The emergency lights at Mexico City Central Hospital cast a stark white glow in the corridor, and the white coat of Director Isabella Garcia was stained with dark red blood. She had just exited the third isolation zone, her eyes behind the goggles were bloodshot, yet carried a calm demeanor.
"Attention, all departments."
Her voice was hoarse from thirty hours of continuous work, speaking into the intercom, "Lassa fever cases are to be treated according to Category A infectious disease procedures. Clear out twenty negative pressure rooms; the ICU's spare ventilators should be brought to eighty units. From now on, all medical staff are to rotate every four hours."
At the end of the corridor, inside the laboratory, the chief virologist Ricardo Mendes was extracting samples of cola with a pipette. Amidst the buzzing of the high-speed centrifuge, he suddenly slapped the tabletop: "Found it!"
