“How dare you show up here on the day I buried my wife!” Matt blasted him.
“Mr. Hader, please,” the young man begged. He was dressed in slacks and a button down shirt. His face distressed and drawn, still showing bruises from the accident. “Please, I have been trying to reach you.”
“I don’t want to be reached.”
“I’m so sorry. I am so sorry. Please tell me what I can do.”
“Never show your face here again.” Matt slammed the door.
The letter in Matt’s hand was part of the shame sentence Luke received. Pennsylvania judges were famous for them.
With Matt’s insistence, Nash filed reckless driving charges against Luke, even telling Matt there was no way they would stick. They didn’t need to. Luke pled guilty without a trial. Aside from a years’ probation and loss of license, Luke had one year to write a letter of apology to each member of Hailey’s family.
Charlotte’s letter was the second to arrive.
Matt tossed it in the trash.
“Matt?” His mother’s voice called out.
“In here,” Matt replied.
He heard the girls holler out excitedly for their grandmother.
“Hey, sorry I’m late,” she said.
“You’re fine.”
“Oh, you went shopping. I brought chicken.” She placed a bag on the table.
“Good. I haven’t had a chance to feed the girls any lunch.”
“Did you have a chance to pack for them?” she asked.
Matt cringed. “No, sorry. I … I’ll get to it tonight.”
“Matt, we leave tomorrow. Please don’t tell me you want to delay the trip again.”
“No, you take them. I’ve been selfish making you guys delay.”
“You haven’t been ready. You’ll be fine. Maybe some time alone will be good for you.”
Matt grumbled.
“How about I do it for you? I’ll pack.” She asked. “It’s only four days. If I miss something, we can buy it. Oh! Speaking of buying, Dad got this really nifty insulin case online for Charlotte. It keeps her medicine cool while we’re out all day and we …” She stopped speaking.
“And you what?” He noticed his mother reaching in the trash. “What are you doing?”
She lifted the letter from Luke. “You may not want to read these, but one day the girls may. I found the other in your trash as well.”
“I wish you wouldn’t go through my trash.”
“Matt …”
“Mom, honestly, I am not in the mood for a forgiveness lecture today. Okay?”
She nodded.
“I’m trying here. I really am.”
“I know,” she said. “Go. I’ll put all this away.”
“Thank you.” He kissed her on the cheek and walked from the kitchen. He paused to look back at her. She was placing the letter in her purse.
He couldn’t think about that and had to put it out of his mind, or it would bug him all day. Matt said goodbye to his girls and then focused on what was really important to him at that moment … getting to the job and making money for his family.
6 – TRUTH AND LIES
Senate Committee Hearings, Washington, DC
“State your name for the record.”
Elias, sitting at a table leaned into the microphone. “Elias Joseph Marcum.”
He faced a row of seating. A long table set up in a ‘U’ shape. Ten men and two women sat behind those long tables, each with a name plate before them.
The room wasn’t big. Nowhere near what Elias had pictured. The galley seating was small, the doors were closed and security was present.
It wasn’t open to the public like most hearings. A few reporters sat in the room, looking more bored than interested.
It was day three and Elias had attended all days, waiting for his turn to speak. Frederic gave an unofficial statement, off the record, and it wasn’t Frederic’s choice, it was the rules of the court.
They would however, as they stated, take into consideration what he had said.
Many in Elias’ field testified. More than he liked testified about the dangers of viral research and how the negative outcomes outweighed the positive.
Elias had an entire statement prepared that he read it for the committee. It was comprehensive and probably boring, but he touched about everything he could. From coronaviruses, rotaviruses to paramyxoviruses types, DNA and RNA, fatality rates and the dreaded R-Naught. He wanted to educate them and inform them.
He was one of the last to speak because he was considered top in his field.
More than likely his answers would be repeats of those before him, but Elias was ready for anything they asked.
“Tell us what you do for NEIDL” Senator One requested.
“My primary function is to identify potential pandemic and extinction level bacteria and viruses.”
“Is it also true you create such viruses?” he asked.
“It is my job to be proactive. In doing so we must experiment with what is in circulation and what is not.”
“Those experiments include making, say … Ebola more lethal.”
Elias leaned into the microphone. “Ebola doesn’t need help in the lethality department.”
“While I appreciate your humor, I gave an example. Isn’t it your job to take an already deadly virus and make it more lethal?”
Elias nodded. “Yes. Viruses mutate. We try to recreate and predict what that mutation can be and try to beat it.”
“And is it true, in your field, viruses that have been extinct, have been retrieved by exhuming remains? Such as horsepox, extinct for hundreds of years, and it now active and alive in a Canadian lab.”
“Yes. But that isn’t what I do, and we don’t have horsepox in our lab,” Elias said.
“How about smallpox, samples of the Antonine plague, Sweating Sickness.”
“We have that one. At least I think we still do. The Sweating Sickness, I mean.”
“Many of these have been recreated, haven’t they?” Senator Two asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“In case they come back. In their time, they took their toll,” Elias said. “The Sweating Sickness was horrendous. It hit with no fever, just the shakes, it killed its victims in eighteen hours. No one knows where it came from or why it disappeared. We believe … because we recreated it, it is part of the Hantavirus family.”
“But if all of these can be beat, why recreate them?” Senator Two questioned.
“Because we need to know how to beat them … now. Not wait until an outbreak. One day can mean tens of thousands of lives.”
“Tell me about Disease X.” The senator flipped a page. “It is listed by the World Health Organization as the biggest threat to mankind.”
“Disease X is a representation. It is a hypothetic epidemic caused by a species hopping pathogen currently unknown to mankind. The Black Death or Bubonic plague was the Disease X of its time. It wiped out seventy-five percent of the world’s population. Now, we can beat the plague now, but if a new Disease X emerges, seventy-five percent …” Elias tilted his head. “That’s five billion people. That’s not enough hands to bury the dead. That’s end of civilization as we know it. We need to be ready for Disease X. Fortunately, it does not exist.”
“That … is not necessarily true, is it?” Senator Three jumped in. “You and others have created your own version of X. Isn't that true?”
‘Yes.” Elias answered.
“Have you, doctor, been successful in creating your own X.?”
After a pause, Elias answered. “I have.”
“What constitutes you having been successful in creating an X?”
“It is unbeatable. A virus that is so deadly, so quick, it can’t be stopped.”
“Why would you create something like that?” asked a senator.
“To beat it. To find a way to beat it. If I can beat an unbeatable X, we can be ready for when a real Disease X hits. And it w
ill.”
“A real Disease X? If you created one, then it is real.”
“Well …”
“If this … X was to … infect people, what are its stats? Communicability rate, death rate …”
Elias again hesitated before answering. “I’d be guessing.”
“Then guess.”
“The R-Naught would be probably around twenty-five.”
“Twenty-five?” the first senator asked. “Measles is, I believe you said … eighteen? And what is the death rate prediction of your X as it is?”
“Case Fatality Rate, right now, would be one hundred percent.”
The room filled with gasps and mumbles.
Senator One shook his head with a fake chuckle. “And you made this. Doctor, can’t your version of X also be considered a genocide virus?”
“What? What are you talking about?” Elisa asked.
“Your X is DNA based. Meaning it can target specific races and groups of people.”
“My virus is highly classified,” Elias said.
“We have our information. Answer the question.”
“I think you are confused. RNA and DNA viruses are labeled that way because of the method in which they replicate in a call. The nucleus or cytoplasm. My X is DNA based, but so is chickenpox, that doesn’t make it a genocide virus. It could mean some people are predisposed to never getting it.”
“Does X have the ability to be weaponized?”
“Everything out there can be weaponized and more than likely, most have,” Elias replied. “It all depends who gets their hands on it. In a controlled lab, with every precaution in place, those like me make sure we know the staff thoroughly. So, it is highly doubtful it could be taken and used as a weapon.”
“What about an accident?” Senator One asked.
“Every precaution is taken. From the CDC to privately run BSL4 labs, there is a strict protocol.”
A senator far to the right, number eight, lifted a folder. “Yet, the CDC doesn’t report when it has an accident. It took an investigative reporter from USA Today to break the story. 2009 the decontamination shower system went down in a level four lab. The Atlanta division suffers serious airflow problems in 2014. Seventy-five workers were exposed to Anthrax, and that same year CDC shipped out a deadly avian flu by accident. It’s not just the CDC, France had two major incidents. In 2014 live polio was accidently released into the waterways, and in 2004 they lost 2300 tubes containing SARS. Frightening.”
“Frightening indeed.” Another senator leaned forward. “And let’s not forget when the Department of Defense shipped out live anthrax by accident to ten labs in 2015.”
“All of those,” Elias said. “They are accidents and probably overstated for sensationalism. No one was infected at all in those incidents.”
“Maybe not those, but …” Senator Eight said and began to rattle a list he read from in his folder. “1977 the third swine flu outbreak was a lab accident, three SARS outbreaks in 2004, 1978 Smallpox outbreak, 2007 UK Hand, Foot and Mouth, 1995 Venezuelan encephalitis, the list goes on and on,” he dropped the folder. “All of them numerous deaths. All of them lab accidents.”
“Things have changed tremendously in the last few years. Labs have been updated,” Elias argued.
“But if your X is in a lab accident, then we’re in trouble,” Senator One said.
“Chances are slim, completely improbable,” Elias responded, speaking passionately. “Look, I know why everyone wants this ban reinstated. I do. But it is so vital not to let that panic you. A virus has the means to get from one part of the world to another in hours. Unlike the plagues before us. If we ban this research, then we can blame our ignorance, not science on the pandemic that brings us to extinction.”
“Or sadly …” Senator One said solemnly. “If we allow the research to continue and there is an accident, we can blame science and arrogance.”
7 – ROCK THE WAVES
Philadelphia, PA
The rain was steady, not a terrible downpour, but enough for Eve and her cameraman, Glenn to declare the I-95 hazardous. They stopped at a diner before finishing their trip to BNN headquarters in New York,
The waitress set down a double burger and fries before Glenn, and a breakfast platter in front of Eve. Both of them were busy with their phones and both nodded and smiled their thanks.
The sat in a booth, Glen across from Eve. He sat sideways, back against the wall, legs extended looking at his phone.
Eve snapped her finger to get his attention. “Eat.” She mouthed, she had the phone to her ear.
“Oh my God, you have to be kidding me?” Glen swung his legs around to be in front of his food. “Are you still on hold?” he asked Eve.
Eve nodded. “Yeah, it’s nerve wracking. Like waiting for the principal.”
“I hope we aren’t in trouble for anything. Get this. In 2004 France lost twenty-three hundred tubes with SARS. How does anyone lose twenty-three hundred tubes of anything?”
“Why are you bringing this up?”
“Damian is covering some senate committee …” His phone pinged. “Oh, shit in 2014 Belgium released polio in the water. Fucking French.”
“Damien is at a Senate Committee about France?”
Glen shook his head. “No. The committee is trying to determine if they should ban research with experimental deadly viruses and man mutated viruses. They don’t want to just ban it, they want to make it illegal.”
“Isn’t it already illegal?” Eve asked.
“Nope. I asked the same thing.” Glen lifted a fry. “Apparently it was banned and the ban was lifted.”
“Oh my God, that’s scary, why would they play with this stuff?”
Glen shrugged. “I asked Damien how he think it went. He said it’s tough to call.”
“I, for one hope they use their common sense and ban it for good. I mean …” Eve lifted her hand to Glen and brought the phone closer to her mouth. “Yes, I’m still here. No, the wait wasn’t that long Mr. Stevens.” She rolled her eyes slightly. “We’re in the office for a few days then we have that NASCAR …” Eve looked at Glenn with surprise and wide eyes. “Oh, my, I am sorry to hear that.” Pause. “Of course, anything. Of course. Again, that’s horrible. Thank you. See you in a few hours.” She brought the phone around, looked down at it and smiled.
“What’s going on?” Glenn asked.
“NASCAR is cancelled.”
“Aw, man, I was looking forward to that.”
“We’re going on a cruise,” Eve said.
“Okay, I still would rather be at NASCAR.”
“Glenn, it’s the Legends of Rock cruise. One of the biggest of the year. It’s huge. We have first class, maybe second accommodations.”
“Wait. Wait. I thought Perry Allan was doing that, he’s been bragging,” Glenn said.
“Apparently, Perry is sick, and we got it because we don’t have lives and can go on a moment’s notice.”
“Wow. Okay, maybe it might be cooler than NASCAR. A cruise with rock stars. What luck?”
“Yep. All because someone got sick. Never thought I’d say this, but in this case …” She set down her phone. “Thank God for the flu.”
8 – THE JOURNEY
Boston, MA
“Air France Flight 2770 now boarding first class and passengers with special needs.”
Frederic Petit peered up. That was him. He was finally getting on the flight, at last, he could exhale.
For the previous four hours he felt like a criminal. In a sense he was. He was traveling not only with an illegal substance, he was traveling with a highly contagious and deadly pathogen.
While the Senate Committee in the United States hadn’t officially reinstated the ban and ordered all samples to be destroyed, it was only a matter of time. Probably within days they would.
The only recourse to save X and the genome blueprints was to take it with him to his lab.
He could have worked strictly off of the genome blueprints, re
creating what Elias had done, but there was no guarantee he would create the exact same virus strand.
It was possible he wouldn’t.
Elias had created a monster. One so special, even Elias feared it. That fear was what gave Frederic confidence the virus sample was safe and sound to move elsewhere.
He knew Elias would take no chances.
He had two choices, two means of transporting the virus sample back to France.
He could have done it semi-legitimately. Using the triple packaging system, traveling with the virus under the guise of Chicken pox. Bringing the appropriate paperwork, which he could easily get. But the case would require a bright yellow biohazard sticker and it was what worried Frederic. Once he traveled with saliva samples and it was like he was a leper. People avoided him, and the man in the seat next to him caused such a stink about the biohazard case, the case was moved to cargo.
Something like that, Frederic didn’t want to chance. Not with X. He didn’t want to let it out of his sight. So, he opted for the criminal way.
In its own right, the criminal method of transport actually had more layers of protection than the standard—germ in a water tight receptacle, inside a secondary receptacle, inside a box or container.
However, Frederic was still nervous.
He kept telling himself, this is what he had to do.
The six virus samples were inside a tiny, glass sealed receptacle, placed inside six, shelled out lithium batteries, and then placed in the laptop battery case, which was connected to the laptop.
It was safe, Elias assured him. It was how they smuggled samples of Ebola back into the US when the president banned it during the last outbreak.
“We would prefer plastic or metal receptacles for the virus,” Elias told him. “But TSA would pick up on that during the scan.”
“And what if they pick up on something now?” Frederic asked.
“They won’t.”
“But if they do?”
“Just act natural. You don’t fit the profile. At worst, they’ll ask to see you turn on the laptop. They want to make sure it works and is real. If it was an explosive it wouldn’t work. This one does. Just … you have to plug it in, that’s all.” Elias explained. “You plugging it in and turning it on is all they will need to see.”
Plague Book: One Final Gasp Page 3