Under a Graveyard Sky

build an algorithm for that. Is there anything like that already?”

“So you want me to burn the only friends I have in the world?” Tim said angrily. “You’re all ready to go bust down Jaime’s door and you want me to do that to how many people?”

“I’ll send up that these people are probably innocent of any wrong doing,” the agent said. “But, Tim, keep in mind. While you’re worrying about hurting your friends’ feelings, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.”

“Point,” Dr. Karza said. “Tim, do you have any personal contact information for Jaime Fondor…?”

* * *

“Dr. Curry,” Bateman said, drily. “Thank you so much for joining us…”

The “meeting” was taking place by video conference. At least in Curry’s case. The boardroom the rest were meeting in was five floors up and a few suites over from Curry’s lab. But since he’d been given it he hadn’t left. And he didn’t intend to any time soon.

“As you might have heard on the news, the kid who figured out dual expression has been ‘cooperating’ with the CDC,” Curry said. “I’ll take an agnostic position on whether he has anything to do, directly, with the virus. He’s being helpful, he was just in a video conference with the WHO and others and not only pointed out some helpful stuff but a possible… Call it an ameliorative. Not a cure but something that might help. Again, might. Thing is he’s a little too pat or I’m a little too cynical. Doesn’t matter. The first news, well ahead of the news as it were, is potassium may inhibit the secondary neurological packet’s expression. Sort of. Bottomline is we all might want to start taking potassium supplements. Which people can OD on by the way. Too much potassium will kill you as dead as too much. But as long as the dosage isn’t too high, I’d recommend them.”

“That’s good news,” Bateman said, looking at Tom.

“I’ll get that promulgated through our medical personnel,” Tom said, composing a note on his iPhone.

“Then we get to vaccine,” Dr. Curry said. “Turns out this is one hell of a virus. I’m not going to totally bio geek out but not only does it express two viruses with one packet, it expresses two viruses so different they’re night and day. Just to give you the short version: Influenza is a DNA virus. It has a full DNA packet and is a fairly complicated virus. The neurological, blood-pathogen, packet is an RNA virus. RNA is, sort of, half of a DNA strand. And RNA viruses are so different from DNA viruses there are some pretty good theories that they come from two entirely different evolutionary processes. They might as well be alien lifeforms to each other. And, somehow, the mad bastard who created this thing got both to express from a single pathogen. Brilliant. And very problematic for the vaccine.

“The CDC, Hong Kong and Pasteur have all produced detailed directions for their experimental vaccines. You don’t want them yet. They are really experimental. Like ‘trial and error’ experimental. With lots of error. They’ve already mapped out a vaccine for the airborne packet. But producing influenza vaccine is…complicated. And it takes time. And I can’t do it in this lab even if we had the design. What I can do, if it works out, is the blood pathogen vaccine. Once they work out the bugs.”

“What are the differences?” Bateman asked. “And what are the risks?”

“Well the risks right now are high,” Curry said, chuckling. “They had some of their lab rats catch the bug. Which is the ‘error’ part. But they’ll work it out. Then the real problems come. However…I’m going to have to explain how this vaccine is going to be made, in general. Cause I’m going to need some more equipment.”

“Which is?” Bateman asked. “I thought you had everything you needed?”

“I have everything you’d have in a regular laboratory,” Curry said, nodding. “For its size, even a well equipped one. What I don’t have is what you’d use to produce a vaccine. For that I’m going to have to lecture. Ahem… Vaccination One-Oh-One:

“Various ways of innoculating people against smallpox date back to ancient China and India. But the way they did it was pretty damned dangerous and was just as likely to give you the disease. There’s lots of bits in the middle but Edward Jenner figured out a way to use cowpox to vaccinate and that was what really started modern vaccine methods.

“It was Louis Pasteur that figured out that there were ways to ‘weaken’ pathogens, what’s called ‘attenuation’ and then use those weakened pathogens as a vaccine. The first one was a mistake with chicken cholera but it lead to all his other successful vaccines. The way he did it, exactly, isn’t important because it’s been superseded by other methods. Modern vaccines are produced in a number of ways. Very few of them use attenuation any more. But it’s still the fastest way to make vaccine. And they’re pretty sure that this pathogen can be prevented with an attenuation vaccine.”

“Why did they stop using it?” Bateman asked.

“Problems,” Dr. Curry said, waggling his hand from side to side. “Issues. Lawsuits. Immunology One-Oh- One. Your immune system’s a lot more complex than it’s explained in high school but the basics work for this. Antibodies identify pathogens and bind to them. That signals other immunobodies to attack and destroy them. However, the antibodies are originally produced because immune cells have detected that there are pathogens in the body. So you’ve got to be infected, first. And if you’ve got a good immune system and all’s well, you shake it off after a bit. If you don’t have a good immune system or the pathogen’s really nasty, well, you die.

“So…an attenuated vaccine is damaged bits of a pathogen. Just enough to tell the body ‘hey, you’ve got an infection! And it looks like this!’ without actually infecting you. The…issues are two-fold. More. The first is that if the vaccine isn’t strong enough your body doesn’t get a good enough look at the pathogen and when you do get hit with it you’re not really prepared. And then you die. Or, the vaccine is too strong, has too much of the pathogen left, and you get the disease and you die. Or you’re allergic to the materials in vaccine and you die. Or get really sick. Or there’s a scare story on TV. Or people blame their child’s autism on vaccines. Or…whatever. And in all those cases lawyers get involved and there’s a big lawsuit…”

“Which of those do we have to worry about?” Bateman asked.

“I dunno,” Curry said, shrugging. “Is Dr. Depene getting the vaccine? There’s a guy with so many risk factors, medical and psychological, the answer is all of them.”

“Thanks so much,” Depene said.

“If the recipe is right and I’m making the vaccine… There’s still a small risk that someone may get the disease instead of be protected from it. Half a percent? And to do it I need a radiation generator. That’s the big difference between Pasteur vaccines and modern attenuated. You can be much more precise in your attenuation, not to mention take less time, with irradiation…”

“Well no wonder nobody trusts it!” Depene said. “You’re not going to inject radioactive vaccine in me!”

“As I said,” Dr. Curry said, shaking his head. “Psychological risk factor, which, in and of itself, can cause hypocondriatic reactions. The vaccine isn’t radioactive, you dope. You shoot it with radiation which goes right through. It kills the RNA of the virus. There’s no residual radiation. What I’ll be using, to give you an example, is a dentist’s X-ray machine. Ever had your teeth X-rayed? One of the newer cesium source models is more or less vital. Which you’d better get your hands on fast or they’ll be all snatched up by the time you go shopping.”

“And this will work as a vaccine?” Bateman asked.

“Against the neurological packet,” Curry said, nodding. “It should. The other problem is that it’s going to take nearly two weeks to be close to ‘sure.’ Not ‘this is EPA approved and has been through all testing.’ Sure as in ‘This probably won’t kill you and probably will stop the disease.’ That’s the real problem. To get either one distributed will require all sorts of approvals. And then there’s…other problems. But once it’s through the most basic checks, I’ll start producing. And I’ll be the first one to take it, for what that’s worth to Dr. Depene. Oh, and it’s going to take a primer shot and a booster and you won’t really be covered until you’ve had the booster. And you can’t have the booster until a week after you’ve had the primer. So… We’re fighting the clock, the spread of the disease and the development and production of the vaccine. It’s going to be close. For us. For the world? I don’t give us a shot in hell.”

“Is there anything else critical?” Bateman asked.

“Not that you can’t get on the TV,” Curry said. “But you need to get that X-ray machine. And it will require some installation. Radiation shielding among other things. But that’s details I can go over with Mr. Smith. Until the vaccine is somewhat cleared, we’re in a holding pattern.”

“Very well,” Bateman said, nodding. “Thank you, again, for your assistance in this, Dr. Curry.”

“Just make sure the check clears,” Curry said, chuckling.