Reuben calmly walked out of the elevator and over to the stricken deviant. He pulled the cord. The chainsaw roared into gear and Reuben hacked off the deviant’s head.
“There are two more somewhere,” said Julien.
“Four more, actually. They are on the ground floor.”
“Do you think they’ll come back up?”
“Not unless they grow new heads. They just came at me one at a time. They didn’t seem to stop and think about their numerical advantage. There would have been an almighty mess if they’d charged at me together. They behaved like gladiators rather than wild animals. It was almost as if there was some kind of seniority to honour or respect. Strange.”
Julien simply couldn’t believe the casual manner in which his normally laid back son-in-law had disposed of these terrifying deviants. He gave the signal to open the panic room door and Sophie rushed out, throwing her arms around her husband, simultaneously chiding him for being so stupid.
His sardonic reply was priceless. “I just decided to forget the drill I was going to buy and took the best tool for the most urgent job. I’ll get the drill this afternoon, stop fussing, it’s only a short walk.”
*
The obligatory report of the incident to the police was made by Julien, even though he knew it would do nothing but gather computer archive dust. After giving such a meaningless statement he felt the need to relieve some of the pent-up stress, and it provoked him to call his son.
“Hi Eugene. We’ve had a bit of an incident here but I’m not calling you to cause further alarm. I just thought it might interest you to think about a specific part of what happened.”
After going through every detail, he got to the pertinent point.
“Young Reuben is so cool and I had to let you know about his observations. If it had been anyone else they probably wouldn’t have noticed this, and I include myself in saying this. He ripped the heads off the four deviants on the ground floor, as I said, but then he quietly mentioned that they almost formed a queue to tackle him when he arrived in their midst with a chainsaw. His explanation was that there seemed to be some kind of unspoken hierarchical understanding between them. He had the composure to lop off their heads as they each stepped forward. Now, before that, when I watched three of them on our floor, trashing my neighbour’s apartment, they were all involved in separate tasks, yet one was barking out orders to the others. I thought that such behavioural observations might interest you, since you are looking at the schizophrenic nature of Alphas and Betas. I thought about this, because the one I shot was taking instructions from the one who disappeared into the elevator with two green bags full of food. Reuben said there were four on the ground floor, so I assume this leader was one of them. Unfortunately, we can’t say if he ordered the others to attack Reuben one at a time.”
“That really is weird, Dad. If Reuben’s take on this is accurate, then it has to be significant. Thanks for the tip. I’m just about to meet with my co-workers and I’ll bring this up. I’ll call you back. But are you sure you don’t want me to come back? You’ve had a serious warning.”
“Maybe, but what could you do about it? You can do something where you are. I think the panic room will hold firm and anyway we’ve now got Chainsaw Charlie, he’ll be in there with us if there’s a repeat.”
*
Brandon and the two Japanese researchers were open-mouthed when they listened to Zlatan’s story backed up by Eugene’s scan results. One of the Japanese held up his hand to ask a question.
“Do you have name of variety of bees which give this result?”
Zlatan hesitated. “Not exactly, but if you can get a book with pictures of bees and their description we can compare it with a dead one I kept. You must understand that I was in a hell of a hurry to get out of Australia.”
Brandon queried the assertion that the bee venom per se should be attributed the title of ‘wonder cure’.
“Once we know which variety we’re talking about, we need to analyse it to isolate each organic compound. Some will be completely useless but others will surely have the potential we’re looking for. It will be a lot of work because there will be a hell of a lot of different ingredients. This is urgent; it’s the best break we’ve had. Anyway, when did you last take stings?”
“Not long ago. I think I know what you’re going to say. The infection will gather momentum again unless I get more bees. Then I’m a risk to you guys.”
“Exactly,” exclaimed Brandon, “so it’s even more urgent than I thought it was, to identify the strain of bees we need. Let’s get googling right now.”
All four of them began with the search engine and it didn’t take long for Zlatan to match the dead bee with a picture and description of an African strain. Brandon then immediately looked in the sub-menus for the venom composition.
The general information fell under the name of Apitoxin, noted as a bitter, colourless liquid. The active portion was listed as a mixture of proteins, causing local inflammation, as well as acting as an anti-coagulant. Further breakdown substances revealed certain peptides, one of interest being Mellitin. However, another stand out individual protein he spotted was Apamine, a mild neurotoxin. His mind was engaged with the relative properties of these two constituents, then he finally found what he was looking for. Phospholipase A2, a highly destructive compound, particularly effective in degrading cellular membranes.
“Gentlemen, I believe we have our Trojan Horse, and it happens to be ready made. It’s fantastic news that there is a natural source in the bee venom, but we can also synthesise this stuff from simpler molecules. So, Eugene, your infiltrator is ready. We need a bit of luck with my chaos distraction technique, and now we have the knockout blow with the Phospholipase A2.”
Zlatan interrupted. “But isn’t the bee venom only keeping my infection in check?”
“Yes,” said, Eugene, “it isn’t in itself a cure.”
“Indeed,” quipped Brandon, “but if Eugene’s stuff kicks off the war, your Phospholipase A2 temporarily immobilises the virus so it can’t mutate. Then I have to deliver a mortal wound to the damned scourge while it is inactive. We are within touching distance. But there remains a challenge – as you are the only infected patient we have, are you brave enough to allow the virus to recover and then allow us to nuke it?”
“Well, I… I mean…shit, I thought I would only need an injection or something like that. What you seem to be talking about is more like a major operation.”
“Correct,” said Brandon. “And one you may not survive. But let’s face it, if you don’t have an inexhaustible supply of bees, you’re dead anyway. Even then, bees or no bees, the virus will adapt to it. I’d give you a few months at most.”
Zlatan slumped into a chair. “When you put it like that I suppose it’s a no-brainer.”
Chapter 54
When the euphoria had died down, Eugene approached Brandon while he was on his own.
“My father’s apartment was attacked by deviants. None of my family members have been hurt, but the people next door to them weren’t so lucky. My sister’s husband took down four of them and finished off a wounded one with a chainsaw. Dad said this young man, Reuben, was told by phone about the attack, and he had the presence of mind to buy the chainsaw instead of a drill he was seeking. Anyway, while he was dismembering these deviants, he was amazed that they just came at him one at a time even though they saw the previous assailant cut down right in front of them. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this. I saw first-hand in Australia how these infected people operated before and after they transitioned to phase two. They always acted as a group, especially when threatened. This account makes me think that there may be an intermediate stage. We already know that there is a third phase, one of sophistication, hiding in plain sight. Any comment?”
“I can’t really process this at the moment, my head says get on with finalising our three-part offensive. Could they have been siblings?”
“I’d nev
er thought about that. Ok, let’s get back to work.”
Six Weeks Later
Zlatan had reverted to phase one deviancy. Unfortunately, Brandon wasn’t completely ready with his distraction technique. One part, the creation of temporary metabolic chaos had been successful. However, they had been handicapped by not being able to test out part two on the actual virus, because of mutation fears. They’d had to use designer stem cells to simulate the process. Creating ‘benign’ physical deformation was proving a step too far. One of the Japanese researchers came up with an alternative completely out of the blue.
“Why can we not cause a sporadic interrupt protocol for specific stimuli which demand instant cerebral response? We already have drugs which perform such functions for short periods. We only expected the distraction project to offer this deception for a similar amount of time. So, instead of deception – nothing!”
Brandon looked pensive, then a switch flicked.
“Yes, yes, Eugene, think back to Chainsaw Charlie for a moment. If there is an intermediate stage, as you suggested, that would be the time to strike, for example, a stable orderly period before transition from phase one to two.”
“Right, and our guinea pig is phase one. There were tests in Australia which gave a few days warning of the actual jump from phase one to two. That’s when we need to plant our seeds.”
“So, can you alert us at the start of this period?”
“I’m pretty sure I can.”
“In that case, I think we’re finally ready to roll.”
Zlatan timidly asked how much science backed up this decision.
Brandon kept a straight face when he jokingly said, “We have one shot at this. If we fail you will die in a few weeks. But so will the rest of us within a couple of years. If the science you’re talking about is mathematics, we’re entitled to say it’s a straight fifty-fifty. But hey, it has to be better than doing nothing.”
Cometh the Hour
Zlatan was connected to just about every piece of monitoring equipment in the building. This was by no means comparable with a hospital quarantine unit in terms of sanitation or front line medical expertise. Also, the patient was not given anaesthetic, they needed him to be able to communicate with them at all times. The infusions could begin, the first precisely seven minutes before the second. They had estimated a window of between three and five minutes for Eugene’s test to indicate signs of any intermediate transition symptoms after injection one. This left them a minimum of two minutes and a maximum of four minutes for the second infusion and subsequent monitoring of cerebral response lag, before considering the third. Brandon asked Eugene to start the process.
The infiltration serum went smoothly, Zlatan was calm, the readouts were good and the clock ticked down to infusion number two. The metabolic chaos delivery produced a very sharp reaction in the readouts, although the patient felt no different. Two and a half minutes before the Trojan Horse infusion was about to be added to the mix, Zlatan noticed an abrupt change in his visionary capability, followed by a drift to unconsciousness. The group debated this and Brandon suggested they should delay the third infusion until the readouts began to normalise. They didn’t have to. Zlatan opened his eyes, and when asked about the blackout he had no recollection of such an event, thinking he had remained conscious the whole time.
Even so, the third infusion was delivered with some unease. The previously stabilising readouts began to show surges in all directions. Zlatan became delirious, moaning and talking nonsense, but remaining conscious. This wild fluctuation continued for the best part of an hour, inflicting a degree of pessimism into the equation. Then, quite suddenly the patient’s blood pressure dropped dramatically, as did his pulse rate. The onlookers now became gravely concerned. Zlatan’s speech gradually lost its slurring tendency and he was more lucid.
“Something is going on inside me. I’m seeing pictures from earlier this morning, yesterday, and years ago. They come and go. There are hundreds of them. They are there whether I close my eyes or keep them open. What is happening?”
Brandon told him that they couldn’t know exactly what was going on, but at least they knew his body was reacting to the infusions.
“The virus will also be engaged in the struggle. I would expect this to continue for quite some time, maybe even overnight. Are you in any pain?”
“Not really, I just feel as if I don’t know who I am. The pictures are confusing because some have me in them and others are familiar but I don’t know why. I feel hot at the moment, very hot. I want to sleep but the pictures won’t stop.”
Eugene noted that his blood pressure had increased slightly and his pulse was now normal. Zlatan stopped speaking in mid-sentence and closed his eyes again. The hiatus in communication with him gave an opportunity for the others to discuss and digest all of the data which had been collected so far. It could be several hours before reliable trends could be extracted or there could be a sudden change at any time. It was going to be a long night.
*
Zlatan’s boss had a conundrum. He’d checked with the guards and they swore blind that they had never talked about the return from the dead of the former nurse, and had agreed to pretend his reappearance had never happened.
“Have you been questioned about it?”
They said they had expected to be asked about it, but it hadn’t come up, either by rumour or contact from the hierarchy. He was leaning toward believing them when he was asked to attend a second interrogation. He feared that he’d erred somewhere along the line, but retained his casual persona when he entered the room.
“We wanted to bring you up to date with our findings regarding the undeleted files we spoke about last time.”
“Oh, yes, I’d forgotten about that.”
“Well, we are now satisfied that it was a routine housekeeping exercise which brought up these files and posed the question as to whether they should be permanently deleted or left in abeyance until the next clean-up point. Most of them have been permanently deleted, but on balance we felt you should know that one of these files related to Geoffrey Nelson, a nurse who reports to you, his file has now been removed from this list and transferred to an investigative section.”
“I see. What kind of investigation? Is that why I’m here?”
“Not to be part of the investigation, only to verify certain information. Some of what was in the file has become subject to dispute.”
“Right. Well, he was a reliable employee. He had some strange views on life in general, but he never let it affect his work.”
“You speak of him respectfully, in the past tense.”
“Yes, of course, he was reported as deceased not long after he became infected. Wasn’t that on this file you keep talking about?”
“Unfortunately not. You see, some alterations appear to have been made when this clean-up took place. His file information ends with the declaration that he was infected. You’ve been very helpful, and it just shows that every once in a while human memory can be more reliable than strings of computer code. We also vaguely remembered he was one of many of our staff who’d succumbed to the virus. We can now correct the file, registering his death, and close the investigation. It will become extremely important in the future to ensure our records of this plague are as accurate as possible.”
He left the inner sanctum and felt relieved that he’d stayed on script, but he knew that they knew for certain that Geoffrey Nelson didn’t actually die inside the exclusion zone.
Chapter 55
Darwinian Roulette
It had been a long and sometimes depressing vigil. Global events took on the temporary cloak of mere wallpaper, unfolding but blotted out by sheer focus and determination. Zlatan had been hooked up to technical survival kit for two and a half weeks. He’d also had to cope with intravenous feeding and bedpans. He was weary beyond comprehension.
Eugene uttered only two words.
“You won.”
“What?”
?
??You’re clean. The virus has been purged from your body. There have been quite a few wobbles, but in the end, the Phospholipase A2 made the difference. Once you recover from fatigue you’ll improve quickly. We’ve decided you can return to oral sustenance. Sorry about the nil by mouth discomfort, but we had to rule out any interaction between the virus and contaminated foodstuffs. If you want a sleeping draft just let me know. You have a place in history now, the first human to beat this pestilence.”
Zlatan let the emotions flow and began to convulse with joy. He was muttering something repeatedly. Eugene leaned closer.
“Ice cream, I’d like an ice cream. Lots of it and only then a sleeping pill.”
The others were almost too tired to celebrate, but there was one more thing to address. It fell to Brandon to make the point.
“Listen guys. I think I know how you feel, but this is just the beginning. We can’t let the cat out of the bag until we find the right people to work with in using this technique. If it was broadcast, then stabilised Alphas would ensure that the virus would be directly exposed to the cure, in a lab, not a discrete human body. We can’t let that happen. Its adaptability would then become a threat, mutating to a new foe, and starting a new, more complex campaign. Let’s enjoy the moment and think about what we do next. I’d like to suggest we know where we have to begin. Australia has to be neutralised before we tackle the wider world.”
The two Japanese researchers were keen to stay with the project, but brought up the practical aspect of being paid, they had to earn a living. Eugene had an idea he wanted to share.
“This will, as Brandon said, reach a point where we have to trust a larger and larger circle of people. I agree that the original Australian spawning nest has to be eradicated first, but by whom? We aren’t militarily capable of enforcing terms for treating one person but not another. Politicians scare the shit out of me when it comes to trust, but we simply can’t administrate and treat on the scale required. It pains me to concede this. But, if we want to deceive the world at large about exactly what we’re doing, at least for a while, politicians have this in their DNA – the four of us don’t. We just have to find the right politicians. With respect to being paid, I can vouch for support from my father and myself, so forget about that for now. As the project grows, regular employment will follow. Brandon is absolutely correct, we can only treat a person once, and that brings up the question of secondary infection. Those cured must be kept away from any form of the virus, whether from plants, animals, or deviants. I would have thought it makes sense to do this in Australia as we go, because if the eradication programme is to be successful we have to limit it to phase one deviants in the beginning. We have more work to do with phases two and three. Progressively cleansing in an ever-expanding circle would afford us the opportunity to select such candidates simultaneous with eliminating and burning others. One further point I’d like to make, we as individuals and a group are pitifully naïve when it comes to achieving the organisational bridgehead we need. My father has both the financial and people connections to help us. He’s been in this kind of situation many times.”