The Laptev Virus

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.”

Rhonda shook her head. “Sarah, I understand how difficult this is, but I have unequivocal instructions that we are to immediately cease all research and send in the notes today.”

“But, what if the deaths of the mice are significant?” insisted Sarah. “What if it has to do with the Toxo infection? I mean, we don’t know anything about this, but what if there’s a similar reaction in humans who are infected? It could be really serious.”

Rhonda looked at her skeptically. “Now we know that’s not the case because such a huge portion of our society is infected with Toxo. We know it’s at least 30% of humans, some studies indicate that it could be as high as 50%,” she said, repeating the statistics that Emile had cited in the meeting a few days ago. “So clearly having Toxo does not make people more violent.”

Sarah still felt that the new problem was too important to ignore. “But don’t you think we should at least perform a few more tests to see why this happened with the mice?”

“No. I really don’t think so, Sarah. Tell you what, I’ll call the new man, Peter-something, this morning and let him know the results, and if he changes his mind, and wants the lab to follow up, I’ll let you know. Okay? But I honestly doubt it.”

Sarah nodded. There was nothing left to say. She returned to her lab feeling numb. It didn’t really make sense that her work, and that of her team, could be jerked around so much like that. She felt almost violated. Sure, she and her team had not spent countless months on the work—it had really only been about a month, slightly less than Rhonda had originally promised. But they had made so many discoveries and so much progress. She really detested having to give up now.

She phoned Tally and asked her to gather everyone for a meeting and did not look forward to the hurt and disappointment she knew would emanate from each of their faces when she told them the news.

After her meeting with her researchers, Sarah walked over to John’s lab. She walked slowly, using her cane occasionally. A cool front had come through the night before, and the humidity had broken, so the air was warm, bright and pleasant instead of overly humid and stiflingly hot. As she walked, Sarah looked around at the green grass and mounds of flowers growing convivially around the stone corner signs. Ahead of her, two dark brown grackles, their beady eyes shining, cawed harshly.

“Maybe you’re reading too much into it,” said John, once she had explained the situation.

“I don’t know. I just can’t help feeling betrayed, in a way. And I am still apprehensive about what happened to the mice.”

“But they’ll make you turn in all your notes, right?”

Sarah nodded. “Worse than that. I got a call from Rhonda right after my meeting with her, saying that Riesigoil had hired a team of ‘data experts’ to come in, capture all of our notes and erase the files. All at our convenience, of course, as long as it was today. She said they were doing it this way to ‘save us valuable time and energy.’ It’s pretty obvious that they don’t trust us.”

“I’m surprised they aren’t going to try to erase your memory too!”

Sarah chuckled. “Don’t give them any ideas, John!” she said and gave him a hug. “They have already reminded us of the non-disclosure agreements we signed when we began the research.”

“So, back to HIV now?” he asked.

Sarah nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not in the mood to go back to it like I was before. But I guess that with time we’ll all get back into it. At least there are no companies waiting to stop that research. And you’ll continue looking at the Toxo effects on your mice behavior?”

John smiled. “Of course! And we’ll probably need your expert advice from time to time.”