Christy Esmahan - The Laptev Virus

“I just got back from the vivarium,” he announced. “I had a call waiting this morning as soon as I got in. Sarah, it’s about the mice that Kevin rescued from the Waiting Room the other day.”

“The ones that survived Laptev because they had the Toxoplasmosis infection?”

Emile nodded. “Since bringing them back we had kept them all together in the same cage as they need to be in special quarantine since they could be contagious. Still I didn’t expect this to happen,” he said, shaking his head again. “They’re all dead.”

“What? How?” Sarah’s face flushed and her throat felt tight. Maybe they had been wrong and the Toxo infection had not protected them after all?

“I’m not really sure, but it’s a real mess, blood everywhere. It looks like they basically got in a huge fight and bit each other to death. In all the years I’ve worked with mice I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Sarah shuddered. “Are you sure it wasn’t hemorrhagic fever? I mean, with the blood and all.”

“No, it’s not hemorrhagic fever. These are definitely bites. They severed feet, ears and limbs. Some mice died biting each other’s throats. It was gruesome and brutal.”

Sarah grimaced. “My goodness! What do you think came over them?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll get tissue samples and see if we can see anything, but I doubt it. In any case, it really sets us back. I think Kevin said there were still some more C12’s left and we can look at infecting them, maybe this afternoon.”

Sarah thought for a moment. “Let’s hold off on the inoculations till we get some results from the tissue samples. I wonder if it could be related to the mice having the Toxoplasmosis infection…”

Emile looked at her questioningly. “What makes you think that?”

“John was saying that he’d seen signs of aggression and fearlessness in his C12 mice, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe having the virus somehow exacerbated that behavior. How are the other C12 mice faring?”

“I haven’t looked at them yet, but they are all still being kept separate, so I expect that even if they are also feeling aggressive, they haven’t had an opportunity to do anything about it.”

Just then Sarah’s cell phone rang. She glanced at it and saw that it was Rhonda. Perhaps the news had already reached her?

“Sarah, do you mind coming up to my office as soon as you can. I need to speak with you.”

Sarah reminded Emile to be scrupulous around the dead mice, in case the virus had become even more perilous, and then headed up to her boss’s office. Her leg was finally feeling a lot better, and the doctor had allowed her to stop using the boot as long as she kept her ankle wrapped. She was allowed to put more weight on it now too, on the condition she didn’t over-exert herself. Sarah took the elevator up to the fifth floor, and when she entered the office, Rhonda’s secretary waved her in.

Sarah sat down in one of the leather chairs that Rhonda had facing her desk. As usual, her eyes immediately strayed to the awards and accolades that inhabited the wall beside Rhonda’s desk before she met her boss’s eyes. She was trying to think of a way to break the bad news about the mice when Rhonda greeted her.

“Sarah, I’ve got some great news for you and your team: I asked you to come up here because I wanted to give you the message in person. You can go back to your HIV research effective immediately,” said Rhonda, smiling a broad smile that did not reach her eyes.

Sarah’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Several weeks ago, this announcement would have been exactly the kind of news that she considered “great”, but now it seemed almost like a punishment. She and her team were really getting some interesting results and to be pulled from the project so suddenly was not what she had expected.

“I don’t understand,” she said cautiously. “We were making such great progress.”

“That’s just it! You made excellent progress. Lived up to, no, surpassed everyone’s expectations. And like I promised, it was only a short-term project. You, yourself told me how much you hated to leave your research. Well, now you can go back to it right away.”

Sarah shook her head. “But, I… did we do something wrong? Was Riesigoil upset with us?”

“No, of course not. Like I said. It’s all good.”

“I just… I’m sorry, Rhonda. I don’t buy it. Why would they rescind our contract overnight like that?”

Rhonda looked at her shrewdly. “All right, Sarah, fair enough. It is rather sudden and I will admit that I asked the same question.”

“And?”

“They said no, that your work had been terrific. And they gave the university an even larger grant than they had originally promised, with the stipulation that a large chunk of it was to go to your lab. Look,” she said, handing Sarah a letter.

Sarah took the letter and scanned its contents. Sure enough, her lab was mentioned, by name, and the sum figure attached was incredibly generous. Instead of the four or five years of AIDS research, she now could afford at least eight years, and she could hire three more full-time investigators. It was more than she had ever acquired from years of filling out grant applications from the National Science Foundation and other large benefactors.

Sarah smiled half-heartedly. “I, it’s quite generous, you’re right. It’s just that it all seems… so precipitous. I would have thought that Angela…”

“Well, apparently Angela is no longer working at Riesigoil. But the man I spoke to said that they will be funding more research at other labs across the country as well, and that for now, this was all they needed from us. Oh, and they’ve asked us to turn over all of the lab notes and records.”

“Really? Why?” Sarah felt her insides contract. Why was Angela no longer working there? And why did they have to turn over everything? What was going on?

“Well, there’s confidential material there—names of workers, descriptions of Riesigoil practices in the field, things like that. We signed a document when we first received the research funds stating that we would hand over all data and notes once the research concluded.”

“But, Angela?”

“I honestly don’t know, Sarah,” said Rhonda more gently. “Oscar was vague and this new man was brief. I’m telling you all that I know.”

Sarah lowered her eyes. She didn’t really want to confront Rhonda, but she was deeply disappointed with the news, so she said quietly, “I think this is a mistake.”

Rhonda raised an eyebrow. “Maybe so, but we don’t really have a choice, I’m afraid. So, if you’ll please forward those records to me, I’ll get them to the new gentleman. After that you’ll need to destroy your copies.”

Suddenly Sarah remembered her conversation with Emile. “Rhonda, I meant to tell you when I first got here. We’ve had some troubling news about the mice that were infected with Toxoplasmosis and the virus. This morning we found them all dead.”

Rhonda raised an eyebrow. “ Hmm . What do you make of that?”

“Well, I’m not really sure, but I had just asked Emile to begin some tests to see…”

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid we can’t do any more tests.”

“But, just to finish this part and find out what has happened. You see, Emile also found out that the original scenario that we had envisioned, with the symbiosis, is flawed. You remember how I talked about the ants protecting the acacia tree from invaders? It may not be true. So I was thinking that maybe the protective effect of Toxo is only temporary. So we ought to look into it a bit further. Surely they won’t have a problem with that. And it could be really important.”