The Perfect Pathogen (4 page)

CHAPTER 5

The next morning, Katie
arrived at the office a little before seven. She liked the early morning hours
when the office was silent, absent of other workers. She could dig into her
work without any interruption.

As soon as she sat down, Katie opened her email
and immediately saw the plethora of death notices she had received from her
colleagues around the world overnight. A quick count showed the loss of another
forty-two centenarians. What the hell was happening? Moments later her phone
rang, and she heard the strained voice of Melody Simpson, her boss’s wife.

“Yes, hi Katie, this is Melody Simpson. I am at
the hospital with Herb. He had a stroke last evening. I have been here all
night and he doesn’t seem to be getting any better.”

Chills went up Katie’s spine. She took a deep
breath and tried to keep the panic out of her voice as she replied.

“Melody, I am so sorry to hear this. Which
hospital is he in?  Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Not right now,” said Melody. “ All the family is
here and we are saying prayers for his quick recovery. He is in the Anne
Arundel Medical Center. Your prayers would be appreciated also.”

“Of course we will keep Herb in our prayers and I
will inform the Director about his illness this morning. Our best wishes for a
speedy recovery for Herb. Please call if you need anything,” said Katie. “I’ll
try and drop by later today.”

Katie hung up and sat, unmoving, at her desk for
about two minutes. Thoughts were racing through her head. Herb was 72 years
old, and certainly wouldn’t be considered “elderly.” But she couldn’t help
wondering if this was just a coincidence, or was the illness that had struck
her study group also effecting other age groups? Surely this couldn’t be the
beginning of some kind of pandemic that started by attacking the elderly? Or
the weak? Or perhaps everyone? No. It was just coincidence. She knew from her
studies that in the United States about 8,000 people die every day. But that
number is spread out among everyone, not just the elderly. Maybe what she was
seeing was within the statistical average. There had to be a reasonable
explanation, she thought, and it was just her mind working overtime. But she
couldn’t help thinking that there were too many coincidences of late.

Katie did a quick back-of-the-envelope
calculation. Her centenarian group was dying at about twenty times the normal
rate. So it could be the early stages of a pandemic. She shuddered. She knew
from past experience that at the early stages of a pandemic the death rate is
low and then it starts to increase. If twenty times normal was low, and this
was the start of something, then the death toll could be huge.

She continued to gather her statistics to prepare
for her 9 a.m. meeting with the Washington Director of the CDC, and then, on a
hunch she called the Emergency Room of the Anne Arundel County Medical Center.

“Hi, this is Dr. McMann from the CDC. I am
gathering some statistics regarding people who have suffered strokes. Have you
seen an increase in patients that have required emergency medical care with
stroke type symptoms?” said Katie.

“It is funny you should ask,” the ER physician on
duty replied, “We were just commenting that we have seen about five times as
many patients with these types of symptoms in the last twenty-four hours. Not
clear what the cause is, but clearly something’s amiss. We have used MRIs to
confirm the strokes. The limited lab testing we have done so far has been
coming back normal.”

“Have you had any deaths from this illness?” asked
Katie.

“Yes, so far we have had three people die, all
were in their 90s. Of the five so far, it seems that the younger you are the
better chance you have for survival. We expect the increased number is just an
aberration, for people in their 90s dying of strokes is not uncommon.”

“Thank you very much for the information,” said
Katie. Before hanging up, she gave the doctor her email and contact information
in case he had more information to share.

She gathered up her documents and notes from her
disturbing conversation with the hospital and left for her meeting.

As Katie entered the Director’s conference room
she was greeted by Dr. Benjamin Shah who extended his hand as he introduced
himself.

“Dr. McMann? Ben Shah. It is good you came over
here this morning. The Director called me last night after your conversation
with her, and I’ve been able to reach out to some of our regional contacts to
see if they had any abnormal information regarding the death of the elderly.
This morning, I have been receiving reports from our tracking Center of higher
than normal death rates across the U.S., but no apparent cause has been
identified. In fact, no one really noticed until I asked.”

This was as Katie had expected, and she was
relieved to know there was at least some corroborating evidence to back up what
had up until now been her hunch: she wouldn’t seem like an alarmist. But it
still didn’t make any sense. There had to be a cause and she knew the CDC
organization would get to the bottom of it
tout de suite
.

Moments later, the Washington Director of CDC
entered the room, her physicality, her reputation and her personality filling
the room. She was known for her outstanding work with the health department in
Chicago before she was appointed to this position last year.

After a firm handshake and greeting, Dr. Sarah Lin
asked Katie to show her what she had.

“Well, here is a quick slide I put together
regarding the statistics on aging that I normally follow. This depicts on the
left side the death rate of the population we track throughout the world now,
compared to the death rate over the last twenty-four hours on the right side of
the slide. As you can see, we are at about twenty times more than normal right
now. Every time I check my email there are more reports of the same from my
seven tracking points across the globe. There is no known cause at this point,
but anecdotal evidence indicates they are all suffering from stroke-like
symptoms. Routine testing at a local hospital has not identified any consistent
cause associated with the illnesses, except for the victims being mostly those
in their 90s,” Katie explained.

“Thank you, Katie. Where did you get your
information regarding the local hospitals?’

“Herb Simpson is at the Anne Arundel Medical
Center. He suffered a stroke. I called the ER doctor at the hospital and he
said that it appears that their admissions of people with these symptoms are up
five-fold in the last twenty-four hours. Herb is only 72, so I can’t be sure if
he is part of the pattern or if it’s just coincidence. The hospital has seen three
deaths, all in people who were over 90 years old.”

“That agrees with information I have been
receiving now at the CDC Epidemic Tracking Center,” said Ben. “We have seen an
alarming increase in deaths across the country with no apparent cause. It is way
too early to know more, but biopsies, cultures, immune assays and path reports
have been ordered, and we’ll have to wait for the results. The Regional
Director in Kansas indicated there were symptoms of very old age in the younger
deaths as well as in those that are very old. It is almost like they seem to be
suddenly and rapidly growing old, and then are having a stroke and dying. I
have a team of twenty researchers looking at this now, and we will start by
doing autopsies on some of the dead here in the DC area. Another team in
Atlanta is experiencing the same thing and will be conducting parallel research
to try to  determine the cause.”

Then the DC Director said, “I have set up a secure
Digital Video Conference call with the Director of the CDC and the Secretary of
Health and Human Services for 10 a.m. this morning. I want you both in the
meeting. Please do not discuss your findings thus far with the press. All
inquiries should be submitted to our Press Officer. We certainly don’t want
mass panic on the streets. We need to contain the information surrounding these
deaths and temper any misinformation, so only official press releases are
permitted. Katie, I want to thank you for bringing this to my attention so
quickly. I talked to the CDC Director in Atlanta and the Secretary last night,
and they were both glad for the heads up. Great work so far, now let’s take a
few minutes to get ready for the Video Conference Call.”

The Director and Dr. Shah left the conference
room. Sarah’s assistant entered the room and began to set up for the call.
Katie took advantage of the pause to check her email and check in with Beth at
the conference. She hoped there was no more bad news, but prepared herself for
the worst. Her thoughts turned to Herb. Was he part of the group? And if he
was, how about everyone else in the DC area?

CHAPTER 6

For Rob this was just another day. He knew Katie had
some big concerns, but he had no idea what had transpired after she left home
today. He dropped off the kids as usual and then headed into the Center,
enjoying  the familiar journey down route 231 and across the Patuxent River. He
gazed across to the north and saw the vast expanse of the organization he had
built, with its green houses, water front pier and training facility. He could
picture in his mind how it would look with the new living facilities completed
and hundreds of kids enjoying the wonders of independent living.

Marge
was already there when he arrived, waiting for him with a grave look on her
face.

“Rob,
one of our students has died,” she said, breaking down in tears as she uttered
the words. Rob held her as she wept, understanding her grief. Both of them had
strong, personal attachments to every student at the Center.

“What
happened?  Who was it?” asked Rob.

“It
was Seth,” she replied. “We don’t know for sure what happened, but he fell sick
last night at home and was rushed to the St. Mary’s County hospital, and died
shortly afterwards. His parents said he had some kind of seizure, and that it
wouldn’t stop. It was the first time he had ever had one. The doctors called it
status epilepticus
.”

Rob
hesitated for a moment, his thoughts turning to Katie and her work.

“Marge,
my wife received news last night of a large group of elderly people that died.
I don’t know if it was because of seizures, and it could be a coincidence. But
if there is a connection... I don’t think it is good to speculate, I think we
should watch the children closely. At the first sign of any health issues, we
need to call an ambulance.”

They
had experienced children dying at the Center before, albeit not very often, and
Marge was a little shocked by Rob’s news.

“How
about I do a little research and contact some of our graduates to see how they
are doing. If this is a wider problem, then they could be at risk,” she said,
taking a deep breath.

“Good
idea. Maybe I am overreacting, but be prepared for some bad news.”

“I
sure will. Oh, by the way, the Tri-County Council of Churches meeting is this
afternoon. Are you planning on briefing them on our expansion?”

“Yes.
I am putting the finishing touches on my presentation. I have a call into Mr.
Walters to see if he has time to meet with me this morning. I want to see if he
is willing to make up the difference if we put in the infrastructure for full
expansion.”

Rob
checked his email and messages and saw that Mr. Walters had scheduled a meeting
for 10 a.m. As he headed out to meet him, Rob thought that he had nothing to
lose: the worst that could happen is that he could give him some good advice,
but no money. The best would be advice and money.

When
Rob arrived, Mr. Walters was still in his sweat gear, having just finished his
morning walk along the water of his 3,000 acre property. He was a self-made man
and had built a flourishing farm hardware supply business from nothing. He sold
the business for millions of dollars when he was in his 70’s and, along with
his many other investments, it made him one of the richest men in Calvert
County. He had just turned 88 years old and was still in great shape. When
asked how old he wanted to be, he would always say that he expected to live to
110 years of age. And his doctors agreed.

Mr.
Walters had always been a generous donor to regional charities. He had more
money than he needed and wanted to help the communities that had made him
welcome and had helped him make his fortune. He had been particularly generous
with Rob since they had something in common. Mr. Walters’ great grandson had
been born with Down Syndrome too, like Hope, and he was now attending classes
at the Independent Living Center run by Rob.

“Hi
Rob, how are you doing today?” asked Will, whose full name was Beauregard
Wilbur Walters.

“Actually
it has been a tough day,” Rob replied. “One of our students died last night. It
seems he had a seizure. The more I reflect on it, the more I think there might
be something going around. My wife works at CDC, as you know, and she is doing
some research on it today. There have been a number of people in the group she
monitors that are over 100 years old that have died in the last several days
too. I doubt if this is related, but you never know.” 

“Well,
if there is something going around, let’s hope it doesn’t affect too many
people. I remember stories from my parents of the flu epidemic around 1919 and
they said it was horrifying. Anyway, what can I do for you today?”

“I
am here for your advice and any financial support you can provide the Center,”
said Rob, getting straight to the point. He explained the expansion plans, and
the idea of developing an infrastructure that would allow for further growth at
a huge savings. He also discussed the meeting he would be having with the
Council of Churches later in the day.

“Well,
I think it is a great idea to save money by putting in the infrastructure for
the additional pods. That is what you called them, right, pods?  I see your
numbers for the increased infrastructure. About how much do you think it will
cost you down the road to build the additional pods and when do you think you
will want to do that expansion?”

“I
am thinking that the additional pods will go in after I raise the money, which
will take about four to five years. I think I will need another $1.5 million to
complete all of the work.”

“Four
to five years, heck I might be dead by then,” Will chuckled. “The work you are
doing there is way too important to put this off. What say you if I give you a
check for $2 million today to cover the cost of the expanded infrastructure and
the additional pods?  Then you only need the Council of Churches to chip in the
$500K. I think they should be able to come up with it. I gave them a donation
for just this sort of thing about two months ago that would easily cover this
and the other projects they have in mind.”

“Will,
this is fantastic,” Rob responded gratefully. “I’ll contact the project manager
immediately to change the permit to allow the completion of the entire project.
You are a godsend. Thank you.”

“Anytime,”
said Will. “Anyhow, I’ve thought long and hard about this to myself already and
spoken with my accountant. We are only on this earth for a short time and we
need to do the best we can for others. Have a great day, Rob”

“I
already have,” said Rob as he got in his car and headed back to the Center. He
made a quick stop by the bank to deposit the eye-popping check, still
recovering from the sudden surprise. While he was standing at the cashier
window, the astonished bank manager called Mr. Walters to verify the check and
the money was then duly deposited into Rob’s business account. With only $500K
left to raise, and the prospect of completing the entire project within his
grasp, he allowed himself a moment of congratulation, pushing the sadness of
his student’s death to one side for just a moment.

At
St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Prince Frederick, Rob was welcomed into the
meeting room by the members of the Council of Churches, aware that Mr. Walter’s
money had partially funded the space. He had met with most of the council
one-on-one previously and they all understood the project, so he gave just a
brief outline and then told them about his successful meeting that morning, and
how the extra donation could be used to fund additional buildings. The council,
buoyed by Mr. Walter’s generosity, agreed to write a check for the remaining
$500K on the spot.

At
the end of the meeting Rob approached Father Jones, the pastor of the church
where the meeting was held. “Hello, Father,” said Rob. “I have a question to
ask you that may seem strange. Have you seen an increase in illness in your
parish lately?”

“It
is funny you should ask,” Father Jones replied. “There has been an increase in
hospitalizations and several deaths in the last two days. The deaths have all
been among the elderly, one was 85 and one was 91. Strange indeed. It’s not
even flu season. I’ve wondered about this myself, but I haven’t seen any
comment on it in the news. Have you had any problems at the Center?”

“We
lost one of our students to a seizure last night. My assistant is watching
closely over our flock today, ready to call the paramedics at any sign of a
problem.”

“I
know we have several of our parish families that have children at your Center,”
Father Jones said. “I believe you know them all personally. Please let me know
if there are any problems or if you need any church support. We will keep all
of the sick in our prayers.”

“Thank
you for your prayers and support, Father,” said Rob as he said good-bye. He
wondered if he should call Katie to tell her what was going on. He pulled out
his cell phone and dialed. He wanted to tell her about the good news and the
bad news but there was no answer at her office and her cell phone was turned
off, so he left a message.

Since
he was in the vicinity of the County offices Rob stopped by to see if Hope was
at work. She was and it was about time for her afternoon break, so he waited
for a few minutes and then they went across the street for an afternoon snack.

“What
a nice surprise,” said Hope.

“I
was in the area and wanted to see how you were doing,” said Rob. “So, how is
your day?”

“Classes
today were fun. I discussed my business plan project with my group and everyone
really liked it. Thank you for your help with it. I find the more I learn, the
more I can relate to my job with the county. The people in my classes and the
people at work are always so nice to me. I really like it here, dad.”

Rob
considered telling Hope about the student who had died last night, but he
thought it would be better to wait until she was at home this evening. She only
attended classes at the Center on the weekends while she was working, so he had
until then to figure out how to break it to her. She was close to all of the
students at the Center, and in many instances they looked up to her because of
her perseverance and her unwavering attitude. They all knew she could
accomplish anything that she put her mind to. Rob agreed. Her goal was to have
her own business someday and there was no doubt in Rob’s mind that she would
climb that mountain.

“Well,
I’d better let you get back to work. I will see you at home later today.”  Rob
gave her a kiss on the cheek as he left her at the door to the office. She was
growing in independence and self-confidence, and he was so proud of her. His
smile, as he walked away, stretched from ear-to-ear.

Rob
arrived back at the Center in the late afternoon. Marge met him as he pulled
up. “Everything ok Marge?”

“Yes,
everything here seems to be ok. I did get a call from a friend who said her
grandmother, aged 98, passed away today. I immediately thought about what you
told me. I have only had a chance to call a handful of graduates, and so far
everything is ok. Have you heard anything else?”

“Yes,
I talked to Father Jones at St. John Vianney and he indicated that they’ve seen
an increase in illnesses and two deaths, and both were elderly. I’ll wager
there is something going around, but I hope we’ve seen the last of it among our
students.”

“Me
too. I don’t think I can handle the emotional stress, particularly if young
people are being touched. Let’s hope there’s no more bad news.”