Free Hot Zone (Major Crimes Unit Book 2) by Iain Rob Wright

no serial numbers. Even the bottles aren’t NHS issue.
Whatever is in these phials didn’t come through the system.”
    Howard thanked the nurse and asked her to bring Dr Hart to
him. She would still be understandably distraught, but he needed answers.
    She appeared five minutes later, back in charge of her
emotions, yet slightly timid in voice. “What can I do for you, Agent Hopkins?”
    “Is there any way of finding out what is inside these
phials?”
    “They can be tested for HIV fairly quickly, if that’s what
you mean? I’ll contact the lab and fast track it myself.”
    Howard nodded grimly. “What are you going to do about
yourself?”
    She shrugged, almost as if she didn’t care. Howard thought
it more likely the numbness of shock, or maybe she just knew there was little
she could do. “I’ll have to start on anti-retroviral immediately,” she explained,
“whether I am infected or not. It will take three months or so before any blood
tests will be reliable.”
    Howard put himself in the doctor’s shoes and felt quite
sick. It was going to be a long three months of hell while she was forced to
wait for results on whether or not she was gravely ill. “Krenshaw admitted he
never managed to infect any of the children,” he said, hoping it would give her
some solace.
    “You let him get away, though?”
    Howard didn’t take it personally. If anyone had the right to
apportion blame, it was Dr Hart. “I’m sorry. I have all my people working on
it. We’ll get him, I promise.” He chose not to complicate matters by explaining
about the black vans and his former colleague appearing to snatch Krenshaw away
just as he was about to get away.
    “I need to go back to Whiteknight,” she said, looking away
from him. “I can get treatment there and I need to get back to trying to deal
with the Ebola epidemic.”
    Howard nodded. Any friendliness that had existed between
them was now gone, extinguished the moment Krenshaw plunged a syringe into her
neck. Howard had failed the woman, and could tell that Dr Hart regretted ever
having met him. He regretted it, too, but for different reasons.
    “If you need anything…”
    Dr Hart nodded, turned around, and left.
    For a while, Howard stood alone in the locker room, staring
at the collection of unlabelled liquids in the locker and shuddering.
Eventually a nurse came in and started loading everything into a padded yellow
crate. “I’ll get this sent straight to the pathology lab in Slough,” she told
him. “If you leave me your details, I’ll have them call you with the results.”
    “Thank you.” Howard left her his details and thanked her,
then exited the hospital as quickly as he could and stood out in the fresh air of
the newly arrived night. It felt good to be in the open, out of the
claustrophobic confines of the hospital. His breaths were longer, steadier,
and, as he walked over to the curb where his MCU Range Rover was parked, he
began to feel better. He wondered where Dr Hart had gone and how she was
getting back to Whiteknight. Running, probably, if it got her away from him.
The thought of her alone and scared brought tears to Howard’s eyes as he
finally allowed himself to acknowledge how much today’s ordeal had upset him.
He’d been relentlessly afraid the entire time, but it was Dr Hart who had been
hurt.
    A shrill ring caused Howard to flinch from his thoughts and
pull his mobsat from his coat. He answered the call and placed it to his ear.
“Hopkins.”
    “Howard!” It was Jessica Bennett, a Georgia gal transferred
from MCU America and currently his closest colleague, as well as probably the
smartest person he knew. She, too, was a doctor but specialised in the mind
rather than the body. “I checked the hospital CCTV and got a good look at the
black vans. I saw the men you saw. Was that really Sarah?”
    “I’m certain of it. I looked her right in the eye.  Not
like she could be mistaken for anyone else with those scars of hers.”
    “I