by David Kersey
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
John had been awakened well before dawn by the ringing telephone. It was the Sheriff asking for his presence at the station. There was an urgency in the Sheriff's voice that intimated there was more happening than just the identification of the three jailed men.
"Get over here as soon as you can," the Sheriff had said. John rose and dressed immediately.
The trip to town took no longer than twenty minutes, especially at ten to twenty over the speed limit.
"John, we have another outbreak, this time at Loman's. Not only that, we received a wire saying California is being hit hard. Wine country, God forbid."
John told the Sheriff that he had been hit also, which the Sheriff already knew. What the policeman didn't know was that the white-coats at ACC, having analyzed the ant, and mite, were just about ready with a solution. That would be John's contribution, he would leave the harder work to be done by the DNR, DHS, and CDC, and whatever other initials were mainstream.
"John, we talked with Klein. He is spooked. He let all his stock go in the hopes of retrieving all that survive when this gets over, if it does. Those ants that deep sixed two of his are still on his site, and now Loman has been hit, and I know you got hit too. We have the perps locked up, at least we are pretty sure it's them that did the damage. They already have a lawyer trying to spring them. I'm not going to let it happen until we know more."
"Chip, I dang near lost a mule, and it was probably a weasel that breathed his last breath because of the invasion of my property. I think I killed many of the ants at my place for now, but surely there will be remnants that survived and possibly new arrivals. The acacia logs, four of them, were set at the edge of my cornfield. I figured the ants would be drawn to the corn nectar, so I sprayed the perimeter of the field to try to seal them in, and then burned both the logs and the entire cornfield to control the mites and ants. My former company, the ACC, is well aware of the genetic alteration of both the ant and the mite, and they are close to a getting a pesticide and miticide ready for application. We've got to keep this contamination out of the marketplace, otherwise we've got a huge problem on our hands."
"We think the infestation that happened at your place came from the same delivery that happened to Klein, and now Loman. There may have been other drop zones, but the ragheads are not talking. The truck we confiscated is large enough to carry twenty logs. We've ID'd twelve, so there may be more. Push your ACC people to code red. And John, an hour ago CNN aired an over the top version of the story like they are prone to do. Let's get our butts in gear before panic hits. Thank God they didn't mention our food supply."
John left the Sheriff's office and checked his watch. It was 6:40 am. He still had a key to ACC, being an emeritus member of the board. In ten minutes he was inside his former domain. Apparently his successors were well aware of the imminent threat, but more than likely were getting major heat from DC. The place was alive and it was not yet seven a.m. in the morning.
Sid Sturdivant, a lab technician, who John knew well, being one of his first hires at ACC, waved him into the lab.
"These are powerful little buggers", Sturdivant said referring to the bulldog ant, “but we can control it despite the alteration. The toxicity of the venom is off the charts. It has a pain index factor of plus four, meaning it is in the potentially lethal category. The pain inflicted would be comparable to being shot with a bullet, with undulating waves of pain, paralysis of the sting site, and uncontrollable convulsions. On the LD50 marker, the toxicity would kill one hundred percent of test subjects. Undoubtedly there would be a significant rise in anaphylactic shock in humans because of the powerful antigen. Strange, but the lab at Vanderbilt isolated trace venom of the banded sea krait, one of the most toxic venoms in the world, when studying the ant venom. That could explain the increased level of toxicity. We found no pathogens in the toxin. Not so with the spider mite, and that has us perplexed. We isolated the specie C. Parvum and the single cell specie cyclospora. So you know what that means. Sufficient oocyte count to cause intense abdominal pain if ingested and life threatening to immuno compromised individuals. There is a real threat of a widespread hepatitis outbreak should food sources be contaminated. We've got two trials going on now. One is changing the structure of our insecticide that would drop the ant upon direct application rather than nest contamination. The other trial is to provide a single dosage that would kill both mite and pathogens. We're using our own miticide which contains an ovacide, and building from there.
"Any idea as to how the mite got infected?"
"I'd say the larvae was cultured in excrement that carried the C. Parvum and cyclospora. It's logical to conclude that areas of the world that have crude waste disposal methods like those found in underdeveloped countries would be a source." That would jive with the Sudan area Murray had exposed, John thought.
"I have a theory if you want to hear it?"
"Shoot."
"I'd say the sea snakes, dead ones, were deposited in waste containment areas, like a trench for instance, and the ants foraged on them. That would give the pathogen infected mites residing in the waste a free ride on the bellies of the ants. I could be far off, but that scenario has some merit. What do you think?"
"Plausible, I suppose. Sid, can you give me an idea how long it will take?"
"Mr. Christianson, I think we're close on both products. We're in results monitoring now, so I'd say within a couple of hours we'll be ready for delivery. We're working on safety in handling issues now."
"Speaking of safety, is there potential for crop damage, safety to market issues, or groundwater contamination?"
"No more so than our current miticides and insecticides. And it won't kill the beneficial mites either. It'll be safe or we won't let it go. Both products will measure significantly below the MCL (maximum contaminant level). You will want to isolate your livestock and keep them out of sprayed areas for a couple of hours. Also, you might want to introduce the phytoselid mite a few days after the miticide is sprayed, especially around any pond vegetation that you don't spray. As you know, that mite is a natural predator of the spider mite. It couldn't hurt."
"Yes, I have thought about that. How much quantity can be expected once you’re ready to go?"
"We'll add the new components to our current batches, which totals about one-half million gallons at present. We can double that in one day's time."
"Sid, when and if you get it done today, I need to have deliveries made to my place, to Ralph Klein, and to Sam Loman. Do you know of those people?"
"Yes, Mr. Christianson, I know them and know how to reach them. I will cause the deliveries to happen as soon as we're ready. How much will you need?"
"Five thousand gallons of the ant control and the same amount of the miticide, and can you loan me four field techs?"
"Of course. You should be spraying sometime today. And I must say I miss you not being around here."
"Thank you Sid, I miss it too. Good job by the way, and good to see you again."
John took the elevator to the office area of ACC. He hoped Wright, the CEO that replaced him was at his desk. Wright's door was open and appeared to be available as he waved John in while he was speaking on the phone. Wright, whose first name is Philip, motioned to a chair and held up one finger.
"John, how are you doing? We sure do have a mess on our hands, don't we?" Wright said. "This could make the '93 Milwaukee C. Parvum outbreak look like a walk in the park." John remembered that outbreak in which over 400,000 people became sick.
"Phil, I just left the lab. Sid thinks there will be a solution that works and ready to go sometime today. Phil, I think that if the compound does what we hope it will do that we inform every one of our competitors. The spider mite has to be exterminated, and I'm sure you already know how far reaching this is and could get."
"The DHS has already mandated that if we are successful that we get every pesticide and chemical company in our database on the same page, and immediately
. Likewise we will be informed if another one gets the formula right first. The whole industry is up to their necks with it. What a windfall coming our way, huh?"
John left the ACC and was comfortable with the progress there but was uneasy about something that had been gnawing at him. Number one, in a time of national crisis you don't think about windfalls and profits.....you think about eradication no matter the cost. The profiteers and greedy politicians prior to the Civil War came to mind. Number two, and the thing that most bothered John, was that neither Wright nor anybody else from ACC attended the meeting in the secret room, coupled with Murray's veil of secrecy as to why.
He took 40 gallons of the boric acid pesticide that he had already used and two vials of bulldog anti-venom. But he needed a sure fire concoction to knock out the mite once and for all. According to Sheriff Chip the terror threat was spreading nationwide. Time was of the essence.
John called both Klein and Loman to tell them about his findings on the way home. Soon after his phone rang. "John, this is Sylvester, we've got one sick cat on our hands, think she musta got stung."