Chapter 314 Bookstore
"Tell them to try not to go out in the past few days and use this phone to make calls." Jack took out the disposable mobile phone he carried with him and gave it to her.
"But..." Jiejie seemed a little hesitant.
"No but." Jack turned on the phone and forced it into her hand.
"Don't reveal any specific information, just hint." Jack briefly talked about the bioterrorism attack he had experienced at the LAPD.
"We are not saints. If we can't protect our own family, who will believe that we can protect strangers."
"Next time, remember to agree on a few keywords with them in advance to avoid some trouble."
Jiejie quickly dialed the number, and after a few brief conversations, Jack took the phone back, broke it into pieces and threw it into the trash can.
"If Hotchner finds out about this, he will definitely kick me out of the action team." Jiejie said this, but after getting in the car, she leaned in front of Jack and kissed him quickly on the lips.
"Well, if you ask him in advance, he will advise you not to do this, but if you tell him afterwards, he will pretend not to hear. Only if he sees your behavior just now, will you be kicked out of the action team."
Jack laughed so hard that he was punched by the girl angrily.
When the two rushed back to the command center, Rhett and Emily had just arrived, and Rossi and Hotchner were already waiting in the conference room.
"General Whitworth is briefing a member of Congress, and our director will be meeting with the president in an hour. I hope we can provide as much information as possible."
After Hotchner finished speaking, he dialed the video phone terminal on the table and connected both Garcia and Dr. Kimura.
Dr. Kimura appeared on the screen with a somewhat excited expression.
"Dr. Reed raised the possibility with me before that the suspected murderer might have conducted small-scale human testing before this attack, but it was ignored."
"I checked through the CDC system and found that about two days ago, there was one person in two emergency rooms in Baltimore and one person in the emergency room in Philadelphia. A total of three people died suddenly after falling into coma."
"The cause of death was diagnosed as meningitis. Normally, doctors would not test for anthrax, and the symptoms of the two are similar. I have notified the local hospital to conduct a test immediately, and the results will be available soon."
"Didn't the doctor find any lesions like gangrene?" Rossi asked.
"If the disease progresses too quickly, there won't be enough time for these symptoms to appear," Reed explains.
"How fast?" Hotchner frowned habitually.
"Yeah." Dr. Kimura on the other side of the screen paused and glanced at the report in his hand.
"Three hours, all three died about three hours after being admitted to the hospital."
"But this time the first death occurred 10 hours after infection." Hotchner said.
"This is determined by the concentration they inhale, and the higher the concentration, the faster the strain multiplies, which leads to rapid organ failure with no external symptoms."
"Based on the data I obtained at the hospital, this bacillus anthracis can double its number in the body of an ordinary person almost every 30 to 40 minutes."
Before Red finished speaking, Jack, standing beside him, asked Dr. Kimura.
"Is the antibiotic combination therapy at the hospital still ineffective?"
The other party shook his head, looking a little sad.
The so-called antibiotic combination therapy is the combination of multiple types of antibiotics within the range that the patient can tolerate, in order to find the one that is effective against the bacteria.
Because even artificial strains of anthrax are unlikely to be resistant to all antibiotics.
You know, even those "superbugs" that are immune to almost all antibiotics, there are still taikomycin and colistin that can barely deal with them.
In addition, as a murderer of germs, you must leave a backdoor for yourself, which is equivalent to an antidote, so that if you are accidentally infected during the manufacturing process, you can get treatment in time.
The problem is that there are hundreds of types of antibiotics today, and there are only 8 surviving patients. The strains are multiplying too fast, and Dr. Kimura is running out of time.
Similarly, there is not much time left for the BAU team. It is almost foreseeable that the information has been blocked by the FBI. Although the public is not aware of it yet, this lid cannot be kept closed for long.
Because the murderer's purpose in committing the crime was not only to kill, but also to become famous and create panic. Obviously, when he found that there were no relevant reports in the news, he would soon take action again, and he must be aiming to make a big news.
Once they cannot stop the other party before the murderer strikes again, the heavy casualties will inevitably cause the news to be exposed, and the satisfied murderer will disappear.
So it is very likely that in the end, this will be another unsolved case that will last for several years and ultimately lead to no results.
Fortunately, now we finally have some clues. After receiving the information on the three sudden death patients from Dr. Kimura, Garcia directly started analyzing the information and got the results quickly.
The eldest of the three deceased, named Albert Franks, opened a small bookstore on Sunset Boulevard in Washington, D.C., and the other deceased, Gail Mercer, happened to be in this bookstore two days ago. Have consumed.
"Jack, Emily, go to General Whitworth immediately and ask him to send his chemical defense troops to that bookstore." Hotchner looked at Jack.
So Jack changed his partner and rushed with Emily to the small bookstore with the same name as the owner, Albert Franks.
In order to avoid causing public panic on the busy Sunset Boulevard, the two of them guarded the locked door of the store. Soldiers wearing red biohazard suits entered the store from the alley at the back door.
Not long after, the captain's voice came from their headsets at the same time.
"Anthrax spores have been detected and I am issuing a warning order."
"Red's guess is absolutely correct. This is the place where he first tested." Jack looked back at the shop window behind him that was blocked by blinds.
Separated only by a layer of glass, there are passers-by outside.
"He must have chosen this place for a reason, revenge, or something else." Emily looked around nervously.
Jack took out his cell phone and called Garcia. "Immediately investigate the store owner's interpersonal relationships and get a list of all the people who have had conflicts with him, including his former employees and customers."
"I shudder to think that there is only a quarter-inch-thick glass between us and this weapon of mass destruction."
Emily took two steps forward uneasily.