The sun rose brightly on a day swept clean by the night’s storms. Heavy clouds still hung in the sky, their edges dark with rain, misting in a few places, casting up rainbows over the brown expanse of the neighboring Congo River. The forecast promised a break in the monsoon storms, at least over the next few days.
He and the others had landed at the international airport an hour ago. Director Crowe had updated him on the status overnight, about an ambush at the U.N. relief camp and the rescue by Tucker Wayne of a few survivors. To investigate the attack, a FARDC unit of Congolese soldiers had flown out before dawn, leaving just as Gray and company had landed. Painter and Kat were monitoring the situation and would send word once they knew anything.
In the meantime, Gray’s team was headed to the university to establish a base of operations and to ready their group for their own investigations, both into the kidnapped medical team and into a possible contagion spreading through central Africa. He pictured that disease striking here, a city of nearly two million people, with more and more refugees arriving daily from outlying areas.
Kisangani sat at the confluence of the region’s watershed. It was here that all the major rivers and tributaries—the Lualaba, the Tshopo, and Lindi—merged to form the mighty Congo, the world’s deepest river, second only to the Amazon in volume. The jungle city had been established back in 1883 by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley, marking the farthest navigable point up the Congo. He named the place Stanley Fall Station, due to the huge series of waterfalls that blocked any further travel. He also chose this spot—which was later simply called Stanleyville—because anything flowing out of the vast jungle had to pass by here.
Which also meant if there was a disease spreading through this region, Kisangani was in its crosshairs.
“That should be the place,” Monk said, interrupting his worries. His teammate pointed a folded campus map toward the three-story beige brick building of The Faculty of Science.
It was where the team planned to set up operations. Tucker and Dr. Whitaker had arrived last night and were prepping a lab facility on site.
“At least the place doesn’t look so run-down,” Kowalski groused, plainly irritated at being roused so early with no time for breakfast.
They had rushed through a traffic-jammed town of decaying colonial buildings stained with soot or graffiti-scrawled. But there was also a vibrancy and colorful verve, especially around the central market anchored by a beautiful cathedral.
Lisa shaded her eyes as she studied their destination. “Don’t worry. The building was refurbished a couple years ago. Including adding a Biosafety Level 3 containment unit. Which we may need before this is over.”
“Considering what we might be facing,” Monk said, “I would be lots happier with a BSL-4 unit, something that can withstand the nastiest of bugs.”
Lisa tucked a few loose strands of blond hair behind an ear. “Dr. Whitaker expressed confidence about the resources here. Plus, he has a colleague in Gabon who promised access to a BSL-4 unit, if it proved necessary.”
Gray sighed.
That’ll have to do until we know more.
Still, he remembered his earlier ruminations about Sigma’s primary mission statement: To be there first. He considered Painter’s account of the attack and abductions at the U.N. camp. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Despite Sigma’s best efforts—
Someone got here ahead of us.
As Gray’s team reached the science building, a familiar figure opened the glass doors for them. “Looks like we’re putting the band back together,” Tucker said.
The Army Ranger’s partner edged out to greet them, too. Kane wagged a bushy tail and nosed Kowalski in the crotch.
The big man pushed the dog back. “Happy to see you, too, bud. Just not that happy.”
Hands were quickly shaken, and a furry flank patted.
Tucker waved them all inside. “Frank’s set up on the top floor. There’s a lot to catch you up on.”
He quickly led their party through the thirty-thousand-square-foot building. A few students looked quizzically at their passage, especially with the group accompanied by a dog. They climbed to the third floor. It was divided into various labs and workrooms. They crossed to a door that required a code to enter.
“We have this place to ourselves,” Tucker said as he tapped at the illuminated buttons. “Courtesy of the director’s pull.”
Tucker unlocked the door and led them into a large laboratory space with a row of windows that overlooked the river. It was clearly a biolab, equipped with centrifuges, microscopes, spectrophotometers, and chromatographs. Shelves of glassware lined three walls, except where a bank of tall stainless-steel refrigerators and freezers stood, along with a glass-fronted incubator.
Monk and Lisa studied the space with both curiosity and envy, especially the long table that split the room. Atop the worktable, a mad scientist’s jumble of equipment had been spread, including supplies, labeled reagents, and a laptop that glowed with bioinformatic software depicting a spinning DNA helix.
Lisa motioned to the screen. “That’s the NCBI’s GenBank, their genetic sequence database.”
So, clearly Dr. Whitaker’s setup.
Gray glanced to the left, to where a large window peered into a neighboring room. A tiny air lock, hung with biohazard suits on pegs, led into the chamber beyond, which had to be the facility’s containment unit.
Tucker led Gray’s group in the opposite direction, to where two figures stood in lab coats. The pair had been bent beside a safety hood along the far wall when Gray’s group had entered. Dr. Frank Whitaker nodded to them. The shorter young man next to him was Benjamin Frey, the grad student from the UK who had been working on a doctoral thesis when all hell broke loose in the jungle.
As Tucker made introductions, the student fidgeted, plainly discomfited by the presence of so many strangers.
Frank remained unfazed, though perhaps a touch wary. “We were just about to collect some test samples,” the veterinarian said. “It took me most of the night to unload my lab. I think I got maybe an hour’s sleep.”
Lisa shifted closer. “Test samples from what?” she asked. “I thought you never reached the campsite.”
Frank turned to the student. “Benjie here was able to gather a few specimens before the place was attacked. Let me show you.”
Gray and the others crowded closer to the safety hood.
Benjie hugged his arms around his chest. “I . . . I lost several specimens. Dropped them, or the tubes broke, but I managed to keep a few.”
Gray squinted at a trio of sampling tubes planted upright in a holder. Two looked empty, until a tiny reddish black mote scrambled up the side of one. The third held a large, segmented insect with a bulbous abdomen.
“I salvaged a few pupae, a driver soldier, and the colony queen,” Benjie explained.
Monk frowned. “Ants? I heard about the camp being overrun with them, but I don’t understand, what do ants have to do with the potential pathogen you’re hunting?”
“Maybe nothing,” Frank admitted. “But Benjie claims the ants were acting strange, overly aggressive. He also noted several different species of this genus traveling together in that raid. Which is also odd behavior. Then came the attack by the baboons. Such savagery is atypical for the species. So, it made me wonder if there could be a connection, something tying all of this together.”
“Between the ants and the debilitating malaise?” Monk asked.
Lisa offered support. “Insects are often disease vectors. Mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas. Dr. Whitaker is right. It’s certainly something to rule out.”
Frank nodded. “Besides, I have nothing else to test at the moment. At least such preliminary work will help me calibrate my equipment.”
Tucker interrupted, “Frank, you need to share what you told me earlier. But I don’t need to hear it again. You got my skin crawling as it is. In the meantime, Kane and I’ll fetch a couple others you should hear from. They’re napping in a neighboring room.”
Tucker headed to the door.
As the man exited, Gray faced the veterinarian. “What do you have to tell us?”
Frank frowned, his face lined with worry. “It concerns Disease X.”