'I saw the…offspring of that rabbit.' Strickland shuddered. Sam-antha did not imagine he shuddered often. 'Creatures unlike any-thing…abortions, all of them.'
'Unviable mutations,' Samantha said.
'Did the virus actually impregnate the rabbit?'
'No. We checked the records from the Crimean Congo virus study- the one the rabbits were shipped in for. One was pregnant, a few days, maybe. The virus drastically accelerated the pregnancy, but it didn't cause it to begin with.'
'Is this thing going to spread?'
Samantha shrugged. 'As it stands, we don't know if it will infect humans. But technically, a virus's sole mission is to replicate. To survive, it's got to hop continually from host to host, usually mutating, adapting and evolving as it goes. Viruses are mindless-just as short-sighted as humans, in fact. They have no long-term strategy. This virus could run virulent through its population and extinguish itself by killing off all available hosts. Dr. Denton and I are crunching the numbers right now to estimate the odds of another mutated mantid lineage on Sangre de Dios.'
'How does it function? This…Darwin virus?'
Samantha nodded at the bustling work station behind Strickland. 'That's what we're working on now.'
'What is your informed opinion-or your hunch-at this stage?' he asked.
She sighed, winding a fist in the bottom of her scrub top. 'My prelim-inary analysis of the genetic sequencing has shown that the virus itself contains genetic sequences from myriad other life forms. Like all viruses, it invades the host cells, using their machinery to replicate itself. In higher organisms, it seems to splice into the site between a promoter gene and a gene expressed only during embryonic development-in the case of the rabbits, the HOX series. Because of that, the viral DNA is promoted only during embryonic development. During this time, it attacks the DNA sequencing of its host, inserting its own segments of functional DNA code into the equation, and using these materials like primordial building blocks to create new life forms in the next generation.'
'Segments of functional DNA code?'
'Yes. They carry the marching orders for cells, causing them to form complex structures, like wings, legs, skeletal configuration, lungs, and other structures with or without utility.'
Strickland shook his head in disbelief. 'So if this thing spreads, we could have dogs with gills? Humans running around with wings?'
'It's highly unlikely, but not impossible. We forget how closely linked we are genetically to other animals. Only about a thousand genes out of a hundred thousand differentiate us from chimps. Even organisms as distant from us as roundworms have DNA sequences similar to ours, like variant spellings of the same word. If something gets into the code of any animal and tampers with it, even a little bit, the phenotypic alter-ations can be extraordinary.' She tried to straighten her glasses, but they still tilted to the left.
'How can it create…' His eyes glazed as he took in his reflection in the window.
'You have to understand how viruses function. They can't live out-side their hosts, so it's to a virus's advantage for its host animal to survive and reproduce, passing the virus along. The Darwin virus alters the host plant or animal's offspring so it exists in a wide variety of organisms. Natural selection then acts as the executioner of the unfit, killing off those less viable mutations.' She gestured to the crash door. 'Like the rabbit's offspring. But if this virus is indeed playing with segments of functional DNA code, sooner or later, it's bound to come up with viable mutations-offspring that'll survive and reproduce in turn. The virus introduces wild cards to the genetic deck, and shuffles over and over- maybe thousands of times. On Sangre de Dios, it finally dealt itself a winning hand.
'It's like that famous example where you have a million monkeys on a million typewriters typing for eternity. Eventually, the argument goes, one of them would randomly type Hamlet. Evolution works in similar fashion. It's unthinking; all that's necessary is variation and sheer num-bers. But think how much more quickly one of the monkeys would arrive at Hamlet were they already using words, or complete sentences, instead of merely letters. That's what's occurring here. This virus shuf-fles entire blocks of genetic code, drastically boosting the odds that viable offspring will be produced. Those offspring that survive…they'd have massive fitness potential. It's as if they've evolved instantaneously. What usually takes millions of years has been hit upon in a single gener-ation. That's what's occurred on Sangre de Dios. Bear in mind that variation is not predirected in favorable ways, so when it's this massive, random, and viable… ' She threw her arms wide and let them clap to her sides. 'Those animals… it's amazing.'
'Amazing?' Strickland took a deep breath. 'The ramifications if this thing spreads are horrific. Dangerous biological agents are an issue of international security. Do you know, Dr. Everett, that a plane carrying a hundred kilograms of anthrax spores and equipped with a run-of-themill crop sprayer could fly over Washington, D.C., and deliver a fatal dose to about three million people? That a taxi could pump enough out its tailpipe on a sunny afternoon in Manhattan to kill five or six million people?'
'Yes, sir, I do.' Samantha smiled curtly and turned back to the stack of micrographs in her lap. 'I wrote that study.'
Chapter 51
Donald's nasal voice clicked through Derek's shoulder. 'Gentlemen,' he said. 'And women. I'm calling in from Fort Detrick, conferenced with Dr. Samantha Everett.'
'You're in Maryland?' Rex asked. 'You flew out?'
'Yes,' Donald said. 'And after I explain our preliminary findings about this virus, you'll understand why.'
Donald introduced Samantha, and the squad circled tightly as she proceeded to explain what they'd gleaned about the virus so far. Diego and Rex interrupted occasionally to explain the scientific terms to the soldiers, and to update Donald and Samantha about what they'd discov-ered in the specimen freezer and the water samples. When Samantha finished describing her hypotheses about the virus, there was a long pause.
Cameron felt the blood leave her face. If she contracted the virus, it would go to work on the embryo inside her. She had stood in the freezer with the others, the infected bodies swinging and dripping all around her. She'd already had morning sickness once-she was hardly at the top of her game, and if things went south, there was nothing anyone could do for her. Tank was watching her, maybe with concern, but he averted his eyes quickly when she looked over.
'But if this is how the virus works,' Diego was saying, 'then why do all the larvae look identical? Why are they not all different like the last generation we saw captured in the specimen freezer?'
'The virus must go dormant after the first generation,' Samantha answered.
'So the first generation is all different,' Szabla said, 'but the second wave of offspring resemble their parents.'
Savage lit a cigarette and Diego didn't even bother to comment.
'Of course,' Rex said. 'From a fitness perspective, if one of the mutated organisms survives to reproduce, it would be advantageous for it to replicate its own phenotype in its offspring. Continued mutation would compromise stability.'
'It's like the virus found a working model, so it's sticking with it,' Szabla added.
There was a rush of air as Samantha sighed into her telephone in the slammer. 'It's amazing,' she said. 'The virus has evolved such that it provides a one-time opportunity for massive mutation. An unthinking yet solution- oriented process to create new animals capable of filling environmental niches.'
Savage exhaled a long, thick ribbon of smoke. 'Evolution in over-drive,' he said.
Diego stood up, sweat glistening on his forehead. 'This could be an age-old process-the virus locked in the earth's core, living in ther-mophilic microbes, springing up at intervals of hundreds of thousands of years to revolutionize life forms. It could explain instances of rapid origination, anomalies in the fossil records. The jump from cold- to warm-blooded vertebrates. The archaeopteryx. The Cambrian explo-sion. The Burgess shale. We may be on the precipice of such a period.' His hands were shaking. He put them in his pockets.
Cameron held up her hand. 'Stop,' she said. 'First things first. How does the virus spread? Could we get it from one of these creatures?'
'It seems to spread in similar fashion as a blood-borne pathogen,' Samantha said.
