CHAPTER 2

The first to arrive was Doctor Shawn Mauller. He started his own practice after leaving the Cleveland Clinic - for disagreeing with another Doctor over a surgical procedure. The board agreed with the other doctor and the patient died. Doctor Mauller was so infuriated that he quit, and started his own business. He has dozens of awards for surgical breakthroughs and medical research papers. He specializes in the brain, and spinal cord. He arrived in an Audi, an old one - not new. He stepped out of the car wearing loose jeans, and a brown golf polo. He had black hair, he was much younger than you'd expect. He greeted Morgan, and the rest of the group. He grabbed a coat off the wall and asked to see the body.

Doctor Reins obliged and showed him where the body was. They pulled the brain out and studied it first. The young doctor had an intense look on his face, he scrunched his eyebrows and his tan face was showing a look of both worry and excitement. They discussed some things and decided to go ahead and finish the autopsy together. They took a very long time studying each organ, gland and piece of the body. They started gathering information on any abnormalities. Morgan took notes, and the nurses watched the three intently for the long process. Toward the end another man showed up, John Calper.

John was in his early to mid-thirties, and had obtained a PhD in Molecular Pathogens, with a master’s degree in biochemical and molecular biology. He worked for a drug company for about six years, and then a few years ago decided he wanted to do something other than lab work, he opened a bar. He ended up opening one of the most well-known bars in Cincinnati. Apparently he and Doctor Reins had become friends after attending some of the same seminars and conventions a few years previous to that. He still did consultation work on the side for area labs and hospitals. He walked in to the building at about 6pm, as the others were finishing up. He was wearing brown cords, with a Weezer t-shirt, and a bag hanging off of his side. His hair was deep brown, and his face was scruffy. His clothes were wrinkled, and his glasses set high on his nose. He looked as if he was of Korean decent, and the only major traits he carried from that were his eyes, and his build. He was short, but fit. He looked like he just rolled out of bed.

"So boys, and ladies, what do we have?" He seemed extremely excited about this.

"Well, we just finished looking at the entire body, the organs, skin, every crevice and conceivable sample was taken. Here is what we have" Dr. Reins told both of the newcomers what they had discussed, and what the initial findings were, which is why he called them. The group entered his office, and all sat quietly for a moment. Then Mauller broke the silence.

"So, you two are the ones that started this 'investigation'?"

"Yes," Natalie stated "I was there the night she died; Heike came in at the end. We tried to come up with some logical explanation of what happened, couldn't, and here we are."

"Hm. Well the brain is a problem. Even I have never heard of something that could do that to it. Even if there was something that could turn the brain black, it was almost like it destroyed parts rather than all of it, but the brain stem looks healthy. Any disease or infection that I have heard of either destroys the brain, or doesn't. It doesn't only damage pieces.”  He was still racking his memory.

"Well, if the samples are ready I'd like to start looking at them." Calper was intrigued. He gathered all the information discussed, and then took the samples in groups. He took them by organ system. Starting with the circulatory system. He started with the blood samples, then samples of the heart. There was abnormal clotting, and the samples were almost completely dried up, he stated it was like the heart hadn't beat for weeks. He then moved on to the lungs. He examined samples from the pieces of that puzzle, noting no cancer at a cellular level, there were still "cancerous lumps", from the lungs, but the cells were all wiped clean, except for enlarged mitochondria and a dead nucleus.

As he continued his process the rest waited very impatiently. Everyone taking turns standing behind him, and fidgeting. He moved on to the endocrine system. The samples taken were from the Adrenal glands, the Thyroid and Parathyroid, Pancreas and Ovaries. (He was saving the Pituitary for the neuro system; it’s located in the brain) Then he moved on to the gastrointestinal system. He had samples from all over - the stomach, intestines, esophagus, mouth, tongue. Even had the small amount of stomach contents in a dish.

His secretary stepped into the morgue with a frown on her face, she looked worried. She asked to talk to Dr. Reins and as he walked over to her she said under her breath "there is a very large vehicle outside". He sighed and asked who it was, she said she didn't know. He told Calper to keep working and stepped out into the hallway. Curious Natalie followed and peeked out the window, there was a large truck, and it looked like an armored car - except it wasn't full of cash. There was a woman standing beside the vehicle, arms crossed, waiting for something. Then the back doors opened and four others emerged from the rear of the truck, they brought out with them a gurney and masks. She ran back into the morgue and alerted Mauller, Heike, and Calper. They asked who it was; all she could say was "No clue, X-Files?” With an awkward smile Natalie looked to Mauller for an inclination of what to do. He shrugged, then said get this stuff cleaned and put away, quickly and he'd go out and meet them and Dr. Reins. Heike and Calper got moving while Natalie went to be the "look out". They were still outside.

This mystery lady was a tall, skinny woman. Fiery red straight hair that fell to the middle of her back. She was wearing a dark blue pinstripe suit; underneath her jacket was a white button up, her skirt sat just above her knees, with red stilettos. She was in her late forties and walked with complete confidence. They were going towards the front door. Natalie hurried back into the room and let them know. Everything was almost cleaned up, the samples were gone.

They entered the main area of the building and briefly spoke with Dr. Reins and his secretary. Morgan had accompanied Dr. Reins and was waiting for them in his office. The others tried to figure out where to go or if they should just stay put, too late. They walked straight into the morgue, ignoring Dr. Rein’s office. They all just stood there quietly. The first in was the woman, as she opened the door they saw her badge, hanging off of her jacket pocket - it read "Darlene Harsh, Centers for Disease Control".

The others that followed her were three older men and one younger lady. They were wearing white zip up suits, and masks. The small group backed away from the body as they approached it. She started asking questions,

"Who are all you people?" she said in a matter of fact tone. She looked around the room, studying each of them, sat her bag on the empty tool table and took out a notebook. They went around the room, like in grade school and introduced themselves and their professions; she also wanted to know how and why we were involved in this autopsy. Everyone cooperated, uneasily to her liking. Then Dr. Mauller asked her why she was here. "Well, we got a call from a 'concerned citizen' that there may be an issue with this corpse. Normally we wouldn't bother, except he was an officer and sounded sincerely terrified, mentioned some odd happenings and we told him we'd look into it.

With that she motioned for her, people, to 'bag and tag' the body. She then required that they receive all of the samples and tissues that had been collected, just in case the body was contaminated with some relentless infection. Calper handed her some with a 'happy to help' smirk on his face. She was not amused. She turned to Natalie and asked if there was any more that they had 'forgotten', she said no. Darlene then said, "I'd feel better if we looked around, just to be sure".   And her team started opening everything. Nervous and obviously uncomfortable they sat down, as the CDC asked. One opened up the body door that contained the rest of the specimens.