Gotc: Pleh….. School, work, sleep. Repeat. That pretty much summarizes my reasons for not posting. Believe me, it's been a dull existence. But, here I am, trying to rectify this horrid injustice and get back to doing what I enjoy! Well….kinda. I doubt Bats would really see it that way, but that's not the point now is it? So I think we should start putting some puzzle pieces together this chappie, eh? At least that's the plan, whether that's where the pot goes is another story entirely….So you'll all just have to read to find out!
Disclaimer: Gotc does not own JL or "The Hot Zone". All quotes from the aforementioned book do not belong to me and will be in bold italicized font.
Warnings: Ebola is a disease not for the faint of heart. Out of respect for Richard Preston's work, and of the nature of the virus itself, I will be describing its effects, both in my own words and Mr. Preston's. While I will attempt to keep this tasteful, I have no intention of downplaying the effects of this disease.
Quarantine
CHAPTER 9: Pieces
Knowledge is a tricky thing; obtaining it, even more so. To gain knowledge, one must learn from those who already possess what is sought. But if one is ignorant of what is being taught to them, how should they know it is the truth they are being handed?
That was the exact dilemma that faced Diana now, as she and J'onn worked to sift through the relentless amount of information. Waller may have called a truce, but that certainly didn't erase their history. Every fact dredged from the stack of files was checked and rechecked to ensure what they had wasn't simply a pile of lies. At first, Diana had been angry at J'onn's suggestion to authenticate their new wealth of facts and tests. It seemed like a colossal waste of time in her eyes, but as they made their way through the information, it was glaringly obvious that much of what they had been handed was so thoroughly complex, it required more researching to fully comprehend what they actually were reading. Because of that, it was also providing at least a general direction in which to focus their efforts; instead of blindly treating Bruce as his symptoms appeared.
Diana riffled through another of the files, more unpleasant documentation of a human casualty callously detailed in the notes. It almost seemed impossible for another human being to be able to document the suffering of their fellow man in such a cold, scientific way. It seemed disgusting to her that the animal cases were a welcomed break in the recorded outbreaks. Though she hated to admit it, it made it far easier to identify the patterns and subtleties the virus seemed to take. There was one thing that stood out in her mind as she read through the cases of both the survivors and those who the disease consumed: the ones that survived, they never bled.
Diana found herself going in circles through the same data it seemed, trying to find some evidence that proved her otherwise. Before long, she had every survivor file they had available spread out in front of her, each telling the same story over and over. Even Apollo's words echoed cruelly in her mind as if even he were powerless against the red tide that poured relentlessly from Bruce.
Unable to look at the gruesome pictures any longer, she turned her gaze to the monitor that held a steady vigil over Bruce. The live stream that met her there was little better than the pictures in front of her, but at least he was still alive, for now. They had given the survivor's globulin over an hour ago, but were yet to notice any kind of improvement in his condition. If anything, he seemed to be getting worse. The bleeding was picking up in pace, and J'onn had to break in order to place a new transfusion of blood far sooner than they had the first time.
Even while the body's internal organs are becoming plugged with coagulated blood, the blood that streams out of the body cannot clot; it resembles whey being squeezed out of curds. The blood has been stripped of its clotting factors. If you put the runny Ebola blood in a test tube and look at it, you see that the blood is destroyed. Its red cells are broken and dead. The blood looks as if it has been buzzed in an electric blender.
Keeping pace with his blood loss, and maintaining blood pressure was the only course of action they had. Blood thickeners to stop the external bleeding would only make the clotting within his body worse. Blood thinners to break the forming clots would just make him bleed faster. Yet this doing nothing hardly seemed to be a better choice at all.
"You need a break Diana." J'onn's voice pulled her away from the monitor. His eyes watched her in a stoic, unwavering silence that made her wonder how long he'd been watching her for.
"I'm fine," She said, pulling another file closer toward her, only to have J'onn tug the file back.
"No you aren't." He said, no room for argument in his voice, "You've forgotten our main objective here. Our job is to find the person who did this to keep them from hurting anyone else."
"And let Batman die?" Diana rose to her feet, fury building at her teammate. As an Amazon, it was her duty to look after her comrades. To do anything but was nothing short of blasphemy to everything she believed in-
"You have forgotten the situation we're still in," J'onn interrupted her, her thoughts screaming into his mind though she was silent, "It's our duty to protect the people who cannot protect themselves. Batman knew that when he told us to find his attacker, not for himself, but for them. If we save him at the expense of the lives of everyone else on Earth, we would be shaming everything he is sacrificing for us now."
Diana clenched her fists, though she knew J'onn was right. The life of one man was hardly worth the lives of the entire world, but-
"Get some rest," J'onn sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Even if it's only an hour. I'll be sure to call you if something changes here. A fresh mind can often shed new light on a difficult problem."
Her shoulders slumped under his hand that suddenly felt like it weighed ten times more than it should have. She was merely pacing under the guise of research and doing no real good burring herself under facts and case numbers. Reluctantly, she nodded and consented to at least getting out and stretching her legs. She couldn't bring herself to go to her quarters and do nothing while Bruce suffered, but the odd hours would at least give her some privacy as she headed to the gym.
Another drone fell in a heap at her feet as the simulation came to an end. She had to be missing something. There had to be another angle they hadn't explored. Diana had no doubts in her mind that J'onn was more than capable handling the medical aspect, and sifting through the masses of new information they had. The other's on the ground had combed through their potential suspects, and there was no way that if something had been amiss that they would have just let it slide. The Gods couldn't help, at least as far as Bruce was concerned, so what did that leave them? The assassin had to come from somewhere and she certainly couldn't have disappeared into thin air, so surely there had to be a way to track her down. Batman always seemed to be able to, so how did he find someone?
A good workout had always been something of a panacea on Themascyra whenever she ran up against a particularly difficult problem, but as she went through her third cycle of drones, it became obvious that the added aggression was only making her feel worse. And every moment that passed her by, she couldn't help but feel that it was one more moment Batman would have been closer to an answer if their roles had been reversed. But that was who Batman was; he would exhaust every possibility when it came to the well-being of his comrades. Hera, the man absolutely despised magic of any kind, and yet here Zatanna had told her that he had even been willing to-
Wait. Diana froze as she began to start another simulation. That business with Circe…. Zatanna told her about how he'd been trying to find the goddess to save her…. Her hand flew to her communicator, and waited impatiently for a response from the other end.
"Di…ana?" A groggy Zatanna mumbled on the other end of the line, "What's wrong?"
"Zee, how did you and Bruce find Circe?" Diana asked, though perhaps a bit too hurried.
"What do you mean?"
"When she turned me into a pig, do you remember how you found her?" She tried to slow down.
"Ummm….Medusa," Zatanna said, a bit more coherently, "We had to go to Tarturus-"
"No, before that!" Diana interrupted, frustrated more at herself for not being able to remember the ordeal clearly, "There was something else, I remember a flash of light…"
"You mean the locator spell? That didn't work, Di."
"You were looking for a goddess," Diana reasoned, "What if they were just human?"
There was the sound of a shifting mattress and the soft flutter of cloth through the earpiece before Zatanna spoke again.
"That's the idea behind a locator spell, Di." Zatanna said, the sleep gone from her voice, "Do you mind telling me what's going on that you're waking me up at 2:30 in the morning? Half the Watchtower's under lockdown, and now you're trying to pry a particularly specific spell out of me? I expect the cryptic thing from Batman, but it's certainly new coming from you. What's going on? And I should warn you that I don't care how much you've picked up from that man, you pull the silent treatment on me and I'll come find you right now and turn that lasso of yours on you."
Diana paused for only a second, considering just how much she should say at once, but found the entire story spilling out along with the tears she'd been holding at bay for far too long. Zatanna listened in utter shock as the tale unfolded with all the terror of a nightmare and none of the reassurance it would be gone with the rising sun.
"The locator might just work, but I'm not going to lie to you Diana," Zatana said slowly, still trying to make sense of the situation, "Circe might have been powerful, but at least she gave me something to focus on. If this would even have the remotest shot of working, I'd need something of hers to direct the spell."
"The only thing we have is the knife she used to…" Diana started to say and found the words caught painfully in her throat.
"That'll work I think," Zatanna said, catching the distress in Diana's voice, "But it's going to take some time to gather the ingredients together."
"I understand," Diana said, gathering herself, "I think the knife's in the medical wing now, J'onn had been running some tests on it earlier. You'll let me know when you have something?"
"Not a second later," Zatanna promised, "and, Di. He'll pull through this. He's the Batman, for god's sake."
"I know," Diana said quietly to no one as the magician signed out, "It just gets harder to say."
She tried to go back to her workout, but found it impossible to find her focus once again. Everyone else was working, and she was taking a break. She couldn't go back to the Founder's room just yet, so instead Diana let her mind drift back over the charts she left behind. She forced herself to focus on the details, mentally scanning for something she might have missed.
"Filoviruses, Marburg being the only other disease in the family. Infections start two days to two weeks of exposure…." She turned the key phrases she'd read over in her mind. Not that it was helping. An infuriating itch had developed at the base of her skull, and spread throughout the rest of her brain the more she tried to think.
Her heart began to race, though she didn't know quite why. No, she did. This was the same feeling she had when sparring with Bruce, that instant before his attack would launch from her blind spot. He was the only man on Earth who could hide his presence so flawlessly, and yet the more time she spent training with him, the more she could almost feel the imperceptible twitch of movement before his next strike. It was the same feeling that when her senses told her she was alone, another part screamed at her that something was still there.
" Ebola Sudan had around a 50% mortality rate," she pressed on, though the feeling got stronger, almost to the point where it was painful, "Zaire was closer to 90, while several strains were lethal only to monkeys…..
Diana stopped as Earth as spun below her. Out the thick, airtight window, she could clearly see the masses of land that made up the continents on its surface, and the clear blue waters that sparkled even from her vantage point. The answers were down there somewhere, staring her in the face, hiding in plain sight…..
Diana gasped in shock as a missing piece finally found its way into the unfolding puzzle.
"J'onn!" Diana all but shouted into her communicator, "We missed one!"
"Diana, you're supposed to be resting-" A disapproving voice came back at her, but was cut off before J'onn could finish scolding her.
"No, listen to me! Batman had us only looking in human reservoirs!" Diana all but screamed back at him, "But Ebola doesn't just affect humans, it kills monkeys too!"
The strain was a sophisticated organism that knew what it wanted. It could multiply in many different kinds of meat. It was an invasive life form, devastating and promiscuous. It showed a kind of obscenity you see only in nature, an obscenity so extreme that it dissolves imperceptibly into beauty….
….and It made a living somewhere in Africa.
"Gorilla City," J'onn quickly followed her thoughts, "Ebola is native to Africa, and they certainly have the technology to preserve a sample of the virus."
"I'm heading to the transporters now," Diana said, not waiting for his approval, "Contact the others and have them meet me outside of the City"
"I'll let Solovar know to expect you."
Diana shot through the halls, ignoring the indignant looks she got form the heroes who had to leap out of her way as she shot past them to the teleporters. Her heart was back in her throat again, though a part of her warned against it. But she couldn't help but feel that Bruce had a chance again, not simply a long shot of faith and untested science. The gorillas were an advanced race, and they shared a common enemy. It was a dangerous hope, that perhaps somewhere in the barren desert would lie a miracle, but for the moment, that hope was all she had.
The arid heat usually came almost as a shock after the carefully controlled environment of the Watchtower, but it made little impact on Diana as the endless sea of desolate sand and sun rushed beneath her. The landscape all appeared to be the exact same, with little more than a sparse tree or scrub brush to break up the expanse. A stream of coordinates guided her to her location, since the ape's technology prevented a safe teleport within 100 miles of the city. A familiar dot on the horizon caught her attention, as she zeroed in and touched down on semi-rocky ground. Superman lighted next to her, looking just as tired as she felt and nearly stumbling on the uneven ground.
"Where are the others?" Diana asked, noting her companion was obviously alone.
"Following a lead," Superman said, "It wasn't much, but we found several genetic scientists who had worked with viral DNA. We split up to talk to them and maybe find out if any of them knew someone that would hold a grudge against the League."
"I take it you haven't found anything," Diana sighed, seeing the disparaging look on her friend's face.
"Not a thing." Superman shook his head sadly, as a faint shimmer disrupted the otherwise unchanging landscape.
Like a portal to another realm, a small doorway opened up, revealing a miniscule portion of the vast city hidden behind the intricate veil few knew existed. As they stepped though it and into the domain of the apes, Superman and Wonder Woman were both greeted at the threshold by Solovar's familiar outline amongst the contingent of soldiers at his back.
"Superman! Wonder Woman!" The silver-haired ape greeted them warmly, "You're Martian friend told me you were coming, but was rather mute on the occasion. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"We need to know everything you do about the Ebola virus." Wonder Woman said bluntly, ever aware of the diminishing time they had.
The reaction was sudden and immediate amongst the gathered apes. Some reeled away from the Leaguers as if they carried the virus itself, while others brandished teeth and weapons alike to drive them from the city's borders. A bellowing roar from Solovar quieted the gathered to an uneasy murmur amongst themselves, but his even he seemed shaken by the mention of the virus.
"I wish we were here on better business," Superman said, the fatigue even showing in his voice.
"Aye," Solovar agreed, "So do I. Come on, you'll need to follow me so we can talk in private."
Diana would have thought her voice must have carried throughout the entire city, if judging by the fearful stares they received from nearly every inhabitant was any indicator. She was almost glad when the heavy doors of Solovar's office closed tightly behind them.
"You'll forgive them for their reactions?" Solovar sighed, "It's been a long while since that menace's name had been heard inside the city."
"So you do know of it then?" Superman said, his voice perking up ever so slightly.
"Hn. All too well. That disease is a bane both to your species and ours. We remember too clearly a time when it burned through our streets and washed them red with blood," The ape shuddered a bit at the memory, "There is little we apes fear, but that demon is one we do. Which begs the question, what is it that brings this horrible topic with you?"
"An assassin is loose in the outside world," Wonder Woman said, making no attempt to hid the malice in her voice, "And she uses the virus as her weapon. She's already struck down one of our own, and now we fear she will go after others. We came to you hoping Gorilla City had found a cure we could use to stop her, or perhaps provide some insight as to how she came by the virus in the first place."
Solovar laughed, though the sound was utterly humorless.
"A cure for Ebola?" He scoffed, "Are you mad? The only ones in the city fool enough to come within a hundred yards of the stuff are already crazy or out of their minds! No, there is no cure for something that was never truly alive to start with…"
It is a perfect parasite because it transforms virtually every part of the body into a digested slime of virus particles. The seven mysterious proteins that, assembled together, make up the Ebola-virus particle, work as a relentless machine, a molecular shark, and they consume the body as the virus makes copies of itself.
"Solovar," Superman shook his head, helplessly, "We've searched every possible link on our end of the world and came up empty. If there's anything at all you can tell us…"
The ape folded his hands behind his back, running one through his iron colored fur before he placed it on a touch pad on the wall. A beep sounded quietly in the room, before a small square door popped open out of the seamless wall. Solovar quickly pried it open to reveal the innards of a safe that was empty save for a single disk resting on the bottom.
"This," He said, pulling the disk out and holding it between his fingers before sliding it into a slot on his desk, "Is footage we pulled from a surveillance camera two weeks ago along the city's perimeter."
An image flashed on the opposing wall of dark buildings in the African twilight, with no sound nor movement to disturb the scene, until a shadow rushed through the frame so quickly, it was hard to be sure it had even been there in the first place.
"An intruder somehow managed to get past the City's barrier and into the interior nearly undetected," He said, rewinding the clip and freezing it at the moment the shadow came into view, "Nothing had been taken, no files copied, no one dead or injured. We swept all possible targets for any kind of bomb or planted device and turned up empty. Several officials decided it was a prank by one of the youngsters, and voted to not show this to the public and worry them unnecessarily."
"Can you enhance the image and get a better look at who the intruder was?" Superman asked, standing up to get a closer look at the picture.
A moment later, the frame zoomed in closer and readjusted for the lack of light. The resulting image was still poor, yet revealed an all too familiar black clad female, vaulting through the camera's line of sight.
"It's her!" Diana said angrily, rising to her feet as well, "That's the same woman who attacked Batman at Lex Corp!"
"Solovar," Superman said, wearing a look that would have made the Dark Knight proud, "Are you absolutely sure nothing was taken?"
"You think she would have taken an Ebola sample from us?" Solovar balked.
"How many guards do you have watching the samples?"
Solovar fell silent and made Diana lose what patience she still had left. Before Superman could reach out and stop her, Wonder Woman had Solovar by the throat and two feet off the ground, ready to let him fall to the ground three stories below. She had been hoping for a miracle, only to once again just watch any glimmer be torn away yet again.
"Batman is dying, and you're going to tell me that it's because no one was around to stop her?" She roared furiously, "This all could have been stopped if someone had just-"
"Things don't work the same way here that they do in your world," The ape choked out, "No one messes with that thing unless they have a death wish…."
"Diana!" Clark pulled her away from him, planting himself between the two, "This isn't going to make things better for anyone. All we know is that she was here, we don't know if she did get the sample here only that she managed to make it this far."
He turned to Solovar who had slumped to the floor trying to catch his breath. The ape looked up apologetically at the two heroes and managed to get back on his feet with an impressive amount of wheezing.
"I'll get a forensics team to the deep storage immediately," He said coughing, and heading out of the office, "We'll know for sure soon."
"Not soon enough," Diana said, making sure he had heard as they followed him out.
A tone in her ear might have been the only thing between Solovar and another attack from the still molten anger of the Amazon Princess.
"This isn't a good time," Diana barked into her communicator, not bothering to hear the voice on the other side.
"Diana! It's Zatanna! Listen. J'onn told me you're busy, but I found something you need to see!"
Diana's anger suddenly vaporized into oblivion, as the Clark and Solovar continued on without her, unaware she had come to a complete halt.
"What is it? Did you find out where she is?"
"Not quite," Zatanna said, an uneasy tone in her voice, "I'm not exactly sure what to make of this, and I think you should see it for yourself."
"Alright, let me tell Superman and I'll be on my way."
"Ok, I borrowed Batman's computer in the Cave, so meet me here, but I gotta tell ya, Di….." Zatanna said, pausing to an uncomfortable silence that seemed to stretch on for hours.
"…I don't think you're going to like this."
Gotc: Yawn. Sleepy. Late. Class in Morning. Review. Please and thank you. Zzzzzzzzzzz….