“Never try to give a speech on an empty stomach,” Gallic advised. “Trust me.”
“And not too much real coffee. Caffeine can make you jumpy. When a President gives a speech,” Arnie explained for this morning’s lesson, “he’s– Gallic, help me out here?”
“Nothing dramatic for these two today. You’re the smart neighbor coming over because the guy next door wants your advice on something he’s been thinking about. Friendly. Reasonable. Quiet. ‘Gee, Fred, I really think you might want to do it this way,’ ” Weston explained with raised eyebrows.
“Kindly family doctor telling a guy to go easy on the greasy food and maybe play an extra round of golf–exercise is supposed to be fun, that sort of thing,” the chief of staff explained on. “You do it all the time in real life.”
“Just do it this morning in front of four thousand people, right?” Ryan asked.
484
“And C-SPAN cameras, and it’ll be on all the evening network news broadcasts–”
“CNN will be doing it live, too, ‘cuz it’s your first speech out in the country,” Gallic added. No sense lying to the man.
Jesus. Jack looked back down at the text of his speech. “You’re right, Arnie. Better decaf.” He looked up suddenly. “Any smokers aboard?”
It was the way he asked it that made the Air Force steward turn. “Want one, sir?”
The answer was somewhat shameful, but–“Yes.”
She handed him a Virginia Slim and lit it with a warm smile. It wasn’t every day one got a chance to provide so personal a service to the Commander-in-Chief. Ryan took a puff and looked up.
“If you tell my wife, Sergeant–”
“Our secret, sir.” She disappeared aft to get breakfast, her day already made.
THE FLUID WAS surprisingly horrid in color, deep scarlet with a hint of brown. They’d monitored the process with small samples under an electron microscope. The monkey kidneys exposed to the infected blood were composed of discrete and highly specialized cells, and for whatever reason, Ebola loved those cells as a glutton loves his chocolate mousse. It had been both fascinating and horrifying to watch. The micron-sized virus strands touched the cells, penetrated them–and started to replicate in the warm, rich biosphere. It was like something from a science-fiction movie, but quite real. This virus, like all the others, was only equivocally alive. It could act only with help, and that help had to come from its host, which by providing the means for the virus to activate, also conspired at its own death. The Ebola strands contained only RNA, and for mitosis to take place, both RNA and DNA are required. The kidney cells had both, the virus strands sought them out, and when they were joined, the Ebola started to reproduce. To do that required energy, and that energy was supplied by the kidney cells, which were, of course, completely destroyed in the process. The multiplication
485
process was a microcosm of the disease process in a human community. It started slowly, then accelerated geometrically–the faster it went, the faster it went: 2-4-16-256-65,536–until all of the nutrients were eaten up and only virus strands remained, then went dormant and awaited their next opportunity. People applied all manner of false images to disease. It would lie in wait for its chance; it would kill without mercy; it would seek out victims. All of that was anthropomorphic rubbish, Moudi and his colleague knew. It didn’t think. It didn’t do anything overly malevolent. All Ebola did was to eat and reproduce and go back to its dormant state. But as a computer is only a collection of electrical switches which can only distinguish between the numerals 1 and 0–but does so more rapidly and efficiently than its human users–so Ebola was supremely well adapted to reproduce so rapidly that the human body’s immune system, ordinarily a ruthlessly effective defense mechanism, was simply overwhelmed, as though by an army of carnivorous ants. In that lay Ebola’s historic weakness. It was too efficient. It killed too fast. Its survival mechanism within the human host also tended to kill the host before it could pass the disease along. It was also super-adapted to a specific ecosystem. Ebola didn’t survive long in the open, and only then in a jungle environment. For this reason, and since it could not survive in a human host without killing that host in ten days or less, it had also evolved slowly–without taking the next evolutionary step of becoming airborne.
Or so everyone thought. Perhaps “hoped” would be a better word, Moudi reflected. An Ebola variant that could be spread by aerosol would be catastrophically deadly. It was possible they had exactly that. This was the Mayinga strain, as repeated microscopy had established, and that strain was suspected to be capable of aerosol transmission, and that was what they had to prove.
Deep-freezing, using liquid nitrogen as the refrigerant, for example, killed most normal human cells. When they froze, the expansion of the water, which accounted for most of the cellular mass, burst the cell walls, leaving nothing behind but wreckage. Ebola, on the other hand, was
486
too primitive for that to happen. Too much heat could kill it. Ultraviolet light could kill it. Micro-changes in the chemical environment could kill it. But give it a cold, dark place to sleep, and it was content to slumber in peace.
They worked in a glove box. It was a highly Controlled and lethally contaminated environment bordered with clear lexan strong enough to stop a pistol bullet. On two sides holes were cut into the sturdy plastic, and riveted at each workstation was a pair of heavy rubber gloves. Moudi withdrew lOcc’s of the virus-rich liquid and transferred it to a small container, which he sealed. The sluggishness of the process was less from physical danger than from the awkwardness of the gloves. When the container was sealed, he transferred it from one gloved hand to another, then off to the director, who performed a similar switch, finally moving it into a small airlock. When that door was closed, as indicated by a light which read off a pressure sensor, the small compartment was flooded with disinfectant spray–dilute phenol–and allowed to sit for three minutes, until it was certain that the air and the transfer container were safe to release. Even then no one would touch it with ungloved hands, and despite the safety of the glove box, both physicians also wore full protective gear. The director removed the container, cradling it in both hands for the three-meter walk to the worktable.
For experimental purposes, the aerosol can was of the type used for insect spray, the sort one can place on a floor, activate, and leave to fog a whole room. It had been fully disassembled, cleaned out three times with live steam, and put back together–the plastic parts had been a problem, but that had been figured out a few months earlier. It was a crude device. The production versions would be far more elegant. The only danger here was from the liquid nitrogen, a watery-appearing fluid which, if spilled on the gloves, would freeze them immediately and soon thereafter cause them to fragment like black crystal glass. The director stood aside as Moudi poured the cryogenic liquid around the pressure vessel. Only a few cc’s were required for the purpose of the experiment. Next, the Ebola-rich liquid was injected into the stainless-steel inner container, and the top screwed in place. When the cap was
487
sealed, the new container was sprayed with disinfectant, then washed with sterile saline. The smaller transfer container went into a disposal bin for incineration. “There,” the director said. “We are ready.” Inside the spray can, the Ebola was already deep-frozen, but not for long. The nitrogen would boil off relatively rapidly, and the sample would thaw. In that time, the rest of the experiment would be set up. And in that time, the two physicians would remove their protective clothing and have dinner.
THE COLONEL DRIVING the airplane touched down with consummate skill. It was his first time flying this President, and he had something to prove. The rollout was routine, with the reverse-thrusters slowing the jumbo to auto-speed before the nose came around to the left. Out the windows, Ryan could see hundreds–no, he realized, thousands–of people. All there to see me? he wondered. Damn. In their hands, dangling over the low perimeter fence, were the red, white, and blue colors of the national flag, and when the aircraft finally stopped, those flags came up at one time, as though in a wave. The mobile stairs came to the door, which was opened by the steward–to call her a stewardess would have been incorrect–who’d given him a cigarette.
“Want another one?” she whispered.
Ryan grinned. “Maybe later. And thanks, Sarge.”
“Break a leg, Mr. President–but not on the stairs, okay?” She got a chuckle as reward.
“All ready for the Boss,” Price heard over her radio circuit from the leader of the advance team. With that, she nodded at President Ryan.