The Perfect Pathogen

by Mark Atkisson

  “What hotel are you staying at,” asked Natalya.

  “I am at the Marriot Aurora. I like the location since it is so close to everything,” said Ben.

  “That is a good location. I will drop you off after work and then you can take a cab to my place, if that is alright with you. I have to be home by six to take care of the kids,” said Natalya.

  Ben suddenly wondered what she meant when she said kids, then he looked around her office until he spotted it. On the shelf behind her desk was a picture of Natalya with two young girls. He recognized Natasha, she looked to be about ten, but who was the other girl with her he wondered?

  Pointing to the picture, Ben said, “That is a nice picture of you and Natasha. Who is the young girl with you?” asked Ben

  “Her name is Nadya,” said Natalya.

  Not wanting to pry further, Ben didn’t ask where she came from and Natalya wasn’t providing any answer yet either. It didn’t appear that Natalya was married. She wasn’t wearing a ring. Maybe Nadya was a friend or adopted, he thought.

  Natalya had a longing look in her eyes that went right over Ben’s head. She had been afraid that just being in the same room with him would stir up the embers of her love for him, and she indeed was right. She began to perspire slightly and then excused herself.

  “I need to freshen up,” she said. “I’ll be back in just a minute.”

  Ben went over to the conference table and started to pull all of his materials out of his suitcase. He flipped open his laptop and brought up the data and the graphs. He figured he had one shot at convincing Natalya of his and Katie’s hypothesis. Little did he know that Natalya was already convinced. If he was going to fly halfway around the world to prove a point, the point was already proven.

  Not having a direct test for SDX, Ben started to explain the reasoning behind their use of the blood tests to determine who was and wasn’t infected. Then he went into the longevity project data and showed her how about five years ago the blood work on people in different regions around the world started to show abnormal readings for certain tests. The first area where this occurred was Siberia, followed by India. When he said this to Natalya he immediately made a connection to something that Natalya had said earlier.

  “Where did you say the fluid samples from the mammoth are?” asked Ben.

  “They are in New Delhi,” said Natalya.

  “Bingo. What I just explained to you was that the initial infections were in Siberia. About three months later the blood work in India started to show the infection. About three months after that the infection spread to China and Africa. I was wondering why it showed up in India second, and what you have just told me would agree with the statistical data we have analyzed,” explained Ben with an excited grin on his face.

  “Ok,” said Natalya. “That’s very interesting, but what else do you have?”

  Ben explained the graphs next. He had graphed the timeline for the infection in each of the ten regions from the longevity study. When he matched up the dates on each graph, the lines formed one continuous solid line. He explained that this showed the infection growing in strength over time. He went further to spell out that he thought if someone became infected today, they would have the same abnormal blood test levels as someone who had been infected five years earlier due to the current virulence of the pathogen.

  Natalya was impressed with the data and Ben’s analysis. She was eager to get the mammoth’s blood checked for the six specific tests that showed the signs of SDX.

  “So what is the next step?” asked Natalya.

  “I would like to have the following fifty blood tests performed on the mammoth’s serum sample,” said Ben, as he pulled up a list of blood tests on his screen. “My colleague in Washington has a screening program ready to compare the mammoth’s blood to that of a healthy elephant, along with an average of the tests we have analyzed for victims of the disease and living subjects.”

  “Why are you comparing this to living subjects?” asked Natalya.

  “I may not have made it clear when I was going through the data, but we have tested over 5,000 blood samples from live donors and they have all been positive for SDX except for one young girl. We haven’t determined why she wasn’t positive, but we expect we will find another person who is also negative and then we can compare the two of them.”

  “I assume you tested yourself, didn’t you?” said Natalya.

  “Yes I did and I am positive.”

  “And I assume you think I would test positive also, is that correct?”

  “Very likely, I am afraid so,” said Ben. “All the more reason for urgency in finding a cure.”

  Natalya sat down at the table and put her head in her hands. He could see she was experiencing the grief that he himself felt when he initially understood that his days were numbered.

  “But who will take care of my kids?” said Natalya.

  “Let’s not worry about that right now,” said Ben as he gently touched her shoulder. “Let’s concentrate on finding the source and potentially a cure.”

  “Are the kid’s positive too?” asked Natalya.

  “I am afraid so,” said Ben, registering now that she said “kids.”

  They sat in silence until Natalya was ready to resume their discussion. About five minutes later, Natalya pulled herself together and said, “Ok, let’s get to work. I will call the lab in India and tell them to look for an email from you. You send them an email with the blood work you need and then instruct them where to send the results for analysis. Here’s the address. I am going to run the six key tests on my blood. When we get the results, I want you to analyze them with me to see if I am really positive.” said Natalya.

  “Ok,” said Ben. He had forgotten how assertive she could be when she got on a roll. He prepared his email to the lab, copying Katie and Natalya and pushed the send button.

  Natalya had just finished a phone call she made. “I talked with the Director of the lab and he said it will take him about two days to prepare the sample and then run the tests. He wanted to know why and I told him I wasn’t at liberty to discuss it, but he understood it was of utmost urgency,” said Natalya.

  Then Ben said, “I know we just barely touched on this, but I was hoping that we could keep this between just you and me until we have some hard evidence. My hierarchy at the CDC don’t want this to go public until we have some idea of where we are heading with the cure portion of the research.”

  “My boss knows you are coming here to discuss some hypotheses regarding the epidemic,” Natalya countered. “What would you propose I tell him? That you were joking? I am going to have to tell him something.”

  “I suppose you are right. Maybe I should brief him too. I can leave out the part about everybody being positive,” said Ben.

  “That would be ok,” said Natalya. “I can live with that for a little while. Eventually, we need to tell the masses something though. Our people think we are hiding our research from them, when the truth is we don’t have anything to tell them,” said Natalya.

  For the remainder of the day Natalya shared the work that they had been doing in an attempt to isolate the cause of SDX. She was right, they had made almost no progress. They were coming to the conclusion that this was something they had never seen before and might never find.

  Later, near the middle of the afternoon, Ben said, “I am beat. I am going to head over to the hotel and get a little rest and freshen up. What time should I come over this evening?”

  “How about seven. I want both of the girls to be up to see you,” said Natalya.

  “Ok, I will be there at 7:00 p.m. sharp,” said Ben, definitely registering now that Natalya had two girls.

  On the way to the hotel he called one of his old friends, Dan Block, who worked in the CDC branch of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He needed to set up access for this evening so he could make the call back to DC.

  “Hi Dan. How’ve you been?” asked Ben.

  “I’m doing just f
ine, Ben. I got your email and you are now all set up to make a call this evening. You can use my office, or your old office I should say. I have a secure connection.”

  “That will work out great. Thank you for hooking me up,” said Ben.

  “So, you are doing some super-secret research I hear. Anything you can share with me?” said Dan.

  “I am afraid not my friend. I have direction from the White House not to discuss the program with anyone outside of the core group doing the research.”

  “Obviously it has to do with SDX, right?” said Dan.

  “Well, I guess I can tell you that much. Yes it does. We are trying to locate the origin of the disease and we need some help for our counterparts at Russia’s Ministry of Health.”

  “And you just happen to know their chief Infectious Doc really well,” laughed Dan knowingly.

  Ben smiled to himself and said, “That was a long time ago. This trip is professional business only.”

  Don said skeptically, “Uh huh, right.”

  “Well thanks for everything Dan. I will also stop by and see you tomorrow sometime if you are going to be around.”

  “Sure, just give me a ring and I will break away from what I am doing so we can catch up,” said Dan. “Meanwhile, one of my officers will meet you at the Marine Guard Post One.”

  “That will be great. Thanks again,” Ben said.

  Shortly after the call he arrived at the hotel. Entering the hotel Ben felt a little nostalgic. He remembered wining and dining Natalya here on occasion. It was as comfortable as he remembered. When he got to his room he went to lay down and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

  CHAPTER 36

  Katie spent the morning going back over the data and running the new blood tests through the computer to check for negatives. They had all been positive and it was starting to make her question Hope’s results again. What could be different about her that would keep her from getting infected and why hadn’t she seen another negative? She had analyzed over 8,000 blood samples now and they were all negative. She would have to put this question aside for a little bit longer. She needed now to start analyzing the age data of the deceased so she could try to figure out the life expectancy of the remaining population.

  The news of the Secretary’s suicide had blown her away. The Secretary didn’t seem depressed to her. Katie never was able to come to grips with how bad life would have to be for someone to be convinced that taking their own life was the best answer. But then, she had never really understood the science behind depression either. She imagined there were quite a few more people depressed now than there were a couple of weeks ago. The worry for one’s family, let alone oneself, could drive many normal people over the edge, she reasoned.

  The worry about her own family drove Katie to work even harder now. Her goal was to provide an avenue of hope while other experts worked on determining the cause of the epidemic and then finding a cure. She had complete confidence in her medical colleagues and knew that someone, somewhere, would discover the antidote for SDX.

  Katie went by Sarah’s office to see if they were going to have a call today at the normal time.

  Sarah said, “I think the call is going to be delayed for about an hour because of the Secretary’s death. The acting Secretary is now Dr. Lawrence Hill and he will be stopping by to see us in about forty-five minutes. We are to give him a full brief on where we stand with our research. I will let you lead the discussion since you are closest to the data, if you don’t mind Katie.”

  “Ok. Will that be in your conference room?” asked Katie.

  “Yes. You can bring the data tables up on the screen. Do you have Ben’s graphs and charts concerning his hypotheses regarding how the disease is killing everyone at the same rate?”

  “I do. We went through all of that right before he left, just in case it needed to be briefed. I will run over the information again before I set up the computer for the briefing,” said Katie.

  Katie took a deep breath and brought up the subject that had been bothering her. “Do you really think Jennifer would have killed herself? I thought you said she and the President had made up and that she was happy with the way the discussion was going to proceed with the public?”

  “That is what she told me on the phone,” said Sarah. “I don’t understand. It just doesn’t make any sense to me either. I always thought her to be of sound mind and as steady as a compass on a calm sea,” said Sarah. “Damn strange if you ask me,” she added.

  “Do you think that maybe someone wanted her out of the picture? I don’t put it past some of the people we are dealing with to do something dastardly,” said Katie.

  “There are a few people I don’t trust but I don’t think anyone would stoop to that level. We can’t let our imaginations run wild here, Katie. We are also running out of time. You need to get ready for that brief. We can talk about this later if it is still bothering you. I will see you in about a half hour.”

  As Katie left for her office she knew Sarah was right. No one would ever go that far. It was all in her mind. She needed to concentrate on preparing for the briefing. She hurried down the hall not knowing exactly what was waiting for her. But she figured nothing could be as hard as having to brief the President.

  Dr. Hill arrived right on time. Katie conducted the briefing and he took it all in, asking very few questions. He didn’t seem shocked at the news that he was probably a carrier of SDX and it was only a matter of time until he died, if there was no cure. His reaction, or, rather, lack of reaction, seemed strange to her considering he mentioned that he knew nothing about the research and that the Secretary had kept this close hold because of the sensitivity of the information.

  At the end of the brief Sarah asked;

  “So, based on what you now know Dr. Hill, do you think the public should be briefed? The White House was dead set against it, but before the Secretary’s death she called me and told me the President had agreed to release some of the information.”

  “I will talk to the President to see what he wants to do. I haven’t been involved with the policy surrounding this epidemic, only the medical research, and so I am not ready to make a judgment until I hear what the President has to say,” said Dr. Hill dryly.

  Katie wasn’t impressed with his response. She was still hopeful that the public would be made to understand that the epidemic was more than serious.

  “How is the medical research going?” she asked. “All we hear is no progress.”

  “We haven’t been able to isolate anything out that could be a cause. No virus, no fungus, or bacterial infection. It is really strange. Like an invisible bug that is attacking bodies. I guess I should say our bodies now, based on what you just said during the briefing,” said Dr. Hill.

  “What information do you need to get us on the right track?” asked Katie naively.

  “If I knew that, we would have already asked,” said Dr. Hill. “As hopeless as it sounds, I still have confidence that some bright mind will figure this out. We now have over 260 teams worldwide working on this. If your information gets out then they will know that their life depends on this research. That can be quite a motivator.”

  Katie realized this was probably true. But she didn’t like this man’s bedside manner.”

  Dr. Hill stood up and thanked Katie and Sarah for the briefing. “I’ll see you on the 3:00 p.m. call.”

  “Yes, see you then,” said Sarah.

  “I have a 2:00 p.m. call scheduled with Ben. Do you want to join the call?” asked Katie.

  “No, you go ahead. I have a few other things to look at before the DVC.”

  Katie headed back to her office to prepare. Another run of live blood tests had just completed and they were all positive again. She was hoping she would see something different, and was starting to find the constant positive results depressing.

  In Moscow, Ben had just arrived at Natalya’s front door. The Nanny opened the door and he recognized her from years earlier. “Hi
Anna, it is good to see you again,” said Ben.

  “You too, Mr. Ben. Welcome. Ms. Natalya is waiting in the living room with the girls. I will show you the way in case you have forgotten.”

  “Thank you Anna,” said Ben.

  Ben entered the living room and there sat Natalya, Natasha and four year old Nadya. After brief hellos, there was quiet for some time, with Natasha staring at Ben. Then Nadya took off in a run with her arms wide open and jumped into Ben’s arms as she said “Daddy.”

  Ben was a little confused. He looked to Natalya, and Natalya just nodded her head to say yes. “Oh my god,” thought Ben, “I have a second daughter.”

  At Natalya’s coaching, Natasha slowly walked over to Ben and put out her hand. Ben took it gently and shook it.

  “Hello father. Why haven’t you called me?”

  Again, Ben looked at Natalya, angry that she hadn’t explained to his child that she had forbidden him to call her.

  “It was a misunderstanding Natasha and I will never let it happen again,” he said. “I am very sorry.”

  Natasha wasn’t buying it for one minute, but she let it go for now. Natasha had seen the shock in Ben’s face when Nadya had run towards him. She didn’t understand exactly why he was so surprised, even though she knew he had never seen daughter number two. Surely he must have known?

  Ben couldn’t keep from staring at Nadya. He was so excited. Natalya had some explaining to do. Why had she kept this a secret from him? It didn’t make any sense to him.

  They all had dinner together and afterwards, Ben broke out the photo album he had brought along. Natasha sat on one side, Natalya on the other and Nadya sat on his lap. This reminded him so much of when Natasha was younger.

  Ben flipped through the pictures, going right back to when she was seven. The pictures of Natalya and him together made them look very cozy, but he knew better, and he was still bitter. But his delight at discovering he had another daughter was softening him. But he couldn’t help wondering what Natalya was planning. He was trapped in her lair.