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Chapter Nineteen

October 20

Domino pulled her long brown hair into a ponytail and flipped on the interior light long enough to check herself in the rearview mirror of the van, which they’d parked outside the University of Munich Medical Center. Though she tried to stay focused on the mission, the fact they were about to mix among hospital staff only made her think of Hayley. Had the lab tests come back yet, confirming the implantation had taken?

“This is the first time I’ve played doctor,” Allegro said from the back, as she slipped the long white lab coat over a light blue button-down shirt and black pants.

“Doubt it.” Domino smiled and joined her. She’d already donned the white nurse’s tunic and matching trousers Dilbert had provided.

“You know me too well.” Allegro laughed. “By the way, black panties under white trousers?”

“Not exactly like I counted on this. Why can’t they just wear scrubs? And why do I have to be the nurse?”

“It’s killing you, isn’t it? That I called it first.”

“At least I don’t have to wear that name tag.” Domino chuckled as she slid open the side door and got out. “Remind me again why I like working with you?”

“Because I’m the only one who can make your soon-to-be-bourgeois life exciting,” Allegro replied, following her.

Domino rolled her eyes. “I should have never told you about the baby.”

“Too late.” Allegro grinned.

After they adjusted their tiny earpiece microphone-receivers, Domino walked ahead while Allegro remained by the van.

She was a few feet from the main entrance when she heard Allegro in her ear.

“Can you hear me?”

“Loud and obnoxious,” Domino replied. Allegro caught up and they both put their surgical masks on as the hospital doors slid open.

They walked in silence, scanning their environment. It was just after midnight, past visiting hours, so the large lounge/reception area was deserted. The woman behind the information desk glanced up when they passed by, but, when she saw they were wearing whites, returned to the book in her lap. Like them, she was wearing a mask.

They rode the elevator up two floors to the first massive patient wing, where the situation couldn’t have been more different. Code alarms blared as monitors registered a sudden change in a patient’s status, patients hit their chiming call buttons nonstop, pagers pealed, intercom announcements erupted, and quick consultations among staff buzzed intermittently. Doctors and orderlies were dashing around, and the central nurse’s station was crowded with men and women scanning charts and typing into computers. The hallways in both directions were filled with bedridden patients, most of them in their twenties. Everyone was wearing a mask. No one even glanced their way.

“Packed,” Allegro said.

“Yeah, you’d think a pandemic was on the loose,” Domino mumbled.

“Well, aren’t you carnival-clown funny tonight.”

They walked down various corridors searching for an appropriate location.

“Hey, Helga, at ten o’clock, check it out,” Allegro whispered.



“I’m on it, Doctor Assmann.” Allegro groaned as they split up, Domino headed for the small auxiliary nurse’s station, and Allegro down one of the main patient hallways.

Only two nurses were behind the counter. The tall one was young, her obese companion much older, probably in her sixties. Both looked harried and overworked. “Hi, I’m Helga,” Domino said in fluent German. “Neuperlach Hospital sent a few of us for reinforcement.”

“It’s about time,” the heavyset nurse said, sounding irritated.

Domino rested an elbow on the counter. “You both look exhausted. Why don’t you get yourselves some dinner and coffee? I’ll take over for a while. I was lucky to get a whole eight hours of sleep.”

The nurses looked at each other and the younger one glanced at her watch. “We can be back in fifteen minutes,” she said to her colleague. “It’s been quiet.”

“I don’t know,” the other replied.

Allegro casually approached the desk. Domino knew she’d heard the entire conversation in her earpiece.

“Good evening, ladies. What’s going on?” Allegro asked, her German as fluent as Domino’s.

“Evening, Doctor Assmann,” Domino replied. “I was just telling them they should grab a bite. I can take over.”

“Go,” Allegro said with authority. “Be back in twenty minutes.”

Both nurses ran off without further hesitation.

Domino went to the station’s computer and, with two clicks of the mouse, had accessed the hospital’s patient records.

“Be fast, Helga,” Allegro said as she turned to walk away.

“Go look important,” Domino replied, her eyes fixed on the computer screen. “I know how much you love that.”

The database was straightforward. She isolated the first fifty victims admitted with H1N6. Their birth dates verified that all but three were young, in their late teens and twenties. Further inspection revealed that, as expected, they’d been students of the University of Munich. The three older victims were all professors or assistant professors there. She needed their dates of admission, state of health when admitted, and dates of death. Hopefully Reno would find some pattern in cross-referencing this data with information from the university’s student records.

So far, the Munich victims were the only ones with this kind of casualty concentration, but neither the government nor WHO officials could establish any solid conclusions without legal access to the confidential files.

Domino pulled the memory stick from her pocket and had just inserted it in the computer USB port when Allegro spoke in her ear. A man, apparently a doctor, was asking her who she was.

“Sent from Neuperlach hospital to assist,” Allegro told him.

“Good.” He sounded relieved. “Most of the cardiology crew is in the ER helping with the H1N6 patients. I’m glad they sent help.”

“We all need to pull together at times like this,” Allegro said. “I’m here to do what I can.”

“How is Mister Gottlieb?”

“Who?” Allegro asked.

“You just came out of his room,” the doctor replied, confusion in his tone. “He was operated on this morning.”

“Oh, right,” Allegro said.

Domino quickly typed in the name and looked up the patient’s chart, then relayed the relevant information into Allegro’s earpiece.

“Ah, yes, cardiopulmonary bypass,” Allegro said with just the right amount of casual authority. “Aside from a minor infection that’s being treated with cefazolin, he’s doing fine.”

“Good. Does he have—”

“Oops, my pager vibrated,” Allegro said. “Looks like they need me in the ER.” Domino heard the sound of her rapid footsteps as she hurried away.

“Good save,” Allegro said in her ear.

“Do pagers vibrate?” Domino asked as she studied the progress of her file transfer.

“Who the hell knows?”

“You owe me. What were you doing in a patient’s room, anyway?”

“Dodging,” Allegro said. “Are you done?”

“Almost. Just another three minutes. Where are you now?”

“Visiting a patient in Room 241.”

“Will you at least read his chart this ti—” Domino heard voices coming down the hall toward her and glanced up over the counter. “Damn.”

“What’s up?” Allegro asked.

“The nurses are coming back. I can’t pull the stick yet.” Domino covered the file-transfer window with the patient file she’d called up for Allegro as the two women neared the desk. The senior, heavyset nurse came to stand behind her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Just then one of the patient lights in the large console beside them began blinking red, and an alarm blared. The heavyset nurse frowned as she noted the number beneath the light. “Room 241,” she said, hurrying off down the hallway with her younger colleague at her heels.

“And before you ask,” Allegro said in Domino’s ear, “no, I didn’t kill him.”

“How big of you.” Domino closed the patient file and the file-transfer screen reappeared. “Another few seconds and we’re done. Come get me.”

“By the way, I think we’re even.” Allegro joined her just as Domino pulled the stick.

“Let’s get out of here before you burn the place down,” Domino said.

“Yeah. Hospitals make me sick.”

As Allegro drove to the second location, Domino got the small laptop out of the duffel and sent the records to Reno for analysis. The netbook was brand-new; the only thing added to the standard equipment it came with was hi-speed Internet access.

The information their contact had given them indicated that the University of Munich had eighteen separate faculties, most of which had their own admissions office, so student personnel records were scattered among several different buildings. From what Dilbert had been able to determine, there seemed to be only one possible place where they might find a single database that covered the entire student/teacher population—in the chancellor’s office at the central university administration building.

“Ah, yes, breaking and entering. Finally something I like.” Allegro pulled the van up close to the large brick structure. They’d stripped off their hospital garb and were both wearing black turtlenecks and pants.

“About time you got useful,” Domino replied. “Cam to the right, hidden behind the tree. I can see the red light.” She pulled away from the window back to the dark interior of the van.

Allegro looked up through the front window of the vehicle. “Once burned, twice shy?”

“Let’s say cameras and I have a past.”

“I can’t see if it’s a CCTV.” A closed-circuit monitor would likely have the campus security center constantly viewing it. Allegro glanced down at her handheld navigator. “According to the blueprints, we need the office in the middle.” She pointed to the window.

“We have to go in through the front,” Domino said.

“Looks like I have some climbing to do.” Allegro smiled. “Wait here until I give you the signal.” She handed the navigator and her set of picks to Domino before going to the back to extract two ski masks from the duffel. Tossing one to Domino, she slipped the other over her head. Another rummage through the bag yielded a pair of pliers, which she slipped into her pocket, and a long nylon rope with a four-pronged grapnel hook attached to the end. “In a few.”

Allegro got out of the van. Keeping to the dark shadows, she approached the enormous oak from behind the camera’s view. She could see a large, sturdy branch just below and well behind the camera, mounted twelve feet off the ground. She aimed the grapnel and threw, and it wrapped around the limb. After a quick tug, she scaled the tree and straddled the branch. Carefully releasing the grapnel in a clear spot where it wouldn’t get hung up on its way back down, she then shimmied forward toward the security cam. “I’m there.”

“If someone’s observing the monitors—” Domino said in her ear.

“We should have a few seconds to get in.”

“It’ll take you longer than that to climb back down.”

“Amateur.” Allegro checked the wire leading from the camera to the building. “I won’t climb down anything.” She removed the pliers from her pocket. “Three, two, one.” She counted down and cut the power. “Now.”

A millisecond later, she dropped from the branch to the ground, wincing when she hit the grass. Twelve feet normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but her ankle had just healed from a similar stunt in Turkey. “Ouch.”

“Good going, monkey girl.” Domino joined her and stowed the grapnel behind the tree, for pickup on the way out.

“Come on, let’s go.”

“Right behind you.” Domino handed Allegro the set of picks as they raced to the entrance.

It took Allegro a few seconds to get them in. They entered the women’s restroom, the one place that wouldn’t be monitored. Allegro used the navigator to call up the blueprint. “Not too bad. Just one floor up and down the hall to the right.”

Staying close to walls and in the darker recesses, they made it to the office apparently undetected. There were no alarms, and a glance outside showed all was quiet in the parking lot. “Guess no one monitors the cams,” Domino said.

They accessed the chancellor’s computer, and Domino copied the student records of the early victims onto the flash drive. The files included their admissions forms, majors and minors, class schedules, grades, extracurricular activities, and emergency-contact information.

Allegro watched the progress over Domino’s shoulder. “I see a pattern here,” she noted, as Domino called up one of the last of the records.

“That’s right. Biology.” Domino next accessed the three records of the teachers who’d died, and they took a few moments to study their files.

“All professors or assistant professors within the Biology Department.” Allegro stood and glanced out the window again to ensure no one was responding to the breakin’. “Reno should be able to cross-reference all this fast.”

They left the way they’d come in, and when they were back in the van, headed away, Allegro got Reno, the EOO’s best computer op, on her cell phone.

“I’m sending you the student/teacher records of the first fifty victims, as we speak,” she told him. “Already noticed a strong link to the Biology Department with most if not all of them. I need you to confirm that and narrow down commonalities. And see if you can use the hospital data to give us the best idea of exactly when the first infections occurred.”

“No problem,” Reno answered. “I can have that in a few minutes. Running it now.”

While they waited for the results, Domino consulted the campus map and located the Biology Department. It had been recently moved into new facilities within the HighTech campus, a few miles away in the Martinsried-Grosshadern district. Allegro headed that way.

As she drove, she glanced over at Domino, who had gone quiet and was staring out the passenger window. “You could just call her, you know.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Give me a break. I can hear you thinking way over here.”

Domino smiled ruefully. “You know I can’t.”

“Screw that,” Allegro said. “You need to hear her voice and she yours. You could be on your way to dirty diapers. Don’t you think she wants to share that with you?”

“Of course she does.”

“Then call her, for Christ sake.”

Domino chewed at her lip with uncertainty. “I don’t know.”

“We’re stopping at a pay phone later. Monty will never know.” As she pulled into the lot of the new biocenter, Reno called back.

“All the students were Biology Department majors,” he confirmed. “They shared a lot of the same classes, four in particular, all prerequisites. Three of those classes were taught by the professors who died. The teacher of the fourth class—an advanced botany course—isn’t on the list. His name is Gunther Zimmerman.”

“Have you cross-checked his name against the government’s official list of all the H1N6 victims to date? Maybe he got sick later than the others,” Domino said.

“Uh…not yet.”

“Come on, man, do I have to spell it out?” Allegro said. “I know you gotta be tired, but find out everything you can on this guy.”

“I’m on it. Get right back to you.” Reno disconnected.

Allegro parked in front and turned off the ignition. “See if Dilbert’s included any info on where Zimmerman’s office is, and his home address,” she told Domino.

While Domino examined the printouts, Allegro studied the massive building. It was brand-new, all steel and glass, and had several exterior lights. A security camera was mounted high over the main entrance and another over a side door, accessed by an alley running alongside the building. All the windows were dark. She glanced at her watch. It was a few minutes before two a.m.

“His office is on the third floor, botany wing,” Domino reported. “And his apartment is within walking distance. A mile or so.”

“There.” Allegro pointed to the side entrance when Domino looked up. Headlights were coming toward them up the alley beside the building. When the vehicle reached the exterior lights, they could see it was a van of some sort. It stopped beside the side entrance and five people got out, four women and a man. Their matching drab uniforms and buckets pegged them as the overnight cleaning crew.

Allegro’s cell phone vibrated against her thigh. She answered and activated the loud speaker. “Go ahead.”

“Zimmerman is dead,” Reno reported. “But he’s not on the German list of official H1N6 victims. The death certificate was signed by the coroner. It lists his COD as heart failure, complications of swine flu.”

“Swine flu?” Domino repeated. “H1N1?”

“Roger that,” Reno said. “And here’s the really interesting part. His date of death is October eighth. That’s at least two days ahead of any of the official victims on the list you gave me.”

“Could he be our ground zero?” Allegro mused out loud.

“It says here swine flu. Nothing to indicate it was the N6 strain,” Reno said. “But if they didn’t know about the N6 yet…anyway, it’s worth looking into.”

“Good work,” Allegro replied. “I take back everything I said.”

“One more thing. I was able to narrow down the time of the initial infection, based on the hospital records and known data on progression of the disease,” Reno told them. “We’re looking at sometime around October first, most likely.”

“You got what hospital he was admitted to, and who signed the death certificate?” Domino asked.

“One sec.” After a short pause, Reno said, “A neighbor found him dead in his apartment. Coroner signed the certificate on October ninth. Hard to read his damn writing, first name Arne, I think. Last name starts with an S, maybe Schmidt?”

“So Zimmerman gets sick first, dies in his apartment, and is taken directly to the morgue,” Allegro said. “And the coroner lists him as swine flu because the flood of cases hasn’t started yet. It took them a while to recognize what was going on and even come up with this H1N6 designation.”

“Makes sense,” Domino replied. “A few days, this Schmidt guy was probably swamped with bodies and Zimmerman was in the ground. No way to verify he’d had it, too, if he even thought about it. All he probably had at most was blood work that confirmed some variation of H1N1. Unless he did an autopsy.”

“Good work, Reno. Later.” Allegro disconnected, then started the van and handed the navigator to Domino. “Next stop, the morgue.”

“I get to be the doctor this time.” Domino reached into their duffel for their hospital whites.

“Only because I’ll let you.”

They put their masks and gloves back on and fished a new set of fake IDs out of the bag before going inside. Signs led them down two hallways to the morgue. The big double doors were closed, but the large round windows in each enabled them to see inside. Men and women were working among row after row of bodies on steel tables. Most of the dead were in sealed body bags, and all the doctors were wearing hi-tech ventilator masks with their own oxygen supplies for maximum protection.

“All of a sudden I’m feeling a little underdressed,” Allegro told Domino in a low voice.

“Ya think?” Domino replied, and knocked on her window. When a few doctors turned in their direction she chose one and motioned him over. “We’re looking for Arne Schmidt?” she said in German.

The man studied her name tag. “I’ll get him, doctor. Wait here.”

Allegro watched him negotiate his way through the tables toward a baldheaded man. After a brief exchange, the latter joined them.

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Just need a moment. We’re working with the World Health Organization,” Domino said.

Once she told him they were part of a WHO task force to track the virus, Schmidt agreed to their request to look at the Gunther Zimmerman file. They went to his office, where he called up the record on his computer. He studied it for several seconds, as though trying to distinguish the deceased among the hundreds he’d seen in recent days.

His forehead creased in confusion. “Yes, I remember him. His neighbor found him dead in his apartment. Rigor mortis had already set in. Zimmerman had a history of aortic stenosis, and I listed his COD as heart failure, complicated by swine flu, not this virus. We didn’t start getting those cases until a bit later, as I recall.” Schmidt glanced up at Allegro. “You think he had H1N6 as well?”

“That’s what we want to know. Did you do an autopsy? Allegro asked.

Checking the computer again, the coroner replied, “Only a partial, because of his history and the condition of the body. Blood work, examination of the heart, lungs, and other major organs. My notes indicate vascular hemorrhage and alveolar edema in the lungs.” He looked up. “It’s entirely possible I missed it if he was an H1N6. He died before we knew there was another possibility, and we had no reason to look further. We still can’t isolate this virus in the lab.”

Allegro thanked him and they returned to the van.

“This guy could have been infected anywhere. And that’s if he was deliberately infected. We can’t exclude the possibility he was in on this and infected accidentally, or singled out because he knew something and was silenced,” Allegro said.

“Agreed. But because he was a botany guy and not a virologist, we start with the theory that he was a random target. And that he probably was infected in a one-on-one situation, or we’d have other victims with the same date of death,” Domino said. “Which means it’s unlikely he was out in public. More probably, they got him at his home or office. Spent the most time there, and easier to get him alone.”

“Since the feds are convinced this is a big conspiracy with random victims, he probably didn’t know his attacker,” Allegro said. “We need to talk to his coworkers, friends, especially the neighbor who found his body. See if someone remembers something unusual, seeing anyone with him they didn’t recognize around that time.”

“They might also be able to tell us when he started getting sick, so we can further narrow the period when he was infected.” Domino checked her watch. “Nothing we can do about that for at least another six or seven hours.”

Allegro nodded. “If, and this may be a long shot, he was infected at the school, we might get something off the security cams. His apartment building might have some, too. That’s something we can do now.” She headed back to the HighTech campus.

“I really hate the prospect of having to sit through the hours and hours it’ll take to screen several days of video,” Domino groused. “We’ll need to get a week’s worth or so. At least a few days on either side of Reno’s estimate.”

“Yup, if we want to be safe,” Allegro said. “Hope it’s good-enough quality, too, that Reno can quickly match up any faces we send him.”

The cleaning-crew van was still sitting at the side entrance, and lights were on in several windows on the fifth and sixth floors. Allegro parked their vehicle on the street and grabbed the master passcards Dilbert had given them, while Domino searched the contact’s printouts to find any indication of where the camera recording equipment for the building was located.

“Any luck?” Allegro asked.

“Nothing specific. Basement, probably. All the utilities are there—electrical transformers, computer servers, boiler room. Everything else is marked as offices, classrooms, and labs. Nothing marked security.”

They grabbed the laptop and their earpieces, donned their ski masks, and used one of the master passcards to get in the side door. Keeping alert for more cameras inside, they took a stairwell leading down, then split up to search for the digital video recorder. Allegro found it in the room with the university’s massive computer servers. “Got it. West-end hallway, second to the last room,” she told Domino.

Within twenty minutes, they’d transferred a week’s worth of video from all the cameras in the building to the laptop and were back in the van and en route to Zimmerman’s apartment complex. The whole place was dark, with no security cameras, so they headed back to the hotel to start screening the tapes. They’d wait until morning to visit Zimmerman’s building and start knocking on doors.

Three blocks from the Regent, Allegro pulled the van over and parked next to a pay phone. Domino would never agree to make a personal call from her room, because the hotel kept records. Allegro fished in her pocket for change. “Tell her I can’t wait to be an aunt.” She grabbed Domino’s hand and placed several Euro coins in it.

Domino hesitated only briefly before getting out of the van. She was back within a few minutes.

“So?” Allegro asked.

Domino shook her head. “Still waiting for the results.”

“What else did she say?”

“That you shouldn’t be near the child during its formative years.”

“She did not say that.” Allegro started the van and headed toward the hotel.

“No, I did.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’ve learned to ignore you.”

 


Date: 2015-01-11; view: 704


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