The Laptev Virus

He carefully walked back to his bed, his head still throbbing, and retrieved his cell phone. He scrolled through the gruesome photos that Peter had forwarded to him just a few minutes ago. After he had seen them all, he gingerly turned the phone off and placed it on his night stand. Then he hesitated before slowly reaching down and opening the drawer. There it was, shiny, black and always ready to protect him in case of an intruder. With trembling hands he reached in and removed it. He held it for a moment, feeling the weight of the cold metal in his palm. He thought again about the deaths of all those people in the Arctic. He had personally met with each worker on the team before they had returned to work and he had assured them that they would be safe. It had all been a lie.

He looked at the cold, black barrel, but in his mind’s eye, he saw the workers. Strong, healthy people who would never return home to their loved ones. He had watched them kiss their spouses and children before they boarded the plane.

He was so ashamed. There was no other way. He opened his mouth and the last thing he felt was the icy steel, as bitter and cruel as a stormy night near Laptev Bay, against his teeth.

THE END

ACKNOLEDGEMENTS

My humble thanks go first to the researchers, professors and scientists who formed and inspired me throughout my academic career, beginning with the professors of Microbiology at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. I also thank my professors at the Universidad de León, León, Spain, where I did my Ph. D., and my fellow graduate students, many of whom I still count as close friends now, almost thirty years since we first met.

I would also like to thank Dr. Chantal Abergel and Dr. Jean-Michel Claverie, whose fascinating work with giant viruses was one of the inspirations for this novel. I am deeply indebted to these two researchers and their team at the IGS, CNRS-AMU, France, for kindly providing the picture used on the cover of this novel. It’s not every day that one is brave enough to write to the world’s leading expert on a subject, introduce one’s self, and then make a request for a photograph of their work. It is even far less often that the person receiving said request actually bothers to answer one so graciously. I am humbled and much appreciate their kindness in attending to my request.

In a similar manner, Mr. Graham Blackbourn, Director of Blackbourn Geoconsulting, was most generous in allowing me to download the image of an oil rig in the Laptev Sea area from his website for use on the back cover of this novel. His kindness is most appreciated.

My writing coach and editor, Lauren Sapala, deserves my most fervent appreciation for encouraging me in this endeavor as soon as she found out that I was on this journey. In spite of a heavy schedule and an imminent personal deadline, she made time for me. Her extensive comments on my work, both along the way and once I finished, were extremely positive and helpful, and the story benefitted enormously from her keen insights.

Special thanks go to my fellow grad student and dear friend, Dr. Carmen Guerrero, for critical reading of the manuscript, especially regarding every part of the story concerning the mice. She also provided me with the story of how researchers try to make life easier on the lab mice.

Thanks also to Theresa Kleintank, with her eagle eye for spotting typos that everyone else missed. If there are any left, it’s my fault entirely for messing with the manuscript after she last saw it!

As always, many thanks to Daniel for his help with the cover of this novel and his enthusiastic feedback about the plot. I also appreciated the encouragement from Pedro, Adriano and Tania who were excited about this book and reminded me regularly of this.

My loving and supportive husband deserves buckets of applause for his multiple readings of the manuscript and careful attention to all parts of the story, especially the scientific studies, to make them as credible as possible. He was my sounding board, my cheerleader, my brainstorm buddy and my best friend throughout this process.

The Laptev Virus began as a personal dare, on the first day of the 2014 NaNoMo, (National Novel Writing Month, which is always in November.) I was inspired to take this dare by the many bloggers and writers who have done likewise in previous years and posted their compelling tales, so thanks to all of you too, whoever you are.

AUTHOR’S NOTES