All three suited up in disposable suits, gloves, and shoe covers. Ohnara handed them respirators as well. When they were done, Ohnara used a key card to open a locked door into another, sealed area of the lab and waved Smith to the right. Near the far wall was a square island with stools arranged around it. A large see-through cube on the island encased a microscope. Rubber gloves extended into the box through sealed holes and provided access to it, while built-in viewers, one on each side of the cube, allowed several people to view the slide at once. A long tube extended into the box where a scientist could insert a sample, move it into position, and reseal the entrance. Smith could see that a slide was already loaded.
“Tell me what you think,” Ohnara said. “Ms. Russell, feel free to look through one of the other viewers.”
Smith put his eyes to the viewer and the slide immediately sprang into focus. Several rod-shaped bacteria presented, intermingled with another form that he didn’t recognize. He focused on the rod-shaped creatures.
“Vibrio cholerae,” he said. “It’s the bacteria that causes cholera. This other bacterium, the one that’s not moving, is floating around with an attached strain of H5N1 virus.” Smith directed his last statement at Russell before returning his attention to Ohnara. “Is the bird flu virus mutated in any way?”
“You asked me to check and from what I can see, it’s not.”
Thank God for that, Smith thought. But even regular bird flu was so virulent that the presence of it in the swab was cause for worry. He watched the sample for a moment. The bacteria moved.
“Still alive,” Smith said. While he watched, one bacterium split in two. “They seem to be multiplying.”
“They didn’t at first, but now they are, and faster than I’ve ever seen before. Where did this come from?” Ohnara asked.
“A refrigerator light in an outlying suburb.” Russell supplied the information.
“Odd place to find cholera bacteria and bird flu. Did they just wash it? Wipe the light down with a wet rag? Cholera needs water to grow.”
Russell shook her head. “No, nothing like that. We believe it was placed there deliberately. I’ve only heard of cholera in hot weather climates. Will it survive in the cold?”
“Oh yes. It can survive several days in freezing temperatures. But warmth really sets it off. When I first loaded a small portion of the swab onto the dish the cholera was dormant, probably from the cool refrigerated air, but since warming up it has really started to multiply.”
“And the bird flu virus?”
“It died as readily as the cholera strain. Bird flu isn’t readily transmissible through the air, either, though we’ve confirmed a couple of cases that may have been human to human transmission. They were caretakers and family members all exposed to the same birds that carried the disease in the first place. Avian flu’s nasty, to be sure, but encased in the gel as it is, in such minute amounts, and the fragility that I’m seeing makes it not likely to be transmitted to people.”
“But it is possible, isn’t it?” Russell said.
“Possible, yes. Probable, no. The cholera is the more worrisome factor here. I don’t like it.”
Smith didn’t either. The bacteria became more active even as he watched them. In contrast, the strange species sat unmoving.
“What’s the other species that I see? The one with the H5N1 attached to it?” he asked.
“Shewanella MR-1. It’s fascinating and quite common in the DC area. A large source is right here in the silt at the bottom of the Potomac River, and we’ve been analyzing it in our labs for a year now. Let me switch up to the atomic force microscope.” While Smith watched, the image changed and the strange bacteria sprang into finer focus. Long, hair-like strands extended from the sides of the creature.
“Ahh, thank you. I see the pili growing from it.”
“Are those a type of cilia?” Russell asked.
“Yes, but these are only three to five nanometers in width. Ten thousand times finer than a human hair. The atomic microscope is necessary to see them. We know that these pili are electrically conductive microbial nanowires. Almost like fine wire filament. We’ve determined that they can conduct electricity even underwater and in anaerobic environments.”
“Is it another microbial fuel cell? Like Geobacter?” Smith said.
Ohnara peered into a second viewer. “Have you worked with MFCs?”
Smith had, but only on a superficial level. “Not much. I’ve heard that there have been some recent breakthroughs in our understanding of how they function.”
“Very exciting breakthroughs. We now know that electrons are moving down those wires, but what the bacteria do with the electrons and what their purpose is still remains a mystery. Nevertheless, they’re a potential power source and we’re extremely excited about the possibility that they can create enough energy on their own to charge batteries. Very beneficial bacteria.”
Smith refocused on the cholera. “Will freezing temperatures slow the cholera’s multiplication? Can you freeze this sample? Buy me some time to investigate this further?”
Ohnara stepped away from the viewer. “Let’s take it to zero centigrade and see.”
“Is there a possibility that this came from the kitchen faucet? That someone dumped this into the water supply?” Russell asked the question.
Ohnara pulled over a stool on rollers and sat down. He leveled a serious stare at her. “Cholera is dangerous, no doubt, but it would take a tremendously strong strain to overcome our Western methods of disinfection. Chlorine kills it, and boiling does too.”
“What good does it do to wipe cholera in a refrigerator, then?” Russell said.
Ohnara looked perplexed. “I suppose it would spread to a person if the bacteria were placed on the mouth of something one drank. Like a water bottle, for instance, but it’s a fairly weak way to injure someone and it’s not a way to injure a large number of people. For that you need a contaminated water source that manages to avoid treatment, as we’ve seen in areas like Haiti. Even then, while thousands can die from lack of treatment, they most often initially contract it through the water source. It’s not normally transferred from person to person.”
Smith stepped back. “But the rapid multiplication and the viral strain attached are worrisome and unusual. Perhaps this is a form of super cholera?”
Ohnara tilted his hand back and forth. “Perhaps, perhaps not. Some of the sample succumbed as I transferred it to the dish, so it’s far from robust. If you like, I can subject it to the standard chemicals that it would encounter during our current water treatment protocols. See if it manages to survive.”
Smith nodded. “I’d appreciate that.”
Russell looked back into the viewer. “Dr. Ohnara, is it possible to type the strain? Determine where these bacteria originated?”
Ohnara nodded. “I already did that. They match that found in sections of India and Pakistan.”
Russell’s head shot up and Smith saw the color drain from her face. “Did you say Pakistan?”
“I did. Is that significant?”
“That’s a known area of concern for terrorism,” Smith said, deliberately keeping his voice neutral. He trusted Ohnara to retain a confidence, but saw no need to draw the lines between Pakistan, the escaped Dattar, and a virulent strain of cholera. He’d ask Klein to get him some more information on the stolen biomaterial. Perhaps this particular strain was in one of the coolers.
Ohnara looked doubtful. “I just don’t think it could be an effective form of terrorism. As I said, it’s difficult to see how cholera can be used in such a fashion, at least in modern countries like ours. Obviously, if this strand survives some of the chemicals I’m going to subject it to, then my opinion may change.”