The Visitor

by Brent Ayscough

  Tupkalo went outside and ordered the soldiers to march the prisoners across the border and transfer them to the four huge guards waiting for them. The border guard raised the wooden gate, and the Russian soldiers ushered the prisoners across. The Chinese had their knapsacks returned to them to make them feel a little better. The colonel also delivered a package, wrapped in brown paper and containing six pistols, two automatic rifles, many extra clips, and lots of heavy ammo, to be delivered to the lab for security pursuant to Nikolay’s request.

  Once the prisoners were across, they were ushered into the back of a similar truck to resume their journey into Kazakhstan. Nikolay and Tupkalo went to one side of the truck, where they could not be seen, and Nikolay gave Tupkalo the fifty thousand US Dollars. In return, Tupkalo gave him the keys for the chains, allowing Nikolay to keep the prisoners chained.

  Tupkalo counted the money with wide eyes, having never had such a sum at one time. He was rich!

  On the Kazakhstan side was another guard shack, but it was tiny and the man inside did not even come out. He had already been promised a bribe by Nikolay for overlooking the crossing of the prisoners and, although actually not a lot of money, the bribe was the equivalent of two month’s salary. Nikolay did not give him any more than necessary so as not to make him suspicious and, with so little activity in Stepnogorsk for years, he was quite glad to accept the amount offered.

  All of the prisoners got into the truck peacefully, except for the Tibetan male, Jamyang Gyamtso, who refused to get in. He had a chain around his waist that was connected to the next prisoner in the truck and, since there was no slack in the chain, the man in the truck ahead of him was about to be pulled out.

  Anatoly Zuhk came over him and thumped Gyamtso on the top of his head with his knuckles, making a noise like a drum. That quieted the man down, and he then got into the truck. He appeared dizzy after the tap on the head.

  The snow and cold wind increased. Opanasenko passed out blankets to the prisoners to cover themselves, so they would not fall sick, as the truck headed into the narrow, mountainous, desolate trail to the south, heading for the place known only as Post Office Box 2076, where, known only to a select few, the deadliest organisms to humans existing on the planet were still alive.

  ***

  At Building 221, the sky was dark in the middle of the afternoon, but this was not unusual for the area. Spring snow fell, and a cold and unfriendly wind pierced the prisoners’ clothes like that of an Arctic winter. Inside, near the lab in the back, jail cells remained from the days of the Soviet Union, built for prisoners brought in to be subjects for exposure to horrific bio-warfare agents. The main use of those condemned prisoners was for anthrax testing, as that was what was made in huge quantities at the facility in its heyday. But the anthrax had become so highly developed that there came a time when there was little need to continue testing, except to confirm that new batches were just as lethal as the previous ones. So there had been ample subjects for Dr. Dorogomilov to use for his own pet projects with Ebola. The jail cells had not been needed since the Soviet Union breakup, and so they were just used as storage rooms. He’d cleared them out for the current project and told the maintenance man, who stoked up the furnace in the mornings, that he needed those cells heated, along with another part he would use for the multitude of monkeys and rabbits that were to be brought in to be exposed--he said--to the fungi under development for killing opium poppies to make sure that the experimental chemical was safe for animals.

  The high-containment operation recovery rooms were still there, equipped with left-over medical equipment. The high-containment area was insulated from the main building by a series of three chambers with air-tight doors to prevent whatever was being used on the subjects from escaping. The outer doors led into an additional, large containment hall, also with a fourth air containment door, where pressure suits were hung up in one of the chambers. They would have to be pressure checked regularly for leaks, and patch kits were on-site for repairs. The middle chamber to each room was built like a big shower with a hose that supplied chemicals to wash off the containment suits. The doors were all oval-shaped submarine doors, which was where they came from when the building was built. The airtight doors could all be locked from the outside to prevent the subjects or contaminated persons from escaping.

  Mice, rabbits, and monkeys arrived in quantities, transforming the place into a smelly zoo. The monkeys shrieked and jumped all about when anyone entered.

  Drs. Dorogomilov and Volkova hired six local women and three men, who were out of work, to help out. They were extended family of Dr. Dorogomilov’s deceased wife, except for two who were close enough to be trusted. They did not, of course, have any idea of what they were really doing, only that they were working on the special fungi testing to kill opium poppies, and that details of the work were to be kept secret, in hopes that the process might be patented if successful.

  All the helpers would go home in the evenings, as though it was an ordinary job. A special bus was hired to fetch them from several pick up points, designed to reduce the inevitable chatting and questions with other passengers that they might meet on the public bus. The help were not allowed in the back area where the prisoners were to be kept and, to reduce any interest in going to Dr. Dorogomilov’s lab, the helpers were told that they could not enter the back without special showers and clothes just before going in, as they would bring contaminates in to the specially clean laboratory research areas.

  The truck with Nikolay and the human cargo arrived. Hearing that, Dr. Dorogomilov rushed to the front of the building, much like Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz learning that more twins had arrived for experimentation.

  Nikolay made the prisoners get out and stand in front of the huge building. Dr. Dorogomilov walked around them once and studied his new subjects. The prisoners stood quietly in awe and fear, wondering what was in store for them. They were led inside and past the section where cages had been set up with mice, others with rabbits, and larger ones with monkeys. Seeing the humans, some of the monkeys shrieked and others jumped from the sides of the cage bars, scaring the prisoners.

  When they reached the rooms for the prisoners, Nikolay and his guards unchained and separated them. Tai, Sum, and So were motioned to undress and shown into a shower. Their clothes were gathered and taken away, they thought for cleaning, but in actuality to be disposed of as unsanitary. After the Chinese men showered, they were each provided a two-piece, gray, cotton outfit that would be their attire at the lab, one that could be washed like hospital scrubs. Shown to the cells, one of the men, Tai, resisted being locked up and was holding his head after Yageltchuk persuaded him to change his mind.

  It was then time for Mee and Ma to shower. The two women modestly resisted undressing in front of the guards, and the guards began to chuckle. One of them moved in to force Mee out of her clothes, but Nikolay realized that they still had a good chance for cooperation and motioned him back.

  “I’ll get the women to shower. You go on,” Nikolay said to the guards.

  The guards left reluctantly with the three men, disappointed that they were missing the free show with the naked women. Nikolay led Mee and Ma to the shower door and allowed them their modesty by leaving the room. There was no other exit or trouble they could get into, and so he opted for obtaining their cooperation as long as it would last. When he heard the showers shut off, he waited a minute and went in. Ma and Mee had already put on their gray cotton outfits, to avoid being seen naked, and had bundled their clothes. He then led them to their cells, after which he told one of his men to make them tea, as he had been instructed by the doctors that they could not have solid food that night as there would be medical tests on them in the morning.

  The Tibetans, Jamyang Gyamtso and Neema Lhamo, were next. Nikolay determined that they were getting along well together and decided to have them shower and dress together. They seemed to feel more comfortable together, speaking their native tongue to one another, and were giv
en a cell to share. Tomorrow was going to be a special, and unfortunate, day for the prisoners, as experimentation was to begin on their tissues.

  ***

  Nikolay and three guards came to the Chinese subjects’ cells at six o’clock in the morning to find them sound asleep. Sum was found praying in his room.

  They led Sum to Dr. Dorogomilov’s outer lab area and to a separate room with a guard placed outside.

  Dr. Volkova appeared in a white lab coat and began Sum’s medical examination. She took his vitals and drew blood for analysis. She was most interested in the blood analysis and took it to an analyzer in another room right away.

  She returned several minutes later, bringing in a disposable cup of a clear liquid which she gave to him.

  “What are you giving him, Doctor?” Nikolay, asked, speaking in Russian, as he knew the Chinaman did not understand.

  “Klophelin,” she answered. “It’ll knock him out, and then we won’t have to fight him to get him under the mask.” She motioned for Sum to drink, and he complied.

  “I know of that,” Nikolay said. “Russian hookers sometimes put this in a man’s drink to knock him out so they can steal his money.”

  Sum suddenly felt tired, lay back on the table, and closed his eyes. He was out in no time.

  “Take off his clothes,” Dr. Volkova told Nikolay.

  He slipped off Sum’s gray scrubs, and Dr. Volkova then looked him over as he lay naked on the table. She reached for a set of electric shears with an extension cord on the counter nearby and shaved the hair off his head, the hair falling to the ground. She then lifted his sex organ with one hand and methodically shaved around it as well.

  Once finished, she said to Nikolay, “Bring in the gurney.”

  He went outside and returned with a gurney and one of his men. They easily put Sum, half their size, onto it and wheeled him behind Dr. Volkova toward Master Surgeon Dorogomilov’s operating room and lifted the naked Sum onto the operating table.

  “Please go tidy up the hair, so as not to frighten the next one, and then make another one ready,” Dr. Volkova told Nikolay.

  The operating room was large and filled with all the equipment one would find in a regular operating theater. The operating table was in the center, under lights. Behind it was an anesthesiologist’s cart set up with the usual tanks and breathing equipment, ready to go.

  Dr. Volkova opened a jar of sterile wipes and began to wipe Sum with them in the area over the liver, the stomach, the scalp, and then his chest. They were going to do all the areas at one time. Any later complaints about the lack of bedside manner would not be a factor.

  The door opened and the Dorogomilov entered. Dr. Volkova pulled over a table of instruments selected for the procedures. “This one has been praying in his cell every day,” she told him.

  Dr. Dorogomilov first went for a sample of liver tissue, which he took in the form of a needle biopsy. He ran a huge, size sixteen needle with a trochar, a plug inside the needle blocking the opening, right through his abdomen into his liver. Once inside his liver, the trochar was removed and Dr. Dorogomilov put a huge syringe on the needle, applied vacuum, and rammed the needle on into the liver, whereupon he sucked out liver material into the syringe, and then set the syringe in a stainless-steel pan with the tissue samples.

  “What next?” Dr. Volkova asked.

  “Lungs.”

  Dr. Volkova wiped Sum’s chest once again so Dr. Dorogomilov could make a cut over the lung to one side. He then cut through the intercostal muscle and spread the ribs. Taking forceps to pinch a piece of lung for his specimen, he then stapled the lung tissue together leaving the specimen in-between the staples so that when he cut it out, the lung would be already pre-sealed. He then cut the piece of lung in between the staples, and had his specimen.

  After stitching up the open chest, he started on the stomach. He shoved a fiberoptic endoscope down Sum’s throat and sniped off a piece of stomach tissue.

  “I’m going to take some brain samples as well,” Dr. Dorogomilov told Dr. Volkova.

  “What? You have never made a workable race-specific Ebola from brain tissues. The blood brain barrier does not permit it.”

  “Hush. This modified virus is more virulent, and I predict it will get past the blood brain barrier. In any event, do not mention it to the guards or to the baron. Sum has been praying since he got here. He may have the difference in the brain that I believe exists between deeply religious people and those who are not. Now that I am back in operation, with resources, I have the chance to test my theory that I can make an Ebola that will only attack fanatically religious people. It is only my knowledge that is bringing me the five million from the baron, and I want to learn what I can now that I have the chance. I will compare parts of Sum’s brain to others as Sum is deeply religious. Imagine what that knowledge could be worth one day.”

  Dr. Dorogomilov drew a circle on Sum’s shaved head with a red pen over the parietal area and drilled a pilot hole in the red spot with a drill. With a craniotome saw he cut a hole. The bone fragments sprayed about like sawdust from a woodworker. With a scalpel, he cut the dura, allowing clear, cerebrospinal fluid to seep out. There it was, brain tissue for the taking. Pausing a moment to look at the bounty, he then put a probe deep into the brain, to an area that he had learned of, and then took out what he wanted. He then put in a bipolar cautery electric probe and cauterized the wound to prevent hemorrhaging, as bleeding in the brain was quite often fatal, although the removal of part of his limbic system in the brain would probably keep him from regaining consciousness.

  The doctor closed the dura mater, stitched it, but did not bother to put anything back in the hole in the cranium, as there was no need, given the situation.

  When he was through with Sum, he looked up at Dr. Volkova and nodded, indicating that the procedure was completed.

  He took off his bloody gloves, and tossed them into the wastebasket to go have a tea and then scrub for the next subject. Dr. Volkova methodically put the tissue samples in containers and labeled each one with its place of origin, as well as with Sum’s name, and placed them into a refrigerator.

  Dr. Volkova covered Sum with a sheet up to his head, went to the door, and called for Nikolay. He came in, with Zuhk pushing the gurney, transferred Sum to it, and wheeled him out to a recovery room. Timoshenko and Yageltchuk were standing by.

  Not wasting time, Dr. Dorogomilov utilized the rest of the day completing the tissue sampling from all of the remaining four Chinese, Tai, Mee, So, and Ma. They were brought in one at a time, two hours apart, for the same treatment.

  No one put up any resistance except Tai who, when he saw some cut hair on the floor around the table where he was told to sit, decided to try bolting. Rather than voluntarily drinking his Klophelin drug from the cup, he had to be held, with each of four huge guards on one of his limbs, as, shrieking and kicking, he had a gauze filled with chloroform held over his mouth and nose until he became limp.

  Within an hour or two following their operations, they came to and were then wheeled to their cells and placed onto their beds by the guards so they could sleep off the final effects of the gas and procedures.

  Later that day, they were given strong pain killers, as they awoken in horrible pain and were suffering.

  By the end of that long day, Dr. Dorogomilov had the initial tissue samples he needed. He looked at the tissues in their containers through the glass refrigerator door, wondering just what specifics he could expect to isolate.

  The following day, the two doctors performed the operations with the Tibetans, the control group.

  Everything had gone well. Beginning the next morning, Dr. Dorogomilov would start early.

  ***

  Drs. Dorogomilov and Volkova sat admiring the new equipment that had arrived. Dr. Volkova turned to Dr. Dorogomilov and asked, “Which do you want to start with?”

  “I read a study just last night on the Internet that the Han Chinese have a high incidence of live
r disease, so we can go there if we don’t find it in the lungs, which I would prefer.”

  Dr. Volkova went to the refrigerator and brought lung tissue from one of the subjects. Dr. Dorogomilov first put it into his new sonicator and blasted the sample with sonic waves until it was broken up and blended into a homogeneous brew. He then put the cells into his new density gradient ultracentrifuge, which swung them in a circle at an amazing one hundred thousand times normal gravity. The result was that the dense cells were slung to the bottom of the containers, resulting in cell separation by density into relevant fractions.

  Next the doctor added an eluent, to dissolve any contaminants, and put the cells into a high-pressure liquefying chromatography machine which separated the mixture into vertical columns. One cc at a time was removed from the end of the each column and put into a tube, over and over again, until a hundred cc’s had been taken, each with a different density. The cells were then subjected to a densitometer with a light scanner. Once the light scanner turned on the cells, peaks and valleys appeared on the monitor, along a horizontal axis, displaying the differences of the protein components.

  He had gone through two thirds of the hundred cc’s with the light scanner, when he noticed that one had a huge vertical peak, clearly distinguishing it as a unique protein.

  “Here’s one!” he exclaimed. “Have a look.” He moved aside to let her in closer to the monitor. “Now, Anastasiya, I want you to repeat this with the other lung tissues from each of the Chinese to see if they all have it. As we know that the unique cell is in the lungs, you can shortcut the process by starting with the lung samples from the other subjects and taking the sample from about two-thirds of the way down, or at least very close to it, so you only have to test a few tubes on either side to find and confirm. If you get confirmation with the other four, you can go ahead and concentrate it by mixing it with ammonium carbonate in a dialysis tubing. Then we will see if the Tibetans have it. While you do that, I will get started on tissue from another organ. I’m hoping that if I can’t find it the lungs, I will be able to find it in the liver, so I will try that next.”