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analyzer next to the computer, sent the information to the Vancouver lab and waited for Dr. Greer.
    Tomas spent the next few hours deep in thought, analyzing the tissue and trying to isolate which parts of the brain the virus was controlling and which parts may still be latently human.
    Finally, Dr. Greer appeared on the screen, her signature raven black hair streaked with white pulled back into a tight bun. There was a look of concern on her smooth matronly face. “Tomas, please tell me you’re taking every precaution handling these samples.” Qual Pharmaceuticals had been keeping tabs on Vitura’s field experiments during Malaysia’s outbreak. They knew their rival was close to manufacturing a cure and that Vitura was attempting to create a more efficient virus. But this mutant strain of zombie fever was an extreme that even Dr. Greer hadn’t anticipated.
    “I’ve been doing my best to avoid contamination. But the field doesn’t exactly measure up to the cleanliness of the lab.” He held up the head. “I’m trying to be as safe as possible under these conditions. Believe me, if you saw these new crazed monsters, you’d agree that getting infected by the original strain would be a much more humane fate. At least, after that fever, your higher reason is decimated. I’m not so sure with these creatures. They may still retain some intelligence. It may even be possible they are aware that they are somehow different .” He raised the head again. “I saw this one dragging a corpse like it was saving it for a future meal.”
    Dr. Greer nodded, “Tomas, this definitely isn’t the same virus we’ve been fighting. Genetically, it’s not even close to the contagion that killed your father. The virus in the brain tissue you have there is nothing like we have seen. Damn them! Vitura obviously hasn’t vetted their bioengineers. They seem to be redesigning strains without proper controls. It doesn’t have the half-life cycle of the original IHS that made it possible to contain before spreading through an entire population. This virus,” she held up the pile of research that she, the labs AI computer and their grad student forensic examiners had produced over the last hour, “is unstable. It is going to continue to mutate and the virus will become more and more virulent.”
    Tomas let her words sink in.
    If they were correct, then this new mutant strain could be the global killer they had hypothesized after the first zombie outbreak in China four years earlier.
    “Oscar is working up various scenarios for a potential global pandemic. But you need to know the danger you are in, being so close to ground zero. Our preliminary results show that the incubation rate will continue to decrease as the virus mutates. Infection rates will be impossible to contain.”
    Oscar leaned in over Dr. Greer and said, “Tomas, it was a straightforward process to contain the previous outbreaks--just quarantine those stricken with the fever and round up those infected wandering around. But this new contagion won’t be so easy to control. A population stricken with this mutated virus will be devastated in days. There’s even a distinct possibility that this virus could become airborne. And if that happens, then it’s all over.”
    “Doc,” Tomas interrupted waving his hands in front of the screen to get Dr. Greer’s attention. When Oscar had spoken up, she had lost herself in the data. She focused again on Tomas. “The samples I sent were the bad news,” he said, “but that’s not the only news I have. I also have some good news. I helped two Singaporean girls escape Vitura’s field hospital in Mersing. They had been given the latest Vitura vaccine that supposedly inoculates against IHS and IHS-2. Right now they’re safe in Singapore. I wanted to send you these samples before I go after them. I’ll have them on a plane tonight and tomorrow we can begin synthesizing our cure. If it’s not too late, we’ll finally stop Vitura