I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 168 : Geiger counter

"Hey Molly, it's Greg. May I take a little of your time ?" the detective wondered as soon as his friend picked up the call.

"Yes sure, I'm on my break." the woman agreed, cheerful. "What is it about ?"

"Do you know anything about death from nuclear radiation ?" the policeman questioned, cursing in his head all the cars in the traffic.

"Oh, you're talking about an acute radiation syndrome ..." Hooper retorted, surprised. "Well, I don't know much about it but I suppose I can give you a quick brief on it yes. Why are you asking ?"

"Don't worry, general public is not at risk, and to be honest I do hope that my case is not a radiation case, but please go on ..." the inspector tried to reassure her, knowing that he probably had sound a little alarming.

"Well,  the severity of the symptoms depends on the dose of radiation absorbed  and the way it was absorbed. Let's say that if you had been standing at  the heart of a nuclear power plant or if you've eaten a Chernobyl-grown  salad, you won't develop the symptoms in the same time and amount." the young woman explained, trying to remember what she had learnt about it when she was still at school. "Depending  on the dose it can be treatable with blood transfusion and antibiotics  but I suppose that if the radiation was not accidental, the doses your  case received was most likely to lead to death."

"How long do you think he could survive ?" Gregory asked, really hoping Nevsky wasn't suffering from radiation symptoms.

"Anything from a few hours to a few weeks." Molly replied, sorry not to be able to be more precise. "He will become weaker and weaker until falling into a coma, most of the times at least."

"And how can we make sure that he is indeed suffering from radiation ?" the detective asked once again as he was making his way back to the Scotland Yard building.

"Geiger counters ? When one have been exposed to radiation his body then, lets say, reflect them. If he radiates enough of those to trigger a Geiger counter then he most probably have been irradiated." Hooper proposed. She wasn't sure about the solution but it seems quite a good first test to run in her opinion.

"How does contamination happen, can he contaminated someone else ?" the policeman questioned, asking himself where he could find a Geiger counter in London.

"Unless  if you swallow, inhale bodily fluid of the person or are in durable  skin contact with the person contaminated, the risks are quite  non-existent." the woman reassured him. "Although, if the source of the contamination is still out there in the open, I reckon it could be lethal."

"Thank you very much for your help." the inspector nodded. "I'll keep you up to date as I might need your assistance at some point."

"My pleasure." Molly hanged up the call, not completely sure if she was to feel scared.

Greg  parked his car and made his way to the office of the Yard's  commissioner, assuming that a possible radiation case on a Russian  ex-politician was something important enough to be of the concern of the  higher authorities. He knocked on the door of the man's office and was  greeted in.

Christopher Norton was sat behind his desk, quite  absorbed in replying to his numerous email and was quite surprised when,  looking up, he remarked that instead of the usual deputy commissioners  and chief super intendant, it was a simple DCI who was facing him.

Although,  Greg was not a complete stranger to him since he had already met him a  few times, and he even managed to remember his name, greeting him and  showing him a seat.

"What business do you have to look so concern Mr Lestrade ?" the officer wondered, looking pretty jolly.

"Possible radiation poisoning of a Russian opponent." Gregory explained as simply as he could.