The Wuhan Mission

Roet turned his phone off and paused for a moment and then introduced himself as ‘Marcus’, but Dr. Wu already knew who he was. He recognized his snide way of speaking and the pitch of his voice from the regular phone calls.

Roet sat and placed his folder of notes on the table in front of him. His hands were dry from the long flight, and he found himself having to lick his fingers to turn the pages on his notepad and to move his papers around on the table. Dr. Wu paid great attention to Roet’s finger licking, and nodded in approval.

“Please have a seat Doctor Wu. We have a few things to discuss.”

“Very well Marcus. What do you have there? Is that some kind of written apology letter?”

“What on earth do you mean?” Roet asked, annoyed.

“I’m told that you shot and killed my daughter. What do you have to say about that you mother fucker?”

Roet was a little taken aback. He wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead and put his hand back flat on the table. “She caught a bullet from one of your Chinese guys, actually. I didn’t shoot her. I’m sorry that you have been misinformed. It was a terrible thing. Such a pity.”

“You have something in your teeth Marcus. Maybe some kimchee or spinach?.” Dr. Wu pointed at his own mouth to help him locate the stuck food that wasn’t there. Marcus picked at the gaps in his teeth with his fingertips.

“It’s seaweed salad probably. I ate on the plane.” Roet said, continuing to pick.

“Almost gone. A bit more there still.” Wu encouraged, trying not to smile as he saw in his mind’s eye the SARS-CoV-X journeying through Roet’s body.

There was a loud knock at the door. “Come!” yelled Roet, a little peeved that he was being interrupted already. Maybe it was Sam coming to complain about not being invited to the interview.

The door opened and two soldiers in full hazmat suits were standing there.

“Sir, you need to come with us.”

*

Xue Lin saw that there were indeed a couple of syringes in the medical kit. She estimated the dosage from the green vial and swabbed Sam’s forearm before giving him the shot.

“Any idea how contagious this virus is?” Sam asked hopefully.

From what Jimmy and Wu said, it can live on surfaces for days. Transmitted through eyes, nose and mouth. It can move through space in sputum, especially in enclosed unventilated spaces. That’s about all we know.”

“OK, so Roet’s screwed.” Sam said. “The base Commander told me he was already in with Wu when the call came in. I’m sure they will have him locked in quarantine within the hour.”

Xue Lin was shaking her head: “Shame about Dr. Wu though. He just bought himself a one way ticket to some black site for a nice interview with some simulated drowning.”

Sam looked grimly back at her, nodding. “Jimmy said that Wu gave him the antidote. He has no reason to lie about that right?”

“Yeah, Wu immunized him before he went on that joyride with a spray bottle in Wuhan. I’m certain he wouldn’t lie about it” answered Xue Lin.

“Well, nothing more can be done about that now. At least we are all good here. Let’s get back to the matter at hand.” Sam said, scrolling on his laptop.

“Ah, good news. Looks like they have found them!”

Sam clicked the link that the tech had just sent through from Langley. A map opened. Sam saw the red dot in the middle of Milan’s tiny Chinatown.

“Snowflake, we have the location.”

Xue Lin looked relieved. Jimmy had really come through for them. He was full of surprises.

She picked up the Barret and went over its mechanics just to remind herself. Sam looked at her thinking how sexy she looked with such a large and powerful rifle.

She dropped the weapon on the bed and pulled out the case with the virus in it, holding it out to one side, looking at Sam provocatively: “I guess we should tag the virus. I still have a locator. A pretty small one actually. Made in China…” she fluttered her eyelashes and smiled.

“What if we make the exchange, get your parents out and then follow the virus” Sam offered.

“Bit risky eh? What if we lose it? Can we switch it out for some red gatorade or something?” Xue Lin was thinking ahead, running scenarios as she had been trained.

“Maybe they will have someone there to check it. You wanna run that risk?” Sam asked.

“Not really. They might kill my parents” she answered.

Sam looked like he’d come up with an idea: “Go grab that other new syringe from the medical kit and at least we can take an extra sample from one of the vials. But which one?” he asked.

“Well the virus that Wu wiped on the interview table… I’m sure it’s being swabbed and collected as we speak by specialists. Right? We don’t need the vaccine as it’s just the crowd control medicine…”

Sam interrupted: “So let’s just take a nice sample of the antidote. Our scientists can reproduce it from a sample right?”

“Sam with the big ideas all of a sudden” Xue Lin said going for the medical kit.

“I’ll call Langley and OK it with them.”

Wuhan