9
A lizard was sun bathing on a stone on her way to the bus stop. The legs and neck of the creature were fully stretched to bask in the warmth.
Sarah had been waiting for more than seven minutes when a green SUV approached. Some 30 yards before the bus stop, it slowed down. Thinking the driver was about to drop a passenger off, Sarah released a sigh. The tinted windows of the car made it impossible to see the people in the car.
The bus was late. She didn’t like to stand here on her own by the desolated crossroads. Instead of dropping off somebody, the car accelerated just a few meters away from where the lizard sun bathed.
A short while later another car approached. Turning her head, Sarah noticed Detective Garnham. He slowed down and when he stopped beside her he exclaimed, “Hop in, I had a text message from Dir. Simon, he is waiting for us in his office.”
Although Garnham’s Austin did over 60 miles an hour the, SUV still caught up with them.
“I don’t like people doing that,” he broke the silence. He kept driving at the same speed. The car behind them came closer. Sarah regretted she didn’t have a chance to take a proper look at the driver previously. She turned in her seat hoping she could make up for it this time.
“I can’t see a thing through those windows, they’re too dark,” Sarah complained.
Just as Garnham peered in his rear view mirror to get a glimpse of the driver, the SUV hit his bumper. The shock wasn’t too bad; he could handle it. He looked sideways at Sarah.
“Are you ok?”
“Yes.”
With one glimpse in her eyes Garnham understood they were telling another story. “That son of a bitch looks just like Elvis, he’s not getting a wa….”
The car hit them a second time. This time the bang was much harder. Garnham rubbed his neck. A sharp pain went through his spine. Sarah held onto both sides of her seat so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Her breathing became hard. She felt her heart beat in her chest.
Moments later the SUV was on their left. Before he could react, the driver of the Rover fired his gun at Garnham. Shattered glass fell on his lap. A second shot hit him in the shoulder. Swerving over the road, the Austin landed in a dry ditch.
Garnham’s head rested on the steering wheel with the car horn blaring. Sarah who’d become as pale as a sheet stared straight ahead. The muscles in her heart tightened her mouth dry. The deafening noise of the car horn was hurting her ears.
She didn’t know how long she’d been waiting before help arrived. Swift hands lifted her out of the wreckage. The deafening noise finally stopped. Sitting on the sight of the road, she held a paper cup of coffee with both hands. The dark liquid tasted sweet. The blanket around her shoulders felt soft; she was still cold though.
She watched two paramedics put Garnham on a stretcher, her hands shivered.
The men worked fast, placing him in the back of an ambulance. When they were finished, one of them came over to Sarah and said, “Let me help you to get in.”
She took the steps into the ambulance with difficulty, holding the man’s arm and a rail. The man covered her with the blanket while she lay on a bench. Staring at Garnham, she witnessed how the paramedics did their best to save him.
Garnham was brought to the St. Jonathan Medical Centre on North State Street. The building consisted of three massively constructed blocks, each somewhat higher than the other. A bullet had entered his left shoulder and had exited his body on the other side, at the height of his collarbone. He had been extremely lucky. Had the bullet been aimed merely a little bit lower, it may have penetrated his heart and killed him.
The ambulance crew handed Garnham over to the hospital personnel who wheeled him immediately into the theatre for an emergency operation. Sarah wondered if the shooter had wanted to kill them or only frighten them. While they were being followed she had managed to make a mental note of the license plate of the SUV. She had scribbled the number on a piece of paper as soon as she got the chance and called it through to HQ.
She waited for a nurse to fill in her release documentation, and paced up and down in front of the receptionist’s desk. How hard can it be to check a number plate? Sarah thought. She checked her mobile for the fourth time.
“I’m sorry miss, but you can’t use your cellular in here.” The nurse peered from under her glasses. She held her chin high while her pen was resting a few inches above her desk. Not waiting for a reply, she continued writing.
Then Sarah heard a short bleep. ‘The car was stolen’, she read.
In the meantime, the nurse managed to complete the forms. “Miss,” she coughed to get Sarah’s attention. “Could you please sign here at the bottom?” The nurse’s glasses slid down her nose.
Sometime later Sarah followed the signs to the morgue.
“Please come in.” He opened the door wide for Sarah to get through.
“What did you do to your face?” Simon frowned.
“Garnham and I have set up a fan club; one of the members got too carried away. He rammed Garnham’s car and shot him while we were on our way to see you.” Sarah made the felony sound like a sick joke, however her eyes told a different story.
“What about Cedric, is he all right?” Simon was eager to know. They walked in the meantime.
“He was shot in his shoulder. They’re working on him upstairs.”
Simon had left his office open. He offered Sarah the only chair in the room. Sitting down on the windowsill, the shades rattled behind his back.
“You found something strange in the lad?”
“Ah yes, I have indeed. I found parasites in parts of his brain.”
“What are they?”
“I’m not quite sure yet, but it seems to be some strange hybrid between the cold virus and the Balamuthia Mandrillaris parasite. There is little known about this parasite, except that it is a free-living protozoan, which lives in fresh water ponds. When it causes an infection, people develop fever, headaches, and nausea. Most people die within six months. There is no cure. The parasite can affect any of the three membranes protecting the brain and the spinal cord.”
“Are you talking about meningitis? It sounds just like it.” Sarah leaned forward in her chair her elbows were resting on her knees.
“Hmm, it’s quite similar, except there is no medication to fight the parasite yet. As you know meningitis is treatable if you detect the disease in time.”
“How is it that he died within 24 hours, because you said people who get infected live much longer?”
“That’s what I like to know myself; we have only found fragments of the protozoa in the young man’s brain. I guess your friends in the research station were manipulating the parasite,” Simon replied he crossed his legs, revealing his striped socks.
“What luck the victim is in quarantine,” Sarah said.
“Indeed, we don’t want to cause an epidemic, we need to know what we’re dealing with first,” Simon said.
“But if it were only fragments you found, why did he die the way he did”? It doesn’t make any sense.” Sarah rose to her feet. In four steps, she was at the door.
“It’s time for an explanation from the Research Station. By the way have you figured out who the chap was in Edgar Ellis place?”
“Not really, I’m still waiting on the dental records,” Simon answered.
Cedric Garnham faintly heard engines in the distance. Slowly, the noise grew louder. Then he realized the noise came from USAF aircrafts. The fighters began to circle above him. Suddenly one of the planes shone its spotlight into his face. The bright light almost blinded him as the fighter landed beside him.
When the pilot approached him, Cedric recognized the man’s face. The man laughed aloud. He pointed at him with a small knife. In the meantime, other pilots gathered and drank tea. While the first pilot cut into his shoulder with the penknife, the others were telling jokes. Although he couldn’t hear what they were saying, Cedric was sure the jokes were on him. The penknife caused him excruciating pain.
One of the other pilots, they were all wearing masks he could see she was a woman approached him. The woman threw a cup of hot tea over him then she placed a sandwich on top. With a gloved hand, she pressed. His pain became even worse.
Two other pilots approached him while the woman who was throwing the tea over his shoulder bent over him. One of them said, “He’s ready, okay let’s take him down.”
Everything went white around Garnham. Have they killed me? Where am I, what happened? Am I dead? Is this what it is like when you’re dead?
Gradually shapes appeared. He heard someone talking, the voice appeared distorted. The voice originated from far. Again a tremendous pain went through the upper part of his body.
Precipitously he became surrounded by water; an ocean of water was closing in on him. I’m drowning. Unable to move, there was nothing he could do.
Without hesitation, a team of nurses and doctors rushed into Garnham’s room as his blood pressure and heartbeat rapidly increased. Seven long minutes they worked franticly on him before his respiratory system was back to a safe level.
When he opened his eyes an hour later, Garnham felt as if he climbed Mount Everest. A nurse smiled kindly at him.
“We thought for a while we were going to lose you.”
“So did I” Garnham said weakly.
“You rest now. We will keep an eye on you.” The nurse took a seat behind a window looking out on to the ICU.
The next day Detective Garnham was moved into a private room and felt much better already, although the cast on his shoulder annoyed him tremendously. Drowsy he asked the nurse what had occurred
.“You were shot in your shoulder.”
A short while after the nurse left the room; someone knocked on the door. “Sorry to disturb you, detective.”
A man in his late fifties with short cropped grey hair entered the room. He stretched out his hand to shake Garnham‘s healthy arm. Gently shaking his hand, the man said,
“Do you mind if I take a seat?”
“Go ahead Adams.”
“I like to talk about the Thompson case with you. We believe there is an international gang at work.”
“You mean terrorists?” Garnham asked, raising his eyebrows.
“We can’t be careful enough nowadays. I’m sorry about your arm.” Adams stood up from his chair and was about to leave the room, then he turned. “By the way, what do you know about Edgar Ellis?”
“Nothing, he either perished in the fire or he did a disappearing act.” It surprised Garnham the officers hadn’t been able to find out more about Ellis yet.
“I believe he is involved in the case.”
“That is what I believe too.” Adams said. He closed the door behind him.