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Pandemic Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the Pandemic novel. A total of 180 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 :
HOW IT BEGAN …For a hundred thousand years, the machine traveled in a straight line.The
HOW IT BEGAN …For a hundred thousand years, the machine traveled in a straight line.The Creators had launched it into s.p.a.ce along with many others, countless others. The others also traveled in a straight line, but each one in a different direction. I
- 186 Nothing could have prepared the United States for that level of death, and yet the 284,000,000 survivors were working together to rebuild. Partisan politics didn’t exist. Racism seemed to be something from the past. All that mattered was helping one anoth
- 185 The ma.s.sive body dropped straight down, like a yellow sack of boneless meat.Jeff didn’t move. The axe handle stuck up at a shallow angle.Steve Stanton stared. The expression on his face said it all: the dude knew he was f.u.c.ked.He turned to run, but C
- 184 He was done for.The creature brought its right fist back to its ear, aimed the bone-blade at Clarence’s chest.I’m sorry, Margaret … I’m not going to make it …A clink of metal on broken gla.s.s. Just inches from the monster’s left temple, the barrel of a B
- 183 He slid up and onto the cabin’s roof, hands and legs spread wide to try to stay on the still-lurching vehicle. He slid forward across the slick, eight-foot-long, bullet-ridden surface.Clarence looked up in time to see the engine bearing down on the motorc
- 182 A powerful blast of water caught the monster full in the chest and face, sent it tumbling over the equipment box. It smashed through the rear window of an Audi.Fire Engine 98 pulled away.Paulius reached up with his left hand, pressed it against the right
- 181 He turned to face forward. Little Tim Feely aimed the water cannon to the right, shooting a long, spreading spray at the hatchlings, people and muscle-monsters that poured out of buildings, desperate to get at the still-accelerating fire truck.Klimas drop
- 180 Tim reached for the door.“Feely, up here!” Klimas, yelling down at him. The SEAL pointed to the water cannon mounted behind the cab. “You’re on that! Move!”Hands grabbed Tim from behind and threw him over the bullet-ridden equipment boxes. He landed hard
- 179 “Good man,” Roth said. “Make them count. Doc, you remember what Ram told you?”Feely nodded. “Single shots. Keep the stock tight to my shoulder, move the barrel where I move my eyes. Aim, then fire.”Roth nodded. “Excellent. And how many rounds do you have?
- 178 Two of the hatchlings leaped, scrambling up the truck’s right side. Shoot them, or save the rounds?Paulius jammed his pistol into its holster, then yanked the fire axe from its bracket. The first hatchling scurried over the stacked hoses. Paulius swung th
- 177 “Just hurry up,” Roth said over his shoulder. “If you’re still there when evac arrives, Doc, no one is coming up to get you.”Roth descended, but did so as gently as he could.Cooper Mitch.e.l.l limped over, Ramierez’s Sig Sauer pistol in his hand.“Your boy
- 176 Paulius sighted in, breathed out and squeezed the trigger. The woman’s head snapped back as her body fell forward — dead before she hit the ground. The man saw this, slowed. Paulius squeezed off another shot. The man spun right, left hand clutching at his
- 175 “That’s all that’s left,” the woman said. “Unless you know where there’s some living meat that everyone missed?”Paulius pulled, but couldn’t see where he was hooked. He couldn’t even turn all the way around to the hostiles if they walked into the bus.“Com
- 174 He made a gesture to someone off camera. The screen went blank.Albertson’s face glowed with a sheen of sweat. He put his sweaty hands on the table. He was trying hard to look like he was in control — trying, and failing miserably.“Admiral Porter,” he said
- 173 They moved south on Michigan Avenue. On the far side of the street, a Converted woman was using a hacksaw to cut away at the arm of a frozen corpse. As Paulius and Bosh moved past, the woman didn’t even look up.The firehouse wasn’t much farther.THE ENEMY
- 172 Clarence looked at the extended hand. Then he looked at the knife. No, it had to be him.“Was,” he said. “Was my wife.”He turned again, faced her, forced his feet to move.Margaret’s body shook, this time from sobs. Tears filled her eyes, ran down her foreh
- 171 Those had been some seriously big bombs.The once bright and gleaming Park Tower was a blackened finger pointing to the sky. Fire had consumed much of the building, gutting it, leaving hundreds of charred corpses inside like it was some oversized piñata of
- 170 “And you know that how?” Otto said. “You’re going to butcher a woman who saved everyone in this room … to test out a theory?”Klimas’s hand flexed on the pistol. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”Otto looked from man to man, searching for support, fi
- 169 Feely seemed far too amped up. And in the fur coat, he did look a little like a pimp.“Doc, what’s your point?”Tim tilted his head toward Margaret, did a bad job of trying not to make the motion obvious.“Argaret-May is inected-fay with eydra-hays,” he said
- 168 “Where are we?”“Barneys New York.”Tim paused, then nodded, as if that was the most normal thing he could have heard.“Good, good,” Tim said. “I was looking for a sale on Manolos. Size eight, if you please.” He looked at the fur coats covering him, then at
- 167 “We’ll find them,” Paulius said. If there was a time to lie, it was now. “How you holding up?”“I’m just …” Ramierez leaned his head forward as a wave of pain washed over him. He stayed that way for a few seconds, then looked up. “I’m solid, Commander. But
- 166 Whatever it takes, do not fall behind.Klimas. He’d promised to get Tim out of there. Tim righted himself, got his feet beneath him and started running, then slowed.Cooper … none of it mattered without Cooper.Tim turned back, saw Cooper land face-first on
- 165 The Situation Room’s main monitor showed the next step in mankind’s downward spiral: nuclear first-strike options against China. Porter wanted to launch. Albertson wasn’t putting up much resistance. No hydras, nuclear war about to erupt — Murray realized
- 164 The move from the Park Tower to the tea shop had bought a few minutes’ reprieve, at best. The hotel was on fire, but if enemy troops were still in there, still searching, they’d soon find the hole Roth had blown through the wall. After that, Paulius had o
- 163 “No,” he said. “You’ll have to kill me first.”Feely slid off the bed, his hands out in front of him, palms up.“Everyone just take it easy,” he said. “Klimas, I told you, we need her.”Klimas didn’t look away from his stare-down. “Why?”“Because she’s infect
- 162 Clarence’s left hand grabbed the zip strips and grenade, shoved them into his pocket even as his right drew his Glock. The door rattled once from someone hitting it, then bounced open.He fired three times at the first movement. Bodies ducked away, leaving
- 161 “Margaret! Put it down!”Tim saw her face change, instantly morphing from a hateful, snarling-eyed visage to a soft expression of love and concern — like someone had flipped a switch.“Clarence,” she said, “Tim is lying to you. I’m not infected, he is. Kill
- 160 I promised Feely I’d get him out, and if I don’t save him and Mitch.e.l.l, then all this is for nothing.Paulius turned and ran, tossing a flash-bang behind him. Up ahead, smoke billowed out of the hotel’s entrance.“All exterior SEALs, fall back to the hot
- 159 That was the right call, and Steve knew it. He’d been hoping the first wave would overwhelm the human soldiers, but they were too well trained and too well armed.“We don’t have many of those M72s, General.”She nodded again. “Yes, Emperor. However, I’m cer
- 158 Frank Sokolovsky stared down at his handiwork. He felt bad about where the helicopter had hit — how many of his kind had died? That was part of G.o.d’s plan, though, and who was he to question G.o.d?To the south, he saw another Apache start to climb. May
- 157 “Weapons free, I repeat, weapons free. All but squad weapons use single fire. Make your shots count, boys — I don’t think we brought enough bullets.”He clicked off, then leaned out past the front fender, just enough for the barrel of his M4 to aim down th
- 156 That couldn’t be true, couldn’t be; there had to be hostiles in the building.“You guys got it all wrong,” Clarence said. “Margaret didn’t kill anyone.”“Get your a.s.s up,” Bosh said.Clarence stood.Ramierez’s aim didn’t waver. He seethed with visible fury
- 155 “Affirmative,” Clarence said.Tim heard the click of Klimas switching off the channel.Outside, the gunfire sounded constant, an orchestra of unending death. A bullet hit the centrifuge on top of the portable table, sending it spinning violently down to the
- 154 How could they attack now? Tim said Margaret was infected … maybe she was just sick … the baby, making her act strange …Clarence’s headset let out a short burst of static as someone switched frequencies.“Otto, this is Klimas, over?”Clarence reacted automa
- 153 “She is.”“Ah,” Tim said. “Well … I found something. Can you come down here? Now? It’s really important.”Margaret shook her gas-mask-covered head. Was she playing some kind of mind game? Was she craving protection, perhaps because of the baby, or was this
- 152 “COOOOOPERRRRRR,” the bull said. “FIND … COOOPERRRRR.”Steve smiled. G.o.d willing, Cooper Mitch.e.l.l would die at the hands of his lifelong friend. The mutated hands, with those awesome bone-blades.All things in due time. Steve checked the cell phone: fo
- 151 “What? But that doesn’t—”“Stop talking, start working,” Clarence said. “I don’t want to stay here a second longer than we have to.”Clarence walked to the elevator. Margaret joined him, as did the SEAL named Bogdana, who carried a limp CBRN suit under one
- 150 Mitch.e.l.l suddenly stood up, his fists clenched, his body shaking with intensity. Tim took a step back.“Examine me on the boat,” Mitch.e.l.l said. “Or in the helicopter, or plane or whatever the f.u.c.k you’re using to get me the h.e.l.l out of here.”Cl
- 149 As they pa.s.sed the woman, Clarence looked down: three red spots were spreading across her chest. A fourth bullet had blown off the top of her head, splattering her brains across the carpet in a rough oblong. A black .38 revolver lay near her right hand.
- 148 If it were below freezing, the dead bodies up here wouldn’t have rotted, bloated, and the corpse he hid beneath might have been frozen solid instead of turning into the wet, reeking mess that sagged down around him. The smell was enough to make him vomit,
- 147 The Rangers’ gas masks made them all look the same, made them look like the identical insects that they were.Past the perimeter rose the seventy-story Park Tower Hotel, a pale tan spire reaching up to the black sky. Ramierez led her to the front of the bu
- 146 The short SEAL looked at Bogdana.“Frank, keep the package right here until I call for you,” Ramierez said.Then Klimas moved silently past. Ramierez slid around the front of the overturned car and followed his commander into the shadows.KNOW YOUR ENEMYPaul
- 145 “About fifteen minutes ago,” Vogel said. “The pilot got a message out that there was some kind of commotion on the plane. He thought there was a Converted onboard, someone who dodged a cellulose test, maybe. He reported gunshots. Then fighter escort saw A
- 144 “We’ve lost communication with Reno,” he said. “Flyovers show that all highway bridges have been destroyed. It’s impa.s.sable. South of Lake Tahoe, Highways 50, 88, 4, 108 and 120 have all been cut. Highway 1 south of Carmel, 101 south of Salinas, 5 near
- 143 Paulius reached the seawall. He removed his fins, slid his arm through them and gripped the handle of his still-bagged weapon. He shrugged off his gear, bundled it and left it clamped to the wall.He and his fire team silently climbed over the seawall and
- 142 Had Novosibirsk been the opening act? Was Murray watching World War III unfold?“Xining, on the left,” said some nameless a.s.sistant, there to stand in for one of the Joint Chiefs. “The right side is Lanzhou.”Murray didn’t know those places. They looked b
- 141 Clarence slowly sat back down. He had lost and now had to contemplate his wife — whom he had abandoned — and his nonexistent unborn child going into hostile territory where the hostiles in question ate people. Margaret hoped he felt as miserable as he loo
- 140 Clarence squirmed in his chair. “Why come in from the water and cross all that territory on foot? Why not take a Seahawk and drop in right on the hotel? I’ve moved through a half mile of urban terrain while under fire — it’s risky, we’ll lose people.”Klim
- 139 Although not at Dana’s level, the men were all quite brilliant: Robert McMasters, the president and CEO of the energy company Exelon; Cody Ha.s.san, who had apparently been an up-and-coming jazz musician; and Jeremy Ellis, a young geneticist who held mult
- 138 One of the triangle’s slitted eyelids was slightly open — but instead of the glistening black Murray expected to see, there was a sagging, puckered, grayish membrane, like a party balloon that had almost fully deflated.The shaking camera whipped around to
- 137 UNKNOWN: 6%FINISHED DOSES EN ROUTE: 30,000,000DOSES IN PRODUCTION: 12,000,000INFECTED: 2,616,000 (15,350,000)CONVERTED: 2,115,000 (6,500,000)DEATHS: 284,000 (14,100,000)The Converted were coming.Blackmon’s people were trying to hurry her out of the Situat
- 136 And, of course, Chicago.“It’s everywhere,” he said. “Everywhere.”He clicked for additional news on Chicago. More stories appeared. All roads and highways had been blocked off, sometimes by trenches or collapsed overpa.s.ses, more often by miles of burned
- 135 Steve knew too much to let that happen.He still used phones and the Internet, of course, but only for messages coded to sound like the natural language of people panicking while the world collapsed around them. By using instant messaging, online forums, s
- 134 She’d handled that videoconference all wrong. She’d confronted the president with the harsh realities of life, had been unable to ignore Blackmon’s superst.i.tious, primitive tripe. Margaret should have pandered from the get-go, told Blackmon what the wom
- 133 He’s petting me. He thinks I’m sick and he’s petting my head.“EVERRRRYONE … HURTS. WILLLL GO FIND … HELP.”The fingers stroked Cooper’s hair one last time, then Jeff stood. He lumbered to the front of the hotel lobby. He walked out the ruined rotating door
- 132 A wide-eyed Blackmon slid a hand into a pocket. It came out holding a gold chain, swinging slightly from the weight of a dangling gold cross.“Jesus Christ,” she said. “Satan walks among us. Let it play.”Vogel did.The picture whipped back to the hunted. Mu
- 131 “What else can be done,” she said, mimicking Blackmon’s words. “I gave you a solution, you didn’t use it. Now it’s too late. There are no other options. It’s over.”Blackmon’s demeanor darkened. “So you’ve given up? You, the undefeatable Doctor Margaret Mo
- 130 Jeff turned, extended his left arm toward Cooper.The hunk of meat dangled inches from Cooper’s face. Juice dribbled down to the floor.“EAT,” Monster Jeff said. “FORRRR, STRENGTH.”Cooper gagged. In the same moment, he brought his fist to his mouth, hid the
- 129 Murray had harbored no illusions about the overwhelming magnitude of this situation, but now an even harsher truth started to hit home.“Immunity alone isn’t going to do it,” he said quietly. “We have to find a way to kill these f.u.c.king things, all of t
- 127 The white blades …The thing wasn’t holding them at all. The blades protruded from behind each wrist, jutted out from torn yellow flesh … and they weren’t blades, they were bones: jagged, pale, as long as its forearm, wicked scythes tapering to hard, sharp
- 126 He mouthed back to her: Stop it! She resisted for a second, even sneered at him, but he got his feet under him, then leaned away until her hands finally snapped free.Out in the store, another rack fell over, the sound punching through him, shaking his ato
- 125 He pulled out six of the plastic bins, slid them over to her.“Look through those envelopes,” he said. “We want amoxicillin, penicillin, s.h.i.+t like that. I’ll get you that water.”He stood, looked over the counter and out into the store — still empty. Th
- 124 Leave her and go hide. Go in the fortress, block the door, you can hold them off …A tug at his collar.“There,” Sofia said. She pointed right: he saw the white WALGREENS lettering on a black overhang. Below it, a revolving door of gla.s.s in a curved metal
- 123 Something … huge.He felt Sofia’s fingers clutch tight at his jacket. The raw intensity of her words. .h.i.t his ears like a siren, even though they were barely more than a whisper.“What the f.u.c.k is that? Cooper, what the f.u.c.k is that?”Cooper didn’t
- 122 Some of the traffic lights were on, some were off. Most buildings sat dark. A few random windows glowed against the darkening sky.Vehicles littered Michigan Avenue’s six snow-swept lanes. Some of the cars, trucks and buses looked fine, save for smashed-in
- 121 Her voice trailed off. She closed her mouth, licked her lips. She gathered herself, continued.“If we intervene, Russia could interpret that as an act of war. America is in dire straits — we can’t risk doing anything that would put our troops in conflict,
- 120 “Get me in touch with someone who can make decisions in China,” she said. “And get Morozov on the line. Right now.”Bodies scurried into motion, hands picked up phones — at least four people jumped on the task of trying to reach Stepan Morozov, the preside
- 118 No, not torn … half-eaten.Sofia’s hands clutched at Cooper’s arm. She stood half behind him, using him as both protection and support.“f.u.c.k me,” she said. “I never believed they were real. I thought that news footage was special effects bulls.h.i.+t.”C
- 117 A thousand heads nodded.“We will use their own communication systems against them,” he said. He pointed to his ear. “The humans are listening. Only the heads of individual groups may have a cell phone. Do not talk about being Chosen on phones, on the Inte
- 116 He pulled Sofia tighter. “Come on, we have to move.”She seemed to gather the last of her strength. She gently pushed away, stood on her own two feet. “Move where?”Where? Good question. Whatever was coming would check this room, check the nearby rooms as w
- 114 Those who remained in the city were either dead or about to die. Black, white, Arab. Native sons and daughters. Immigrants. Today there was no confusion about French ident.i.ty — burned bodies all look the same.“This can’t be happening,” André Vogel said.
- 113 He nodded. “Aside from that.”“Fine, I guess,” she said. “If you don’t count the fact that you’re jamming your fist into my bullet wound.”He wanted to hear the rest of her story. “So how did you get away from the cop?”She paused. He felt her arm slide arou
- 112 She nodded. She reached down to pull up her b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+rt. He helped her.Cooper had never seen a gunshot wound before. He wasn’t sure what he was looking at, what he was looking for, but despite the blood it didn’t seem that bad. The bullet hadn’t
- 111 … and a body.A b.l.o.o.d.y mess of a body, a man, still wearing a black suit, facedown, arms spread out across blood-streaked carpet. His head looked dented, smashed and cracked beneath a wet mop of black hair. In front of him lay a folded metal chair, th
- 110 Cooper’s hands came up. He stayed as still as he could. He’d never had a gun pointed at him before.He’d waited in the boiler room, hoping Jeff might return, but not for long — not after he found other coc.o.o.ns in the shadows. Cooper had gathered up Jeff
- 109 Cooper moved to the sink. He watched the membrane-covered man out of the corner of his eye as he turned on the hot water. He saw soap on the sink’s edge, used it to scrub his hands until they stung. He pulled handfuls of paper towels from a dispenser on t
- 108 The room waited. Blackmon took her time, but she didn’t flinch, didn’t show any sign of the stress overtaking her.She turned to face Murray.“Director Longworth, everything I’ve been told indicates the infected are mindless killers. Could they do more? Cou
- 107 “We’re not sure,” Vogel said. “A staffer got a call out that they were under attack and that the amba.s.sador was dead, then the signal cut off. We’re unable to reach anyone at the emba.s.sy.”Blackmon stood. “Attacked by who?”“A mob of civilians,” Vogel s
- 106 Had he just killed someone?No-no-no, the man couldn’t be dead, this couldn’t be happening, it wasn’t real it wasn’t real.What was going on? The craziness out in the streets, in the hotel, and now this? And Jeff …Cooper stumbled back to his friend. Jeff st
- 105 Cooper turned, looked at the chipped-tooth smile. He pointed down at Jeff.“What is that stuff all over him?”The man shrugged. “I dunno. That’s how it’s done, I guess. I’m just supposed to watch and make sure they’re safe.”“Safe from what?”The man’s eyes n
- 104 Farther back in the room, just one other light glowed. There were dozens of dangling light fixtures, but none of them were on; most of the bulbs looked broken.The man stood. His chair slid back an inch, the sc.r.a.ping sound echoing off the boiler room’s
- 103 Morris looked down at his b.l.o.o.d.y mess of a foot. He pressed it down harder — the woman stopped fighting. She drew in wet, broken hisses of air.The man looked back to Steve, hope blazing in his wide eyes. “Can I kill her? She was always b.i.t.c.hing a
- 102 The message beeped.“You stupid d.i.c.khead! Call me back the second you get this, and tell me where you are.”Cooper hung up, then immediately called again, only to get voice mail for the second time.The bas.e.m.e.nt. That narrowed things down, at least.Co
- 101 It was empty.He turned on the nightstand lamp. He blinked at the sudden light. On the floor below the TV, Jeff’s AC/DC s.h.i.+rt and his jeans: gone.Cooper quietly stood, walked to the closed bathroom door.“Jeff,” he said in a whisper. “There’s some s.h.i
- 100 “That’s some pretty f.u.c.ked-up s.h.i.+t,” Cooper said.Jeff coughed again, even harder than before. Half bent over, he walked to the bed and flopped down.“f.u.c.k it,” he said. “I gotta sleep. Turn out the lights, bro.”Seeing Jeff on the bed made Cooper’
- 99 Cheng froze. He looked left and right, saw that everyone was waiting for his answer. He licked his lips.“Um, we’re working on it.”Blackmon slapped the table again. “How long?”Murray was just as much at fault as Cheng for this, but he couldn’t help take a
- 98 “Spit it out, Nancy,” Blackmon said. “I heard your good news, now give me the rest.”Whittaker cleared her throat. “Madam President, while the distribution is going well, there is a growing problem. On multiple websites and in social media, people are broa
- 97 @TwistahSistahBB5I don’t get this hostility — if you want to take their drugs, take them, if I don’t want to, that’s my choice! It’s a Big Pharma trick.@BadAstronomerHey, antivaxers, heard of a thing called “the news”? You know, those fancy moving picture
- 96 His lip curled up, like it was all he could do to not stand up and smash Cooper’s head into the TV. Cooper didn’t know what to say.Blackmon continued to babble, but Cooper wasn’t paying any attention. He used the remote to turn the TV off. “Dude, just tak
- 95 “She’s on all the big networks,” Cooper said. He tried ESPN, only to find the same thing. “Holy s.h.i.+t, dude — she’s on all the channels.”“She’s a stinky, hate-filled, nasty—”“Hold on a sec,” Cooper said. “This has to be something big.”Jeff propped hims
- 93 MURDERSteve Stanton sat up and turned on the light. He squinted, blinked. Was it still night? The heavy curtains shut out all traces of the outside. He looked at the alarm clock on the little nightstand next to his hotel bed: 11:52.He squinted, saw a litt
- 92 But if the crawlers had worked their way through her suit, why hadn’t they worked their way through Tim’s? Why wasn’t he converted?Because he’d ingested that yeast. Her exposure had to have come from Petrovsky’s body. Tim had worked on Petrovsky as well,
- 91 That, or he was drunk. Drunk, and safe, isolated from everything, surrounded by trained killers who thought he was the bee’s knees.Tim was lucky, after all. If that luck held, he could just stay right here, in this very safe place, until Cheng’s grand pla
- 90 “Let me get this straight,” said D’Shawn Bosh. “You’re saying you can tell if people are infected by how fast Tylenol sells?”Tim nodded. “Basically, yeah. I can even do it from here on the Coronado. Klimas set me up with a laptop that ties into the TSCE.”
- 89 “So it’s not a cure, and we still don’t know if it prevents infection,” Blackmon said. “Can we test it on lab animals? See if it really does inoculate them?”Murray shook his head. “The crawlers only survive in humans, Madam President. We don’t know why. T
- 87 “You win,” she said. She kissed him, slow and warm. Steve’s body seemed to melt. Becky’s hand held the back of his head as her tongue slid into his mouth. He felt himself grow hard instantly, knew that she felt it, too, and she didn’t move away. He heard
- 86 “Don’t worry,” Jeff said. “My tip is always oversized.”The waitress shook her head, but she had to hold back a laugh. If Steve had said a line like that, he would have been slapped. Not that he could ever actually say something like that in the first plac
- 85 Bo Pan’s infection, however, would live on. Live on in the most densely populated nation on the planet.THAT TODDLIN’ TOWNSteve Stanton didn’t know how to handle his hurricane of emotions. Bo Pan would have killed Jeff, Cooper and José, probably with the h
- 84 Neutrophils detected contact, reversed their grip, letting go of Bo Pan and clinging to Madha instead. In two days, she would kill her husband by driving the point of a clothes iron into the back of his skull.“Would you like a bag, sir?”Bo Pan shook his h
- 83 Cooper glanced at the Chinese men near the white van. They were edging closer, like they wanted to approach but were waiting for instructions. Bo Pan looked furious.Cooper thought of pointing out that they could have unloaded themselves, and therefore did
- 82 She blinked. Her words played back in her head. Her face flushed red. Everyone was staring at her. She slowly sat back down.Clarence turned to face Murray’s screen.“Director Longworth, Doctor Montoya is under considerable stress.”Murray nodded. He looked