Resistance by Daniel Kalla

Author:Daniel Kalla
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2011-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

34

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Horton sat at her desk, chewing on a fingernail and staring at her phone. Two days had passed without word from Dr. Kilburn as to how his patient with flesh-eating disease had responded to Oraloxin. Hope had begun to fade. Her self-destructive musings, which briefly disappeared, had crept back. And after two decent nights, sleep was again as elusive as ever.

A new worry had wormed its way into her thoughts concerning the emergence of the latest superbug. The more she had read in the past days about the MRGAS outbreak, the more her unease grew. Something was disturbingly familiar about this new strain of multiresistant strep. Something from her own labs.

Horton desperately wanted to talk her concerns through with a friend. She picked up her phone and called Neil Ryland’s office again but was met only by his upbeat voicemail greeting. She dialed Viktor Leschuk’s phone number. No answer. Horton considered calling Luc Martineau, knowing she could count on him to bolster her spirits, but she decided against this. His reassurances were at best fleeting; they seemed to evaporate as soon as she was away from his dizzying physical presence.

The ringing phone startled her into action. She grabbed for the receiver. “Ellen! It’s Graham Kilburn.”

“Oh, Graham.” Her chest tightened with an equal mix of apprehension and anticipation. “What’s happening with your patient?”

“She died, but I don’t—”

“Oh, Graham, no!”

“Ellen, listen to me,” Kilburn said evenly. “Oraloxin never stood a chance with her.”

“What does that mean?” she asked despondently.

“The patient was in flagrant septic shock when we started her on treatment. She died within fourteen hours of her first dose. You know antibiotics take a minimum of twenty-four hours to make a dent in any infection.” He sighed. “Her body had already shut down by the time we started the Oraloxin. She didn’t survive long enough for us to know whether it might have helped.”

“What makes you think it would have?” Horton muttered, gnawing at a fingernail.

“The culture results.”

Horton felt a flicker of excitement. “What about them?”

“We plated the Oraloxin samples against MRGAS,” Kilburn said. “And Ellen, it worked!”

She rose from her chair. “It did?” she said, stunned.

“Congratulations, Ellen!” He laughed. “You have created the only antibiotic shown to work against MRGAS.”

“I did?” she mumbled. “Have you tried it on other patients?”

“Not yet,” he said. “We only got the word on these results last night. But Ellen, I suspect we’ll need a lot more Oraloxin in a big hurry. Will that be a problem?”

“Shouldn’t be,” she said, feeling the excitement build. “We’re expecting FDA approval any day. The plant is all set up. We’ve already begun to manufacture pills in large quantity.” She paused. “But of course, I’ll have to run it by Luc.”

“Oh,” Kilburn’s tone chilled. “Dr. Martineau.”

“What’s wrong, Graham?” she asked.

“Let’s not forget how Martineau refused to authorize my use of Oraloxin for my dying patient,” Kilburn grumbled.

Horton dropped back down in her chair. “He what?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No,” she said, stinging from the betrayal. “But I’ll definitely have a talk with him.

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