Page 24 of Fool’s Gold

Jack had been around long enough to recognize his “CEO voice” and how little resemblance it bore to reality.

“Okay. So, first things first. When a new disease emerges, the first thing it does is kill a lot of people really fast. Now, the Besse flu is influenza, which isn’t new, but given that it’s a designer virus it’s going to behave like it is. With me so far?”

Both Matt and Jack nodded. Even Irvine nodded.

“Great. Up until now, it’s been behaving like a new virus should—killing the hosts at an alarming rate. The problem with that is, the flu doesn’t survive long outside of a living host. When that happens, a virus mutates. That’s a simplistic way of putting it, but none of you exactly signed on for a master’s level class in virology.

“So—the virus mutates to become less lethal, and only the strains of the virus that are less lethal to the host tend to survive. Those become endemic or seasonal—in this case, pretty much the same as the flu you’re used to.”

Matt frowned. “But the flu we’re used to still kills an awful lot of people, we still need to get vaccinated for it, and every once in a while it flips out and kills a huge number of people outside its usual fatality rate.”

“Very true.” Darrow grinned. “You’ve been studying!”

Matt grimaced. “Yeah, well. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me and all that.”

Darrow cleared his throat and looked away. “Well. The downside of the update is that the Besse flu is mutating. The upside is that the new strain—we’re calling it Besse-alpha—seems to be significantly less fatal than the original. In short, it behaves like a normal flu.”

Matt steepled his fingers together, brow furrowed. “That sounds like a good thing on the surface. Anything that makes this disease less fatal is good, right? But if we announce that there’s a new strain that’s less fatal, then people won’t take the necessary precautions to avoid it. They’ll say,Oh, what’s the worst that could happen? I’ll get a week off of work. And then they’ll end up getting the original strain.”

“That’s definitely a concern. I’ve spoken with Prince Daniel and with our counterparts in Corvia. They’re making sure any vaccines are able to cope with new mutations and strains. Of course, the vaccine only helps if people use it, but they’re fairly confident.” He scratched his head. “They’re really putting together some kind of super brain trust over there, aren’t they?”

“Something like.” Jack leaned back in his chair, glad to have something to contribute to the conversation. He wasn’t stupid. He knew he wasn’t stupid. Listening to Darrow and Matt go at it like this made him feel like his brain had been replaced with cotton balls.

He hoped Matt didn’t decide to escape to Corvia and seek asylum. He didn’t think his ego could handle it.

“Well, good for them. I appreciate their help on this.” Sam smiled again. “And I can’t say enough about how helpful you’ve been, Mr. Taggart. A lot of companies would try to stonewall us, but you’ve opened everything up and gone above and beyond to make sure we have what we need.”

“It’s the least we can do.” Matt’s smile was more genuine now. “I’m grateful you’re keeping me in the loop. It helps to set my mind at ease, knowing that thingswillget better and that some of the best minds in the world are making that happen.”

“Anything I can do.” Sam grinned cheerily, and Irvine escorted them out.

They chatted during the drive back to Matt’s place.

“That Darrow. He’s a smart guy, huh?” Jack drove, on the grounds that he had more experience with defensive and offensive driving.

“The best at what he does, apparently.” Matt rested his head against the window. “You know, I’d love to have him working for Besse, but it’s kind of moot now.”

“Why do you say that?”

“First of all, because his motivation isn’t money, it’s national service. And secondly, because Besse won’t be doing their own research if I have anything to say about it. So even having the best epidemiologist in the world on staff won’t get us anywhere because he’d be wasted.”

“Fair enough.” Jack considered. “You could still be friends though.”

Matt huffed out a little laugh. “I don’t think it’s in his best interest to be friends with anyone from Besse.”

Jack chewed on that all the way back to the building. A friendship with Matt seemed like a no-brainer. Adding Besse to the mix could destroy an epidemiologist’s career.

They were in the elevator when Matt’s phone buzzed again. He frowned and answered it.

“Hey, Kim, what’s going on?” He paused. “You’re kidding. Seriously? No, that’s awesome. Six to four is still a win. I’ll take it. Thanks for letting me know.”

He hung up and turned to Jack. “Well, that’s great news.”

“What is it?”

“The board accepted my proposal for outsourcing the research function. The whole package. All three schools, the testing clause, all of it.”

Jack was going to need info about that six to four detail, but he wouldn’t press him just now. “Congratulations. This calls for a celebration!”

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