“Can you try that again in English, Doc?”
“It means that during reproduction, no male embryos are formed. Once infected by the Evolution Plague, a woman will bear only female offspring. It’s why there were no male heirs on the Egyptian throne for fifty years after the death of Akhenaten’s son Tutankhamun. If all the women on the planet were infected, then males would vanish. As Audrey McKee put it, we’re ‘the last of a dying breed.’”
“So that’s what’s behind the Sisterhood of Boudicca,” Pitt muttered.
“Yes, the Sisterhood,” Perkins said. “It seeks the very extinction of men.”
“But wouldn’t females follow suit?” Giordino asked.
“Advances in genetic reproduction will assure that doesn’t happen,” Perkins said. “Human asexual reproduction is already possible in the laboratory. Women will be able to breed without men. It’s just a matter of time.”
“And, I’m sure McKee is positive that all women are in favor of this new world order,” added Giordino.
“With their tankers deploying the Evolution Plague all over the globe,” Pitt said, “it would seem they are well on their way.”
“They’ve focused on dispersing it into freshwater lakes and waterways that provide drinking water for large metropolitan areas.”
“Staging marine accidents in the process,” Pitt said.
“That’s right. It allows them to appear on-site to clean up the spill with the firm’s bioremediation product, then secretly disperse the Evolution Plague on the side. Cairo, Mumbai, Shanghai . . . At all the locales, it’s released near the induction for the main water treatment plants. The bacteria can withstand the water treatment process and infect women right out of the tap. There’s no telling how widespread it’s already become.”
“They can’t possibly reach all the women on the planet that way,” Giordino said.
“No, yet we could still be talking hundreds of millions of women already infected. The gender balance could be permanently altered. More frightening, however, is the fact that this is a brand-new organism. We don’t know its propensity to mutate into a more lethal form.”
Another valve opened, and a second flood of solution began pouring into the tank. The men felt the liquid rise rapidly up their legs as they continued to struggle against their bindings.
“I can’t say I’m making any progress with the rope,” Giordino said. “You?”
“None,” Pitt said. “But I’ve got an idea.”
“Sure. Why don’t you call that dark-haired girl from the conference room to come untie us?”
“Actually, I had someone else in mind,” Pitt said. “My friendly counterpart, Dr. Eugene Andrews.”
52
Dr. Eugene T. Andrews, with a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Glasgow, had retired from BioRem Global a few weeks earlier after discovering how the company was distributing its dangerous pathogens. Evanna McKee agreed to pay him a large severance to keep him silent, but no disbursement had been necessary after he was found dead in a suspicious one-car road accident.
Pitt wasn’t counting on a resurrected Dr. Andrews to save them, just his lab coat. Or more precisely, his name badge. With it still clipped to his outer pocket, there was no way Pitt could reach it with his arms tied behind him. He coaxed Giordino to bend his way. After an initial poke in the eye, Giordino grabbed the badge with his teeth and yanked it off the coat.
The hard part was transferring it to Pitt. While his wrists and elbows were tied, his hands were free. He turned and extended his fingers past the ladder as Giordino twisted toward him and released his jaws to drop the badge.
The watery solution had risen to their waists, and Pitt heard a splash after the badge grazed his fingertips. He was just able to grab it before it floated away.
“Got it?” Giordino asked.
“Just barely. We’ll have to see if I can sharpen it.”
“I’d be grateful if that’s done sooner than later.” Almost a foot shorter than Pitt, Giordino could feel the water rising up his chest.
Pitt turned the plastic card flat in his hand and slid it across the ladder rung to the vertical support. There was a small rough spot at the joint, and Pitt scraped an edge of the card against it. He briskly rubbed the card multiple times, then flipped it over and sharpened the back edge. Because he was working the card underwater, he couldn’t tell if his actions were effective. He paused and ran his thumb over the edge. It was noticeably thinner and sharper.
“Any luck?” Giordino asked as the water approached the base of his neck.
“Getting there,” Pitt said in a calm voice. He could feel his friend begin to squirm to gain more height. On his other side, Perkins began exuding quiet sighs, apparently accepting his fate.
Pitt didn’t. He continued to work his blade, pressing the card fast and furious against the makeshift whetstone. He sampled it again and found the plastic edge surprisingly sharp. The test would come with the rope.