Read Chapter 7: — EXPOSURE

Peter Quinn learned about the second hospital lockdown from the parking lot.

St Joseph’s Medical Centre had placed an entire cardiology floor under quarantine after an elderly patient, admitted for unrelated symptoms, deteriorated with fever and hypoxia. Within forty-eight hours, two nurses, a resident, another patient, and an orderly developed symptoms.

Peter’s father-in-law, George Nolan, was on that floor.

So was Peter’s mother-in-law, who had been visiting him.

And so was Dr Daniel Morris, Peter’s closest friend and Olivia Grant’s husband.

Daniel called once before his condition worsened.

“Pete, don’t tell Liv until you have to.”

“She’ll find out.”

“She’s home with the baby. Let her have one more normal day.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Known diagnosis.”

His laugh ended in coughing.

Peter sat in his car long after the call.

George Nolan was seventy-four, hypertensive, and recovering from angina. If he caught the virus, the risk was obvious.

By the time Peter reached the hospital entrance, security had closed access.

He called Rachel repeatedly. No answer.

Her unit had deployed.

He called his mother. She had visited George two days earlier to help because Peter was trapped at work.

Every conversation became another branch in a contact tree.

He had spent his career telling families that guilt was not causation.

Now he could not stop thinking: If I had taken George to another hospital. If I had stayed. If I had warned everyone sooner.

That night St Joseph’s confirmed multiple infections.

Daniel was among them.

George became febrile the next morning.

Peter returned to work because there was nowhere else he was allowed to go.

At rounds, Lena noticed his hands shake while he signed an order.

“You should sit down.”

“I should clone myself.”

“Sit.”

He did.

For one minute.

Then the emergency department called with six more suspected cases.

He stood again.