“Just say fat bitch in the moo moo.”
“What does cow sound have to do with this woman?”
“Never mind.”
The rifle report, “Cow down. Ok, nine to go. Make that eight. Ah, 7.”
Shin called the next target, “Target from the stewardess back. We will work from the rear.”
“She’s called a flight attendant, Shin. You’re so sexist.”
“I don’t think of myself as sexy. Do you think woman do?”
“Dude, never mind. I can’t even bust on you because you don’t understand most of the references.”
“I am very intelligent. I graduated at the top of…”
“No life stories, just sight for me.”
Shaw was mopping up the last two infected while Priest made his way to the SUV. He peered inside to see a frightened woman and two men in business suits with Glocks in their hands. She looked up at Priest with a total shell-shocked look. “Dr. Costa?” Priest asked.
The woman just looked at him for a long moment. She looked as if she was waiting for her mind to re-engage with reality. She finally nodded yes slowly. “Ma’am, we need to get you out of here and to the CDC lab in Dearborn. Could you please unlock the door?” She looked at him with sheer terror and violently shook her head no.
“Doctor, I know things are a little crazy right now, but I’m going to need to you to trust me. We have men here to protect you, but we need to get you out of here and in the air to Dearborn quickly.” She still shook her head, but much slower this time. One of the men in the suits hit the unlock button and climbed out. He nodded to Priest.
“David Kennedy, Agent with the Secret Service, this is my partner Thomas Bolin and yes, Dr. Isabelle Costa. They assigned us to the doctor and tasked with making sure she met up with your team and with providing security for her as she traveled to the CDC in Dearborn. We had two others with us who entered the terminal to get coffee. They never returned. And before you ask, yes, one of them had the keys or we would have driven off. Those crazy people swarmed us so quickly, jumping in and locking the door was all we had time to do.”
Priest was going to ask how his team got there, but they needed to get the doctor out of there. “Doctor, are you ok?”
“Yes… Yes, I am fine. I have never seen such aggression. I have seen what this virus does. I have treated people with similar symptoms but never seen a level of aggression such as this.”
“Do you believe that the original virus was tampered with or changed in some way?” Priest added.
“It had to have been. This behavior is nothing like I have seen in early test cases.”
Priest cocked his head, “I’m confused. I thought an alliance with rogue players from terrorist countries created this. We just stormed their lab facility about a week ago. No one has seen any of the test results. ISIS snatched the research and fled to Dearborn.”
“I
f ISIS stole the virus and transported it to Dearborn, I am unaware of that, however, you were wrong about where the virus originated from.”
Priest and the team exchanged looks with each other. Priest’s demeanor changed slightly, which Dr. Costa noticed. He didn’t enjoy being on the outside of the bubble when it came to intel. So far, this entire mission had been a lesson in shitty intel, and Priest was not happy about it. “Ok, we need to move back to the hangar we just cleared of infected. Tell us the rest on the way.”
Dr. Costa continued, “The virus originated as a joint effort between German and Dutch scientists. They coordinated together to develop a medicine to combat ALS and Alzheimer’s. They created the original formula to reach people whom scientists thought could still be reachable. They created the medicine to open communication pathways with patients, who, up to this point, couldn’t be communicated with. It was realized later that it could be modified to condition the mind or serve as a proxy to allow suggestion or commands. All the moons had aligned for this to happen.”
“How so?”
“Well, the patient’s mind must be intact, they may be low on the proteins which help build the body’s immunity which could otherwise fight against the virus along with some other factors.”
“So, I assume that the crackpots in Turkey, changed the original recipe to artificially bridge that gap and bring about the factors needed, which now allows the infected person to respond to suggestion,” Priest inquired.
“Yes, that is correct. From what I just witnessed; whatever changes they made to the formula have somehow affected the regulation of basic human emotion. It seemed to significantly ramp up violence, anger and confrontational consciousness, while subduing compassion, empathy and kindness. It also seemed to have removed other core human traits like self-preservation and their ability to feel pain. It also has affected their body’s ability to continue to function after receiving considerable damage.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to tell us about it. Only head shots will take these things down,” Shaw expressed.
The doctor nodded, “Yes, this information needs to be communicated.”
“Also, how contagious it is and the speed in which it infects the body,” Priest added.