Panic in the Streets Page #2

Honey?

- Hey, Clint.

- What?

- I like high foreheads.

- Yeah, I'll bet you do.

Well, it happens.

Don't think it doesn't.

They've taken a lot of guys

from the department.

Bill Mosely works for an

industrial chemical company.

I know they have, honey.

Well, it could happen to me too.

Just like having that other baby.

One of these days, huh?

You're a fresh dame.

Pretty, though, hmm?

You just about get by.

I got to get out of here.

- Hey.

- What?

Try and get in early

if you can, won't you?

Yeah, I'll try.

- Honey?

- Mm-hmm?

Why don't you let Tommy

have this quarter?

Why don't you

get out of here?

- Bye.

- Bye.

- She took the quarter.

- Yeah.

Well, that's life, huh, sport?

- Well, I got to get to work.

- Tommy, dear.

Don't sit through it more than twice,

will you, dear?

What do you make

of that tissue, Ben?

I don't know,

but I don't like it.

This one's a specimen of his sputum, and

here's one of the bullets Kleber recovered.

Oh, yeah.

Let me see that slide.

It's practically pure culture.

- Get 'em away from that body.

- Okay, fellas. That's all. Let's go.

Just wait outside for a minute,

will you, fellas, with the others?

- Any way to pull these shades?

- Sure, Doc.

- Can you get this man cremated?

- Well, I suppose I can.

I don't want any supposing, Ben.

I want him cremated right now.

Set it up, will you?

- Oh, Kleber.

- Yes, sir.

I want everything that's touched him burned

or sterilized. Do you understand me?

Sure, Doc.

Paul, get those slides into a sterilizer

right away, will you?

Right. Oh, say...

- They sent over the serum and the streptomycin.

- Good.

Hey, Kleber,

what's going on around here?

- Is there any report on who killed this man, Sergeant?

- No.

- Any leads?

- No, sir. I don't think so.

Well, do you know or don't you?

This is important.

- Well, sure, Doc.

- Has anyone been able to identify the body?

No, sir. Nobody. We sent

the fingerprints off to the F.B. I...

...but we haven't heard

anything from 'em yet.

Have you got everybody here

who had anything to do with the body?

Yeah. The fingerprint men,

photographers...

...patrolmen who found him and...

- Nearly everybody.

- What do you mean, "nearly"?

- There's Billy Hall. He...

- Get him.

- Now?

- Yes, now. Right away.

Sure, Doc. Call Billy Hall and have him

come down right away.

- Now?

- Yeah, right now.

- Thanks. Will you have these people line up, please?

- Let's form a line, fellas.

Shake it up here.

Dress a line here.

- This is Dr. Reed of the Government Health Service.

- This will only take a minute.

As a precautionary measure,

we're going to inoculate all of you...

...so if you'll just take your coats off,

roll up your sleeves.

Hurry it up, Paul.

They'll start asking questions.

- Oh, Kleber, would you mind helping out?

- Okay, Doc.

And, uh, thanks. That was a fine job.

You did just the right thing.

- I appreciate it.

- Well, thank you, Doctor.

- Give them each two c. C.'s.

- I fixed it to have him cremated.

Swell. Help Kleber down at the end,

will you, Ben?

- Start down at the other end.

- Here's the alcohol.

All right. Let's get this

over with quickly, please.

- Give me the first one, Paul.

- What's in them things, Doc?

- Nothing. Just a little serum.

- Serum? For what?

I told you...

a precautionary measure.

- Precautionary, but for what?

- It's possible the dead man may have had some disease...

I don't have to take

one of those shots.

I can quarantine you

for 10 days.

Hold still or this is going to hurt.

- Aside from isolated cases in the past 20 years...

- I'll see you, Murph.

There's been at least

one major outbreak.

In November of 1924,

in Los Angeles, California...

...a woman died of what was thought

to be pneumonia.

Thirty-two people had

had contact with her...

...and within four days, before the disease

could be correctly diagnosed and contained...

...twenty-six of them had died, and they

died suddenly, violently and horribly.

The disease was finally found

to be pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague is

the pulmonary form of bubonic...

...the black death

of the Middle Ages...

- And its death incidence is practically 100%.

- Who'd you say he was?

I'm Dr. Reed of the United States

Public Health Service...

...and one of the jobs of my department

is to keep plague out of this country.

Sit down. Sit down.

Don't let me interrupt you.

Speak to somebody about it,

will you, please? Come on, Mary.

Has Dr. Reed filled you in on this?

Have you finished, Doctor?

Well there's not much more,

Mr. Mayor.

Bubonic plague, as you probably know,

is spread by the rat flea...

...which is why we watch

all ships and ports.

Pneumonic, on the contrary,

can be spread like a common cold...

...on the breath, sneezes

or sputum of its victims.

Very interesting, but I don't quite see why

we were called into this.

Because this morning,

right here in the city...

...your police found the body of a man

who was infected with this disease.

Well, Dan, what about it?

- Our reports show the man died with two bullet wounds.

- He did. Heart and lungs.

- Death was probably instantaneous. Right, Tom?

- Yes, sir.

- We had a police surgeon...

- Regardless of what the police surgeon said...

...he would have died

within 12 hours.

- But what he did die of was two bullet holes.

- He had pneumonic plague.

- But he died of...

- Drop it, Tom.

- Dr. Mackey?

- As you know, Mr. Mayor, I wasn't there.

Ben was there when the body was brought in,

but I can go now and check.

- I had the body destroyed.

- You had it destroyed?

It was the prime source of contamination.

I had Ben cremate it.

I see.

What else have you done, Mackey?

Everyone who came in contact

with the body has been inoculated...

...everyone we know of...

with serum and streptomycin.

And now I think

they ought to be isolated.

We can have them watched.

We know who they are... All but one...

...the man who killed him.

- Or men.

- Mr. Mayor, this man was shot.

The killer wasn't within 10 feet of him.

I can prove it.

- Was he shot on that riverbank, Captain?

- Of course not.

He was dumped off the Canal Street Pier

about 5:
00, 5:30.

- How did he get to the Canal Street Pier?

- How do I know?

Somebody must have...

The point is that whoever dumped him there

may very well be walking around...

...with incipient plague

at this moment.

- Oh, now, wait a moment.

- No. We've got to work on the supposition the doctor's right.

Dan, looks like your job.

All right, sir.

I'll do what I can.

But after all,

we don't know the identity of the dead man.

- We have no possible idea of the motivation.

- And you haven't got much time.

- Also, we haven't got the body.

- Did you empty out his pockets?

- I had everything burned.

- Great.

If the killer is incubating pneumonic plague,

he can start spreading it within 48 hours.

- Forty-eight hours?

- Yes. We have 48 hours.

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