Finding Their Path

by Travis Mohrman

  The voice of the computer drifted back to her almost instantly. “I am very sorry Kate; a great deal of my computational power is being used, and I have had to prioritize a few things.” Kate watched the door suddenly snap open. “Again, I am sorry for the brief delay.”

  “No problem, Shunka.” Kate wondered if the computer was being slightly catty by tacking on the ‘brief’ comment, but let it go. If she had to punch in an access code or do a physical hand scan, the delay would have been the same. She had just grown very accustomed to the efficiency of the computer.

  Once inside the lab, she headed over to the lockers to put on her whites. She always felt very official walking around in a long white lab coat. As a therapist, she never got to wear anything like that. Laurel was standing at the counter drinking some coffee when Kate came up next to her.

  “Doctor,” Laurel said.

  “Doctor,” Kate replied.

  “Doctor” Laurel said again.

  “Doctor” Kate said a final time. It was a silly little game they played nearly every morning now. Sometimes they said it with accents. Kate wondered if maybe they weren’t spending too much time in the lab together as she giggled at the tradition. “Hey, does the coffee taste funny to you this morning?” Kate asked, remembering her cup with the slight burnt flavor to it.

  “No, tastes like heaven, same as alwa…whoa, Kate, are you feeling ok?” Laurel turned to face her. “I can actually feel the heat coming off you!” Laurel reached up and touched her forehead. “Shit,” was all the small virologist had to say after that.

  “I felt groggy when I woke up, but we were up late last night.”

  “These aren’t the effects of a late night, Kate. I think you‘ve caught the bug. Well, we all probably have it now, but you’re showing the symptoms anyway. Here, sit down.” and Laurel pulled up one of the lab stools nearest to Kate.

  Kate slowly sat down while feeling her own forehead. It didn’t feel warm to her but since her hands were also probably the same temperature as her head, that didn’t surprise her. “What happens now? Do I get quarantined?” Worry was starting to slide its way into her voice.

  The medical doctor side of Laurel took over as she began to answer her new patients questions. Kate watched her entire face change and reveal gentle confidence. “Listen Kate, this isn’t any big deal. Like I said, we probably all have it incubating inside us now. Soon enough every one of us is going to express symptoms.” Laurel looked down as she grabbed one of the clipboards and her voice became a little softer, a little less resolved. “Since you work in this lab, though, we will need to lock down the whole lab and make sure it hasn’t escaped our containment protocols.”

  Kate felt bad at hearing this. She didn’t want to be the cause of a slowdown in Laurel’s work.

  “It’s stupid really. We had those infected Marines displaying symptoms and walking around the entire facility before they were finally quarantined.” Laurel flipped through the pages and rested on a single one, quickly reading a small amount. “Yeah, we have to lock it down. We can count that as your quarantine though!”

  Kate wasn’t sure if she was excited about that. Essentially, she had just been told by her doctor that she would be working through her illness. At least she wasn’t alone, she thought to herself.

  +++

  Laurel was flipping through the vid screen reading about other prominent DNA virus’, trying to busy her mind while Kate’s samples were being prepared. After taking some blood, she had given the therapist a pretty heavy dose of tranquilizers so she could sleep through the symptoms.

  The highest fever she had recorded from Kate was 105. It had only stayed that high for a few hours, but that is a very dangerous level, and Laurel knew it. The symptoms seemed to be getting progressively worse with each new case, but the running theme was that they only last for 24 hours. After that, this virus sneaks back into whatever home it has made for itself, and that is what truly frightened Laurel.

  The sheer tenacity of the bug was impressive as well. Usually, a certain percentage of people are simply immune to a random virus, but that didn’t seem to be the case here. In all the blood samples she had looked at, she didn’t see any of the T lymphocyte cells that she should. These were the ‘memory t cells’ that the body creates after it has figured out how to beat a virus or infection. They were the body’s cheat sheet, essentially.

  This virus, however, didn’t seem to get beat. It ran its course and then went and hid. The body just seemed to let that happen, without even putting up a fight. It was making Laurel’s job of coming up with a treatment very difficult. Usually, she could take some T lymphocytes and model a treatment based on their techniques. Without them, she was literally stabbing in the dark, hoping something would work.

  On top of that, the virus was still mutating, although much slower now than previously. Laurel suspected it had been adapting to the human body and was almost at the end of that adaptation. It exhibited very old traits, but seemed to be in a rush to ‘catch up’. The earliest samples she had gotten seemed much better adapted to attack the human body thousands of years ago, before our own evolution had tweaked us.

  On that hunch, Laurel had reported to the general that this wasn’t a biological weapon. Not by a long shot. The general had grown more and more suspicious as the symptoms began hitting harder, and the instances of the virus around the world skyrocketed. She hoped she had convinced him that the chance of this virus being created by man was extremely low.

  No, she thought it came from the environment. The more she rolled the idea around in her head, the more it made sense to her. As she sat at the lab bench, she began writing out a list of bullet points that they knew for certain about the virus. She also pulled up a current map showing the points where all the initial contacts had been found.

  Those first cases were all in rural locations in the north of Europe. Many near water, or at least where water was now. She was wondering if it had been waiting in the soil and needed the inundation of the water to bring it back when the only logical answer smacked her in the face. Glacial melt!

  Laurel stood up in her excitement and began looking around. She wanted to share it with someone, but the only person in her lab was heavily sedated, and they were both under quarantine. “Shunka, highlight the earliest known cases of infection, then highlight any rivers flowing from the north near these spots. Next, please follow these rivers to their glacial meltwater source.”

  As Laurel watched, most of the map faded into a gray transparency, with the top portion standing out in a bright blue. It showed three massive finger shaped blobs, extending down into the various continents. One was over Europe, one was over Asia, and one was over North America. It all fit together!

  “Now, please take those maps back in time…around 100 years. I want to see how extensive those glaciers were during the warmest time of the year.” Laurel watched as the map contorted and the chubby blue fingers grew several times thicker while extending far down into the land masses.

  Laurel knew we had lost over 60% of the glaciers in the recent decades, but to actually see how huge they were 100 years ago was mind boggling. “Okay, this is good. Now, take the map forward through time and please stop it when the first cases of the virus were reported.” The map once again changed; this time, the blue rapidly diminished. Even though the rest of the map was faded into the background, she could watch the rivers swell and the coastlines of all the land masses extend well into most of the continents. It was very easy to see, around 2040, when the hulking blocks of ice really lost the fight. The warming had hit a tipping point and sped up remarkably, blowing all the scientists’ projections away.

  The map stopped suddenly. “This is the moment in time you were looking for, Doctor.”

  As Laurel stared at the map, her brain was firing on all cylinders, and she was having a hard time keeping everything straight. She was finally, at least in theory, beginning to learn about the origins of this virus. The more she knew about it, the
better she could fight it. “Perfect. Now, can you tell me when the glaciers were last that size? I need to know when that ice was laid down.”

  “My records indicate during the last cycle of glacial minimum, approximately 22,000 years ago.”

  Laurel could barely contain her excitement. That was it! She remembered that the Mesolithic era was 20,000 years ago. Humans would have been living in huts and caves, scattered all across the world. Laurel wished she had paid more attention in her anthropology classes. Suddenly, a different thought popped up. “Shunka, when did Homo neanderthalensis die out?”

  “The exact date is in dispute, but the time frame is around 25,000 years ago.”

  No one knew for certain what killed off the Neanderthals. Some thought they just inter bred with Homo sapiens until they were all gone, but that had mostly been disproved using advanced DNA analysis. This virus had been around back then, and it certainly seemed to be more adapted to attack our less evolved brethren. She knew she was grasping at straws, but she wanted to keep that line of inquiry open. The current virus hadn’t even killed anyone, that she knew of, but her experience with pathogens had shown her that viruses were rarely as contagious as this bug was, and also benign. Especially with how expertly it skirted all the human body’s defenses.

  Now she just needed to get her hands on some DNA from Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, from a few of the spots that she knew the virus had first exposed itself. Chewing on her pen, she mumbled to herself, “That might be a little difficult…”

  15

  President Tomas sat in stunned silence. Jerrod had just informed her that the location where she had been giving a speech had been blown up while she was in flight to the facility. Hellgate High School, her alma mater, no longer existed.

  The bombs had been placed all over, but apparently they had extra ordinance on the covered walking bridge. She had planned to give a speech in the small courtyard underneath the skybridge between the old building and the new annex. They had even set up temporary bleachers out on Higgins Avenue for the overflow crowd. It was near that location that the first attempt had been made on her life. Someone was trying to be very thorough.

  Beth let her mind wander for just a split second, thinking of all the innocent people that had just died because someone wanted her dead. They had destroyed a historical building and a beautiful tree lined campus. She remembered the old gated house across the street where they used to sneak over and smoke cigarettes. She laughed to herself, thinking back to a time when tobacco was easier to get than heroin.

  As all the thoughts flooded through her mind, a large bubble of rage was building up. It started as a slight tick, but had quickly grown into a flow of lava and vitriol all built up for just one man. “Tell me Jerrod, why am I hearing about this now?” She was spitting the words at him. “Tell me why, hours later, I am learning of this bombing?”

  Jerrod put on his sleaziest smile, the one he used when he was trying to ‘handle’ someone. “With all due respect ma’am, an attempt had just been made on your life. I didn’t see the need to bother you with this also.” He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. “I was just looking out for you, Beth.”

  The tight bun at the back of her head had loosened, and several long, curly black strands now lay across the side of her face and over her shoulders. She brushed them aside and stared directly into Jerrod’s beady little eyes. “I’m the President of the United States, and you don’t need to look out for me.” All of her political career, Beth had been treated much differently from the men. It didn’t seem to matter that she had joined the Army at 18 years old, and fought right alongside some of the very men that were now in Congress. They still acted like she couldn’t handle as much as they could. Like most women in politics, she was considered hard-nosed, or bitchy. When the men argue, they are being strong; when the women do, well, that’s just being a bitch. It was a double standard that grated on nearly every woman she knew. Beth had never let it stop her from getting her job done and doing what she needed to do. She never hesitated to take charge of a situation, no matter the personal consequences, or if others didn’t view her as a ‘lady’.

  “Take your damn hand off me, Jerrod. You’re done here, fired. I don’t want you anywhere near me. The condescending tones and smarmy little smiles are over.” Her voice was unwavering; she was very much enjoying finally getting to fire the little man. She looked over at the Attorney General and asked, “Actually, can we arrest him for withholding information? That might be best.”

  The AG looked up from his vid screen and glanced around the small room, taking in everyone that was there. He had never liked Jerrod either. “Oh, I’m sure we can come up with a reason to arrest him, but that’s probably a bad idea. We can certainly detain him for the time being without having to put anything ‘on the record’.”

  Beth looked up at Jerrod and smiled. “Good, let’s do that.”

  Two Marines stepped up behind the greasy haired man and gently clasped his shoulders. He looked back to President Tomas and said, “You have no idea what you’re doing. I have only tried to do what’s best for my country. If your husband could see you now…”

  The Marines’ knuckles turned white as they began squeezing his shoulders. Jerrod quickly stopped talking and allowed himself to be led out of the room. Beth was happy to have that over with and wished she had done it years ago. She had work to do though, and couldn’t spend any more time thinking about the mistake that had been her Chief of Staff.

  “Now, what else did he not tell me? I need all the information people, let’s go.”

  +++

  In the hours that followed, Beth had learned just how much Jerrod had been ‘protecting’ her from. The frustrating thing was, the rest of her staff didn’t even realize the problem. They were giving him the information and assuming it was getting to her. They had also been carrying out his orders because he claimed they had come directly from the president. Thankfully, she quickly discovered he had only really been abusing his position the last few weeks.

  Pouring over the information coming through her vid screen, Beth learned that her attempted assassin had been the archetype loner gunman. They had nothing on him and, couldn’t even locate a single friend or anyone that knew him. When they searched his apartment, they found nearly the entire place covered in computer monitors. He was certainly unstable and incredibly obsessed. The investigators were still trying to figure out what some of the technology he had even did.

  They were certain he hadn’t been the one to rig the school to blow, though. Hellgate High had been wired by a serious professional, or team of professionals, more likely. They would know more once they were able to investigate it further, but for now President Tomas was actually grateful for the gunman.

  If that shooter hadn’t made an attempt on her life, she almost certainly would have been killed in the explosion. After the speech, she had planned to tour the school and promote it as an example for the nation. It really was a wonderful and diverse high school that had something for everyone. Now it was gone.

  “Where are we on the data mining?” she asked. When they had first come into the facility, they had set the computer to work on a massive data gathering operation. The AI that controlled the bunker was, essentially, one the most powerful and advanced supercomputers on the planet. They had sent this beast of a system off on a treasure hunt. It was looking through nearly every phone conversation and email from the past several weeks, searching for something that could explain how they had been so horribly deceived into utterly destroying Unified Korea.

  “The program is still running, but so far we haven’t had any serious leads,” said one of the computer techs as he furiously typed away on multiple vid screens at once.

  “We need to figure that out. If they took over Korea’s nuclear armament remotely, they could do it to others. Plus, if we are fired upon again, we need to know who did it!” Beth was on top of her game now. Having removed Jerrod, she now felt b
etter than she had in a long time. “What’s the status of our missile shield?” There was no answer from anyone in the room. “Well? Somebody say something.”

  Finally, an aide named Jessica stepped up next to her. “I have a report here ma’am.” she said as she placed a paper copy down in front of the president while simultaneously pulling up the digital version of a vid screen. “It looks like they have identified the malicious code in our missile defenses that led to the failure, and have almost scrubbed it from the system.”

  “So it was hacked? Someone was able to get inside our first line of defense and disable it?” President Tomas was fully aware of just how advanced a group would have to be to penetrate one of the most heavily guarded systems in the world without anyone finding out until it was too late.

  “Yes ma’am. There is no other way for that code to have gotten inside. Several teams are trying to discover the source of it. We think someone may have uploaded the code from a physical entry port, rather than remotely over the internet.”

  “If we have a saboteur on staff inside missile defense, we need to find them immediately!” Kate slammed her fist into the vid screen that was set into the table top. Thankfully, they were built for just that sort of abuse.

  No one said anything; they all continued with their work while Beth paced around. She stopped suddenly and pointed to one of the large screens on the wall. “I want that panel to display the news from the rest of the world.”

  “The director of this facility has cancelled incoming newscasts in an effort to keep everyone on track.” the computer chimed in.