Ebola K: A Terrorism Thriller Read Online Free PDF

Ebola?”
    Mary-Margaret shook her head but said,
“Yes.”
    Rashid asked, “Will they die?”
    Nurse Mary-Margaret didn’t nod, she didn’t
shake her head. She seemed stuck between the two gestures.
    “That doesn’t answer the question.” Rashid
was afraid. Whether for himself or the others, Austin couldn’t
tell.
    “There is no answer,” Mary-Margaret said.
    The three looked at one another in silence,
each waiting for one of the others to lead. Austin didn’t know what
to do. Going back to the house, drinking—again—from the same water,
the same cups, using the same utensils that Isaac, Benoit, and
Margaux had used, would put him and Rashid at risk.
    In many ways, it wasn’t a risk. If the Ebola
virus was in the house, Austin feared they already had it. “I’ve
heard that it’s transmitted by bodily fluids. What other ways can
we catch it?” Austin looked at Rashid. “We may already be
infected.”
    “Why do you say that?” Mary-Margaret feigned
doubt, but it was a thin, pointless mask.
    Austin explained that they drank water when
they got back to the house.
    “There’s nothing certain about that.” Nurse
Mary-Margaret shook her head. “Direct contact with the bodily
fluids of something or someone who is infected is the only way we
know for sure to contract Ebola. You’re probably not infected. Dump
the water and boil everything when you get back to the house.”
    “How did Isaac, Benoit, and Margaux get
infected?” Austin asked.
    “They were helping with the other patients.
They’ve been here since it started.”
    “When did it start?” Austin didn’t remember
anything unusual in Kapchorwa when they left nearly a week earlier.
Had the disease been present and he didn’t notice?
    “The day after you left for Mbale.”
    “How long does it take for the symptoms to
show up after you’ve been exposed?”
    “A few days to several weeks,” answered
Mary-Margaret.
    Austin gestured at Rashid. “So me and Rashid
could already have it. We could have caught it before we left.”
    Mary-Margaret asked, “What are you saying,
Austin? You want to have this disease?”
    “No. Definitely not. But if these people
started showing symptoms the day after we left for Mbale, they were
exposed well before that, while me and Rashid were still here. We
may have been infected then, and are just not symptomatic yet.
Right?”
    Mary-Margaret nodded. “Just go home.”
    Austin looked back down the street to see the
remains of the sunset colors in the western sky, realizing that he
was buying time while he searched for a decision.
    Full of idealism, he’d wrangled his way into
a program that sent college kids to Africa to help. And the goal
was that general, to help. When he volunteered he said he was open
to anything. He wanted to do his small part to make the world a
better place. So, in a country where parents are charged tuition to
send their kids to any level of school, Austin was assigned to
teach street kids—kids who otherwise had zero chance at an
education—for free.
    But now he was standing on the front porch of
a dramatically understaffed hospital full of diseased patients who
needed help if they were to have any chance at survival. Even his
students were either inside or they had already fled. With quite
possibly the same virus swimming in his veins, attacking and
bursting his cells, Austin needed to decide if he was going to
cower in his dying sponsor’s house, or put his life at real risk to
help.
    He needed to decide if his convictions ran
deep or if he was just a tourist wearing a humanitarian disguise,
looking for the most unique pictures to post on his Facebook page.
In a shaky voice, Austin replied, “I’m volunteering to help in the
hospital.”
    Rashid said, “You’re taking away my options
with your foolish bravery.”
    Austin looked at Rashid. “You don’t have to.
Go home. Be safe.”
    “No.” Rashid hesitated an awkwardly long
time, before he finally managed to say, “I