Redivivus Trilogy (Book 1): Threnody Page 4
Brazil
There was a knock at the door, and Lin doggedly looked up from her microscope to regard the sound. The radio chattered in the background as the announcer rattled off the details of the most recent outbreaks of violence in Brazil. Several individuals allegedly killed a group of people thought to be suffering from influenza and the associated encephalitis after reportedly being attacked by one of the sick. Within hours the entire neighborhood was engulfed in full-scale rioting and a contingent from the military had been deployed to control the situation. Lin sat in stunned silence absorbing the words of the broadcast as the knock came again, this time with a bit more force. Having been in the middle of reviewing the latest set of histology slides from her current study, she found the interruption more than a little annoying. With a sigh she stood and wearily crossed the room to the front of the lab.
Upon opening the door, she was surprised to see a very official-looking group of three men. The lead man appeared to be a high-ranking military official, given all the pins and badges adorning his impeccable uniform. The men flanking him, and standing a few steps behind, were among the most formidable individuals Lin could ever recall seeing. Their facial features could not have been more severe had they been chiseled straight from granite. Where did they find uniforms large enough to cover their over-muscled torsos? Regardless of the fact that each of the men was clearly honed into a brutal weapon themselves, they each carried a very large and, to Lin, very intimidating, assault rifle. Though she knew nothing about firearms, she had no doubt these two men were quite capable of handling the lethal weapons with deadly precision and doubted they possessed any qualms about doing so.
“Dr. Lin San? I’m General Montes, Special Operations Brigade, Brazilian Army. May we come in?” asked the General, as the three men moved past her into the laboratory without waiting for a reply. Lin thought this certainly must be a hoax cooked up by some of her friends at the NHS and, accordingly, she struggled to suppress an amused smile.
“Dr. San, let me be frank with you. I’m here under direct orders from the President, with orders to ensure your safe and immediate evacuation to the United States. You, no doubt, have many questions regarding my orders. I am authorized to answer any and all such questions to the extent my knowledge of the situation allows. By presidential order, you have been granted unrestricted security clearance and, as such, I will gladly share all available information once we are safely en route. There is a plane waiting at Natal Air Force Base and there is very little time before its scheduled departure. Here is a one page brief outlining the basics behind the epidemic as we understand them,” said General Montes, as he handed Dr. San a single page document bearing the presidential seal as well as the word ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ stamped in crimson ink. As her eyes wandered across the details of the page, all traces of her simmering smile faded with the realization that the General was not part of any ruse.
“The flu epidemic?” asked Dr. San.
The General continued with a small sigh. “We believe approximately three to four weeks ago a unique biologic crisis began in a remote part of northern Brazil. The fact that it appears to have started in such an isolated area worked in our favor early on, but unfortunately, our initial efforts to curtail the spread of this ‘agent’ were unsuccessful. There are rapidly increasing areas of outbreak throughout Brazil, the United States, and even a few European nations. We are unclear exactly how this thing managed to jump the border, but the higher population density in the U.S. is presumably the reason the situation is worse there. Until now, we knew very little about the exact nature of this epidemic, and what little we did know was kept secret from everyone except my high command and the president himself. The damned flu epidemic has proven a good cover story for the bigger problem we are dealing with. As you can see from the memo, two days ago we recovered a hard drive containing documentation we believe pertains to the plague. The data is complex and expansive, and quite frankly, we do not have the time or skilled minds necessary to interpret the information. Your name is mentioned specifically in the documents and, accordingly, your knowledge and skills have been determined to be invaluable in sorting through the information. I must insist that you gather what things you need and come with us. It is imperative that you do not discuss this evacuation order with anyone, as inciting further panic at this time could lead to catastrophic consequences here in Brazil. Please, let me be clear that this is, without a doubt, a matter of life and death, perhaps for the entire human race.”
Knees weak and hands trembling, Lin stared at the document in her hands, unable to utter a single word despite the innumerable questions swirling through her mind. After a moment she looked up from the paper and, for the first time, she saw the hollow, grim determination in the General’s eyes. Swallowing hard, Lin said, “I understand, I’ll be just a moment.”
Motionless, the three men stood like marble statues as Lin vanished into her small office in the depths of her lab. As she randomly gathered items from her desk, she knew that despite the General’s stern warning she needed to inform her lifelong confidant, John Wild, about what she had just been told. He was the most intelligent person she had ever known, he resided in the U.S., and he was a trusted friend—perhaps her only true friend.
She picked up the telephone receiver on her desk but heard only a faint, distant clicking sound on the line. Retrieving her cellphone, she was surprised to see the screen read, ‘Searching…’ All of a sudden it dawned on her that the fact neither her office phone nor cellular phone was working was unlikely to be merely coincidence. She had always been able to get a signal in her office and, in fact, used the phone less than an hour ago in the very same spot. It was then she noticed the cellphone of one of her lab technicians lying unattended on the desk where he had been working earlier. Under the guise of gathering supplies, she made her way over to the phone and added it to her bag before vanishing back into her office. She was both angered and relieved when she saw the phone’s screen indicating strong signal reception. Frantically, she keyed in John’s number, hoping beyond hope that he would answer. The phone rang and rang, and she felt her heart sag. Just as she was about to hang up, she heard a distant voice. The static-filled connection made it tough to understand everything that was said, but she could tell it was John. Lin took in a long, deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried in earnest to tell him everything she just learned.
Chapter 6
Lin San was the younger of two children born in the United States to immigrant parents – her father from Spain, and her mother from China. Her parents arrived in New York on the same day and met almost immediately. From the moment they noticed one another across the veritable ocean of faces at the immigration office, they were inseparable. Lin heard this fairy tale of ‘love at first sight’ countless times as she grew up. Her parents’ first child, a boy named Kang, was born just nine months after their arrival in the U.S. Kang was an exceptional child and possessed a preternatural understanding of the world that was singular among man and certainly years beyond his time. He was the pride of the family, a fact that persisted even after the birth of their daughter, Lin, four years later. Lin, too, proved to be an exceptionally gifted child, but she was never held in the same regard as her brother Kang.
When Kang began acting strangely shortly after his eighteenth birthday, their parents were understandably dismayed. He developed marked sleeping disturbances that progressed to insomnia so severe he would scarcely sleep an hour in a week. His demeanor also suffered as he became prone to irritability and anger bordering on full-blown rage at times. Even though both of their parents were employed, neither had access to health insurance, and they were far from wealthy. On several occasions they took Kang to see a physician, but each time they left with no answer and a bill they were unsure they could pay. While the majority of their wages went to pay Kang’s medical bills, the greater cost was to their ever-dwindling supply of hope.
The delusions and hallucinations Kang began to experienc
e led to the suspected diagnoses of schizophrenia or illicit drug abuse, both of which were ultimately proven false. Around nine months after Kang first showed signs of deterioration, he began to suffer from full-blown psychosis. The effect this had on their parents was devastating and seemingly insurmountable. As such, Lin was frequently left to care for her brother because her parents were often so distraught they were simply unable to face Kang’s reality.
During one instance shortly before his death, Lin was feeding Kang when he suddenly lunged at her, uttering a feral growl and sinking his teeth deep into the muscles of her forearm. In shocked horror and disbelief, she stared at him as the floor below quickly disappeared under the warm, crimson blood flowing from the wound like a stream after a monsoon. Upon witnessing this scene, her parents, particularly her mother, became fixated on an occult or supernatural explanation for Kang’s malady. She repeatedly said he was cursed and refused to have anything more to do with him. Lin, despite the pain and fear the attack caused her, refused to abandon Kang. On the contrary, she cared for him even more completely after that incident, realizing there was truly no one else to do so now. As his psychosis deepened, the rare, brief periods of lucidity she witnessed in the preceding months vanished completely. Though Kang did hurt her again during other fits of rage, she was more prepared each time, and none came remotely close to the ferocity exhibited in that first attack. Despite all efforts, Kang died a mere nineteen months after the onset of his first symptoms.
The exact cause of Kang’s death was never definitively determined, though his death certificate listed ‘overwhelming mental and physical exhaustion’ as the cause of death. Her parents never recovered from the loss. To Lin, they acted as if they had lost both of their children that day. Lin was never able to shine a light bright enough to reach them in the dark depths of their depression and desolation. Her anger and disillusion grew with the understanding that she lost her entire family the day Kang drew his final breath. It was with this realization that a fierce, unstoppable determination ignited within her, and the despondency threatening to overtake her was vanquished. While she did not yet understand what happened to her brother, she vowed to avenge her losses and to exact revenge on Kang’s invisible assassin.
Her academic pursuits in the years after Kang’s death marked the first steps toward making good on her promise. After receiving a scholarship to Stanford University for undergraduate school, she completed the program in only three years with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. She then attended Harvard University where she completed her postdoctoral training in neurobiology and neuroscience. It was during this time that her personal research into the details of Kang’s death over twenty years prior led her into the realm of his suspected killer. Despite an initial list of over a dozen potentially viable theories as to why her brother’s life mysteriously and prematurely ended, she ultimately deduced that limbic encephalitis was the most plausible perpetrator. Her doctoral thesis on the development of a novel primate model for the study of treatment modalities in limbic encephalitis and other autoimmune encephalopathies was lauded as one the most important recent breakthroughs in neuroscience. It was considered nothing short of groundbreaking.
When the opportunity to join an established and prestigious neuroscience branch of a renowned biomedical research lab in Brazil arose, there was no question where her future lay. Less than a week later, she sat gazing out the window of a Boeing 747 as the coastline of the United States gave way to the seemingly tranquil waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and a new beginning looming on the distant horizon.
After five long, grueling years during which her research advanced with achingly slow progress, Dr. Lin San was tired. Now with the successes of her research being realized at breakneck speed, her overwhelming exhaustion left her pining for the mental fortitude to persevere. Slowly, all the setbacks and hurdles besieging her early research endeavors faded quietly into the past as her team witnessed real, palpable progress.
With apparent success so close she could nearly touch it, any respite, no matter how brief, was unfathomable. She was surprised to find herself feeling increasingly unsettled in spite of the exciting advances in her work. Lin soon realized the amount of time and energy she was pouring into her research was both unhealthy and unsustainable. Increasingly, she found herself suffering from bouts of insomnia, unable to leave the questions posed by her work in the lab as she lay in bed reworking the day’s problems in her head. Whether from insufficient sleep or sheer mental exhaustion, she experienced a decline in her level of focus during her waking hours. Her lapse in focus progressed to the point where she began intermittently drifting off and daydreaming. One particular daydream, however, was more consistent and troubling than all the rest. With escalating frequency, she found herself plagued by the recurring mental image of the lead marathoner blazing toward the finish line on the home stretch of a race. Strangely, the runner, despite her immense effort and apparent assurance of success, always became ensnared by an overwhelming exhaustion that entangled her legs and brought her down mere feet before the finish line. Lin assumed this cliqued ‘vision’ was simply her pessimism and self-doubt percolating to the surface – an obvious allegory of her exhaustion.
Her first recollection of this vision was in a dream about a month earlier. That night she awoke from a tumultuous sleep, sweating so profusely it was as if she just stepped out of the shower rather than the bed. Thereafter this scene quickly established itself as a recurring theme in the form of such nightly assaults. As the impact of her sleep deprivation grew, the vision eventually crept out of her slumber and into her waking hours as well.
Lin was not one who could typically recall the dreams of the previous night and certainly not one prone to daydreaming, thus she found the persistence of this intrusion rather troubling. At first she likened it to the occasional nightmares she experienced during her college and post doctorate years, when she would occasionally awaken amidst a full-blown panic attack. Late for a final exam, she would bolt out of bed and into the bathroom only to discover it was Saturday…and 3:14 A.M. Those ‘nightmares,’ however, always stayed true to their name and never so much as crossed her mind during the waking hours of the day. This current ‘vision,’ as she referred to it due to its vivid intensity that made it nearly indistinguishable from reality, was far less cooperative and lacked such a circadian awareness. Lin was not a runner, much less a marathoner, so she was unsure what caused this image to keep flashing before her psyche. Not being one to place much stock in superstition or subtle intuition, she ultimately chalked it up to fatigue and sleep deprivation, perhaps with a sprinkling of self-doubt and the fear of failure. Still, she couldn’t help wonder if that was merely an attempt at rationalization, her scientific mind simply unable to grasp any notion of such an intangible premonition or omen.
“I am so, so tired,” she said to no one in particular as she sat vacantly at her lab desk, mindlessly gazing at the computer screen flickering with the most recent test results.
* * *
Dr. Lin San was frequently heralded as one of the most influential and inspiring young scientists of the day. Her research in the field of autoimmune and limbic encephalitis was considered to be the best on the subject. It was no secret that her efforts would be greatly accelerated by the substantial amount of research funding promised shortly after the wife of the President of the United States was diagnosed with an exceedingly rare condition called encephalitis lethargica. This rare disease occurred in epidemic proportions in the 1920s, but the paucity of cases in recent times relegated the diagnosis to the seldom seen backroom shelves in the dusty basements of medical libraries. In truth, very few physicians currently in practice had even heard of the condition, and even fewer could recite a single accurate fact about it. How fleeting our collective memory is when we are constantly assaulted by the continually evolving ‘next great threat’! With few exceptions new research on the disease was essentially nonexistent. Though the exact etiology of the condit
ion remained somewhat debatable, the coinciding H1N1 flu epidemic in 1918 led to a widespread belief that the condition was secondary to infection with the particularly virulent strain of the influenza virus.
When the First Lady was stricken with encephalitis lethargica at the height of the H5N1 avian flu scare, the media blitz surrounding her condition was phenomenal. Science be damned, the relationship between the influenza virus – this time H5N1 – and encephalitis lethargica reemerged only to be instantly reported by the media to be a causal one. As more and more cases of encephalitis lethargica were reported all across the United States, each sensational headline compounded the growing, albeit irrational, fear. Quickly, the increasing panic gripping the U.S. careened dangerously toward pandemonium. Every cough became the undeniable harbinger of the mental ravages and coma that were certain to follow. Every body ache became confirmation of death’s icy fingers clawing deeply into its next hapless victim.
With such a young, healthy, and prominent lady stricken by this rare and frightening disease, no one felt safe. In the wake of this overwhelming fear, reports of violence toward individuals suspected of having H5N1 infection emerged. Shortly thereafter there were even a few reports of presumably sick individuals attacking the uninfected.
The United States President and his people demanded protection from this invisible marauder, and nothing short of having this protection yesterday was deemed acceptable. It was in this environment, when the rest of the world was wildly running away from an enemy they could neither see nor comprehend, that Dr. San was given the proverbial keys to the kingdom and ordered to take a stand against the unseen assailant.
As any researcher can attest, a brilliant mind and an unfaltering drive to succeed won’t take you far if you can’t pay your bills. The cost of conducting research, particularly sophisticated biomedical research of the caliber of Dr. Sans’ work, is staggering. Add to this the relatively miniscule impact of autoimmune encephalopathy on society as a whole and there is no mystery as to why funding issues continually plagued her work. Why should a pharmaceutical or biomedical company invest millions in a disease that affects hundreds of people at most when they could divert their resources to one that affects millions instead?