Read Kingdom of the Seven for Free Online

Karen continued. “In a nutshell, gentlemen, Jardine-Marra is now in possession of a vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.”
     
    The men’s mouths dropped as one. A few flipped quickly to the first page in question, adjusting their glasses. The rest simply sat there in dumbstruck amazement.
    “Why weren’t we advised of this earlier?” demanded Roger Updike.
    “You were,” Karen told him. “I have issued quarterly reports for the past four years on our progress with developing an AIDS vaccine. If you recall, my yearly report detailed the rather impressive results of our testing on chimpanzees.”
    Updike’s eyes darted up from the summary material on page seven of the report before him. “Indeed. But at the same time I seem to recall that the federal government didn’t think much of the direction you were proceeding and refused to fund the project further.”
    Karen swallowed hard. “I was able to find alternative methods to fund the preliminary human-stage testing.”

    “I’ll take responsibility for that,” Alexander MacFarlane interjected. “Dr. Raymond came to me with a bare-bones budget to pursue the project, and I approved it.”
    “Without our consent, obviously,” Updike snapped.
    “I didn’t feel it was necessary to inform you.”
    “And neither did you feel it necessary to keep us updated on the progress of the project.”
    “On my insistence,” Karen said firmly. “I elected to hold that information back from all of you, including Mr. MacFarlane, as a matter of security.”
    “Security?” raised Updike, veins pulsing along his temples.
    “Until we were sure, you understand.”
    “No, Dr. Raymond, I don’t.”
    “We had to avoid leaks at all costs,” Karen told him. “Unwelcome scrutiny would have burdened us with more attention than we could afford as we took Lot 35 to the human testing stage.”
    “Lot 35?” Updike questioned.
    “That’s the clinical name we have given to the vaccine.” “Actually,” Alexander McFarlane corrected, “vaccine candidate at this stage.”
    “A very good candidate, though,” Karen said, a slight layer of defensiveness lacing her voice. “The results are all there before you, but let me summarize them. We gave the vaccine to thirty healthy volunteers. Twenty-seven of these developed antibodies that neutralized the AIDS virus in test tubes. Furthermore, we observed no significant side effects in the volunteers themselves.”
    Karen moved to the VCR and popped in the tape she had brought with her.
    “Alex, if you could get the lights, please …”
    MacFarlane flipped switches until the only light was the glow off the television. The screen went black briefly and then lit up with what might have been a scene from a science fiction film; dozens of pinkish gray forms battling for space amidst a black grid.
    “What you are about to see, gentlemen, is a computer
simulation of how HIV invades the system,” Karen narrated. “Each of the forms displayed before you represents a cell. The virus has to be able to bond to a cell in order to multiply and spread.”
    Suddenly on the screen small blue shapes appeared. They slid about between the digitized cells like characters in a video game, ultimately lodging themselves against the outer walls of perhaps a quarter of the pinkish gray cellular forms and then slowly penetrating them.
    “We have known for some time,” Karen continued, “that the HIV virus will bind to certain cell shapes before others.”
    “But all these look the same,” interrupted Roger Updike.
    “I was speaking of molecular shape and composition, Mr. Updike, not physical structure. It’s nothing you can actually see and, until very recently, even were able to detect.” She turned toward the screen, where all the blue invaders had found homes within the pinkish gray cellular forms. “We thought the invasion process was simply random. The discovery that something far more specific and identifiable was going on became