View from Ararat by Brian Caswell Page B

good indicator, though. No infection means no contact. Which means no worries. At least it does according to everything on disease control that I’ve ever read.’
    She takes the bound report out of the machine and tosses it onto his lap.
    He doesn’t look at it. He has seen all he needs to on the screen. For now, at least. Time to review it later, before it is sent to Storage.
    He turns around as far as he can in his chair and stares up at her. ‘What’s it really an indication o f ? Of the fact that they’re not actually infected? Think about it, Charlie. We pretty well know they’re not infected, already. You saw the report. From the onset of symptoms to the time they zip up the body bag, we’re talking a day and a half. Two and half days max. It takes four or five times as long as that to process the passengers for departure. They have to be at the departure station at least a week before the ship leaves. Judging by the figures in the report, if any of them were showing symptoms when they arrived, they’d have turned to stone before they even got on board the ship.
    â€˜And if the contagion-rate is correct, we’d have thousands of positive tests up there right now. Even if the stasis put a brake on the progress of the thing – and there’s no reason to believe it would.’
    â€˜Then why did you insist—?’
    He has been the one pushing for the strictest quarantine possible. And he was the one who refused to back down on the questionnaires and the testing. She knows with absolute certainty that if the Council had voted those down, Galen would have quit and left them to it.
    He can be stubborn sometimes, and Charlie is resident expert on the subject.
    â€˜Why did I insist on the tests?’ he cuts in. ‘Because we still don’t know the incubation period for certain. Personally, I don’t think it’s anywhere over a couple of days, but that’s only educated guesswork. I couldn’t take any chances. What if it’s a whole lot longer? What if all the victims in Puerto Limon contracted it weeks or months before the symptoms actually manifested. If it’s like most company set-ups, it’s pretty much a closed community. They could have all been exposed at about the same time. Which means they would have all shown symptoms at about the same time. We had to be sure there were no carriers.’
    â€˜Okay, I’m game. Why do you think the incubation period’s only a couple of days?’
    He turns to look at her. Somehow she always knows the right question to ask. It is the reason they work so well together.
    â€˜Because it takes less than three days from the onset of symptoms to the victim’s death. Whatever it is, it’s far too virulent to just sit around in a victim’s system for weeks or months. At least, that’s my theory. And as well as that, there were no reports of outbreaks anywhere else but Puerto Limon. The longer the incubation period, the more chance of people travelling and carrying the bug with them. But I couldn’t be sure, you see. What we’re dealing with is totally alien, so we can’t be sure of the rules. And it’s dangerous not to cover all the possibilities.’
    â€˜Hence the blood tests.’
    â€˜Hence the blood tests.’
    He pauses.
    Charlie has the knack of digging up whatever’s bubbling around in Galen’s subconscious and forcing him to think about it.
    The niggling feeling that has been troubling him for days suddenly slides squarely into focus.
    He turns the chair back to face her. ‘There’s something we’re missing here.’
    Charlie sits forward. ‘Which is?’
    â€˜Look where the outbreak occurred.’ He punches the original memo up on the screen. ‘The JMMC ore-processing facility, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. Tell you anything?’ It is a question that requires no answer. ‘JMMC owns the Global Health