TAINTED BLOOD II

The whir of centrifuges filled the laboratory, their high-pitched drone blending filling the otherwise quiet environment. Bosco Masaba moved like a machine, processing one sample after another.

Like he feared, the two of them were swamped with work. Every couple of minutes, tens of samples were being brought in from the patients above. Bosco Masaba tried to keep up with the pace of Doctor Jean but he was found lacking. Yes, he was fast but not fast enough.

The noise from the centrifuges became his background music, as long as he heard their high-pitched whine, he encouraged himself to work harder and faster so that the machines could go silent. The microscopes were in constant use, and what they were seeing was not encouraging.

He had just set a blood sample under the microscope when his brow furrowed. Something was off. He adjusted the focus, his pulse quickening as the image sharpened.

"Excuse me, Doctor Jean, I need you to see this," Bosco called out, his voice laced with unease.

The sample he had been examining defied his understanding of science. From his experience, he had not seen a blood sample this different.

Doctor Jean groaned, clearly annoyed. "What is it, Bosco?" He was already frustrated that he had not carried out the Governor's mission and time was running out.

He was left with 13 hours before the mission to kill Bosco Masaba ran out. Despite his numerous plans, he had not gotten a better opportunity to do it. Also, if he killed Bosco, he would be short-staffed in the short term, this nagged at him.

Ignoring his irritated response, he said. "Please come and look at this sample it is very strange and it has me confused."

"Ok, let me first finish up here. I will be there in three minutes." Doctor Jean told him as he continued examining the sample he was working on while quickly scribbling on a piece of paper his observations.

Bosco Masaba went back to his task to note down the abnormality in this particular sample. What he observed was not normal, he saw an abnormal number of white blood cells, and they appeared larger than normal with irregular shapes.

Then there was the lower count of red blood cells which had taken on a strange bluish to purplish color instead of a pale coloring as seen in normal Red Blood Cells.

The other oddity in the sample was the platelet count. The platelet count in this sample was above the charts. A normal blood sample for low platelet count contained around 150,000 platelets while a high platelet contained around 450,000 platelets.

Platelet count is essential for blood clotting and preventing excessive bleeding. However, this sample contained more than 900,000 platelets. This was so bizarre but it was made even more strange by the earlier strange features observed.

But what confounded him was the expanding number of immature cells each couple of seconds, at first, he thought he was imagining things but having switched from several microscopes it still displayed the same results; the immature cells were exponentially expanding.

He decided to look at the label on the Blood Tude Holder with the patient's details. The name written there was AMOS TATU.

"For goodness' sake, what have you gotten into Amos Tatu?" He muttered to himself while trying to decipher the mystery behind this phenomenal oddity.

"Show me what is making you waste time on one sample when we have a lot of work to do." Doctor Jean Pombe said as he approached him. He had seen Bosco Masaba working on this sample for more than ten minutes yet in that same time, he had handled more than three samples and filed them.

"Doctor Jean, I cannot make sense of this sample from this patient called Amos Tatu. I think it has been tainted. Come and look at it and give me your recommendations." He said as he left the table for Doctor Jean to take over.

Doctor Jean sat at Bosco's table. He peered into the microscope, his face impassive at first. But as he continued examining the sample, his expression twisted in horror. He yanked his head back as though he had been burned.

"Bullocks!" he muttered, rubbing his temple.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" Doctor Jean said as he also tried to make sense of what he had seen. In all his years, this was the first time he had seen something like this and it scared him.

Bosco studied him carefully. "Doctor, what have you seen? Do you think the sample has been tainted by something?" Bosco Masaba was full of questions and like a curious student of Medicine, he needed answers.

Doctor Jean hesitated before replying, his voice unusually tight, "I am not in a position to conclude yet. We need to collect more samples from this patient. He glanced at the label. "Amos Tatu."

"Bosco, go upstairs and collect all the necessary samples from this patient and ensure that everything is done by the book. I don't want any mistakes; do you hear me?" He commanded him.

"Yes Doctor Jean, let me go and work on it right away," Bosco said as he turned to walk towards the door.

"Wait," Doctor Jean interrupted, something shifting in his gaze. "On second thought, I'll go myself. You stay here and document everything you've observed."

Bosco frowned but nodded. "Understood."

He felt it would benefit him if the Supervisor went. He could use this time to document this strange sample and also work on the others. He watched Docter Jean Pombe leave.

Without wasting time, Bosco Masaba dutifully noted down all the strangeness he had observed in this blood sample while accompanying it with pictures taken at different intervals to show the changes in the sample.

"Amos... Amos Tatu. I hope this is not your blood sample." Bosco Masaba said as he finalized his report detailing the strangeness in this sample.

He leaned back in the chair and gazed at the ceiling while brooding about the implications should it be that this blood sample collected from Amos Tatu was genuine.