did he get infected with the virus?”

Pro, or con, of having a girlfriend as your colleague: They jump to conclusions and don’t dwell with reasons.

Nick found himself stuttering. “He… he really is alive. But yeah, we… we think he got somehow infected; we’re not entirely sure-“

“Does he have a fever? Any shortness of breath? Is he conscious? Did he vomit blood?”

A definite pro. Nick was almost certain she knew more than he did about the virus. When Brian had found the time to inform her was beyond him.

“Well, yeah… but he’s not fully conscious, not fully unconscious either… coming in and out of it…” He decided to keep the fact of Brian’s urine turning purple to himself.

“Oh my god… I told him to be extra careful…” Opal ranted, as Nick heard loud noises coming from her end of the line. From what he could tell, she was packing.

“Opal, please, please stay calm. Please. He’s in the hospital, and Red and several other doctors are working on an antidote. He’ll be fine; you’ll see. But just in case…”

He heard a door shut on the phone. “I’m already on my way, Nick. Thank you for letting me know. Please, take care of him for me. See you in a few hours.”

She hung up. Lowering the phone from his ear, Nick let out a soft sigh. “I will, Opal. Just hurry.”


  


The tires squealed loudly, as Red hit the brakes in front of the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control and got out of the Hummer as fast as the Hazmat suit allowed her. She was really starting to get claustrophobic in her suit; she felt her breath shortening as she rushed inside the building and made her way to the labs.

She didn’t know why she had felt such a strong urge to leave Brian’s side and rush back to the labs, but she was desperate to find something that would fight the virus. It was to their luck that the disease centre was fairly close to the hospital and the car had GPS. She was losing track of time, but she was quite sure it had taken her less than ten minutes to drive back to the lab.

She ran into Jeanie halfway. “Julianne? What are you doing back here?” Jeanie questioned in surprise. “Weren’t you supposed to be in the hospital with…”

“Agent’s Littrell’s infected,” Red said, breathless.

Jeanie sighed with sorrow as they hurried back to the labs. “I knew it. Does he show all the symptoms?”

“High fever, shortness of breath, delirium… he’s almost unconscious. And purple urine,” Red counted in one breath.

“Those are all the common symptoms for both types of the virus.” Jeanie opened the door to the lab and let Red in.

“He never took his helmet off!” Red exclaimed. “We’ve been extra careful with that, and I was with him all day.”

“Then his is the direct contact type,” Jeanie estimated.

“He has black pustules all over his body as well!” Red added. She wanted to smack herself; how could she forget that?

Jeanie nodded knowingly. “Definitely the direct contact type. The victims who got the airborne kind didn’t have any of those.”

“Clear a lab for me,” Red demanded, her voice cracking. “I have to work on an antidote immediately. We can’t afford to lose him.”

Jeanie looked at her sympathetically. “I know, honey. I already started working on an antidote. Take a look at it here.” She motioned towards a computer. She typed something on the keyboard, and a microscope image of the virus infecting a blood cell popped up on the screen.

“See?” Jeanie asked Red, who was studying the image carefully. “If we can develop the inactive form of virus, we can create a vaccine for the victims that were exposed to the virus. That is, of course, if we can treat them soon after exposure.”

Red shook her head with disappointment. “That won’t help Agent Littrell at all. He already shows the symptoms. I just hope he’s not already in the terminal phase...” She trailed off, shuddering.

The thought of it alone made her weak in the knees. She felt dizzy.

“I know.” Jeanie nodded. “Another way is finding an immune person and producing an antibody from their blood system.” She patted Red’s arm supportively. “We’re almost certain that will work perfectly for the victims with symptoms.”

Red pulled away a little, looking at her apologetically. “Almost certain doesn’t help me, Jeanie. You don’t understand. We can’t lose Agent Littrell. We just can’t. I can’t let that happen.”

“We’re working hard on this antidote, Julianne,” Jeanie assured. “The results will come in in no time, and we’ll be able to cure Agent Littrell; I promise.” She looked right into her eyes. “You have my word.”

Relenting, Red let out a soft sigh. “Is there a way I can be of any help for the antidote?”

Jeanie smiled understandingly. “You can help Agent Littrell. We need to slow down the spread of the virus to gain more time. We came up with some self-made medication that we think would help us on that note.”

“Can we try blood transfusion?” Red suggested.

“Most definitely. I’ll call the hospital immediately to find the same blood type of Agent Littrell, so we can follow the routine blood transfusion. It will clear his blood enough for us to make it on time for the antidote to be injected into his body.”

“I’ll head back to the hospital to make sure they run the process as planned,” Red agreed. She was racking her brain hard to find other solutions.

“It would help if we try to remove the pustules from his skin, probably…” she continued.

Jeanie acknowledged silently.

“I should go back,” Red said finally and left the lab hurriedly. She felt like she was virtually useless with Brian’s situation, but she had to try to help Brian, try the medication Jeanie had come up with in order to keep him alive.

She arrived back at the hospital in no time. Making her way to Brian’s room, she hesitated for a moment before going inside, afraid to see his condition. Taking a deep breath and hoping that at least he wasn’t worse than he’d been, she walked in.

Nick was standing by his side, studying his expression carefully. Red walked towards him and put a hand on his arm.

“How is he holding up?” she asked slowly.

“Been going in and out of it for awhile. His fever has been stabilized, but didn’t go down,” he said briefly. “A doctor came in a couple of minutes ago and said they’ll try a blood transfusion.”

Red nodded. “Jeanie and I thought it would help give us time until the antidote is ready.”

Nick’s face beamed. “So there’s an antidote?”

“They’re still working on it, but everyone’s positive it’ll cure him… and the other victims with the symptoms.” Red looked around and saw a tray of medical equipment. Thanking Jeanie inwardly, she made her way towards the end table and grabbed the small scalpel.

She wasn’t going to let fate take its toll on her this time around. No way. Twice was more than enough. She had failed with Drums, and there had been no chance of saving Shazam. Her eyes welled up with tears as she remembered the past events, the lost colleagues. The worst thing was, in the current situation, things were far worse from one aspect. She had to watch Brian slip away from her hands slowly, if the antidote didn’t come to rescue on time, or if the current medication didn’t slow down the virus. It all came down to the reaction of the virus to the antidote and whether or not the right treatment arrived in time.

“What are you doing?” Nick’s question took her out of her thoughts.

She gazed at Nick. “I’m going to try removing the dead skin and these black pustules.” She eyed Brian’s skin and realized that the pustules had increased quite noticeably in the time she was at the lab.

She shook her head slowly and leaned towards Brian’s body, only to realize her hands were trembling. She stood up straight and closed her eyes, cursing to herself inwardly. This was not the time to get emotional, nor to let her own failures affect Brian’s recovery… if he could recover, that was.

“Jewel…” Nick asked softly, “are you alright?”

Not taking her eyes off Brian’s figure, Red nodded slowly. She had to be strong. She had to be strong for Brian. She wasn’t going to let some stupid virus take him away. Not this time around. Not Brian. He was going to be healthy again. He was going to beat this disease.

“I’m gonna kick this virus’s ass, Littrell,” she muttered slowly, as she leaned towards his body again. “Just hang in there.”


  


Nick slumped back in the seat, letting his eyes drift shut. One thing he hadn’t counted on was the overwhelming guilt he’d feel for leaving Brian back at the hospital like he had. If only…

“Hey, you okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“He’s gonna be okay, Nick; ya gotta believe that,” Julilly said quietly.

“I do, but… I mean, shit. I dunno, it’s scary having it this close; it coulda been any of us… but, I mean, Brian… we didn’t get along, but still.”

“We aren’t gonna do him any good just sitting there, watching him like that, you know? We have to keep moving, keep fighting. Make the person who started this pay,” Julilly announced, determination in her voice.

Nick sighed, lowering his head and opening his eyes. They were on their way back to the arena to see if they could possibly find anything else. The mood was now grim, compared to the first time they’d gone there. It was a matter of life or death, at this point.

Yeah, a little too close to home for his liking.

Julilly was right, though: they needed to keep working. He’d be damned if he let this continue. Someone was going to pay for this.


  