Pathogen

by Jessica L. Webb

  “Think about the kind of containers you would need to transport and store a live virus,” Kate prompted. “The size, shape, materials.”

  “We could generate a list, include pictures, if that would help,” Dr. Levesque replied.

  “Yes. Next question,” Andy said, moving on.

  “Wait,” Kate cut in, thinking about Andy’s request and her own clarification. “High tech and low tech. You need to think about what a lab would use, but also what household items could be used for the same purpose. Think about what you could buy at Walmart that could accomplish the same task.”

  Four sets of eyes looked at her with incredulity.

  “What?” Kate asked, looking around the room.

  “Just the thought of someone transporting the hantavirus in, I don’t know, a four-dollar Styrofoam container from Walmart kind of gives me the willies,” Nicole finally replied.

  “Dr. Morrison is right. We can’t make assumptions about who is behind this. So a list, high tech and low tech,” Andy demanded. “Next, any idea how this virus is being spread?”

  “That’s our main focus right now, Sergeant Wyles. I’m afraid we have no answer for you,” Dr. Levesque answered, almost apologetically.

  “I understand. Given what you know, though,” Andy pushed. “How can we begin to look?”

  “Focus on the hantavirus,” Rayna said. “It’s spread by rodents. The virus becomes aerosolized so it can be found in the rodents themselves, but also the dust and dirt in their surroundings. Start there.”

  “Samples, then,” Andy said.

  “I’m a little confused why you haven’t collected samples already,” Rayna said with evident contempt.

  “Two reasons,” Andy said curtly. “Once Dr. Levesque confirmed this was a man-made virus, we weren’t convinced we should be looking at how it spreads naturally. More importantly, it will be difficult to collect samples, particularly on private land, without raising alarm. Once the public finds out we are focusing on rodents, we are one Google search away from mass panic.”

  Rayna had the good grace to redden slightly and Kate was surprised when she spoke again. “Aerosolized means not only that it’s in the air but also that it has settled on surfaces. There must be a way to collect samples or swabs that don’t raise suspicions.”

  In her head, Kate pictured Andy and Constable Ferris on one of the Ozarc ranches, kicking up dust as they collected samples.

  “That’s exactly what we’re hoping to do,” Andy said. “So thank you all for your time.”

  “You’ll need protective equipment,” Kate blurted out, interrupting as Andy tried to sign off. “When you collect the samples, you’ll need a way to protect yourselves from the virus.”

  “Dr. Morrison is right,” added John, still tapping away at his laptop. “Though biohazard suits would hamper that whole subtlety approach you’re going for, you’ll need level three masks and gloves at the very least.”

  “The Public Health Officer is sending someone up in a couple of hours. He’s going to give us a basic safety rundown and a tutorial on collecting samples.”

  “If it was me out there, I’d want all the protection I could get,” John said, making a face. “Take whatever advice that guy gives you.”

  “Noted,” Andy said. “Thanks again for your time.”

  Dr. Levesque disconnected, the slight whine of the speakers disappeared, and Andy’s voice was gone. Kate quashed the unnecessary concern at the thought of Andy and Ferris being exposed to the virus. Still, she ran through the list of Andy’s admitted injuries. Nothing to suggest compromised lungs, nothing that should cause her any alarm. Still…

  “Okay, tell me she’s six feet tall with a brush cut.”

  “What?” Kate asked, not sure she’d understood what John had just said. Dr. Levesque was back on the phone, not paying attention. Rayna and Nicole, however, were listening in.

  “Agent Wyles or whatever. With that voice, I reckon she’s got to be six feet tall with a flat-top. Am I right?”

  Kate stared at him. She knew Andy couldn’t care less what John or the entire NML or, hell, even what all of Hidden Valley called her. But Kate took it personally.

  “She’s a sergeant,” Kate corrected, her voice hard. “And she’s my girlfriend.”

  John’s eyes widened slightly, then his whole face flushed a deep red. He shifted in his seat, his hands fidgeting with his laptop, squaring it to the edges of the table.

  “I didn’t mean…” he started to say, but Dr. Levesque interrupted, putting down the phone.

  “Dr. Morrison, good news. I’ve got Dr. Peter Hill from the University of Edinburgh on the way down. He’s visiting on a lecture tour and just so happens to have some field experience with hantavirus in South America. He’s agreed to come down and talk with you, though he’s only got an hour.”

  Kate pushed aside the awkward exchange with John, her worry about Andy, and her sudden and intense exhaustion. “That’s great, I’ve still got a lot of questions about treatment.” She looked down at her list, crossed off the questions that Andy had covered and basically avoided eye contact as Dr. Levesque broke up the rest of the team.

  Dr. Hill turned out to be short, pompous, and not particularly helpful. The last time he’d seen the hantavirus was over twenty years before in New Mexico, and in the first ten minutes of their meeting, he’d managed to repeat three times that the original hantavirus was genetically distinct from the Sin Nombre species Dr. Levesque’s team was researching. Kate asked her treatment questions, focusing on the extent of the pulmonary edema he’d seen in his patients, the efficacy of various treatment options, and his input around how the influenza might affect the hantavirus symptoms.

  “Oxygen therapy, Dr. Morrison. I can’t stress that enough. It’s the only thing that worked in the fifty percent of patients who survived,” he kept saying, checking his watch.

  When Kate asked about steroids, Dr. Hill just shook his head, saying he didn’t want to speculate on a treatment he’d never seen as they hadn’t had access to that in the field. He did say he would have Dr. Levesque look up the three papers he’d co-authored. Maybe she’d find something of interest in them. Kate, frustrated, managed to thank him for his time as he stood and headed to the door.

  “Oxygen therapy, Dr. Morrison!” he called back over his shoulder, as if imparting great wisdom, instead of describing a treatment she had not only tried, but that had already twice proved insufficient.

  Kate sighed, rubbed at her eyes, and checked her watch. Just after two in the afternoon, and her flight left at seven-thirty. The disorientation surfaced again, much milder this time, as she remembered where she was. Downtown Winnipeg, a city she avoided thinking about. And she still didn’t know enough. Not nearly enough. She felt like she was returning to Hidden Valley empty-handed. This more than anything caused frustration to burn in her stomach.

  The frosted glass door of the conference room opened and John walked in, balancing his open laptop on his forearm. He came right over and plunked himself down next to her.

  “I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I’ve got a big mouth, and I’m kind of a jerk, though you probably figured that out already.”

  Kate gave him a small smile, but didn’t say anything.

  “Anyway, I’m sorry. I didn’t know…” He trailed off.

  Kate let him squirm, feeling her own discomfort. What didn’t he know, Kate wondered, that I’m a lesbian? And how am I supposed to respond to that? You and me both?

  “Don’t worry about it. Apology accepted,” Kate said, noting his look of relief as she let him off the hook. She wondered if this was what coming out of the closet meant, a repetition of this uncomfortable scene, constantly managing other people’s curiosity and awkwardness, the continuous self-doubt about whether or not she should correct someone’s assumptions about her life. And the layers of shame if she decided to just let it go.

  “How’s the list coming along?” she asked John, breaking the silence, wanting very
much to move past this on to more relevant topics.

  “I want to run this by you, make sure it fits everything Sergeant Wyles was looking for.”

  Kate quickly scanned the list of universities and heads of research, not really interested, focusing instead on the pictures and descriptions of containers that could possibly be used to transport and store a live virus. As requested, there were high-tech cylinders and glass vials as well as small foam-packed boxes, dry ice, and small nitrogen tanks.

  “How would you do it?” Kate said, looking at the pictures of the containers.

  “What do you mean?”

  “If you were trying to intentionally spread a virus, how would you do it?”

  John thought about this, tapping his fingers on the table in front of him like he was scrolling through his laptop. “Most direct route? Food or water. Most widespread route? Common surfaces or sprinkle it into dust in high-traffic area so it gets kicked up, spread around, and inhaled. That’s why the hantavirus has traditionally been so well spread. No one ever suspects the dust because they can’t see it when they breathe it in.”

  “So, you would use different methods of transmission if you were trying to infect one person versus, let’s say, a community.”

  “Right.” He suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Not that I’ve thought about it. You did ask.”

  Kate had to laugh at him. “Hypothetical, John. It’s all hypothetical.”

  John grinned.

  The door to the conference room opened suddenly, and Dr. Levesque walked in, her face serious. Rayna shadowed her, coming over to where Kate sat, pulling the keyboard towards her without asking permission.

  “We’ve tested the most recent samples sent to us by Dr. Salinger. It looks like the HV1A virus is adapting,” Dr. Levesque said, her tone grave.

  “What?” Kate said, not really caring that she sounded utterly unintelligent. But this piece of information threw her, her overfull brain not able to shift that quickly.

  “Four of the most recent cases of HV1A are showing a mutation or adaptation of the original virus,” Rayna said, pulling up the purple-stained HV1A slide from earlier and a new one. Kate automatically started categorizing the similarities and differences.

  “The protein casing is different,” Kate said suddenly, into the silence.

  Rayna confirmed with a sharp nod. “We were just concluding that the virus is most likely spread through contaminated dust particles, like hantavirus and not person to person, like influenza, when Dr. Salinger sent over these images. We haven’t had enough time to really look at it, but the last four patients are apparently exhibiting a mutated form. One that is spread person to person. Nicole is running the test right now, seeing if it reacts to the protease in the throat and lungs, same as influenza A.”

  Kate stared at the two nearly identical slides, the phrase person to person looping through her head in a continuous, awful chant. She forced herself to say the next words, to ask the next question, to hear out loud the results.

  “So the same effects, the same symptoms, the same risk of acute onset pulmonary edema in compromised patients. Just a faster transmission rate.” She turned away from the slides to look at Rayna. “Is that what you’re telling me?”

  Rayna’s face was grim.

  “I’m afraid that’s exactly what I’m saying, Dr. Morrison.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Kate woke alone in the motel room in Hidden Valley, disoriented and still tired. She watched the bedside clock click over to eight thirty and a peppy, static-driven talk show host announced the wet, cold weather for the day. Kate vaguely remembered Andy setting the alarm on her way out the door to meet Ferris, hours earlier. Kate flicked the switch, got up and showered, feeling the sluggishness in her body, wondering how she’d managed to find her way out of the airport late last night, let alone rent a car and drive to Hidden Valley. Despite her exhaustion, Kate had been anxious to get back here. As she soaped and rinsed, Kate felt a kind of desperation, like something had to break. Soon. Maybe it would be treatment protocol or maybe it would be a solid lead for Andy and Ferris. Considering the bleak look on Andy’s face last night, she wasn’t feeling any farther ahead either.

  As Kate drove the darkened highway to the hospital, it felt like the kind of day when the sun doesn’t really rise, and it remains dark and shadowy all day before sinking back into night in imperceptible degrees. The rain didn’t help, making her hunch her shoulders and duck her head to keep it all out. In contrast, the windows of Hidden Valley General were bright, warm, and welcoming, as if the hospital had been built specifically to shelter people from days like this.

  The first person Kate saw when she pulled her rental car into the parking lot at Valley General was Chris Ozarc, standing outside in the rain looking up at the hospital. In her headlights, Kate caught a glimpse of his sombre face. His expensive grey jacket was completely soaked, as if he’d been there a while. Kate pulled the hood up on her jacket and ducked out in the rain, avoiding puddles as she went.

  “Chris?”

  Chris turned around at the sound of Kate’s voice, and she could see a deep weariness in his eyes. It looked strange, out of place, though Kate knew a privileged life could not protect him from pain. Chris acknowledged Kate with a slight nod of his head, then turned away again, coughing loudly.

  “Sick?” Kate said.

  Chris shrugged, a spasm of some emotion crossing his face.

  “Are you coming in to get checked out?”

  “Thinking about it.”

  They stood silently side by side in the pouring rain, looking up at the inviting lights of the hospital. Kate couldn’t tell from here how busy the ER was, though she knew from Dr. Doyle a constant, steady flow of patients had been coming in over the last few days. And about to get worse, Kate thought.

  Kate tucked her hands in her pockets as cold rain seeped around her wrists. “It could be a long wait, but at least you’ll be dry.”

  Another shrug from Chris.

  “There’s nobody here you need to worry about,” Kate said gently.

  Chris turned to her then, his eyes suspicious. Kate kept her expression open, understanding. Whatever judgement Chris had been expecting to see, he didn’t find it, and his shoulders slumped.

  “Come on in, we’ll get you registered in triage and find you a corner that isn’t full of screaming three-year-olds.”

  They walked into the hospital together silently, Chris keeping his head down. Still, his already bloodless face paled even more when he saw the number of people in the ER waiting room. To Kate, it didn’t look too bad. It was noisy and chaotic, with almost every chair full, but controlled and efficient. Kate had to wonder if all Chris saw was a room full of people who knew everything about him, who gossiped mercilessly at his expense. Chris stopped and surveyed the waiting room, then backed up slowly.

  “Chris—” Kate started.

  “I can’t,” Chris said, barely a whisper, turning to go.

  “Wait,” Kate said impulsively. She grabbed a piece of paper from the desk and scrawled out her cell phone number.

  “If you start to feel worse, give me a call. We’ll figure something out. And if you have any trouble breathing, you have to come back. Got it?”

  Chris stared at the piece of paper, and then back up to Kate. She could see him struggling with something. She waited silently, unmoving.

  “Dr. Morrison, the meeting’s about to start,” Dr. Doyle’s annoyed voice came from behind them.

  Kate looked back over her shoulder, trying to keep her own annoyance out of her tone. “Yes, thanks. I’ll be right there.”

  When Kate turned back, Chris was already gone, the glass doors of the front entrance closing slowly behind him. Kate sighed, wondering if she’d done enough. A moment later, the doors opened again and a man walked in. Not Chris. Jack.

  “Hi, Katie!” Jack’s wild, curly hair was plastered against his head, but nothing seemed to dampen his enthusiasm.

  “Hey, Jack
,” Kate said, giving him a quick hug. “Andy said she was calling you in.”

  “Yep,” he said happily. “Just had to finish up a project for Finns, but now I’m here and you guys have got my full attention.”

  “Good, we’re going to need it,” Kate said fervently. She was so incredibly happy Jack was here. Something about Jack’s youthful smile, his kind brown eyes, and his boundless energy and enthusiasm was absolutely infectious. “Follow me, our team meeting is about to start.”

  The meeting room was packed. Their small team had grown since the threat of epidemic had heightened after the NML’s discovery late yesterday. Dr. Salinger and Ferris were deep in conversation at one end of the table, and another officer Kate had never seen before, young and keen looking, was listening attentively. Dr. Doyle was talking with Dr. MacKay, who looked supremely relaxed. Kate couldn’t help thinking that he looked more like the lead singer in a boy band than a doctor. Andy was at the front of the room, carrying on a simultaneous conversation with someone on her cell phone and with a man with light brown skin and salt-and-pepper hair, dressed plainly in khakis and a button up shirt. Mona Kellar sat on her own in the corner, the same hungry, contemptuous look plastered to her face that had been there for the last week.

  Andy looked up and caught Kate’s eye. She acknowledged Jack with a brief smile, then spoke to the group.

  “Quick introductions before we get started,” Andy said as Kate and Jack took their seats. “Constable Slater is on loan to us from the Whistler detachment. My partner, Jack Sharpe, will be helping with information gathering. And this”—she indicated the man she’d just been talking to—“is Dr. Ahmed Din, an investigator with the federal branch of Public Health’s Emergency Management Team, sent to us by the Provincial Health Officer.

  “Given the most recent information that the HV1A virus is now able to transmit person to person, we’ve gone up one threat level. I’ll let Dr. Salinger and Dr. Din explain what that means for health management and community containment. Investigating this as a biological threat, any subtle, under-the-radar approaches we were going to attempt are now too conservative. The RCMP has two objectives. This first is to apprehend the person or persons responsible for making and releasing this virus into Hidden Valley, and the second is to assist with handling the public, as the panic levels will undoubtedly be increasing in the next few days.”