Blockbuster

by Lisa von Biela

  CHAPTER 54

  Exhaustion lay like a heavy weight on Sylvia’s aching shoulders as she slumped in her chair. She yawned inside her stuffy hazmat suit. The hours since Dr. Williams had administered the first dose to Todd had passed ever so slowly. They’d taken a blood sample a while ago, and she didn’t know whether to be hopeful or not. Todd didn’t look one bit different to her.

  Dr. Williams entered the room. “Good afternoon, Sylvia.”

  She couldn’t read his face well enough through the hazmat mask to see if he had good or bad news for her. She straightened herself in her chair and tried to prepare herself for news of either kind.

  He stepped over to Todd’s bedside and peered through the IsoStat at him from head to toe as if inventorying the tissue damage. Then he fussed with the IV flows longer than seemed necessary before turning to face her.

  Sylvia remained frozen in her chair. She didn’t trust her legs to support her right now if she tried to stand. “What is it? What did the test say?”

  “Sylvia, there are two things going on here. The test results came back, and it looks like the drug is effective. The blood level of ASA is markedly reduced with just the one dose. And what specimens are still present appear weak, lethargic. They’re not multiplying. So in that respect—”

  “Oh my God! That’s great news—” Sylvia fought off tears of relief.

  Dr. Williams held up a hand. “But there’s more to it than that. The drug appears to have arrested the infection, and looks like it will eradicate it—given enough time. His tissue damage appears to have stopped progressing, too. But…the damage is already so extensive that I’m afraid even with the drug, he may not survive.”

  Sylvia suddenly felt dizzy and had to lower her head to avoid passing out. She held up a hand. “Just a minute. Give me a minute.” A strange wave of heat passed through her, making her uncomfortably hot inside her hazmat suit. She wanted to just tear it off, to run from the room screaming. It couldn’t be true. They got the drug, they’ve come this close to curing Todd, but it was too late?

  After a few minutes, the dizziness passed and she carefully sat up, sweat forming on her hairline. “Are you…sure? I mean, if the drug stops the infection, then can’t his body focus purely on healing?”

  “In theory, yes. But here, the damage was incredibly extensive already. The necrosis spread over 90% of his body in just twenty-four hours. And it’s not just on the surface. There are several lesions where the muscle has been destroyed, leaving exposed bone. That means entire swathes of blood vessels, nerves and lymphatic pathways have been destroyed as well. And his GI tract…there is evidence of internal bleeding, probably from internal necrosis. I don’t dare bring him out of the induced coma for the pain he would likely experience.”

  “Oh.” Sylvia heard the doctor’s words but fought hard against accepting them.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t you realize you’re scratching your arm?”

  “No, I didn’t.” Sylvia looked down, and noticed, as if her limbs were acting on their own volition, that she was scratching her left forearm with her right hand. She hadn’t even realized it itched until now.

  “How do you feel?”

  “What? I’m—” With mounting terror, she realized she felt weak and feverish. The shock of Dr. Williams’ prognosis for Todd must have distracted her. She cast a panicked glance at the doctor.

  “Take off the hazmat suit. Let’s see what you were scratching.”

  Sylvia folded her arms protectively, as if that would stop this all from happening. “No. No, it can’t be!”

  “Come on.”

  Reluctantly, she stood, her knees trembling, whether from fear or disease, she couldn’t tell. Dr. Williams helped her out of the suit, tossed it aside, and then took her temperature with the digital gauge.

  “One hundred three. Roll up the sleeve on your left arm, please.”

  She complied, feeling as if she had just landed in a strange and terrible dream. She glanced down and gasped when she saw the lesion. Just like Todd’s, only smaller.

  For now.

  “Roll up the other sleeve. I need to take a blood sample for immediate testing.”

  She collapsed into the chair and did as she was told, so upset she didn’t even feel the needle.

  “I’m going to get this to the lab right away, but I think I know what it’s going to say. You have a decision to make.”

  “What?”

  Dr. Williams squatted down and looked straight into her eyes. “If you’ve contracted ASA, there is only one apparent cure—the sample drug they sent for Todd. We know it’s effective in arresting the pathogen. But there is only enough left for one person, and any delay in administering it could be…fatal.”

  Sylvia stared at him. This was all happening way too fast. She hadn’t even processed Todd’s prognosis and now Dr. Williams was thinking she had it, too?

  “Sylvia. If you have ASA, you must start on the Denali drug right away. You’ll have to use the supply that was meant for Todd. We don’t have enough for both of you—and we don’t have time to ask for more.” He took her by the shoulders. “I can’t save both of you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  She shook her head and waved him off. “I can’t…think right now.”

  He stood. “All right. I’ll get the test running and we’ll talk when the results come in. Should only take fifteen or so minutes. I’ll be back.”

  Alone with Todd, the room silent except for the soft tones of the various monitors, Sylvia curled into a semi-fetal position in her chair and tried to absorb what had just happened. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the lesion on her left arm and, repulsed, held it away from her and turned her head in the other direction.

  Dr. Williams’ words began to sink in. If the test was positive, she had to choose between her life and Todd’s. Well, maybe not. Even with the drug, Dr. Williams didn’t seem to think he’d make it. She almost didn’t care about herself right now. It was her fault Todd was in the condition he was. She deserved to get the disease.

  She gazed over at Todd again, Dr. Williams’ words echoing in her head. He didn’t dare bring him out of the induced coma because of the pain he would surely experience. She wanted so badly to talk to him, to tell him she was sorry, so sorry. To let him have his say in what decisions were made.

  But she likely would never again be able to talk to Todd. Ever. Suddenly she felt like she’d already lost him. She rested her head on the chair arm and sobbed.

  A short while later, Dr. Williams returned. He cleared his throat.

  She looked up, her vision blurred with tears. “What?”

  “It’s confirmed. You’ve contracted ASA. I understand you don’t want to deal with this right now. I really do. But time is of the essence. If you’re going to take the drug, you need to start right now, and we need to conserve the rest of the supply for you.”

  She looked over at Todd. “How sure are you that he won’t pull through if he finished the regimen?”

  “I can’t be 100% sure, but in my professional opinion, his condition has gone way too far, even though the drug appears to be highly effective.” He shook his head. “You, on the other hand, are very early in the process, and may have an excellent chance of a full recovery.”

  She hung her head. “All right, then. I’ll take the drug.” She looked up at the doctor. “But please, keep doing all you can for Todd, just in case.”

  “We will. We’ll continue with palliative care, and see what we can do to try to encourage healing, now that the damage has at least been arrested. I’m concerned about not running the complete drug regimen on him, that we didn’t fully eradicate the pathogen, but again, there is just no choice here. I don’t dare short you more than the one dose he’s already had. If Denali can produce some more of the drug quickly, we can put him back on it. But you need to come first.” He took a syringe from the cabinet and filled it with a dose from the vial
. “Give me your right arm, Sylvia.”

  She extended her arm and gazed at Todd as Dr. Williams injected the lifesaving drug into her vein.

  “I’m sorry, Todd.”

  VICTORY

  CHAPTER 55

  “I don’t usually do this in the office—well, not too often, anyway—but I think it’s called for today, don’t you?” Dan Tremaine stood at his desk and prepared to pop the cork on a cold bottle of Krug Grande Cuvee.

  Vince Calhoun had to smile. Somehow, he didn’t think Dan had too much trouble finding reasons to party when he felt the urge. But this time he had to agree. Today was a very auspicious day for the company—and for their respective bank accounts.

  “I’d say so. The FDA approved our Hercacillin as the sole drug effective against ASA, and the federal government was all too happy to take over manufacturing and distribution given the scope of the epidemic. And all of it in record time.”

  “Yeah, the ASA pathogen couldn’t have behaved more to our specifications than if we’d designed it ourselves. That’s some superbug.” Dan poured them each a glass of the champagne and handed one to Vince.

  “This one damned near brought down the economy—especially with the travel restrictions that were put in place. Even with Hercacillin’s efficacy, we came way too close to the point where even the fastest manufacturing and distribution would have been too late to stop a worldwide pandemic.” Vince paused and sipped some of his champagne. “This one really scared me—even more than MRSA-II.”

  “This was uncomfortably close, even for my taste. If we’d designed this one and had control of the schedule, I’d have pushed things about as far as we did with MRSA-II, and then brought out the drug. That worked out fine, with a smaller body count.”

  “I’m glad to see you wouldn’t have taken it this far if you’d had the choice. I’ve started working on the next superbug, and wanted to be sure where you stood on that point.”

  “That reminds me. With all the profit we’re already pulling in on Hercacillin—not to mention Lucracillin—I want you to know you’ll be seeing a sizeable bonus in your next check.” He raised his glass. “You really earned it. Sounds like this one was a tough one to pin down, even with your modified Pathosym.” He gulped the rest of his champagne and poured himself another glass. “Horton didn’t stand a chance to crack this in time, not with their old-school Pathosym.”

  “Thanks, Dan. I’ll have to think of something fun to spend it on.” He sipped his champagne. “You know, that whole business with Horton struck me as odd. He was in direct competition with us on this. He essentially conceded the race when he called you for help.”

  “He was worried about his scientist’s husband. And she was exposed as well. So he had a staff member with a personal stake. He probably couldn’t ignore that, or thought he couldn’t.”

  “Well, I still have a funny feeling about how that all went down. Do you think they might have engineered ASA?”

  Dan thought for a minute. “Well, if they did, they were pretty stupid to release it without having a companion drug ready.” He smiled and took another sip. “I think it’s clear to everyone—if it wasn’t already—that Horton is a second-rate, has-been pharma company. They were on the way down when Denali came on the scene, and we’ve been eating their lunch consistently ever since.”

  “Maybe they thought they figured out our business model and tried to copy it and leapfrog us. If so, it sure went horribly wrong for them. And for a lot of victims.” Vince shook his head. “I really do wish that many people didn’t have to die before this was contained. If they did engineer ASA, they sure engineered the most deadly and dangerous superbug ever.”

  “That it was. Hopefully, they don’t try that again. Leave it to the experts, right?”

  “Right!”

  Dan raised his glass and clicked it with Vince’s in a toast. Then he reached into his upper right desk drawer. “How about a little Stardust, Vince?”

  He held up his hand. “Oh, no. I only make that up for you. I haven’t ever tried it myself.”

  Dan busied himself with arranging a few lines on the small mirror. “Well, it’s great stuff. You should try it just this once. To celebrate.”

  Vince hesitated. He’d designed the drug at Dan’s request, and so he well knew its physiological effects from computer modeling. Like cocaine, but with all of the good and none of the bad. But he hadn’t tried it himself because he feared he’d enjoy it a little too much and might end up a regular user like Dan. But maybe just once…

  “All right, I’ll try it.” He took one of the disposable straws and inhaled a line. He sat down and followed Dan’s example of inhaling deeply and putting his head back as the effects kicked in. First, he felt a comfortable, glowing warmth all over, head to toe. That was from the drug’s stimulative effects on the cardiovascular system, as he expected. But then, something else happened. He began to feel godlike, as if there was nothing he couldn’t do—a feeling beyond anything he’d ever experienced.

  Vince smiled. This must be what it felt like to be Dan Tremaine. He liked how it felt.

  CHAPTER 56

  “You’re kidding.” John Humphrey’s eyes widened as he absorbed the news.

  “I wish I were, but I suppose it isn’t that surprising on some levels.” President Coleridge was used to having unfettered power, and the discovery that someone else had power over him did not sit well.

  “Surely there’s some mistake. Is the CIA absolutely sure of their intelligence on this?”

  “Rock solid. They checked and rechecked. They expressed no doubt whatsoever that Denali Labs was behind the MRSA-II outbreak. Makes me wonder about the GIS and ASA outbreaks, too. I have no proof on those yet, but if they pulled off MRSA-II—and then were essentially rewarded for it by the federal government—I think it’s safe to assume they had a hand in those outbreaks as well.”

  “My God. So, will the AG prosecute?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “Why not?”

  “Don’t you see? Tremaine’s got us by the balls. If he did what he did, do you think for an instant that he would hesitate to develop and threaten to release some other deadly pathogen to keep us from prosecuting? I have no doubt in my mind he would do that, and I can’t risk the security of the Homeland.”

  “But what’s to stop him from developing a new pathogen just to get another government contract for the drug?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then what are you going to do?”

  “I’ve told the CIA to seal its files on this investigation. We won’t attempt to prosecute. But…we need to make it attractive for Denali to work with us on a different level, one that we can control. One that we can actually benefit from. I don’t like lying down with dogs, but sometimes it’s the only thing to do.”

  John leaned forward in his chair. “What are you thinking, sir?”

  “I’m going to have a frank discussion with him about what we know, and then ask him to partner—confidentially, of course—on developing a pathogen we can use proactively to defend the Homeland, as well as the curing drug that would be distributed to necessary persons, were the need to use such a pathogen ever to arise.”

  “Sounds like a win-win, sir.”

  “Yes, it does solve a lot of problems, doesn’t it?”

  CHAPTER 57

  Phil Horton sat behind his desk for the last time, and was glad of it. Boxes littered the floor all around his office. His desktop was bare. His work was done.

  His successor, Dennis McKenzie, sat in a chair opposite him. Phil thought he looked inappropriately eager, much like a vulture that had just spotted some tasty road kill, but he chose to not comment on that.

  “I wish you luck, Dennis. I really do. I just can’t do this anymore. BigPharma has morphed into a world I just can’t and won’t compete in. Now you know what was going on behind the scenes most of this past year, and I’m sure you can understand why I couldn’t reveal it to anyone else until now. Denali has a business
model that I would never have come up with myself, and I foolishly tried to beat them at their own game.” He stared down at his desk, his eyes burning with exhaustion. “And I’ll never be able to forgive myself for what happened because of it.”

  “But you were trying to keep Horton Drugs alive. To do that, you had to compete.”

  Phil raised his eyes and gazed at Dennis. “And that’s just it. I don’t have the stomach to compete that way. I hope you have better luck playing Tremaine’s game, if that’s what it takes to keep Horton on the map. I’m done.”

  Dennis shrugged one shoulder. “Well, there were lessons to be learned and I think we can apply them going forward and do a better job next time.”

  Phil tried to ignore the queasy feeling he got from Dennis and his casual attitude. “GIS is still common enough that sales of Spectracillin continue to do well. Horton Drugs had one foot in the grave last year, and now it’s at least solvent and a going concern. But it’s way the hell behind Denali in revenues, profit margin, and market share. So Horton could at least survive the foreseeable future as it is. It’s up to you now to decide how far to push to catch up with Denali.”

  Dennis leaned forward. “Oh, I intend to beat them at their own game. Tremaine thinks he’s God. We’ll show him. Horton will overtake Denali if it’s the last thing I do.”

  “Well, I wish you the best.” He glanced around his office. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to be alone for a bit before I clear out.”

  Dennis stood. “Oh, sure. I understand. Take all the time you need.” He shook hands with Phil, turned and left.

  Phil went over and closed his office door, his hand lingering on the knob for a moment. Dennis was just the fresh blood needed to take on Denali. That much was evident. But he’d have to hire some new staff. Sylvia had never been the same since Todd died, and was still on some extended leave arrangement. He somehow doubted she would ever return. Jerry had quietly resigned and disappeared not long after Dennis’ appointment had been announced. He had enough time in that he probably just planned to retire from an industry he could no longer believe in.