Hey guys! I know I haven't updated in a few days. Sorry! Classes are about to start and I'm not exactly done with my summer homework…anyway, here's chapter 2!
"Our vic's name is Ben Okela. Okela's a local boy. He is twenty-three years old and has no criminal record. He helps his friend manage a small grocery store. Okela was reported missing by his friend, Randy Kaliko, along with his wife and son a week ago." Danny read off the screen of his computer. Steve sat on the opposite side of his desk. At the mention of Okela's family, he stiffened.
"So, this guy's family's gone too?" Danny nodded.
"And that's not all. Over the last two weeks, at least ten similar cases have been reported. Same story every time. Local family vanishes without a trace. All unexepactedly. One family even had a pizza still in the oven."
"No way this is a coincidence."
"I agree…you know, the last time this happened, the guy who engineered the virus took a bunch of people to a warehouse he'd turned into testing facility." Danny remarked.
"And our bad guy could be doing the same. Shit…" Steve ran a hand over his unshaven face. Danny nodded in agreement.
"HPD's scrubbed the house for evidence, but there's nothing. Absolutely nothing. No forced locked, broken windows, out of place objects, foreign DNA. Nothing. The Okela's breakfasts were still on the table, half eaten. It's like they just up and disappeared." They shared a worried look. What the hell was this? Kono and Chin walked in, urgency in their steps.
"Airports and water travel have been shut down. Denning put it out that we were under a major terrorist threat. Which could be entirely true…" Steve nodded his thanks to Chin. Kono didn't wait to be asked.
"So, Max was right. The disease was a version of Yersinia Pestis, but it's been heavily modified."
"Modified? Into what?" Steve asked, taking in the look of fear on Kono's face.
"This strain is far more aggressive. It's no longer zoonotic, or originating from animals. And while Yersinia Pestis kills most infected humans within four days, this new strain, Periculosis Pestis, doesn't kill them for an estimated ten days. However, from the description of the infected Okela and lab tests, this new infection causes swelling and chemical shifts in the brain, leaving the victims angry and combative."
"Jesus Christ…" Danny breathed. "How does it spread?"
"They're not entirely sure since they have no living victims to study, but they believe that it passes from body fluids such as blood, sweat, or tears into openings in the body like the eyes, nose, mouth, or open cut. This is bad since, according to Max, Okela was perspiring heavily and trying to attack the gas station attendant. If he had managed to cut him somehow, there's no doubt some of his sweat or blood would have gotten into the other guy and infected him." Their eyes were all wide with shock and fear. Chin turned to his cousin.
"Is there a cure or vaccination?"
"Not yet, but they're working on it. So far, it hasn't responded to any of the known widely used treatments. Before everything closed up, they were able to get in a rushed shipment of a vaccination against Yersinia Pestis that the government had stockpiled in case there was a second outbreak of the plague. They're trying to alter it to fit with Periculosis Pestis."
"Where would somebody even get a sample of the original disease in order to modify it? I thought it died out back in the fourteenth century." Steve asked.
"It did for the most part, but it still pops up occasionally. Our bad guy could've gotten ahold of a sample from of the more recently ill. What the scientists are most worried about and still testing is whether or not this strain is pneumonic."
"Pneumonic?" Danny asked.
"It's a type of the disease that causes coughing and as a result is much more infectious and it spreads easier from person to person."
"If it is, then, depending on how many people Okela came in contact with, then half the island could be infected by now." Chin commented.
"Okay…" Steve took a calming breath. He knew that they were all looking to him to come up with some new lead, but he had nothing. It was an awful weight on his shoulders.
"Alright, let's use traffic and security cams to track Okela's movements. We find out where he came from and who he came in contact with, we might catch a break." Danny said, speaking up. Steve was glad that Danny had taken charge like that. Danny was a very smart man, more than anyone gave him credit for and Steve trusted him implicitly. Danny often saw things that Steve did not, like he had just now. It was why Steve had made Danny his partner. With his fresh eyes and sharp skills, he was the perfect man to team up with. Chin and Kono nodded. They were the most tech savvy of the group, so they set to work tracing Okela. Danny sat in his chair once more. Any of the tiredness he'd felt this morning was gone. He was wide awake and scared shitless. He ran a hand through his hair. Steve glanced up and he caught his partner's eye.
"What the hell are we dealing with, Danno?"
"I don't know…it isn't exactly the friggin' zombie apocalypse, but it's pretty damn close. Who do you think's behind it? Terrorists?"
"Maybe. Some religious fanatics have tried something like this before. They release a toxin or disease to kill those who aren't of their faith and believe their god will protect them."
"What I don't understand is how they gain something through that. You have more of a background with terrorists than I do, but even if they manage to kill a significant number of their 'enemies', they also kill themselves in the process. Maybe in their minds, that's still a win. But we also need to look at who has the most to gain."
"What do you mean?" Steve asked.
"Think about it. Yes, the terrorists and religious fanatics might kill a bunch of us and scare us half to death, but it's a small victory because they have to know that we'll contain it quickly. And this is an expensive operation. They have to get ahold of samples of the disease, alter it, produce enough for all of their carriers, which is what I'm assuming all those families are, and find a secure facility in which to all this in. Most terrorist groups are underfunded, right?"
"Right." Steve answered slowly, still not seeing the shape of Danny's point.
"If they have so little money, how can they afford this? I'm not saying this isn't a terrorist thing because it still might be, but who is bankrolling them?" Steve thought for a moment.
"A wealthy religious sympathizer I suppose." Danny shook his head.
"Maybe, but unlikely. Think bigger. If the world fears a breakout of a disease like this that doesn't seem to respond to any known treatments, and suddenly someone comes out with a cure or vaccine, how much will the governments be willing to pay to ensure the safety of their people?" It all fell into place for Steve after Danny said that.
"You're thinking pharmaceutical companies."
"Exactly. This is a lot of money to pour into something. You'd only do that if you knew for certain that it would turn out an immense profit. And maybe this company got help from terrorists. The terrorist will see it as a gain for them because it deals a heavy blow to their enemies and it also causes those countries to divert funding from weapons spending and put it all into preventive medicine, which benefits our mystery company. I'm just guessing here-"
"But it's a damn good guess." Steve finished. "I think you're on the right track. We need to start looking into these companies. It could take a while, though. There are literally hundreds of companies who are financially able to pull this off. We need to get more than Five-0 working on this. We may be the only ones here in Hawaii who can stop this, but we can still get help from people on the mainland. I've got some friends in the DHS who can help us narrow our search down and interpret what we have."
"Good, good. Let's get on that…Kono, what do you got?" Danny asked as soon as she and Chin entered the room.
"We backtracked the footage from at least a hundred different cameras and found Okela stumbling out of some apparently abandoned warehouse. Good news is, it doesn't look like he met anyone until the gas station."
"Ok, where's this warehouse?" Steve asked.
"On Puuhale Road and for an abandoned warehouse, there's a lot of activity."
"Ok, let's hit this place and find out what the hell is going on."
"Ok, I agree that we need to raid it ASAP, but we need to go in smart. We need HPD to set up roadblocks and have containment measures put in place. We will all need some form of protection so we don't get sick ourselves too." Danny said.
"I think I know where we can get those." Steve said with almost a smile. An hour later, they all had lightweight body armor, courtesy of one of Steve's SEAL friends, and full face masks. They stood outside the warehouse and, with one final glance back the relative safety of their cars, they approached the doors.
How was that? If you hear ideas that sound familiar, I promise it's not plagiarism! I have a friend who absolutely loves this kind of stuff and has told me all he knows on the subject so I'm taking pieces of his three hour monologue on the subject and sticking it in. Oh, and for those of you who may not know, DHS is Department of Homeland Security. I realize that this is kind of an information overload, but it all needed to go in somewhere! Leave me a review and tell me what you think!