Part 1
July 31, 1978
It was summer, twenty years ago and I was eighteen years old when I visited there for the first time. I can still smell the stench of the air stirred up by the helicopter's rotor blades. The mansion looked perfectly ordinary from the sky, but on the ground, I sensed something that made me fear to tread. Birkin, who was two years younger than me, was interested in nothing but the research paper he was reading.
We had only been assigned to that place two days previously, the same day they decided to close down the executive centre we belonged to. This looked either carefully planned or pure coincidence, only Spencer knows. Here, Arclay Laboratory, wsa the very place where Spencer himself had a base for T-Virus research.
As we got off the helicopter, we saw the Laboratory Manager was waiting for us at the lift. I can't even remember the guy's name. No matter what his official title, the laboratory belonged to Birkin and I from that day. We were given full authority as chief research engineers. This was of course, Spencer's intention. We had been chosen. We completely ignored the Laboratory Manager and got into the lift as the previous day I had memorised a map of the building. As for Birkin, he didn't mean any offence but he never had time for others. Being in our company for more than five seconds would have made most people angry. The Laboratory Manager, however, showed no response.
As I was an egoistic young man those days, I did not take any notice of his lack of reaction. After all, while I was there I was merely dancing to Spencer's tune and the Lab Manager knew his intention better than I did and acted accordingly. While we were in the lift, Birkin was concentrating on the papers, which contained detailed records on Ebola, a Filovirus, which had been discovered in Africa two years ago. Even now, many people across the world are still studying Ebola. But there are two distinct reasons why. Some are studying the virus in order to save lives, while others have more sinister reasons.
Ninety percent of those infected with the Ebola virus will die. Once infected, body tissue is destroyed within ten days. There is no vaccination and no cure. If used as a weapon it is incredibly frightening. Of course the treaty on Prohibition of Use of Biological Weapons had been in effect long before that so it was illegal to conduct research on the potential use of the virus as a weapon. However, it is perfectly legal to conduct research on it to prevent it's spreading if it was used by someone else as a weapon. It is only a thin line between the two researches - in fact there is practically no difference between the two. As you must investigate how it can be used as a weapon in order to know how it can be stopped.
This means it is possible to pretend that research is for the purpose of prevention and cure while your true aim is the opposite. However, Birkin was interested in neither of these routes as the virus had too many imperfections.
Firstly, it dies easily when in contact with direct sunlight and can only survive outside the body for a few days. Secondly, the virus does not have enough time to move onto the next host as it kills its initial host too quickly. Lastly, the virus is transmitted in body fluids and secretions, which can be easily prevented.
However, consider this: What if the person infected with the virus, could stand up and walk? And if, subconsciously they sought direct physical contact with uninfected people? The Ebola gene is an RNA gene. RNA genes can mutate a human's genes and that mutation would allow the human to have monster-like semi immortality.
This creature would be a Human Biological Weapon - to all intents and purposes dead as a human being but still infecting other humans as long as it is alive. It was lucky for us that Ebola did not exhibit such characteristics. We could keep Ebola with that particular capacity just for ourselves.
The organization, which was established around Spencer, was for the manufacture of this living weapon. Officially, it was a pharmaceutical company specialising in a cure for the virus, but in reality it was a factory producing biological weapons. The discovery of the Founder Virus which can modify genes seemed to be the genesis of this whole business.
In order to manufacture the Human Biological Weapon from the Founder Virus, it was necessary to develop a variant with that particular peculiarity enhanced. That was the T-virus project. The Founder virus is an RNA virus. RNA viruses are known to have a tendency to mutate. That tendency enables us to manipulate them, strengthening their certain peculiarities.
Birkin wondered if he could combine the Ebola gene with the mutated Founder Virus to enhance its peculiarity. The sample of Ebola virus had already arrived to his laboratory. After switching from lift to lift we eventually reached the top security unit of the laboratory. Even Birkin took his eyes off the report when we met her for the first time.
We knew nothing about her. She was the biggest secret at the laboratory and her data was never removed from the premises. The records showed that she had been there ever since the institute was established. She was twenty-five years old. No one knew who she was or why she was there. She was a human specimen to develop the 'T-virus' on. The experiment started on the 10th November 1967. She had been receiving injections of viruses for eleven years.
Birkin mumbled something - Was it to curse? Or to praise? We realized that there was no turning back. We were to lead the research to a successful conclusion or rot away like her? Of course we had no choice. The sight of her bound to a shabby hospital bed moved something in our conscience. Was it a part of Spencer's plan? |
