In una base segreta un virus misterioso semina la follia e la morte; la squadra di Mac Taylor indaga, ma non riesce ad evitare il contagio. Il virus, tuttavia, provoca inaspettati effetti collaterali…
Il titolo riprende un episodio di una famosissima serie tv degli anni novanta, alla quale la storia è liberamente ispirata. Avete capito di quale telefilm sto parlando?
Into a secret base a mysterious virus sows madness and death; Mac Taylor's team try to investigate, but fails to avoid contagion. The virus, however, cause unexpected side effects ...
The title takes an episode of a popular TV series of the nineties, in which the story is loosely based. Show you understand what I'm talking about?
THE NAKED NOW
CHAPTER ONE
That morning, very early, the detective Mac Taylor had gathered in the meeting room all his team's members: the best agents of the crime scene investigation department of New York City.
"What's happened?" asked Stella Bonasera to Danny Messer while they were reaching the room.
" I don't know, but there is trouble brewing. Mac haven't mentioned nothing by phone? " Replied the boy.
" No, you know how he is reserved ... but he seems a bit gloomy…" she said.
" Big deal! That's nothing new !" He joked. They exchanged themselves a knowing smile.
They had arrived.
He gallantly opened to her the glass door of the room, where they found Lindsay, Sid, Adam, Dr. Sheldon Hawkes and the detective Don Flack.
And, of course, Mac.
They greeted themselves. There was a relaxed atmosphere in the room.
Until Mac began to speak.
"Well" he said, and his tone betrayed a certain worry "I have asked you to come here for an extremely important matter, but also extremely tricky" – He made a brief break - "We are talking about of a national security's case".
"Wow!" said Adam, but Mac quickly chilled him with a look of disapproval that was more severe than usual.
"I have been contacted from the Director of the CIA in person: he need our competences in order to resolve a urgent case and much complex, from which could depend the security of our Country".
He was silent for a moment, feeling the wait grow in his team.
"We are talking about a dangerous case… we have to move very carefully, and for this reason in the end of this briefing, if someone of you wants to be withdrawn I can't blame him".
"Come on Mac! Now we're doing really worry about! Do you want to explain us what's happened?" said Stella.
"Ok" he said "but first, please lock the door: I think it is useless to tell you that not a word have to get out of this room". With a small remote control, he lowered the lights in the room.
In the darkness, Lindsay taken Danny's hand and squeeze it strong. On the screen placed on Mac's behind appeared what looked like the video taken by internal surveillance cameras.
"It's a secret facility built here in New York city, destined to the training of special agents and the preparation of anti-terrorism missions ."
The video quality was poor, but you could still distinguish the corpses, reversed ones on the others, in scattered order. Is not necessary to be an expert policemen in order to comprise that there it had been consumed a massacre.
The bodies of men and women were half-naked, covered of blood. Everywhere there were signs of struggle and broken objects. Stella came near the screen.. "But… they are all…" she said.
"Died" concluded Mac "fourteen between our better special agents, men and women perfectly trained …"
"What's happened?" said Flack.
"From the first reliefs it seem that they have been killed each other's" answered Mac "there were no traces of intrusions and the structure was not easily localized from outside".
"How is possible?" Lindsay exclaimed.
"What could drive crazy those agents highly trained?" said Sheldon "collective madness? hallucinations? hysteria".
"Or a disowned virus…" claimed Sid.
"And then… because the corpses are naked?" asked Stella.
"Good question!" said Mac.
"If they were not dead … we would say that they were just in the middle of a wild party!" Danny said, tearing everyone a smile. "For the time being, all these hypotheses are valid… or not, is our dues find the answers".
"Well, Let's go!" exclaimed Flack.
"No." Mac shook his head, "Perhaps I was not clear! None of us will move from here, since the structure was secret and has already been dismantled".
"You mean we can't inspect the scene, or take samples or take photos?" Danny's tone became restless.
"Correct!" he answered "We haven't the necessary credentials and the identity of the deceased agents must remain classified, also now that they are died…" "Therefore nothing corpses, neither autopsies" Sheldon said.
Mac nodded, the arms folded, looking serious.
"Nor fingerprints," he concluded.
"But, then, how are we going to conduct the investigation?" Stella said, giving voice to the thoughts of the whole team.
At this point, Mac moved slightly to the side revealing the presence, on the floor, of a dozen boxes of metal, all tightly closed.
"In those box there are the evidence find on the place by CIA operators; there is the full video surveillance, tissues and blood samples and so on".
"Obviously in those box there aren't computers' files to be analyzed…" risked Adam.
"Obviously not" Mac answered. Everybody were silent. Mac understood that his team expected more clarification by his side.
"I know that it's a damned complicated investigation…".
"An obstacle race" said Stella.
"Correct!" he said "but the safety of the nation now is in our hands. If you will decide to continue, I pretend from every you the maximum commitment." he looked them face to face.
Nobody said nothing.
Anybody stirred.
Mac sketched a smile: he knew that he could count on his team and he was sure that anybody turned their's backs to him.
"Come on, at work!" he said. That was all. They had been dismissed.
Adam and Flack worked on the videos of internal cameras, Sid and Sheldon analyzed tissue samples taken from the corpses, while Lindsay and Danny examining the exhibits containing the blood of the victims and samples of air, water and other substances found on site.
Stella and Mac, in the meanwhile, looked for in the computer files to verify possible analogous precedents or you signal that denoted a possible terrorist matrix.
"A true case of national security, wow!" Danny said, hugging from behind Lindsay, who was working on a sample of blood under the microscope.
The girl was nervous and this unexpected gesture that made her jump.
The tube fell on the table and a tiny drop of blood splash on Danny's arm between the latex glove and the shirt's sleeve that Danny had rolled on the forearm. The drop was too small to be noticed.
"Stupid! You scared me!" she said between the angry and the amused. Sometimes he was too funny!
"Come on, Montana, You're not really worried ?" He asked, gently, holding her hands.
Lindsay looked into his eyes and the tension broke up in the embrace of man she loved.