Burning Mold Page 5

  “The procedure went fine,” Doctor Sandberg said, while frowning. “We took out two small polyps and everything else is normal. I’m going to order some additional blood work, and we’re going to get you checked out, okay?”

  Doctor Sandberg glanced at the vitals. Everything looked stable. He turned to Laura, saying, “Get a complete workup.”

  Laura stepped away. She came back and drew several vials of blood. It was difficult to do so because Liz kept moving. Even after the nurse politely asked her to lie still, Liz kept moving. She complained about the pain. A few minutes after Laura stepped out, an X-Ray technician came by to take a chest X-Ray.

  “I’m Jacoby, your X-Ray technician today. Could you tell me your name and date of birth?”

  “Elizabeth Palmer,” Liz moaned. “May 5th, 1964.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that you’re in pain. This will only take a moment. I’m going to put this plate behind you and then take a picture and we’ll be set.”

  Jacoby assisted Liz with sitting up a bit and placed the X-Ray plate behind her. Liz squinted, crying out in pain as she lay back on the plate.

  “Is that too difficult for you, Elizabeth?”

  “Please find out why this hurts so much,” Liz replied.

  “Okay, take a deep breath and hold,” Jacoby told her.

  A buzzing sound came from the X-Ray machine.

  “Okay, we’re all set,” Jacoby said.

  He removed the X-Ray plate from behind Liz and left the room. Liz remained in the room all by herself for nearly two hours while in agonizing pain. She could not think about anything other than the pain coming from every part of her body.

  Doctor Sandberg and the nurse, Laura, finally came by and walked up to Liz’s bedside.

  “I took a look at your bloodwork and I had a colleague of mine double-check the X-Ray because we had the procedure today,” Doctor Sandberg reported. “Like I said earlier, the procedure went absolutely fine and there were really no problems. The polyps that we removed were pre-cancerous but nothing to worry about there. All of the blood work is fine, and the X-Ray came back absolutely clear. Right now, with all of your vitals looking good, you’re free to go.”

  Liz looked puzzled as she looked at both Doctor Sandberg and Nurse Liz. Liz didn’t understand why the agonizing pain was ongoing. She could barely even think about what was going on, let alone why the doctors were saying she was fine.

  “The pain…” she moaned, while moving about the bed.

  “I can prescribe some Tramadol for the pain, and I would ask you to follow up with your primary care doctor.” Doctor Sandberg briefly looked down at his notes. “His name is Marshall Lynn. He can run some additional tests.”

  The nurse, Laura, came over and injected a clear substance into the IV. Liz continued to moan and appeared visibly distressed. Laura glanced over at Doctor Sandberg. He considered Liz for a moment, then instructed Laura to go ahead and discharge her. Laura frowned but stepped out of the room with the doctor.

  After about ten minutes, Laura came back into the room with some papers.

  “How are we feeling now?” Laura asked.

  “A little bit better. It still hurts like hell,” Liz said.

  “Okay. Here are your discharge papers. This is a prescription for Tramadol. Is your pharmacy still Wal-Mart?”

  “Yes,” Liz answered.

  “Great. Head on over there in the medical transport van. This will help with the pain. Also call your doctor right away and go to see him to see about this pain, okay?”

  “Okay,” Liz answered, while moaning a bit.

  “Okay. I’m going to get you all disconnected here from all these machines,” Laura said.

  Laura went about disconnecting the various machines hooked up to Liz, then helped her into a wheelchair. She rolled her out to the front lobby where the medical transport van was still waiting for her.

  “Elizabeth, is it? I’m Bobby, your driver today. Where are we headed?”

  “I guess Walmart and then home,” Liz replied, still confused as to why she continued to be in pain when she had been just fine that morning.

  Chapter 6

  Original Origins

  August 21, 2025

  CDC Washington, DC

  Jean sat down her cup of tea and stared intently at the screen. Something about the outbreak in Dallas didn’t make sense, but she couldn’t identify what it was. Normally, outbreaks of infectious diseases would spike and spread for a while before dying off. Even foodborne illnesses would see several days of a response. This spike was short, and that had her worried.

  The reports that came in from the few doctors who had filled them out showed a massive flareup of cases without a known cause, followed by a sharp drop-off. She wondered if it could have been a test of some new kind of biological agent by a foreign power. It was a bit of a stretch, but the pattern fit. She picked up the phone and called a few numbers.

  “Julian here,” the voice answered.

  “Julian, it’s Jean. Have you read about the Dallas spike over the weekend?”

  Julian sighed, “No, I haven’t. I’ve been dealing with the China thing still.”

  “This could be a follow-on to that. Look at the reports. A sudden massive surge of complaints, and then everything is normal in less than three days. That’s not a normal disease process.”

  Julian didn’t say anything for several long moments and then said, “But it could also be just a mild water toxin event or something similar. What evidence do you have to tie this to Cuba?”

  “Water toxins don’t cause bleeding that clears up in a day! Usually people with lead poisoning end up puking their guts out for weeks,” Jean implored before adding, “Remember Flint?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Julian added, “but there are hundreds of random chemicals in the water supply now. It could be one of those. I know my own city’s water report came back with more than 150 different compounds in it. Most are barely measurable, but they’re there. But seriously, people freak out about a barely detectable 1 part per billion of some random compound when they should be more worried about the lead or plastic that is delivering the water in the first place. I wonder how many non-BPA-free pipes are leaching BPA into the water supply right now.”

  “Julian, you’re missing the point. Based on ER visits, at least 50,000 people spread across Dallas were sick and then somehow 48 hours later, magically better? This is a biowar event and you know it!” Jean shouted. Her face reddened.

  She realized she might have been too harsh, but she had a tendency to do that when she latched onto an idea. Most of the time she was right, but she was wrong enough to give those around her the cover they needed in case they didn’t want to delve any further into her theories.

  “Now, now, Jean. Not every outbreak is because of someone shooting at us,” Julian said, and then paused.

  Jean took a few moments to settle back into her chair and to pull up one of the reports.

  “’Male, 49, complained of stomach pains and a bloody stool. Blood work normal. CT scan normal. Discharged,’” Jean read from the screen. “’Female, 12, vomited blood, all blood work normal. CT scan normal. Discharged.’ Two days later, a follow-up from our field operations said all normal. People don’t just magically get better from something like this in two days!” Jean said, scowling, on her end of the phone.

  “I get it. You’re passionate. Okay…for you Jean, I’ll do a little bit of homework. But I can’t make any promises, all right?”

  “Great. Finally, an official investigation,” Jean said, relieved. “Maybe we can finally….”

  Julian interrupted, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold your horses. I said that I would look into this, I didn’t say….”

  “Fine, okay,” Jean paused. “Do you want to meet up at the Museum café again this afternoon?”

  Julian agreed, and Jean completed the call. Jean smiled and was glad she had gotten the support on this. She pulled up the reports and copied them over to her phone. At th
e café, she planned to go over many more of these reports with Julian. She was sure he would be able to shed some light on this. Julian was an expert on biowarfare with the Pentagon.

  She had met him over at the Bible Museum café just randomly last year. She would go there all the time because they had great tea. He dropped by because the Starbucks nearby was closed, and he needed a caffeine fix. He had just gotten back from China, having studied the potential bioweapon that had been deployed there. Dozens of US government employees all lost or had damaged fingers from that event. They still hadn’t found a cause. But this was much closer to home, Jean thought, as she took another drink of tea. And so very much more mysterious.

  Jean had been waiting for Julian to arrive for about twenty minutes when he showed up. She was almost done with her coffee when he had the decency of sitting down and wondering how she could drink coffee this fast before getting into an actual conversation.

  “So, I got something here,” said Jean as she pulled up some of the reports on her phone. Julian was distracted by looking at the menu and thinking about what would be best for the day. “At this point, I think an investigation needs to be undertaken,” she said.

  “Wait, what investigation?” asked Julian. Jean showed him the documents and Julian sighed at the sight. “Not this again, Jean, really?”

  “This is important. We are talking about a potential outbreak in Dallas. There are around one and a half million people living there, not including all the floating population coming in, out and through the city on a daily basis,” said Jean as she insisted on looking at the reports. “I think Cityplace is a key location inside this investigation because--”

  “Jean, let me get a coffee first before I hear all of this,” said Julian, interrupting her and then moving to the counter to order. He took time ordering coffee specifically as he wanted it and waited for it to be served. Jean had to wait almost ten more minutes before Julian had exactly what he wanted, which he was still not happy with. “Can you believe these people? They don’t know the difference between almond and almond-vanilla milk. Unbelievable.”

  “Are you good now?” asked Jean.

  “No, not really, but tell me then, you have this case about what you think is an outbreak?” asked Julian.

  “I am sure it is the beginning of an outbreak. The only location reporting so far is this specific section in Dallas,” said Jean as she zoomed in to the map she had brought up and pointed at the area. “This particular area is the center of it. No reason as to why it is the case, but all the patients showing up are visiting hospitals in the area.”

  “But do they live there?” asked Julian.

  “No, they don’t,” answered Jean. Julian waved his left hand as he drank from his coffee.

  “Do all of them work in the same area?” asked Julian.

  “No. The only coincidence is that everyone goes to hospitals in the same area,” said Jean.

  “Then that’s not an outbreak. That makes no sense,” said Julian. Jean took out some of the reports and showed them to Julian. “What of that?”

  “Some of them had checkups that match up, either that or they visited for other reasons, but it is inside a twelve-day window, which is enough for something like this to manifest symptoms,” said Jean, who continued while pulling up other reports. “Some had reported symptoms earlier but had not visited because they thought nothing of it. It was only until it was too severe that they decided to go.”

  “People do that all the time. You know this and I know this, so what’s the point?”

  “The amount of people reporting back is considerably small. For something like this we should have more infected patients, but maybe they are asymptomatic or they simply did not go to the hospital for a checkup. We also do not know the source of this infection aside from having been a particular area,” said Jean.

  “And do we have anything from the hospitals?” asked Julian.

  “No, none of them seem to have anything in particular that would match up to this,” said Jean.

  “Then there is nothing to look at. Come on, Jean. This is a wild goose chase,” said Julian.

  “I need to check this. It is important and could be the beginning of something serious,” said Jean.

  “Jean, Jean, listen,” said Julian as he put his coffee down. “This is very serious. You are throwing your career down the drain with the way you are doing things. Taking this risk means that if you are wrong, that is the end of it.”

  “I am positive this is something that needs to be checked,” said Jean.

  “By a hunch?” asked Julian.

  “No, by hard data that proves something is happening down there, but no one is listening. This could be very serious,” said Jean.

  “Look, I can help you, but that does not mean I can bail you out if you are in the wrong. Just looking at what you are saying does not tell me much and saying that a hospital is a coincidence sounds like nonsense. Are you sure about this?” asked Julian.

  “I am definitely sure this is solid. Can I count on you?” asked Jean. Julian grabbed his coffee again and grunted, thinking about the entire situation.

  “I… can try. Jean, seriously, are you sure?” asked Julian. Jean nodded, and with that, he sighed. “All right then, I’ll push through with this but I can’t guarantee you’ll get anything out of it, so don’t get upset at me if it doesn’t work, all right?”

  “Thank you, Julian!” said Jean as she grabbed Julian’s left hand with both hands. Julian shook his head and put both hands back on the table.

  “Don’t misunderstand me, Jean. I haven’t done anything and even if I do it’s all on you. I really hope that you know what you are doing with this,” said Julian as he began standing up. “If this kills your career, I’m just asking you for a favor here.”

  “What’s that?” asked Jean in confusion.

  “Don’t mention my name, all right?” ssaid Julian and began to walk out. “Good luck.”

  Chapter 7

  What is 15X Worse?

  Dallas Texas

  Steve thought he had life down cold. As he got into his brand-new top-of-the-line Ford Expedition, the car started up and played his favorite podcast from Grazzie Carbie. He’d read his book, too—15 Times, a dozen times and pretty much lived by it. He 15X’d everything in his life, including both his number of tenants and the number of his enemies. Enemies were the easy part. It was harder to get people to trust him, but he had started off innocently enough, so he learned how to fake it later in life.

  This SUV was equipped with the full self-driving package that had just been released and approved by the Department of Transportation. Frankly, Steve didn’t know why all those government people had to get involved with unnecessary approvals and “make-work” projects.

  If all of those government people could just get out of the way, America could make some real money. When Trump was President, after all, pages of unnecessary laws were ripped from the books and the market hit an all-time high for months, at least until Covid-19 hit. But that was China’s fault.

  Steve selected the office destination. The SUV’s V8 engine roared to life and began slowly navigating out the driveway and onto the streets.

  “Hey, Siri, play messages,” Steve said.

  “Hey, Steve, Eric from 8142 called again about the stove not shutting off. Liz from 6540 called again about an overflowing sewer line backing up from the shower, tub and toilet all over the house,” said a female voice.

  “Hey, Siri, delete message,” Steve ordered.

  Steve didn’t care about his renters at all. As long as they paid their rent on time and his investments kept rising in value, that was the main thing. Steve figured that if the stove worked, they should be happy! If they didn’t like it, they could just go back to whatever country they had slithered in from. And the real estate program was working perfectly! He had started out with just two properties and now he had more than 40 all across the city. By all measures he was a successful American bu
sinessman.

  Texas managed a nice little tort-reform package after the 2020 outbreak. It nearly led to a mini civil war, but since Texas accounted for forty percent of the US GDP, they held most of the strings. That drove a slew of businesses to the region, which attracted even more real estate investors in a mega feedback loop.

  Today, Steve was looking forward to meeting with a new banking partner from China. The firm saw how he did things, and they liked it a lot, so much that they were praising him about his business acumen. He had a near zero loss ratio across all of his properties. He credited that to his strong hand at making sure that tenants didn’t just get whatever they wanted.

  And the best thing was, Steve chuckled, it was codified into law! In Texas, tenants were not allowed to sue for practically anything. He felt bad that just last week, a golf buddy of his was complaining that he had to pay $20,000 when a kid was hit by a falling cabinet door. How was that the landlord’s fault at all? But $20,000 is the maximum any of those greedy bastards can get, Steve thought. They should be happy they’re in a better place than whatever other country or hellhole they came from.

  Steve’s SUV arrived at the office. He got out of the SUV and closed the door. Yes, today would be a really good day to make money, Steve thought, and smiled. He walked into the front door of his office and felt proud to be an American.

  “Hmmm, let’s see,” Steve said to himself as he scanned the listings and compared their mortgage-to- rent cash flow ratio and projected area growth.

  That was his typical morning, diligently examining the listings that met a specific criterion. He got that part down. The key to any successful business came down to two things: math and systems.

  If you couldn’t make the math work, it didn’t matter how good your systems were. And if your systems were subpar, no amount of favorable math was going to make them work. So Steve focused on both, to the exclusion of all else. That’s what he called the Pareto Principle. Eighty percent of the work only gets you twenty percent of the return, but the other twenty percent gets you eighty percent of the return. Steve decided to apply that principle to his understanding of math and systems. He decided to ignore all other aspects of business.