The Flu

Fury automatically looked towards the doorway to his office when his phone rang.  No sign of Jasper, though, so he hit speaker as the answered.  "Rogers, do you have anything for me?"

"We're still at the company.  Tony thinks that there's something suspicious that the CEO."  Steve reported.  "And Doctor Banner says that the stories that they're offering about what caused the problems with the shots do make sense, but still, he's thinking there might be something off there too."

"The two of them are with you?"  Fury asked.

"Hey, Director."  Stark suddenly broke in.  "Hope that you don't mind we came along for the ride on this.  Pepper said something about how I need to get out more, and this seemed like a good opportunity.  For some reason she thought it was alarming the staff that we're on a first name basis with every officer in the fire department and the bomb squad.  Anyway, really sorry about your agents, but this guy, the CEO, something's off about him.  He might be in panic and control mode.  His company just made a whole lot of people sick, and did the Captain have it right that you guys have had one fatality so far?"

"I'm still trying to get official confirmation but it's been 10 hours without good news, so…"  Wait.  Banner was there.  Maybe…  He hung out with Stark and turned into a giant green rage monster, true, but maybe he could think of something that could be done where the medical staff had failed.  "Put Banner on.  I have some questions."

"Yes?"  Banner said.  Tony had switched the phone to speaker, so at least that made things easier.

"Doctor Banner, you know the problem I've got on my hands.  300 of my agents are down with this thing, and one of our major bases was completely taken down.  And I have a level 8 senior agent who had a reported fever of 106.2 and was possibly on the verge of a seizure the last time I heard from anyone   Do you have any opinions of what might have made her sick that fast or suggestions for possible treatments if she is somehow still alive?"  Not that Fury was holding out much hope for that, but still, he had a tiny sliver.

Banner frowned.  He really didn't like the idea of doing this, diagnosing something over the phone without seeing the patient.  It was all to easy to make a mistake that way but he felt like he should at least tell Fury the most likely cause.  "Cytokine storm is most likely what's to blame, and with the fever that high, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some sort of brain damage to the areas controlling temperature regulation."

There was a gasp, and Fury looked up to see Jasper in the doorway.  He really needed to put a bell on that man, at least until this crisis was over.

"Brain damage.  What level of brain damage are we talking about here?"

"For her temperature to get that high, without something else going on besides the infection, I would guess there was damage to the areas controlling temperature regulation like I said.  Then with her temperature shooting up to those levels, the damage would be massive, and if the areas controlling the temperature were damaged, it would be pretty much impossible to reverse the situation."

"Thank you."  Fury said with a shake of his head.

"Wait.  Wait."  Jasper held his phone away from his ear.  How was John shouting so loudly from two phones away?  "What about putting her into a medically induced coma?  Or cryotherapy?  Could something like that buy her time?"  But it had been 10 hours since they had heard from Phil.  Did Victoria even have time left?

"If the part of her brain that regulates her temperature is damaged, nothing's going to fix that.  I really wish I could suggest something.  And maybe I'm wrong.  There could be something else going on that's responsible for the high temperature, something that might be reversible.  I haven't seen her, I haven't seen any brain scans that would let me say for sure.  Damage like that's just my first thought."

"And I appreciate it."  Fury said.  "As for the situation with the pharmaceutical company, do any of you have any ideas yet as to whether this was an accident or sabotage?"

"The CEO's suspicious."  Stark said.  "I've heard things about him, about debts to some pretty dangerous people."

"And the something just seems off about their medical staff.  I can't put my thumb on it, but something just doesn't feel right."  Banner added.

"Okay, then the three of you stay on it, do whatever you have to.  I want to know if this was an accident or not, and if it wasn't, my people deserve justice for this."

"Did Rogers find out anything?"  Maria had arrived just in time to hear the last of the phone call.

"He had Stark and Banner with him, and some things are making them suspicious, which is making me seriously suspicious."  Fury replied.

"This could have been an attack?"

"I hope not but nothing they said rules it out for me."

"I did some looking online."  Jasper said quietly.  "I found a nice tombstone.  Black with white engraving.  Felix thought Victoria would like it.  Do you think I ought to go ahead and place the order?  And do we have a plot somewhere yet?"  Hearing what Doctor Banner had said, any hope he had had, was gone.  "We ought to get her a nice plot, with maybe a tree?"  A fever had killed her.  It seemed fitting to bury her in the cool shade of a tree.

"I looked online last night."  Maria said.  "It was hard to sleep.  I found an outfit by Armani that might look nice for the funeral.  Do you think I should…."

"Order it.  Jasper see about the tombstone."  Fury said as he opened his computer and pulled up the cemeteries that Shield held spaces in.  Surely one of them would have a nice tree.  Funerals.  He really, really wished he could have found a way to avoid this funeral.