From Filth & Mud (11 page)

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As Jacob got closer to home, he asked Doug to make a quick detour to pick up a hot pizza for the boys. Luke and Nathan were waiting for him. They were tired but excited to see him and their pizza, of course. He arrived home to a scene reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting. The boys were sitting at the table with their empty plates in front of them. Sarah was smiling with two glasses of red wine in hand.

“I thought we’d celebrate your week of training. The boys missed you.” She leaned in slowly and kissed him softly and fully. “We all missed you.
I
missed you!” The boys started whooping and hollering. “Eww, cooties! Mom gave Dad cooties!” they screeched.

Jacob picked Sarah up by the waist and returned a deep kiss, the kind they’d shared in Okinawa, in that lifetime, when he was a Marine.

All of his years of dedication and hard work, since his days as an entry-level systems engineer, to his current position as Head of Products Research and Development at BioSyn, were now in jeopardy. William LaPierre had incorporated a small startup in Southern California when he was just thirty years old. He had made some modest successes, which had caught the attention of many suitors through the years, but he’d always remained loyal to his company and to his workers. He’d grown it from a two-person operation, starting out of a friend’s rented storage room in Fullerton to a twenty-five-person boutique biotech firm that he would eventually relocate to Los Angeles. After the first five years of uneven operation, he had gladly stepped out of the role of Chief Executive Officer, and Darcy, his wife, took her rightful position, much to the relief of its twenty-five employees. Twenty years later, LaPierre Pharma had moved its corporate offices and its 100 employees to San Francisco. It was recognized as a leading innovator of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and multiple other neurotransmitting pharmaceuticals. Depression had been the rising tide that floated all boats in biotech over the last two decades, and LaPierre Pharma had just managed to bob in the trough of the incoming waves. Most of their product lines had been purely research driven. He and his team had a reputation for thinking about the science first, and the bottom-line a distant third behind work-life balance, much to the chagrin of the company’s Wall Street suitors. Somehow this had translated into modest success despite his best efforts, Darcy and others would say.

Darcy had been his harshest critic, his staunchest supporter, and his first business partner. She was a great researcher but an even better businesswoman. She had saved him and the company every step of the way. She had invested all of the money she’d earned and penny-pinched throughout the years, a grand total of $50,000, into the nascent operation twenty years ago. She had also found NIH grants, bank and private lender loans, and donations to keep the company afloat. She believed in him and his brilliance more than he did.

Darcy had steered LaPierre Pharma through financial hardships, but she did not let this change its relaxed, quirky, and innovative culture. William had been relieved most of all. He was grateful to give up the mantle of leadership, which he’d worn like an albatross around his neck. No sooner had the transfer of power been made official than William ran to the comfort of the research lab. His fellow lab partners had ribbed him about how he’d have to ask his wife for a raise from now on.
The joke was on them
, he’d thought; he’d always depended on her for money, though they probably all knew that. He’d loved her with all of his heart, but that was all over now. Pancreatic cancer had taken her away from him two years ago. He was lost without her. The company was lost without her, and he made a poor substitute at the helm. Despair and sorrow had led him astray and into the waiting clutches of Paul Eckert, an angel investor, with whom he had made a Faustian deal.

He had come to despise and fear Eckert, the young, brash, and dark CEO of BioSyn. Eckert was only forty-five years old, incredibly young for a man of his position. His contemporaries were in their sixties. Despite his age, he had the business acumen of a gilded-age tycoon. He was ruthless, cunning, calculating, and above all smart, frightfully so. Eckert was tall, handsome, and charming. He had the kind of good looks and charm that could seduce anyone he met, man or woman, gay or straight. That’s how he had wooed William two years ago.

Eckert had called out of the blue to give William his condolences for Darcy’s passing. He knew that William had hit hard times and that his company’s survival was questionable given that its CEO had passed and that William was emotionally compromised. Eckert had sweet-talked him into lending the company $20 million dollars for operational costs, which would help ensure that his workforce would be gainfully employed for the next year. William could not bear the weight of Darcy’s death, but he could not think of adding to it by visiting it onto his employees and their families. He had seen his employees’ children grow, visiting recitals, taking in little league and soccer games. He’d even established a daycare on the company campus. Their benefits packages were extremely generous, including full medical, dental, and life insurance, along with higher than industry standard pay. This had all contributed to the company’s precarious position. Darcy was instrumental to all of it; without her, he could not support the business. He’d confided all of this to Eckert in a moment between friends. Eckert extended the loan at 1% interest for the term, graciously generous, but William was now paying it all back in spades.

Their relationship had started like a whirlwind romance. Eckert had flown him to New York where BioSyn was headquartered. He’d walked him around the swanky floors—three to be exact—of prime midtown real estate. Its expensive view overlooked Bryant Park and the New York public library. Eckert exhibited his offices like a proud kid with his exploding, volcano model at the school science fair, but with less reservation. He gave the vibe that he truly loved the glamour of it, the office, the building, the position as CEO, the fact that he could offer it all to William. He also took to calling William,
Bill
, not caring if William actually cared for it or not—
He didn’t
. That is when he made the dream offer and asked if Bill would entertain a generous buyout. Bill did.

- - - - - - -

“Do you realize what this is?”

Eckert looked over Bill’s shoulder at the magnified form on the monitor and shrugged. His patience with Bill had worn thin.

“It is the perfect delivery system. It is what we’ve been searching for all of this time, a way to precisely deliver the treatment without causing side effects as before and with nearly one-hundred percent effectiveness.”

“So we are going to market with it? How soon can it be ready?”

“Not for quite some time. We still have more trials, years of trials to go.”

“You don’t have years. We go with what we have
soon
, by the end of the year.”

“That’s simply impossible.” William rarely stood his ground but his science was his line in the sand. Nobody in his or her right mind would question him on his science, but William had come to realize over the past year that Eckert was not in his right mind.

“It is only impossible if you think it’s so. We need it out there ready for tests.” Eckert’s extended arm pointed menacingly out through the walls of the lab and into the world.

“But the FDA will not approve it. It is simply madness to move forward without at least a few trials in chimps. We can’t jump from computer concept to petri dish to mice to humans without at least continuing our trials in the proper manner. We don’t know how effective it will be in higher order mammals or primates, and what, if any, side effects it will have.”

“Bill, we have already opened the D.C. clinic. It is the perfect place to run the trial, you said so yourself. You were the one who presented me with the epidemiology charts saying that there were large clusters of cancers in the D.C. area, which were concentrated in the poor, homeless, mostly African-American communities.
You
said this, Bill, not anyone else. And now that BioSyn has spent a few million dollars opening this facility, you have cold feet and want to back out?”

“No. No, of course I don’t want to back out. I just need more time.”

“Time? Bill, what do you expect BioSyn to do in D.C.? Handout needles to junkies and give pap-smears to hookers? Seriously Bill! We have a cure here and you are slow-walking it. Maybe you don’t like black people, Bill? Is that it?”

“Eckert, that’s unfair,” William stammered. “Of course I want to help. This is just unethical. We’ve had success in the mice over a few trials now, but I am just worried about the repercussions.”

Eckert’s jaw clenched tighter than his fists and he fought the urge to punch the good doctor in the face. He leaned over Bill, grabbing him by the tie, managing just a few words in a hushed tone. “Bill. You
will
get it done. Are we clear?” He relaxed his grip on Bill’s tie just enough to let some blood flow pass through his carotid arteries. Bill gasped, nodding in agreement. Eckert straightened out the terrified scientist’s tie and patted his shoulders as a smile crept across his lips.

“Good. I’m glad you are going to make this a success. Honestly, Bill, this thing doesn’t work without you. It’s your baby. Treat her right and see where she leads you.” He picked up his suit jacket and strutted out of the lab, whistling as he exited.

William was terrified about what he would do, what he had to do. He had no choice but to go ahead as instructed. He just could not see how this would not end horribly. He could take every precaution but they were not ready. What could he do? Who could he report this to? No one would listen to him. It would be career suicide. The fact was that BioSyn owned him and his work. They were a multi-billion-dollar, influential corporation, and he was a scientist with a company that had floundered under his leadership. Darcy could not help him. He was so desperately alone and powerless, and so he resigned himself to his work to improve Lilith to make her safer for the trials. He tried to concentrate on the possible good that it would do the subjects of the trials. They were not volunteers, and yes this was problematic, but they were downtrodden and unable to afford quality health care, let alone something as cutting edge as Lilith, and so William convinced himself that he could salvage something good out of the situation.

William tried to shake off the remaining fear-inspired adrenaline dump into his bloodstream and attempted to focus on his work. He wished that Manny was here with him. He had the stamina of youth on his side and steadier hands than his. William’s hands were still shaking thirty minutes later as he fumbled with the buttons on his lab coat trying to undress. He looked past the three sets of glass partitions separating him from Lilith. She was soon to be unleashed. It was inevitable.

She had come so far from when he and Manny had first succeeded three years earlier, the memory of them staring at the image from the scanning electron microscope was fading. She was almost unrecognizable in her carbonic cloak. Like a ghost conjured from an ethereal world she had been brought into being. William and Manny had marveled at their creation, a purely synthetic organism made entirely from synthetic DNA. Previous scientific endeavors had inserted strands of synthetic DNA into existing organisms, but that was akin to tweaking a software program. What William and Manny had managed to do was write an entirely new organism into existence.

This lab had been their Eden, Lilith their creation, and they, God. William recalled how Manny had stepped back slowly from the monitor where the two had stood. A look of wonderment gave way to a creeping sadness and turmoil. For Manny, it was the fulfillment of his life’s work, but he was still young. William understood his colleague’s mixed emotions, but he reveled in the moment of his long-awaited triumph. Darcy would have been proud.

“What do we call…her?” Manny managed.

“Lilith.” The name still echoed in the recesses of his memories as it had in the chamber that day. “That would have been our daughter’s name.”

Manny approached the monitor and took a screen-shot, freezing the image of the carbon-based life-form that was suspended in solution in a petri dish in a separate, isolated room. He erased the markings “LV-117” and labeled it “Lilith d/o/b 11/11/11”.

Karen arrived in San Francisco on the redeye from Logan Airport. Her flight had been delayed for several hours because of the unpredictable New England weather; a freak hailstorm that had developed out of thin air. Her flight out of Boston was turbulent and terrifying. She was not a good flyer, but her nerves were calmed by a couple of anti-anxiety pills and beers humming through her system. She was relieved to finally be firmly planted on solid ground. Her feet were swollen; she was hungover and tired from a lack of sleep. It was midnight, California time, and she just wanted to find a bed to fall into. Manny had arranged for a car service, but she had been expected hours ago. She had been texting him incessantly, keeping him updated on the travails of her journey. As she emerged from her less inhibited stupor, she scrolled through the conversation, which had taken on a slightly flirtatious tone at first but had become downright sexual. Her head began to ache with embarrassment and nervous regret as she read through a few of the more salacious bits.

She found her suitcase at the sparsely attended baggage carousel and walked out to the arrivals platform. The cool San Francisco Bay air invigorated her lungs and forced out the recycled air that had chocked her for hours. She was about to text Manny again when a small, beat-up hatchback pulled up in front of her.

“Can I help you with your bags, Miss?” Manny stepped out from behind the driver’s side door grinning ear to ear. Even in the dim, foggy light of the bay and with her inhibitions returning, Manny was still cute in a dorky sort of way. He jogged around the car with his arms open and hugged her unexpectedly, tightly, and for an unusually long time. “Welcome to Cali, Karen!” His eyes smiled. He hurriedly loaded her heavy suitcase into the open hatch of the little car. She wondered if it would even fit. It did, just barely. He slammed the trunk lid shut successfully on the third try and jogged back over to open her door. “Buckle up; remember, click-it or ticket,” he sang as he jogged around the car once again and jumped into the driver’s seat.

“You seem a little too excited for this time of night.” Karen tried not to sound obnoxious, but failed. He recoiled momentarily but returned immediately to his giddy state.

“Oh I just got out of my lab. I was working on your chrysalis, bonding it with Lilith.” His face was intermittently illuminated by the streetlights heading out of the airport. A plane on final approach skimmed just above their heads and sent shudders through the little hatchback.

“That’s what we call her - it - Lilith.”

“What is it - she?”

“I don’t want to give anything away; you’ll have to wait until morning. It’s a half-hour drive to the valley, but I live in San Jose, which is forty-five minutes away. It’s late and I’m sure that you are tired. There aren’t any good hotels near where I live, and I don’t want to leave you by yourself somewhere. You can stay with me. I’ve made a bed. Well… it’s in the spare bedroom, which has a bed that is already made, but it has clean sheets and everything. It’s on the opposite end of the apartment, so you will have your privacy, but we do have to share the shower. Not share the shower at the same time obviously, but I mean that you don’t have your own.”

Karen smiled. Manny was definitely a dork, but a sweet one. She was hooked. “It’s okay. I’m sold. To San Jose it is.”

- - - - - - -

The next morning dawned brightly over the distant eastern foothills of San Jose as the sun drove its light through Karen’s clenched eyelids. Manny walked into the room already chatting away. He had been up for hours fine-tuning his previous day’s work on the chrysalis fusion and he had apparently made some exciting strides while she slept off her hangover and jetlag.

“Karen, I thought you were probably getting ready by now. We need to put a move on it. I didn’t hear any noise, so I just… I helped you to bed last night, which is why you are still in your clothes.” Manny shied away from the dilemma that he faced when he did so.

“Um… thanks.” She reached for the covers but there was no need, nothing was hanging out. “Please tell me there’s coffee.” Manny nodded and darted from the room. She took the chance to check herself again. Everything looked buttoned, clasped, and zipped, though honestly she had practically roofied herself and would not have remembered.

“I hate to rush you and all but we don’t have much time. I want to get to the lab before everyone else, so that I can have some time to show you around one-on-one.” He peeked his head through the door this time. “Coffee!”

Still feeling the ill effects of the pills and booze combo, Karen muscled herself out of bed and toward her salvation in his outstretched hand. “I’ll be out in five minutes. I promise.” Manny nodded and hummed his way out to the living room. Karen then dragged herself into the shower. She stepped out of her room about a half an hour later to find Manny pacing anxiously by a table with a plated breakfast waiting for her. She scarfed down the food and poured herself another cup of coffee as the two headed out the door.

Manny raced his little hatchback joyfully west through the empty, early morning roads of San Jose with the giddy excitement of a child on Christmas morning. Karen was less enthused as she attempted to hold down her breakfast. About thirty minutes later, they arrived at the gate of a rather large technology park. The setting was surprising. Most of the research facilities where she had worked back East were usually located in university research centers and other stodgy environs. Even at this early hour, bike riding hipsters were reporting for work, materializing silently out of the sunlight. They emerged singularly, then in pairs, dribs and drabs, then in steady streams of never-ending Schwinn Cruisers, darting here and there with several mopeds sprinkled in for flavor.

Manny slalomed through the course of bicycles and passed by several opulent structures exuding the latest in LEED Platinum design. Environmental consciousness was no longer just about doing the right thing for the planet, but it was about who could claim it as a status symbol. What was the sense in being progressive if you couldn’t flaunt it in proper California fashion? They continued down to a cul-de-sac, which rounded in front of a humble two-story building, whose understated exterior obscured the truly cutting-edge science within. The building appeared empty. Karen looked around the unoccupied parking lot that sat in front. Their little hatchback, the lone vehicle, broke up the pale-lined symmetry of the gridded spots.

“This is it.” Manny was clearly happy that they were the first to arrive. The pair stood in the entrance as Manny inserted a keycard in a security slot and punched in a code, after which two large double-doors hissed opened with a clamor. Seeing her recoil in surprise, Manny offered an ill-timed warning. “Sorry. You’ll have to get used to that. Most of the doors inside do it. The entire building is negatively pressured.” Manny said that so matter-of-factly that Karen walked a couple of steps before she questioned the statement.

“The entire building? Why?”

“Oh, sorry, I guess I should tell you. We’re working with some pretty sensitive stuff. Originally it was just the Level 4 labs that had it, but we expanded that building wide, for insurance purposes.”

Karen’s unease returned though this time she was sure that it was not the hangover. “Wait you have a Level 4 lab in this facility?”

“Two of them actually and they are something else. That’s where we’re going. That’s where Lilith is. I want to show you our baby.”

Karen was quiet. There was something about how Manny had said ‘
our baby
’ that muted her. Manny continuously filled the silence as he talked about the high-tech building design. Sure the building’s exterior was unexceptional but its interior housed the latest in autonomous design. The building functioned as a fully autonomous organism. It required only a part-time staff of two people and they were just there to request maintenance as needed. The interior halls were devoid of decoration, hospital-white coated its walls with somber effect. Besides the myriad of security checkpoints, the interior appeared to consist of nothing more than a labyrinth of long hallways.

Manny shepherded Karen through a gauntlet of autonomous checkpoints; requiring a litany of keycards, pin codes, palm scans, and iris scans.

“What are you working on in here? I thought this was a biotech lab,” Karen half-kidded as she sized up the uncomfortably high security—high even by Level 4 standards. She had spent a year of post-doctoral research working at the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas doing some research with infectious diseases before she was recruited to head her lab in Massachusetts. That experience gave her a taste of the safety protocols used to work in high-risk environments though she had only worked on Level 2 diseases such as Hepatitis C, influenza A, Lyme disease, and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA. She had shadowed a handful of researchers working with Level 3 diseases such as SARS virus, bacterial tuberculosis, yellow fever, West Nile virus, and rabies, and the experience was enough to convince her that she never wanted to work with the monsters that inhabited Level 4.

Manny finally noticed her unease. “Relax Karen. We don’t have any Level 4 pathogens here. Those things are highly regulated as you well know and they’re commercially useless for BioSyn not to mention that the insurance for that kind of work is insanely expensive! I mean, from a pure scientific research standpoint, I’d love to get my hands on them. Imagine creating an Ebola or Marburg vaccine, but you know how the research dollars work. It takes money to make money and if you aren’t going to make money than you don’t get money!” He smiled glibly and Karen nodded in agreement about the reality of scientific funding. Privatization and commercialization were great for innovation in most areas of biotechnology but they were pretty poor in others. Funding was always poured into fortune-making treatments for chronic diseases such as diabetes, high-blood pressure, cholesterol, depression, and erectile dysfunction because they required the patient to become life-long, money-generating, and dependent customers of the pharmaceutical industry. Infectious diseases on the other hand were largely ignored. This calculation was mostly based on the short-sighted twentieth century thinking that ignored the twenty-first century reality of the planet’s interconnectedness. Accessibility to the developing world, where most of the highly contagious and deadly diseases originated, had grown exponentially. Viruses such as Ebola, Marburg and SARS were now just one or two hosts away from jumping out of their remote communities and spreading to the globe through the world’s highways and airports.

“Then why would you waste all of that money on these expensive systems?”

“Well like I said it’s a precaution.” Manny pointed to a steel-gray door which resembled one used to secure a meat-locker, on which a prominent sign boldly warned
‘Biohazard! BioSafety Level 4, Authorized Personnel Only’
. “You see, Lilith is a biosynthetic organism that Dr. LaPierre and I created. More precisely Lilith is the mother of a few hundred thousand little organisms we call Lilicytes which we use to target cancer cells.” Manny turned to Karen, his tone now serious and proud, “We’ve developed a cure for cancer.”