He walked off the elevator and went to the door at the end of the hallway. As usual he was alone on the floor. No one worked at that time of night with the animals.

He had been given this room on the same floor as the animals so that he could have some privacy, more importantly secrecy.

He had to squeeze his way past old boxes to get to the room.

The last few times that he had treated himself the shaking in the right hand had stopped for a period of several days each. He was going to need to do some microsurgery the next day to set up for some other test, so he did not want his hand shaking.

When he walked into the lab things just looked a little out of place. At first he wondered if someone had been in the room, but he immediately dismissed it because the door was locked as usual. He switched on the equipment to let it warm up as he pulled over a chair. Double-checking all the settings on all three instruments, he sat down to attach the electrodes to his wrist.

He flipped the switch to activate the electrodes and sat back in the chair to enjoy the sensation.

But the usual tingling and relaxed feeling did not come. Instead he started to feel itchy at the electrodes and nervous. He started to have pain in the chest and to be dizzy. He yanked the electrodes out of the machine and stumbled to the door. Breathing was getting difficult and he was starting to convulse and cough.

He sat up quickly in his bed in a sweat. It was another dream about his accident twelve years ago. He barely survived it. He just did manage to check the equipment to find that someone had been tampering with the dials and changed the settings. He reset the dials and gave himself the treatment that he had intended to give himself. It was only a guess but he had guessed right. It counteracted what he had just been exposed to.

As he took his shower, he could not figure out why he suddenly lost his funding a year after that accident. He had made a lot of progress in his work on cancer. He was successfully eliminating melanoma in mice.

He was busy on the computer in his office when Sam came in.

"Will, we have another job you are going to like. We have an outbreak in southern Georgia. They were having a convention and twenty-one people attending came down with fever, convulsions, nausea and diarrhea."

"What do they suspect?"

"They think it might be botulism but they are not certain. It is a little too vague, too soon. I will need some lactose broth and the modified peptone water so I can test for all possibilities."

"How soon will you need it? Will this afternoon be soon enough?"

"Yeah, that will be fine. They are sending specimens to us on the bus so I will not be able to start until my usual quitting time."

"I'll make you the media but I am not staying late to help you."

"Thanks," Sam said with real sarcasm as he was heading out of the door.

Will managed to finish the media for Sam by four and took it over to his lab.

"Here is your media." Will placed the bottles on the desk. "Are you going to need anything else?"

"I do not know," Sam responded as he was looking up from his computer screen. "This e-mail says that it is more serious than they suspected. They have no ideal what they are dealing with so I do not know what testing I will need to run."

Will sat down at the other desk and asked Sam to tell him about the symptoms.

"During dinner they started getting sick. I told you their initial symptoms but now they have what looks like a hemorrhagic fever. But it is all too fast. They are checking for toxins also."

As he was standing Will said, "Let me know when you have more information or need more media."

Hemorrhagic fever, convulsions, very short incubation time, Will thought that there was only one thing he knew that would do that, LEEGS.

After he recovered from his accident, he had performed some testing on rats using the same settings that he found on the equipment. Within four hours they were having difficulty breathing, vomiting, diarrhea and they felt hot to the touch. By the end of six hours seven of the ten rats had gone into convulsions and died.

When Will had performed an autopsy on the dead rats he found that each and every one exhibited severe bleeding and degradation of all major organs. He concluded that the brain hemorrhage was what actually killed the rats. That could explain in part the convulsions.

After a couple of days he went back to find out more about the outbreak. "Sam, did you find anything in the specimens that you received?"

"No, not a thing. The case is now CDC's. They have placed the area under quarantine. There is no bacteria that I know of that could fit the symptoms and we did not find anything. They are still looking at a virus or toxin."

"Are there any more deaths?"

"Yes, the death toll is now up to seventeen. Three more have begun to show symptoms. And it has only been three days."

The fear struck him. Had someone stolen the LEEGS to use as a weapon?

Will did not waste any time in going down to talk with his supervisor.

"Greg, I need to take a few days off. An emergency came up."

"This is short notice. What kind of emergency came up?"

"I cannot discuss it, I just need to take the time off because there is an emergency to attend to."

"I am sorry, but you know that we do not have anyone that can fill in for you right now. Maybe I can let you off Friday but not more than that."

"I need to have leave or I must resign. I do not have a choice about having to go."

"This is not like you Will. What has you so worked up that you would need to quit if I do not let you off?"

"It has to do with the outbreak. I might know what is happening."

"I have not been informed about any outbreak. How is it that you would know what is happening? Isn't bacteriology handling it?"

"Yes they are, but it is not a normal outbreak."

"If you know something about it why do you not just talk with bacteriology?"

"It doesn't have anything to do with bacteria.!"

"Why don't we talk with Dr. Cummings then. Maybe you can explain your concerns to her."

When the director came into the office, she asked with her usual cheerfulness. "What's up guys?"

"Will just told me that he might know something about the latest outbreak that bacteriology working with and it isn't a bacteria."

"Yes, I heard that there are seventeen people dead already. What would you know about it?"

"I suspect that it has something to do with something I found during my research some years ago. You both already know that I have done research in the area of the effects of electricity on cancer. What you do not know is that I found that a modification of what was looking like a cure for cancer was very lethal. The symptoms are fever, internal bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions and finally death."

"That is very interesting, but how can you be certain that it is your electricity and not something else?" Said Dr. Cummings.

"You know the symptoms, have they found a pathogen or toxin to account for it? Does this sound like any pathogen you know about? If I am wrong, I am wrong, but I have to make sure."

Dr. Cummings puzzled for a while before answering. "What do you need to do?"

"I need to talk with whoever is handling it at the CDC. If I am correct, this is no accident. Of the animals I tested, all died of severe internal bleeding."

"Okay, I will give Dr. Schull and ask him to meet with us."

It took her several minutes to reach Dr. Schull and to convince him that she should meet with him about the Prinston, Georgia outbreak.

"I want you to make certain that I do not look like a fool. Do you need to get anything together to be more convincing?"

Will thought briefly before answering. "I could use some autopsy photos of the rats I used in the experiment. Is it alright if I go home to pick them up before we go to the CDC?"

"Yes, you can meet me at the main lobby at 2:45."

Will and Dr. Cummings met in the lobby at the designated time and were escorted to Dr. Schull's office. They were greeted cordially but were gently reminded he did not have much time. They were now looking at the possibility that the outbreak was a terrorist action.

"Dr. Schull, Will Dunn and I are here because of the outbreak, as I told you over the phone. Will has indicated to me that he might know what is happening. Am I correct in my understanding that no pathogen has been discovered to be the cause, either bacterial or viral? And am I also correct that nothing was found in the toxicology?"

"We are still looking, but you are right that we have not found anything as of yet." Turning to Will, he continued. "What makes you think that you know what is going on here?"

"Some years ago I was involved in some research involving the exposure of rats to very selective electrical fields. I found certain fields that were very lethal to the rats in just a matter of hours. They would exhibit nervousness, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and finally convulsions. Upon performing an autopsy I found extreme deterioration of the vital organ, bleeding and cranial hemorrhaging." Reaching into his briefcase, he pulled out an envelope. He pulled the pictures partially out of the envelope and placed them on the desk in front of Dr. Schull. "Here are some of the pictures of the autopsy. Particularly notice the lungs, heart, liver and brain. These pictures were taken within three to six hours of the onset of exposure to the specified field."

He paused for Dr. Schull to look at them. Dr. Cummings also got up to be able to see the photos for the first time.

Will continued, "The field that has to be produced to give this effect is very specific and would not be accidentally produced by any electrical device."

"No. Also, urinalysis showed high levels of potassium, manganese, and calcium. Histology showed a loss of adhesiveness among the cells." Will paused briefly and making direct eye contact with Dr. Schull while leaning forward, "Does this sound like what you have?"

Dr. Schull sat back in his chair. "Who knew about your experiments?"

"I was working with two doctors at the time of this testing. They were both informed. I also contacted someone with the Defense Department. You see, the symptoms are very much like radiation sickness and in my testing I also tested another application of the electricity that halted the tissue deterioration and even reversed it if not administered past a certain point of exposure. I was offering something that could treat radiation sickness."

Will sat back in the chair and they just stared at each other for several minutes.

"What do you call this thing?"

"LEEGS, L.E.E.G.S. My work started as a way to increase plant growth, it turned into work on controlling cancer growth."

"Is there any way to prove that LEEGS was used?"

"No, not unless you can get me down there and I can find it."

"If this LEEGS was used to cause this outbreak, do you think you can help those individuals still alive. We now have twenty-three deaths with eight showing symptoms but still alive."

"That depends on how far they have progressed. I do not know exactly what effect will occur and how far the deterioration can progress before treatment becomes futile. I will need certain equipment, can you get it for me?"

"Are you ready to come with me to see what we can find? You can make a list of what you need and I will see about having it delivered to the hospital the victims are being held in. That is, if you can show that your LEEGS was the cause of this disaster."

Dr. Schull called in his assistant to arrange for a flight to Prinston and for the equipment that Will would be needing.

Turning back to Will, he asked. "If this is your LEEGS radiation, is there any way to protect my crew?"

"Have you ever tried aluminum underwear?" Will said with a smile. "Personnel would have to wear electromagnetic shielding gear. The best protection is to avoid exposure. Anything that would protect and shield sensitive equipment would protect personnel. But if I can get the right equipment I can detect if the signal is present."

Will had come prepared for the possibility that he would need to travel right away. He usually kept a bag packed in his car for emergencies ever since he got stuck at school for a couple of days after a blizzard left him unable to even get his car out of the parking lot. All he had to do was grab his bag out of the car and catch the helicopter that had landed next to the CDC building.

He was joined in the helicopter by Dr. Schull and Tom, Schull's assistant.

Will had the list of things he needed by time they lifted off the ground. He handed it to Dr. Schull's assistant who radioed it ahead to the team already in Prinston.

The flight lasted under an hour. They landed next to the church in which the victims were exposed. The testing equipment had not yet arrived at the church so they did not enter the building.

Dr. Schull asked Will, "How dangerous will it be to anyone going in there?"

"That depends on if the transmitter is still active or not. In any case the danger is minimal for short-term exposure."

"Will you be able to detect it from out here?"

"That would depend on how strong the signal is and how sensitive the detection equipment is that you are getting for me. However it is not likely that the transmitter would have been that strong. If it were, there would have been more people getting sick and they would have gotten sick sooner."

The equipment was delivered that Will needed for detecting any LEEGS fields. They set up a cart to place all of the equipment on since there were no portable items. On the front of the cart there was a directional antenna set up to locate the field as well as a regular antenna. There were amplifiers for both antenna and three scopes that could feed off either antenna. The power was obtained via a long extension cord.

When everything was set up and calibrated they rolled the cart closer to the building. At fifty feet from the entryway they stopped to take a reading. Will did a complete scan, searching for any trace of the LEEGS radiation.

When the first scan showed negative, they went inside the entryway and repeated the scan. This too showed clear.

Next, they went into the assembly hall where the victims were eating. Another scan showed nothing.

"Where were the victims seated?" Will asked.

"From reports, they were seated mostly around the head table and at the tables close by, nearest the head table." Responded one of the sheriff's deputies that were assisting the CDC.

There was a very large artistic flower centerpiece on the head table. The flowers had lost their petals. Will did one more scan only a foot from the centerpiece which again showed nothing. He then put on some insulated gloves and examined the centerpiece.

There was what looked like the staff of some plant up the center of the centerpiece. Will found that it was not any staff of a plant but felt hard.

He asked for a knife and scrapped the staff. It was metal. It had been painted over very skillfully.

He pulled everything out of the large vase to find a box onto which was attached the antenna. Holding it up he looked to Dr. Schull and said. "I think we have our source. I need to get it into an isolation chamber to verify that it is a LEEGS device. I mean, I need an insulated chamber to protect everyone from the LEEGS fields while I test it. I have the specifications for such a chamber in my bag."

Dr. Schull turned to the deputy and suggested that he dust the device for fingerprints and find out who made it. "And I want results yesterday! Understand!? And call the FBI."

"Yes Sir!" The deputy barked back and ran for his car to call the office.

Dr. Schull and Will went next to the hospital where the victims were being kept. Originally they had been divided up among the three nearest hospitals. However, when the CDC came in, they were all moved to the hospital in Waycross.

The equipment that Will had requested had been set up in a room in the basement. He went to this room and verified that he had everything. A technical crew was setting up a shielded chamber in the corner of the room for him to test the device.

He had another cart set up with the equipment that he needed to treat the victims. It took him half an hour to calibrate all the equipment and set all the critical settings for treatment. The function generators feed into an integrator to combine the waveforms before it went to an amplifier and then was split to go to the electrodes.

He had a technician move the cart up to the ward where the remaining victims were. There were only five still alive. Two of them only had relatively mild symptoms while the other three had convulsions, coughing up blood and diarrhea.

Will rechecked the calibration and settings on all instruments. He then instructed the tech on how to lay the wires and he personally placed the electrodes on the arms of the patients. Each set of electrodes had a switch so that he could turn on or off the LEEGS power to each patient.

He started with the patient in the worse condition and as he had set the electrodes on each patient he turned the switch to begin treatment of each patient. When finished he walked over to stand by Dr. Schull as he looked over the patients.

"What do you think their chances are?"

"I do not know. I do not think LEEGS will help the patient in the corner. Her condition appears too advanced to me. The two whose conditions are not too advanced have a very good chance. That is if LEEGS works on humans as it does with rats. The other two, I just do not know."

"How long before we see results?"

"The convulsions or tremors should subside within the next thirty to sixty minutes. The bleeding may take longer and of course it will take some time for the deteriorated tissue to recover. There might need to be surgery to remove some of the dead tissue to help with the recovery."

"Will you leave LEEGS on the entire time of their recovery?"

"No. Too much exposure brings acclimation. We will need to monitor it to limit the exposure to prevent acclimation while giving enough treatment to be effective. We will limit the first exposure to only an hour and then evaluate for further exposure times. I am thinking that we should start with one hour on, eleven hours off."

The deputy showed up at the door of the ward. He informed Will that he had delivered the device found at the church to the lab and that the tech was setting it up in the chamber.

Dr. Schull and Will went down to the new lab together.

"What are you hoping to find with examining the device?" Asked Dr. Schull.

"I need to find out exactly what field it is emitting. If there is any difference from what I discovered we may need to change our approach in treating the patients."

Walking into the lab they found that the tech had set up the device in the chamber and was waiting for further instructions.

Will examined the box again. He found that it was an electronics box that anyone could pick up at Radio Shack. He pulled out a screwdriver to begin opening it when he paused and gently put the box down.

"Dr. Schull, if you were a terrorist and had a device that could kill without destroying property, would you leave it so that it could be examined once found?"

"No."

"Deputy, had anyone attempted to go into the church for any reason after the sick were evacuated?"

The deputy stepped up. "Yes, one of the caterers attempted to go in and clean up. Not knowing what had happened, we did not allow him to enter the building."

"Do you have a bomb squad anywhere close by?"

"Yes, do you think there is a bomb in there?!" The deputy said as his eyes widened.

"What would you do to keep someone from taking a look at your box if you were a terrorist?"

Dr. Schull put his hand on the deputy's shoulder and said: "I think it is a good ideal to get an antiterrorist team in here. They can check for a bomb."

While the terrorist team was checking out the box Dr. Schull and Will returned to the ward to check on the patients. The convulsions of all the patients had subsided. It had completely ceased with all but the worst patient.

Dr. Schull said. "It looks like you might have the cure."

"I hope so. We should see if recovery begins."

It took about an hour before the bomb squad had the box opened and did find that there were explosives set to go off if the screws were removed.

"Why did you suspect there might be a bomb?" asked Dr. Schull.

"I was thinking of what I would do and realized that the box was bigger than the battery operated box I designed for clinical testing."

Will examined the circuitry and found the radio controlled switch that controlled the device. He bypassed the switched with his own switch and removed the original. He handed it to the tech and asked him to have it tested for the activating frequency.

Closing up the chamber he activated the device. His scopes lit up as the wave patterns showed up on the screens. With a few adjustments of the scopes, measurements and calculations, Will announced that it was the same field that he had discovered. It was LEEGS.

He stood up and walked over to the wall. He balled up his fist and hit the wall then leaned against it.

Dr. Schull was concerned. "What is wrong?"

"This is my signal that they are using. I should have just kept silent about it."

"How could you have known that someone would use it as a weapon?"

"I knew it could be a weapon. I just was too naive. I thought my secret safe because I could not get anyone to support continuing my work."

"You cannot blame yourself for something someone else did. You are not even certain that the terrorist got the technology through someone you informed. They might have done it by spying on your work."

Will slept that night in one of the hospital rooms. He did not want to be too far from the patients until they could determine how things were going to turn out for them.

There was marked improvement for the two patients that were not too bad off. Even two of the more severe cases showed some improvement, their bleeding had stopped and their temperature had returned to normal.

The most severe case had him worried. This woman was not getting worse, her bleeding appeared to have stopped, but she had become comatose.

Dr. Schull came up behind him. "How are they responding to LEEGS?"

"Everyone seams to be responding except for her. I suspect that the tissue damage was too severe and possibly there was extensive neural damage. Did someone take a close look at the morphology of the nerves in the patients that had died?"

"Yes, they found that there were a decreased number of vesicles at the synapses. Many of the cells had erupted and there was demyelination."

"The tissue needs the nerves in tact to be able to regenerate. Without healthy nerve cells recovery is not possible. Likely LEEGS damaged the cells to render them incapable of polarization. No polarization, no signal. No signal, no recovery."

The patient died later that afternoon. Her body was sent for an autopsy with special instructions on inspecting the nerves and the brain.

Will was in the hospital cafeteria when Dr. Schull came in, rushing towards him. "There may have been another incident."

"Where?"

"Ft. Lauderdale."

"How many people exposed? Do we have the device?"

"Let's not talk here. We need to talk in private."

They went to the lab in the basement. As soon as they were in the room Dr. Schull said. "It was at the stadium during a game last night. So far we have one hundred fifty three hospitalized. We are having them all moved to one hospital and arrangements are being made to have your equipment ready by time we get there. So pack up and let's go."

"What about the patients here? Who will continue treatment?"

"You have one hour to train the two techs that we are leaving here. From what you have told me, every minute counts to save as many as possible."

"How long will it take to fly down there?"

"It will take us about an hour and a half to get there after we take off. We will be using the helicopter so we can land next to the hospital. The equipment should be ready for you by time we land. I have sent someone to get your things."

"You are very thorough."

"I have had a lot of practice getting people moving."

"Could you arrange to have my meal served to me on the flight? It does not look like I will be getting time to eat."

It took Will the entire hour to train the techs on LEEGS technology. He stressed the critical aspects of having the settings exactly right at all times. He did not want another accident to occur with treating the patients as with him years ago. The FBI assured him that they would not let anyone else near the equipment.

When they arrived at the hospital, they went to see the patients. They had been placed in several different rooms according to the severity of their condition. They immediately started to set up the devices for treating their patients, starting with the most severe.

After strapping the electrodes to the first ten patients he left the techs to finish the setting things up and joined the police commissioner, the officer over the antiterrorist unit, a Special Agent from the FBI and Dr. Schull in a conference room.

"We were just talking about the situation at the stadium." Dr. Schull started. "It appears that someone brought in a boombox that he left during the game. The police are attempting to get a good composite on the man. I instructed the police to leave the boombox in place."

Special Agent Myers said, "We checked the area as Mr. Dunn directed and we did find that it was tranmitting a signal. This is a graph of it." He handed the graph to Will.

"This is LEEGS."

"I need to ask about your whereabouts for the last few days Mr. Dunn," said Agent Myers.

"You can investigate Mr. Dunn on your own time. We need him with us," snapped Dr. Schull.

"Why do you assume that because I know about this thing that I am behind it? Someone else could have come up with it or stole it from me. Go ahead and investigate me. You'll have no trouble finding that I was nowhere near either insident and had no contact with anyone who was."

"What can we do to protect our citizens from this happening again?" Asked the Police commissioner.

"I do not know how we can prevent this from happening but I think we can improve our response time." Said Will in response. "What we are dealing with is a signal that can be transmitted from any antenna just as a radio signal." Turning to Dr. Schull he continued. "Has there been any news release about the two incidents?"

"No, because of the situation we have only allowed the news media to assume that it is some new biological outbreak. We are trying to keep a lid on it and just indicating it was a possible bioterrorist attack." Said Dr. Schull.

Agent Myers interjected, "We do not want the terrorist to realize that we are on to them. We want them to feel comfortable and make mistakes that can lead us to them. If there is no way we can detect LEEGS so that we can stop it before happening we at least can catch the perpetrators and put an end to it."

"I would agree," said Will. "Without knowing a way to detect the device before it is used there is no way we can stop it. Especially when it can look like a common radio. But I do believe that we can notify authorities about what to look for so that they could start an immediate search. We can also build miniature devices for detecting an active threat. We can build simple units for the treatment of victims. Most importantly we can complete my work to find out more about the treat and the medical treatment with LEEGS. This is no Star Trek fantasy. This is real stuff."

Everyone was silent in thought as one of the CDC officers entered the room. He walked up to Dr. Schull. "We may have another one. The town of LittlePort, Alabama."

Dr. Schull asked, "What kind of gathering? How many people?"

"The entire town, sir. The entire town."