Chapitre 54: MAD SCIENTIST [5]
'The mad scientist lurking in his jungle hideaway, unleashing all manner of monstrosities on the world?' West said and laughed again, longer and harder this time. 'I'm afraid the local people are a superstitious lot. They don't trust anything they don't understand.'
'You know something about the virus, though, don't you?' pressed Purna, her tone remaining just this side of accusatory. 'Otherwise why would you have been so willing to see us?'
'Perhaps it's just that I crave company. It does get terribly lonely out here, you know.'
Purna smiled tightly. 'Do you honestly think we're that stupid, Dr. West?'
Another disarming laugh. 'Of course not. I was curious, that's all. Why would the three of you come all the way out here to talk about a virus endemic to the local tribesmen? It struck me as odd that you would even know about such a thing. And then, of course, there is your appearance.' He gestured towards them. 'Raoul informed me that you looked as though you had just emerged from a pitched battle. And he was right.'
Purna stared at him hard and long. 'You really don't know what's been happening?'
'Communication networks are unreliable out here at the best of times. These past twenty-four hours they have been non-existent.'
'Oh, man, are you in for a shock,' said Logan.
West frowned. 'Why? What has happened?'
Sam looked at his companions and blew out a long weary breath. 'Who's gonna start?'
They spent the next thirty minutes filling West in on the grim events of the past twenty-four hours. The scientist reacted with horror and shock, but he didn't seem quite as surprised as they might have expected. When Purna questioned him on this, he said, 'I confess, I was aware of the virus, and was concerned that it would eventually spread into the wider population. But I must say, what you've just described is way beyond any worst-case scenario I might have envisaged. When I first came here six months ago, a delegation from the Kuruni – that's the local tribe – asked me to examine a man who was suffering from the virus. From what I could gather, the Kuruni have been afflicted with it for generations and have come almost to accept it. It's a cumulative illness that can strike at any time during a tribesman's – or woman's – adult life, and it eventually leads to dementia and death. However, what the Kuruni seemed to be telling me was that recently the nature of the virus had changed, and that somehow the villagers who were dying from it were then returning from the dead as … I don't know … demons? Evil spirits? To be honest, I took a great deal of what they were saying with a pinch of salt; I simply assumed they were hysterically interpreting the symptoms of extreme dementia as some kind of … supernatural mumbo jumbo. Anyway, I examined the man's blood and discovered that his symptoms were reminiscent of Kuru, a prion disease that affects the brain. To put it in its most basic terms, it's like a human version of mad cow disease, and it is believed to be caused by cannibalism.'
'Cannibalism?' repeated Logan.
West nodded. 'The Kuruni are cannibals, have been for generations.' He hesitated, then said, 'Although I managed to separate and identify the virus, what particularly disturbed me about it was that it was not only highly contagious but it was also unstable, constantly mutating. However, the puzzling thing was why – given that the virus was so contagious – the entire Kuruni population had not long ago been wiped out by it.'
'They had a natural immunity, you mean?' asked Purna.
'Not all of them, but a significant proportion of them, yes.'
'Like us,' said Sam.
'So what's to stop you taking a sample of our blood and whipping up a quick vaccine here and now?' asked Logan.
West smiled. 'Maybe I could – if I had a stable form of the virus. The thing is, though, your immunity may be simply an anomaly, something that works for you but doesn't necessarily work for everybody.'
'So what would you need to maximize your chances of creating an effective vaccine?' asked Purna.
West said, 'Ideally a blood sample from an immune Kuruni villager, in which the genetic signifier would be dominant and therefore unmistakable, plus a sample of the stable form of the virus.'
'A stable form?' said Logan. 'What does that mean?'
'It means one that hasn't reached the stage where it's constantly mutating.'
'From someone who died a while ago, you mean?' said Purna.
West nodded.
'So when you say "a while ago",' said Sam, 'how long ago we talking here exactly?'
West shrugged. 'A year. Maybe two to be certain.'
Sam looked nonplussed. 'So you need a blood sample from an immune villager, plus a blood sample from some dude who died of the virus two years ago?'
'The stable form of the virus doesn't have to be a blood sample,' said West. 'Any DNA sample would do.'
'Oh, why didn't you say so?' said Sam with heavy irony. 'That's easy. All you have to do is dig some dude up and chop off his finger or something.'
'So if we can get you these things,' said Purna, 'you'd be willing to develop a vaccine?'
'I'd be willing to try, of course,' replied West, 'but there would be no guarantee I'd be successful.'
'But how long would it take?' Purna asked. 'Doesn't it usually involve months of lab work to come up with these things?'
'It can do,' West replied, wafting a hand vaguely, 'but it all depends on the nature of the infection. And I have already done some groundwork, remember. We may strike lucky – if you can bring me what I need.'
'Hey, wait a minute,' said Sam to Purna. 'How come we're doing this? The doctor here's friendly with these guys.'
West shook his head. 'I'm not really, you know. I may have befriended a few of the Kuruni people, but the majority are hostile. Plus, I'm not immune to the virus like you are. I was extremely fortunate not to contract it from the infected Kuruni man I examined. Luckily for me, the virus was not in its later, most contagious phase at the time, and my contact with the patient was minimal, not to mention conducted under the strictest of laboratory conditions. It was only afterwards, when I realized what I had been dealing with, that it struck me what a lucky escape I'd had.'
'So let me get this straight,' said Sam to Purna. 'You're wanting us to go deeper into the jungle to look for a village of mean motherfucking cannibals, so that we can ask them for some blood and for permission to not only dig up their dead relatives but to chop little bits off 'em.'
'Put like that, you make it sound so bad,' said Logan.
Purna smiled grimly. 'What's the problem? We
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