The Z Contingency

Chapter 7 - Convincing Natalie

Gary plodded towards Natalie's office to request her help again, reflecting on the last time he had come to have this discussion with her. Last time, he had been analyzing vast amounts of data he and others had collected for his research on viral evolution. It was late in the evening, and he was nodding off over his papers after pulling two consecutive all-nighters. He awoke to a terrifying realization. He had stayed up the rest of the night going back over his results to confirm he was not merely having a bad dream. The following morning, he had rushed to Natalie's office to share his revelation, and to enlist her help in warning the public. That conversation did not go as he had envisioned it the night before. She was incredulous, to say the least. At one point, he even thought she was threatening to have him committed to a mental institution.

It suddenly occurred to Gary that he was standing at Natalie's door and hadn't knocked yet. He thought he could smell the faint scent of lavender. Natalie's perfume. Actually he wasn't sure if Natalie even wore perfume. Perhaps it was her shampoo. In any event, he loved the smell. It reminded him of the summer as a grad student he had vacationed in Kent. A local girl at Cambridge had taken a liking to the awkward American, and had persuaded him to accompany her to visit her Great Uncle's country manor in Shoreham during her summer vacation. The manor grounds included a large lavender field and staffed a Beekeeper who made her own honey. They had chased each other through the fields, trampling many of the plants. Finally, they flung themselves down amongst the hedges surrounding the field, exhausted, nursing each other's bee stings. One thing led to another. From that time on, the heady scent of lavender always brought back memories of his first encounter.

The last time he had stood in front of Natalie's door for so long without knocking, he only had to convince her to help get a public relations campaign launched. This time he would have to convince her to help him create the very thing he had been warning of – to get ahead of nature so a vaccine could be developed. This time there would be a host of ethical issues. He remembered the public outcry and condemnation within scientific circles from that Dutch researcher creating a highly-contagious strain of the H5N1 bird flu in the lab, in order to develop a vaccine for it. He remembered that his own reaction to the researcher's actions was negative. He remembered Natalie's reaction was even worse. Yes, this time, convincing her is going to be much more difficult.

While the CDC often developed vaccines for newly discovered viruses, they had never deliberately created a new virus for the purpose of developing a vaccine for it. Gary had no idea how he would convince Natalie to help him with something that was clearly outside standard CDC protocols, and was surely against CDC policy. He briefly wondered if it might even be illegal.

"Come in," Natalie called, before Gary had settled on his opening statement. She always seemed to sense when he was nearby. Gary opened the door, and somewhat reluctantly walked into Natalie's office, making sure the door was securely shut behind him.

I guess I'm just going to have to wing it. Okay, here goes."Um, hi... Natalie." Gary stared at his feet. Man, these Oxfords are getting really scuffed up. Time for some new ones. Maybe a pair of Doc Martens this time. They're supposed to have some really comfortable, rugged soles....

"Earth to Gary...." Natalie looked expectantly at her friend. She had known Gary since they were both doctoral students at the University of Cambridge in England, she in Biochemistry, and he in Molecular Biology. They had actually met more than four years earlier, but grad school was when she first started noticing him as an individual. Before that, he was just part of an ever-morphing group of friends and acquaintances she hung out with. Gary Ecks was perhaps the most brilliant scientist Natalie had ever met, but she often wondered if he was altogether here. It seemed that he was often off in his own world.