Medusa (NUMA Files 8)

“Because Dr. Kane is a genius,” Lee declared. “He assembled the foremost experts in a brand-new field known as systems biology. The research was a blend of protein study, genomics, and mathematics. The lab used advanced computer technology to pull the research together.”

“How did that approach differ from conventional research?” Austin asked.

“It’s the difference between squinting through a telescope and taking in a scene with both eyes. The lab had hundreds of eyes, absorbing information that was fed into one computer brain for analysis. Even so, it took all our efforts to decipher the medusa toxin’s molecular makeup and assay the immune response it provoked in a living organism.”

“Dr. Kane mentioned the development of a larger and more poisonous genetically modified version of the medusa,” Austin said.

Lee nodded.

“He wanted to produce more toxin and a brighter organism,” she said.

“I understand that the bigger the jellyfish, the more toxin to work with,” he said. “What about the bioluminescence?”

“The creature’s brightness indicates what is happening with its molecular processes. It acts like a biological thermometer. The goal was to produce the vaccine in volume. We transferred the genes that produced the essential compounds to a bacterium that could be quickly cultivated for the vaccine.”

“Dr. Kane said that the medusa toxin doesn’t kill outright but paralyzes the prey and keeps it healthy and fresh.”

“An antiviral has to kill the pathogens without hurting the host. The medusa toxin went beyond that, actually protecting its host organism’s health . . . for a while, anyway. The process is called hormesis. In small doses, a toxin can trigger repair mechanisms in the body, maybe even retard aging. It works in the same way exercise does, by stressing the body so that it changes the metabolism for the better.”

“That which does not kill us makes us strong,” Austin said.

“That’s an accurate description,” Lee said.

“Could hormesis have anything to do with the New Bedford anomaly?”

“It could have everything to do with it. Administered in the proper amount, the medusa toxin could have improved subjects’ health and prolonged their lives.” Lee cocked her head. “Now let me ask you a question.”

“Be my guest.”

“You and Joe and the Trouts have obviously worked together in the past. Who are you?”

Austin answered Lee in a way that would satisfy her curiosity without revealing too much about his team’s inner workings.

“We’re all members of a special NUMA team that investigates ocean mysteries that are out of the normal range of possibility,” he said.

“This mystery certainly fits that category,” she said. “Thank you for being forthright.”

“And thanks for enlightening me about the lab’s research. Let’s talk about the new flu virus. How bad would it be if the epidemic goes beyond China’s borders?”

“Very bad. SARS hit around eight thousand people, and fewer than a thousand died. If this virus hits your country, it would kill a minimum of more than two hundred thousand people.”

“And the maximum?”

“Possibly in the millions. But even in the hundreds of thousands, the epidemic would overwhelm the health system of any country it hits. Many of the people who will die are health providers, widening the disaster even more. The total impact on the industrialized world would be nearly seven hundred thousand deaths and more than two million people hospitalized . . . minimum. Developing countries would fare much worse. The total cost could be as much as a trillion dollars.”

Austin had been working his jaw muscle as he listened to the grim statistics.

“You’ve just described a global catastrophe, Song.”

“To say the least. The medical community has worried about a mutant flu virus for years. Even without help, the virus can reinvent itself, changing its genetic makeup, hitting people who have no immunity against it.”

“Medicine has evolved far beyond what was available in past epidemics,” he said.

“So has transportation,” she said. “A carrier infected in the U.S. or China can spread the disease anywhere around the world in a matter of hours. Existing vaccines are useless, which is why it was so important to develop the medusa vaccine.”

“How does the new virus spread?”

“The old virus spread by contact. The mutant strain may spread that way, but, even more disturbing, it may spread through the water.”