Chase, however, was giving her a look that said she was crazy for bringing everyone here...where she was housing both Vampyre and Wyr. Although the Kiss knew that there were Wyr in the building, and the Wyr knew there were Vampyre below stairs, both seemed content to let the others presence slide so long as Persephonii was the buffer. Mr. Ardeal simply gave her a look that seemed to be something between intrigue and amusement.
She had already explained the findings in the lab, having fielded questions and stares from everyone involved including Fitz, Montgomery and Colton Fox, who had said that if they were to commit a kind of treason together, she might as well call him by his first name. Everyone was caught up on the current theory, and evidence recently updated from the meeting with Agent Savage. No one mentioned outright, anything about stepping outside of standard protocol, though their expressions said enough for them.
It appeared that another death was assigned to their case load as the leading detective from the local P.D., an Officer Reynolds, who had been the lead on Dr. Edwards' case, had died last week in a car accident while off duty. The official report said that his truck had hit an deer or something else of that nature, then veered off the road to hit a tree, killing the man instantly. She was less sure about the accident part and was willing to place his death in the likely related to their ‘mystery scientist’ column.
Thus, the case was being put on hold until the work load could be reassigned to other detectives. Her key and papers might have been filed away for a few months before being dusted off. Luckily, she had convinced Studwick that the Edwards' case and their violent vampyre attacks had a good possibility of being related. The inclusion of Dr. Edwards' protein was more than just mere coincidence, despite Agent Savage's disregard for the evidence and data. He had also agreed that until more information was collected, it would be better to keep this on the side lines.
Persephonii had taken that to mean that the F.B.I task force and, media coverage hungry Ms. Vaughn, would either openly have them buried under red tape or have them taken off the case completely. Or, perhaps even more likely with the latter case, take the information and run as if they had planned everything all along. Either way, her recently minted and official position as Liaison had allowed her access to Officer Reynolds' casework, for a total of five, if anyone was counting, official cases. Having access to everything on file and in the evidence box concerning Dr. Edwards, she was still going through the reports and paperwork, trying to find any connections to the Rogue Maker in light of their recent findings. She had spent the better part of the last week running down information, contacting both paranormal scientists and those currently working with the Human Vampyre Virus. Which had culminated into a rather in-depth slide show and a surprisingly interested audience.
Currently, she was leading into her findings and the resulting theories on what she had found in Dr. Edward's personal files. With the large white screen set up behind her, she flipped through the images, clicker in hand, completely in lecture mode.
"I've been going through the scans of the doctor's hidden papers, while nothing stood out, there seemed to be quite a bit of requests for testing and what not. However, the request for a few tests were recent... even so recent as a week or so ago.” She flipped through a few of the images sent over by Dr. Carver, pointing at the dates. “While I can’t be sure when the requests were put in, that information had been well hidden, though the I.T department at the lab is working on recovering it. They all appear done by Dr. Edwards and seem to include authorization for use and subsequent reassignment of different materials.” She paused, to show them slides of a few requests, including additional testing for the super protein.
“Now, while searching through the database I noticed that the key is a household mortise key. Its rather old fashioned and hasn’t been used since the turn of the century. Unfortunately, it will take some time to match the key with a single location. Right now I am running a program that is compiling a list of possible buildings likely to have used or still use a mortise key.” She shifted her stance to briefly point at her computer, which was still running down likely buildings. Her tone reflected the fact that it was going to be a while until they had any good leads.
“I dusted the key and key chain for prints and found one full print on the key and half a print on the key chain. Thanks to Madi.... Dr. Underwood, we are now certain that the prints belong to two different people, one Dr. Edwards and one as yet unknown individual.” She showed the images of the prints and the match between Edwards' prints on file and his print on the key, her back to her audience.
“So no idea who the partial belongs to?" Colton asked over his coffee.
She glanced at him and turned back to the slide, before answering. "Not yet. We have a couple of close contenders which I would like help sussing out.”
“Sussing, hunh?” She didn’t have to turn around to see Montgomery’s smile, she could hear it plainly in his voice.
“The interesting thing and one of the main reasons why I brought you all together, was the information I found in files hidden on his key chain-flash drive. Combined with the evidence found by the late Detective Reynolds, it paints a startling picture of Dr. Edwards." She pointed to the close-up image of the oddly shaped black key chain that looked more like an overly large guitar pick than a flash drive.
“The majority of the files reveal quite a bit of extraneous work done by Dr. Edwards concerning his discovery and enhancement of the H.V.V stem cell.” Bringing up the screen captures from her computer of the documents on the flash drive, she paused to take a sip of her tea.
“So... why hide work on a subject he was already paid to do?” Chase’s voice traveled from further back in the room.
“Because, though he doesn’t come outright and say that he was using his findings on human subjects. He does make note of 'hosts' and 'patients'.” At this a collective intake of breath sounded loudly in the room.
“I’ll start with the science and background so we can all have a better understanding of the how, and then move forward to the what, where and when. It’s up to all of us to then discover the who and why.” Walking back to the front of her desk, she began to advance her slides. Looking at Sebastian and the Vampyres present she added.
"Feel free to add in anything if I'm incorrect." They merely nodded back to her, somewhat regally of course. It looked like the Investigator persona was going to be in full play during the meeting.
"A virus is a protein shell that introduces its genetic material into the cytoplasm of a vulnerable cell. Comparing both the Human Vampyre and Lycanthrope Viruses, every unaltered human cells is vulnerable. Once inside it trades the host's D.N.A. for its own D.N.A. Taking over the cell's 'machinery' and uses it as a kind of 'factory' to produce more viral proteins. For human viruses like H.I.V., this would quickly kill the host cell, since it can no longer perform its normal, natural functions. In addition, the continued release of new virus proteins is quite damaging to the cell's membrane, shortening it's life cycle that much more.” Here she played a small clip of the resulting combination of a live H.I.V strain being added to a blood sample. The resulting battle was not pretty.
“However, the Vampyre and Lycan Viruses, alter the cells so quickly and drastically that it can adapt, "multitasking" its own needs. This includes regenerating the cell's membrane, while also producing virus clones. Once the infection spreads to the thyroid gland, the virus raises the host's metabolism, allowing the virus to spread even faster throughout the body." Here she showed a small clip of the Lycanthrope virus working at converting a sample of blood. After that was over the screen switched back to the documents.
"From the documents in his little cubby, it looks like Dr. Edwards had quite a bit more firsthand experience with the virus than he let on. Though he seems to focus more on H.V.V. than L.V., he appears to be looking for a base relation. A mix of something like an antibody and ‘originator’ cell that he believes will create a perfect cell. A cell that will repa
ir itself, be impervious to degradation, basically an immortal cell.” At their looks of confusion, she started at the beginning of Dr. Edwards' notes.
“Listen to this… 'This causes gradual weight loss as the body uses up nutrients to fuel the transformation, until the virus enters latency to avoid working the cells to death. This period can last no more than a few days as the body slowly depletes the last of the host's reserves and begins to consume itself.' Though this is somewhat well known to those studying the Vampyre Transformation, he is talking in the first person, with firsthand knowledge of the Turning process, especially in regards to adding in his ‘super cell.’” Continuing into the real meat of the information she read the next flagged paragraph.
"'While most viruses are highly specific in what tissues they target, the virus is able to transfer and infect every living cell in the body, with the exception of plasma and red blood cells, which it seems to break down and consume as fuel. Its replication cycle is incredibly rapid, with an incubation period lasting only six to twelve hours. This time period creates a sort of fight or flight response in the host, usually resulting in one of two outcomes; a full conversion or death. There appears to be no in-between state, or half Turnings. It is either a success or a failure. Which leaves the question… what factors create a favorable out come in the host? Can these factors be analyzed and increased?'" Pausing to let the impact of these questions sink in, she turned back toward the screen flipping through the additional slides.
"It's mostly notes and different findings, it looks like a rough draft for a paper, or thesis. But the information is very telling. The real links to the possibility of him being in league with the Rogue Maker are further into the document; ‘Contrary to popular myth, ingestion of vampire blood does not speed up the transformation in any way. Not only are most of the virus particles destroyed by the changing digestive enzymes, the blood itself tends to curdle in the stomach and cause the new host to vomit; only adding additional stress. The next step is to try directly injecting vampire blood into the host recipient. Unlike human blood, vampire blood does not need to be matched to the hosts blood type…’" She stopped to increase the slide to a foot note at the bottom of the page.
"There is a side note here..." 'It appears that an allergic reaction does in fact occur, quickly raising the host's body temperature as it tries to fight off the infection. Causing respiratory and cardiac fluctuations. If the virus cannot process the host's cells fast enough to counter the bodies fight and subsequent break down, these reactions prove fatal.'" It was quite clear that Dr. Edwards had seen more than one Turning. He spoke as if he had witnessed a good deal, which left the question of; when he had started down this path?
“It appears that he was studying the Turning process in order to analyze how this new cell would improve the process. These notes were written earlier last year, but from the sound of things he could have been working on his own for quite some time.” The notes could easily have been written and then typed up later. All they had was the documents creation date and the subsequent updates as he logged them.
"So why doesn't the Vampyre Virus transform blood cells as well?” Glad to see that they were still interested in more information about the science behind these murders, she switched to answering questions before they moved on.
"Red blood cells make up somewhere around one fourth of the over one hundred trillion cells in the average human body. The H.V. Virus can't directly affect blood cells because they are the only ones that lack a nucleus and other organelles. No virus in existence can infect them, and this includes H.V.V." Looking across the group she waited for more questions.
"But Vampyres can't make their own blood?” This was from Montgomery who was turned in his seat, eyeing Mr. Ardeal expectantly. Though it looked like he had a pithy comeback for the Detective, Persephonii wanted to limit the arguing and keep their meeting on point, so she rudely answered for him.
"Somewhat, the production and filtering of red blood cells happens through a complex process throughout the body which the virus disrupts. Basically by effecting other areas such as bone marrow and liver function, it modifies those functions and thus the production of new blood cells. Vampyre physiology can't make enough red blood cells to sustain the virus which is continually adjusting and trying to create new virus cells. Plasma and red blood cells, provide the additional parts for the other cells, the virus breaks the blood cells down and uses the components to help repair and maintain production." Persephonii paused in her speech, taking another sip of her iced tea.
"But Mr. Blake's case has already proven that there can be such a thing as a half Turning." Chase was keeping up with the science, usually he ignored the jargon knowing that Percy would clue him in on what he needed to know. It seemed to Persephonii that having a more personal hand in the case was good for him.
"That's true... while there are usually exceptions to any given rule, we can see that the natural process of Turning is usually an either or sort of job... And you have to remember these 'findings' are from at least a year ago, probably before they started to experiment with the current process." Turning back to the screen and the developments as they were outlined, she continued.
"Over two million red blood cells are destroyed and replaced in the average human body every second. Imagine that process super charged and challenged by the Virus'. It doesn't take long for the virus to consume three times that amount and then move on. The blood that does get produced is in extremely low quantities as the body is no longer concerned with those functions. Even if the body produced more blood volume, the actual cell structure and make up is changed enough the virus doesn't seem to read or process these cells like fresh blood, thus seeking out external, new blood sources." She paused to take a breath and waited for more questions. Luckily, there were none.
“Even the Vampyre physiology likes to keep the body at five to twenty trillion red blood cells. Since the filtering process doesn't work as efficiently at removing "old" human blood it will take somewhere around three to four months for a newly-turned vampire to replace their entire blood volume." Having finished with what was officially known by science, she was ready to shift into theory mode when Fitz beat her to it.
Fitz's voice cut right to the heart of the matter. “Alright so where does this 'super blood' come in?”
“From what I can gather from his work in the Lab, the testing requests and the flash drive notes, he started out searching for a cell that would withstand and even over come other viruses. H.V.V. can wipe out the H.I.V. and A.I.D.S. viruses, but the compromised immune system and prolonged stress on the body leave little hope for the infected person to survive the Turning.” The implications of the fact had not gone unnoticed by the medical community. But with the natural death rates so high, along with trying to Turn or infect an individual, the research had moved to the cells. Scientist had spent years trying to figure out how to use the viruses against each other.
“Dr. Edwards, was looking at increasing the chances of these patients by boosting not only the effectiveness of H.V.V but also adding compounds and extra super proteins into the compromised bodies in hopes of successfully Turning them. Apparently by starting with an up close and personal study of the regular Turning Process.” At this, the room became charged with energy, and Persephonii could see Sebastian's eyes practically glowing at her.
"I think this might be a good place to start. In finding who this original contact was. Who let Dr. Edwards conduct his examinations? We might find out how the connection to the Rogue Maker formed." Placing the suggestion out to her audience she waited for a response.
"So you don't think this original Maker is the Rogue?" Madison's voice carried over the chatter.
"From his notes and what we know of the Maker, I don't believe so. I don't think the Rogue could Turn anyone on his own and that was the main reason he might have sought out Dr. Edwards." The similarities between the research and the Rogue Maker were too big to be passed off as coincidence.
“Somewhere along the lines his ‘mission’ changed, or was influenced by an outside source. Like I said, he refers to patient's and hosts, but there is someone else involved. A colleague whom he simply refers to as Dr. X.... whom I believe could be the link to the Rogue,” pausing to take another long drink, she let the information sink in.
“So what did Dr. X bring to the table?” Fitz’s gruff voice rang out in the silence.
“Dr. Edwards' notes seem to suggest Dr. X was equally interested in creating this perfect cell, but in order to create a truly immortal body. One no longer dependent on blood like a vampyre nor controlled by the lunar phases like Wyr. But a combination of the two, creating a type of super virus, all the perks with none of the setbacks.”
From here a barrage of questions assailed Persephonii, everything from the science behind her findings to the impact such thinking could have on the world. While she would have gladly had a riveting discussion on social norms, politics, biology and the other half dozen subjects this case touched on, she had to wrangle the conversation back on topic, steering it toward Mr. Freedman, Ms. Kunhe and Mr. Blake.
“While there are still gaps in the information and links to the ongoing Chyldren attacks, I can without a doubt say that Dr. Edwards and this mysterious Dr. X are the prime candidates in quite a few of our on-going cases. Including; Mr. Walter Freedman, Ms. Kunhe, Mr. Blake and yes... even Mr. Fischer. At this point our best bet is to try and use the evidence and clues in Dr. Edwards' notes to identify this Dr. X. We find him, we can answer the bigger questions like, how many more victims of these experiments will we see? How can we catch the Rogue Maker?" And for Persephonii, begin to understand why? Why these Turnings? Why these people?
At First Sight (Persephonii Waters Book 1) Page 21
