Page 10 of Lethal Game

Chapter Three

Con was a patient hunter. He read through the file and waited for Sophia to come back to her office. What he discovered could’ve easily turned his hair gray.

He’d heard of Ebola in Africa and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in Asia, but there were dozens of other hot spots of one infectious disease or another all over the world. The file focused on cases in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It also mentioned locations in South America and the United States where outbreaks of malaria, West Nile, and antibiotic-resistant E. coli were causing hospitalizations, with some fatalities.

Also included were task lists of what responders had done to combat these outbreaks. Some of them required more work than others. Months of medical support for the areas affected might be needed, while others were resolved in a few weeks, or even days.

It all depended on how many people were infected and how easy it was to determine which bug or virus caused the outbreak.

The Army’s policy of using Standard Operating Procedures wouldn’t work. SOPs only helped if the situation was predictable. Infectious diseases typically weren’t.

Sophia walked into the room as he was trying to figure out how any one doctor could be involved in all these cases.

She gave him a tight smile and asked, “Learn anything?”

“Yeah,” he said giving her a once-over. “You’ve got to be half octopus to be involved in all of these outbreaks.”

She blinked.

Not what you were expecting to hear, sweetheart?

He watched her mentally regroup and tilt her head to one side. “What are you reading?”

“It’s a summary of all the current outbreaks your team is monitoring. What I can’t figure out is how any one group can keep track of all this without having a whole lot more people working for them than I see around here.”

“We obtain a lot of information from other groups with people on the ground at the site of the outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control, the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders, the World Health Organization, and others all share information.”

“Does the information flow both ways?”

“Yes and no. Max determines what information we pass along.”

“Do you have any input?”

“Some. It’s usually case by case.”

She was talking to him, giving him no attitude for the first time since meeting her. “Speaking of cases...I asked why you hadn’t been given any self-defense training. Eugene said it was due to a medical condition. Can you tell me more about that?”

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