Disclaimer: DC Comics and Time/Warner own All the characters; this is an original story that does not intend to infringe on their
Deadly Weapon
By
Peggie
"I just don't know, whatever this infection is I've never seen it's like before, it reminded me very much of a Scarlet Fever outbreak your father and I dealt with when I first came to Gotham. But on closer inspection it's very different it keeps mutating. So far we've been lucky, this virus seems only to infect people who come in direct physical contact with it's victims and has a contagion life cycle of 48 hours. So anyone infected is only a carrier for two days at most. That could be the reason why it's not spreading though the population as a whole. We seem to have it contained thanks to the swift action of those already affected. Those who made it to hospital were put in isolation as soon as Oracle notified us of the problem. As for Dick and Tim, Alfred's swift action stopped any spread from this end." Leslie said.
She was looking into the sealed off temporary medical area. This was normally Batman's high-risk lab, used when he was working on hazardous substances. The air was filtered and scrubbed to ensure that no harmful substances could escape. Alfred had converted it into a makeshift sick bay. Inside two young men were laid out on gurneys breathing apparatus and drips attached to them. Both were laid on water-cooled mattresses. The Wayne family butler, come medic, was monitoring the vital signs of both men.
"We know the virus is man made?" Batman asked.
Leslie nodded "Professor Whiting says it has all the hallmarks of a manufactured virus. He's working on cracking it now, but it will take time its sequence is quite difficult as it mutates every six hours. The good news is each mutation makes it weaker. The bad news is there have been about twenty-five cases and the mortality rate is very high perhaps as high as 100%, nineteen have already died. Mainly the older and weaker patients."
Batman pressed the button to the intercom. "How are they doing?" he asked gruffly.
He saw the old man stand up with an effort, "So far Master Dick seems to be holding his own his temperature has held at 102° for the last ninety minutes," here the old man hesitated, "Master Tim is not doing so well his temperature is up to 102.5°. I am getting a little anxious about him."
"How about you?" Batman asked noting a single bead of perspiration run down his friend's very pale face.
"I fancy it's a little warmer in here than is comfortable sir, otherwise I am fine." the man lied.
Bruce removed his cowl and looked long and hard into his friend's eyes. Finally he said, "Yes, it can get a little warm in there, I'll set the atmospheric controls to make it more comfortable."
Alfred smiled at his employer, "Thank You Sir, I am glad you're back!"
Bruce looked closely at his friend he had noted a hint of fear in the voice. Alfred smiled at his friends then hearing Tim moan he went back to his ministrations.
Still looking at his entire family trapped in a steel and glass room with a killer he couldn't see Batman clenched his fist. He felt sick at the thought he could lose them all within the next twenty-four hours. He turned towards Leslie Thompkins, physician, humanitarian and the closest thing he had to a mother. "Stay with them Leslie, notify me immediately if anything changes."
Leslie nodded, "I'll be here for them Bruce, where are you off to?"
"Gordon and Oracle must be working on what connects these people. I going to see what they've found so far."
Batman connected to Oracle from the Batmobile. He didn't waste time with pleasantries. Oracle would be monitoring Nightwing & Robin's progress via her link to the Batcomputer. Comforting words wouldn't help, they wouldn't be expected either, Oracle knew Batman well enough to know how he operated.
"So, are there any known links between the victims?" Batman asked.
"So far we found the four primary carries those who passed it to the others. The link seems to be the Charity function at the Gotham State University."
"The one Dick went to in my place?" Batman asked. Anger with himself at his own absence surfaced. He'd not been there because he was escorting Danielle Lightfoot, Bruce Wayne's newest conquest, to her latest film premiere. He'd only returned after receiving an urgent summons from Alfred via Oracle.
"Yes, he took Tim with him, as I couldn't go." It seems they both became infected there. The other two we suspect as being primary cases are Dean Saunders and Professor Michaels. Every other victim seems to have had contact with one or other of these people."
"But why only four?" Batman asked.
"I am sorry I don't understand?" Oracle replied.
"Why only four? That party was for a couple of hundred, why did only four of those people attending catch it? I take it everyone else who was at the party was checked?"
"Everyone, they came into contact with was checked out. Seems that they became infectious about two hours after the party. That's when the infection rate was 100% for anyone with physical contact with them. Dick and Tim became unwell as they got back to the Manor and were getting ready for patrol. Alfred was puzzled by their symptoms and fed them into the computer and came up with four possible viruses, Ebola, Clench Smallpox and Scarlet fever. He immediately notified me and I alerted the authorities. After the Clench scare they took no chances, and enacted the emergency isolation procedures. Alfred set up his own isolation unit for the boys."
"I've seen it." Batman answered curtly.
"'How are they doing?" Oracle asked.
"Dick's holding stable, but Alfred's worried about Tim."
"How's Alfred holding up? He got to be infected too." She quietly murmured.
"I know!" Bruce added angrily. "So who would want to hurt the Dean and the Professor?"
"We're working on that." Oracle replied pulling herself together.
"Have Professor Whiting results and findings downloaded into the Batcomputer. I am going to check out the party venue."
Police had already cordoned off the area around the hall where the party had been held. Commissioner Gordon came to meet Batman as he pulled up outside the door.
"Oracle says you're puzzled by there only being two initial victims. That had me puzzled too. So we've been running the security videos and I think we may have found out how our primary carriers became infected."
They entered the university security office. Montoya had the tapes already cued. "This guy caught our eye, for a waiter he seems pretty clumsy, also he seems keen that no one touches his plate of sandwiches except the Dean and Professor Michaels." She said. "As soon as they have taken some he leaves the remains and the tray on a table then disappeared. Batman noticed a hand come into shot and remove two sandwiches from the tray. Another hand took the last two both hands had elaborate signet rings on. Batman recognised the rings, they had been purchased in England and given to the owners by their friend and butler on his return from his last trip home. So that explained how Dick and Tim had become infected, but who wanted to kill the Dean and Professor Michaels? And why this way?
"We're trying to locate the waiter, the caters haven't seen him before he's not one of theirs. I've had them make you a copy of the tape Batman." Gordon said.
"I am going to see Professor Whiting." Batman growled, taking the tape from Montoya's hand.
He was stood looking into another biohazard room much larger than that in the cave. The people inside were fully suited up to protect them from the viruses. "It's a mutated Scarlet fever virus spliced with part of the Smallpox virus. Whoever did this knew his stuff, they took the worst bit of each virus. The only lucky thing is the two viruses kill each other within forty eight hours."
"They also kill the host." Batman growled. "Any chance of an antidote?"
"Not yet! Unless we find someone with resistance to the disease it'll take days perhaps months to find one otherwise."
"We haven't got days people are dying now!" Batman said his fist slammed on to the desk.
"Batman, You're wanted back at the cave, urgent." Oracle voice came over his earpiece.
Batman headed towards the door before activating his throat mike. "What's happened?" he asked an edge of fear in his voice.
"Alfred just collapsed." Oracle reported in an overly calm voice.
Batman just closed his eyes for a second. He looked back at Professor Whiting. "Keep looking, lives are depend on you finding a cure."
Gordon looked at Batman "We're working on finding the waiter. I'll contact you as soon as we know anything."
Batman stepped out of the Batmobile and surveyed the scene. Both young men were the same as before. Only now the man who had been looking after them was slumped on the floor.
Leslie was stood at the intercom trying to get some response. She had on a biohazard suit.
"Hang on Leslie, I'll suit up and go in with you."
Leslie looked at him her face set grim. "There's no point Bruce, Alfred's activated the time lock we can not get in for eight hours."
Bruce slammed his fist on the glass in anger. "Why did you do that?" he yelled at the unconscious man.
"He said he wasn't having us exposed to this." Leslie muttered. "He set up fresh drips and medication for the boys and placed blood specimens in the air lock for you, before he passed out."
"Why?" Bruce asked again.
"You would have done the same Bruce. Wouldn't you?"
The Bruce didn't answer, he was looking at his entire family dying just feet away from him and he was unable to help. In particular he was staring at the man on the floor, the man who had prevented him from helping. Yes, he would have done the same as Alfred to protect those he loved. But knowing that didn't make him any the less angry at his friends actions.
Batman removed his cowl and went over to monitor the vital signs of his friends. The two young men were still dangerously ill, but seemed to be holding their own. The old man on the floor he could tell nothing about. He was in grave danger having no medication or oxygen to aid him. Feeling totally helpless Bruce slumped down into his seat.
"Batman!" Oracle's voice said as her image flashed up on the large screen. "The police have located the waiter. He's just been found dead at an apartment in Denver Row."
Bruce looked back towards the glass and steel room. "Bruce, you have to go." Leslie said quietly. "I'll be here. There's nothing useful either of us can do except watch, wait and perhaps pray."
"You'll let me know if ..." He had to stop as his voice was braking.
Leslie squeezed his shoulder. "I'll contact you as soon as there's any news."
Bruce hugged the woman before he replaced his cowl and headed for the Batmobile.
"Desmond Wade, he used to be a lab assistant at the University, before being sacked for misappropriation of chemicals." Gordon said from behind a protective screen that the Biohazard team had erected.
"So that's his link with Professor Michaels and Dean Saunders."
"We've searched everything and we cannot find any hint of how or where he may have made the virus."
Office Montoya, approached the screen she was wearing a biohazard suit. "Comish, we've found nothing to link him to making the virus. But we did find this she held up about five hundred dollars. Seems he may just have been a well-paid delivery boy. Mind you I don't think he expected this to happen." She said nodding towards the corpse being loaded into a hermetically sealed casket.
"I'll be at the University trying to find out more about Desmond Wade." Batman grunted.
Batman was talking to a tired looking Professor Whiting in his office. They could see the team's still working in the isolation unit. "Yes, Desmond worked for me. He'd been a rather promising undergraduate student of mine, but a lab accident left him brain damaged. So I gave him a job as a lab assistant."
"What type of accident?" Batman asked.
"He was working on a measles virus, his protective suite was damage and he became infected. For a time he was very ill. He almost died in fact."
"So Desmond had the background knowledge required to create this virus."
"No Batman, the Desmond Wade who studied under me could have possible been intelligent enough to create a virus. But after the accident his IQ was way below your average high school student. He was always delivering the wrong apparatus and chemicals to the labs. People forgave him a lot, as they felt sorry for him."
"Why was he dismissed?"
"I argued strongly that he should be kept on, but Professor Michaels, who is head of faculty, decided that he should dismissed, after he was found hoarding chemicals in his room."
"So you and Professor Michaels disagreed over the sacking?"
Whiting smiled, "Academics always disagree. I mean, John, Professor Michaels, doesn't see the need for a large expensive facility such as this one. He's been trying to close us down for a year or more, since Desmond's accident in fact. But where would Gotham now be without us? Let's face it we're Gotham's best hope of finding a cure."
"Indeed you are!" Batman said.
"Batman!" Oracle's voice came over his earpiece. "Leslie, wants you back at the cave urgent. She didn't say why. But there's been little change in the boy's conditions. So it's probably Alfred."
Batman was on edge as he exited the Batmobile, he was dreading what he would see. Leslie was stood in front of the window. As he approached he stopped shocked. Both boys were laid out as before. But Alfred was no longer on the floor, he was sat slumped in the chair. He looked dreadfully ill. But certainly better than he'd been four hours before. Batman pulled off his cowl.
"How?" Bruce asked in a shocked voice.
"Bruce, Alfred had Scarlet Fever as a child, he's obviously got some natural resistance to this new virus. Although it's unheard of these days Scarlet Fever was a very common illness in the forties and fifties." Leslie said her relief clear to see. "We've got a sample of Alfred's blood to work with! We can start making a cure."
Bruce pressed the intercom button "Old friend, are you ok?" he asked a tremor in his voice.
The old man turned to face his friends and raised an unsteady hand.
"Ok, you sit back and rest, we'll get working on a cure."
Bruce picked up the vile of blood and looked at it.
"Are you going to take it to Professor Whiting?" Leslie asked.
"No, I'll make the antidote here, it'll be quicker."
Both friends worked diligently and carefully at the task within two hours the cells that had given Alfred his resistance were being artificially grown. "Another hour and we should have enough vaccine for Dick and Tim." Leslie said.
Bruce noted Tim's vital signs "Good, the lad's deteriorating."
"Alfred, you need to release the time lock!" Bruce said gently.
The old man nodded and stood up with difficulty, he unsteadily walked to the door and released the lock. Leslie and Bruce suited up and entered the room through the air locks. While Leslie administered the anti virus injection to the two young men, Bruce helped his old friend back to the chair.
Within the hour both Dick and Tim were showing signs of recovery, they were both out of danger.
"They're fit young men Bruce, recovery shouldn't take too long." Leslie assured him.
Bruce had brought another gurney in to the room and insisted Alfred lay down.
While Leslie sat with the patients, Bruce was reviewing Professor Whiting's notes. Leslie these don't make sense. I am no Virologist, but surly if a virus had been made by splicing together two known viruses, you'd try out know cures for those viruses first?
"Of course you would Bruce, you eliminate every obvious possibility first." Leslie was reading through the print off of the findings that Bruce had given her. "I don't understand it either." Leslie said. "Why if all that was required to make the cure was cells from a patient who'd had Scarlet Fever didn't Professor Whiting find the cure hours ago." Leslie demanded. "A man of Professor Whiting's stature would surly have thought of that?"
Bruce collected the vials of newly distilled cure ready to deliver it to the hospital. "I think he does know Leslie, he was just biding his time before he announced to the world that he'd found the miracle cure. In fact I think he's always know what the cure was, because he made the virus in the first place."
Leslie looked shocked. "No I don't believe it! Why would he do that Bruce? He's a doctor. No doctor would risk people's lives just for the glory."
"I think Professor Whiting wanted slightly more than glory."
With that Batman left the cave to deliver the cure. On route he contacted Commissioner Gordon. Who met him at the hospital. "Jim the cure was a simple one, an undergraduate student would have thought of, yet our great Professor failed to consider it. Why, firstly because he needed maximum publicity and what better way to get it in Gotham than deaths from another new plague, lots of deaths. Then our great Professor would find a cure and save the day."
"So he just want's to be a hero?" Gordon asked shaking his head.
"No, the University were going to cut his funding. After the accident when Desmond Wade was hurt people were getting worried about the cavalier way in which the Professor was approaching his research. Several large sponsors had withdrawn money from the department. So it had been decided to scale down the Biological Research division. He needed a way to make sure it stayed open."
Gordon shook his head again, "Nineteen deaths. He let nineteen people die for that?"
"People have committed mass murder for less." Batman added.
As Batman and Gordon entered the University lab a young police officer and several frightened students and research assistants met them.
"It's Professor Whiting," one young woman said. "He's taken a specimen of MK781 into the Biohazard chamber. He forced everyone out and has sealed the door."
"MK781?" Batman asked.
"A new mutant Smallpox virus, it's deadly. We developed it for possible defence use. It's fast acting and affective, 100% mortality rate but only a life span of one hour the young Doctor explained. The idea was to bombard enemy positions then troops could safely enter the area within an hour to find every living thing dead or dying."
"That's inhumane." Batman muttered.
"No it's not!" a voice boomed over a loud speaker. "Think of all the wars it will prevent. If your enemy knows you have this type of weapon."
"Shouldn't he be wearing one of those suites?" Gordon asked, looking at the man. He had on a lab coat but no other protection.
"No Commissioner, you see I don't intend going to jail." The Professor said. With that he removed the top off a flask containing the Virus.
"Oh my God!" the young researcher moaned.
"But nineteen lives?" Batman asked, "Was saving this facility be worth nineteen lives?"
"Nineteen, nine hundred perhaps even nine thousand. Our work here is worth more than just one or two lives."
The man was now showing signs of acute illness.
Batman stared at him coldly. "That's where we disagree. Nothing is worth the sacrifice of a single life. Every life matters and is precious." Batman said his voice held an icy edge. With that he just walked away. He had no wish to watch the man die.
Dick was sat up looking quizzically around the makeshift medical centre. Tim was awake but preferred to lay back on his pillows both young men look much better. Bruce put on a mask and gown and joined Leslie in the isolation area. He stopped to squeeze Alfred's arm, then went to stand by the young men's beds.
"Welcome back!" he said to them both.
"Hi Bruce." Tim said weakly.
"What, happened?" Dick asked.
"Your ever empty stomach, got you into trouble again Grayson." Came Oracle's relieved voice over the speaker. She was using the two-way link to monitor their recovery.
"So, this was food poising?" Tim asked.
"In a way." Bruce explained what had happened.
"Next time I have to go to a charity event I am going to get Alfred to make a pack up that I can take with me. Then I won't have to eat the food there." Dick said seriously.
"I don't think that would work Master Dick." Alfred murmured sleepily. "As they haven't invented a lunch box big enough, for me to pack enough food into so as to prevent you from nibbling party treats."
Tim laughed and Dick threw his pillow at him.
"Boy's I insist you get some rest!" Leslie said sternly.
"I don't feel tired." Dick complained.
"Can't we watch the film?" Tim asked.
"Alfred, did you make that popcorn?" Dick called.
The old man didn't answer, and all three young men looked towards where their friend was laid concerned.
Leslie, who was sat holding Alfred's hand, smiled. "He's just asleep, like you two should be. Now settle down." She quietly admonished the two invalids.
"I'll record the film." Bruce said as he turned down the lights.
"No thanks Bruce. It's wasn't a film I really wanted to see." Dick said. "I wouldn't mind some popcorn though!"
Leslie could be heard laughing softly as Bruce left the room shaking his head.