CHAPTER 2

When the Pathology Lab was being built, Dr. Hallam had insisted on a completely separate Research Unit on the third floor. It sat up there, next to the Animal House, a part of which connected with it, and with it alone, so that even the animals were isolated. The unit itself contained a complete set of the most modern equipment used in virology, equipment which was never touched except on Hallam's order. To prevent outside contamination and also to prevent the escape of harmful diseases, all who wanted to go into the unit had to put the clothes they were wearing into the ultra-sound sterilizer locker, take a complete shower and, in a dressing room where the blue rays of ultraviolet light killed more germs, put on white suits. Naturally anyone with a cold or other obvious disease was barred. All clothes needed for a long stay were processed through the ultra-sound locker and picked up on the other side of the shower room. These precautions were sufficient only for entry to the Penthouse, as Hallam had christened the living quarters. They consisted of a pleasant, if austere, suite containing bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room, where those who were working on a project would stay for days at a time. To get into the workrooms, it was necessary to wear what looked like modified space suits, which contained their own oxygen supply, and go through a chemical shower guaranteed to kill any living organism. Many of the experimental animals had been delivered at birth by special aseptic techniques and they and their descendants lived in air-conditioned rooms where the only germs were those introduced deliberately in experiments. Other animals, which were unsterile, were kept in separate rooms and handled by remote control devices as if they were pieces of radioactive material ... and some of them were, with injections of isotopes coursing through their blood. Even their feeding and cleaning was handled by remote control, by assistants especially trained for the task. At this particular time, all other special work was stopped or transferred to the Routine Lab. The Research Unit was cleaned and waiting for us.

Hallam and I went through the shower routine first and then sat waiting at the table in the living room for Pat. She came in soon afterwards, her cheeks shining from scrubbing and her pink lips, devoid of lipstick, smiling as she tried to tie up her hair with a towel.

"Gracious, that needle shower is rough," she said. "I've scrubbed so hard I must surely be sterile."

"T hope not, baby," I said. "I've got plans for your future."

"Really, John, sometimes you go too far." She blushed as Hallam laughed.

"What do we do now, Chief?" I said.

"I'm not particularly interested in trying to find out the structure of this virus," Hallam said. "We'll let Biochemistry and the Routine Lab people handle that. I've warned them to be particularly careful. What I should like to do up here is to find out if the virus has any hidden power ... if it does more to people than just give them the flu. The thing that bothers me is the time element. Right now nobody is really worried. I have to find enough evidence to convince the government so they'll do something. We'll keep passing the virus through chicken embryos ... we know it can be kept alive that way; and we'll put it in Hela cells and any other tissue culture we have, both human and animal. They aren't ordinarily suitable for flu virus but with this thing one can't tell."

He turned to me. "How many ferrets have we?"

"I can't say exactly, I haven't been here since my vacation. But there were plenty."

"And monkeys?"

"Do you want them for monkey kidney culture, or what?"

"No, I want to give them the flu and then see what happens. It could affect ferrets in a different way than human beings. We can't use people so it has to be monkeys."

"Well, we have more than a dozen, if we take all varieties."

"That'll do nicely. Pat, you might start on mice after you inoculate a fresh batch of eggs. John and I will tackle the ferrets and monkeys. They're difficult for one person to handle easily. And we'll do hamsters and guinea pigs too. Something ought to show up in a day or two."

Hours later it was finished. It isn't the easiest job in the world to inoculate ferrets and monkeys with virus, especially when it had to be put in their noses. Those nasty little weasels can bite and even through the puncture proof gloves I felt the pinch when one of them got loose. The monkeys weren't much better. Finally, covered with sweat inside my suit, I came back through the chemical shower, the water shower and the dryer and opened the headpiece for a breath of fresh air.

"You'd think they could have air-conditioned these damn suits," I grumbled. "Say Pat, when do we eat?"

Pat had just got the helmet off and was fluffing her brown curls, flattened down by the green surgeon's cap she had been wearing underneath it.

"Just as soon as you leave and let me get out of this diver's suit," she said.

Hallam winked at me as he opened the door. "Too bad these suits aren't transparent."

* * * * *

We were sitting around the table over the remains of steak and french fries when the midnight news reports came over the TV. There was nothing more to do at the moment; the animals were not yet sick even though we were hoping for a much shorter incubation period in the ferrets than in monkeys or man. It had to be shorter if we were going to do anything in time.

"First the British Columbia news," the announcer was saying. "We now have reports of outbreaks of influenza in the Interior. Kamloops has several hundred cases. Kelowna and Princeton hospitals are full. Across the border, Yakima and Spokane report a similar situation."

Hallam cut in. "There it is again. A sudden explosive outburst! It's not right, I tell you. It's not natural!"

"We now turn to the international scene." A brightly colored map of Europe appeared on the screen and, as the announcer spoke, he pointed. "Here, in the West German Republic, there are reports of an influenza epidemic that may be similar to ours. Apparently the Communists in the new country of Prussia, until recently called East Germany, feel it is serious. They have closed the border. An airlift to Berlin is beginning and the West Germans have requested the return of American and British transports to their old bases since their own air fleet is insufficient for the task. There are scattered reports from Yugoslavia which may indicate an epidemic there too, but the Tito government refuses to confirm this." He paused and the picture shifted to a map of the Far East. "Over in the Orient we have a different story. For the past several weeks there have been persistent rumors of a strange disease ravaging Tibet and West China. Communications are poor, of course, and the Chinese Communists have not authorized any official announcement. However, it is said that the disease has some resemblance to small pox. Other travellers insist it is more like a severe hemorrhagic measles. All agree that the mortality is high and that the already inadequate medical services of the Chinese, in those areas, are overwhelmed. The Russians are reported to be flying antibiotics to the Peiping government, but claim that they are having scattered outbreaks in Siberia which require their attention. They admit closing all frontier posts, ostensibly in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease."

I looked at Hallam. "Now what?"

He made a face. "My word! This complicates things, doesn't it? Not only are there two epidemics but the Reds have the worst one. If the reports are true, this Asiatic outbreak could be worse than the Black Death of the Middle Ages."

The TV had returned to reporting the local scene in detail.

* * * * *

"It is now ten days since the first cases of influenza appeared. The second big wave of cases is now passing its peak, the authorities believe, but we are getting thousands more cases scattered all over the city and the outlying metropolitan areas of New Westminster, Burnaby, North and West Vancouver. According to the Department of Public Health, this distribution suggests a disease of extremely high infectivity with about a five day cycle. However they also say there is no cause for alarm. Even though the number of cases is well into the hundreds of thousands, practically no deaths have been reported. What deaths there are have invariably been old people or those whose strength has been weakened by other illness."

He continued for a time but said nothing new and Hallam shut him off.

Pat stood up. "If you-all are going to keep your promise and clean up the dishes, I'll take a look in the viewing window and see how our pets are coming along. Then I'm going to bed."

I groaned in dismay. "Now let's not make a habit of this. I hate doing dishes!"

She pulled my left ear as she went by. "Do you good. You need the practice!"

"All right, John," said the Chief. "I'll wash and you dry. I should have installed an automatic dishwasher in this place. Didn't think of it at the time."

I'd just dried the first plate when the Intercom buzzed. I pushed the button.

"Dr. Hallam! John! Can you come up right away? I think things are starting to pop." She sounded excited and a bit puzzled.

The big man lifted his eyebrows and rinsed off his hands.

"I guess we'd better get over there," he said, mangling my teatowel to get the water off.

When we reached the viewing room we found Pat, completely engrossed, in the section which overlooked the cages containing the female ferrets. It was a one-way glass, and soundproof, as the weasel tribe are notoriously sensitive to outside disturbances. Pat pointed to one of the cages and said in an unnecessary whisper,

"That ferret is sick. She seems to be in labor."

"It's a good old ferret custom," I quipped.

"Idiot!" She frowned impatiently. "According to her chart, she was only in the early part of pregnancy, ... not due for a long time yet. She was the first one you inoculated today."

For a while longer we watched. There was no doubt about it. The ferret was aborting. I glanced at the Chief. His face was set, the normally gentle mouth was grim, the lips drawn and thin.

"God Almighty," he whispered. "They wouldn't try it. And yet, what better way?" He straightened up from his seat. Even now he couldn't resist a mild joke.

"When you say things are popping, young lady, I see you mean it literally."

He started for the exit. "Well, it appears that the real work is beginning. I'd hope we would all get some sleep but the flu virus works too fast in these ferrets. So let's go back for some coffee and see what happens."

* * * * *

Bacon and eggs certainly taste good after a long night, I was thinking as I champed into the last piece of toast. I got it down, drained my glass of powdered milk and held up my coffee cup to Pat. She looked tired, a little pale, from lack of sunlight, perhaps, and very thoughtful as she filled it. I touched her hand as the cup passed back to me and she smiled tenderly. If Hallam saw it, he made no comment. I felt sorry for him at times like that. He was, in spite of his friendliness, a lonely man. I remembered now that his fiancee, an Army nurse, had been killed at Cassino in the unit he commanded. Since that time he had turned to his work for consolation and apparently had never found anyone he really cared for.

"Sir," I said--somehow I never could bring myself to use his first name; habit is strong and he looked too much like a soldier even now, a soldier who commanded respect. "Sir, what did you mean last night, as that ferret was aborting, when you said they wouldn't try it, and yet what better way?"

"I suppose to explain that, I'd better give you my reasoning in this whole business." He looked at his watch. "We've an hour before the next stage of our experiments ... not enough to sleep. At any rate we can sleep later."

Pat refilled the cups and silently I passed around a packet of Sweet Caps. He lit one and started.

"As you both remember, after Stalin died there was a period of uncertainty and then, when Malenkov gave way to the Krushchev-Bulganin team, the so-called Geneva conference-at-the-summit initiated what has been called the peace offensive by the Russians. The Hungarian revolt and the trouble in East Germany and Poland put a crimp in their pious front. That front was still further dinted by their obvious interference in the Middle East. But aside from that, the uneasy truce has continued, mainly, I suppose, because of the fear of an H-bomb war. Except for Tibet, Red China too has been fairly quiet, mostly because she still doesn't have the industrial potential to fight a major war; and the Soviets have procrastinated in helping her because they, too, fear the dreadful potential of such a population, if armed."

"The Geophysical Year saw both Russian and American satellites circling the world and the race for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, with H-bomb warhead, seems to have ended in a stalemate. The Russians, the Yanks, and now the British Commonwealth, possess long-range rockets of great accuracy. The next logical step, since both atomic and ballistic wars promise mutual suicide, is into space. There, the two main opponents could spy on each other and neither the Iron Curtain nor the security regulations of the USA would hide secret preparations for a knockout punch. Also, there possibly are immense stores of valuable minerals open to the owners of the moon and planets. But space travel takes time and money ... and brains. Manned satellites are on the way, but are not yet established facts."

"The Sputniks of 1958 had shaken the States out of its complacency as nothing else could. By 1961, therefore, that country had reversed its trend in favor of labor and the common man and at last had recognized that it was the uncommon man who had enabled it to achieve its tremendously high material standards. They were catching up very rapidly with the Russians, who for a time had had a preponderance of scientific personnel, and had managed, by sacrificing consumer goods to heavy industry, to keep ahead of the States in the machinery of war. With a stalemate, at least temporarily, in science, the Americans turned back to economic warfare. For a time the Reds, with their lavish promises, had been ahead in this field too, but the deliveries of goods didn't match the promises and gradually disillusionment had set in. So the Americans, who could be depended upon to deliver the goods, gradually forged ahead. As it now stands, they are slowly but certainly pushing the Communists out of all but the captured satellite countries and even there, the years of repression and low standards of living have resulted in several serious revolts in the past ten years. Then too, in educating their people in the attempt to achieve scientific supremacy, the Communists have awakened them to the fallacies of the Marxist-Leninist doctrines."

"Now dictators seldom give up quietly. The Commies are strained to the limit and in danger of losing. They have to do something--but they aren't fools. You can't have atomic war without suicide. Local wars and political maneuvering have failed. They are losing the economic war. There is only one answer!"

* * * * *

Deliberately he paused to let the argument sink in ... a favorite habit of his.

"A new kind of war! That's the answer! A war that is over before anyone realizes it has started--and a war that cannot be blamed on them, so there is no danger of retaliation."

He drew hard on his cigarette, butted it firmly, and went on.

"I believe that this present epidemic has been started by enemy agents. I further believe that it is due to a synthetic virus which combines the terrific contagiousness of the 1918 flu with certain features of mumps, and perhaps German measles. I think the virus has been built up in such a way that there is no cross-immunity with any natural virus; in other words, having had mumps or flu or shots for either will be no protection. And, to make it even more diabolical, they have deliberately made it a mild type of infection so that almost everyone gets better, and people are therefore not concerned about it. As Joe Armstrong said, the stuff isn't serious. So why suspect sabotage until it is too late."

"But the Russians themselves are reporting cases," I said, "and how do you explain this pandemic in Red China that's killing off so many people. That is an entirely different disease."

"I agree," Hallam said thoughtfully, "and that's the beauty of the whole plan. If you learn to make one virus that transmits its characteristics, you should be able to make others. A killer virus let loose in North America would alarm the entire continent overnight. Our public health people would isolate whole cities, if necessary, and probably eliminate it before it got out of hand. We have no quarantine for this epidemic. Nobody is worried about it and many authorities feel if a big epidemic cannot be controlled by their inadequate medical staff they might as well be killed off now."

"You mean the Soviets want to eliminate the Chinese too?" Pat was incredulous.

"Yes, I do." The Chief nodded emphatically. "They want to rule the whole world, not just a part of it. As time goes by, the Chinese are more and more of a threat to their supremacy. That threat must be eliminated."

"What about reports of flu and the new small pox thing in Russia and Siberia?" I asked.

He was almost enthusiastic. "It's a lovely plan. Yes, lovely, if it weren't so horrible in its implications." He paused to drain his cup. "For the past several years there has been very strong emphasis on public health measures in the USSR. A tremendous drive for vaccination against polio, small pox and various other communicable diseases has resulted in the immunization of millions of children and adults. I'll bet if we could get some of those vaccines we'd find the antidote to both our flu virus and the Chinese small pox-measles, whatever it is. I think there has been deliberate selection of part of the population to carry on the Soviet system and the rest will be sacrificed just to fool us. After all, the Reds believe in genetics as we do, now that Lysenko and his theories are discredited, and what more logical than breeding a better race?"

"I'm not quite sure I follow that last part," I said. "Only the Chinese are being killed off."

"Only the Chinese are dying, as individuals," Hallam spoke slowly and emphatically, "but I fear we are also dying--as a nation!"