Elise picked up the thread smoothly. “Yes, it seems like humans got lucky. Developed a certain amount of immunity. So we started studying the Eden Plague. Of course we didn’t call it that then, but once we figured it out, the name was inevitable. But this one is certainly a designed organism, probably by humans. I’d guess the Soviets created it. They did a lot of research on biologicals, on phages. They have medical phage clinics even now, to treat superbug bacterial infections. Phages to kill bacteria.”
Daniel stuck his hand up like a kid in class. “How come you don’t think the Eden Plague is extraterrestrial too?”
She replied, “Because it looks like it was built directly from the Devil Plague. Genetically engineered with known techniques. You need the poison to design the antidote. That’s the only reason it was even possible, because they had isolated and purified the proto-DP to study it in its non-mutated state.
“So Durgan was hoping this was his bio-weapon, but it wasn’t. It seemed to us that the Eden Plague was specifically designed to reverse the Devil Plague process. To restore certain organisms – in this case humans – to their former state. And it almost works! With a few years and a billion dollars I’m pretty sure it could be perfected. We’ve come a long way in genetic engineering the past few decades since they made this.”
Elise sounded enthusiastic, but smart as she was, Daniel didn’t think she had thought it through as far as he had. He said, “Even in its current imperfect form, it seems like a cure for a lot of diseases. So what if the patient has to eat a lot of food. That’s a small price to pay for saving someone’s life. But if word gets out, and it’s in short supply, the whole world will be after it. It could plunge us into World War Three.”
“Oh.” A look of horror came over her face. “Do you really think so? But it would be free to everyone! Even now, it could be passed from person to person. It’s only contagious through bodily fluids...”
He went on, relentlessly. “But people in the government would want to control anything so valuable. Sell it, keep it for themselves or their own citizens first, or blackmail others with it…or finish developing it as a super-soldier serum. No matter how you slice it, it’s power. And word of it would wreck the medical establishment overnight. No need for doctors or hospitals or drug companies anymore, when perfect health is free. Millions thrown out of work, trillions of dollars of value lost, the stock markets crashing, economic depression.”
“But it will free up mankind to do so much more!”she cried.
“Not until after a lot of chaos. And how about overpopulation?” asked the team’s resident pessimist, Skull. “If everyone is healthy and no one dies…”
“Yes, that’s a problem,” Arthur interjected. “The perfected Eden Plague would probably lower fertility, but not the version we have now. Quite the opposite, in fact, because healthy men and women will likely have more children.”
A nagging in the back of Daniel’s head finally came to the fore. “Wait a minute…this is the downside to society, to public disclosure, uncontrolled information. But Elise, you said there was a downside for the company. What is it?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?” she asked him.
“I think I have part of it…it’s about the mental health, isn’t it? And conscience?”
“Exactly. The longer you have it, the more emotionally stable and also altruistic you seem to become.This version of the virus causes what we call the ‘virtue effect.’ Many people that get it will not be able to even contemplate making offensive war, or committing violent crimes. Even emotional violence or oppression will become harder and harder. It doesn’t inhibit abstract thinking, as far as we know. It just creates an overactive conscience. Probably too much of one.”
“And –” Daniel broke in excitedly, “– and with people’s fear of disease and violence removed, people who don’t have the Eden Plague will find it hard to oppress or bully people either. But the bigwigs won’t want to give up their status, their ability to oppress people or order them around. And a world full of Edens wouldn’t be intimidated or controllable. It would be the end of the power structure as we know it! Even if it was kept secret. In fact, it’s a ticking time bomb. Eventually it will come to light, if they keep it around. Someone will talk, or use it to cure someone they love, or take it for themselves…and anyone that does becomes the enemy of the power structure. Automatic excommunication.”
“Ahem…” Roger cleared his throat. “That is correct. I believe carriers will be treated with jealousy, suspicion, hatred and fear. They will be targets of oppression, quarantine, imprisonment and perhaps extermination. The four infected people here may be the only carriers left in the entire world. Perhaps there are others, hiding somewhere, in Russia or other parts of Asia. Or perhaps the Soviets wiped it out, all but those samples that someone probably stole during the chaos when their protocols and controls collapsed.”
“That will happen if only a small number of people have it. If millions have it…they can’t quarantine and oppress everyone!” said Elise passionately.
“They’ll try. It threatens the established order,” Roger answered dispassionately, then fell quiet.
They sat there in silence for a time, listening to the rushing of air and the humming of wheels on the highway. They were nine people in a moving convoy connected by radio and by the enormity of what they possessed. They might hold the salvation of humanity inside their bodies. Or perhaps its ruin.
Daniel realized he didn’t want that responsibility. He also realized that he didn’t have any alternative.
-15-
After a while Daniel asked. “You said four people? What about you two, Arthur and Roger? Why don’t you have the Eden Plague?”
“We didn’t infect ourselves because we didn’t want to be as restricted as Elise was. We also didn’t want to have everyone carrying it in case we had to do something ruthless. It is ironic. And there still might have been some unknown problem. What if some years from infection, it suddenly made a horrible left turn – aging, cancer, immune system breakdown. Who could know?”
“But that’s all just guesses. What’s wrong with it for sure? Why isn’t it perfected?” Larry asked. “And can I still…you know…with a woman?”
Elise laughed. “Haven’t you been listening? Yes, and you’re fertile, too, if you want kids.”
Daniel sat bolt upright, an expression of wonder on his face.
Elise looked at him curiously. Her hand had crept back into his, and now she gripped it hard, concerned.
Daniel squeezed back and broke out in a big smile. “Never mind…it’s all good.” He relaxed back in the seat. He wasn’t going to talk about personal plans in front of seven extra people, but the thought kept going around and around in his head. If it healed everything else…it should have healed that too. We could have kids. A son to carry on my name, and the tradition of service.
He couldn’t stop grinning.
“It’s not perfected because it’s not,” Arthur spoke up, sounding a bit cross. “Genetic engineering is complex and difficult. And I have to pee. Can we take a break?”
“Next truck stop,” answered Zeke.
Thirty minutes later everyone had had a break and a takeout meal and were back on the road. Daniel readied his next question, one he’d had from the start. “So Elise…why me, anyway?”
She laughed wryly. “Why anyone? It had to be someone. You had been in the special operations community. You still had your clearances. You had no family other than your father left alive. Only child, highly motivated, high moral index. And ruthless when the mission called for it, but you didn’t enjoy killing; you were a combat lifesaver. And I was their first human test subject, but I wasn’t any kind of soldier. They wanted someone tough that could follow orders, but that wouldn’t go rogue. They wanted someone driven and ruthless because they thought the conscience problem could be overcome. At least, they wanted to test its limits. And you lived nearby. You popped out of the database. That’s pretty much it.”