Chapter 35
“You guys don’t look too hot, what’s up?”, Alice commented when she saw us walking in the cell culture lab.
“We might be involved in something which is beyond our control…”, I began.
She looked at me with a questioning gaze.
“We went to the cross cancer institute the other day and Iris heard a journalist say that there is one too many deaths among the patients”, Brad explained, “and she thinks our polymer might be in some way related to what is happening”.
“But why do you believe so?”, Alice asked me.
“That’s right, so far there are no proofs for this”, Brad replied to the question meant for me.
“Well, let me fill you in on what happened”, I interrupted irritably.
“Please do”, Alice said, her eyes bugged.
“Sandeep phoned Mike and told him that we should stop any collaboration with him, or with anybody in the institute. Mike said that according to Sandeep we should refrain from bringing there more samples for “everyone’s sake”. The man was scared when he made the phone call”.
I accompanied my account with hectic hand gestures, and noticed Alice shifting her gaze from my face to my hands and back. I placed my hands in my pockets to try and stop them from floundering around.
“Also, a friend of mine, a journalist, told me that a similar story –the mysterious death of curable patients I mean - seems to be happening at one of the cancer centers in NY. Freaky, right?”, I continued
“No doubt…”, frowned Alice.
“The question is: why would anybody use the polymer on those patients? And if someone did for some obscure reason, would it be harmful to the point of killing people?”, Brad insisted
I could tell he was trying to fight the feeling that a nightmare was dawning on us, and that things had gone too far for us to do anything about them. He wanted himself calm, but I could sense the panic was starting to dwell in him too.
“I don’t really know if the polymer can do this…and honestly if we want to figure this out I wouldn’t be our best bet. I am not an expert on this”, said Alice.
“Ok, but what is your gut feeling about this matter?”, insisted Brad, and there was definite pleading not in his tone now.
“The best I can do is add some polymer to a colony of human cells and see what happens. Of course the cells can come from different organs, and I wouldn’t know where to start…”. Alice opened her arms in resignation.
“Can we try with blood cells? I imagine that we can get some easily just by poking our fingers”, I proposed.
“This is a pretty naïve approach, but why not”, replied Alice.
“Why is this naïve?”, I asked.
“Because we are trying to approach the problem completely blindfolded. We don’t know what the polymer did to people. In actual fact we don’t even know if the polymer itself did something or if it’s those funky bacteria that I still cannot pin down that messed up people’s body”, replied Alice.
She was about to add something when Brad’s cell phone rang. His face became concerned, then angry.
“What do you mean everything is flooded?”, he exclaimed
Someone spoke on the other end of the line, and Brad listened, shaking his head.
“Ok, I’ll be there in about half an hour”, he said, “Wait there, can you? Ok, thank you, I appreciate that”.
He gave me a discomforted look.
“What?”, asked Alice.
“Troubles never come alone”, he said, “guess what now? My house got flooded. Some bloody pipe must have broken, the cleaning lady I hired just found out”.
“You hired a cleaning lady?”, I asked, amused in spite of the situation.
“Ah well, she comes once per month. I am a single guy, you know…”
“Ah”, I replied expressively, “Of course”.
“Ok, I’d better hit the road now”, Brad said, and started towards the door.
The door was already closing on him, when he walked back in.
“Ah shit, but how are you going to get back?”, he asked me
“I am a resourceful woman and I’ll find a way”, I smiled, “Now go! I’ll phone you later”.
“Thanks Iris”, he said, and closed the door behind him.
“You actually gave me an idea”, I told Alice once we were alone.
“That is?”
“You said that maybe the issue is not the polymer, but the bacteria it causes to grow, right?”
“I was just saying, I really have no clue…”, she shrugged
“We cannot draw any conclusions, but this is a possible scenario”, I insisted.
“Yes, I would say so”, Alice conceded.
“I found a paper the other day”, I began, and summarized the publication authored by Mori I had discovered the day before. Alice was shifting on the chair as I spoke, starting to say something several times and then cutting off.
“This sounds very much related to our case”, she commented at last, her eyes vivid.
I could sense thoughts were crowding in her mind, although she couldn’t formulate them as yet.
“I could try to contact this guy”, I said, “ask him if he thinks new bacteria can harm people in some way”.
“The question is too generic to be answered”, said Alice, “but how much information can we release? This is a huge dilemma…”
“I know”, I said, “and this is why I wanted to keep generic. But…I mean, there might be a lot at stake here, I feel there is. So screw it, I will start off by being a bit vague and will leak out more information if he gets back to me and if it seems like he wants to help. What do you say?”.
“I am not fully sure”, she said, “Should we talk to McMurrich? I suppose not…”.
“That’s right, I also proposed to discuss with her but Brad and Mike are against it”.
“They would also be against emailing this guy…Mori, you said?”.
“Yes, Mori. And yes, I suppose Mike and Brad would be against emailing him, but I can’t help myself now. In all honesty, none of us knows what to do but if we do nothing things might get very nasty.
“I am with you on this”, Alice said, “Go email Mori and I’ll run some tests using some of my blood cells. We’ll talk again before leaving. And oh, do you need a ride?”.
“That would be sweet. I don’t want to make trouble for you though…”.
“Don’t be silly, let’s get some work done and then drive home together”.
“Awesome”, I smiled, happily relieved that I wouldn’t have to go back in a taxi cab gnawing on my worries in loneliness
“See you in a while”