The Pilgrim Strain

by Edgar, C. P.

  Rainer sat down at the table across from her. He hadn’t eaten or had much to drink in hours. His eyes were dark and slightly sunken. His head felt slightly heavy and his back hurt. He was worn out and the stress of trying to get his men out alive and constantly searching for a course of action that wouldn’t result in them being killed or imprisoned was starting to wear on him.

  His mind traced back to the words Brewster kept repeating, “They’re weapons.” He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, an act born out of habit. Grabbing the notebook from his cargo pocket he let it fall from his hand onto the table in front of them. It came to a rest with its pages open baring its inner secrets.

  “He said they had developed a weapon. Some sort of biological weapon that they had code-named the Pilgrim Strain.” He slid the notebook toward her so she could see its contents. Some of the pages were still wet, the edges of the pages beginning to curl slightly.

  She pulled it toward her sliding it along the rough table top. His handwriting was neat and orderly. She observed that Rainer wrote in all capital letters in print fashion. Like an architect would utilize on a blueprint. She had half expected it to be unintelligible chicken scratch.

  Rainer and these men were not the kind of people she typically associated with. They were a mystery to her. They had rough exteriors and portrayed hardened emotions, and they did bad things. But somehow, she could tell they were good people on the inside. Men with honor and purpose. Smart and masterful at their crafts. She wondered what they had been like as children and who their mothers were.

  She began reading through portions of it shifting in her seat as she did so, and then realizing the glares from the men she reread it out loud for the benefit of the entire group. Kef and Einberg had left the backroom closing the door behind them quietly. They had made fast work of collecting the dead man’s samples. Everyone was standing around the table intent on trying to digest the information.

  “The program used human cadavers infected with variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease for harvesting prions.” She read mentally chewing on the data.

  “What is a prion?” Helechek asked looking perplexed. He thought it sounded like a food, like shrimp or crawfish.

  “A prion is just a protein that becomes misfolded or defective. All proteins fold in order to function properly. If they didn’t fold, they wouldn’t be able to fulfill their role which is to perform functions within a living organism such as cell signaling or transporting molecules from point A to point B.” She looked around to make sure they were all still with her. For the most part, they seemed on top of it.

  “So, in a nutshell a prion is a defective protein and becomes toxic to the organism. Prions are troubling though because they replicate. A prion forces other healthy proteins to misfold, and the process is exponential. So sooner or later the host organism becomes bombarded by prions. Good?” She asked and saw most everyone nodding to continue.

  “Ok, this part is scary.” Merissa sat and read silently for a moment.

  She continued reading from the notes for the group, “The harvested prions were RNA sequenced for future research into cures for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. Sometime later, a separate working group researching Nipah Virus variants made a finding that the glycoprotein that merged with the host cell of the virus were freed after the virus completed its infection of the host cell.”

  Merissa took a quiet, introspective breath but continued, “The newly freed glycoprotein was modified by the natural viral process. Additionally, this research group had also sequenced the RNA of those altered glycoprotein. When they loaded the data into their system, they found that their RNA sequence was nearly identical to the prion RNA that had been studied by the other group.” She looked up from the notes to the team.

  “He said all this?” she asked. She found it hard to believe that Mr. Trecato, or whoever he was, had the proper level of consciousness to produce this amount of particular information.

  She had heard the torturous sessions he had endured. The walls of the room within were paper-thin and she had suffered those yells, the choking, the physical sounds along with him. It had pained her to just sit there. She had forced herself to grab hold of the sides of the table to anchor herself, her white knuckles screaming in protest as her will tried to jump up and save him. She shook this memory from her mind.

  Einberg replied, “Yeah, I heard that part too. He rambled fast and steady after he broke, like a religious diatribe from a possessed man. I had been trying to follow along with Brewster as best I could and I do recall him saying that the research the two separate research groups were conducting merged at some point because their findings had overlapped.”

  “Jesus, ok. The findings were transferred to a secret biological weapons program located in Papua New Guinea.” She paused having noticed that Helechek and Daggan had visibly stiffened from that new information. She looked at Rainer who was nodding in the affirmative to them. She didn’t know what they were communicating but she was aware that something was up.

  “Should I continue?” she asked almost sarcastically.

  “Please,” Rainer said standing up to get a bottle of water from the Yeti cooler they had on the floor.

  “This new research team worked on genetically modifying the Nipah Virus so that upon its release of the glycoprotein, the glycoprotein would be fully modified into the CJD variant prion. They were successful.”

  “Ok, stop right there, please.” Kef moved closer to Merissa so he could take a quick look at the notes. Maybe in an effort to understand through osmosis he even touched the page she was on. He retreated slightly and continued, “What the fuck does that mean?”

  Merissa smiled at his naivety. It made him cute in sort of a dumb jock kind of way. “They altered a deadly virus so that its waste was a deadly disease. They created a two-for-one bio-weapon.”

  “It shits prions basically?” he asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Ok, got it, damn that’s pretty wicked,” he said relieved to be back on board.

  “Merissa,” Rainer jumped in. He hadn’t called her by her first name before. “How deadly is this?”

  “Well, I’ve read some papers on transmissible spongiform encephalopathy which you guys have probably heard of as Mad Cow disease. I never dove deep into the subject though because it wasn’t something I felt I’d see and if I did I could research it then. I do recall from my reading though that the disease primarily attacked the brain tissue, destroying it to the point where it looked like a sponge when autopsied. Hence the name spongiform,” she said.

  “Can I get one of those bottles of water?” she asked Rainer. He reached into the cooler a second time and then handed her one.

  “Thanks,” she said taking the bottle and opening it. She took a long pull and then set it down in front of her.

  “I have a lot of knowledge of Nipah Virus though. The WHO has had a Nipah Virus study project running since 1999. It is one of the viruses we have classified as high-risk due to the fact that it can be transmitted from person to person easily. It maintains a relatively low incubation period, I believe it can be as quick as four days, and because it has such a high mortality rate it’s on our radar. If I remember correctly, it was as high as seventy percent.”

  “Four days? These people are turning in a matter of hours,” Miller said having experienced firsthand the speed of infection.

  “Yes, I’ve been thinking about that. The symptoms that a person would display for Nipah Virus are very similar to the symptoms a person would display for prion-related diseases such as spongiform encephalitis. The fact that this variant was engineered to create prions through its natural reproductive cycle just leads me to guess that the incubation period for both the virus and the prion disease is grossly accelerated and the symptoms more prolific when they occur. The flip side to this is that these people will likely succumb to their illnesses very quickly. That could mean the rate of infection can’t sustain itself. It’s like hav
ing a very hot fire, it requires more fuel to keep burning, and if you limit the fuel it will burn out. They will die off.”

  “Can you use this information to get a cure shipped in for these people?” Kef asked noting the receipt of a sideways glance from Rainer once it broke past his lips.

  “There is no known treatment for Nipah Virus. There is no vaccine or ‘antidote’ so to speak. The only option is to segregate the exposed and keep them away from others and to administer intensive supportive care for those with symptoms.”

  “You mean quarantine and sedation.” Einberg added.

  “Yes, quarantine. In fact, I really need to get this information to my superiors so we can begin to combat this outbreak. If this new version gets beyond the borders it may be catastrophic,” she said looking to Rainer as an appeal.

  Something crashed to the ground outside the building they were in. It came from the side opposite the vehicles. It sounded like a large piece of aluminum or a metal trash can had fallen.

  Everyone froze in place and Daggan reached over and clicked off the interior lights bringing darkness upon them. Low amounts of light filtered in through the small windows set high in the wall of the main room they were in. Each man slowly brought their respective weapons to the ready having had them either slung already or within arm’s reach.

  Rainer issued commands using his hands. Daggan and Helechek had been closest to the front entryway and moved to cover that breach point from the left and right respectively. Kef and Einberg moved to the rear of the building where a single door leading to the back alleyway was located.

  Kef had barricaded the door shut earlier with some loose lumber and other building materials a few days prior but they would cover that point nonetheless. Miller moved to a point to stand watch over the doctor while Rainer moved slowly toward the windows to get a quick look outside.

  Rainer chose the left corner of the window to get an initial peek. He wanted to limit as much of his profile as possible when exposing himself. Last thing he needed was a lead projectile in the dome.

  Rainer spotted them immediately. They were only about four meters away from the window looking away toward the east, giving Rainer a side profile of them. There were three of them in close proximity to each other. Two men dressed in militant style fatigues, patterned in woodland camouflage, although the larger of the two had his sleeves cut off and he was wearing a tattered old maroon beret. The third male was much younger, probably only fourteen or so and was wearing jeans and a well-worn olive drab button down shirt. Rainer only picked up one weapon, an AK-47 slung on the back of the male wearing the beret.

  The boy began to cough slightly and then he turned toward the house looking momentarily at Rainer who ducked down slightly. The boy began breathing in the air heavily like a dog. He coughed two more times violently and the other two males both turned to investigate. They began moving slowly toward the building.

  Rainer stepped back and brought his HK MP7 up and centered it on the window. He waited patiently for the first of the three to pop his head into his line of sight. He waited, and then he waited some more.

  A loud bang echoed out from the front of the building and then another. Rainer could see out of the corner of his eye Daggan bringing his weapon up to cover the door. Something was crashing into the door, trying to break it free.

  Rainer was still waiting for one of those three to poke his head up into the window to get a look and a lead present. None had yet made the fatal mistake. He moved cautiously over and took a quick look outside, and immediately identified that no one was there. He pointed to Miller and then back to the window. Miller took his place, allowing Rainer to relinquish the position and moved to the front door where the loud banging continued.

  Rainer crept up behind Daggan who had taken the position on the right side of the inward opening door, closest to the doorknob, and gave him a squeeze on the shoulder. He looked to Chek and motioned for him to unlock the door and allow it to open.

  Chek moved to the door placing his hand on the door brace used as a barricade. He waited for the next big slam and felt the force of the blow through the door; dust and debris fell to the floor from the edges of the door frame. He threw the door brace up and out of the two u-shaped brackets mounted into the doorframe and pulled the door open moving away from Daggan and Rainer as it swung in.

  Outside, the large black male wearing the maroon beret was lining himself up for another vicious run at the door. Blood was pouring down the right side of his face where it must have come in contact with the door as he slammed his body into it.

  He spotted Daggan and Rainer and opened his mouth to bare his teeth, or what was left of them as he ran forward once again. He only had a few teeth remaining, the others were broken off leaving a jagged line. His scream had just begun to emanate as the bullet from Daggan’s MP7 tore through his throat silencing it. Blood splashed out the back of his neck as he charged forward. Daggan spat out three more rounds filling in the man’s face, dropping him in mid-stride.

  More screams were issued around the entire perimeter as Daggan pushed through the door taking up a position two steps to the exterior of the building, on the left. Rainer had immediately followed and was now standing outside to the right, staring at the young man in jeans. The boy was crouched low and screeching.

  The boy advanced on all fours like a cat. Rainer shot him once in the right shoulder and then two more times in the top of his head. He scanned trying to identify any more targets in his field of fire finding none. He fleetingly looked about, and could only make out the glow of something burning off in the distance on the horizon. Suddenly, a helicopter appeared moving quickly from his left to right at no higher than a hundred feet off the deck.

  It was a Hind attack helicopter but Rainer couldn’t make out the unit designation in the darkness as it screamed by. The Mi-24’s 12.7mm Yak-B Gatling gun began pouring fire toward the main road leading deeper into Kaduqli. Simultaneously, the Hind spit out three or four rockets from the pod located under its starboard side wingtip pylon. Moments later Rainer heard and felt the rockets detonating on some unseen target. The Hind continued its course and was gone, but Rainer could still hear it dealing out its armament.

  Rainer yelled out, “Chek, get the rest of the team and the doctor out of the building, we are leaving here right now!” He heard Chek slipping back into the doorway.

  “Daggan, there is at least one more out here,” he whispered.

  “Roger.”

  Rainer scanned right to left and back again searching the shadows for the other man he had seen. Their safe house was located on the outskirts of the town, and was surrounded by a ten foot mud wall with only a single vehicle port void a gate. Inside the compound there were two or three small shed-type buildings that he and the team had only briefly explored and cleared when they first took control of this place.

  Rainer strained his ears to hear any signs of movement. Off in the distance, small arms fire was beginning to sporadically call out to the night. He couldn’t hear the Hind any longer but occasionally he could hear the muffled report of a large explosion. He wondered how long this had been going on and why they hadn’t heard it earlier.

  “Top, we’re ready to move.” Kef was at the doorway waiting for his next command.

  “Ok guys, here’s the plan. Miller on me, Kef on Daggan, we’re going to clear these corners and hold. Chek you take the center and hold on the vehicles. Einberg stay with the package until we clear a route to the vehicles. I saw one more target that is still unaccounted for so be prepared.”

  Miller moved out from the building and linked up with Rainer, stepping up to his left shoulder and gave him a light squeeze. Rainer heard movement behind him, and assumed the others were creeping into position although at this moment the only thing he was concerned with was the corner of the building to his front.

  Slowly, he and Miller crept to the corner of the building. When they were about three meters from the edge, Rainer held up his forw
ard movement and widened his stance with his MP7 sighted directly on the edge of the building. Miller moved out from behind him to the left and moved sideways step after step exposing more and more of the area hidden around the corner with each move until he had an unobstructed view of the entire length of the side of the building.

  Miller activated the LED light integrated into the fore grip of his MP7 illuminating the entire span of area. He caught a glimpse of a boot just as it disappeared around the other corner.

  “Movement rear of the building,” he announced. They hadn’t had time to put their radios on so he was more or less just letting Rainer know.

  Miller had just clicked off his weapon light when he glimpsed a head pop up over the rear, perimeter wall. He quickly turned his LED light back on, just in time to see three then four people pop up onto and then over the wall. He heard their bodies crash to the ground. Some landing on loose debris and building materials that had accumulated on the ground along the interior of the perimeter while others came down directly with a thud.

  More heads popped up at random intervals along the entire rear side of the courtyard. Miller yelled, “They’re coming over the walls!”

  Miller took a knee and sighted on a black male who had fallen on his back onto some aluminum sheeting. He was twisting his body on the ground and forcing himself back up. Red stains covered the front of his once yellow shirt and the man’s right arm was missing a hand. The bone was protruding out at the end where the hand should be, and was glistening in the light cast from Miller’s MP7. He could see blood falling in large droplets from the wound to the ground below as the man stood and began running for the rear of the building.

  Miller engaged him placing three rounds in quick succession into the man’s chest. He didn’t go down however, and managed to disappear around the corner of the building as Miller picked up another target. He could see others streaking by through his optics. More bodies crashed down onto the ground as Miller heard Rainer begin engaging targets rapidly.