Chapter 17

Anne was so preoccupied as she left the plane that she walked straight past the policeman.

"Doctor Chamberlain?" he said.

She turned and noticed him and his patrol car for the first time. "I'm sorry. Can you tell me what's going on?"

"Lieutenant Harrison will brief you on the way to the hospital."

Hospital? Anne climbed into the back of the car. A man in a crumpled grey suit was sitting in the passenger seat. He turned around as the car pulled out of the airport. "I'm sorry for the rush, Doctor, but you appreciate we need to clear up this mess as quickly as possible."

"I understand." Anne responded. "What's going on?"

"We have some suspects in custody for a multiple murder. One of them is in critical condition. We started questioning the others, and they all came out with the most outlandish story I've ever heard. One of them mentioned your name, and we felt we had to check it out."

Anne's heart started beating faster. Only Paul could have known about her and her research. "A story about a treatment capable of completely rewriting a person's genetic makeup," she said.

"That's possible?" the lieutenant asked in disbelief.

"Yes." she replied simply.

"So you're saying their story might be true?"

"I can't tell until I've talked to them," Anne said, but she was convinced. Who else could have known about her research?

"That's why you're here." the detective added lamely. He had been hoping that the four people being held at the hospital were drugged out of their skulls.

When they arrived at the hospital, Lieutenant Harrison escorted Anne past heavy security to the Intensive Care department. "We're keeping them in this private room until we can sort out what the hell is going on," he said, pointing to a door which was guarded by two policeman.

Anne couldn't help but wonder if Paul was in there. His name hadn't been mentioned in the call that had gotten her out of bed the night before. He had to be behind all this somewhere. How else could the DNA virus have gotten here?

One of the policemen unlocked the door. Anne followed the Lieutenant into the room. Inside were two more policemen, a man in his thirties, and a petite girl in her twenties. On the bed was a black girl, also in her twenties. She appeared to be asleep.

"They had to sedate her," explained one of the policemen. "She was getting hysterical again."

"I see. If what she says is true, I'm not surprised she's like that." The Lieutenant introduced the man to Anne. "Dr. Chamberlain, this is Dr. Kingston. He was the one who mentioned your name."

"Right. Dr. Kingston. What is going on?" She asked.

"I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to cure Paul Roberts of the virus you deliberately infected him with."

"Deliberately infected?" she said in an incredulous tone. At least now it was becoming clear why Paul had run away from her after catching the virus. He had become convinced that she had done it on purpose.

Kingston explained how he knew Paul and how his research into the virus had been hijacked by his drug smuggling boss, Quince. He told Anne how Quince had replaced nine policemen and women so that he could make one last drug shipment and then disappear. "This is the only transformed cop who is still alive." Michael said pointing to the sleeping girl.

"What happened to Paul? Where is he?"

Michael looked downcast. "I... tried making a stronger form of the virus to reverse what you did to him."

"You did what!? That's what I tried, but the success rate is too low to risk! You tried that on him!?"

"I didn't. I knew how dangerous it was. Quince tricked Paul into taking it, but he got lucky and survived," Michael pointed to the sleeping girl, "though he is a twin of Jeff now."

Anne looked at Jeff, Paul looked like this now. She turned back to Michael. "So, where is Paul now?"

"He's in surgery. He was shot saving Mandy and Jeff. It's serious."

Anne felt her legs giving way. One of the policemen caught her before she fell and helped her to a chair. She sat in a state of shock. It was all her fault. If she hadn't been so eager to try out her virus on her lab assistant, Jim, none of this would have happened. If she had managed to stop Paul from running away, he wouldn't be here now.

If he dies, she thought, I'll never be able to forgive myself.