The Fall: Victim Zero Read Online Free Page B

shower. He caught the edge of the door frame and glanced at the ground to see what it was he tripped over, but the floor was clear.
    It wasn't conscious, the understanding that came over him. There was no logic to it, no process his mind followed. More than a month of working with David Markwell made him highly sensitive to the man's symptoms.
    No, Kell thought. No, I just tripped. It can't be.
    Shower forgotten, Kell dove into clothes and exploded out the door. Thankfully Karen had already dropped Jennifer off with his mother for the day on her way to the law firm. He needed to get to work now.
    He fumbled the keys and had to calm himself to get the door open. Kell kept a tight rein on his movements. It wouldn't do to overcompensate on the road and wreck before he could confirm what, in his heart, he already knew.
    He ignored the staff clamoring for his attention as he came into the office. He made his way to the isolation suite where David Markwell waited, as always, behind his plexiglass walls. The shipping container was long removed, of course, and David's suite contained all the equipment Kell would need to study the effects of Chimera on his subject.
    Today, that subject happened to be himself.
    David was sleeping when Kell came in, but his mad dash to power up the mobile MRI and x-ray machines woke the other man.
    “ Kell? You're here early. What's going on?”
    Working furiously, Kell ignored his patient. He and his team had developed several fast-and-dirty tests over the years to check for the presence of Chimera in a subject. The easiest required a blood sample, which Kell drew from his forearm.
    A few added reagents later, and his fears were confirmed.
    “ Kell,” David said. “Kell, what's happening, man?”
    “ Son of a bitch,” Kell spat. “It's airborne.”
    Kell heard the younger man gasp. “You don't mean...I did this?”
    Bent over on his stool, head in his hands, Kell shuddered. “No, David. You didn't do this. I did. This is all my fault.”
    Kell heard a muffled thump and looked up. David had fallen back on his cot, looking dazed. Their eyes met, and every conversation between them over the previous five weeks seemed to rush between them at once.
    “Do you think what happened with the mice is going to start happening to people? How far do you think it's spread?”
    Taking stock, Kell leaned back in his chair. “I don't know, but I everything I've seen while I've been studying you suggests Chimera can't overwhelm a person's brain. It's passive in that respect. The difference between a mouse and a human being is significant enough that I'm not terribly worried about that aspect. What concerns me is that it mutated to become airborne. This thing has been known to become virulent like any disease. The wrong mutation could turn it into something that could make AIDS look like a bad cold.”
    David took that better than he would have a month before. Daily conversations with Kell had given him a decent understanding of what Chimera was capable of.
    “ Kell, you have to tell people. If you have it, then other people probably got it from you. It could be all over the place by now, couldn't it?”
    Kell stood. “Yes, it could. I need to make some calls.” He turned to David and crouched by the plexiglass, one hand flat against the plastic. “Please don't talk to anyone about this. Not the techs who'll come in here later, not your father. I need to get this handled through the right channels. If anyone finds out you know this, it could be very bad for you.”
    David's expression hardened. “It sounds a lot like you're threatening me.”
    Kell leaned his forehead against the barrier between them. “No, I'm trying to warn you. I've spent the last month trying to figure out how to reverse what they've done to you without costing you the use of your limbs. I don't want this to come down on you, too.”
    The younger man hesitated, then nodded. “I'll keep quiet.”
    Kell left. He took out his cell phone