The Judas Strain (Sigma Force 4)

Devesh turned on a heel and waved to a waiting nurse.

Lisa's IV catheter was quickly pulled and taped over.

Lisa sat up. The room swam a bit, then steadied.

Ever the gentleman, Devesh held out a thick cotton robe with the ship's logo. Lisa stood up, draped in a thin hospital gown, but naked underneath. She tolerated his politeness to pull on the robe and cover herself. She cinched the belt snugly.

"This way, Dr. Cummings." Devesh crossed back to the door.

Barefoot, Lisa was led out of her cabin. Devesh headed across to the infectious-disease suite.

The door stood open. Voices could be heard.

Following Devesh inside, Lisa immediately recognized two familiar faces: the bacteriologist, Benjamin Miller, and her confidant since arriving, the Dutch toxicologist Henri Barnhardt. The two clinicians were seated on one side of a narrow table.

Lisa glanced around. The back half of the suite had been emptied of all furniture and refilled with laboratory equipment, much of it stolen from Monk's gear: fluorescence microscopes, scintillation and auto-gamma spectrometers, carbon dioxide incubators, refrigerated centrifuges, microliter and ELISA readers, and along one wall, a small fraction collector.

Some universities weren't so well equipped.

Dr. Eloise Chenier, the Guild's virologist and chief administrator of the infectious-disease lab, stood on the other side of the table, dressed in an ankle length lab coat. In her late fifties, with salt-and-pepper hair and a pair of read ing glasses hung on a chain around her neck, she looked like some quaint schoolmarm.

The virologist had an arm raised to a pair of computer stations behind her. Data flowed across one monitor, the other displayed a jumble of overlapping files. She was just finishing some explanation with Henri and Miller, accented heavily in French.

"We gained an excellent viral load by washing a sample of the cerebral spinal fluid through a series of phosphate buffers, then fixed it with glutaralde-hyde, and pelleted it by centrifugation."

Chenier noted their arrival and waved them to the table.

Devesh joined his colleague while Lisa found an empty stool next to Henri. Her friend placed a reassuring hand on her knee. Henri glanced at her, his expression asking, Are you okay?

She nodded, glad to be seated.

Devesh turned to Lisa. "We've completed all the ancillary tests you requested, Dr. Cummings. Perhaps now you can explain why?"

His accusing gaze weighed heavily on her.

Lisa took a deep breath. She had delayed for as long as possible. Her only hope for further survival was to offer the truth and pray her ingenuity proved of great enough value to overcome her earlier betrayal.

She remembered Devesh's first lesson: Be useful.

Lisa started slowly, relating her discovery of the strange retinal glow in Susan's eyes. But as she spoke, she read the disbelief shining already in Devesh's expression.

Lisa turned to Henri, seeking substantiation. "Were you able to perform the fluorescent assay on the spinal fluid sample?"

"Ja. The fluid sample did demonstrate a low fluorescence."

Chenier agreed. "I spun the sample down. The bacterial pellet did glow. And was confirmed to be cyanobacteria."

Miller, the bacteriologist, nodded his agreement.

Devesh's skepticism shifted to interest. His eyes focused back to Lisa. "And from this, you determined the bacteria migrated from the brain, down the optic nerve, and colonized the fluids of the eye. So you ordered the second spinal tap."

She nodded. "I see Dr. Pollum is not here. Was he able to finish the protein assay on the viral shell?"

Lisa had ordered this test, too. It wasn't truly necessary, but it had promised a good couple hours of extra labor.

"One moment," Chenier said. "I have the results here." She turned to one of the monitors and began collapsing screens while narrating. "It might interest you to know that we were able to classify the virus from genetic assays into the Bunyavirus family."

Henri noted the pinch to Lisa's eyes and explained. "It was what we were discussing before you arrived. Bunyaviruses typically infect avian and mammalian species, causing hemorrhagic fevers, but the vector for transmission is usually arthropods. Biting flies, ticks, mosquitoes."

He slid over a notepad.

Lisa glanced to the open pages. Henri had diagrammed the pathway of infection.

Henri tapped the center. "Insects are necessary to spread the disease. Bunyaviruses themselves are seldom transmissible directly from human to human."

Lisa rubbed her temples. "Unlike the Judas Strain." She picked up a pencil and altered the diagram. "Instead of an insect to spread the disease, it takes a bacterial cell to pass the virus from one person to another."

Henri frowned. "Yes, but why did—?" Gunfire blasts cut off his words. All of them jumped. Even Devesh dropped his cane. With a muttered curse, he recovered it and headed to the door. "You all stay here."

More blasts followed, along with guttural cries. Lisa stood up. What was happening?

1:24 A.M.

Devesh collected two guards stationed in the science wing and hurried over to the middeck security post by the elevators. Automatic gunfire erupted in sporadic bursts, as loud as detonations in the confined space.

Shouts rang out between the blasts.

Keeping his guards ahead of him, Devesh followed more cautiously as the post came into view. Six men manned the security detail. The leader, a tall African soldier from Somalia, noted Devesh and fell back to his position.

He spoke tersely in Malay. "Sir, a dozen of the afflicted broke out of one of the back wards. They rushed our line. Attacked."

The leader nodded to one of the guards, seated to the side, cradling a bloody arm. He had his sleeve rolled back, revealing a deep bite wound.

Devesh took a step forward and pointed absently to the wounded man. "Isolate him."

Beyond the security post, a hallway extended toward the stern. Some doors stood open, others closed. Down the passageway, a few bodies sprawled, riddled with bullets, blood soaking into the carpet. The closest two—a naked obese woman and a shirtless teenage boy—were tangled together. Devesh noted the bubbled rashes and the blackened boils on the corpses.

He fought to control his temper, breathing heavily through his nostrils. The stern section of this level housed the most debilitated patients, making them readily available to the research team. Devesh had outlined a firm protocol when dealing with patients on this level. Such lapses would not be tolerated. Not when he was this close to success.

"I've called in reinforcements," the sentry leader said. "When we started firing, some of the afflicted fled into open rooms. We'll have to flush them out."