The Emerald Virus (2 page)

    
While the pods were not digestible by humans, many animals used the pods as a
valuable food source. The vine thrived during the cold Arctic summers; it lay
dormant in the winter. Inside the seed pods was a fruity gel-like material that
served as a source of nutrients even during the dormant winter periods. The
pods currently inside of J-30’s cave had long since dried out. What was left
was a wispy matter that held tiny seeds and looked and acted much like a puffball
that children around the world love to pick and blow into the wind. Like puffballs
the wispy material inside the pods would touch down indiscriminately, but if
dry were likely to be picked up by the next breeze or wind and continue their
journey. Unlike the puffball the material inside these pods was not white but a
deep green. Coincidentally, the virus was diagnosed first with the fishermen of
Emerald, a small coastal village, and the virus came to be known as the Emerald
Virus. For a short period of time the pods themselves came to be both known and
feared.

    
J30 was only the first of the Emerald Virus delivery vehicles, and it exited
the Kings Fjord sedately.  However, it picked up speed quickly as the iceberg
entered the channel between the island known as Prince Charles Foreland, and
Spitsbergen. The West Spitsbergen current moved J30 north through the Fram
Straights and into the Arctic Ocean where it brushed the edge of the Arctic
Gyre in the eastern half of the Arctic Ocean, known as the Eurasian Basin. J30
moved along the southern edge of the Eurasian Basin in a westerly direction
toward the area north of Greenland. At about 30 west longitude
J30 caught the East Greenland Current and was
drawn south through the Denmark Straights between Greenland and Iceland and
into the Greenland Sea.

    
South of Iceland J30 entered the North Atlantic Current and began to move to
the east, towards Ireland, Great Britain and beyond to continental Europe. J30
also began to melt rapidly in the warmer North Atlantic waters of late summer.
When the bottom of J30 melted enough to open the cave, the pods began to escape
their natural prison and float to the surface. As the cave opening got larger,
currents pushed against the opening and caused J30 to roll. The opening was now
above the surface. This made little difference since in a matter of days in the
North Atlantic Current J30 melted first to the size of a bergy bit, then to the
size of a growler, and finally, ceased to exist. In all J30 had lasted 110
days. The millions of pods were now a dark mass floating steadily eastward as
they were dispersed by the currents. By the time they reached landfall they
would have spread out on a long north-south line and looked much like an invading
army approaching the British Isles.  

    
The southernmost of these pods moved south of Great Britain and made landfall
on the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain, and to the south, Portugal. Some pods
would be caught in the Azores Current and move toward the equator.

    
Those pods that stayed in the center would make landfall first on the west
coast of Ireland and then on the west coast of Scotland, the west coast of Wales
and the southwest coast of England.

    
Those pods that dispersed to the North would pass north of Ireland and Great
Britain and would be caught up in the North Atlantic Drift, move into the Slope
Current and finally into the Norwegian/North Cape Current where the pods would
either make landfall on the Norwegian coast, or move into the Barents Sea, where
they would find land on the north coast of Finland before they were captured by
the winter freeze. They would remain locked in the pack ice until the late
spring thaw. In the late spring and early summer they would continue their
eastward journey through the Kara Sea, the Laptev Sea and into the East
Siberian Sea. Ironically, a few of these pods would stay to the west of the
Scandinavian Peninsula and enter the East Spitsbergen Current where they would
be routed north and west back to the island of Spitsbergen where they would
enter the Hinlofen Straight from the south and four months after the journey
started would make landfall on the east coast of Spitsbergen, less than 100
miles from their start point on the opposite side of the island.

 
   While J30 was en route, the next delivery vehicle was calving off the Two
Bears glacier into Kings Fjord. Unlike J30 the second iceberg was small and it
calved at the point where the pods were located. Due to the surface currents
and winds most of these pods were to follow J30’s route; however, some of the
pods were blown directly across Kings Fjord and landed on the shoreline near
the village of Ny-Alesund. This small iceberg would be followed by two more medium-sized
icebergs, carrying pods of the Emerald Virus, and these icebergs were also
bound to follow J30’s route. All four icebergs would calve within 30 days of
each other and any one of them would have been enough to cause people from
around the world to fear for their lives. Four of them were to prove
overwhelming.

    
While the pods were insoluble, they were fragile. Many opened as they were
thrown against rocky coasts; some were opened by the myriad of sea birds found
along the coastlines of the world. Others opened when people or animals stepped
on them as they walked along the tide lines. Once opened, the puffball-like
material in the pods became dependent on the winds to spread them, and spread
them they did. The wide north-to-south dispersion of the pods meant that most
of the major winds and air currents of the world would help transport the Emerald
Virus. The jet streams, the trade winds and the easterlies would all
participate in spreading the virus, and they would do so in a way that would
make it impossible to determine the source. The only thing that would be clear
was that the Northern Hemisphere would be infected first. However, the Southern
Hemisphere would not be far behind. 

    
The Emerald Virus itself was what you would expect of a filo virus, except
unlike the Ebola virus, found in Africa and named after a river in the Republic
of the Congo, or the Marburg virus, named after a village in Germany, the Emerald
Virus was transported by vegetation. It is believed that the Ebola and Marburg filo
viruses were zoonoses, i.e., transmitted by animals to humans. The Emerald
Virus did not infect plants, birds, fish or animals. However, it would prove to
be extremely efficient at killing people.

    
Once it infects the human host, the Emerald Virus inserts its genetic material
into the DNA of the host, and directs the host to begin copying the viral DNA
code instead of the host DNA code. The Emerald Virus attacked internal organs
in general, but this virus also seeks and attaches itself to the cells of the
heart. The virus stimulates these cells to grow uncontrollably fast. In fact, unlike
a cancer that could take months or years to grow large enough to become fatal,
as a filo virus, the Emerald Virus could do the same thing in a matter of weeks.

    
The other difference between the Emerald Virus and other known filo viruses
that can infect humans is that the Emerald Virus is a long-feared airborne filo
virus. Up to now people had to come in contact with an animal that carried the filo
virus, or another human who was infected by the virus, in order to become
infected. With the Emerald Virus contact with infected individuals is still an
efficient way for the virus to spread, but it isn’t the only way. Breathing in
airborne particles of the Emerald Virus works just as well, and airborne
particles can be spread around the world by the winds, by victims, as well as
by birds, fish and animals. There is no way to isolate the population from the
virus. It is here and spreading itself. Worse yet, this virus can be up to 100
times smaller than bacteria, a problem for any known filtering system in the
world.

Friday:
Washington D.C. (Flashback to events Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)

    
Jack Sweeney was a well-built man with dark curly hair. He was six feet tall
and he worked out often in the basement gym of his office building. He did his
best to maintain good health, but found leaving field work for a desk job six
years ago had made that task difficult.

    
Jack worked for Dr. A.J. McCloud, the Assistant Secretary of Health and Safety
and the Chief Medical Official for Homeland Security. Dr. McCloud and Jack had
worked together for the past six years and she had long since given up asking
Jack to call her either Alice or A.J. Alice McCloud was twenty years his
senior, and he considered her the pre-eminent microbiologist in the world. She
was a professional that he had long respected, and he was not about to diminish
his respect for her by becoming too familiar.

   
 Jack had known about the Emerald Virus for three days now and he was still fighting
denial. On Tuesday morning he had received a call from Harry Skipperton, an
American microbiologist currently on leave from Jack’s staff to spend a year on
staff at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The University was one of the
best research facilities in Europe in the area of microbiology, and four months
later Jack was still excited that one of his staff had been given this
opportunity.

   
Harry had called Jack first not because of their friendship, but because Jack
was the head of the Bio-Terror Countermeasures Unit within the Department of
Homeland Security. When Harry informed Jack that he was calling about a
potential biological threat the fear in Harry’s voice was unmistakable. More
than anything Harry said, this fear told Jack how serious this call would be.
Harry Skipperton tended to take all things in stride, and he did not panic.

    
Jack responded by turning on the recorder, as he was required to do when
discussing any threat. Jack let Harry know he was being recorded.

    
After that first phone call from Harry, Jack took a couple of minutes to gather
his thoughts. He looked around his office and gazed out on Constitution Avenue.
It was a pretty fall day with a bright blue sky. Typical of Washington DC in
the fall there was a breeze blowing and Jack could see leaves flying through
the air. His office was sparsely furnished and typical of a single male. There
were two institutional pictures on two of the walls and a plant on the
credenza. Jack sometimes wondered how the plant had gotten there, and how it
stayed alive, since he had never watered it. He assumed his assistant Irene
took care of the plant but he wasn’t sure. Whoever cared for the plant only did
so when Jack was out of his office

    
Jack pulled his thoughts back to the problem at hand and thought about the
professionals he had studied under who were on the front lines during the Ebola
Virus crisis. He now understood what they meant when they told him how their
stomachs had contracted when they realized how dangerous this virus was. Jack
didn’t know how this Emerald Virus matched up against the Ebola virus in terms
of fatalities, but from what Harry had told him the Emerald Virus was already
much more widespread than the Ebola Virus had ever become.     Jack called Dr.
McCloud on the direct intercom, something he rarely did, and only when time was
a critical issue. He told her he needed to talk to her immediately and when she
asked how important the subject was, he said that unless she was talking to the
President she needed to see him now. She told him to be in her office in two
minutes.

    
As he walked down the hall he saw a group of six or seven people being ushered
out of her office and they looked unhappy. He passed them quietly, walked past
Dr. McCloud’s assistant Nancy, and into the inner office.

    
Alice J. McCloud was a handsome lady in her mid-fifties. Her dark hair was cut short
and was beginning to gray. She was standing and waiting for Jack as he entered
her office. Dr. McCloud looked at him with a warm smile and said, “Jack, I know
you’ll make this worthwhile, but please don’t make it as bad as the tone in
your voice suggests it is.”

    
Jack looked at her and realized once again that one of the things he respected about
her was that he would see this same warm smile when he left her office. She
always retained her composure, and always knew how to get the best out of her
people during the most difficult times. He thought this skill was probably
developed during her time on the staff of a number of hospitals, before she had
chosen to follow her heart and become a medical scientist. And not just any
science, she had returned to her work as a microbiologist seeking to identify
the newest and most dangerous bacteria, microbes and viruses in the world, and
of course to find cures or vaccines for those infectious agents that proved
unsafe or fatal for humans.

    
Jack responded by saying, “Dr. McCloud, I’m afraid this one might be really
bad. I just got off the phone with Harry in Edinburgh. I’ve recorded the call
and I’d like to play it for you.” Dr. McCloud nodded yes and Jack opened his
laptop and hit the play button.

    
Harry’s voice was saying, “All right Jack, let me start by telling you why I’ve
called this a potential bio-terrorism related phone call.”

    
Harry began the explanation by identifying himself. “This is Harry Skipperton.
I’m a senior research scientist with the Department of Homeland Security,
currently on temporary staff at the School of Biological Sciences, the
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve been in Edinburgh for four
months. A week ago
the university received a
call for help concerning Emerald, a small fishing village on the rugged
northwest coast of Scotland. It seems that two weeks ago most of the population
of 890 people had come down with the same affliction, a severe reddening of the
face and upper torso, much like rosacea. In fact rosacea is pretty common in
our coastal villages and the local doctors treated the rash as a difficult and
widespread case of rosacea. The Emerald Virus manifests itself visually like
rosacea in that the face becomes acutely flushed and covered with small bumps,
the small veins in the face become red and take on the appearance of spider
webs, and the eyes become dry, red and irritated. The other early symptom is
that every victim feels a little bit sick. It was described to me like the
first day of a cold where you know you’re coming down with something but you
aren’t yet sick. Worse than that, within days almost all of our coastal
villages were reporting the same phenomena and we are getting reports of
villages on the northwest Irish coast reporting the same malady.”

    
“Harry, are you sure it’s a virus?

    
“I’m sure. The first thing we did was dispatch a medical team to Emerald and
took blood samples. We brought them to our lab. We concluded the tests this
morning and not only is it a virus, but it is a filovirus of some sort. We’ve
named it the Emerald Virus after the village.”

    
“Any other areas affected?”

    
“In the past 48 hours we’ve received word of the same thing occurring on the
southwest coast of England, the Atlantic coast of Norway and early this morning
we received word of the virus reaching the Atlantic coast of France.”

    
“Have there been any additional symptoms?”

    
“Yes, the disease progresses to a second phase on the third or fourth day. The
extreme redness in the face fades to a light pink but becomes splotchy; on the
seventh or eighth day all feelings of discomfort or illness disappear.”

    
“And the pink facial splotches?”

    
“That’s one of the funny things about this disease. The patient feels much better
at the start of the second week and at that point the pink splotches migrate
downward until they have reached the feet after three more days or so. The
disease spreads visibly but the patient feels perfectly healthy. The timeframes
for these different phases are remarkably consistent from patient to patient.”

    
“That takes us up to what, the tenth or eleventh day?”

    
“That’s right.”

    
“Okay, what happens next?”

    
“The patient begins to feel sick, real sick. Within 24 hours they’re bed ridden
with extreme flu like symptoms.

    
Jack didn’t like the tone in Harry’s voice, which had changed from an
unemotional reporting tone to a tone with a hint of desperation. Jack asked,
“Harry, how bad does it get?”

    
“The patients start dying. The first deaths were reported yesterday and people
have been dying continuously since then.”

    
“What was the exact time of the first death and how many deaths have occurred?”

    
“The first death reported occurred at 5:30 AM yesterday, Nov 2
^nd
.
That is local time or GMT. The deaths are happening so fast it is hard to be
accurate at any given moment, but it seems that 50% or more of the village has
died in the last 32 hours.”

   
Jack was shocked and said, “Harry, 15% of the population is about 130 people,
that’s almost unbelievable.”

  
“Jack, it’s not 15%, it’s 50%. We have over 450 confirmed deaths and by the
time we get off the phone that number will have grown substantially. Worse than
that, other villages in both Ireland and Scotland are now also reporting
deaths. I’m afraid panic is about to begin and it is going to get much worse.”

    
“Do you know the cause of the disease? Are you sure it’s a virus? Could it be
terrorists at work?”

    
“Let’s take one thing at a time. We know it is a virus based on the blood tests
I mentioned earlier. We also sent public health officials to the village to
interview health care providers, the victims and the villagers not afflicted.”

    
Jack interrupted again with another question; he was on the verge of shock and
was having a hard time waiting for Harry’s explanations, “What percentage of
the population was not afflicted?

    
“It’s not a percentage, it’s a number and the answer is one.”

    
“One individual out of 890 is not afflicted? All other men, women and children
out of 890 are sick and more than half have died? My God Harry, do you have any
idea how to treat it?”

    
“We have no idea what the source is and we have no idea how to treat the virus.
Let me tell you what we do know. First, please remember that all the numbers I
give you are going to be fuzzy. We know the population of the village but all
of the surrounding area is affected and the local doctors and officials are having
a very hard time separating the residents of the village from the residents of
the surrounding area.

    
“The public health inspectors found strange pods scattered along the entire
shore line. The pods are about the size of small marbles or pebbles. Many of
them were open where the incoming tide smashed them against the rocks, or where
they had been walked upon by people, birds or animals. The areas where they
were open were stained with a green material and frankly the entire coast has a
hint of green on it. I’ve talked to Irish health officials and they found the
same thing. The inspectors gathered samples from scores of different locations
and brought them here to the University for testing. Both our scientists and
the Irish scientists have come to the same conclusion. It is an airborne filo
virus and it is already spreading out of control. We sent early samples to the
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, but we haven’t yet heard from them.”

    
“Have you come to any conclusions about terrorist involvement?”

    
“We’ve talked about it of course. While terrorists can’t be ruled out until we
find the source, right now it looks doubtful. The pods are not fresh and all of
them are dried out on the inside. The only thing in the pods is a wispy material
that contains very small seeds. The dried out vegetative matter is so
lightweight that even a modest breeze easily picks it up and moves it. While
terrorists could have been growing, drying and preserving the pods for years,
until they had a large supply, realistically I don’t think it happened that
way. Nothing this large could have happened without the virus escaping during
the growth period. I’m not sure how this happened, and frankly I don’t have
time to speculate, but I’m becoming convinced that this is a natural disaster
that is already out of control.”

    
“Is there any chance of containing the virus?”

    
“I’m afraid not, it’s too late to try to isolate it. I think it was probably
too late once the pods landed on the coast. Every health inspector, every
official, every doctor and every scientist who has come in contact with the Emerald
Virus is now showing symptoms of the disease. It appears the virus takes
exactly a week for the first symptoms to physically manifest themselves in the
patients, and again it is very consistent. Even worse we’re seeing more and
more reports of the symptoms occurring inland now.”

    
Jack and Dr. McCloud were sitting on opposite sides of her coffee table in
comfortable arm chairs. However, neither of them was comfortable. Both were
perched toward the front of their seats. Leaning toward Jack’s laptop, Dr.
McCloud reached out, turned the computer to her, and paused the play-back.