Read Online The Apocalypse Crusade 2 by Peter Meredith - Free Book Online
Authors: Peter Meredith
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Yaoh? You call yourself a doctor? If you’re a doctor why don’t you tell me what is coming from their eyes. Hmm?”
“We don’t know. You were in meetings all yesterday and you told us not to bother you at home and you said to run only the prescribed tests. You were very clear on that, sir.”
She was right but that didn’t absolve her in his eyes. “Do you not understand the first thing about taking initiative?” She kept her eyes on her clunky, sensible shoes. “I guess not. You have a lot to learn about science, Yaoh. We’ll start today. I want you to find out what that black fluid is. Run cultures and do a full blood panel on them. And then…then move them to the number three lab and increase their bio-status to Category B. Just in case.”
Category B required a much more stringent level of personal security: hoods with face-shields, gowns, and heavier rubber gloves and boots.
As per his instructions, the infected rats were moved, and in accordance with their training, all precautions were taken. The staff was glad to see the rats moved, especially Yaoh. These particular test subjects gave her the freaks and she had stepped back, allowing the other scientists to wrangle the hissing and squirming little demons into smaller transport cages.
Given the choice between touching the fiends and cleaning up after them, she happily chose the latter, right up until a piece of jagged metal punctured her glove and slid beneath her skin. The “9” laboratory hadn’t had its bio-safety level increased and all she had on was latex. She didn’t panic, not entirely, but she was afraid and disgusted nearly to the point of being nauseous. The rats had been revolting, filthy things, and the black goo had smelled of a toilet in one of the city slums where the water only ran every other day.
Cleaning the tiny pin-prick was her first concern. As she hurried to the sinks, she tore off the gloves and went through the ten-step procedure to clean a puncture wound, leaving off the final three steps: present one’s self to the building medical personnel, fill out an incident report, and present one’s self to one’s immediate supervisor.
Yaoh wasn’t about to put her neck right into the noose over such a small scratch. Jiang had a reputation for firing first and asking questions later and she needed the job. For five minutes, she scrubbed the wound until her flesh was red and raw. Satisfied that no germ could have survived, she reached for the paper towels and that was when she realized that in her haste she’d stuck her gloves in the front pocket of her lab coat instead of disposing of them properly in one of the bio receptacles.
She glanced around quickly to see if anyone caught the mistake and then slipped the soiled gloves out of her pocket and into the proper trash. She didn’t see that in the bottom of her pocket was a small drop of black goo.
It was just one mistake; one small breach of protocol—but it wouldn’t be the last.
Within thirty minutes Yaoh was wincing from a headache. In another thirty it was practicably unbearable and yet in the People’s Republic of China you couldn’t simply beg off work so easily, not if you wanted to keep your job. There was always the option of going to see the medical personnel, however Yaoh was suddenly feeling suspicious of them and their needles and their bright lights.
“I have a meeting,” Yaoh suddenly declared to the other scientists. “With a representative.” This stopped the friendly banter, which had been going around the room. Everyone’s mood had lightened now that the black-eyed rats had been moved much further down the hall; now they went thin lipped and their smiles took on a preformed appearance. Sudden meetings with a People’s Representative were usually an unpleasant harbinger of things to come.
“It’s about my cousin,” Yaoh said, trying to assure them. “She’s…they think she’s a subversive but she isn’t.”
That helped, but only a
“We don’t know. You were in meetings all yesterday and you told us not to bother you at home and you said to run only the prescribed tests. You were very clear on that, sir.”
She was right but that didn’t absolve her in his eyes. “Do you not understand the first thing about taking initiative?” She kept her eyes on her clunky, sensible shoes. “I guess not. You have a lot to learn about science, Yaoh. We’ll start today. I want you to find out what that black fluid is. Run cultures and do a full blood panel on them. And then…then move them to the number three lab and increase their bio-status to Category B. Just in case.”
Category B required a much more stringent level of personal security: hoods with face-shields, gowns, and heavier rubber gloves and boots.
As per his instructions, the infected rats were moved, and in accordance with their training, all precautions were taken. The staff was glad to see the rats moved, especially Yaoh. These particular test subjects gave her the freaks and she had stepped back, allowing the other scientists to wrangle the hissing and squirming little demons into smaller transport cages.
Given the choice between touching the fiends and cleaning up after them, she happily chose the latter, right up until a piece of jagged metal punctured her glove and slid beneath her skin. The “9” laboratory hadn’t had its bio-safety level increased and all she had on was latex. She didn’t panic, not entirely, but she was afraid and disgusted nearly to the point of being nauseous. The rats had been revolting, filthy things, and the black goo had smelled of a toilet in one of the city slums where the water only ran every other day.
Cleaning the tiny pin-prick was her first concern. As she hurried to the sinks, she tore off the gloves and went through the ten-step procedure to clean a puncture wound, leaving off the final three steps: present one’s self to the building medical personnel, fill out an incident report, and present one’s self to one’s immediate supervisor.
Yaoh wasn’t about to put her neck right into the noose over such a small scratch. Jiang had a reputation for firing first and asking questions later and she needed the job. For five minutes, she scrubbed the wound until her flesh was red and raw. Satisfied that no germ could have survived, she reached for the paper towels and that was when she realized that in her haste she’d stuck her gloves in the front pocket of her lab coat instead of disposing of them properly in one of the bio receptacles.
She glanced around quickly to see if anyone caught the mistake and then slipped the soiled gloves out of her pocket and into the proper trash. She didn’t see that in the bottom of her pocket was a small drop of black goo.
It was just one mistake; one small breach of protocol—but it wouldn’t be the last.
Within thirty minutes Yaoh was wincing from a headache. In another thirty it was practicably unbearable and yet in the People’s Republic of China you couldn’t simply beg off work so easily, not if you wanted to keep your job. There was always the option of going to see the medical personnel, however Yaoh was suddenly feeling suspicious of them and their needles and their bright lights.
“I have a meeting,” Yaoh suddenly declared to the other scientists. “With a representative.” This stopped the friendly banter, which had been going around the room. Everyone’s mood had lightened now that the black-eyed rats had been moved much further down the hall; now they went thin lipped and their smiles took on a preformed appearance. Sudden meetings with a People’s Representative were usually an unpleasant harbinger of things to come.
“It’s about my cousin,” Yaoh said, trying to assure them. “She’s…they think she’s a subversive but she isn’t.”
That helped, but only a
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