Bioterror! (an Ell Donsaii story #14)

by Laurence Dahners

  A little prickle of dismay came over Ell, “You getting tired of babysitting?” She’d frequently worried that her security team must find it boring to follow her—and now her family—around all the time. She really liked Mary and would be pretty sad if she wanted to leave.

  “Oh, no!” Mary said, looking startled. “Um, I’m wanting to talk about his… his performance in the class. You know how you’re faster than any human has a right to be?”

  “Oh,” Ell said, thinking about how Zage had seemed more coordinated than most babies when he’d started walking. On the other hand, he’d started walking very late so maybe he should’ve been more coordinated? Maybe he was really struggling in the class? “I guess, what are you trying to say?”

  “I think you need to have a little talk with him. He’s performing way above the level of the other kids, even the ones older than he is. He’s doing way better than any kid his age has any right to. I don’t think the other kids have realized it’s way out of the ordinary yet, but I’m seeing the raised eyebrows of the instructors at the dojo.” She paused for a second, then continued, “The thing is, I get the feeling he’s completely disinterested and not even trying. If he were to start performing at the level he’s capable of, there’ll be a lot more than raised eyebrows. Next thing you know he’s going to be in the news and the dojo’s going to be trying to put him up for national competitions. That kind of stuff could blow his cover.”

  “Oh…” Ell said, feeling a different kind of dismay than she’d expected when Mary first started talking to her. “You think I should talk to him?”

  Mary looked surprised, “It’s not my place to tell you what to do. I just didn’t want this to catch you unawares in case you did want to do something about it.”

  “Thanks… I think,” Ell said thoughtfully. “Do you think he’s learned enough to defend himself already?”

  “Oh hell!” Mary said, “I wouldn’t have wanted to take him on even before he started the class. All I have to do is consider what he did to that kidnapper on the stairs, then realize that the self-defense course has given him even more tools…” She gave a quick shake of her head, “That said, I think the class is good for him in a lot of ways. He seems to be losing some of his excess weight and I think he’s made friends with a couple of the kids there. They may represent his only chance to interact with kids his age, right?”

  “Right… Well, I’ll have to think about this some.” Has he really been losing weight and I haven’t noticed? “Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Good,” Mary said, bouncing to her feet and heading for the back door. She said over her shoulder, “Enough chitchat, I’d better get back to work.”

  Ell sat, pondering the issue for a moment, then stood up to go. Behind her she heard Bridget’s voice, “Hey Roomie, want me to make you an omelet?”

  Ell turned and smiled at her friend, “Of course I do, but I already ate a big breakfast before I left home. If I don’t get a move on I’m going to be late for my meeting.”

  Bridget looked at her hesitantly for a second, then said, “I’d like to put a bug in your ear—something to think about?”

  Ell nodded, hoping that it wasn’t going to be another bombshell.

  Bridget said, “I’d kind of like to…” she hesitated again, then said in a rush, “I’d like to invite Ryan to stay the night a little more often. ‘Cause, you know, staying over in that pit he lives in’s just plain disgusting. I haven’t managed to domesticate him yet.”

  Ell grinned at her, “I don’t think the male species can be domesticated. If you don’t think you can accept him as he is, you’d better be thinking about kicking him to the curb.”

  “I know…” Bridget said, looking at the floor for a long moment, but then her eyes came back up sparkling, “but, I do love him. And I like him even better here, where I’m in control of the degree of slovenliness.”

  Suddenly feeling bad, Ell said, “You’re all grown up girl, you certainly don’t have to ask my permission to bring your boyfriend home at night.”

  Bridget raised an eyebrow. “I have, occasionally. But, if I start having him over here… a lot, and you’re never here at night…”

  “Oh! I should’ve seen that, shouldn’t I?” Ell paused, thinking.

  Bridget said, “Maybe it’d be better if I moved out?” She gave a weak grin, “I can certainly afford it now, my boss pays me pretty well.”

  Ell raised her eyes to Bridget’s, “I want you to do what you want to do. Move out if you’d like…” she wrinkled her nose, “though I’d advise against moving into Ryan’s place unless you burn it down and rebuild first.” She waited for Bridget’s snort of laughter, then continued, “But it’s nice for my cover story if I have a roommate. And I certainly don’t care if my roommate has a live-in-boyfriend. The only real issue’s the fact that Ryan doesn’t know that Raquel and I are the same person. If you and he are committed to one another, maybe it’s time we told him?”

  Bridget clapped her hands together excitedly, “Oh! That’d be great! But… Can I tell him?!”

  Ell laughed, “Sure, it’s okay with me as long as you let me know as soon as you do. For now I’ve got to get to work.”

  ***

  Ell found Zage in the room of the house they called the library. It seemed like he’d been spending a lot of his time there lately. As usual, he had all the screens lit with various information, some of the big ones divided into several smaller windows. “Hey kid, what’re you working on?”

  He didn’t look away from his screens, “Osprey and I’ve worked out an algorithm for identifying a virus’s antigens from its DNA sequence. I’m trying to confirm how consistent the algorithm is at predicting known antigens.”

  Ell studied her son, “And antigens are proteins, polysaccharides or sometimes lipids. They make up the sites that antibodies can attach themselves to, right?”

  “Uh-huh, and we’ve made a couple of serendipitous observations that we think enable us to reliably predict how proteins fold after they’re synthesized. That lets us know the 3-D structure and I’ve gotten pretty good at guessing from the structure what a protein does, therefore where it’ll be located in the cell or virus, and how it’ll be oriented once it’s there. When the protein’s incorporated into the surface of the cell, we can tell what parts of it are going to be external and then which sequences of amino acids are in that section.” He glanced at Ell, “Those parts of the protein on the surface of the virus can act as antigens that might be recognized by the immune system.” He frowned as if he were trying to judge his mother’s comprehension, “Antigens that are inside the virus aren’t accessible to attack by the immune system until after the virus’s already broken up and nonviable.”

  Ell avoided the impulse to say, “You already told me that.” She was out of her depth in this area and it was better to have her son over-explain biology than make him reluctant to do so. Instead, she said, “So how well’s your algorithm working?”

  “Um, I think pretty well.” He looked at Ell again, “We don’t have an endless number of viruses to which antibodies’ve successfully been made and where we know the viral genome.” He chewed his lip, “In fact, we’ve only been able to find good information on thirty-nine of them so far, but the algorithm predicted the antigen correctly in thirty-eight.” He frowned, “Of course, the algorithm also predicts other antigens that it says the immune system should be able to recognize. Those antigens might also work, or they might not, we only know for sure about the antigens to which antibodies have been successfully created so far. We don’t have any data that’ll tell us whether antibodies could be generated to the other antigens the algorithm predicts.”

  “Thirty-eight out of thirty-nine sounds awfully good. You’re sure you’re not a victim of observer bias?”

  He gave her a thoughtful look, “That’d be if I, as the observer, felt so sure the algorithm must be right, that if it gave wrong answers I’d find an excuse for it, or fudge the answers, or otherwise
correct for it, right?”

  Ell nodded.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m not,” he said, a serious expression on his face. “We developed the algorithm on a different set of thirty viruses with their known antigens for which effective antibodies had been created. Then we tested them against these thirty-nine additional viruses. I had to help figure some of the folding, but I didn’t have to correct anything, the algorithm came up with the thirty-eight on its own.”

  “That sounds pretty great. What’re you thinking you’re going to do with this algorithm?”

  “Well, as I understand it, it’s probably pretty valuable intellectual property. Do we need the money we might get from selling it?”

  Ell slowly shook her head, feeling astonished that Zage had recognized the potential.

  “It could be a lot of money?”

  “We really don’t need it kid. On the other hand, if you feel like you’d like to earn some of your own money, I’d understand. I could even introduce you to some pretty sharp patent people.”

  “I don’t really need money, as long as you’re willing to keep buying me whatever equipment I want for the bio-lab downstairs. You’ve been really generous so far.”

  “We’re happy to keep doing that. If you don’t want to sell the algorithm for money, what do you think you’re going to do with it?”

  “I was thinking about setting up an anonymous website where people could put up viral genomes and get back sets of likely antigens that they could use for making antibodies, or maybe even vaccines.” He eyed her, “Kind of like my own little charity.”

  Ell tilted her head curiously, “Anonymous?”

  “Yeah, ‘cause you don’t want people to know who I am, right?”

  “Right. Sounds like a good altruistic endeavor to undertake, though it’s hard to know whether a website like that’ll take off or not. I hope you won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t.”

  Zage shrugged, “I’d like to run it up the flagpole and see what happens.”

  “I’d like to suggest you get your dad’s advice on setting up the website? He’s kind of a genius at those kinds of things and I’ll bet he can make sure it doesn’t get traced back to you somehow.”

  “Oh, okay, I’ll check it out with him when I’ve got it ready to go.” He turned his eyes back to his screens.

  Ell kept studying her precocious son and, after a minute, he turned back to her. “Is there something else? Something you’re waiting for?”

  Ell gave a little laugh, “Yeah, I’ve been talking to Mary, you know from your security detail?”

  Zage nodded.

  “She’s a little bit worried about…” Ell ran down, not quite knowing how to phrase it.

  Zage’s eyes’d been tracking back to his screens, but now he turned fully back to her, a curious look on his face. “What is it Mom?”

  “You remember, after you were kidnapped, Steve talked to you briefly about how you’re really quick?”

  Zage nodded. “Does Mary think I’ve been moving too fast in martial arts?”

  “Uh-huh. She says you do not only better than any of the other kids in your class, but you do better than kids who’re quite a bit older than you. And she doesn’t think you’re even trying. Are you?”

  “It’s not really my kind of thing, you know? I could try harder I suppose, but it sounds like you’d rather I didn’t?”

  “Um, yeah. It’d be really good if you could tone it down. I used to do that. I’d watch other people do a sport so I’d know how good normal people were and then I’d try to imitate how they did things so I wouldn’t stand out.”

  Zage gave her a surprised look. “Are you saying that you’re good at sports? That I might’ve inherited this from you?”

  “Um,” she said trying not to laugh. Trust her son, absolutely and completely uninterested in sports, to be one of the few people on the planet who had no knowledge of her athletic abilities. To be completely aware of and looked up what she’d done in science, yet never have made any effort to look at anything else about her. “Yeah, I’m…” she paused, considering whether to tell him what she’d been able to do in the past. She decided not to, instead continuing with, “I’m pretty good. So, if people thought you were really good that might make them consider the possibility that you might be related to me.”

  “Oh,” Zage said staring at her like she’d just grown another ear.

  “So, do you think you could start trying to watch what the other kids in your class are able to do and then trying to imitate their speed and coordination? And do the same for any other sports you might wind up participating in?”

  He gave a decisive little nod, “Sure.” He glanced at his screen a moment, then back at her, “Is that all?”

  “One more thing. Have you noticed that when you’re upset or angry or frightened that you seem to be able to move even faster?”

  Zage thoughtfully looked up at her. “I’ve felt some pretty weird things. First my heart pounds, then it feels like my heartbeat gets slower. In fact, the whole world seems to be getting slower. But then, later, when I think back on it, it seems like actually I was moving faster?” He grimaced, “Like when I hit that kidnapper guy on the knuckles when I was escaping. To me it felt like I was moving at an ordinary speed and he was just slow somehow. But then when I hit his hand, it seemed to do a lot more damage than I expected. I’ve gone back and looked at the vid a couple of times trying to understand it, but I’m not sure I do. I even researched it on the net and I can’t find any description of this kind of thing happening to other people.”

  Ell nodded, “The same thing seems to happen to me. I think you’ve inherited it, but I don’t think it happens in anyone else. Maybe I have a mutation that I’ve passed on to you?”

  Zage suddenly looked interested, “Oh that’d be a cool thing to study.” His gaze drifted thoughtfully off into the distance.

  Before he got too distracted by the genetics, Ell brought him back to the question at hand, “I call it the ‘zone,’ because it seems to be a little like something that happens to a lot of athletes. They say they’re ‘in the zone’ when they’re suddenly able to play their sport at a level much higher than they usually do. I worked hard on being able to control the zone, so that I wouldn’t go into it unintentionally and maybe accidentally hurt someone while playing sports or something like that. I also wanted to be able to go into the zone on purpose when I really needed to be able to be faster than other people.”

  Zage gave her a surprised look, “Really?”

  Ell gave him a careful nod. “Taking a few deep breaths and thinking calm thoughts when I feel the zone coming on seems to minimize the effect in me. For a while when I wanted to get myself into the zone I just thought panicked thoughts, but it didn’t take long to develop the ability to get into it even while I was calm.”

  Zage searched her face as if he thought she was teasing him, but then apparently deciding she was serious said only, “Huh.”

  “Do you think you could try to work on controlling when you go into the zone too? Or at least on trying be able to recognize when you’ve accidentally gotten into it so that you can slow yourself down and keep from hurting people?”

  “Sure,” he said, then paused for a moment, then said, “Anything else?”

  Ell smiled at his transparent desire to get back to working on his antigens. She leaned forward and put her arms around him, “All except for this little hug I need.”

  He put his arms around her in return, squeezing firmly. “Hugs are good.”

  After his mother left, Zage decided to take a moment away from his algorithm project and get Osprey to do a search for Ell Donsaii and sports. He stared at the results. Instead of just a few links about how she’d played a sport or two and done well, there seemed to be tens of thousands.

  “Olympics.”

  “Gymnastics world records.”

  “World’s fastest human.”

  “World’s greatest athlete.”

  “L
owest golf score in history, probably never to be broken.”

  He had a vague recollection of his father wanting him to watch the opening ceremonies of the Rome Olympics a few years back. First he looked up exactly what the Olympics were, since he didn’t know. Then he watched the section of the opening ceremonies and saw his mother light the torch. Then he watched some gymnastics, and a foot race.

  Prickles ran over his scalp, She isn’t just good! She’s the very best in the world! How did I not know about this?!

  ***

  Shan came downstairs in the morning and found Ell already slicing a banana into a big bowl of cereal. Since she slept so few hours at night, she’d probably already been up for a long time. He gave her a hug and went to find his own brand of cereal. She got out the milk, but paused before pouring any in her bowl. “Before I start shoveling this in my mouth, I’d like to put a bug in your ear about Zage.”

  Getting down a bowl, he said, “What’s that?”

  “He says he’s come up with an algorithm for determining what parts of various protein sequences will be found on the surface of viruses.”

  “And knowing that’s important because?”

  “The part of a protein that’s on the outer surface can serve as an antigen for antibodies to lock onto when your immune system’s trying to kill the virus.”

  “Hmm, sounds interesting.”

  “Where you come in is that he wants to set up a website where people can put up viral DNA sequences. Then he’ll give them back the protein sequences that’ll be found on the exterior of the virus. Knowing that sequence they can make vaccines for that particular disease or at least generate antibodies that they might use in research.”

  “Surely people already have ways to determine what proteins are on the outside of a virus, don’t they?”

  She shrugged, “He says that figuring out how the amino acid sequence of a peptide folds into the three-dimensional shape of the finished protein’s pretty difficult. Apparently, if you knew what parts were on the outside of the virus, you could immunize people or animals to just that part of the virus, rather than having to try to immunize them to the entire virus. Obviously using an intact virus can make that person sick but a killed virus might be broken up and therefore generate a lot of antibodies to proteins on the interior of the virus. Being immune to the inside of the virus doesn’t produce immunity to the intact virus.” She shrugged, “At least that’s how I understand it.”