The Perfect Pathogen (8 page)

“Oh shit,” said Katie out loud.

She sat in silence, searching for answers and a
plan. It was now 11 p.m. and she needed to get some sleep so she would be
prepared for work tomorrow. Before she left the building she decided to stop by
the lab to check on progress there. A night shift, set up specifically to cover
the epidemic, was on duty analyzing the latest lab samples. The
state-of-the-art facility allowed them to add new data to the mix every three
hours. She recognized one of the laboratory technicians from church.

“Hi Patti. How is work going tonight?” said Katie.

“We are really busy, sorting the data for
analysis. I hope they figure out what this is soon. In the meantime, this blood
work should provide part of the puzzle.” 

“I am working on the analysis of the blood in
particular right now. But what I need is another basis for comparison. Would it
be possible for you to draw some blood from me and then analyze it with the
other batches you are doing?  I think it would be a great baseline for the
modeling I am doing.”

“No problem. Roll up your sleeve and I will be
back in a second,” said Patti.

Katie knew this wasn’t normal protocol, but she
knew this is what Herb would do. She had worked closely with Herb and he was
now dead from this disease. She needed to know if it had been transmitted to
her and one way to check this was to have her blood analyzed. She had a hunch
it would provide some valuable evidence.

After Patti drew the blood they chatted for a few
more minutes. The results would take about twelve hours to come through, and
she assured Katie that as soon as she got to work tomorrow afternoon, she would
send the results to her via email. Katie thanked her and headed for home.

Rob was waiting for her when she arrived around
midnight. They had a lot to talk about. Rob had good news and Katie had bad
news. Katie couldn’t help blame herself for what she thought was an oversight
in her analysis of the aging data. Rob consoled her, telling her whatever is
going on isn’t her fault, and that something much bigger was in play. Katie was
exhausted, and the wine Rob had given her helped her relax and let go of some
of the stress of the day.

They talked, Rob filling her in on his day, while
offering her support. It was close to 1:00 a.m. when she looked at her watch,
and she was very aware that she had to be back in the office by 8 a.m. and
needed to sleep. But sleep didn’t come easily to either of them. Rob was
tossing and turning, his head full of Katie’s worries and his own excitement
over the project at the Center. And Katie’s mind was spinning with the worry
that, with her close contact to Herb, she may have exposed her family to a
potentially deadly disease. She could feel the weight of that burden, coupled
with her responsibilities at work, pressing down on her. Three days ago, she
was excited at the prospect of the aging conference. She had been thrown one
hell of a curve ball and she felt that everything was out of control, and that
her life’s work was now falling apart.

CHAPTER 13

Beth was already at the
office when Kate arrived just before 8 a.m.

“Hi Chief, how’s it going today?” asked Beth.

“Honestly? I’m exhausted. I was here until late,
and I’m still trying to wake up after a pretty awful night’s sleep. I managed
to get a lot of work done, though, and am pleased with the progress on the analysis
so far. Just give me a minute, I have something I’d like you to do for me that
would really help.”

Katie promptly logged onto her computer and
explained to Beth that she needed her to go through the 1,768 unread emails in
her account and categorize them in order of importance.

“No problem, Katie. I live for challenges like
this,” laughed Beth.

“Great. I’ll just go through and pull out any from
Sarah, and then you can make a start.” Beth gave her a reassuring smile, and
Katie gave a sigh of relief.

An email from Sarah stated that she needed to
provide an initial assessment of the analysis by noon today, ready for input
into a briefing paper for the Secretary and the President. Katie was relieved
that five new sets of data had been sent for her to upload, and their inclusion
should greatly improve the base numbers and the validity of her report. The
level of confidence in the key indicators would increase as more data was
included, and help to highlight which blood tests would be the best possible indicators
of the pathogen.

Within an hour, the algorithm was running again.
Each new upload took a little longer as the number of data files increased. She
thought that by 11 a.m. she should see some new results, and that would give
her time to put the finishing touches to her report by noon.

Though her current findings were couched with
seemingly endless possibilities, she thought that she was zoning in on maybe
five or six tests that could be used as indicators, but the disadvantage of a
test panel like this was that it didn’t actually measure the bacteria, virus or
germ that was causing the disease, only the effect on the body’s blood. But at
the moment, this was all she had, and although it would never be 100% accurate,
it was 100% better than the nothing they had at this precise moment.

She emailed her initial thoughts to Dr. Shah for
consideration, and by 10:30 a.m. he had replied, explaining that one of the
tests she had suggested was heat sensitive and difficult to run, and could
result in errors. However, the other five were sound, and he thought she might
be on to something. As Katie scanned her email, she made a note that the
temperature sensitive test was not one of the four tests that were in common
with her longevity project, so those tests could possibly play a major role in
researching how and where this disease started. There was some hope, but she
would have to dig much deeper.

At 11:04 a.m. on the dot the results of her latest
run emerged and were consistent with the previous runs, and she was now
convinced that the tests she had previously suggested may indeed prove to be
key indicators. But was she ready to make a bold recommendation?  Was she ready
to test living humans that may have been exposed to this pathogen?  She had to
be bold. She had the data to back her up, so she took the plunge and at the end
of her report, she recommended testing a sample of twenty-five people who may
have already been exposed. If the results showed that they were out of normal
range for the key indicators, then the sample group could be extended. She
didn’t mention that she was already being tested, but she decided to let Sarah
know before she sent over the report at noon.

At HHS headquarters, CDC Headquarters in Atlanta,
and Washington, DC, more data was pouring in. There had been over 100,000
deaths in just one day: twelve times the normal number. The epidemic was taking
its toll and people wanted answers, and the press was already lined up to find
them. Journalists, photographers and camera crews were gearing themselves up
for the 4 p.m. press conference that would be held by the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, and everyone was holding their breath, hoping for a
breakthrough.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization had just
released a worldwide alert which explained the deadliness of the disease, but
gave no recommendations or precautions, other than hand washing and wearing a
surgical mask. They, too, were currently at a loss: all the brainpower in the
world, and still it seemed that nothing could be done. But there was still
hope.

In its report, the WHO estimated that at the
current rate there were 2.5 million people dying per day around the globe. Most
of the deaths were in the top 20% of the oldest age group in any given
locality. They explained further that this meant that people in countries where
people routinely live to 90 to 100 years old, most of the deaths were from
people in their 80s and up. For those countries with a life expectancy in the
50s and 60s, most of the deaths would be in people in their 40s and up.

The cable news channels were running with the news
story from the WHO. The press, pooling all the ingenuity of its members, had come
up with the name Epigeddon -- a cross between the words ‘epidemic’ and
Armageddon: guaranteed to put the fear of God in just about anyone.

Just before noon, Katie called the Director and
told her that her report was on its way, explaining her findings and
suggestions.

“We should run tests on an initial group of
twenty-five people who may have been exposed to the illness. If there is
evidence of the disease in these people, then I recommend we increase the size
of the group, using military personnel. I suggest using the military, since
they are dispersed around the U.S. and the world.” Katie explained. She paused
for a moment before continuing.  “In addition, it’s not in my report but I want
you to know I had my blood drawn last night and I should have the results later
today. I plan on comparing my blood work to that of the victims. I thought I
would be a good test case since I worked closely with Herb and I know that is
what he would have done.” There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“Good work Katie. I’m not so sure testing your own
blood was a good idea, but let me know how it turns out. For now, I’m sure I
don’t need to remind you that your work is to be close hold until we share it
with the President. He’ll decide what can and cannot be released to the public.
The Secretary will hold a press conference today at 4 p.m. I will add the
preliminary results of your analysis to the report.”

“I thought the President was handling the
communications for this crisis?  What changed?” asked Katie.

“I don’t know. But I do know that we have to
support the President and the Secretary at this point,” said Sarah.

“I didn’t mean to question,” Katie replied. “It
just seems a little strange, that’s all. Anyway, I do have one more thing to
share with you. The algorithm I used for comparison of the data from the lab
samples was modified from my longevity project modeling. Four of the six
markers I am finding in the deceased have been used in my longevity study for
the past seven years. I am going to go over my data again, because I think I
might find some correlation with increases in these key indicators that could
help us pinpoint how long this pathogen has been around. A cursory look at a
small group of the data showed that there was a slight increase in the levels
of these key indicators, starting a little over five years ago. I have the data
sorted by age, location and ethnicity, and looking more deeply may give us some
clues to this disease. I’m only speculating at the moment, but I thought you
should know.”

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” said Sarah.
“Let me know what you find. And, don’t hesitate to call, no matter what the
hour. Thank you for your work. I will send you an encrypted copy of the report
we plan to send to the President for your review in about 30 minutes. Please
let me know if I’ve captured what is in your report accurately. I need to
forward the report to the NSA and Secretary by one this afternoon.”

“Will do,” said Katie.

The afternoon passed slowly as Katie waited for
her blood test results. She continued to input new data and run the algorithm.
Each new result confirmed her initial findings. She was ever more certain she
had stumbled upon the correct mix of lab tests to use.

She read through the latest WHO statement and
found it interesting that they were focusing on age, and making no mention of
younger, infirm victims. Perhaps they thought those numbers were too low to
register on the radar of this huge epidemic. Katie knew a lot about aging, but
not that much about disease. Most of the people she studied had died of cancer,
heart disease or just plain old age. She wondered why this disease would only
kill the old, and not target everyone equally. I will have to pose this
question to Dr. Shah,” she thought. Maybe he would have a logical explanation
based on what they were seeing in the autopsies.

A few minutes later Katie hit the send button on
an email to Dr. Shah, asking if he had any thoughts on why, based on the
information they were getting from autopsies, that the elderly, in particular,
seemed to be at the most risk. She was glad that their network automatically
encrypted all emails that were sent, as she didn’t have to worry about someone
else looking at her data or reading her thoughts. She wondered what response
she would get from Dr. Shah.

It was now 3:30 p.m. A new email popped up on her
screen with the subject line ‘Here are your blood test results’. A brief moment
of excitement switched to anxiety within milliseconds. She had been waiting for
these results all day but had not really thought about the consequences. What
if her results were abnormal for the key tests?  Did this mean she had the
disease?  If so, why was she still alive?  She didn’t need to run her results
through the algorithm, she knew exactly what she was looking for. She located
the six tests and compared them to the normal range. They were all out of
normal. Her heart dropped. Then she compared her numbers to those of the
victims, and her results fell right in the middle of their numbers.

She stared at the numbers, searching in vain for
an explanation, but there was none. She was infected. She felt panic rising
inside her. She picked up the phone and called Rob. She didn’t want to worry
him, but she was worried she may have infected her family.

“Hi honey. I have to work late tonight. How about
you bringing the kids up here and we can catch dinner together at the Olive Garden.
I also want to use you guys in a test I am running. It will require a blood
sample from all of you. What do you think?  I can get it drawn at the lab
here.”

“I think the blood test is why you want us to come
and the dinner is an afterthought,” said Rob. “Is there something wrong?”

“I can’t talk about it over the phone,” Katie
replied. “Please meet me with the kids at seven tonight, okay. This is
important to me.”

“Sure, we’ll be there. I’ll call when we arrive
and you can meet us in the parking lot and show us to the lab. How does that
sound?”

“That works.  Thank you so very much sweetheart.
See you soon,” said Katie as she hung up.