Executive orders - Tom Clancy [540]
I know that, Dave, but this is the first one, SURGEON pointed out. Something's different here. What is it? We have to know!
Chart? Cathy handed it over to Alexandre.
He scanned it. Temperature down to 100.2, blood work not normal, but What does she say, Cathy? Alexandre asked, flipping back through some pages.
How she says she feels, you mean? Panicked, frightened to death. Massive headaches, abdominal cramps-I think a lot of that is pure stress. Can't blame her, can we?
These values are all improving. Liver function blipped hard, but that stopped last night, and it's coming back
That's what got my attention. She's fighting it off, Alex, Dr. Ryan said. First one, I think we're going to win with her. But why? What's different? What can we learn from this? What can we apply to other patients?
That turned the trick for Dr. Alexandre. John Pickett was right. He had to get to Reed.
Dave, they want me in Washington right now.
Go, the dean replied at once. We're covered here. If you can help make sense of this, get yourself down there.
Cathy, the most likely answer to your question is the simple one. Your ability to fight this thing off is inversely proportional to the number of particles that get into your system. Everybody thinks that just one strand can kill you. That's not true. Nothing's that dangerous. Ebola kills first of all by overpowering the immune system; then it goes to work on the organs. If she only got a small number of the little bastards, then her immune system fought the battle and won. Talk to her some more, Cathy. Every detail of her contact with her husband-whatever in the last week. I'll call you in a couple of hours. How are you guys doing?
Alex, if there's some hope in this, Dr. James replied, then I think we can hack it.
Alexandre went back upstairs for decontamination. First his suit was thoroughly sprayed. Then he disrobed and changed into greens and a mask, took the clean elevator down to the lobby, and out the door.
You Colonel Alexandre? a sergeant asked.
Yes.
The NCO saluted. Follow me, sir. We got a Hummer and a driver for you. You want a jacket, sir? Kinda cool out.
Thanks. He donned the rubberized chemical-warfare parka. They were so miserable to wear that it would surely keep him warm all the way down. A female Spec-4 was at the wheel. Alexandre got into the uncomfortable seat, buckled the belt, and turned to her. Go! Only then did he rethink what he'd told Ryan and James upstairs. His head shook as though to repel an insect. Pickett was right. Maybe.
MR. PRESIDENT, PLEASE, let us reexamine the data first. I even called Dr. Alexandre down from Hopkins to work with the group I set up at Reed. It's much too soon for any conclusions. Please, let us do our work.
Okay, General, Ryan said angrily. I'll be here. Damn, he swore after hanging up.
We have other things to do, sir, Goodley pointed out.
Yeah.
IT WAS STILL dark when it started in the Pacific Time Zone. At least getting the aircraft was easy. Jumbos from most of the major airlines were heading for Barstow, California, their flight crews screened for Ebola antibodies and passed by Army doctors with test kits which were just now coming on line. There were also modifications to the aircraft ventilation systems. At the National Training Center, soldiers were boarding buses. That was normal for the Blue Force, but not for the OpFor, whose families watched the uniformed soldiers leave their homes for the deployment. Little was known except that they were leaving. The destination was a secret for now; the soldiers would learn it only after lifting off for the sixteen-hour flights. Over ten thousand men and women meant forty flights, leaving at a rate of only four per hour from the rudimentary facilities in the high desert of California. If asked, the local public affairs officers would tell whoever called that the units at Fort Irwin were moving out to assist with the national quarantine. In Washington, a few reporters learned something else.
THOMAS DONNER? THE woman in the mask asked.