Chapter 25- The Test

Chapter 25

The Test

Villa Cyranno, Venezuela

“I can’t believe what you’re suggesting!” yelled Captain Dietz.  Wharton looked back at him, calmly.

“I can’t believe how stupid you are all being.  We’ve got too many potential targets, too many variables.  This is impossible to hold down with what we’ve got,” replied Wharton.

“But this is unthinkable!” replied Dietz.  “It’s immoral,”

“I don’t care,” replied Wharton.  “You’re the ranking officer here; you order them to do it,”

“No,” replied Dietz, simply.

Dietz walked away from the argument.  Hannah stood to one side and thought about it.  It was the simplest solution to the problem, the only way to cut down the vectors.  But the problem was that it wouldn’t eliminate all of the risks.  Therefore, she agreed with the Captain.

“Okay, we need to get the blood from the chopper then.  But we can run blood tests here first,” said Hannah to the group.

“Yes, yes that’s right.  Okay we need a team to go to the chopper after we’ve all been blood tested,” said Dietz.  “Newman, get the blood out of the medical kit,”

“Sir,” replied Newman.  The team began to assemble when a there was a shout from the crowd.

Oscar stepped out and pointed.

“Look, look he’s made a break for it,”

“What?” exclaimed Dietz.  A single man was rushing away from the crowd. 

“Stop or we’ll shoot,” shouted Wharton.

“Wait a minute,” said Dietz.

“Stop!” shouted Wharton in Spanish.  The man continued to run.  There was a crack of a single shot and he fell to the ground.  The crowd gasped and cried out in terror.  A few started to curse and a few started to cry.

Hannah turned to see Wharton holstering his gun.  She felt cold all over.

“He ran from the crowd, he could have been one of them,” said Wharton.

“Yes I suppose that’s possible,” she said back, never breaking eye contact with him.

Specialist Newman took out the medical kit and hung the “blood bag” from a nearby doorframe.

“Okay, gather round everyone,” said Captain Dietz.  “Wood, keep an eye on the crowd,”

Oscar had moved away but Dietz beckoned him over.  “If we’ve got enough, we’re going to test you too,”

“Me?” said Oscar, pointing to himself.

“Yes you.  If you’re our guide, we need to know you are still human,” Said Dietz.

“Okay we need to get a blood sample from each person.  Newman, you got a sample case or something?” asked Dietz.

“I could use this one, yeah,” said Newman, holding up a couple of small plastic trays that were usually used for gathering evidence.

“Perfect.  Okay we’ll need to get a blood sample, let’s start with me,” said Dietz.

Dietz drew his own knife from his gear and held it to his thumb for a moment, paused and then made a quick incision.  His blood dripped into the tray.

“That’s enough,” said Newman.  Newman then took out the end of the blood bag where he had fixed up a drip.

“Okay here goes,” said Newman.

Hannah saw that Storm had moved away from Dietz and had both hands on his P-90 submachine gun again.  Hannah felt her hand reach to her side for her pistol.

A drop of red blood fell onto a patch of blood.  Nothing happened.

“Doesn’t seem to have any reaction,” said Wharton.

“At this level, no,” said Chung.  “But at a cellular level?”

“How the hell do we check that?” asked Wooderson.

“I thought of that too,” said Newman.  “I figured you’d need to be able to take a closer look so I rigged up a microscope,” Newman looked into the sample-tray.

“No reaction,” he said.  Dietz breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let me see,” said Chung.  Newman passed it over to Chung.

“He’s right, no reaction.  Okay I’m next,” Dietz moved over to Chung and cut him too.

Again, no reaction.  “So you’re human too then,” said Hannah to Chung.  Chung smiled.

“I always knew I was,” he replied.

“Come on, get it over with,” said Wharton.

Dietz approached Storm with his knife but Storm spoke first.

“You aint touching me with a knife Cap.  I’ll do myself,”  Storm drew a knife from behind his back and cut his finger deftly.

Again, no reaction. 

“So far, so good,” said Chung.

“If the test is working,” replied Wharton.  Hannah shook her head.

“If it doesn’t work, then we’re screwed,” said Chung bluntly.

Oscar was next, again there was no reaction on any level.

The whole team was, apparently, human.
“We need a positive result too,” said Wharton.  “Otherwise that was a meaningless exercise,”

“Again, I hate to agree with him but he’s right,” said Chung.

“Get a sample from one of the dead ones,” said Dietz.

“Okay,” said Storm.  He approached the burned remains of the corpse that had once been Hunter.  Hannah walked past the terrified crowd and knelt by the dead man.  A round had splashed the back of his head.  She knelt down and took a sample of her own.

“No reaction from this either!” said Newman. “ Maybe the test doesn’t work,”

“No, those cells are dead,” said Chung.  “They were burned.  Try the blood on the grass, where Hunter got shot.  If I’m right, those cells are still active,”

“Try this too,” said Hannah.  Newman made the test on the dead man’s blood.

No obvious reaction, not even on a cellular level.  Hannah looked over at Wharton who kept a hand on his side-arm too.

“Try this then,” said Storm, offering the tip of his knife to Newman.  Newman dripped blood onto it.

“Jesus,” said Newman.  “Look at this,”

He passed the jury rigged microscope to Chung who looked too.

“Now that is something.  Hannah, come see this,” he said.

Hannah approached warily.  She stopped by Wooderson on her way and leant in close to him.

“Keep an eye on the agent too,” she whispered.  He nodded back.

Hannah looked down the eye-piece.  A blood cell floated there, long filaments extending out from it.  Another blood cell was slightly out of view.

“The one we’re focusing on is the ‘intruder cell’” said Chung.

The filaments broke the edge of the other blood cell and the blood cell became thinner and seemed to collapse.  Then there was a small movement and the other cell went back to normal and floated away.  The thin filaments returned to the intruder cell.

“Shit,” she said.  “That was fast,”

“Now we know exactly what we’re dealing with.  It takes over the host body and creates a duplicate, using the host bodies mass.  The original intruder goes on in its previous guise,”

“Okay.  Okay we know we’re human then,” she said.  “So now we need to figure out who is human back on the chopper,” said Dietz

“I’ll go and give them the test.  Newman, Chung, you come with me.  McPherson, you’re in charge here,”

“I’m coming too,” said Wharton.

“Okay then, fine.  Let’s go,” said Dietz.

“Be careful,” said Hannah as they walked away.  She turned to look at Storm, who was lighting up another cigarette.  Then she looked at Wooderson who stood still, a faint smile on his face when he saw her looking over at him.

Then she looked at the crowd.  “Okay you bastard, we’re going to find you now,” she whispered.

Sat-Com, somewhere in Virginia

There was a crashing sound from out in the hallway.  Sergeant McLintock, who had been tidying away from an early helicopter landing, turned and raised his head.

“Keep it down in there,” he shouted.  He went back to tidying away equipment when he heard another crash, this time it sounded like metal falling on the floor.  Then he heard another sound, harder to place.

It sounded like something wet and heavy had landed on the floor.  McLintock stood up straight now.  He walked slowly back towards the de-con door.  It was open.  Sergeant McLintock reacted fast.

He ran towards an alarm and reached for it.  There was a sudden sharp, jarring impact and he was thrown back down the corridor.  Colonel Adams, splattered in blood, was stood in front of the alarm.  He had appeared from around the corner.

McLintock had wanted to speak, to ask what was going on but his throat clicked and he felt a rising nausea.  He looked to his side and saw that his left arm was now missing below the elbow.  Blood pumped slowly from the severed limb.  He fought with a wave of dizziness.

Colonel Adams stood there, a bloody half limb in one hand.  He threw it to one side.  He then walked away towards the control centre.  Sergeant McLintock tried to get to his feet but fell to the ground.  Then he heard footsteps approaching.  He turned to see Colonel Sickles approaching him.  McLintock, who hadnt liked or trusted Sickles anyway, crawled fast away from him.  Sickles reached out and somehow caught hold of him, despite McLintock had been more than ten feet away.  McLintock’s survival instinct kicked in fast and he kicked at Sickles impossible long arms.

There was a strange squawk from the Colonel and McLintock was free.  Some primal instinct in his head worked in tandem with ten years of Air Force training and experience.  He would have only a few seconds to act and then it would be over.  McLintock dived for the alarm.