32

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

This one was disturbing.

Dr. Wayne Marcott, chief medical examiner for Broward County, stroked his chin in his office on Thirty-first Avenue.

Again he read over his notes for Autopsy No. 10-92787. The decedent's name: Roger Timothy Tippert, a white male, age forty-one from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Was this an outbreak? This case was unlike anything he'd ever seen.

Marcott checked on the status of his request to accelerate additional tests from the autopsy. He'd grown concerned over his findings.

Tippert was a cruise ship passenger on the Spanish liner, Salida del Sol. According to the report from Dr. Estevan Perez, the ship's chief medical officer, the ship was returning to Florida from a seven-day cruise of eastern Caribbean islands when Tippert, a teacher, experienced a sudden seizure, collapsed and died while drinking a beer at an upper deck lounge.

The remarkable aspects are owing to his internal organs expanding and bursting. Was it an allergic reaction? Was it viral? It is uncertain at this stage. The subject was in good health. He was not taking medication and he had no known allergies or pre-existing medical conditions. He had not reported any illness. Seems the beer was fine. He was a healthy forty-one-year-old male.

Perez said all procedures were followed for a death in international water. Tippert's body was held in the ship's morgue for return to the U.S., and his widow was offered the counseling services of the clergy.

Perez alerted Florida officials and the ship's medical staff immediately and took precautions should Tippert's death be the result of an outbreak. Tippert's toiletries were tested, his beverage was tested, all of the ship's water and food were tested, as well as the pools and showers.

Nothing was found to be wrong.

All passengers exhibiting any flu-like symptoms were swabbed and tested as were all members of the crew. Nothing of concern had emerged.

This was puzzling because if Tippert's death was the result of a virus, that virus should thrive in the ship's confined environment.

They'd expect to find some further evidence of it.

Perez noted that the passengers in the adjoining cabin were tested and a female child did exhibit cold symptoms so mild as to be insignificant.

Early indications were that a quarantine of the ship was not necessary.

The cruise line intended to initiate a complete scrub down after the ship docked and all the passengers disembarked.

Marcott paged through his notes.

This case made him uneasy because it was baffling.

The external hemorrhaging from orifices was characteristic of the Ebola virus. But there were no other symptoms. It was as if something were mimicking Ebola. And if that wasn't bad enough, there was the speed at which this thing moved.

Marcott shook his head and cursed to himself.

He punched an extension on his phone line.

Once the connection was made, he activated his speaker phone.

"Yes, Wayne?"

"Isabel, have you got the samples from 92787 ready to ship to Atlanta?"

"We're good to go. I called ahead. They're standing by."

"Thanks."

Marcott reviewed his notes again.

His office had followed procedure and alerted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Those hotshots need to take a good hard look at this case fast, because as far-fetched as it sounds, it looks to me like we may have a new killer on our hands.