Chapter 12
Larry looked up as Alan returned. "He's been sleeping like the proverbial baby," he said, standing to let Alan take the seat near Charlie's head. "And I do believe he feels a little cooler."
"That's wonderful, Larry," Alan said, taking his seat and touching Charlie's cheek. "He does feel cooler. Though it might be wishful thinking."
"How was your walk?" Larry asked.
"Fine. If you want to take a break, go ahead," Alan said. He suddenly wished he could tell Larry what Don had told him. He suddenly wished he could wake Charlie up and ask him what the hell he was doing in Baghdad. But Charlie had gone to such great extents to keep his secret, that Alan knew he should just keep his mouth shut until they somehow managed to get rid of the NSA agents. He hoped his baby boy's sense of honor wouldn't be the death of him.
Charlie moaned and turned towards Alan. "Dad?" he croaked.
"Charlie, Son, would you like a drink?"
"Please," Charlie whispered.Alan held the straw to Charlie's lips and wiped his son's fevered face with the damp washcloth. "Mmmm. Thanks. That feels good." He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feel of the cool washcloth. After a few long moments, he opened his eyes, "Dad? Where are Don and Amita?"
"They went back to the inn."
Charlie looked at the chair where Amita had been sitting. "The briefcase?" he asked.
"She took it with her. I guess she wanted to use her computer."
Charlie smiled and sighed. "Good."
Agent Reid looked up from his puzzle. "Dr. Eppes? Was that your briefcase?"
Charlie closed his eyes and didn't answer.
Reid stood and walked to Charlie's side. "Dr. Eppes?"
Charlie opened his eyes and said, "The briefcase belongs to Amita."
"And the computer?"
"Hers."
Reid looked at Charlie's face and then nodded and sat back down.
Charlie glanced at Alan and smiled. "Could I have more water?"
"Of course, Son," Alan said, putting the straw to Charlie's lips.
House scowled as his phone rang. It rang four times, then stopped. It rang four more times and stopped. On the third set of rings, he sighed and picked it up, "What?!"
"Dr. House, my name is Havercamp. I'm with public health. I've been talking to Agent Don Eppes about his brother, your patient, Dr. Charles Eppes."
House sat up, suddenly interested, "Yes?"
Havercamp told House about the other three consultants. She also gave him the list of treatments that had been tried, unsuccessfully.
"Dr. Havercamp," House began.
"Lieutenant."
"Whatever. Thank you for this. Please call me if you find out anything else about these patients."
"I will. And would you call me if you find something that works?"
"Definitely." House hung up, grabbed his cane and limped into the adjoining room, where his team was busily researching genetically altered anthrax. "Wake up!" he yelled, slamming his cane onto the table in front of Chase.
Chase looked up at House and grumbled, "I am awake."
"Good. I just got a very interesting phone call about three other patients with gastrointestinal anthrax, one of whom has kicked the bucket. The other two are in critical condition."
"And that is helpful how?" Foreman asked.
House limped to the white board and began writing. "The poor slob who died was treated with cipro alone. The other two are being treated with cipro and chloramphenicol. So we can eliminate those treatments. Which antibiotics did you choose to use on our guinea pig, Cameron?"
"Cipro and ampicillin at first, then cipro and rifampin. Then I added cefotaxime for the peritonitis. He seems to be responding to the cefotaxime, by the way."
"Well, that's good anyway. He won't be dying of peritonitis before the anthrax can kill him." House drew a line, and below that line he made two columns, one headed "cipro" and the other headed "doxycycline" below each, he wrote the names of eight other antibiotics, rifampin, vancomycin, penicillin, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, imipenem, clindamycin, and clarithromycin. Then he crossed out the chloramphenicol, rifampin and ampicillin below cipro. "Okay, that leave us five to try with cipro and eight to try with doxycycline. Leaving time for them to work, unless we get lucky and hit the right combination in the first couple of tries, he won't live long enough for us to finish the experiment. Suggestions?"
"Double up on the secondary antibiotics?" Chase offered.
"It'll still take too long," Foreman said.
"Why not give him the cipro with the remaining five antibiotics?" Cameron suggested.
"I like that," House said, "blast him with so many antibiotics the antrax won't know what hit 'em."
"What about interactions?" Foreman objected.
"The interactions won't be harmful," House said, tapping on the board with his cane. "Maybe increase or decrease the efficiency of one or more of the antibiotics." He turned to Cameron. "Do it. Chase, you look into bacteriophages. See if any have been approved for human testing. Maybe we can attack the bacteria with a virus and be done with it."
Amita was saving the files she had unencrypted. Don decided to make another phone call. When the call went to voice mail, he pressed 'end' and hit 'redial' On the third try, someone answered. Don heard rustling and a muffled curse. "Colby?" he yelled into the phone.
"Don, what's up?" Colby was suddenly awake.
"I hope I didn't interrupt anything," Don said, chuckling.
"Just my beauty sleep."
"Alone?"
Colby chuckled, "Unfortunately, yes. How's Charlie?"
"Not good. I need you to take advantage of some of your special contacts."
"Anything, Don."
"Thanks. You're not going to believe this, but Charlie was in Baghdad last week. He managed to pick up anthrax while he was there."
Colby swore softly.
"Yeah, my feelings exactly. Anyway, on Saturday, his last day there, he and three other consultants had dinner at the home of Deputy Minister Ali Abu-Hassan. One of the consultants has died, and the other two are in critical condition. Charlie's doing a little better, but not much."
"That sucks, Don. I'll find everything I can on this Abu-Hassan character."
"Thanks, Colby. I owe you. You can even sit at my desk 'til I get back."
Colby laughed. "Gee, thanks, Boss. I'll get back to you the minute I find anything."