Chapter 26 #2
She shook her head. “It’s coming. And all this technology we’re developing to create new vaccines, to find cures for Alzheimer’s and other debilitating diseases?
When are people going to sit up and take notice?
It could also be used for malign purposes.
” She stared at Mike, her eyes flashing.
“I can quote people too. How about Malcolm Dando, professor of peace studies at Bradford University? He wrote that BMA report, by the way. Want to know what his conclusion was? All the genome data in public databases—public, mind you—reveals the existence of hundreds, possibly thousands of target sequences for ethnic-specific weapons. Except he thought such weapons might become possible in the near future.” She swallowed.
“But he didn’t know what we know: That near future is now. ”
And that future is fucking bleak.
Gary wasn’t sure he wanted to hear anymore.
Samantha wasn’t done, however, and given the circumstances, he didn’t have the heart to stop her, not after everything she’d been through.
“Because look where we are now. Look how far we’ve come.
Aren’t we amazing?” Bitterness laced her voice.
“A recent surge in genetic understanding, a rapid growth in computational power, and bingo—genetic engineering plays a much larger role in the development of new bioweapons. And what does that mean? Why, we can create pathogens that survive longer, are more infectious, more virulent, and more drug resistant.” She dragged air into her lungs.
“Now I don’t know what you think about that state of affairs, but in my opinion?
That’s something that should scare the pants off everyone on the planet. ”
Silence fell, only this time no birds sang. And in that moment, Gary saw what lay at the root of her bitterness, her pain.
She thinks some of this is down to her. She thinks she’s helped cause this shitstorm.
“When did you contact Jonathon?” Dan asked at last. “And why?”
Gary was grateful to him for helping to get the conversation back onto a more even keel.
Samantha drank the remainder of her water.
“When I put everything together, there was only one explanation that made sense—frightening sense. Robert Martin is working for… some power or other to formulate bioweapons. A foreign power? The military? A corrupt government? I have no idea. But I knew I couldn’t sit back and let it happen. ”
“You’d helped Jonathon with his research for his article about the fertility clinic,” Gary commented.
“That’s right. He struck me as a man of integrity.
So I called him September twenty-third, the day after my visit to Robert’s home.
I wanted to bring it out into the open.” That flash in her eyes was even more noticeable.
“The public has a right to know what’s being done.
I wanted to blow the lid on them and to give out a warning.
Because it all adds up to one irrefutable truth. ”
“Which is?” Dan had regained some of his usual calm.
“Put simply, more and more people will have the capacity to produce bioweapons.” She paused. “I told Jonathon I had a story that could earn him a Pulitzer, but that I wanted to tell Robert first, to give him a chance to pull out—to stop.”
“What reason could he have for doing this?” Gary couldn’t believe it of the professor who’d spoken so earnestly about their hopes for success.
“I have no idea what they have on Robert, but it has to be huge to get him to do this.”
“Who’s ‘they’? You think he’s being forced to do this?” Dan asked.
“I know him. He wouldn’t do this. So someone has to have blackmailed him into it. Though what they could possibly use as a lever, I don’t know.”
“You spoke with Jonathon the day before he died,” Gary said, reading from his notes.
“Yes, the morning of the twenty-fourth. Unfortunately I had to cut that meeting short, but I planned to share my findings with him the following evening.” Her face darkened.
“Then Michelle called. She said if I wanted to see Robert, he was being discharged on the twenty-sixth. The doctors were pleased with his recovery.” Her hands twisted in her lap.
“I panicked. I knew he’d notice the missing notebooks—maybe not right away, but it wouldn’t take him long.
Michelle was sure to tell him about my visit, and he’d put two and two together. ”
“Couldn’t you have returned them?” Dan suggested.
Her eyebrows disappeared under her high bangs.
“And what excuse would I give for going up to his hobby room a second time? No, I couldn’t do that.
And then Jonathon didn’t turn up for our meeting.
I called and called, but he wasn’t answering his phone.
I sent texts, emails. Nothing. So the next day—the twenty-sixth—I called his editor.
I was desperate. I had to get in touch with him somehow. ”
“And that was when you learned he was dead.” Gary nodded. “Even though you didn’t give your name, after we listened to the recording, the editor, Hutchins, said he was certain it had been you who’d made the call.”
Another nod. “Then Tyler called, and suddenly that foam machine made sense. It wasn’t until a little later that everything started to fall into place, like a puzzle.
Only I didn’t like the picture that was forming.
” She counted off on her fingers. “Leo saw Robert in that gay bar and ended up shot in the head. Jonathon met with me and ended up the same way.” She gazed at them with stricken eyes.
“What if the news reports had it wrong? What if it wasn’t a robbery? ”
“We don’t think it was,” Dan said, his voice soft. “When you factor in three people all shot in the back of the head with a frangible bullet… those deaths have to be linked.”
She nodded. “I needed time. To analyze the notes, to work out what was coming next.”
Gary’s chest tightened. “Next?”
“He doesn’t need to modify the smallpox virus to kill many unvaccinated people. But he would need to work out how to deploy such a weapon.”
“How is smallpox spread?” Gary asked.
“Through droplets containing the virus. It can also spread via direct contact with infected objects. But after what I saw in his lab, I’d go with the former.
And then it came to me.” She paused. “Hillary Clinton once said, in relation to how readily available genetic material is, that a crude but effective terrorist weapon could be made using a small sample of any number of widely available pathogens, inexpensive equipment, and college-level chemistry and biology.” She gazed at them.
“Inexpensive equipment such as a nebulizer.”
Gary’s stomach roiled. Oh shit.
Samantha gave a slow nod, as though she’d read his thoughts. “That monkeypox outbreak in 2015… what if it was a kind of test? What if he deliberately infected those guys? Nothing to do with genetics or tailoring a virus. What if he was simply testing out a delivery system?”
“And the nebulizers? What does he want those for?” Gary inquired.
Dan’s breathing hitched. “You said he’d pulled one apart. Was he doing that to see how it worked? Or to see how it could be adapted?”
Samantha’s eyes widened. “That was my conclusion too. I added smallpox and nebulizers, and I didn’t like what I came up with.
” Her face tightened. “He’s going to deliver a pathogen—a bioweapon—for a test. Forget about foam machines—this time he has a new delivery system.
What frightens me is the size of the test, and where they’ll deploy it.
” She stilled. “He doesn’t need to tailor it to infect a specific group, but what if he does? ”
“But tailor it to which group?” Dan demanded.
“That part I don’t know. All I do know is, to synthesize variola virus he’d need about one hundred eighty-six thousand base pairs of genetic material.
And he’s been working on this for a while.
” She gazed at them with anguished eyes.
“Don’t you understand? He’s not making a bioweapon.
He’s already made it. And he used our research, our work, to do it. ”