### ### ### ### ### #### ### ### ### #### ### ### ##### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ##### ### ### ########## ### ### ########## ### ### ### ### Underground eXperts United Presents... ####### ## ## ####### # # ####### ####### ####### ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## #### ## ## #### # # ####### ####### ####### ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ## ####### ####### # # ####### ####### ####### [ Don't Drink the Water ] [ By Jason Gurley ] ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Don't Drink the Water by Jason Gurley On a day bright with sunshine that glittered and danced in raindrops that lingered in leaves and spiderwebs, Harvey Rosenthal kissed the glass over his dead wife's photograph, then dumped the contents of a nearly-empty box of laundry soap down his throat and gasped and fought and died. Two blocks away, at 1441 South Brentwood, Linda Greene signed her name to a letter addressed to her long-deceased parents, then sat back in a patchwork recliner and carefully sawed at her delicate wrists with a serrated carving knife. Stevie Vanguard, laughing as the wind ruffled his new haircut, rode his Schwinn over the edge of Sellers Bayou and fell seventy feet to the dry creekbed below. He never stopped laughing. "Three," Mike Roberts repeated. "My God." "But there's more," Garrett Thomas replied, producing a stack of folders marked Confidential from the folds of his lab coat. "Seventeen in four days." Roberts sat down, patting his forehead with a paper towel. "Seventeen," he breathed. "That includes these three?" "Yes." "And the media?" "Allensville has been quarantined for twenty-four hours," Garrett answered, consulting his clipboard. "The news crews are speculating on everything from tuberculosis to Ebola to yellow fever. All unfounded." Roberts plunged his fingers into his graying hair. "Testing hasn't been mentioned anywhere in the news, sir," Garrett ventured. "I just never imagined simple water testing leading to these extremes. There are no other explanations?" Garrett shook his head. "Hospitals?" "Insiders are seeing the discharge of five or more terminal patients each day," Garrett said. "Cancer?" "And leukemia. Even a slight improvement in three late-state AIDS patients." Roberts sighed. "But seventeen..." "Should I give the order to cease testing, sir?" "God." Roberts hesitated, then: "No. You know that sets us back a half-dozen years and a quarter of a billion dollars. No." Roberts closed his eyes. "Continue." And in Allensville, two more lights went out. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- uXu #559 Underground eXperts United 2000 uXu #559 http://www.uXu.org/ - info@uxu.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------