back at the slide again, this time as a scientist and not as a daughter. She looked at the cells and how they’d replicated. It seemed similar to Lassa fever, which was diagnosed by analyzing the platelets.
“Yes. Fine. Let’s try the treatment.” Jane left Tom and went to the refrigerator where she’d stored the batch from yesterday. This was the third mutation of a possible treatment she’d made.
She returned to Tom and administered a drop of it, praying it would work. She did the same thing with the other infected sample. Then, using a healthy blood sample of her own, she tried the treatment she’d culled from the same mutated strain.
“Well, well, well. You didn’t need me after all, Jane.”
She looked at the computer screen with Tom and saw that the new mutated treatment was indeed isolating and destroying the virus.
“I need to talk to Meredith and then call the director of the lab in Lima.”
Tom said nothing else. “I’ll run a test to see how long the treatment will stop the virus.”
“Thanks, Tom.”
Jane left the lab slowly, not wanting Tom to see her inward panic, but she walked as fast as she could. She barely tolerated the decon shower. She pressed her thumb to the keypad to activate the door. “Good day, Dr. Miller.”
Jane sprinted to her locker, stripping the space suit from her body as she moved. She dumped the space suit in the environmental cleaning bin and tugged on her jeans. Dammit, why the hell had she worn a button-down shirt today? She struggled to get her arms into the shirt and started buttoning it before she realized the damned thing was twisted.
She closed her eyes. Her hands were trembling and she knew she had to focus. This wasn’t helping anyone. She pulled the shirt off and calmly put it on correctly.
She flashed her badge at the new security guard and he keyed the door. She dashed down the corridor to the retinal scanner. Pulled off her glasses and bent to be scanned.
The door popped open and she forced herself to walk slowly through it. Stan waved at her as she emerged. She waved back. The urgency riding her was intense but her steps slowed as she neared her boss’s office. How was she going to explain that her father had once again stumbled onto a fatal virus?
Meredith Redding had been with the CDC for more than twenty years. Jane remembered meeting her for the first time when she did a project for her sixth-grade science fair. Meredith hadn’t looked like Jane had expected her father’s peer to look. With her straight blond hair and model-perfect features, Meredith was the type of woman people often assumed had more looks than smarts. But Meredith quickly disabused them of that notion.
She’d been very helpful and encouraging to Jane. The relationship had maintained that mentor-type balance until Jane had received her degree and taken a job at the CDC.
“What can I do for you, Jane?”
Honestly, she had no idea where to start. She took a deep breath. “I just had a breakthrough with the treatment I’ve been searching for on the virus my father sent. Did you get anywhere with the office in South America?”
Meredith pursed her lips. Then she swiveled her chair and stood.
“I’ve found a treatment that works in our initial testing. Tom is running a test on the treatment to see how long it is potent. The virus looks similar to Lassa fever, but it’s more dangerous and this new treatment is the only one that has worked on it.”
“Damn. Are you sure?”
Jane realized she was staking her reputation to her father’s, an action that had proven disastrous in the past for other virologists. “As positive as I can be in the lab.”
“If any other virologist sent it…”
“I know. But the fact that he did send it makes me want to take it seriously.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” Meredith asked.
If anyone else had asked, Jane would have kept her mouth shut. She would have never even mentioned Rob Miller’s name. But Meredith was the one person in the CDC, heck maybe in the world who’d understand the complications that surrounded her and her father. “One of the samples was Dad’s.”
Meredith flushed. “Is he infected?”
Jane clenched her hands in tight fists. Swallowing against her dry mouth, she said, “Yes.”
Meredith sank back down in her chair. She and Rob had been friends and maybe more ten years ago. Then when she’d been promoted, he’d left Atlanta and gone to Belgium to work on the AIDS-HIV project. Jane didn’t know what had happened between them, but watching Meredith now, she suspected there was still some connection.
“What do you want to do?” Meredith asked after a few minutes had passed.
“Call the office in South America and get them to move on this. I can send them my research and then they can…” Jane broke off. Meredith was shaking her head.
“What’s going on?”
“I’ve contacted them. They are sure that there is no danger of a hot-zone outbreak. In fact, they insisted we stop trying to tell them they had one.”
“Just ask them to visit the Yura.”
“A three-man team visited a village near the Yura—Puerto Maldonado—and conducted interviews and obtained samples. No one is infected.”
“The samples are definitely infected.”
“I know that you think they are.”
Jane looked at her boss with new eyes. “What are you saying?”
“That I can’t authorize you going down there.”
“Well, I’m going. Lives are at stake—my dad’s life is at stake. I know you have bosses and they aren’t going to like it, but I’m not sitting on this.”
Meredith closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. “I can give you a week. But you’ll need to be on a leave of absence.”
Jane had never felt so angry before, but she understood where Meredith was coming from. Discoveries like the one she’d made were worth a lot of money. Both the State Department and the Peruvian government worked very closely with each other. “I need at least ten days. It’s going to take me a few days to get everything in place.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll need equipment to take with me, and some backup.” Jane couldn’t do it on her own. It was stupid to go into the rain forest without someone at her side.
“I can’t give you anyone from the CDC. But I have some contacts in the private sector that might be able to help you.”
Meredith didn’t look happy, and Jane prayed she made it to her dad before her boss pulled the plug. There were times when working for the CDC really chafed.
Jane stood and walked to the door. Already her mind was busy with everything she
