The Viral Epiphany (2 page)

To: Alex Kleinst

From: Robert Coleman

Recent measurements of Strontium-90 levels at Ebeye island and at Gugeegue island confirm previous speculation that nuclear tests at Bikini island may have had longer lasting effects than expected.
 
Strontium-90 content in breast milk of Marshallese mothers has been measured to be quadruple the safe level.
 
Recommend educating Marshallese mothers on the benefits of bottle-feeding babies.
DO NOT INFORM THEM OF THE DANGER OF STRONTIUM-90.

Long-term effects of Strontium-90 overdose are still speculative.
 
Suspect adverse effect on immune system.
 
Recommend commencement of multi-year study on inhabitants of Marshall Islands to determine if Strontium exposure has deleterious effects on present population or next generation immune system capabilities.

Suggest Maelstrom study be continued under the guise of periodic health checkups provided free by AEC as part of U.S. foreign aid program.

Dan Quinn closed his book,
A Brief History of the Great Ice Ages,
and
looked out the window of the Tupolev TU-140 jet.
 
The wing flaps slowly extended to the fifteen-degree setting and the aircraft began a slow bank to the left.
  
Below, on the ground, he could see vast stretches of thinly forested, mostly flat land that was occasionally marked by long winding cuts that were, in actuality, two lane roads.
 

“Ladies and gentlemen, please check that your seatbelts are fastened tightly and that your seats are in their full upright position. We are about to make our final approach to Salekhard Airport and should be on the ground in less than ten minutes. We hope you have enjoyed your flight today on Yamal Airlines.”

The young Russian flight attendant put her microphone back on its hook and looked again at Dan as he sat in the second row window seat.
 
She had known immediately that he wasn’t Russian, although, if asked, she probably couldn’t explain how she knew. It had to be a combination of things: certainly his very dark brown, almost black and slightly curly hair; and then there was his eyes: bright blue with a hint of mischief in them. It was also his relaxed posture and the ready friendliness in his face. She thought he might be in his mid-thirties, but it was hard to tell.
 
He might have been younger. Unfortunately, he hadn’t seemed to notice her; instead he had spent much of the flight reading a book.

They must have lived right here,
Dan thought as he watched ground pass beneath them,
huge herds of mammoths, migrating to the north during the summers and then back here –maybe even further south – in the winters. It wasn’t only the mammoths, of course; there were also the other great mammals, the saber-toothed cats, the great wolves, the giant deer, and more. Then, about ten thousand years ago, in a very short span of time, they all simply vanished.
 
I wonder if they saw it coming?
 
Extinction…

Dan heard the sound of the flaps lowering a further five degrees and then he heard the sound of rushing wind and a clunking sound as the landing gear dropped down and locked in place.
 
They were about two thousand feet above the ground now and he could see that they were flying over the outskirts of Salekhard, a city of about forty thousand people located in northern Siberia, and the only city in the world that has the distinction of being built exactly on the Arctic Circle.
 
The houses and buildings looked much more “ordinary European style” than he had expected.
 
He had guessed that the architecture would be of the more Soviet-style, depressing-gray-rectangular-block variety.

           
Amazing how many people live this far north,
he said to himself
.
 
Not for me though, it’s just a little too bleak.
 
He watched the cars traveling on the roads beneath them and he could see the crowded sidewalks with people walking to the stores and cafes.
 
So many people live here now! It’s a different climate of course.
 
Not as cold as it was then. Now, they say the Earth’s climate is changing again. I wonder what will happen? Will these people be affected? What would happen if something happened to us like it did to the mammoths? Would we see it coming?

           
A slight whirring noise could be heard as the flaps were lowered to their final position, and the sound of the jet engines increased as the plane began to shake slightly.
 
He could see a Polar Air Cargo Boeing 747 and Russian Air Force Antonov An-22 cargo plane parked at an old hanger on the edge of the airport as they crossed over the runway threshold.

 
          
They didn’t know, did they? They would have done something – migrated somewhere else if it was climate or if food was scarce. No, whatever caused their extinction must have come fast, too fast for them to react. They probably never knew what was happening, they just all died out.
 
I wonder if that could happen to us? Would we see extinction coming and do something to avert it or would it just suddenly sweep over us, like it did the mammoths? It could happen, I suppose.
 
But it wouldn’t be climate change.
 
It would have to be something very different – and very fast.

           
His thoughts were interrupted by the screech of the tires as the plane touched down on the runway. A few minutes later, Dan had left the half-full plane and began walking to the baggage claim area of the very clean and modern airport terminal.

It had been a month since he had received the letter from Tim, and he had received nothing since.
 
However, two days ago he had received a phone call that made him forget about the letter.
 
It was from the International Academy of Biotechnical Research in Geneva asking him to be part of an elite team of experts that was hurriedly being put together to examine what was being called a very significant discovery.
 
A completely intact, remarkably preserved, mammoth had been discovered in a remote Siberian village on the Yamal Peninsula.
 
It was thought that there might well be a priceless find in the animal’s tissue: intact DNA.
 
However, speed had now become critical.
 
Having finally become exposed to the elements, tissue deterioration could begin to set in.
 
The mammoth had been placed in a cold storage facility and Dan had been asked to travel immediately to join a team that would meet in the city of Salekhard to do the initial analysis of the mammoth tissue.

Dan wasn’t sure who would be meeting him. He had been told that a representative of the study group would be at the baggage claim area and that he would be taken immediately for a viewing of the mammoth. However, as Dan scanned the rather small area around the baggage carousels he couldn’t see anyone that appeared to be waiting for him.
 
The carousel began moving and suitcases started appearing on the conveyor belts. He soon spotted his small bag and had barely taken it from the belt when a hand suddenly clamped down upon his right shoulder, and a loud voice cried out, “Hey you!”

Dan spun around and saw a middle-aged man dressed in a dark overcoat and wearing a fur-lined hat.
 
The man wore dark-rimmed glasses, and behind the lenses, he could see oriental-looking eyes that stared intensely at him for a moment and then broke into an expression of humor as the man began laughing loudly.

“What the…?”
 
Dan couldn’t believe his eyes.
 
“Stephen?
 
Stephen Itagaki?”

The man covered his mouth trying to contain his laughter and then he put both hands on Dan’s shoulders.
 

“Stephen!
 
You nearly gave me a heart attack!
 
What in the world are you doing here?”

Stephen collected himself for a moment, and then looked at Dan incredulously.

“You don’t know?”
 
he asked.

“No,” Dan said, recovering and feeling puzzled, “I guess I don’t.”

“Why, I’m on the mammoth committee too.
 
I thought you knew that!
 
I’m the one that’s supposed to meet you here.”

Dan simply stared at him.
 
“I don’t believe it,” he said shaking his head, “How can that… how long has it been, Stephen?”

Stephen thought for a moment.
 
“About ten years, I guess, since we were both students at MIT.”
 
Dan had been a dual biology and physics major at MIT and Stephen had been a biology exchange student during Dan’s junior year.
 
They shared the same biology classes; however, they hadn’t been close friends.
 
If anything, theirs had been, at best, a relationship of friendly competition.

“Yes!” Dan said,
 
“That’s right.
 
I can’t believe it, and now we meet again in Siberia?
 
What are the chances of that happening?”

“Pretty good, actually.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for one thing,” Stephen said smiling, “I nominated you.”

“You did?” Dan said frowning slightly.

“Of course.
 
I tracked you down after I heard about the expedition.
 
I knew you were the right man for this.”

“Why?”

“Listen, Dan.
 
We need the top molecular biologists in the world to work on this, and we were number one and number two at MIT, right?
 
Of course, I was number one as I recall.”

Dan nodded.
 
“Yes, I remember,” he said with a wry smile. “Of course I probably could have done better if I had cheated too.”

Stephen laughed loudly again.
 
“Same old Dan,” he said.
 
They turned and walked out of the building and Stephen motioned towards a black Lada station wagon parked at the curb.
 
Stephen self-assuredly got into the drivers seat, and with Dan on the passenger side they began the drive towards the center of the city.

Looks, in some ways, like a typical Irish town!
Dan thought.
 
Many of the buildings that lined the streets were three or four stories high and painted in a variety of colors – mostly reds, blues, and yellows.
 
However, there were also some things that were different.
 
At most of the major intersections there were very large monuments with heroic-looking figures of soldiers, or even farmers, perched on top.

 
Stephen turned at the second left, after they passed through the city center, and drove on for about five more minutes before he pulled over and said, “ This is it.
 
The mammoth is being kept in cold storage here.” He pointed to a gray, rectangular, single-story, Soviet-style, structure.
 
“Come on, let’s have a look,” he said and they stepped out of the car and entered the building.

The interior of the warehouse was kept at a constant minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit and the two men had to wear overcoats and gloves before they could examine the creature.
 
It had been entombed in ice and permafrost for about ten thousand years and yet it looked almost as if it had been alive yesterday.
 
The mantle of ice and permafrost had been carefully carved away by the team revealing the majestic form of the animal. It stood fourteen feet tall at its highest point, while its long brown hair trailed off its body and touched the floor in many places.
 
Its long, curving tusks were enormous, measuring at least ten feet in length and ten inches in diameter where they joined the skull.
 

Dan slowly walked around the mammoth, almost holding his breath. “This is nearly perfect,” he whispered, “unbelievable.”

He walked to the other side and pressed his hand against the soft brown hairs and felt them give under his touch.

What do you think?” Stephen shouted from the other side of the animal, “Not bad, right?”

“I think there is a really good chance that the cellular structure of this animal has been perfectly preserved in some places,” he shouted back,
 
“particularly in the interior organs where the temperature has been the coldest and most constant.
 
This is amazing!”

“I agree,” Stephen said, unable to conceal the glee in his voice, “I am willing to bet that we will find intact DNA and RNA, complete chromosomes, everything we would find in a living creature.”
 
Stephen walked around the mammoth to face Dan.

“Dan, I want you to work with me on this,” he said.

“What?
 
Work together? Stephen, I’m sure you don’t need my help.”

Stephen smiled.
 
“Don’t be modest, Dan.
 
We both know you’re the best when it comes to theoretical analysis of DNA.”

“What do you plan to do with your samples?” Dan asked out of curiosity, but at the same time determined not to team up with Stephen.

Stephen paused for a moment, as if he were contemplating the mammoth.
 
Then he said carefully,
 
“Well, Dan, as you may know, I have become something of an expert in elephant diseases.
 
It’s a very important area of research now because so many of the world’s animals are being lost to extinction.”

“Yes, I’ve heard.” Dan replied.

“Well, I’m hoping to compare the DNA from this animal with the DNA of modern elephants to see if we can trace the path of hereditary disease. Granted these creatures are remote ancestors of modern day elephants, but I believe the DNA comparisons will shed a great deal of light on the evolution of hereditary disease in general.
  
This of course will have applications to human health also.” He said beaming.

Then he lowered his voice almost to an almost insistent whisper, “Dan, no one has ever recovered intact DNA from anything this old!
 
Think about it! This is a unique opportunity for both of us.” Stephen hesitated for a moment and studied Dan’s face. “Listen,” he continued, “there are other things we could do too. Join forces with me, Dan.
 
What do you say?”