Quaranteam - Team Tim Ch. 01-06

"Well Dr. Parker ..." started Tim.

"Call me Simon."

"OK. Well Simon, the data that we have isn't making sense if we're considering a single virus. Looking at the information that we have it is becoming more and more clear that there are probably two separate and radically different viruses circulating in the UK at present, each with a different MO."

"You're correct. I've not shared it with anyone yet, but there's a second virus now spreading around the world that the Americans have named 'DuoHalo'. So far, you're the first to mention it."

"The name makes sense," replied Tim, "I suspect that it's more like the Flu virus in that it has two different spike proteins rather than one, hence the 'Duo'. What I find odd, though, is that there is nothing on the national news bulletins about a second virus."

"I suspect that this is currently being suppressed. People are already in a lockdown for Covid and a second virus won't change that. The same precautions are relevant to both viruses."

"It would help us, though, if we knew which virus is responsible for which patients and, unfortunately, the increasing number of deaths that are being recorded. From what I can see so far, this 'DuoHalo' virus is probably the more dangerous of the two and is likely to result in a lot more deaths."

"The labs are already aware of this and I've been informed that they will soon be able to test for both viruses so we should hopefully start to see differentiated data. Also, I'm expecting we'll start receiving genome sequences for both viruses soon too."

"That will be useful, as that should let me look at the spike proteins for both viruses."

"We have enough people to look at the Covid virus. Tim, Siobhan, I want you two to concentrate on DuoHalo as much as possible, although I understand that some of the data will be ambiguous for a while at least. I may have others pivot to looking at DuoHalo later, but not until the data are more plentiful. Now, please forgive me, but I need to log in to my three fifteen meeting. I'll see you both same time next week."

----oOo----

Tim and Siobhan were coming in and leaving each day at their individually allotted times and analysing the data that were available. More information was becoming available so there was always something new to be looking at. Tim found the time at work to be more enjoyable than he'd originally imagined having seen the arrangement of the facility, as most of the time he and Siobhan kept the intercom open between their individual cubicles. They took it in turns to select the play list for the day. Tim found that the time passed quickly when he was busy and especially when the data allowed him to explore new aspects of the DuoHalo virus, as grizzly as they were.

When they had determined, with a high enough confidence, that they had a finding, they would jointly author a document, which was security marked as Official-Sensitive:Biological and forward it to a specific readership. They produced quite a few reports identifying different aspects of the DuoHalo virus and the symptoms caused which they thought were important.

Their first report was an analysis of a DuoHalo infection, which showed a short incubation period followed by a relatively long and quite mild respiratory infection during which time the person was contagious, after which many would die in quite a gruesome manner with blood released from their eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Based on various indicators, Tim suggested that this response was due to the virus having attacked the pituitary gland, causing massive amounts of the different hormones produced there to be released at the same time, resulting in the brain both swelling and overheating. In addition, the victims also suffered necrosis of many of their internal organs.

Another looked at how the virus affected people of different age and gender. Up until around the start of puberty, the virus appeared not to enter the second phase, or only to a limited extent. Very few prepubescent children were dying and it was possible that those deaths were due to some secondary cause. Older children up until around 18 were highly susceptible to the virus with few, if any, of either sex surviving infection. Adult men were only slightly less susceptible to the DuoHalo virus, with an extremely high fatality rate amongst those infected. Women, it appeared, got off better with maybe only around a 25 to 33% fatality rate, which dropped even lower after the menopause. This still meant that between a quarter and a third of all adult females would die, though, should they become infected. Tim had extrapolated these figures, showing that if everyone in the population became infected, then there would likely be an imbalance between the sexes, with between four and sixteen women remaining for every man. These values didn't account for possible reinfection, though, with the limited data showing that there didn't appear to be a statistically significant difference in mortality rates for those who had survived DuoHalo once.

At first, although Covid-19 showed many mutations and produced a number of variants that needed to be separately tracked, the DuoHalo virus was showing no natural variation and Tim suspected that it was in some way able to reset itself back to its base state, although he didn't understand how this could occur. Genomic data allowed Tim to produce accurate models of the two different DuoHalo spike proteins, which could be compared with those of other known viruses. In late May they saw their first DuoHalo variant whilst in early June a further two DuoHalo variants were detected in the UK. After these, no more variants were identified in the UK until early July, although Tim and Siobhan were aware that other variants had been appearing elsewhere in the world. What was confusing, though, was that these variants weren't simple mutations but contained large blocks of reconfigured genetic code. Tim was starting to suspect that DuoHalo hadn't arisen naturally, rather that someone was engineering the virus and deliberately releasing it into the world. Some of the new variants had a longer incubation period before any symptoms developed, all the time allowing the virus to be spread. Another anomaly was that the new variants seemed to appear overnight in widely separated locations.

Early on, Dr. Parker had put out a document that identified who was working on which aspect of the pandemic. After this, it wasn't uncommon for Tim or Siobhan to be contacted by one of the other people working in the facility or by one of a smaller number of people who were working from home due to childcare or other similar reasons. It was from one of these more casual meetings that they gained access to documents indicating that the Americans appeared to have developed a working vaccine for DuoHalo albeit one with, at the time, unspecified peculiarities. They were told, though, that the UK was waiting for a promised vaccine without these idiosyncrasies.

Tim found that working in the facility with its stringent antivirus measures was constricting. Even going to the toilet involved pressing a button to request access to the common corridor network and waiting for a green light, with strict rules to be followed when he finally got to the bathroom. The cubicle size also meant that it wasn't that easy to stretch and walk around. It was only the importance of the work and the link to Siobhan, plus the alternative of spending 23 hours a day in his flat with only the hour for exercise, which kept Tim coming to work.

The more Tim discovered about DuoHalo, the more his behaviour changed, feeling as though he was walking around with a target permanently fixed to his back. He became more fastidious with sanitising his hands to the point where they had become dry and cracked and he was now having to regularly use moisturiser. Also, he was crossing the road to avoid the few pedestrians who were still about when going for his run and shopping later in the evening when the supermarket was quieter. He thought that maybe he was becoming paranoid, but one glance at the data had him wondering what else he could be doing to keep himself safe.

----oOo----

Back in his small flat, Tim found things even harder. After returning from work, he would change into his running gear and make his way to Midsummer Common for his solitary run, staying away from the paths and the few pedestrians as much as possible. There were a lot less people about now and most of those seemed to be taking their dog, or more often dogs, for a walk. After returning to his flat, Tim would have a hot shower and a quick meal before settling in for the evening, listening to music through his Sonos One and reading the books that he'd bought, although he finished them all too quickly. He kept checking on Amazon to see if the new Druid Gunslinger book that was due out had been published, but couldn't see it. He began to re-read the older books in order, although he purposely skipped reading 'The Trouble With Were-Bears' as he hadn't enjoyed it as much as the others the first time. He also noted how the author's writing had changed through the series, gaining a confidence. Sometimes, he'd play one of his two bass guitars through his computer so that he could accompany the songs he was listening to. Sometimes he even strummed his old acoustic 6-string.

The news on the TV was all about the pandemic, but they just talked about Covid-19 and didn't mention DuoHalo until late-May. There were the nightly briefings from the Government and their advisors, although he no longer recognised any of them. Prime Minister Boris Johnson recovered from Covid, having been admitted to intensive care before Easter, after which he acted as if he was now immune to everything for the first few weeks, before retreating to Chequers with his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, soon after she'd given birth. Others in the Government weren't so lucky and Tim, who wasn't really into politics but who had an ingrained dislike for the privileged clique currently running the country, was finding it hard to keep up with who currently held the different cabinet positions. Also, the information being given out bore no resemblance to the data that Tim was reading and analysing on a daily basis. At one point, he noted that the data being presented matched those he was seeing for Covid infections and deaths, but DuoHalo infections and deaths were far outstripping Covid and not being reported at all.

Tim started looking at other sources available on the internet to see just how bad things were. A profile called 'Highrise' started to upload a photo from their window every night, looking out over the city in which they lived -- Tim estimated that the photos were being taken from around the 12th floor, give or take. On the first night, one of the three tower blocks visible from the window was dark whilst the other two and the surrounding streets showed definite signs of occupation. By night 14, all three tower blocks and many of the surrounding houses were completely dark. There was no photo uploaded on the following night or any thereafter. The run-down inner-city areas were the worst affected, whilst smaller communities and more affluent areas seemed to be doing a lot better.

Some companies had formed their own 'bubbles' to keep key workers protected. The Government, in one of the few decisions they'd taken, established the six regional media companies spread across the country, merging what remained of the BBC plus other television, radio and print media organisations and establishing them at Covid and DuoHalo-secure campuses. To Tim, though, this didn't make the information being presented by the newly-formed South England Broadcasting Corporation, isolated as they were in Sevenoaks in Kent, any more believable, as the data he had always showed the pandemic to be much worse than was being portrayed.

Tim was part of a large community on LinkedIn, connected to people working in virology in many countries. It was here that he first started hearing about a possible US vaccine even before he'd seen documentary proof through work, although he initially suspected that it was a wind-up as some of the assertions seemed just too far-fetched. The only thing that kept him from rejecting it out-of-hand was that the same information was coming from multiple sources. As he became party to more information on the serum through his work, though, some of the assertions had been confirmed.

Siobhan and Tim continued to phone each other most evenings, enjoying having someone else to talk to. They would talk about everything and nothing, continuing the discussions they'd had during the day. More and more it occurred to Tim that Siobhan was the only thing keeping him going, the only thing worth living for.

Their talks, both at work and in the evenings, became more about their private lives. Siobhan surprised Tim by telling him about losing her virginity and the few boyfriends she'd had back in Ireland, giving a critique of each one. Tim responded by telling her of his first time and how awkward it had been. He also told her of his first and only real long-term girlfriend, Rachel Harris, who was on the same course as him at Durham. He told Siobhan how they had got together during their first term and had broken up, apparently, during the following summer term.

"I don't know what happened," he told her. "One day we were going out, boyfriend and girlfriend like, and the next we had broken up or something. I'm not sure she knew either. We were still friends and continued to study together. Hell, if we studied in my room or at hers, then we'd end up having sex, just not as boyfriend and girlfriend. I tried going out with a couple of other girls in the second year, but Rachel would get all upset so I stopped trying. We carried on like that until we finished our degrees."

Siobhan looked at Tim through the glass panel. "Seriously? The girl was in love with you and was struggling to cope with it. Pushing you into the 'friendzone', even one with benefits, was probably her way to handle how she was feeling." She continued to watch Tim, hearing him sigh and noting the wistful look that briefly crossed his face.

"You think so?" Tim responded, having shaken himself out of his reverie. "Do you think I should have reached out to her after Uni? By then, though, I was working in a pharmaceutical company in Cheshire and she was at a company in Essex working on antibiotics for animals."

"I don't know, and probably, we never will." Both Siobhan and Tim were typing on her computers as they talked together, something they often did, and therefore Tim didn't notice her creating a new email, typing in the name of his ex and sending it to her own private email address. Later that day when she was back in her flat, Siobhan would make a point of looking up Rachel through social media.

Over the weeks, their relationship grew, even though they couldn't even hold hands. During this period, Siobhan had her 26th birthday, alone in her flat whilst talking to Tim by phone and via FaceTime. They discussed many things, they even discussed where they would go for their first real date when things opened up again. They did manage to meet on one or other of the large commons or greens around Cambridge and talk while socially distancing, but they both found it to be stressful, given what they knew about the viruses, so they only did it a few times. Also, they found it difficult to have an intimate conversation when they had to shout to each other through their facemasks while standing four metres apart.

----oOo----

It was a couple of weeks after starting at the facility when Tim received his first phone call from his sister Helen, something that was going to become a regular occurrence.

"Hey sis, how are you?" Tim asked, after having pressed to accept the call.

"Not good. Not good at all," Helen replied, her voice sounding like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"Why? What's happened?"

"I just found out that one of my Saturday girls at M&S has died, she was only seventeen. And another one hasn't been heard from for a while, so we don't know how she is at all. Plus, there appear to have been a lot of deaths amongst the male assistants in menswear and the husbands and partners of some of the women working in our store. Not to mention all the younger teens who seem to be cannon fodder for the virus. The number of younger brothers and sisters who have died is just mental."

"You know that there are two different viruses, don't you."

"What? It's not just Covid?"

"No, although that's all you'll hear about from our Government and on TV. DuoHalo is the other virus and it's the one killing most of the people, well except amongst the elderly where Covid seems to hold sway. It's likely that just about all children of Secondary School age will have died before the pandemic is over."

"Seriously Tim? Let me have a look at something."

Tim could hear his sister tapping on her laptop.

"Oh my god!" Tim could hear the shock in his sister's voice.

"Helen. Talk to me."

Sniffling, Helen eventually responded "I think it's happened already. Just search for our old Secondary School and use the hashtag #inmemoriam."

Tim did as she requested, immediately finding hundreds of hits, each recording the death of a student from their old Secondary School. Some might be duplicates but Tim was sure that not every student who had died would have been recognised in that way either. In amongst the students, Tim also noted quite a number of the teachers, many of whom he recognised from when he was at the school himself.

"I've seen the statistics, as I'm working in a facility where we're analysing the data, but this really brings it home to me more than stats can. These are real people who live, or rather lived, in the streets around where we grew up. The fox is in the hen coop, Helen, and the farmer is in denial and doesn't even have a gun."

"Well tell Mum and Dad that! Dad's currently upset with his accountant and Mum pays lip service to the guidance."

"Oh? How so?"

"Dad's work has dried up so he registered for the Government's furlough scheme, thinking he'd get a lot of money from it, but because of his accounting arrangements, he's been paid minimum wage and so has Mike, the rest made up from a monthly payment from an account that the company profit has been paid into as a dividend. Unfortunately, the furlough scheme only pays 90% of the wages, not dividends. Mike's not happy either and has suggested that he might get a job driving a delivery van with one of the supermarkets, although he currently spends all of his time in his bedroom gaming. Mum's still working at Iceland, but she has to go in for seven each morning as all they do now is pack up customer orders for the delivery drivers. She has to wear a facemask, but she's been wearing the same one for weeks and often wears it so it doesn't cover her nose."

"Well that's as much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot, although the facemask is mostly to protect others should you cough or sneeze, not the other way around. Anyway, what are you doing at present?"

"Oh, I'm on furlough and I'm getting a lot more than Dad now, which he doesn't like. But I'm still contributing to the household bills."

"And your boyfriend?"

"We chat. Well, text mostly. I'm not sure why, but something feels off with him, but I can't put my finger on it."

"Well, keep yourself safe, Sis."

"You too. You'll keep me straight, won't you Tim."

"Always."

----oOo----

When Helen phoned again a couple of weeks later, the whole situation had changed. As soon as Tom answered his phone, Helen started talking.

"He's dead. The bastard's dead."

"Who's dead?"

"That no good supposed to be boyfriend, that's who."