He walked briskly through the polluted air of the city. Musing on the smog in the air this early in the year, he shook his head at how badly the atmosphere had degraded in just the last two years. Atlanta used to be such a gentile city, but the air was not the only pollution that had grown worse. He kept a genial smile on his face while he walked through the streets teeming with the dirty and unwashed dregs of society.
This neighborhood has gone to the dogs. There is nothing but foreigners as far as the eye can see. It would be doing the city a favor to empty out this den of inequity.
He was thankful to reach his destination intact. The yammering of at least two languages and possibly three assaulted his ears while he rang the bell of the modest two story building. He smiled at an urchin who was playing soccer with his friends between the parked cars and pondered how many strains of plague it would take to kill everyone within shouting range.
“Yes?” The middle aged nurse grew flustered when she saw who he was. “Ah, Doctor Smith, please come in. Doctor Forester has been eagerly waiting to see you. He’s in the second floor ward.”
“Thank you, Nurse Kendall. And how are you this fine spring day? You’re looking well.” He smiled and patted her arm. “I’m always afraid that you might catch this dreadful affliction.”
She simpered under his gaze, her black face gleaming in the afternoon heat. “Why thank you, Doctor. You don’t have to worry about the staff. We take all the precautions necessary to keep from getting this horrible disease. Doctor Forester will tell you the same. We are all as careful as careful can be.”
“That’s good to hear, Lovely Lady.” He teased her while they moved up the wide staircase. “I wouldn’t want my favorite clinic to have any problems.”
“Well, it’s only your generosity that keeps us going, Doctor Smith. I’d just sing your praises to the sky if you weren’t so shy about others knowing of your great kindness.” She spoke earnestly while he shook his head with mock humility.
“No, no, it’s I who must thank you and the rest of the staff for your dedication to the suffering souls who are so afflicted.”
“Ah, Doctor Smith, I am glad to see you.” The portly black man in the stained lab coat held out his hand at the top of the stairs. “It’s worse than we feared. We lost two of the men overnight. I held off calling the City Coroner since I knew you’d be coming for a report.”
“How perfectly dreadful.” He sighed and shook his head. “What a terrible disease this is. Two dead, you say?”
Doctor Forester nodded, his eyes tired. “We did everything we could but it spread so quickly that nothing we tried helped at all. Onset was at four on Thursday and by the time Nurse Kendall finished her Saturday night prayer meeting, they were dead. What ever strain of bacterial infection this is, it’s extremely potent. The Centers for Disease Control need to know about this outbreak at once. Will you call them or shall I?”
“Could I go over your notes first, Doctor?” He said with a thoughtful frown.
The doctor nodded and led him into the small office. “They are here, along with the test results from the last blood sample I took from both men.”
“Excellent work, Doctor Forester. I have something here that I think will give you a sense of relief from your worry about this terrible disease.” He smiled charmingly and pulled the gun from his briefcase. One silenced shot to the head and the good doctor ceased to be a liability.
He carefully placed the notes and reports into his briefcase after checking to make sure that nothing of his presence remained. Shutting the door behind him, he smiled at Nurse Kendall and beckoned her into the small lounge before killing her. Walking slowly down the ward of suffering patients with the pathetic sheets hung between them to give the illusion of privacy, he calmly shot each of them.
Taking a look through the other rooms to make sure he hadn’t missed anyone, he removed the bomb from his briefcase and placed it in the lower hall. Setting the timer for fifteen minutes, he locked the front door behind him and strolled on through the filthy streets until he could hail a taxi. Giving the airport as his destination, he checked his watch and smiled out the window of the cab.
Right on schedule. It paid to be punctual in these uncertain times.
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End of chapter 32