The Last Stand (Book 3) (The Repentant Demon Trilogy) by Samantha Johns Page B

“that's only going to confuse everything even more.  Everyone with any vomiting and diarrhea is heading to the nearest emergency room.  Even those with just a simple cold.  Cal just told me there is no test to detect either one of these agents.  So what are they doing with our blood and urine?”
     
    “I was looking online,” said Cal, “and that's true.  Either they were trying to make you feel like they're doing something when they're not, or you've just contributed your bodily fluids to medical research in some way.”
     
    “I've been told that terrorists have mostly abandoned the idea of biological agents,” said Mike Edwards, “because they can't kill enough people with them.  Usually after the first few cases appear, the source is quickly isolated, and that's the end of it.  But here it looks like they’ve used so many sources they are multiplying their odds of increasing the number of fatalities.  Of course the fact that the perpetrators may die in the process doesn't bother these extremists who view themselves as martyrs.”
     
    Their attention returned to a breaking news bulletin and all eyes and ears were riveted to the screen as Neil Echols of CNN announced, “Boston Regional Hospital has reported seven deaths in the past hour from suspected ricin poisoning.  Five deaths have occurred at Barnes Hospital in Saint Louis, Missouri from similar symptoms.  We have ten deaths at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois; fourteen at Baptist Memorial in Memphis, Tennessee; nine at Thomas Jefferson University Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia; five at Mount Sinai in Miami; twelve at Riverside Methodist Columbus Ohio.  Eight different New York hospitals reported a total of forty-two deaths.  And the reports are still pouring into the newsroom.
     
    “Biological agents are often not fatal for days after the onset of symptoms, so we have no idea how big this problem may become.  Based on interviews with victims' families, all had eaten at restaurants within the 24-hour period before getting sick.  But they all ate at different establishments.  There has not been a single factor as yet between any of the victims.
     
    “We will go to a spokesman for the CDC in Atlanta, Doctor Abraham Dierdorph making an announcement live from headquarters that may be able to shed some light on these disconcerting events.”
     
    He continued after a brief introduction, “We would like to inform the public for their safety and protection about the facts concerning the recent poisonings throughout our nation and to advise them of precautions they might take.  Although we do not have definitive evidence to establish with certainty the exact nature of these attacks, we have every reason to believe it was a conspiracy involving tens and perhaps hundreds of perpetrators.”
     
    “We think that poisons were introduced into the food supply in an individualistic though random manner.  It could have been done in so simple a method as secretly slipping a drop of the poisoning agent into someone's beverage when they were distracted or spraying a tiny amount of diluted poison onto the vegetables in a salad bar using a container small enough to hide in a shirt-sleeve.  We do not think that any food production plants or water treatment facilities have been contaminated, as was first suspected.
     
    “It is advisable that for the time being, the public refrain from eating at restaurant soup and salad bars.  Also, it is advisable that anyone with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, breathing difficulties, fever, cough, hallucinations, seizures, or blood in their urine please seek medical help as soon as possible.  Do not be afraid that you are over-reacting or that your symptoms are unrelated to this event.  Often patients do not seek help until it is too late.”
     
    The group in the Callahan living room sat in stunned silence as the newscast continued re-iterating the information already previously