Celtic Empire (Dirk Pitt 25)

“It wasn’t him,” Perkins said. “It was his wife, Evanna, who was always unhinged. To be fair, Frasier’s drinking and marital infidelities didn’t help matters. But something else happened, and she finally snapped. Killing him wasn’t enough . . .” His voice fell away.

“On the way in, we discovered the remains of his boat,” Pitt said. “It didn’t appear to be an accidental sinking.”

“It wasn’t. And the authorities couldn’t prove otherwise, so it went down as an accident. They never even bothered searching for the boat. I always suspected Evanna paid off someone.”

“Her killing hasn’t stopped there.” Pitt thought of Mike Cruz and the children in El Salvador.

“I know,” Perkins said. “She became a different person after his death. Obsessed and deranged. She surrounded herself with hired thugs, brainwashed her two daughters, and turned the lab into a secret compound—all while pursuing her crazed version of the world. Now she’s spreading death everywhere.”

“What’s it all about?” Giordino asked. “And what did that woman mean about us being the last of a dying breed?”

“It was Frasier’s and my fault, really,” Perkins said with a defeated voice. “He was obsessed with ancient Egypt. He used to sponsor digs there all the time. Even dragged me along a few times, though the heat was dreadful. He was fascinated by a pharaoh named Akhenaten and excavated a number of sites associated with his reign. At several digs, he discovered the tombs and mummies of children, boys mostly. He correctly assumed they all died from disease.”

“We saw the collection near the conference room,” Pitt said. “Quite impressive.”

“Yes, though I’m sure the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry would not be happy. Frasier was a scientist first, and he wanted to know how they died. So he smuggled the bodies to his laboratory.”

“Wouldn’t that be rather speculative after thirty-five hundred years?” Giordino asked.

“Typically. But if the subject died from a disease of any duration, then DNA can capture the evidence. And in the case of Egyptian mummies preserved in the desert, the answer lies in their teeth.”

“From lack of brushing?”

“The dental pulp will often contain trace elements of blood—with the genetic code of the bacteria or virus that caused death. And in the case of the male child mummies from the time of Akhenaten, the cause of death from a plague.”

“Plague?” Pitt asked.

“The Evolution Plague—that’s what McKee called it.”

“A predisposition of first-born males?” Pitt said.

“It seemed that way, but it was really just all young males.”

“I’m told it may be related to cholera.”

“It is. Frasier concluded it was a waterborne bacteria carried in the Nile. He theorized it may have been the result of warring neighbors, upriver in Nubia, dumping dead animals into the river. There are some physical similarities to the cholera bacterium,” Perkins said. “And also some unusual genetic differences.

“After we were able to reconstitute the bacteria, we spent a considerable effort studying it. We found a variation in the pathogen that has the ability to modify its chromosomal structure, specifically targeting the male Y chromosome. That seemed to account for the great proportion of male deaths.”

“So this plague is alive today?” Pitt asked.

“I’m afraid so. Frasier thought it might hold the key to developing a vaccine for the modern form of cholera. That’s why he decided to revive it. We were very controlled about the process, especially once we discovered its resistance to chemicals such as chlorine that’s used to treat tap water. Of course, that all changed when Evanna took over and discovered what we had.”

“So she is dispersing the Evolution Plague under the guise of pollution-control bacteria?” Pitt asked. “We saw the map showing the deployment of products marked EP and BR.”

“The ‘BR’ is our primary bioremediation commercial product, used primarily for oil spills. It is perfectly safe and effective. But ‘EP’ represents the ‘Evolution Plague.’” Perkins’s voice fell low. “She forced me to genetically recombine it, maintaining the chromosome-altering characteristics in a more benign form. I had no choice. She threatened my wife and locked me in here. My wife probably thinks I’m dead . . . if she’s even still alive.”

He fell silent as the solution in the tank reached their knees.

“How is it,” Pitt asked, “that the cholera symptoms varied in the deployments?”

“After the first deployment where we could study the side effects, it’s taken three more adjustments to dilute the power of its immediate lethality. McKee wanted to distribute it without attracting attention. The first two production runs, EP-1 and EP-2, produced strong cholera-like symptoms in weakened males, primarily the young. This was a direct carryover from the original plague. There were terrible deaths in Cairo and Mumbai,” he said, his voice falling low again. “From what I’ve heard, the third product run has not proven deadly on dispersal.”

“If it’s not killing people,” Giordino asked, “then why is she spreading it?”

“Because of its influence at the DNA level to block virilization,” replied Perkins. “You see

, the unique thing about the Evolution Plague is not simply its tenacity. New strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are emerging all the time. What sets it apart is its impact at the microcellular level. The bacterium is carried in the cytoplasm and contains a mechanism that barricades the SRY gene in the Y chromosome.”