The Perfect Pathogen (17 page)

“My lips are sealed,” said Rob with a smile.
Inside, he felt a little bit of a relief knowing that they were going to share
this with their parents. They had always been upfront about everything in their
lives and he didn’t think now was a good time to change that dynamic,
especially not now.

CHAPTER 28

Ben had decided to work a
half-day on Sunday. He wanted to take a look at the data Katie had sent before
they got together on Monday morning. He was interested in trying to figure out
the answer to her question regarding why everyone started dying at the same
time instead of in stages, based on the date the symptoms of SDX started
showing up.

The first thing he decided to do was look at the
data run from Katie’s aging algorithm. What he saw was unremarkable. He was
trying to see if there were any other abnormal blood tests. At this point they
had only been concentrating on the four key indicators that overlapped between
the victim’s blood tests results and Katie’s longevity study data. He found
that the other tests seemed to be completely normal. The best he could tell by
the blood test results was that the people in Katie’s study were a pretty
healthy group of folks. So what was killing them?

Having no new information, he decided to take a
different tack. He would plot the blood test data for a representative group
from each region over the last five years. He started by taking ten of Katie’s
longevity project participants from each region. That would be one hundred
people.

As he plotted the blood test data from the first
region, Siberia, he saw a graph that rose slightly from left to right
indicating a small positive slope.

He plotted each of the other nine regions, one by
one, and he continued to see the slight positive slope in each of the graphs.
He was still a little puzzled. He calculated the slope of each graph and they
were almost identical. That made sense to him, and confirmed that the blood
test levels were probably rising from the same cause.

It wasn’t until he overlaid all ten graphs on top
of each other that he saw something he didn’t expect. He lined up each graph,
using the date line that went across the bottom. Each of the ten graphs fell
directly on top of each other. It showed interesting results, and though it
wasn’t clear why, it looked like the blood test levels started at a higher
level in those subjects that were infected at a later date than it did in the
original carriers. This just didn’t make sense.

Ben had expected to see that the blood levels had
all started out at the same lower level and then increased overtime as they
were exposed to SDX. Instead, it didn’t seem to matter when exposure occurred.
It was like boarding a train that was already at speed. You jumped on wherever
it happened to pass and were just onboard at the higher level. Ben guessed that
would explain why people were dying simultaneously all over the world, but it
also meant that whatever was causing the symptoms was getting stronger over
time on its own. It didn’t need a human body or a host to grow. It was growing
or getting more virulent wherever it was. Ben had never seen or heard of
anything like this.  Thank God for Katie’s data, he thought.

He went on to look at the rest of the blood test
data to confirm his results. Based on the graphs, he was able to confirm
Katie’s conclusions that the infection started in the cities of Ust’Nera and
Susuman in the Sakha Republic of Siberia and then spread to India before it
showed up on China, western Russian and Japan. Looking at a map he would have expected
it to have spread to Mongolia or China next, not India. Next, he looked at the
expanded blood testing data from India and it all looked good. He thought maybe
it was a testing problem in India, but he doubted that they would have the same
problem at all of their labs in India. This just didn’t make sense.

Ben needed a break to think about all of this, so
he went down to the cafeteria to get a cup of Joe in the hope that a shot of
caffeine would stimulate his brain.

As he entered the cafeteria, he saw Sarah sitting
in the corner by herself, eating a sandwich and drinking a Pepsi while burying
her nose in her iPhone.

“Anything good in there?” asked Ben.

“Oh, Hi Ben. I am just taking a break and watching
the latest episodes of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.  It is amazing
how those two can make something as tragic as an epidemic seem funny. I guess
that’s what helps us keep up our hope. One has to laugh in order not to cry. Of
course I still want to cry because we, the government, are the butt of a lot of
their jokes. They don’t seem to believe that the White House is giving them the
straight skinny on what is happening.”

“That is because they have some pretty astute
writers,” said Ben.

“Have you come across anything new today?” asked
Sarah.

“As a matter of fact I have. I plotted out the
data that Katie provided me last night and was able to confirm her conclusions.
It appears the symptoms first showed up in the blood samples from people near
two small cities in eastern Siberia. Then it spread to India, followed by
western Russia, China and Japan as a group.”

“What do you make of that?  That’s really weird.
Why did it go to India before the other regions?” asked Sarah.

“I haven’t figured that out yet. But what the
graphs also showed me is that whatever is infecting the people and causing
their blood levels to increase, is also getting stronger without a host.”

“What do you mean by it is getting stronger?”
asked Sarah.

“Well, normally, I would expect it to go like
this:  Something would cause an infection. We would measure the symptoms and
they would progressively get worse. But everyone would start at the same level.
Sort of like you’d see with the flu or Chicken Pox. In this case, those
infected in Siberia and those infected in the United States didn’t show signs
of SDX starting at the same lower blood levels. It is almost like whatever
caused the infection continued to mature regardless of where it was. To put it
a little clearer, if I measured the blood level from someone in Siberia and
also someone from the U.S. at the same time two years ago, they would both have
the same abnormal levels even though the person in the U.S. didn’t get infected
until a little over a year after the person in Siberia,” said Ben.

“That explains why people are dying all over the
world at the same time, and not in stages based on when they were infected.
Good work Ben. This bolsters our work regarding yours and Katie’s hypotheses,”
said Sarah.

“There is one other thing you should know,” Ben
went on. “I took a close look at Hope’s blood test. Everything, down to the
last detail, looked accurate. I think it was a good test and based on that test
I don’t think Hope has SDX. If that is the case, I bet there are others out
there that don’t have it either. The data from the blood bank testing should
start to come in tomorrow morning. We will be looking at it closely to
determine if there are others that are negative.”

“Does Katie know yet?” asked Sarah.

“I sent her an email, but I haven’t heard back
from her. She is out of town today and I don’t want to disturb her with a call,
as she really needs this break. I will talk to her as soon as she arrives at
her new office tomorrow morning.”

“She will be going by her old office first to pack
up some things,” said Sarah. “So, I don’t expect her in here until noon. Also,
she will have Hope’s retest results when she arrives tomorrow morning so it is
likely that she will be able to either confirm or deny your conclusions.”

“I am pretty confident on this one and to tell you
the truth, Hope gives me some “hope” that we can find a cure. If we can locate
a group of people without SDX, then that may help us define a strategy,” said
Ben.

“Good sleuthing, Ben. I have to get back up to my
office for a call. Keep me posted.”

“I will,” said Ben, already absorbed in thought
about the next steps.

Ben went back up to his office after finishing his
coffee and a donut. He was excited about what they might find in the blood bank
testing, so he wanted to make sure it was on track. He had asked for 1,000 sample
results twice a day, but he didn’t know whether that was feasible, but he was
hoping so. He started to question himself as to whether that was a large enough
sample. But in truth it just had to be.

As he was leaving the cafeteria, the television in
the corner caught Ben’s eye. It looked like the downtown area of some city in
China was on fire. There were people protesting and the news banner read at the
bottom of the TV screen read “Central government keeping cure for disease from
public.”  As he got closer to the TV he could hear the commentary. The claim
was that the Chinese leadership had a cure, but only enough for the party
leaders. He doubted that but would make some calls when he got back to his
office to be certain.  Though he wished it were true that someone somewhere had
a cure, he knew it wasn’t.

A few minutes later Ben was sitting at this desk.
The situation in China puzzled him, so he decided to search the internet to get
more of the information behind the story. It seems that someone had accused the
government of hiding the fact that they had a cure and the party leaders had
dismissed the accusation as unfounded. Unfortunately, over the years the public
had learned not to trust its leaders because of the rampant corruption and
wrongdoing that had been exposed by the press and social action groups. The
information went viral and when the government brought in the troops the people
started to burn government buildings. Over 100 people had been killed.

SDX was starting to take its toll on the human
psyche and people were starting to act out their fears.

After completing the internet search regarding the
uprising in China, it occurred to Ben that he should also search the two cities
in Siberia and see if there was anything in the news from about five years ago.
He figured that was as good as anywhere to start. Something just might provide
another hunch or two.

He started his search with Ust’Nera and found a
great article about a motorcycle race in 2010. He doubted if this had anything
to do with SDX. Then he searched Susuman for that year and again found the
article about the same race. It must have passed through both cities he
figured. Then he searched Sakha Republic and an interesting article from 2013
popped up. It was an article that talked about a baby mammoth that had been
discovered in Sakha Republic in 2010 that was pretty much intact except for
some of its internal organs. The researchers didn’t know what had happened to
the internal organs, but they postulated the maybe that had been harvested by
other humans who found the well-preserved baby mammoth. The article went on to
say that the baby mammoth was on public display and it was the first time
people in Japan had the opportunity to see a preserved baby mammoth. The
article also mentioned that a “blood sample” had been obtained from the mammoth
and that there was serious scientific consideration being given to cloning the
animal, using possibly an Asian elephant as a surrogate mother.

Ben was formulating an idea. He couldn’t know if
this finding had anything to do with SDX, but he would like to run tests on the
creature’s blood to rule out any connection. He knew the blood sample taken
from the frozen mammoth would be difficult to get, let alone analyze, but then
he remembered a recent story about the life cycle of the Rana Sylvatica
amphibian, a wood frog that lives above the arctic circle and freezes each year
during its hibernation period. This frog is able to freeze and thaw each year
without damage to its cells. Just maybe the blood sample they took from the
mammoth would react in the same way, and a blood test could reveal the presence
of SDX. It was a long shot, but at this stage, anything was worth a try.

Ben looked at his watch, and knowing that Moscow
was eight hours ahead, realized that his counterpart in Russia wouldn’t be at
work. Besides, it was Sunday anyway, he thought. He would have to call her
sometime after midnight to discuss getting his hands on that blood sample.

Before he finished for the day Ben needed to check
on the results from the Blood Bank and the submarine crew. Based on his emails,
it looked like the blood bank tests were ahead of schedule. There was already
data from the first one thousand samples. By the time Katie got in to work
tomorrow he hoped there would be at least two thousand, maybe even three
thousand test results.

Now, Ben really had a lot to think about. It had
been a productive day thanks to Katie’s data. He was ready to take a break but
before he headed home, he decided to stop by Sarah’s office to brief her on his
latest plans.

“Hi Sarah. I have a couple of leads I wanted to
brief you on before I take off.”

“Let’s hear it,” said Sarah, putting down a report
she was reading.

“First, I am going to call my counterpart in
Beijing later this evening to see if there is any truth to the news reports
that they have developed a vaccine or antidote for SDX. I doubt it, but you
never know. Second, I was telling you about where we think SDX originated. I
did some searching on the internet and it looks like they found an intact baby
mammoth in the Sakha Republic of Russia in 2010. The mammoth was about 39,000
years old and had been frozen in the permafrost. According to the article, the
researchers were able to actually take a serum sample from the remains. I am
going to call Dr. Natalya Gorky to see if she can get access to the sample and
allow us to run some tests. It isn’t a certainty that this is in any way
related to SDX, but I would like to rule out all possibilities. If you
remember, last year some scientists in France were able to bring back to life a
virus found in the permafrost that was over 15,000 years old and that had never
been seen in the modern world. We could be looking at something like this, you
never know,” explained Ben with renewed vigor.

“Fascinating, Ben. I like the way your brain keeps
churning and churning. Keep looking for new avenues and do follow these
interesting breadcrumbs that just might be leading us somewhere now,” Sarah
said with a smile.