by JC Ryan
Best of all, in her opinion, would be gene therapy, but doing that on a massive scale would be cost-prohibitive as well as leading to other problems. One of them would be that, having already determined that this virus was engineered to attack them, how many of the potential victims would line up to be deliberately infected with another, which was required for the gene therapy vector? Neither of those issues was of interest to Hannah, though she acknowledged them. Her job was to find what was broken and fix it, bearing in mind that by fixing it she could break something else.
It hadn’t escaped her notice that one genetic mutation of this very gene conveyed some protection against HIV. What advantage did this Mu36 mutation bring to the table that it would have spread so uniformly in Middle Eastern genetic heritage? Unfortunately, there was no time. Unless they stumbled on it by accident, they wouldn’t know unless and until the genetic cure began to backfire.
Communication with CDC confirmed that of all victims sick from the infection worldwide, and every deceased patient whose DNA samples they could access had homozygous copies of the CCR5-Mu36 gene. That had to be the key. Something in the DNA of the gene was missing, the part that helped attract the killer T-cells that would fight the infection, maybe. In addition, it was preventing the creation of antibodies to the virus, resulting in a massive replication of virus cells that overwhelmed the body in a short period of time. If that something could be replaced, this virus would become harmless, not even as detrimental as the common cold.
Ben reached his parents within hours of his conversation with Hannah about his anomaly. “Mom, do you know about anything in my genealogy that would account for having Gentile genes?” He knew that was a huge simplification, but his mom wouldn’t have any clue about how genetics worked.
“Not on my side of the family,” she insisted. “But your dad’s people, maybe they intermarried.”
“Can you find out? It’s important.”
“Of course bubbe. I’ll call your grandmother tomorrow.”
“Mom, it’s important and urgent. Can you call her today?”
“All right, all right, if it’s that important. Anything else you want me to do today, Ben?”
With a flash of inspiration, he thought of something else, but wasn’t sure he could secure her cooperation. “Yes, Mom, and this is also important and urgent. I need you and Dad to contact my work and have them come out and take blood samples.”
“Blood samples! Oy gevalt, are you sick, Ben?”
“No Mom, but I should be. My blood is protecting me. I need to know if yours or dad’s is the same. Promise me you’ll do this for me?”
“Yes, but then I want the whole truth from you.”
“Yes, Mom, okay. Will dad cooperate?”
“Yes, even if I have to threaten to cut off…”
“Mom!”
“I’ll talk to you later, son.”
It was past midnight in camp, and Ben was exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to go to bed, but Hannah was putting him to shame. She seemed ready to stay up until they got to the bottom of this thing, despite her age. Ben tried to read some of the charts she was developing, but he could hardly keep his eyes open. At last, defeated, he told her he had to get some sleep and retired to his room. Hannah stayed up another couple of hours, until her eyes wouldn’t focus, and then went to bed herself. Though neither knew it, they were on the verge of a breakthrough of sorts.
~~~
Rachel Epstein was a woman of average intelligence who made up for her intellectual disadvantage with her husband and son using keen observation and knowledge of human behavior. Ben’s assertion that he wasn’t sick but should be, coupled with his sudden trip to Antarctica, had to have something to do with this terrible flu the President warned about. Rachel, a good citizen, didn’t venture out of her house for anything less than an empty refrigerator, and recently not even for that. The family belonged to a synagogue, but they weren’t particularly observant, so as soon as the President said ‘stay home’, both Rachel and Paul stopped going at all. Consequently, Rachel wasn’t aware that an outbreak of the flu had occurred among some of her acquaintances. She didn’t learn of it, in fact, until she called her mother-in-law, Ruth Epstein, to ask Ben’s question.
“Why would he want to know that?” Ruth complained. “It’s old news.” Her accent, forged in Germany and scarcely softened by years in the US, was as familiar to Rachel as her own mother’s flat Bronx utterances after being married to Ruth’s son for nearly forty years.
“I don’t know, Oma,” responded Rachel, using the name Ben had always called his paternal grandmother. Why her in-laws insisted on keeping some of their German language alive, she would never know. It was an insult…but that was not what she was calling about. She would let it go. “He told me it was important and urgent.”
“Is he sick?”
“That’s what I asked. He said no, but he said he should be. That his blood was protecting him, of all things.”
“We don’t speak of it,” Ruth responded, “But my Benjamin was conceived out of wedlock, with a German woman, a shiksa. His father insisted that his wife, my mother-in-law, take him in and raise him as her own. She only told him when they were preparing to send him out of Germany, may she rest in peace.”
“Let me get this straight. Paul’s paternal grandmother was not his father’s real mother?”
“No, she was not. She was German.”
“So, if Ben’s blood is protecting him, it must be his German blood,” Rachel concluded.
“’Az s yyr’anyq, ironic,” was Ruth’s pronouncement.
Ironic indeed, given that both of the older Benjamin’s parents were victims of Nazi genocide. Rachel dreaded telling Paul that his father was a half-German bastard, even though it was apparently saving their son’s life. But first, she needed to report that to Ben, and then to call the CDC as Ben had instructed.
Hours later, after Paul had come home from work and both had submitted to cheek swabs and blood draws at the hands of Ben’s colleagues, Rachel dropped her bombshell on her husband. His response puzzled her, since she thought he would be horrified, or at least in shock. Instead, he calmly said, “Rachel, my love. You must not set foot outside this house. I will do the shopping.”
By morning, Ben had both his answers. He was part German, and his parents’ blood samples bore out the theory. Mom’s had two CCR5-Mu36 genes, while dad’s had the same heterozygous qualities that Ben’s did. One normal, one Mu36. That meant that anyone of mixed heritage that had one normal gene would probably not become ill, based on his experience. It was good news…great news in fact. Ben and Hannah reported back to the CDC that massive sequencing should begin if they could gain the cooperation of equivalent Middle Eastern agencies. There had to be some number of the Middle Eastern population who would prove immune or at least resistant to the disease. The next question was, what percentage? And would it be enough to stave off nuclear war?
The new Acting Director of the CDC wasted no time in calling the President with the good news. Though he couldn’t say yet what percentage of the Middle Eastern population was not at risk, that any might be was a ray of light in the midst of the political thunderstorm. That Americans had discovered it was even better. It remained only to convince the scientists in the affected region to trust the information enough to do the testing that would determine the numbers.
As Harper remarked, that was a whole different kettle of fish. It would require finesse, and because it wouldn’t help save lives already at risk, Harper directed the CDC to leave it to the State Department to determine how best to break the news. Then he sent for the Secretary of State to bring her foreign policy advisers for the Middle East and formulate a way to insert the good news in such a way as it would not seem to be a ruse. That delay proved to be beneficial later.
Chapter 25 – Ben is sick
After the first attempt that had nearly resulted in a bad fall for Nyree, Robert was reluctant to pursue the light source unless the
y could also recruit JR for the venture. More than a week had passed before JR found the time to do it, but at last his duties as expedition director were more or less at a standstill. Daniel was handling communications regarding the virologists’ progress with their testing, there was no more need to cajole the support workers into giving their blood and cheek swab samples, and Summers had persuaded a few of the support people to work on his dig, so everyone was occupied. He was ready to help with the climbing.
The three climbers accompanied the workers on the rail line, but the two groups split up upon arrival in the valley. Not for the first time, JR pondered the suspension of reality in Antarctica. Here it seemed timeless, especially in the valley, with its uniform light, night and day, presumably summer and winter, though they hadn’t experienced winter here yet. Even though they were in constant communication with the outside world, it still didn’t seem real. The world was on the brink of a nuclear holocaust, and this little part of it could still be the first target, yet all seemed peaceful except in the lab where the virologists worked. He had to consciously bring to mind the date, now mid-January.
Christmas had passed unnoticed and un-celebrated in their single-minded search for answers. Hannah had arrived that week, which also distracted them from the date. Sarah and Nick had video-conferenced with Daniel so he could watch the baby tear the wrapping paper off his gifts, but JR had left the room when tears began streaming down Daniel’s face. The disappointment of missing his son’s first Christmas was bad enough, but subsumed in the knowledge that he might miss all the rest of Nick’s firsts, it overwhelmed him. JR couldn’t bear to witness his brother’s despair. Instead, he’d gone to Rebecca and held her close, whispering his Merry Christmas to her. At least they were together. They had that. What anyone else did, he didn’t know. There was no special meal, just their normal fare.
Now, almost three weeks later, it was as if time had completely stopped. Outside this place, nearly half a million people would die of the 9th Cycle virus this week, and another eight-hundred thousand or more would wake up with a death warrant in their blood. But here, time was suspended.
While JR harbored these grim thoughts, Robert and Nyree chatted about trying the same spot again. She never had made it to the broad part of the overhang, which was hidden from the spot where she lost her footing. If there was anything on top of that overhang to give them a clue about the light source, they’d missed it. Robert was considering it, but to do it, he would have to climb, leaving JR to belay him. It was risky, since JR wasn’t very experienced, but he was more familiar with climbing than Nyree. He also had huge feet, the better to balance his six-foot-ten frame. Robert wasn’t sure JR would be able to get a purchase on the narrow approach ledge, even in climbing shoes. Interrupting JR’s silent musings, Robert asked for his thoughts on the climb.
“Dude, if you’re willing to climb up there, I’m willing to watch you from down here,” JR said, his small joke bringing him out of his gloom.
“Thanks, mate,” Robert said, heavy on the sarcasm.
It was decided then. Robert would climb, placing anchors for the ropes so that Nyree could follow him. JR would stay on the ground and follow instructions. Robert began his climb with the belaying rope trailing behind him, but fixing a climbing rope to anchors every few feet for Nyree’s sake. Even though she had climbed this pitch freestyle before, she’d lost her nerve with the near disaster, and would be more confident if she had somewhere to clip on when she felt the need. It seemed like no time before Robert was at the transition point where he would have to let go of the crack in favor of the ledge at his shoulder level.
This was where Nyree got in trouble before. The ledge was above her sight-line, since she was several inches shorter than Robert. In looking up to see where to put her hands, she’d lost her footing and barely saved herself by grasping for the ledge. Robert, however, could see that there was an even better handhold further back from the edge, and was able to pull himself up without difficulty. The rope he placed there for Nyree’s benefit helped her over the transition and onto a broad ledge. Looking around, Robert noticed that it continued well past the location of the waterfall that tumbled out of the living rock below it, and as far around the canyon wall as he could see on that side. A section had fallen away right where the transition point was, but the ledge continued on the other side of the gap, again as far as he could see.
“I’ll be damned,” he said to himself, just as Nyree scrambled to a standing position beside him.
“What is it?” she said.
“I could have saved myself some trouble if I’d done this first thing,” he answered. “Now I know how the valley was formed.”
“Really? Just because of this ledge? How do you figure?”
“It’s a cinder cone,” he replied. “I’ve known that all along. But I didn’t notice, when Cyndi and I climbed up outside, that the opening at the top is broader than at the bottom of the valley. It’s going to be a series of steps where later eruptions partially filled the valley until just the small area it has now was left. We’re standing on one.”
“Hmm,” she replied. “What does that mean for our search?”
“That if we don’t find what we’re looking for on this step, we may want to take the other approach, and search from the top down.”
“Well, I don’t see any plants up here,” she answered.
“No, and I don’t think we’ll find any further up, either. For one thing, it’s going to get colder as we approach the rim, and for another, I’d bet my last dollar that everything in the valley was imported by the first people to settle it.”
“The 9th Cyclers?” she asked.
“I don’t think that’s been completely established,” he said, “but yes, if they were the first.”
By mutual consent, they began to amble along the ledge, though they didn’t want to go far because they couldn’t see JR, nor he them from where he stood close to the wall at the bottom. After half a mile or so with no luck in finding any likely source for the light, they turned back until they reached the gap in the ledge and then shouted down to JR that they needed to climb some more. A faint echo of his voice shouting back at them let them know he understood, and once more Robert took the lead.
The next step was another two hundred feet or so from the previous one. Upon gaining it, Robert estimated he was some six hundred feet above the valley floor, and the temperature had dropped noticeably, though it still wasn’t cold. As he looked left and right along the ledge where he stood, Robert could see that this step was more promising. To adequately explore this step before they had to climb down and return to camp, he needed help, so he got down on his stomach, hung his head over the ledge, and called to Nyree to come up.
They decided to go in opposite directions, Nyree clockwise and Robert counterclockwise, back toward the waterfall again, though it was still far below them. If anything that looked interesting or out of place was found, they were to shout for the other. Robert kicked himself for not thinking to bring walkie-talkies, but there it was. They didn’t have them and would have to make do. Thus it was that he turned back upon hearing Nyree’s high clear voice singing out. Striding as quickly as he dared back along the route he had followed, he soon came to Nyree, who was standing in front of something that looked like a klieg light surrounded by natural stone. What the hell?
As Robert approached, he saw with alarm that Nyree was stooping to pick up one of the glowing rocks at the edge of the pile. As soon as her hand touched it, the light in it went out. She dropped it in alarm and Robert ran to cover the last few feet between them. Nyree heard his footsteps and turned to him, a confused look on her face.
“Robert, what could this be?”
“I don’t know, let me take a look.”
Robert picked up the rock that Nyree had dropped and examined it carefully. To his trained eye, it looked like a tiny cooled lava bomb, with a high concentrate of iron ore embedded in it. He couldn’t see a damn thing that woul
d account for it throwing out the equivalent of a laser-beamed flashlight, nor for the light to have gone off when Nyree picked it up. Careful not to look directly into the broader beam that was directed upward, Robert examined the rest of the pile as well as he could. It seemed to be composed of many of the same type of rock, piled into a large cairn, all emitting a strong blue-white light so that the beams joined and streamed as one into the mist that collected at the rim. But, how was it possible? What had caused the rocks to emit light, and why were they still doing it, assuming it was a man-caused phenomenon, over 35,000 years later? And why did handling them turn them off?
Robert and Nyree discussed it briefly and decided to bring just the one rock back with them for laboratory analysis. Whether it would tell them anything, since its light was gone, was a question they couldn’t answer. He placed it in his backpack and helped Nyree climb over the edge of their perch, then followed her on the ropes. By the time they reached the valley floor, JR had stretched out for a nap, which was why they couldn’t raise him by shouting to belay them down. Between the noise from the waterfall and the four hundred feet of vertical distance, their voices were lost. When they did reach the bottom, Robert felt justified in kicking JR to wake him up, but regretted it when JR leaped to his feet and charged, still not fully awake. Only Nyree’s scream brought him back to himself.
“Sorry, dude. I should have told you not to wake me like that. When I’m asleep, I’m sometimes back in combat.”
“It’s okay, mate, I get it. No harm, no foul. I won’t do it that way again.” Robert remembered a time when JR was on the edge of out of control most of the time. That he’d made enough progress to even say the word ‘combat’ was fantastic. It had to have been Rebecca’s influence. With that passing thought, he let it go and started telling JR what they’d found, beginning with the nature of the valley in which they stood, which caused JR to shiver with the knowledge of the volcano beneath their feet again. The part he liked was that they’d discovered the source of the light, though the discovery raised as many questions as it answered. He looked up at the glowing mist far above their heads in awe.
