Page 98 of Lethal Game

“Yeah, it was a little weird, but he’s sick, so...”

“The CSF sample I need to take is very painful. If the patient moves, I could damage their spinal cord. They can’t move once I’ve started.”

Well, shit.

“Come on, let’s talk to Blairmore.”

The doctor was on the other side of the tent and scowled at both of them as they approached.

Sophia explained what happened with the first patient and asked if confusion of this degree was a common symptom of the disease.

Blairmore frowned, but said, “Not all patients show that much confusion, but some do. We’re seeing a lot of seizures.”

“Ireallyneed a CSF sample.”

“You think this is a meningococcal infection?”

“I should have seen something come up in the blood samples, but I haven’t. It could be viral. Will you help me get a sample?”

“You don’t understand how dangerous it is to do something the leaders of this camp have refused to allow.” Blairmore glanced at Con, who flashed his teeth. “Plus, you’re a woman. One bodyguard isn’t enough. Ten aren’t enough.”

“They’d kill me for trying to fight this, whatever it is?”

“Yes,” Con said. “They will. You’re a challenge to their authority, no matter how well meaning.”

“Every moment that passes means more people will die.”

An old man approached slowly, stopping a few feet away, but making eye contact with Con.

When Con met his gaze, the man spoke in Aramaic, a language as different from Arabic as Latin was from French. He had to mime not understanding, but the old man wasn’t giving up.

“Doctor?” the man asked, glancing at Sophia.

Con nodded.

The old man gestured for them to follow him.

“Should we go?” Sophia asked.

“He’s speaking a different language than most of the people here. He might have something different to show us too.”

Con and Sophia followed.

The man led them to another part of the tent, the section where the dead were being wrapped in cloth before burial. The old man stopped and put his hand on the head of a body, that of a young woman. He pointed at Sophia then at the body and pantomimed taking something from the body. The motions were made without hesitation.

“Is he giving me permission to take a sample from her?” Sophia asked Con.

“No, I think he’stellingyou to do it.”

She glanced around. “Do you think if I did it quickly, would anyone notice?”

“Let’s find out.” Con moved to stand next to the old man and angled himself so he was blocking Sophia from view from the majority of the tent’s occupants.

Con tried asking a few questions, looking to see what words in the languages he knew corresponded to words in Aramaic. From the blank look on the old man’s face, not too many.

Sophia knelt next to the woman, putting her pouch of collection equipment on the floor between her knees. “Can you turn the body?” she asked Con softly.

He complied, using a flashlight as if they were just examining the body for outward signs of disease. Then he tried talking to the old man some more, using a tone that was loud enough and frustrated enough that anyone listening in would think he was trying to ask questions about the woman’s health before she died.

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