Page 16 of Jacob

Even though he didn’t understand them yet. Almost reluctantly, Alex slid her hand from his. He exerted this magnetic pull on her and it was worse when he touched her. She needed to be fully in herself, marshalling all her resources, to explain this to him.

Jacob wasn’t a virologist, wasn’t a biologist or even a scientist and you had to have some grounding in science to understand. It was up to her to make him see the danger.

The instant she tugged at her hand, he let it go and not by a flicker of an eyelash did Alex show that… she missed his hand. The heat and the strength.

“Okay,” she said, looking at Jacob. “I’m going to have to go into professorial mode.”

He nodded his head, never taking his gaze from hers. “I’ll try to keep up.”

She looked at him sharply, but there was no sarcasm or irony. Just that simple statement. He wasn’t an expert, but he’d do his best to keep up.

“Smallpox,” she said and stopped. Even the word gave her goosebumps. “One of mankind’s deadliest enemies. We have accounts from ancient Egypt, three thousand years ago, of epidemics. As I said, when European colonists landed in South America, where there was no immunity, smallpox killed up to 90% of the native population. It is estimated that smallpox has taken upwards of a billion lives. Where it hasn’t killed, it has disfigured and left people blind. The fatality rate is about 30%.”

“But now we have vaccinations,” he said quietly.

“We do.” Alex dipped her head. “But we stopped vaccinating. You and I, for example, are not vaccinated. You might be, because we continued vaccinating members of the military. You’re probably inoculated against smallpox, but also against typhoid fever, tetanus, influenza, meningococcal disease, adenovirus, yellow fever, pneumococcal disease, anthrax.”

Jacob nodded.

“But the rest of us are not inoculated against smallpox. We would end up like the native population of South America in the 1500s if smallpox were to break out again. But that’s not the worst-case scenario.”

Jacob’s eyes widened slightly. “Jesus. It’s not?”

Alex had a sharp pain in her chest. It hurt to think about it let alone say it.”No. Because there is a lot of improvement possible from the point of view of the variola virus, the one that causes smallpox.”

Jacob’s face froze. “Improvement?”

“In its killing power, yes. Elias is an expert at gene splicing, very talented, so if he somehow got his hands on the vials we have at the CDC or if some… non-state actor got their hands on the smallpox virus, he could, in theory, change it. If he wanted to, or if someone directed him to make it more potent. R0 is the measure of contagion of a disease. The number of people an individual can infect. The R0 of smallpox is from 3 to 6 right now, with very little herd immunity.

“Bioengineering could increase that exponentially. A good bioengineer could make it easily contagious airborne, could make it asymptomatic, so that someone could walk around and be infectious even though there are no symptoms, which is not the case with naturally occurring smallpox.

“Smallpox is already scary as hell. Smallpox has a mortality rate of 30%. It could be brought to 90%. Maybe even 100%. Engineered to be a bioweapon, it could…” Alex’s throat tightened, as if someone were throttling her. A tear slipped down her cheek. Jacob wiped it away with his thumb, then took her hand.When she felt her voice could work again, she finished the sentence. “Engineered as a bioweapon, it could wipe out the world.”

* * *

Holy.Shit.Jacob could feel Alex’s cold hand trembling. Yeah. What she’d just told him was horrifying, would make anyone tremble. Jacob’s own hand didn’t tremble. He’d been a sniper in the military, among other things, and his hand never trembled. But if ever there was a moment to shake, this was it.

And Alex had been living with this, alone, unable to talk to anyone about it.

Jacob had a team that was the best in the world and he trusted them. When there were plans to be made, no matter how bad the situation, he could troubleshoot with them. He was never alone if he didn’t want to be, and particularly when there was a hard problem to face. He had teams at his back.

But Alex… Alex was alone. She didn’t seem to have a partner. Jacob tried and failed to imagine someone who was Alex’s partner abandoning her in a situation like this. He wouldn’t be able to, that’s for sure.

“Fuck,” he breathed, covering her hand again.

Alex took in a deep breath, let it out. The primal stress reliever. Her hand, which had been stiff under his, relaxed a little. It was still cold as ice, though.

“Yeah. You can see why I’ve been so… worried.”

“Worried isn’t even the right word. Panicking.”

She dipped her head. “That, too.”

Alex slipped her cold hand from under his and spread her hands. “What do I do?” she asked, voice tight.

“We put together a team and go hunting for your colleague.”

“And hope my fears are exaggerated.”

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