Pitt asked Jonathan what he was doing. Jonathan took off the earphones. “It’s really cool,” he said. “Harlan showed me how to connect with all the monitoring equipment topside. There are cameras hidden in fake cacti which can be directed with this joystick. There’s also listening devices and motion sensors. Want to try it?”
Pitt declined. Instead he told the others that Cassy had described to him some astounding and disturbing things about the aliens.
“Like what?” Sheila asked while continuing to work.
“The worst thing,” Pitt said, “is that they have the infected people building a huge futuristic machine they call a Gateway.”
“And what’s this Gateway supposed to do?” Sheila asked, while gently swirling a tissue culture flask.
“It’s some kind of transporter,” Pitt said. “She was told that it will bring all sorts of alien creatures to Earth from distant planets.”
“Jesus H. Christ!” Sheila exclaimed. She put down the flask. “We can’t face any more adversaries. Maybe we’d better just give up.”
“When is this Gateway going to be operational?” Harlan asked.
“I asked the same question,” Pitt said. “Cassy didn’t know, but she had the impression it was imminent. Beau told her it was almost finished. Cassy said there were thousands of people working on it.”
Sheila exhaled noisily in exasperation. “What other charming news did she tell you?”
“Some interesting facts,” Pitt said. “For instance, the alien virus first came to earth three billion years ago. That’s when it inserted its DNA into the evolving life.”
Sheila’s eyes narrowed. “Three billion years ago?” she questioned.
Pitt nodded. “That’s what Beau told her. He also told her that the aliens have sent the enabling protein every hundred million Earth years or so to ‘awaken’ the virus to see what kind of life has evolved here and whether it was worth inhabiting. What he meant by Earth years she didn’t ask.”
“Maybe that relates to their ability to go from one universe to another,” Harlan said. “Here in ours we are caught in a space/time freeze. But from the point of view of another universe, what’s a billion years here, might only be ten years there. Everything’s relative.”
Harlan’s explanation brought on a moment of silence. Pitt shrugged. “Well, I can’t say it makes much sense to me,” he said.
“It’s like a fifth dimension,” Harlan said.
“Whatever,” Pitt said. “But getting back to what Cassy was telling me, apparently this alien virus is responsible for the mass extinctions the Earth has witnessed. Every time they came back here, the creatures they infested weren’t suitable, so they left.”
“And all the creatures they’d infected died?” Sheila asked.
“That’s how I understand it,” Pitt said. “The virus must have made some lethal change in the DNA causing the disappearance of entire species. That created an opportunity for new creatures to evolve. She told me that Beau had specifically mentioned this with regard to the dinosaurs.”
“Well, I’ll be,” Harlan said. “So much for the asteroid or comet theory.”
“How did the creatures die?” Sheila asked. “I mean, what was the specific cause of death?”
“I don’t think she knew that,” Pitt said. “At least she didn’t tell me. But I can ask her later.”
“It might be important,” Sheila said. She stared off into the middle distance with unseeing eyes. Her mind was churning. “And the virus supposedly came to Earth three billion Earth years ago?”
“That’s what she said.”
“What are you thinking?” Harlan asked.
“Is there any anaerobic bacteria available in the lab?” Sheila asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Harlan said.
“Let’s get some and infect it with the enabling protein,” Sheila said with mounting excitement.
“Okay,” Harlan said agreeably. He stood up. “But what’s on your mind? Why do you want bacteria that grows without oxygen?”
“Humor me,” Sheila said. “Just get it while I prepare some more enabling protein.”
BEAU THREW OPEN THE FRENCH DOORS LEADING FROM the sitting room to the terrace surrounding the pool. He stepped out and strode across the terrace. Alexander hurried after him.
“Beau, please!” Alexander said. “Don’t go! We need you here.”
“They found her car,” Beau said. “She’s lost in the desert. Only I can find her. By now she should be far on her way to becoming one with us.”
Beau descended the few steps from the terrace to the lawn and struck out toward the waiting helicopter. Alexander stayed at his heels.
“Surely this woman cannot be so important,” Alexander said. “You can have any woman you want. This is not the time to leave the Gateway. We’ve not even tested the grids to full power. What if we are not ready?”
Beau spun around. His narrow lips were pulled back in fury. “This woman is driving me mad. I must find her. I’ll be back. Until then, carry on without me.”
“Why not wait until tomorrow?” Alexander persisted. “By then the Arrival will have occurred. Then you can go look for her. There’ll be plenty of time.”
“If she’s lost in the desert she will be dead by tomorrow,” Beau said. “It’s decided.”
Beau turned back to the copter and quickly closed the distance. For the last few feet he had to duck under the rotating blade. He climbed into the front seat next to the pilot, nodded a greeting to Vince in the backseat, then motioned for the pilot to lift off.
“HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?” SHEILA ASKED.
“About an hour,” Harlan said.
“That should be enough time,” Sheila said impatiently. “One of the first things we learned was how fast the enabling protein functioned once it was absorbed into a cell. Now let’s give the culture a slight dose of soft X-rays.”
Harlan looked askance at Sheila. “I’m beginning to get the drift of what’s going on in that brain of yours,” he said. “You’re treating this virus like a provirus, which it is. And now you want to change it from its latent form into its lytic form. But why the anaerobic bacteria? Why no oxygen?”
“Let’s see what happens before I explain,” Sheila said. “Just keep your fingers crossed. This could be what we are looking for. An alien Achilles’ heel.”
They gave the infected bacterial culture the dose of X-rays without disturbing its atmosphere of carbon dioxide. As they made mounts for the scanning electron microscope, Sheila found her hands trembling with excitement. She hoped with all her heart that they were on the brink of discovery.
WITH ONE OF HIS POWERFUL LEGS, BEAU KICKED THE DOOR of the deserted gas station. The blow tore it from its hinges and sent it crashing into the far wall of the room. Stepping into the dim interior, Beau’s eyes glowed intensely. The helicopter ride had done little to temper his fury.
He stood in the semidarkness for several seconds, then turned around and walked back out into the bright sunshine.
“She was never in there,” Beau said.
“I didn’t think so,” Vince said. He was bending down in the sand on the opposite side of the aged gas pumps. “There are some other fresh tire tracks here.” He stood up and looked toward the east. “There must have been a second vehicle. Maybe they picked her up.”
“What do you suggest?” Beau asked.
“Apparently she hasn’t appeared in any town,” Vince said. “Otherwise we would have heard. That means she’s out here in the desert. We know there are isolated groups of ‘runners’ hiding out in the area who’ve so far avoided infection. Maybe she joined up with one of them.”
“But she’s infected,” Beau said.
“I know,” Vince said. “That part is a mystery. Anyway, I think we should head east along this road and see if we can find any tracks going off into the desert. There must be some kind of camp.”
“All right,” Beau said. “Let’s do it. Time is running out.”
Th
ey climbed back into the helicopter and lifted off. The pilot was ordered to fly high enough to keep from kicking up too much sand and dust yet low enough to see any tracks heading away from the road.
“MY GOSH, THERE IT IS,” HARLAN SAID. THEY HAD FOCUSED in on a virion at sixty thousand times magnification. It was a large filamentous virus that looked like a filoviridae with tiny, cilialike projections.
“It’s awesome to think that we are looking at a highly intelligent alien life form,” Sheila said. “We’ve always thought of viruses and bacteria as primitive.”
“I don’t think it is the alien per se,” Pitt said. “Cassy mentioned that the viral form was what enabled the alien to withstand space travel and infest other life forms in the galaxy. Apparently Beau didn’t know what the original alien form looked like.”
“Maybe that’s what the Gateway is for,” Jonathan said. “Maybe the virus likes it here so much, the aliens themselves are coming.”
“Could be,” Pitt said.
“All right,” Harlan said to Sheila. “So this little trick with the anaerobic bacteria worked. We’ve seen the virus. What was your mysterious point?”
“The point is that this virus came to Earth three billion years ago,” Sheila said. “At that time the Earth was a very different place. There was very little oxygen in the primitive atmosphere. Since then things have changed. The virus is still fine when it is in the latent form or even when it has been enabled and has transformed the cell. But if it is induced to form virions, it’s destroyed by oxygen.”
“Interesting idea,” Harlan said. He looked down at the culture whose top was now off, exposing its surface to room air. “If that’s the case then we’ll see damaged, un-infective virus if we make another mount.”
“That’s exactly what I’m hoping,” Sheila said.
Without wasting any time, Sheila and Harlan set to work creating a second sample. Pitt helped as best he could. Jonathan went back to playing with the computer-run security system.
When Harlan focused in on the new mount, it was immediately apparent that Sheila was right. The viruses appeared as if they had been partially eaten.
Sheila and Harlan jumped up from their seats and enthusiastically high-fived and then embraced each other. They were ecstatic.
“What a brilliant idea,” Harlan said. “You’re to be congratulated. It’s a joy to see science in action.”
“If we were doing real science,” Sheila said, “we’d go back and exhaustively prove this hypothesis. For now, we’ll just take it at face value.”
“Oh, I agree,” Harlan said. “But it makes such sense. It’s amazing how toxic oxygen is and how few laypeople know it.”
“I don’t think I understand,” Pitt said. “How does this help us?”
The smiles faded from Sheila’s and Harlan’s faces. They regarded each other for a beat, then retook their seats. Both were lost in thought.
“I’m not sure how this discovery is going to help us,” Sheila said finally. “But it has to. I mean, it must be the alien Achilles’ heel.”
“It must have been the way that they killed off the dinosaurs,” Harlan said. “Once they decided to end the infestation, the viruses all went from being latent to being virions. Then bam! They hit the oxygen and all hell broke loose.”
“That doesn’t sound very scientific,” Sheila said with a smile.
Harlan laughed. “I agree,” he said. “But it gives us a hint. We have to induce the virus in the infected people to go from being latent to coming out of the cell.”
“How is a latent virus induced?” Pitt asked.
Harlan shrugged. “A lot of ways,” he said. “In tissue culture it’s usually done with electromagnetic radiation like ultraviolet light or soft X rays like we used with the anaerobic bacterial culture.”
“There are some chemicals that can do it,” Sheila said.
“That’s true,” Harlan. “Some of the antimetabolites and other cellular poisons. But that doesn’t help us. Neither do X rays. I mean it’s not as if we could suddenly X-ray the planet.”
“Are there regular viruses that are latent like the alien virus?” Pitt asked.
“Plenty,” Sheila said.
“Absolutely,” Harlan agreed. “Like the AIDS virus.”
“Or the whole herpes viral group,” Sheila said. “They can hide out for life or cause intermittent problems.”
“You mean like cold sores?” Pitt asked.
“That’s right,” Sheila said. “That’s herpes simplex. It stays latent in certain neurons.”
“So when you get a cold sore it means that a latent virus has been induced to form virus particles?” Pitt asked.
“That’s right,” Sheila said with a touch of exasperation.
“I get cold sores every time I get a cold,” Pitt said. “I suppose that’s why they’re called cold sores.”
“Very clever,” Sheila said sarcastically. “Pitt, maybe you should leave us alone while we brainstorm. This isn’t supposed to be a teaching session.”
“Wait a second,” Harlan said. “Pitt just gave me an idea.”
“I did?” Pitt questioned innocently.
“You know what is the best viral induction agent?” Harlan asked rhetorically. “Another viral infection.”
“How is that going to help us?” Sheila asked.
Harlan pointed to the large freezer door across the room. “In there we’ve got all sorts of viruses. I’m starting to think that we should fight fire with fire!”
“You mean start some kind of epidemic?” Sheila asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Harlan said. “Something extraordinarily infectious.”
“But that freezer is full of viruses designed to be used as biological warfare agents. That will be like going from the frying pan into the fire.”
“Hell, that freezer has everything from nuisance viruses to the most deadly,” Harlan said. “We just have to pick one that’s suitable.”
“Well…” Sheila mused. “It is true our original tissue culture was probably induced by the adenoviral vehicle we used for the DNA assay.”
“Come on!” Harlan said. “Let me show you the inventory.”
Sheila stood up. She was very dubious about fighting fire with fire, but she wasn’t about to dismiss the idea out of hand.
Next to the freezer was a desk with a bookshelf over it. On the bookshelf were three large, black looseleaf notebooks. Harlan handed one each to Sheila and Pitt. He cracked open the third himself.
“It’s like a wine list at a fancy restaurant,” Harlan quipped. “Remember, we need something infectious.”
“What do you mean, ‘infectious’?” Pitt asked.
“Capable of being spread from person to person,” Harlan said. “And we need the route to be airborne, not like AIDS or hepatitis. We want a worldwide epidemic.”
“God!” Pitt commented, looking at the index of his volume. “I never thought there were so many different viruses. Here’s filoviridae. Wow! There’s Ebola in there.”
“Too virulent,” Harlan said. “We want an illness that doesn’t kill by itself so that an infected individual can spread it to as many others as possible. The rapidly fatal diseases, believe it or not, tend to be self-limiting.”
“Here’s arenoviridae,” Sheila said.
“Still too virulent,” Harlan said.
“How about orthomyxoviridae?” Pitt said. “Influenza is certainly infectious. And there’s been some worldwide epidemics.”
“That has possibilities,” Harlan admitted. “But it has a relatively long incubation period, and it can be fatal. I’d really like to find something rapidly infectious and a bit more benign. Here we go…This is what I’m looking for.”
Harlan plopped the looseleaf he’d been holding onto the desktop. It was open to page 99. Sheila and Pitt bent over to look at it.
“Picornaviridae,” Pitt read, struggling with the pronunciation. “What do they cause?”
“It’s
this genus that I’m interested in,” Harlan said. He pointed to one of the subgroups.
“Rhinovirus,” Pitt read.
“Exactly,” Harlan said. “The common cold. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the common cold were to save mankind?”
“But not everybody gets a cold when it goes around,” Pitt said.
“True,” Harlan said. “Everyone has different levels of immunity to the hundreds of different strains that exist. But let’s see what our microbiologists employed by the Pentagon have come up with.”
Harlan flipped through the pages until he came to the rhinovirus section. It comprised thirty-seven pages. The first page had an index of the serotypes plus a short summary section.
Everyone read the summary silently. It suggested that rhinoviruses had limited utility as biological warfare agents. The reason given was that although the upper respiratory infections would affect the performance of a modern army, it would not be to a significant degree, and certainly not as much as an enterovirus causing diarrheal disease.
“Sounds like they were not so high on rhinoviruses,” Pitt said.
“True,” Harlan said. “But we’re not trying to incapacitate an army. We just want the virus to get in there and stir up metabolic trouble to bring the alien virus out in the open.”
“Here’s something that sounds interesting,” Sheila said, pointing to a subsection in the index. It was artifical rhinoviruses.
“That’s what we need,” Harlan said enthusiastically. He flipped through the pages until he came to the section. He read rapidly. Pitt tried to do the same, but the text might as well have been inscribed in Sanskrit. It was all highly technical jargon.
“This is perfect! Absolutely perfect!” Harlan said. He looked at Sheila. “It’s tailor-made, both literally and figuratively. They’ve put together a rhinovirus that has never seen the light of day, meaning no one has any immunity to it. It’s a serotype that no one has ever been exposed to so everybody will catch it. It’s…made to order!”
“Seems to me we’re making a rather large leap of faith here,” Sheila said. “Don’t you think we should somehow test this hypothesis?”