Chapter 991: Still in Hawaii (Part 1)

Chapter 991: Still in Hawaii (Part 1)

The Ford F150 and Camaro flashed their lights and sirens all the way, and it took less than 15 minutes to reach a residential area, which was completely blocked by HPD police cars.

The cordon that was usually only one was now three, and the innermost layer of tape was a scary red. Police cars parked three cars side by side at a time, blocking all intersections tightly.

All the police officers stood outside the first two cordons. Most of them didn't know what happened. They looked at a house completely wrapped in transparent plastic sheets and whispered nervously.

Danny led everyone to the last cordon and went to find someone to understand the situation. When he came back, his expression became even uglier.

"What happened? The police outside said that this was just an ordinary family case at the beginning." Kono also walked around outside, but obviously didn't ask any valuable information.

"Except for waking up and finding that I was a foot shorter, this is probably the most terrifying nightmare I have ever heard of." Danny, who is only 165 cm tall, is quite good at self-deprecation.

"The wife called 911 and said her estranged husband tried to break into the house. As soon as the HPD officers arrived, he fell to the lawn in front of the house, bleeding from all seven orifices and dead. His body was covered with pustules similar to those on toad skin.

The CDC's preliminary diagnosis was hemorrhagic smallpox. The governor just called me again and hoped that we could conduct the investigation as secretly as possible."

"Secret investigation?" Jack looked at the number of police officers around him, "I bet that the news of the deadly virus will spread throughout the island before tomorrow morning."

"I thought smallpox was declared extinct by the World Health Organization as early as last century." Perhaps because he had just left school, Kono's knowledge reserve was obviously the richest among the three people in front of him, which was also a reality.

When most people leave the learning stage, the "useless" knowledge in their memory that is not used in daily life will be slowly forgotten, so the fact that people become more sophisticated as they grow older is more reflected in sociology rather than natural science.

Of course, most people have heard of smallpox, a deadly virus that is as famous as the "Black Death" plague. Many Chinese people mistakenly think that the small scars on their arms are left after the smallpox vaccine, that is, cowpox.

In fact, since the 1980s, most Chinese have not been vaccinated against cowpox, because as early as 1980, WHO (World Health Organization) announced that the smallpox virus had been eradicated.

In 1981, China stopped vaccinating newborns with cowpox, and the small scars on the arms of people born after that were actually left by BCG. The full name of that thing is attenuated bovine tuberculosis suspension, which is used to prevent tuberculosis.

"So what does hemorrhagic smallpox mean? A biological weapon of the military?" Cheng Hao realized that something was wrong as soon as he spoke, and quickly lowered his voice.

Jack also lowered his voice and answered, "Hemorrhagic smallpox is also called 'black smallpox'. The mortality rate of ordinary smallpox virus is 30%, while the mortality rate of hemorrhagic smallpox is 97%."

This made everyone change color, and they subconsciously took two or three steps back.

"You don't need to be so scared. I have completed the cleaning and disinfection."

A figure wearing a one-piece protective suit staggered in front of several people, took off his helmet with a "puff", revealing a round chubby face, and wore black-rimmed square glasses that looked stupid at first glance.

The voice he spoke was almost flat, like a robot.

Jack raised his eyebrows slightly. This is another familiar face, Nakamura Hiroshi in the American TV series "Heroes" who can travel through time and space at will.

"Wow, Max, did you get this equipment from NASA? You look super cool in it." Danny teased.

Nakamura Hiroshi. Uh, the young Asian man who should be called Max here didn't seem to hear the teasing in Danny's tone, and bowed his head in a serious manner to thank him.

"Thank you, I think so too, but this outfit makes me itch all over."

The kind-hearted Kono couldn't bear to watch it, so he took the initiative to introduce Jack, "This is Max Bergman, the medical examiner of the Honolulu Coroner's Office."

It would be better if he wasn't called Nakamura Hiroshi. Jack wasn't afraid of any superpowers, but the plot line in the original "Hero" that became less and less rounded as time went on. Almost everyone in it behaved like they were covered with a mentally retarded halo.

So he shook hands with Max, who had taken off his protective suit, in a friendly manner, "Were you checking the body just now?"

The latter could hardly see much emotion on his face, and still nodded at him in a serious manner, "I took a rough check before the CDC took the body away for cremation."

"Cremation?" Kono was not surprised by the CDC's decisive handling of the body, but asked with some concern, "But without the body, it means we have lost all the clues. What about the subsequent investigation?"

"Don't worry about that. I have collected blood and tissue samples, and also took a lot of photos." Max showed everyone his camera in a waterproof bag.

——

After handing the scene over to the CDC, everyone took Max back to the "Five-O" office.

"This is the taste of my mother." Max held Jack's noodles cooked in chicken soup and thanked him solemnly with a serious face, which made him laugh and cry.

"The photos have been processed." Kono looked uncomfortable in front of the computer, "I hope you can still have a good appetite after seeing these photos."

A set of horrifying photos appeared on the big screen in the conference room, the kind that can make people with trypophobia faint on the spot.

"The deceased is Brian Palmer, 36 years old, retired from the Army ten months ago, and had been stationed in Iraq before. After being diagnosed with PTSD, he has been living on allowances." Kono called up the identity information of the deceased.

From the photos of the deceased before his death on the screen, it can be seen that he is an ordinary-looking white male, and in contrast, there are a set of corpse photos just taken by forensic doctor Max.

The dark red bruises all over his body make it impossible to judge his original skin color. Even more terrifying are the countless herpes of various sizes, some of which have broken and scabbed, but more of them are bulging yellow-green pustules.

The face, arms and even the instep, all the exposed skin is covered with these horrifying pustules, making the deceased completely unrecognizable.

The only two people who remained calm at the scene were the forensic doctor Max and Jack, who was half a forensic doctor. Max's appetite was not affected at all. He drank the noodle soup in one breath and patted his belly with satisfaction.

Danny made a gesture of discomfort to Kono to quickly remove the photos of the corpses.

"As far as I know, soldiers stationed overseas will be injected with a lot of vaccines. Smallpox vaccine should be among them, right?" Cheng Hao asked.

Max wiped his mouth with a tissue and nodded, "But the vaccine will become ineffective. Early studies once believed that the smallpox vaccine was effective for life, but later studies showed that the effectiveness of the smallpox vaccine is generally about 3-5 years depending on the different physical conditions of each person.

Then, as time goes by, its protection level will gradually decrease and eventually become completely ineffective."

Danny scratched his head and made a stop gesture. He had just recovered from nausea. "Shouldn't we really discuss how this guy was infected with this virus that has been confirmed to be extinct?"