Paranoia - s.reid

Deal

Liz, Spencer, Emily and Morgan got off the elevator.

"Case must be local. Jenny said not to bring a go bag. What's the army doing here?" Liz furrowed her eyebrows to see men clad in camo outfits around. "What the hell is going on?"

Entering the round table room, they were met with JJ and a woman with various drugs. "Guys, this is Dr. Linda Kimura, Chief of special pathogens with the CDC." Rossi and Hotch joined,

"Hello."

"Hello. I'm sorry to meet under these circumstances." Linda spoke gravely.

"What circumstances?"

"We need to get started. Last night, 25 people checked into emergency rooms in and around Annapolis. They were all at the same park after 2pm yesterday. Within 10 hours, the first victim died. It's now just past 7am the next day, we have 12 dead." Liz took the folder, listening to JJ as she read through it.

"Lung failure and black lesions. Could be anthrax, but it doesn't kill this fast."

"This strain does." Linda responded.

"What are we doing about potential mass targets? Airports, malls, trains?"

"There's a media blackout." Hotch announced. Everyone shared looks of confusion and panic. 

"We're not telling the public?" 

"Aaron's right." Liz piped up. "We'd have a mass exodus. The psychology of group panic would cause more deaths than this last attack."

"Yeah, and if it does get out, whoever did this might go underground and destroy their samples."

"Or if they wanted attention and didn't get it they might attack again. Doesn't the public have the right to know that?" Emily argued.

"If there is another attack, there's no way we'll be able to keep it quiet. Our best chance of protecting the public is by building a profile as quickly as we can." Hotch concluded.

"What do we know about this strain?"

"The spores are weaponized, reduced to a respiral ideal that attacks deep in the lungs. Odorless and invisible." Linda informed.

"A sophisticated strain. Only a scientist would know how to do that. These lesions are doubling in size in a matter of hours."

"It's not the lesions I'm worried about. It's the lungs. We don't know how to combat the toxins once they're inside. And the reality is, we may lose them all. The remaing survivors have been moved to a special wing at Walter Reed hospital."

"Our offices will become a small command center."

"We'll be working with military scientists from Fort Detrich. General Whitworth is coming, he's in charge of site containment and spore analysis. Determinig what strain this is will help inform who's responsible."

"My team is in charge of treating all victims." 

"Reid, Elizabeth, go "with Dr. Kimura to the hospital. Interview the victims." Liz didn't bother to listen to the rest of Hotch's instructions. "There's Cipro. Everybody needs to take it before we go. We don't know if it's effective against this strain, but it's something." 

She looked at the pills hesitantly, picking up the small cup and looking back at Hotch for reassurance. He nodded and she nodded back, "This is really happening."

"We knew this could happen. We've done our homework. We've prepared for this. This is it."

"Jin dan. May you live 100 years." Rossi spoke, his lips forming a thin line.