But the world had one commodity that was in abundant supply: uncertainty.
Ruth thought about all of it. The more she thought, the faster her crochet hook moved.
Sea Bee picked up the crossword puzzle book then set it down. He wasn’t thinking at all.
“And from Brussels today,” the CBS News anchorman reported as Ruth looked up and Sea Bee stared straight ahead, “the Secretary of Defense is speculating that Israel may launch a pre-emptive first strike on Iran soon. The leak by the Defense Secretary is widely seen as an attempt to publicly pressure Israel to give sanctions and diplomacy more time to work. Israel, on the other hand, may be concluding that the window of first strike opportunity is rapidly closing. Experts fear that the Iranians may have stored enough enriched uranium in underground facilities to make as many as six nuclear weapons.”
“This is a real mess,” Ruth said as she watched the news and talked back to the television.
“Israel, meanwhile, is testing their ‘iron dome’ anti-ballistic missile defense system over Tel Aviv. With longer range rockets being produced by Iran and supplied to militants in the Gaza Strip, Tel Aviv is now within rocket range. Israel Defense Forces claim they could have a 75-percent kill rate of incoming Iranian rockets.”
“Junior’s over there somewhere, you know,” Ruth said to Sea Bee who did not respond.
“According to senior Israeli government officials, more than 200,000 rockets and missiles are pointed at Israel by enemy countries every day,” the news continued.
“They’re gonna just blow that place up, aren’t they?” Ruth said.
“While UN sanctions are starting to sting within the increasingly isolated Iranian regime, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs told a press briefing at the Pentagon today that he believes Iran is still a rational actor and will eventually get in line with the will of the world community.”
“Who told him to say that?” Ruth spouted at the TV screen as CBS News went to a commercial break.
Sea Bee picked up the crossword puzzle book, gave it a look, and set it back down, right next to a bowl of ice milk on the metal TV tray.
36
Queen Alia International Airport
Amman, Jordan
The Royal Jordanian jetliner arriving from Lyon, France taxied to the terminal as US Navy Captain “Camp” Campbell and Billy Finn, dressed in 5.11 tactical khakis, desert boots and casual polos, stood in the exit queue on the plane.
The terminal emptied out into the customs bay where Camp and Finn exchanged a wad of Euros for Jordanian Dinars. They presented blue-jacket American tourist passports and told the customs official they were visiting for pleasure, planning a three-day trip to see Petra and other famous sites in Jordan.
They got into the backseat of the taxi for the 18- mile ride to the Four Seasons hotel in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. It was dusk, and campfires were blazing on both sides of the highway as people parked their cars, trucks and camels for evening picnics. Camp looked out the window and saw a blonde woman, maybe 25 years old, dressed in a pink shirt, and riding atop a camel as the owner made a few tourist dollars from a passing taxi.
“Finn, care for a camel ride before we get to the hotel?” Camp asked.
“I’m good,” Finn said shaking his head.
The taxi pulled through the wealthy Al Sweifiyah residential neighborhood at the outskirts of the Al Shmeisani financial district and into the Four Seasons pull-through driveway. The hotel was impressive, a crown jewel, sitting atop the hills overlooking Amman.
The bell captain put their two small backpacks on an enormous polished brass luggage cart and took them into the first security checkpoint. The bags were run through a security scanner. A walk-through metal detector greeted Camp and Finn followed by a full body pat down.
The Jordanians had grown intolerant of suicide bombers at the hotels and resorts that attracted international tourists of every language and culture.
With room keys in hand, Camp and Finn found the Square Bar just off the lobby galleria and grabbed two chairs away from other patrons.
Arabs, Americans, Asians, Europeans and Africans were all enjoying cocktails and snacks, in the middle of the bar, in the middle of the capital city, in the middle of a progressive and moderate Islamic country.
“So what’s the plan?” Finn asked as his Amstel Light was delivered.
Camp spoke in hushed and subdued tones.
“He said he was coming in from Islamabad through Istanbul.”
“Probably on a Pakistani passport,” Finn speculated.
“Didn’t ask. Wants us to rent a car from the hotel. Doesn’t want his credit card used or anything else to track him.”
“Is he staying here?”
“Don’t know. I assume so. This is where he said we’d meet tonight.”
“When?” Finn asked.
“Nine tonight. He said they have a spa, a steam sauna. Guess we’re going to strike up a casual conversation while we’re naked in the sauna.”
“And if you’re not alone?”
“Don’t know that either.”
“What about your Molly Bloom friend?”
“I told him to contact me tonight.”
“Does he know where we are?”
“Yes.”
LyonBio
Lyon, France
Raines watched the wall clock in her lab move closer to 8:00pm in Lyon. The days on the calendar seemed to be moving faster than the hands on the clock.
Raines thought back to her break-through moment at Fort Detrick. It was the adjuvants. Adjuvants helped her boost the immune response to the tularemia which ultimately prevented the monkeys from dying.
A vaccine adjuvant was a substance added to a vaccine to increase the body’s immune response to the toxin. Aluminum gels and aluminum salts were the only approved adjuvants licensed for use in the United States. Small amounts of aluminum helped stimulate a better immune response.
Raines needed to move beyond alum adjuvants and felt constrained by US rules. That’s when LyonBio moved to the forefront, as well as an adjuvant called squalene.
In early drug discovery, vaccines contained a weakened, or even dead, pathogen of the same disease the vaccine was supposed to prevent. The pathogen itself forced the body to fight off further infection and therefore became a natural immune booster. Modern vaccines used proteins, or protein fragments from the pathogen, which made them more pure, safer and quicker to produce.
During Raines’ first attempts at producing a new tularemia vaccine, the protein fragments she used — instead of weakened or dead complete pathogens — left too many holes missing from the whole bacteria. The missing parts caused an insufficient immune response.
The adjuvants provided the boost she needed. But she didn’t use aluminum. Dr. Groenwald recommended she try squalene.
Squalene was a natural organic compound found in both shark liver oil as well as plant-based oils like rice bran, wheat germ and olives. Squalene was one of the key components of the Mediterranean diet and was found naturally in animals, plants and humans. By using the oil-in-water emulsions of squalene, Raines would not only be able to boost the immune response, but she hoped she could produce four-times as many doses from the same amount of protein fragments.
Squalene was the greatest weapon in her biomedical arsenal. She prayed that it would be faster, more effective and much more powerful than bio-weapons, nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles, at least in the short-term.