The Perfect Pathogen (14 page)

“What kind of things are you talking about?”

“You know, like hoarding food, taking their money
out of the bank, looting and so forth. This could turn into a real problem. Of
course that is still only conjecture until we perform broader testing on the
general population. I should start to get those test results in on Monday. That
will give us new data points to consider and use to draw new conclusions.”

“Do you think I should go to the grocery and stock
up?” Rob asked.

“I think that is a little premature right now. The
transportation and food infrastructure is still intact. I think we should be
good for a little while.”

Rob started to get concerned for his family
despite what Katie said. He figured that tomorrow he would slowly start
stocking up on staples and canned goods -- things that they could eat if the
stores went empty. He hadn’t really thought about this part of the puzzle
before.

“Well, at least that is good news. I know you will
keep me posted,” said Rob.

Katie just smiled trying to mask her concern. She
was keeping it together up to now, but always wondered how Rob would react. She
could see he was getting anxious.

“Are we still on for Sunday?” asked Rob. “That’s
all the kids have been talking about, the trip to the farm. They are really
looking forward to it.”

“Of course  they are,” Katie replied. “We have to
keep our family together. That is an important part of this process. I don’t
know how many more times we are going to get to see them.”

After a brief pause, Rob said:

“If something happens and you have to work, then I
don’t want to have the kids left in the lurch.”

“Well, I don’t think anything is going to happen
and if it did you could always go without me.”  

That isn’t exactly what Rob wanted to hear. It
sounded like there already was a chink in the armor of their Sunday plans. He
just didn’t want it to unravel. They needed to be together for this trip.

“I will just count on you being ready bright and
early Sunday morning,” he said. “We plan on leaving about 8 a.m. You can catch
some shut eye in the car if you are running a little low on zees.”

“Sounds good,” responded Katie.

They sat in silence holding each other closely
while sharing a bottle of wine. They were both thinking the same thing, but
they didn’t share their thoughts. If only they could just stay like this
forever.

CHAPTER 22

It was Saturday morning
and the kids were sleeping in as normal. Rob was up early, as was Katie. Rob
planned on heading over to the Center to check on the construction progress. It
was a beautiful fall day with the birds singing in the trees and the sun
shining brightly off the water. These mornings normally made Rob grateful for
all that he had. But now there was a cloud hanging over his head and he was
having a hard time feeling good, but was making a valiant effort.

Katie came downstairs and gave Rob a good morning
hug and a kiss.

“What time do you think you will be home this
evening?” asked Rob.

“I will probably be late. It depends on how much I
get done and I also have to make sure I have everything ready for my move to
the headquarters building on Monday,” said Katie.

“I’ll get us all packed and ready to go to mom and
dad’s,” said Rob. “Call if anything comes up. I know you might not think I am
interested, but obviously we all have a vested interest in what you are doing,
at least the ones of us who have the inside track.”

“I sure will, honey,” Katie replied.

They embraced and Rob whispered in Katie’s ear “I
love you my sexy wife. I will be waiting for you when you get home tonight.”

“You’re on,” Katie said with an ear-to-ear grin.
At least the turmoil hadn’t affected their love life. In fact, it may have
improved it a little, knowing how precious time can be.

They both headed down the road, one behind the
other. When they reached Route 4, Rob turned right towards the Center and Katie
turned left towards the center of power, Washington, DC.

When Rob arrived at the Center, the construction
crews were already at work. The progress they were making was astonishing, he
thought. He saw Marge’s car but she wasn’t in sight. He figured she must be in
the office. As he pulled up, he noticed a commotion in front of one of the
greenhouses. He headed over in that direction. It seems that the guys that mark
the underground electrical, sewer and gas lines had incorrectly marked where
some of the underground electric cables were located. As a result, the
construction crew, while digging, severed the cable to the water pump and
lighting for a section of the greenhouses. He figured it would be an easy fix.
The electrician from the crew was onsite and he had immediately turned off the
power.

“Hi Mr. McMann,” he said. “Looks like one of the
cables was mismarked by about five feet and when we went to dig we dug it up
and accidently sliced it in half. We should have it repaired and the
electricity working again in about two hours.”

“Nobody got hurt, did they?” Rob asked.

“No, fortunately the backhoe made a clean break
and didn’t stay in contact with the live side of the line.”

“That is good to hear. Do you think there are any
other problem areas that you need to avoid?” asked Rob.

“Potentially,” said the electrician. “We have
stopped the digging until we can get the utilities personnel back out here.
They do have a crew that works today and we have a call in already. We have
plenty of other work to accomplish, so I don’t expect this to slow us down too
much, but we do apologize for the inconvenience.”

“Okay, thank you. I totally understand. I will
leave the details up to you guys,” said Rob.

Marge was standing next to Rob now.

“If they get this fixed in time, it shouldn’t affect
our curriculum plan this morning by too much. I am going to reverse the
projects we had planned and we’ll head out to these greenhouses as the last
thing we do this morning.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Rob nodding. “How is
everything else going?”

“Bill was here until late yesterday. He is really
pleased with the progress. He expects to have one of the pods installed and
powered up by the end of next week. It will be the prototype to connect the
other fourteen. Even I am now getting excited, although I know once they open
up, our work is going to double if not triple.” 

“How are you doing finding live-in trainers for
each pod?” Rob asked.

“I have lined up a group of house leaders who have
learned to live on their own through our program. I plan on having 30 previous
graduates. They can split their time among the pods. I think it will be
valuable to have them show what can be done with perseverance. They are all
proven success stories, so I figure we may be able to get by with as few as
three educators/social workers to fill the other overnight spots. Our day shift
will still handle the daytime education. What do you think?”

“That’s great. It will be interesting to see how
this works out. With any luck, the first group of five pods will be up and
occupied before Thanksgiving. That is only two months away,” said Rob with a
questioning look on this brow.

“As long as the buildings are ready, the staff
will be ready,” said Marge emphatically.

Rob knew he could trust Marge. She had been a
mainstay of the operation for the last twenty years, and he hoped she would be
around for another twenty. Indeed, he hoped they would all be around for at
least another twenty years.

“I am going to take a stroll around the site and
then I’m headed home to pick up Hope for her session this afternoon. I will see
you back here a little before one this afternoon.”

Marge smiled. “Ok boss, see you a little later.”

Marge headed back up to the office to check the
schedule and make the necessary adjustments to account for the power outage.
Saturdays were one of her favorite days because she had Hope to assist as one
of her advanced students. She had known Hope since she was just a baby and now
she was a grown woman. What a magnificent young lady she thought. Marge felt
like a second mother to Hope, although she knew she could never replace Katie,
for Hope idolized her mom, and for good reasons. The love that flowed from
Katie to all of her family was unparalleled and noticed by all who knew the
McMann clan.

Marge saw Rob’s car go down the driveway and turn
left onto Route 231 headed back towards Calvert County. She couldn’t help
wishing that she had found herself a man like Rob and maybe had a family. But
now, in her early fifties she knew it was too late for her. Still, she was
happy in her life, filled with joy everyday by her adopted family, the students
at the Center. She had seen them grow and flower into young adults and she was
immensely proud of the work they did to give these young adults a semblance of
a normal life. In most cases the deck of cards had been stacked against them
from birth, yet through the work they did here they were able to turn some of
the cards into winning hands. What she experienced on a daily basis was pure
joy. Really, inside she knew that she had a great family too.

Heading back into Prince Frederick, Rob decided to
stop at Walmart to start stocking up. He was starting to think like a
survivalist. Maybe he should be stocking up on batteries, candles and all of
the other stuff. Maybe all of those people he thought were nuts over the years,
because they had backpacks full of supplies in their garages, weren’t so crazy
after all. Luckily, the Center had its greenhouses that provided a large
variety of vegetables. If the worst came to worst, they would still have that
to eat and they could fish along the river to add some variety.

Arriving home, Rob noticed the kids were just
getting up. He took his stash of new supplies to the garage and put them on the
shelves in the corner. He would organize things properly over the next several
weeks. There may be some rough spots along the way, but he would be prepared.

He went over to his gun cabinet and checked his
ammunition supply. He had about 200 rounds each for his rifle, shot gun, and
his chrome plated 9mm Glock. He figured the next time he went by the store he
would get a little more ammunition. They were rioting in other countries, and
he didn’t know what people were capable of in the U.S., but he wasn’t going to
take any chances. He would be ready to defend himself and his family. He made a
mental note to ask the solar power contractor for the new pods at the Center to
give him a quote for a similar system at his home. He would still need power to
run his well at the house, and for who knows what else. He tried hard not to
think about it all right now.

The kids were all sitting around the table in the
kitchen as Rob came back into the house. They were eating cereal and talking
about last night’s high school football game, and how the home team had been
completely embarrassed by one of its main rivals. They laughed and joked. Rob
smiled, and though how nice it would be to be young again with no cares in the
world. But then, he remembered, they did have the worries for their life ahead
of them too, they just expressed their feelings differently when they are
young. Hiding fear of the future behind laughs and ill-timed jokes is probably
as old as mankind, Rob thought.

Right now Rob felt like he had the weight of the
world on his shoulders and he was determined to do whatever was necessary to
guarantee that his family would have a life as normal as possible for as long
as possible. For now, his children were oblivious to the problem. Maybe that
was best. When and what to tell the kids would be a discussion he would have to
have with Katie in the days to come. So many decisions ahead.

“Hope, we need to leave in about thirty minutes to
get to the Center on time. Will you be ready?” asked Rob.

“Dad, I always get ready on time. All I have to do
is finish eating and put my shoes on. I already took my shower and made my
bed.”

“You are my perfect child. Boys, did you make your
beds yet?” asked Rob.

“Why do we have to make the beds?” asked Sam. “We
are just going to mess them up again when we sleep in them tonight.”

Rob thought about this for a second and then said,
“Because we are civilized and civilized people like things to be in order.
Everything has its place and to have order in your bedroom your bed must be
made.”

“I don’t understand what is so important about
order,” said Sam.

“As you get older you will. Order has a way of
lightening your load, relieving your stress, making you feel that your life is
going in the right direction. It is a good habit to start now so you can enjoy
its benefits later in your life. So, go make your beds and clean up your
rooms!”

The boys headed down the hall mumbling to
themselves, still unconvinced, but they would do as they were told. Dad always
seemed to know the right answer even though they rarely wanted to admit to it.

“Hope, if you are ready now, we can stop by Panera
Bread and get you a treat on the way. What do you think?” Rob asked.

“That would be great,” replied Hope cheerfully.

Moments later they were pulling out of the
driveway headed for Hope’s weekly class. Rob couldn’t get the thought of
survival out of his mind, but then a revelation came to him. He had been
training Hope for survival all of her life and today was just a continuation of
that. He had worked to give her every opportunity to have a fulfilled life. Now
he would do the same for the rest of the family as they face this new
challenge.

CHAPTER 23

Driving into work, as
Katie thought about all of the things she had to accomplish today, panic ran
through her body. She remembered that Sarah had mentioned she may have to go to
the White House today to give a briefing to the President. How could she forget
such an important point? She would call Sarah as soon as she got to the office
to find out if, in fact, this would take place.

As soon as she got to her desk, she checked her
messages. The first was from Sarah. She did have the briefing today for the
President at 2 p.m. At least she would have time to prepare. There was a second
message. It was from the reporter, Marvin Hughes, asking if they were still on
for 11 a.m. Perfect timing, she thought. She needed to call Sarah anyway to get
her orders for the afternoon meeting and she would ask about the reporter’s
request at the same time.

“Good morning Sarah, this is Katie. I’m glad I
caught you in the office. Do you have a particular agenda you would like me to
cover for the President’s briefing?”

“I’ve been working on it for the last half hour.
I’ll email it to you after we get off the phone and you can see if I’ve missed
anything. I need you to prepare a briefing paper to accompany your oral
presentation, and I need it by 10 a.m. so that it can be reviewed and approved
by the Secretary before being forwarded to the White House,” Sarah said.

“I’ll get to work on it right away. I’ve been
keeping a summary of my hypotheses as we go along so it shouldn’t take me long
to polish it up and send it over to you. Do you know who else will be in the
briefing?” asked Katie.

“From our offices just you, Ben, the Secretary and
me. I’m not sure who’ll be attending from the White House staff but I’d expect
Jim Redman and the Chief of Staff as a minimum, maybe Dr. White from Johns
Hopkins too,” said Sarah.

“Well, let me get to work and I should have
something for you to review in the next hour.”

“Any other new information or conclusions since we
last talked?” asked Sarah.

“Not really, but one last thing. I got a call from
a Washington Post reporter named Marvin Hughes at 10 p.m. last night. He wanted
to talk to me regarding the research I was doing on SDX. He said he had a
deadline to meet. I told him I didn’t have time to talk and to call back today.
How would you like me to handle this guy?”

“As of right now, the only response you should
give Mr. Hughes is “no comment” and refer him to the Secretary’s office. I’ll
contact the Secretary’s Press Officer and alert them to the possibility of Mr.
Hughes’ call,” said Sarah.

“Thanks, that makes it easy. Great advice. Let me
get to work and I’ll email you the brief shortly,” Katie replied.

They both hung up and Katie prepared her briefing
paper. It was basically unchanged from what she had presented two days ago, but
had additional results from the live testing, her recommendations for expanded
testing, and the little bit of analysis she had performed on the longevity
project data.

Katie received the agenda forwarded by Sarah and
quickly reviewed it to ensure she had covered all the points in her briefing
paper. She had, and then some. She sent her work to Sarah and then got down to
business, concentrating on today’s analysis of additional regions in the
longevity project. Back to the Chinese data.

She decided she’d take a shortcut and review a
small sample of each region first, but only if it appeared to be consistent.
Her initial analysis of China showed that the SDX blood test indicators started
appearing about fifty-four to fifty-seven months ago. The same as Africa, and
about three months after Siberia’s levels increased. She decided to move onto
another region.

Next, she looked at the data from Japan. Japan
accounted for about 17% of all of the people in her study. She saw a similar
phenomenon there. The initial data looked consistent, so she moved on to the
next region. At this rate, she should be able to complete a total of six
regions by noon. It wouldn’t be 100% accurate, but it would be close enough to
point them in the right direction.

Next, she looked at India, another large
population area where she’d tracked over 400 centenarians. The levels had
started to increase between fifty-seven and sixty months ago. This was more in
line with Siberia, yet apparently before China and Africa. Now, the lines were
starting to blur. She knew that the analysis was lacking rigor and thorough
review. She would send what she had to Ben for any recommendations and analysis
he could offer. She zipped the information for China, Japan and India into an
email and wrote a quick note:

Ben,

Here is what I have for China and Japan and India. I sped
up the process by sampling only 10% of the subjects from each region. China and
Japan start dates are comparable to Africa, whereas India is closer to Siberia,
although probably somewhere between Siberia and the others. I am going to do
one more region this morning before I leave to go headquarters in preparation
for this afternoon’s briefing. Let me know if you have any ideas or if your
analysis has shown any anomalies. I will see you around 12:30 p.m.

Happy hunting,

Katie

It was almost 11 a.m. and the phone rang. She
looked at the number. It was the Post reporter. “Hi Mr. Hughes,” she answered.

“Oh, I see you have caller ID,” said Marvin. “How
are you today?”

“I am doing well Mr. Hughes. What can I do for
you?”

“I would like you to answer a couple of questions
I have regarding the disease that has been taking the lives of many of our
citizens. Is there any truth to the rumor that you have developed a test to
determine who has this pathogen?”

Katie was a little taken aback. Someone had leaked
some information. She managed to regain her composure.

“I am sorry Mr. Hughes, but all press inquiries
are being handled through the Secretary of Health and Human Services Press
Office. Do you have their number?”

“Yes I do, but I wanted to go directly to the
source,” said Marvin.

“Well, unfortunately I will be unable to provide
any information. I recommend you call the Secretary’s Press Office. Is there
anything else I can help you with?”

“Is it true that we may all be contaminated with
this disease?” asked Marvin.

“Mr. Hughes, as I said before, all press enquiries
are being handled by the Secretary’s Press Office. I have to go, you have a
nice day,” and with that Katie hung up.

Katie was alarmed that there had been a leak. Who
would do that, and why? Didn’t they understand the mass hysteria that could
result from such a breach?  Katie immediately picked up the phone and called
Sarah.

“Sarah, I just got my call from the Post reporter
and referred him to the Secretary’s Press Office. Here are the two questions he
wanted me to answer. First, is it true that I had discovered a test for the
disease, and second, was it true that everyone has already been infected by
this pathogen?”

Sarah was very calm and collected. She didn’t want
to discuss any details on an open phone line. “We can discuss this more in
detail after lunch when you arrive at headquarters. I will see you along with
Ben at half past noon.”

After hanging up, Sarah prepared an encrypted
email and sent this information to the Secretary and her Press Officer. Someone
was leaking information and this had to be reported to the top.

Katie had about forty-five minutes before she
needed to leave for downtown. She figured it would be best to look at the
United States now. It did make up about 20% of her database. Again she selected
a 10% sample and started her analysis. After fifteen minutes it became clear
that the infection had spread to the United States on the order of about
forty-eight months ago. “Clearly, we are further from ground zero,” she
thought.

She did a cursory review of the rest of the 10%
from the U.S and packaged the data and sent it to Ben in another email with a
few questions: “Ben, if we didn’t start seeing the disease indicators in the
U.S. until forty-eight months ago, how come people are dying now? How does the
gestation period affect individuals? This doesn’t make a lot of sense. Everyone
started dying across the globe at about the same time, give or take a few days.
What’s up with that? Confused, Katie.”

Katie packed up her briefcase and started out the
door for downtown. As she left the building she noticed a man in car parked by
the entrance, who was watching her every move. It was a little unnerving at
first, but her initial thought was that it was probably the reporter. As she
pulled out of the parking lot she saw the car was following her. It was a white
Malibu, the same type used by the government, but this one had Maryland plates
and not Federal Government plates. She was probably right, it was most likely
Mr. Hughes.

Katie kept a check on her rearview mirror as she
drove along, and every time she did she saw the white Malibu. She jotted down
the license plate and would report this when she got to the CDC headquarters
building. When she arrived at the building’s garage, she noted as she pulled inside
that the Malibu had pulled over to the curb. She was glad there was an internal
stairwell in the building and that she didn’t have to go outside to access the
offices.

When she arrived at the Director’s office Ben and
Sarah were already waiting.

“This press inquiry is troubling,” said Sarah.
“Someone must be talking out of school.”

“What’s more troubling for me is that someone
followed me all the way from my office until I pulled into the garage here. I
got the plate number for the vehicle. I don’t have a good description of the
driver because he kept his distance. It may have been the reporter, but I don’t
know for sure,” said Katie.

“Give me the license number and I will have
security check it out,” said Sarah.

Sarah, Ben and Katie then got down to the business
of orchestrating their briefing for the President. It would only be about
twenty minutes they were told.

“Katie, I think they are most interested in why
you think your test is an accurate predictor of who has SDX,” said Sarah. “I
see that your briefing paper goes into the assumption that it possibly started
in Siberia and then spread around the globe. Do you have further proof of
this?”

“The analysis I did this morning supports the
theory that it could have started in Siberia about five years ago, moved then
to India and then onto to Africa, China and Japan, and finally the United
States about a year later. The puzzling part is that people are dying now,
everywhere across the world pretty much at the same time. Not just in Siberia
or India, but in the U.S and South America. It doesn’t make sense. When I
analyze South America later today, I expect I will see an infection date maybe
even later than the U.S., but the people there are still dying now too. Maybe
I’ve gone down the wrong track,” said Katie.

“I don’t think so,” said Ben. “We don’t know
enough about the disease and we haven’t had the time to do an in-depth analysis
of the samples from your longevity project. I have a hunch the data will reveal
more than your current conclusions. We just have to keep digging.”

“Ok, I don’t necessarily want a united front on
this,” said Sarah. “I want everyone’s best ideas. Ben, do you have any more
data that will support your theory that people are aging more quickly now that
they are infected with SDX?” asked Sarah.

“Regrettably, the best data will be empirical and
will play out as more people die,” Ben said. “I am starting to have data
compiled regarding age at death and I will ship it to Katie to see if she can
make some sense of it. But I’m not hopeful that I’ll have an answer as to
lifespan with the disease until the deaths reach down into the younger
generations. If my hypothesis is correct, then we could be talking about
several months until I have firm data. Dr. White and I are on the same page
with that. Have you heard anything from the CDC in Atlanta or anywhere else
regarding a possible source, or are we still the only game in town?”

“Unfortunately, we’re it right now. We need to
keep plugging away to find the source of this bug,” emphasized Sarah. “Okay,
that’s it. You guys can grab some lunch if you want. My car will be ready to
take us to the White House in about forty-five minutes.”