The Judas Strain - James Rollins [80]
He nodded. “It’s flushing out the very plasmids it had once put into the bacteria. But why?”
Lisa shook her head. She didn’t know. Not for sure.
Devesh smiled, a strangely warm and companionable expression. “It’s stumped us, too.”
“But I have a hypothesis,” Lisa said.
“Truly?” His voice rang with a note of surprise.
Lisa faced him. “She’s healing bodily, but it made me wonder why she remains in a catatonic state. Such stupor only arises from head trauma, cerebrovascular disease, metabolic disease, drug reactions, or encephalitis.”
She stressed the last cause.
Encephalitis.
Inflammation of the brain.
“I noted one test conspicuously absent from all the reports,” she said. “A spinal tap along with a test of cerebrospinal fluid. It was missing. I’m assuming it was performed, to examine the fluids around her brain.”
Davesh nodded. “Bahut sahi. Very good. It was tested.”
“And you found the Judas Strain in the fluid.”
Another nod.
“You said the virus only infects bacteria, turning each into a new nasty bug, and that the virus cannot invade human cells directly. But that doesn’t mean the virus can’t float around in the brain’s fluid. That’s what you meant by incubation. The virus is inside her head.”
He sighed his agreement. “That does seem to be where it wants to get.”
“So it’s not just this one patient.”
“No, eventually it’s all of the victims…at least those that survive the initial bacterial attack.”
He waved her to a corner of the room, where a computer station had been set up. He began clicking through various computer screens.
Lisa continued while he worked, pacing at the foot of the bed. “No organism is evil for the sake of being evil. Not even a virus. There has to be a purpose to its toxification of bacteria. Considering the broad spectrum of bacteria it converts, it can’t be random chance. So I wondered: What does it gain by doing so?”
Devesh nodded, urging her to continue. But plainly her conclusions were not anything new. He was continuing to test her.
Lisa stared at the patient. “What does it gain? It gains access to forbidden territory: the human brain. Dr. Barnhardt mentioned how ninety percent of the cells that make up our body are nonhuman. Mostly bacterial cells. One of the few places that remain off-limits to viral or bacterial infections is our skulls. Our brains are protected against infection, kept sterile. Our bodies have developed an almost impenetrable blood-brain barrier. A filter that lets blood’s oxygen and nutrients reach the brain, but little else.”
“So if something wanted to get inside our skulls…?” Devesh prompted.
“It would take a major assault to bridge the blood-brain barrier. Like turning our own bacteria against us, to weaken the body enough that the virus could slip through the barrier and into the brain’s fluid. That’s the biologic advantage gained by the virus when it turns bacteria toxic.”
“You do amaze,” Devesh said. “I knew there was a reason to keep you alive.”
Despite the compliment buried in there, Lisa drew little comfort at the implied threat.
“So the ultimate question is why,” Devesh continued. “Why does the virus want to get inside our heads?”
“Liver fluke,” Lisa said.
The non sequitur was strange enough to finally regain Devesh’s full attention. “Come again?”
“Liver flukes are an example of nature’s determination. Most flukes have a life cycle that involve three hosts. The human liver fluke produces eggs that pass out of the body in feces, which are then washed into sewers or waterways and consumed by snails. The eggs then hatch into little worms that drill out of the snail and seek out their next host: some passing fish. The fish is then caught, consumed by humans, where the worm travels to the liver, and grows into an adult fluke, where it lives happily ever after.”
“Your point being?”
“The Judas Strain may be doing something along this line. Especially if you consider