Under a Graveyard Sky

pathogen. The…change in effect was what I would have expected to see with a dualistic pathogen. And…and…the period of fever after the primary pathogen has effectively run its course… That’s signs of a dualistic. And the secondary pathogen has to then spread in the…the host… So a vaccine targeted against the secondary expression… Yes, yes, it should work…”

“We’ve already started experiments with the Pasteur method here at CDC,” Dr. Dobson said. “The problem is the question of if it’s affecting the primary pathogen.”

“…Standard influenza vaccine would not affect the blood pathogen…”

“…a secondary will not affect the primary…”

“Doctors,” Dr. Addis cut in. “Stockholm…”

“The primary threat is the secondary expression,” Dr. Svengar pointed out. “The influenza is a bad influenza, yes. At least at the level of swine flu. But it is not an apocalypse. The blood pathogen package should be the primary target especially given the fact that at least twenty five percent of all infections are blood pathogen related.”

“CDC…”

“Concur with Dr. Svengar,” Dobson said. “If the neurological secondary packet can be stopped, even after airborne infection, we only really need a viable neuro vaccine and efforts to produce such should concentrate there.”

“Pasteur…”

“While we appreciate the use of our namesake’s name in this vaccine development,” Dr. Phillipe Jardin said drily, “there is one problem remaining. Several, in fact. Spread on this is…enormous. At least the airborne packet. It is all over the world at this point and well established. We have produced a vaccine using the namesake method and have vaccinated specimens. And they do have antibody response against the secondary packet. However, we have also determined that it requires a dual stage injection, primer and booster.”

“Confirm,” Dr. Dobson said. “We’re that far as well. A single strong injection caused several specimens to develop the neurological condition almost immediately.”

“As did ours,” Jardin said, nodding.

“Here as well,” Hong Kong confirmed.

“Which means that we now have to wait,” Phillipe said. “While the infection spreads and the blood pathogen overtakes airborne as the most common method of transfer. Until the specimens cook, we really don’t know if the vaccine will work at all. And even assuming it’s of use, vaccines take time to produce.”

“The Pasteur method is the simplest production method in the world,” Dr. Svengar pointed out.

“Ah, and that is the second problem,” Jardin said. “We have tried infecting various organisms with the blood pathogen. The only organisms that will host it are higher order primates.”

“We had noted that as well…” Dobson said, grimacing.

“This is very bad,” Dr. Bao said, quietly. “That is… A great misfortune.”

“Potassium…!” Tim blurted.

“Excuse me?” Dr. Dobson said, looking at the younger man and hitting the button for priority.

“Potassium transfer!” Shull said, excitedly. “I… I didn’t have a lot of lab materials to work with and I was using a medium high in potassium at first. Even though I knew I was on the right track I couldn’t get a dual expression. I ran out of the high potassium medium and had to change to a…a cheaper one. That one I could get dual expression! I realized later that dual expression is inhibited by potassium! I never thought to mention it in… I think you can… We might be able to reduce the likelihood of dualistic expression… Maybe. I mean…”

“It’s something to try,” Dr. Dobson said, nodding. “Thank you, young man.”

“Anything,” Tim said, his face working. “I mean… This really… I’m sorry, Doctors, but I have to say it, this pisses me OFF. I feel like I’ve been raped. You know?”

“We’ll begin immediate experiments on potassium inhibition,” Dr. Svengar said. “As well as continuing work on vaccines. And, yes, to have your life’s great work used in this way… You have my sympathies, young man.”

“I think we all feel a bit raped by this,” Dr. Addis said.

* * *

“Progression of secondary expression is reduced by potassium,” Dr. Karza said, looking at the printout.

“So it helps?” Shull asked, looking at the paper over the doctor’s shoulder.

“Unfortunately, only in a test tube,” Karza said with a sigh. “The levels of potassium that stop expression in a human would be terminal. However, it slows expression at lower levels. That is useable.”

“This organism is much more complex than just a dual expressor,” Shull said, looking at the reports from groups studying the “zombie virus” all over the world. Different groups had taken different parts of the virus to study and the total take was being analyzed by CDC, Pasteur and a series of other teams in various countries. “It only has 30 % rabies RNA in the secondary expressor virus. Has anyone looked at, well, other people who are sort of off the radar map working on this sort of stuff?”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Karza asked.

“Whoever did this stole my process,” Shull said, frowning. “Has anyone done any digging in the amateur field to see if any of this stuff is from their work?”

“You jumped out as a dual expressor pioneer,” Karza said, thoughtfully. “Do you have an example?”

“This,” Shull said, pulling out a report and pointing to a series of gene sequences. “This looks a lot like Jaime Fondor’s work. She’s working on plant resistance and works with clavaviridae. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her use similar sequences. It would help if I could shoot this over to her. She may know something useful.”

“How do you recognize it?”

For a change the FBI agent assigned had been just quietly staying out the way and not looming menacingly. Karza understood their passion for the case but their attitude really did not help the way that most bio geeks worked.

“I…” Shull said, looking up nervously.

“There are…signatures,” Karza said. “There are usually several ways to work out a genetic puzzle. In this case, I think what he’s saying is that this looks like this Miz Fondor’s signature.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Tim said, holding up his hands. “She’s not a suspect! Jaime would never do something like this!”

“But you’re saying that is her signature?” the agent said.

“No,” Karza said. “Or most likely not. It’s similar. Someone has been looking not only as professional synbio but also closely studying amateur synbio.”

“And that’s important,” the agent said, frowning. “Here’s the thing. You guys get bio. I don’t. Or barely, which is why I’m in this lab. What we get is investigation. What you’re saying is that the unsub has been monitoring information in the amateur synbio stream. That means they’re probably members of synbio boards. You have those, right?”

“Yes,” Tim said nervously.

“And you’re saying that there are signatures to this thing,” the agent said, getting animated. “We love signatures. If we can get an algorithm for the overall virus, then we can build a database to compare posted genes or whatever and look for similar signatures… If somebody has ever posted on one of those boards, we’ll find them.”

“The point being that he’s copying other people’s methods and signatures,” Dr. Karza pointed out. “Which means you’re going to be terrifying a lot of innocent people. Innocent people who don’t work well terrified.”

“We’ll contact this Miz Fondor,” the agent said. “Bring her in as a material witness. Nicely, okay?”

“Can you control that?” Karza said.

“Just let us handle it. We can be polite. In the meantime, yes. Shull, you’re familiar with these people’s work. Keep looking for signatures. The more ‘suppliers’ we have the better we can build a profile. What boards the unsub frequents. Whose methods he’s been copying. It would be good if we could