Read Online Sealed In by Jacqueline Druga - Free Book Online Page B

decades it would lose potency and be nothing , and then we could get rid of it.”
    “Enough time has not passed.”
    “Did you inoculate him?” Larry asked.
    Val shook his head. “I only had four doses. I gave my wife the last one. And the three other people …Your father, you and your nephew.”
    A lump formed in Larry’s throat. He remembered that day, getting the shot. He was told it was a shot like tetanus. That was the day the trunks were moved into the storage compartment of his father’s barn, the only heated barn in the county. Val was younger then, new to America, and gave his father fifty thousand dollars to store the case. His father was a farmer but wasn’t stupid. He knew something wasn’t right about the cases. But the money saved the farm, and his father never said a word. Larry later learned that out of gratefulness, Val gave his father and Larry the inoculation. He also inoculated Larry’s nephew, his sister’s little boy, because he knew how much Larry’s father idolized and lived for the child. Just on the outside chance that anything happened with the case, Val wanted to be certain the family survived. At least some of them.
    That was thirty-five years earlier. Since then, his father had passed, the nephew moved away, and the farm since sold.
    When did Larry learn the contents of the trunk?
    He was in his twenties, just started working for the State Police, and, while visiting his father’s farm, his curiosity, like Roman’s got the best of him.
    He never really knew what was in the trunk. He bluffed Val. Bluffed and blackmailed him. By doing so, Val told him the contents. Larry, by knowing the contents, was just as guilty as Val.
    Over the years a friendship formed, a bond by a secret they both vowed to protect.
    Val had smuggled the germ when he worked as a scientist. He didn’t smuggle it for bad reasons, but to keep it out of bad hands. Val always told Larry, if they knew where it was, no one could misuse it. The world was safe as long as they protected it.
    They never wanted to bury it, because they feared someone would find it.
    It was a heat resistant virus; burning the liquid virus would only multiply the germ and send it into the air, making it even more of a weapon than it already was.
    Instead, they watched the cases constantly. Had perfect storage for them. No extreme variations of temperatures that could cause the fragile glass that contained the virus to break.
    The plan was simple; since they were both immune by the inoculation, they would protect the case. After Val’s death, Larry would take the responsibility.
    Eventually the virus would die.
    But Larry knew and never worried about the case or something happening to them before the germ died. A part of him always feared the accidental release.
    And it happened.
    “How is Roman now?” Larry asked.
    Val shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard from him. He and Heather went to Billings for a concert.”
    “A concert?” Larry shrieked. “Oh my God.”
    Val held up his hand. “They are immediate ground zero. More than likely they were feeling it by the time they left. They were to check in the hotel. My guess, they never left the room.”
    “The check in clerk …”
    “He is still on duty there. I called to see if they checked in and he had said that he personally checked them and they were the last ones to check in.”
    “Still, it’s a hotel.”
    “Actually a motel. Not a big one nor busy, but that is not my concern. That can be handled.” Val said. “This town is my concern now. Roman and Heather are immediate ground zero, but there are other ground zero patients. Anyone who came into the clinic, wave one. Any building within a one mile radius of my clinic. This thing is fast, Larry. Initial exposed will feel flu-like symptoms tomorrow. Contact victims the next day. It’s Monday. By Wednesday not a person in this town will be well enough to walk down the street. Friday they’ll start dying if