Ebola K: A Terrorism Thriller: Book 3 by Bobby Adair Read Free Book Online

ear.  “Olivia?” Tears threatened to pour but didn’t.

Chapter 9
    “You’re staring,” said Barry.
    Olivia looked up to see Barry standing in the doorway of her cubicle.
    Barry was nodding as if to reaffirm what he’d just said.  “It still bothers me too.”
    “What bothers you?” Olivia’s mind had been somewhere else entirely.
    “Whoever isn’t dying isn’t coming to work.  Another week or two, it might just be you and me left.” Barry glanced at the empty, glass-walled office at the end of the aisle.  “Eric.” Barry turned away.  “His wife.  The kids.”
    Olivia looked in the direction of Eric’s office, with some sadness on her face that she wasn’t feeling at the moment.  “Mitch found Austin.” She feebly smiled.  She hadn’t slept at all since receiving the call from Austin the night before.
    Barry’s mouth fell open.  “You’re kidding.”
    Olivia shook her head.
    “You’re not kidding?”
    “No.” Olivia waved Barry to come into the cubicle and sit on the desk.  “Mitch found him in Kapchorwa yesterday morning, this morning—whatever.  He called me in the middle of the night to tell me.”
    “Jesus, that’s fantastic.” The desk creaked under Barry’s weight as he sat down.  “I honestly didn’t think there was a chance anybody would find him.  Did you actually talk to Austin?”
    “Yeah.” For the first time, Olivia admitted to herself that she didn’t believe it either.  She’d kept searching, kept pushing, because that was how she dealt with the insurmountable in her life.  Push until the wall comes down.  Tears welled up.  Again.
    Barry reached over and put a hand on her shoulder.  “You okay?”
    “I’m happy…I’m tired.” Olivia slid a side drawer open and rustled through the contents to find a purse-sized plastic package of tissues.  “It was a long night.” She gave up on the tissues and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.  “I guess all I’m thinking about now is how to get Austin back from Africa.”
    “That will be a trick.  International travel has all but stopped.  You know that.” Barry slid off the desk and exited the cube.  From the hall between the cubicles, he asked, “Is he someplace safe? Is he staying in Kapchorwa with Mitch?”
    “They’re driving into Mbale today.”
    Barry came back into Olivia’s cube with a box of tissues.  “Melanie’s.” He sat the box on the desk in front of Olivia as he exaggerated a look over his shoulder.  “I think I just broke some federal and state laws.  I should have sterilized those first.” He grinned.
    Olivia laughed and took a tissue.
    “Is it safe in Mbale now?” Barry sat himself back on the desk.  “I thought Mbale had gone Dark Ages on us.”
    Olivia nodded and looked at her keyboard as images of corpses paraded through her mind.  “It did.  Now, I don’t think so.  Maybe when enough people die, the rest lose their will to fight and kill for no good reason at all.  I’ve been in contact with some doctors in Mbale who last saw Austin alive in Kapchorwa.  They cared for him until he got well.  Then when one of the doctors got sick, Austin left Kapchorwa on foot.” Olivia started to cry again.  Through the tears she managed to tell Barry, “He wasn’t healthy yet.  Dr. Littlefield told him not to go.  But he wanted to help them and the other sick people.  He went to get medicine or whatever he could in Mbale.”
    Olivia sat back in her chair and blew her nose.  “ Sorry .”
    “No, no.  Completely understandable.” Barry scooted back on the desk and leaned against the cubicle wall.  He was going to be staying awhile.  “The pictures and video we’ve seen, especially from Nairobi, make everything look pretty bad over there.”
    “Mbale was just as bad.” Olivia touched her cellphone, not giving a second thought to a now unenforced policy prohibiting them in the building.  “Dr. Littlefield has been sending me pictures.  Lots of burned-out