Extinction Level Event (21 page)

A train rolls out from the dockyard. A few minutes
later, it arrives at the distribution center. The containers are
taken from the train by heavy cranes and placed in rows. Soon they
are placed onto individual tractor-trailers to begin their trek
across the expanses of China.

UCLA, LA

Twenty-four hours of non-stop test running. Twenty
four hours of non-stop work at full throttle, in any occupation, is
enough to make anyone cringe and pray for relief. When that work is
done in a laboratory where every minute detail must be recorded,
retested, and remembered in order to compare to future tests, then
the work becomes quite difficult. Focus and attention to detail are
critical qualities called for in every step of every
experiment.

To add insult to injury, the last twenty four hours
have not come up with anything conclusive. Even with nearly the
entire group of professors and scientists from CBEID here in
California, it was nearly impossible to get any useful results. No
results in general made for a bad day.

Dr. Krishnan got only four hours of sleep last night,
only half the quantity a healthy human being should be getting a
night. Krishnan knows that this bad pattern will eventually impact
on his ability to work, as well as organize and lead the team. He
walks into his makeshift office after spending another five hours
in the University lab.

The only good news of the day came in at 11:45 at
night yesterday- when Konovalov had called and told Krishnan that
he would fly in from Texas within a day. He didn't even ask for
compensation or anything, simply bought a ticket and decided to
head over to Los Angeles. Of course, considering that he ran his
own company and likely had secret bank accounts to say the least,
Krishnan almost expected Konovalov to do this sort of thing. Many
at UCLA should be at least somewhat happy that they would soon be
getting one of the world's most renowned geneticists by their
side.

Slumping down into his chair, Krishnan starts
rereading yesterday's progress report. It details the long and
intricate story of Wang and Miyazaki's work in attempting to splice
the earthworm's genome. Krishnan reads over how they used the
Maniatis procedure to extract and isolate the RNA and DNA
sequences. The liquid-liquid extraction method uses phenol and
chloroform to form an aqueous upper phase and an organic lower
phase. The worm's DNA ends up in the aqueous phase due to the
absence of the protein-denaturizing Guadinium Thiocyanate, while
the RNA also ends up in the aqueous phase regardless of the
Guadinium presence. The RNA is then extracted using either
2-propanol or ethanol.

After isolating the DNA from the RNA, Wang and
Miyazaki proceeded to identify the specific genome strands
responsible for immune control and immunodeficiency. More
importantly, Krishnan instructed them to identify the genomes that
may have been damaged due to the EWK-1 retrovirus. Earthworm DNA
has been known to be damaged as a result of exposure to harmful
environmental chemicals such as hexachlorobenzene and
polychlorinated biphenyls. Most often, concentrations of such
chemicals tend to be found around industrial sites. Earthworm DNA
is spread over 7,000 different, distinct species, grouped into 23
different families. The garden, or "common" earthworm, is itself in
reality five different and very distinct species. Nonetheless, all
earthworms share approximately 99.5% of the double helix between
themselves. Many people find it surprising that earthworms share up
to 98% of their DNA with humans.

The report goes on to list the AGTC strands that were
damaged and several non-functioning receptors in the DNA strands of
the Komakodinae family. However, the Megascolicadae family, also
common in North America, did not have the non-functioning
receptors; only the AGTC damage was identical. Krishnan paused,
flirting with the thought over and over in his head.
Each
species is affected in slightly different manner- yet all the
species are dying out. All? Perhaps there is one amongst the 7,000
that is not. And if it is, we have to find it.

The uplifting pattern of thought is interrupted by a
knock on the door. Krishnan looks up to see two people who seemed
to be in their thirties standing at the door. The first is a thin
and attractive brunette with a pair of black glasses and high
heels, while the man standing next to her was a slightly chubby yet
tallish blond. "Sorry to be interrupting", said the brunette
entering the room, "But we were told by Dr. McCarthy that we should
be here. Dr. Krishnan, I presume? Laurie Weisman". She walked over
and extended her hand. Krishnan takes her hand, introducing himself
"Yes, Dr. Krishnan." A slightly firmer handshake for the man, who
introduces himself as, "Mark McGregor, pleased to meet you." "So
what can I do for you two today?", asks Krishnan, trying to figure
out where to fit these two newcomers in everything. "I'm sure you
aware, but we're quite busy over here." "We're here to help",
answers Laurie, "Mike told us to be here. Apparently all of our
jobs are shifting thanks to this worm thing". "I see. I'd should
see your resumes at least, before we begin." "Sure", answers Laurie
as she pulls out several papers out of a folder she had brought
along. Krishnan sits back down and puts on his reading glasses to
take a look.

"Ph.D, Molecular physiology. Hmm, that could help.
PhD, soil ecology. Perhaps you can tell the USDA how we will be
affected by all this." Krishnan looks up at Laurie. "You both have
excellent resumes. Mark, I could use your help in dissection.
Unfortunately, soil ecology isn't really my specialty. I don't
really know where to put you right now. But you are welcome to
stay." Laurie eyes flicker a little downcast, but quickly resume
their abundantly energy. "The state government could always use an
expert, I guess." "Sure. Ask them. As for you Mark, go over to Lab
207 where we have all the species. We have work to do, so get
busy." "Sure thing, boss", answers Mark. "Boss? you used this at
your old job?", asks Krishnan rhetorically, "I must say, I like
it!"

The two newcomers shuffle themselves out of the room,
leaving Krishnan back to his quiet, meditative peace. Which doesn't
last long as the phone interrupts the sea of tranquility. "Dr.
Krishnan speaking. Yes?" "It’s Onassis. There have been some slight
operational changes, but they should work to your benefit." "As
long as we get the right people, and the right equipment, I'm sure
we can find a solution, sir. What type of operational changes are
involved?" "AMRIID, the operational immunological research and
development arm of the military, will now be working in conjunction
with your personnel."

"Sure, sir, but who will be in charge of the
everyone? What facilities will we be allowed to use?" "That's where
the complications are. You are in charge of the civilian team.
Several liaisons will be sent to LA to assist you, but your team
will not have access to their military labs". "I have very high
level clearance for NBACC, sir." "I know that, Dr. Krishnan; I've
seen your file. Nonetheless, many of the scientists and professors
working with you do not have your level of clearance. So, you will
have to forward NBACC any details that you have, an new information
that you gather, any experiments you would want them to run, so
forth. In fact it is urgent that you send them all available
information so their scientists can start to analyze it
immediately." Krishnan pauses to think it over. Fine, so now the
military is involved. An environmental disaster of this magnitude
could be considered a threat to national security, and it was
likely that someone had convinced either the President or some
other high-ups in Washington that it was necessary to get military
types involved. Nonetheless, Krishnan firmly believed that the
large quantity of biologists, ecologists, and geneticists working
under his supervision would be enough to find a solution to the
worm epizootic. Apparently, someone else didn't agree. In his mind,
that meant that someone somewhere didn't trust him.

Manjak had told Sofia to call him if anything new and
unusual had come up, but so far she didn't call, which meant that
there was nothing "new and unusual" to tell him. Not that he needed
to hear it from her anymore, as several of the major news networks
had by now picked up on the 'developing' story, including the
international heavyweights CNN, BBC, as well as and several others.
"Environmental disaster" and "chemical spill" were the two
buzzwords being consistently tossed around by the anchors as Manjak
paid attention periodically while filling out paperwork from
Mozambique. According to CNN, by this time worms all across Mexico
have been reported as dead or dying, with even the more southern
states of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua starting to
experience the problem.

The phone rings. Sure enough, it is Sofia. "Hey,
honey, where are you?", asks Manjak, wanting to know her
whereabouts at the moment. "I'm up in the north in Ensenada, I
should be heading down to Mexico City tomorrow. Why?" "Just
wondering." "Hey, I found out several interesting things from some
American agro-specialists here in Ensenada" "Really? What?", asks
Manjak as his curiosity spikes. "Well, according to them its a
virus. Some virus has spread from California into Mexico and is
killing the worms off. The oil or chemical spill that they're
talking about- its all an official cover. The government doesn't
want panic." "Why would they panic? Its not affecting humans, is
it?" "Most people won't get that, Trip! They'll just hear the word
virus
and then all of a sudden you have people running
around like crazy, get vaccines and buying up supermarkets. They
are trying to avoid that." "It'll get out sooner or later. Can you
fax me any documents or information about this virus? Did they
identify it yet, designate it?" "Its known as the EWK-1, and I'll
send you what little I have by this evening." "Alright" "Give a
kiss to the kids for me?- I have to go. bye." "bye."

After hanging up, Manjak goes back to the Mozambique
filing. After signing several of the requests he walks over and
hands them to Maria, who promptly walks out to deliver them. Manjak
returns to his desk and checks his email. The first thing that pops
up is the good news- the kidnappers in Yemen have agreed to a deal.
The bad news is that the email states that they still expect to be
paid ransom, merely 75% less than what they previously had
demanded. Manjak believes that the deal sounds reasonable- after
all at this point the FAO simply wants our employees out of there.
Less. Only $100,000 per aid worker now. We can take that- click
yes. We've got bigger fish to fry, not to mention a reputation to
keep.

With the Yemen situation calming down, Manjak sets
out to his next order of business- a trip to Bangladesh and Kenya
in order to reorganize the Organization's effort in those two
countries- effort that has been lacking in the eyes of some. Manjak
hopes that within a few weeks he would be able to shuffle out the
bad workers, replace them with better ones, and hopefully repair
organizations' image in those two countries. Manjak arranges to
travel tomorrow after reading through Sofia's faxed reports from
Mexico.

Mexico

McCarthy was left with little else to do in Ensenada.
His expertise was in analyzing and researching environmental
threats and hazards, not mapwork and emergency operations. Yet, it
seemed that the situation was rapidly degenerating into the latter.
Rodriguez needed to head to Mexico City to meet with government
officials, so McCarthy decided it was best that he accompany him
and offer any help that he could provide.

Most of the country was devoid of earthworms at this
point, the only areas that did not have large scale die-outs of the
annelids were some of the northern, dry, desert regions of the
country by the Texan border. The rest of the country had fully
experienced the shock and awe of the epizootic as it plowed south
along the country during that week. By this point nearly all the
earthworms in Mexico north to south were dead, and many farmers and
rural residents were harboring suspicions that the officials’
reasons for the epizootic plaguing the country were not the same as
the reasons given on the news.

McCarthy hoped he could talk some sense into the
government. He also hoped that Rodriguez would be able to convince
key senior officials to accomplish two things: firstly, to convince
them that it is a virus, which they probably already know, and to
avoid contact if at all possible- after all no one knew of the
potential transmissibility of the recently-designated EWK-1 bug.
Secondly, he wanted to make sure the government would see to it
that crop harvesting be done earlier than usual this season, as the
quality of the soil would start to deteriorate within less than a
month according to Rodriguez's estimates.

Rodriguez and McCarthy boarded an AeroMexico flight
from Tijuana and flew to Benito Juarez Airport in Mexico City,
landing at around 3:00pm local time. Flagging one of Mexico City's
renowned green cabs, the two make their way towards the Palacio
National in the heart of Mexico City's downtown. As they pass
through the highway and enter the dense traffic and streets of the
city itself, the cosmopolitan yet distinctly Latin flair of the
megalopolis becomes evident.

The streets are just as crowded as that of any major
metropolis, such as Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago. Hurried
businessmen and women in sharp dress mix with grimier auto
mechanics, cashiers, and many others along the street. An
occasional guitarist drowns out his small corner in song, while
tamale sellers and shoe shiners call out to passerby advertising
their business. Intensely loud reggaeton music pours out of several
vibrating cars at a stoplight, sizzling the air and cars around.
The driver of one particular Porsche, a twenty-something with large
aviator sunglasses, hardly notices the effect his shattering music
has on the small world around him.