NEXUS POINTS : Chapter 7-8

————————————

Chapter 7

It was a little past ten on Saturday morning when Kora got to Yong Liu’s condo in the 2nd Ring. She hated being late, but it had been a struggle to make herself leave her apartment. 

Kora was still embarrassed about what had happened at the monthly protocol meeting on Thursday. If not for Yong’s insistence, she would have canceled the breakfast this morning. 

She had decided to go home after the skirmish with Tanya Grover, and she hadn’t gone to work Friday either. It was the first time in over two years that she had taken time off just for herself. 

Kora felt much better after staying in bed for two days. The fever and headache had finally abated. She still couldn’t believe how she had lost control in the meeting. It was as if she were possessed by some force outside of herself. It had to have been the fever. She just wished she didn’t have to talk about it, ever. 

Kora had always liked Yong’s condo. It was small but comfortable. The living room had floor-to-ceiling windows on two of the walls. The third side was dominated by an oversized display, which faced a black leather sofa. An antique wooden coffee table sat between the display and the sofa. A silent video of Yong's wife and daughter looped on a small projector on top of it. The floor was covered with a thick burgundy carpet.

The dining area adjoined the large and well-equipped kitchen. Kora remembered fondly all the meals Yong had cooked for the team when they were working on tight deadlines. 

Breakfast was delicious. Kora practically inhaled the contents of her plate: french toast sprinkled with real powdered sugar, complete with whipped cream and strawberries, all of which were her favorites. With all the fresh ingredients, this breakfast would have cost a fortune at a restaurant. 

She was so full she felt her stomach might burst open. She leaned back against the cushy dining chair, feeling happy for the first time in a long while.

Yong seemed relaxed in his white lounge shirt and dark grey pants. He looked much younger than his almost sixty years, his dark eyes full of vigor.

He studied Kora from across the dining table. “You really should take better care of yourself, kiddo. You need a life outside of work.”

“Come to think of it, I am a bit one-dimensional.”

Liu chuckled. “You’re too young to spend all your time in a lab. Don’t you have any interests besides work?”

Kora cocked her head for a moment. “I’ve never really thought about it. Ever since I was a kid I always had this feeling that there was something I was meant to do. One thing led to another, and when I got into genetics, I thought, ‘This is it!’ and I’ve been really busy ever since. First with school, then my thesis, my research, work. Then Anita got sick.”

“That’s what I did after my family died. Always busy with my research and work.” Liu smiled. “In the end, I realized I had to live for myself.”

Kora had always thought she was living for herself. Now she wasn’t sure anymore. What would she do if she didn’t have her work? What did she really want? She honestly didn’t know.

“Did you...?” Kora hesitated.

“Did I what?”

“Well... I’m not sure how to put it. I just... I just thought there was a reason I got into genetics. Some kind of...purpose, I guess. But if my work isn’t my life’s purpose, then what is?” She felt somewhat embarrassed by her confession.

“That’s something you have to find out on your own, kiddo. What about having your own family? The young man who came to the company party a few months ago seemed nice.”

Kora lowered her head. “Oh, Peter. I... I don’t know. He’s just a... He’s...”

“He seemed quite taken with you. What's the problem?”

“I don't know. He’s almost too…perfect.”

Yong laughed. “Too perfect?” 

Kora’s face reddened. “Well, we’re such different people. There’s this…distance between us.”

“Why don’t you close that distance?”

The question surprised Kora, “What?”

Yong smiled. “With each step you take towards him, that distance shrinks.”

“I… I’m just not ready.”

“You’re still young. There’s plenty of time to think about family and children.”  

“Well... thank you for the wonderful breakfast!” Kora tried to change the subject.

“What happened at the protocol meeting?” Liu asked.

There. Now I have to talk about it. 

Kora fell silent. She tried to decide what to tell Yong. The truth was she had no idea what had happened. How she could have missed the inventory report. How she could have lost her temper the way she did. 

“What is it, Kora?”

Kora sighed. “I... I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I have these terrible headaches and...”

“And?” 

Kora hesitated. 

“It’s ok if you don’t want to tell me. It’s just so unlike you to lose control.”

Kora looked at Yong, the man who had become her trusted mentor since she’d come to NID. She always thought if her father were still alive he would be just like him.

But he’s going to think I’m crazy! she thought. 

Kora suddenly remembered Anita’s last days. Could it be possible that she had the same condition as Anita? She shuddered at the thought.

Finally, she said, “I just haven’t felt like myself lately.”

The look of concern on Liu’s face deepened. “Maybe you should go get a medical checkup.”

At that moment, it dawned on Kora that Yong knew more about the CTE outbreak than anyone she knew. Who better to ask for advice? She told Yong about Sandberg’s findings.

“Could the brain degeneration be caused by mutations from the CTE virus?” Liu asked.

 “Either that or it could be caused by the experimental treatments. You were in the center of the outbreak. Do you mind looking at the data from the tissue assays?”

“Sure. Stream the data to me and I’ll take a look. I still think you should go get a physical, though.” 

Kora nodded. “I will.

Chapter 8

The week started off at a fast pace. It was late Tuesday afternoon when Yong Liu was finally able to look over the assay results on Anita Amelli’s brain tissue samples. 

Yong was intrigued by Sandberg’s findings. The degeneration in Anita’s brain was not the result of side effects typically associated with cancer treatments. What was most troubling was the fact that the atrophy in her limbic system had started twenty-seven years ago, right after the CTE outbreak was contained. Any ordinary somatic mutations caused by the CTE virus or the experimental treatments – and there were a lot of them – should have manifested physiological symptoms long ago.

Yong remembered as if it were yesterday the outbreak and the mass migration and panic that had ensued. It was a world gone mad. So many had died, and so quickly. The planet was facing a near-extinction crisis, and every single available scientist was mobilized to work on either a vaccine for the virus or treatments for the havoc it was wreaking on the body… those who were still alive anyway. 

It had taken him a little over eight months to develop the vaccine. It took another two years before the pandemic was contained. Subsequently, all the known mutations that had resulted from the outbreak were documented. Treatments were developed in the years that followed. 

That’s what made Anita’s condition puzzling. Yong shared Sandberg’s concern about the potential ramifications of her findings. Aside from the stroke that finally claimed her life, Anita had also suffered from hallucinations, delusions and paranoia, all the typical signs of psychosis. She had even lost most of her memories in the last few months of her life. 

There were rare instances where a mutation resulting from the CTE outbreak was reversed with treatments but later on mutated into something even more sinister. It could take years before any physical symptoms manifested. For that reason they usually went unreported for years. 

If Anita’s condition was caused by one of these mutations, then it was potentially a serious threat to the general population. Yong realized this was no longer a pet project he was helping Kora with. 

The next day, he began testing the tissue samples Sandberg had sent from the State Central Hospital. Yong designed a series of experiments using various synthetic DNA sequences from known viruses and other pathogens in an attempt to induce the same degenerative responses detected in the samples. Nothing worked. 

By now it was almost eleven on Wednesday night. Yong decided to pack it in and go home. He decided to walk from the NID campus to his condo at the edge of the 2nd Ring. 

The glass and concrete jungle surrounding him had already turned in for the night. He enjoyed this walk, especially early in the morning and late at night. The fresh air cleared his head. His thoughts drifted back to his experiments. 

Occupational hazard. He smiled to himself. 

His life was much more balanced now. He remembered a time when he worked around the clock, even after he had developed the vaccine for the CTE virus, and especially during the time when he was leading the team on the FS experiments.

“The FS experiments...” Yong murmured to himself. “The FS experiments!” 

Could it be? He stopped to ponder what had just occurred to him. 

If the mutations were related to the FS experiments, then this was much more serious than he’d originally thought. Yong’s blood chilled. He looked up at the clear night sky, then turned back in the direction of NID’s campus.

*

Yong had spent the last two hours trying to locate the FS Project files in the cloud server. Where could they be? There was only one place left to look. He put on his jacket, then headed to the express elevators. 

It was almost midnight. Thankfully, the R&D Library at NID was open twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. Yong was granted access after a retinal and hand scan. 

Inside the library were three-meter by three-meter enclosures partitioned by opaque, pale blue glass walls that were completely soundproof.

Yong stepped inside one of the enclosures. He pressed his right thumb onto the DNA scanner. A minute amount of blood was drawn from his thumb, confirming his identity and his clearance level. 

“Welcome back, Dr. Liu. How may I assist you?” asked the AI in the computer console.

“Access FS Project files.” 

“Accessing... Access denied. The FS Project files were sealed by executive order.”

How curious, Yong thought. “There must be some mistake. I have top clearance level.”

“Yes, Dr. Liu, but the FS Projects files were sealed by executive order. May I assist you with anything else?”

It was useless arguing with a computer. Yong headed back to the elevators. Instead of his usual walk, he took his transport out of NID’s parking carousel. He raced home. 

Yong went straight to his study and make-shift lab. 

Hidden in the closet behind one of the mirrored walls were storage boxes full of old research papers, notes and mementos. He rummaged through his files, going through box after box of research journals. He mused that with all the modern technologies available to document research data, many scientists still chose to keep their own hand-written notes, and he was no exception. 

“There you are!” He pulled out a hardbound navy blue journal from under a pile of worn documents. On the first page of the journal was marked, in blue ink, Hybridization Project FSDNA55789 : Dr. R. Bartlett/Dr. Y. Liu/Dr. T. Shirani et al.

Yong went through his notes carefully. His stomach churned. He was now convinced Anita’s psychosis and cerebral hemorrhage were indeed caused by mutations in her limbic brain. Only these mutations couldn’t have been caused by any pathogens, or any drugs, for that matter.

Something was very wrong here. If the mutations were linked to the FS experiments, then there could be serious repercussions for NID. It was time to notify the executive team. 

Yong checked the time. It was almost 2:00 a.m. Thursday morning, but there was no time to waste. He activated the comm module on his desk and called his boss, Chief Research Officer at NID Biotech, Dr. Derin Serpius.

- End of Chapter 8 -