“Comes a Horseman” is episode three of season three of First Wave.
A man in a protective suit is checking on animals in a lab. He starts coughing, having a problem with his air supply, and removes his hood. He doesn’t look great. Something yellow drips from the device that was supplying him air and blood drips from his nose. He finds the yellow fluid and starts to panic, trying to get out of the lab. The door is closed and it looks like someone is watching him.
Cade has gone to Vio-Zor Research in Seattle, a converted armoury with labs specialising in microbiology. A quatrain suggests Mabus may be involved. Eddie has uploaded a bug to the lab’s system and Cade is going in to fix it, and find out what is going on. He’s greeted by a Dr Kelly. Two other scientists are arguing over another person, whom they call Rat Boy, who apparently hasn’t shown up. Kelly says Tim – Rat Boy – better have a good excuse when he turns up.
Kelly and Cade enter a decontamination chamber. The lab was built during the Gulf War for bioweapons but they haven’t used the chamber in years; they only do level 2 research. Cade finds something on the decontamination chute. He sets up at the computer and calls Eddie when Kelly leaves. Eddie tells Cade to plug the modem into the serial port. The what into the what? That done, Eddie is in. The lab has links to USAMRIID, the Army’s infectious diseases centre. Cade says that Kelly said the lab didn’t handle anything deadly, yet the decontamination chambers are being used. Eddie has also found reference to something called Delta Wing. One of the other doctors, Samuels, enters and is chatting to Cade before Kelly takes him away.
Cade heads to the animal lab and is picking a lock when Kelly arrives. He claims he was looking for her as he needs to service box. She calls Samuels and the third person, Jagger, and tells Cade not to wander around. Then sees a secure fridge open. Some samples are missing too. Samuels arrives and tells Kelly she’s the one who locked up. No-one has been in since. Except Cade. Jagger arrives too. The samples are supposedly influenza strains. Samuels says Rat Boy also has access.
Samuels heads to put on a suit, so he doesn’t come down with flu, and Rat Boy falls out on him. Definitely not flu. Kelly says Tim has suffered from a massive viral infection; according to Jagger, there’s nothing in the lab that can do that. Samuels has to go to a hospital. Kelly says they have to contain the virus. Cade agrees, and draws a gun to enforce his agreement. He tells Kelly to seal off the building. This seals it for 12 hours.
Cade and Kelly head to decontamination. She asks who sent him; it’s clear he’s not a techie. Cade tells her he was alerted to a potentially deadly situation and came to stop it. Kelly says she doesn’t know about the virus, USAMRIID or Delta Wing. Though her Delta Wing denial is less convincing. Over the next 12 hours, CDC will monitor the outbreak. They may decide on a level 4 decontamination. Which is lethal.
Samuels is already sick and Kelly is taking a blood sample. Jagger says no virus moves that fast. Cade asks him about Delta Wing; he denies knowledge. Only Kelly and Tim had access to that storage cabinet. Earlier, it had been said Rat Boy wouldn’t go near that cabinet. Why was that? Because he cared more about his rats than research.
Kelly can’t find the virus and says it may be hiding. She needs a new sample and Cade suggests Tim. He and Kelly head there and Cade looks at something as she’s getting a sample and asks who else is there. No-one. Why? Because the body has been moved. That’s impossible, they’re alone. Then he moved himself. Kelly tells Cade not to be ridiculous; Tim is obviously dead. Then he grabs her.
Even though Samuels really needs to be in a hospital, they have to isolate. Before long, it turns out others are infected with a really fast acting pathogen. One that causes hallucinations and paranoia too. If a cure isn’t found, everyone will be dead. Except perhaps whoever infected Rat Boy in the first place.