The party moved on to the animal experimentation area. Rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters were drinking water laced with a few parts per million of TCDD. Contaminating the water supply held promise, the director informed them. Minute concentrations caused changes in the blood cells and enzymes and led to liver damage, cancer, and severe fetal deformities.
Lloyd Madden paused by a row of cages and fondled one of the rabbits. Even though the colonel was wearing thick rubber gloves, Skrote couldn't repress a shudder. He turned in the cumbersome suit and looked at Major Jones, but the face in the fishbowl was impassive, quite unperturbed.
It was irrational for him to react in this way, Skrote knew. Safety precautions on Starbuck were rigorous and strictly enforced. He could only put it down to his experience in genetics, which made him edgy.
Colonel Madden had a question. Why not employ the techniques already developed for DEPARTMENT STORE? 'We had some very effective methods of deploying 2,4,5-T, which contains dioxin,' he said to Rolsom. 'The only difference here, as I see it, is that we need to disseminate TCDD in its pure form rather than as part of a weaker mix. Am I right?'
'You're right, Colonel, but that difference is crucial. In the past we wanted to achieve maximum spread and penetration in the shortest time possible.' Rolsom pushed through a pair of rubber doors and held one aside for the others to follow. 'But now we have to set precise limits and
'Including the Russians,' said Major Jones.
'Yes.'
'Maybe that can't be helped anyway.' Madden's laconic remark seemed to hold a number of veiled meanings.
In the next bay the party stood on a yellow gantry while Rolsom went on about 'contaminatory media,' which Skrote understood to mean air, water and food.
'Drop a liter of TCDD in the Bombay water system and we can guarantee a wipeout of eighty to eighty-five percent of the population within a fifteen-mile radius. Unfortunately the rest of the city-dwellers drink collected rainwater. With food we can spray grain crops and rice fields, but again we can't be certain of total wipeout. There's the question of toxic runoff into the oceans too, which could spread the contaminant globally. However . . .'
Rolsom beckoned and the group clustered around an angled observation panel. Inside the garishly lit chamber was a family of chimpanzees, two adults and five offspring. All were slumped or sprawled, eyes dull, patches of fur missing, the flesh raw underneath. Some of their fingernails had dropped off.
The director pointed out one of the small males, marked with a circle of red dye on its back. 'That's Chappaquidik. We injected him with a ten-ppm solution about a week ago. Look closely and you'll see that he's gone blind. But more interesting, from our point of view, he's transmitted it to the others. Now they're all starting to show symptoms.'
Skrote was surprised. 'I didn't know genetic damage caused by TCDD was contagious.'
'In the normal course of events it isn't,' Rolsom replied. 'All previous outbreaks, from Seveso onward, were air- or waterborne.' A quiet note of pride crept into his voice. 'One of our toxicologists injected hamsters to test for its effect on enzymes. Purely by accident he discovered that above a certain concentration--roughly seven parts per million--the disease is transferable by means of infected bacteria. Depending, that is, on a specific behavioral pattern. Can you guess what?' he asked, turning to them.
Nobody could.
Rolsom pursed his thick lips and over the intercom came a metallic kissing sound. 'Hamsters and chimps are very affectionate creatures. They kiss and cuddle a lot. And that's it--that's how the disease is transmitted.'
Rolsom wore a triumphant grin, like a conjurer pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
'Animal carriers,' Colonel Madden mused. 'Deployment and containment in one neat simple package.'
'Somebody here gave it the name of the 'Kissing Plague,' ' said Rolsom, still grinning. 'We've hopes for humans too.'
'You've tried it on humans?' Madden asked.
'Not yet. But the physiology of chimps and humans is very similar.' Rolsom winked at them through the fishbowl. 'And humans also kiss a lot-
After lunch they were' shown the special area known as Zone 4 on the far side of the lagoon. The laboratories and medical wards were outwardly unimpressive: an untidy jumble of single- and two-story white stucco buildings surrounded by a double perimeter electrified fence. The only odd thing about it, for a research establishment, was that the windows were very small and barred, like those of a prison.
On the short ride across the lagoon Rolsom jokingly remarked that the electrified fence wasn't to keep intruders out; it was to keep the patients in. If any of them escaped and managed to interbreed, Star-buck might become--in his phrase--'an island of freaks.'
Even with his experience in genetic engineering Skrote had never seen anything like it. The director hadn't been joking after all--it really was like a fairground freak show.
First they were shown the anoxia and pollution victims, gray shriveled wrecks in oxygen tents living on borrowed time. In answer to Skrote's inquiry, Rolsom said, 'We use these to study the effects on body tissue resulting from drastic oxygen depletion. Very little medical research has been done on the subject till recently. We also need them as guinea pigs to find out if TCDD can be transferred as effectively in humans as in chimps. We'll be starting on that in about a month from now.'
'What do you intend to do?' asked Major Jones sardonically. 'Force them to kiss one another?'
Rolsom smiled and shook his head. 'You'd be surprised--or maybe you wouldn't--at the strength and persistence of the human sexual impulse. Even in cases such as these.' He nodded down the ward at the rows of oxygen tents. 'Perhaps you've noticed that the wards are mixed. At night we turn out the lights and let them get on with it.'
He led the way down the central aisle, the muted hiss and rumble of oxygen being piped into the tents the only sound. It was like a mortuary, keeping alive the undead. A technician in a white smock was injecting an old man. The party stopped to observe.
'New arrival,' Rolsom said, after glancing at the chart. 'We're pepping him up a bit. No good to us dead. It's a hormone extraction that dramatically improves their condition. After a couple of months they have a relapse.'
'What happens then?' Skrote asked.
Rolsom looked at him, puzzled, as if it were a trick question. 'They die,' he said. He leaned over the rail at the foot of the bed, raising his voice. 'How are you feeling today, Mr. Walsh? Not a thing to worry about. You're in good hands.'
The old man gazed up at them dully with brown watery eyes. His face was the same color as the pillow, except that his lips were purple.
As they were moving away Skrote said, 'Where do these people come from?'
'You mean how do we get hold of them?' Rolsom said over his shoulder. 'Our main source of supply is the Pryce-Darc Clinic in Maryland. As you probably know it's funded and administered by ASP through an intermediary organization. In effect the clinic is a staging post. They send us anoxia and pollution cases referred to them by hospitals.'
'They come here willingly?'
'Sure.' Rolsom held the door into the corridor open and caught Madden's eye as if the two of them shared a private joke. 'The patients are told they've been selected for special treatment, very expensive treatment, which is free of charge. Naturally they're only too happy to participate. They think Starbuck is a highly advanced medical research unit with miracle cures galore.' He chuckled gruffly. 'Once we get them here it's too late to change their minds.'
Major Jones said, 'How many of them will you inject with TCDD?'
They were approaching a large iron sliding door with a red
'We intend to isolate six to begin with, three males, three females. We'll inject just one of them and see how quickly it spreads. What we're really hoping for is a chain reaction: A male infects a female and carries on infecting other females, while the females infect the other males. We also want to find out whether males or females make
