Patient Zero by Amanda Bridgeman

Author:Amanda Bridgeman [Bridgeman, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, Medical, media tie-in, Pandemic, thriller, medical thriller
ISBN: 9781839080210
Publisher: Aconyte
Published: 2021-09-06T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Helen peered out the hotel room window. The two men and the motorcycle were still there. They were parked by the road, their bodies shadows beneath a Chontaduro Peach-Palm tree, which offered some shade from the lone streetlight close by. Helen spotted them easily, however, as one man’s face lit up briefly in the orange glow of his cigarette lighter.

As soon as her team had returned to the hotel, they had gathered with Pilar and Justin and told them what they’d learned from the discussion with Sebastian Diaz’s grandmother.

“It makes sense,” Pilar said. “Explains why no one wants to give us any information about the boy.”

“It does,” Helen said, “but that’s not going to help us trace the infection or find out what started this.”

“Do you think the doctor knew?” Bodhi asked, eyes narrowed in thought. “Ramirez. He was just as hesitant to tell us anything.”

“But he’s a doctor,” Ekemma said. “Surely he knows the risks if this continues to spread. This outbreak is already working its way through three countries.”

“That we know of,” Helen added.

“I guess it depends whether his life is at risk if he talks,” Justin said. “What help can he provide these people if he’s… silenced?”

“There’s only one way we find out,” Helen said. “First thing tomorrow, we go back and talk to him.”

•••

Bodhi sipped his coffee in the early morning light. He’d snuck out of the room he shared with Justin, grabbed a coffee from a café just down the street, then took a seat at the wooden table out front of their hotel, gathering his thoughts before the team awakened. He hadn’t slept well. Too many thoughts had circled through his mind as he lay in bed the previous night. Thoughts of the virus spiraling out of control. Thoughts of their Patient Zero, such a young boy being a drug mule. Thoughts of the roadblocks facing them to find out the information they needed. The language barrier. Scared civilians. A drug baron they’d inadvertently pissed off. This was no ordinary virus they were facing, nor was it an ordinary Patient Zero.

He glanced over to where the men on the motorcycle had been. The motorcycle was gone, and in its place a car where one man slept, open-mouthed, while his companion stared straight at Bodhi.

“Can’t sleep?” Ekemma’s voice sounded behind him, making him jump. She smiled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

He smiled and shook his head. “No, couldn’t sleep.”

“Me either,” she said, taking a seat beside him. As she did, she eyed the men in the car carefully.

They sat in silence for a moment, just looking around, soaking up the peace and quiet.

“I like sleep very much,” Ekemma finally said, “but I also like the solitude the early morning brings.”

Bodhi nodded. “I’m more of a night owl, but it is nice on occasion.”

A moment of silence passed as they each soaked in the morning.

“I don’t like our chances of finding information now we know this boy was a drug mule,” she said flatly.

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