CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When Paul pulled in to the parking lot the next morning he was surprised at all the activity. Television vans were parked at various locations along with cameras and people with microphones.
He hardly got out of his car before reporters were swarming around him.
“Is it true you discovered a hole five miles deep in one of the mines?” someone yelled.
“Who found it?”
“Can you confirm the depth?”
“Why is it in a mine?”
“Did you see what’s at the bottom?”
People were yelling out questions so fast that he didn’t have time to answer any of them. He squeezed and elbowed his way to the front door of the building but several reporters were in the way.
“Move it,” he finally said.
“What are you going to do with the hole?”
“Did you find anything in it?”
“Yes. Yes we did as a matter of fact,” he told them. It immediately got quiet.
“We found several obnoxious reporters that had been taken down to the hole and thrown in,” he said shoving them out of the way and going inside.
“Crazy huh?” the receptionist said.
“Donna, I need you to call the police. I want these people off our property. I do not want to have to go through this every time I leave. How did they find out about this anyway?” he asked.
“Seems Doctor Townson decided it needed to be announced to the world.”
“They are supposed to bring another Doppler unit in today. Call and tell… no, I’ll call him myself,” he said heading to his office.
He was furious at Doctor Townson and did nothing short of calling him an egotistical ass before he hung up. He didn’t feel all that much better but it least he got it off his chest. His head was throbbing by the time his weekly staff meeting was getting ready to start. He was having a hard time concentrating.
He sighed deeply and headed for the conference room. Ann and Barney were already seated. He sat down, leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them he felt disoriented.
“Where is McDillon?” Barney asked.
“I’m not sure. He was going to go to the doctor’s office yesterday. Maybe he is really sick. He sure didn’t look too good when he left.”
“He can’t call?” Barney replied.
“I don’t know Barney. I have a headache and just do not give a rat’s ass right at this moment. I have fired Doctor Townson for the little stunt he pulled. I also called for the police to get everyone off our property. I don’t want a bunch of cameras shoved in my face every time I walk outside.”
“They are obnoxious,” Ann agreed.
“So who are we going to get to confirm the depth?” Barney asked.
“I’m not sure. Why don’t you take care of that for now,” Peter said, rubbing his temples.
“That should be Mac’s job,” Barney retorted.
“Well Barney, he isn’t here is he? I’m assigning that to you. Do you think you can handle that or is it too difficult?” Paul said, becoming fed up with Barney.
What the hell did he do around here? Everything was someone else’s job according to him.
“I’ll handle it.”
“And make damn sure they keep their mouths shut. I don’t want another scene like we had this morning. Ann, I know you have a financial report but to tell the truth, I feel like crap. I think I’m going to go to the doctor myself. I must be coming down with what Mac has,” Paul said standing up.
He felt lightheaded and had to grab the table to support himself.
“Are you okay?” Ann asked.
“I just need to go have the doc look me over,” he said.
When Paul reached the doctor’s office he was shown in immediately. He thought it was strange that there were no other patients in the waiting room. Even the nurse had on a face mask. She didn’t take his blood pressure or temperature. What the heck was going on he wondered?
Doctor Lang came in the room with a mask and gloves on and sat down across from Paul.
“I’m glad you came in. I was going to call you. Paul, I have had Mac sent to the hospital. He has some very worrisome symptoms. I sent him there for testing. From what you told me on the phone, you could well have the same thing. Let me ask you some questions and I need straight answers, Okay?”
Paul looked at him for a second before saying, “Okay Doctor.”
“On a scale of 1 to 10 how bad is your headache?”
“Eight, going on nine.”
“Is your throat sore?”
“Uh, sort of. Not real bad but yeah I can tell something is going on.”
“Tired.”
“Beat.”
“Diarrhea.”
“Just started this morning.”
“Disorientated?”
“A little. Why? What is all this about?” Paul asked.
“Hold on. Let me look in your mouth,” he said.
Paul opened and the doctor looked inside. He immediately saw his throat was red as was the roof of his mouth. He sat back down.
“Paul. I need you to go to the hospital right away. I don’t want you to drive. I will have an ambulance come and take you there.”
“Doc. What’s going on? What the hell do I have?”
“I’m not 100 percent sure yet. Let me have some tests run first. It is extremely contagious, I will tell you that. I am going to call CDC and have them send a team here. It’s that serious.”
“Smallpox? You think I have smallpox?”
“Paul, you have known me for how long? Ten years or more. Have I ever given you a diagnosis without having all the facts?”
“No.”
“And I’m not about to start now. Get the tests done and then we will talk.”
“I gotta tell you doc. I don’t like the sound of this much. You’re kind of freaking me out, you know?”
“That is not my intent but this time it is necessary to err on the side of caution. While you are at the hospital having the tests, start thinking of everyone you have come into contact with in the past week. CDC will want to know.”
“Holy smokes. I can’t remember everyone I talked to.”
“Just sit down and think back. Try to go through what you did, where you went, who you met with. It is critical information,” Doctor Lang told him.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“What?”
“I’m not kidding you. That is what it is. I checked three times. There can be no doubt.”
“Ebola? Here? Right here? At this hospital?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Both patients have the exact same symptoms and now the lab verifies it.
“How is that possible?”
“That’s not the real question. How many people have they infected?”
“Man, this is crazy.”
“Tell me about it.”
Doctor Conroy was the lead doctor on the CDC team sent to investigate the reported Ebola virus.
“And the labs show Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever?”
“Yes sir.”
“Lord. Have they been outside of the country?”
“No. Neither has left the country in the past ten years.”
“Not good. How in the world did they contact it? Something had to have infected them. Do they have any exotic pets?”
“Neither of them even owns a dog.”
“This is major. We need to get this contained before it spreads through the entire population. I need to have access to your labs, and office and space for the other teams I’m going to call in. You are going to be very unhappy with the amount of inconvenience we are going to cause so I’ll apologize in advance, but that is the way it has to be. I applaud the way you have handled both men. Very good thinking to keep them isolated from the rest of the hospital.”