The Perfect Pathogen
Read The Perfect Pathogen Online
Authors: Mark Atkisson,David Kay
The Perfect
Pathogen
Mark
M. Atkisson
and
J.
David Kay
Rhino
Air, LLC, Spokane, WA
The
Perfect Pathogen is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents
are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual events,
places, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright
© 2014 by Mark Atkisson and David Kay
All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, in any manner
whatsoever, without the written permission of the authors.
ISBN-13:
978-0-9904854-1-4
ISBN-10:
0990485412
eISBN:
978-0-9904854-0-7
Printed
in the United States of America
Visit
our Website at:
www.ThePerfectPathogen.com
or see
us on Facebook: The Perfect Pathogen
Book
cover design by: Gary Val Tenuta,
[email protected]
Acknowledgements:
The authors wish to thank the
following people for their great advice and assistance with the various stages
of developing this special work of fiction:
First, our wonderful wives, without
whose support our story would still remain locked away in pieces within our imaginations.
To Dr. Marlan Kay, Tim Kok and
Jayme Perry for much appreciated initial technical and content reviews.
To our many Facebook friends for
allowing us to use you as a sample audience. Your feedback and encouragement
has been fabulous!
To our wonderful editor, Susan
Harrison.
And to our future book
agent—whoever you are—please accept our special thanks in advance.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor
the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
Charles
Darwin:
English
naturalist and geologist
DEDICATION
To all the trailing spouses in the
world
.
Since the 19th century, the rise in
the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans had been steady and,
to some, in disappointingly small increments. Starting in the mid-1800s, a
massive increase in the human population began in earnest, thanks to the larger
food supply, better storage methods, improved medical care, and other mixed
benefits of the industrial revolution. For many years scientists were blind to
the rise of the Earth's mean surface temperature by about 1.4 °C (2.2
°F). By the 1980s, well over a century later, scientists finally took serious
notice, albeit with a large skeptical element doubting the evidence, or
understanding the long-term impact of this global warming trend.
Many scientists postulated that the
recent warming was the result of industrialization, specifically due
to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases from fossil
fuels burned as a byproduct of human activities. But the theory needed
evidence to back it up, and over the next two decades, the scientific community
assembled enough evidence to prove their hypothesis, and to enable them to
garner the enthusiastic support of many world leaders to help them sound the
alarm. Various doomsday models were proposed to demonstrate what could happen
if people, and in particular those living in industrialized nations, did not
unite to undertake drastic measures to alter the output of these harmful
gasses.
However, as the evidence mounted,
an academic paradox became evident. Concerned scientists were puzzled as to why
the previously anticipated negative effects were not appearing, even to a
comparatively small degree. Where was the major dramatic climatic impact upon
human activity? Where were the rising oceans? The expansion of deserts? The
change in precipitation around the globe? The acidic seas? The en masse
extinction of species? These seemingly valid questions fueled the debate and
delayed world-wide efforts to address the problem effectively and quickly. And
humanity dallied while the research and debate went on, scrutinizing the
evidence even more, looking for the effects many thought should be visible, but
failing to materialize.
Sure, no one doubted the
continuing retreat of glaciers
and permafrost.
All could see it with their own eyes. Indeed, some even welcomed this development
as ancient things saw the light of day again, long imprisoned beneath the ice.
But, like frogs in a pan of slowly
boiling water, there was something no one saw until it was too late.
Margaret Anne Smith
suffered a heart attack on a Saturday afternoon. She was dead by the following
morning. Even though she was in relatively good health, her family was not
overly surprised as she was 111 years old. No one could have known she was
supposed to live for another five years. Dr. Katie McMann would be the first to
suspect something was wrong.
The alarm went off and Katie rolled out of bed to
get ready for her presentation later today at the CDC’s Conference on Aging.
She had attended and presented at this annual conference for the last fifteen
years, ever since she was a graduate student at the University of Maryland. It
didn’t matter how many presentations she had given, or how well prepared she
was, butterflies always fluttered in her stomach before she started. Luckily,
they always disappeared after the first few words were spoken.
As the Supervisory Statistician of the Aging
Division, Dr. Kathleen McMann would be presenting the latest statistics on the
aging of people in America in contrast to the developed and undeveloped world.
The number of centenarians and super-centenarians had been increasing ever
since records began, but lately it seemed to plateau, if not slightly decrease.
She expected it was all within the margin of error in her analysis. But questions
kept popping into her mind: “Are people still living longer or have they hit a
glass ceiling? Is there something that is keeping the human race from
continuing to obtain even older ages?”
She expected that the increase in the number of
people reaching “Super Cent” status, as she liked to call it, those people over
110 years old, would continue in years to come. They would actually have three
“Super Cents” and over fifty centenarians at the conference. What a splendid
way to present the statistics and the science surrounding their success. These
people were truly remarkable, and each had an interesting story to tell. Most
were female, but there were a handful of men in the group. “This presentation
will make for a great kickoff to the conference,” she told herself.
She headed into the bathroom as her husband, Rob,
was just finishing up. He always got up about thirty minutes before Katie,
although he didn’t leave the house until about an hour after her, engaging in
his chore of getting the kids ready for school while she had the stressful
commute to the office in Hyattsville, Maryland. She loved her home on the
Patuxent River in southern Maryland, but there were times she wished she had a
condo near work so she wouldn’t have to commute so far every day. On a good day
the drive took fifty-five minutes. Today, however, would be a little better
because she was going directly to the conference which was being held on the
campus of the University of Maryland. She knew the back roads and wouldn’t have
to drive on the dreaded Capital beltway.
“Honey, you about done in there? I have to get
ready for my big speech,” said Katie.
“It’s all yours,” he said as he passed her in the
hall that connected to their walk-in closet and the bedroom. “You look a little
frazzled this morning honey.”
“Just pre-presentation jitters. The story of my
life,” Katie replied.
“You always do a great job. I’ve seen you speak at
least ten times, and you’re always a big hit. You’re a natural. I know you’ll
be great.”
“Thanks sweetie, I can always count on you for a
thumbs up. What do you have on your agenda today?” Katie asked.
“Pretty much the same as always. After I drop the
kids at their schools, I am headed down to the Center. I am meeting with a
developer to look at plans for building a new learning Center and temporary
lodging facility for the program participants. I want to make sure the design
provides the necessary support for the kids but at the same time I want it to
be as normal as possible,” explained Rob.
“Who did you say is paying for the project?”
“I got a donation from a retired business owner,
Will Walters, and the State is matching the funds. I still need to raise an
additional $500K, but I’ve been working with a network of churches in the
tri-county area and I think they’ll come up with the rest. They sure are a
generous group of people down here. I’m glad we decided to move here and get
involved with the community.”
Rob was the director of a non-profit organization
that provided training for disabled young adults between the ages of 15 and 25.
Rob founded the program twenty years earlier after the birth of their daughter,
Hope, who was born with a genetic defect called Trisomy 21, more commonly known
as Down syndrome. As Rob did more research regarding the syndrome, he discovered
that children with this disability, along with other disabilities, could
actually achieve something akin to a normal life if given the chance. It was
his goal to ensure as many kids as possible got that chance.
The purpose of this particular Center was to teach
young adults to live on their own. He believed that the skills needed to live
independently were also applicable to those needed for employment. Over the
last twenty years more than a thousand students had graduated from the program
and were now successfully living alone or with partners. They ranged in age
from 20 to 45. Most of the graduates were either working for pay or doing
volunteer work in the community. Five previous graduates were currently working
at the Center. Rob particularly enjoyed getting the group together periodically
to meet with the younger students. They were a great source of motivation to
the current class, as well as to Rob, who was so proud of all their
accomplishments.
The new buildings would complement the current
training Center by providing transition housing for fifty students. His program
had been so successful that it was a magnet attracting young adults from all
around the region, and the waiting list for the Center was long. This addition
to the training program would help accelerate the progress of his charges so he
could increase his annual enrollment figures.
“I love living in southern Maryland too,” said
Katie. “I just hate this commute. I think I’ll look into the telecommuting
program so I don’t have to do this drive every day. It’d be such a relief.”
“Great idea. You wouldn’t even have to get out of
your bedroom slippers,” he chuckled.
Katie glanced at the clock and said: “I have to
get going or else I’ll be late. I’ll be down stairs in about twenty minutes.
Would you put some coffee in my travel mug? I’ll grab a breakfast bar on the
way out the door.”
“That’s not a great breakfast,” commented Rob.
“You need food to sustain you at your conference.”
“I’ll grab something off the breakfast buffet when
I get there. Don’t worry about me.”
Fifteen minutes later, as Rob was waking the
children, Katie came in and gave them quick bedside kisses. This had become the
standard routine in the morning, and the kids loved the attention from both of
their parents. Seconds later, Katie was out the door and in her car, and
shortly turning on to Route 4 for her drive into the campus, wondering if she
had forgotten something. Her mind had been playing tricks on her lately, but
she figured it was due to lack of sleep. “Oh, well,” she thought, “I have the
program memorized and I emailed the presentation to my assistant Beth
yesterday, so everything should be set.”