Thanks to a fan named Bill, who provided the discovery method for this story.
If there are errors in the science, history, editing, or yadi yada they are mine alone. Unlike some, the buck stops here. I put this together yesterday so it is likely to be fraught with errors. Feel free to skip the history of the world section as there won't be a test at the end.
Please read my profile for my stance on comments. Feel free to email suggestions or to start a conversation. Private messages work too.
Bobby Dall; et al.: "Was it something I said or something I did? Did my words not come out right?"
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Richard Tudor works in a relatively new field: DNA profiling as a forensics technique. Now that the genome has been mapped, it can be used to analyze past pandemics. He spends his time locating and analyzing the DNA of those who died decades or even centuries ago. From mass graves to private cemeteries, they get permission to extract DNA.
There have been three horrific pandemics in documented history. 'Documented' only dates back to the Black Death which ravaged the world for over two hundred years. Prior to that, there just aren't well chronicled surviving dissertations. The Black Death arrived in Europe in October 1347 and was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague. It menaced Europe and Asia until the mid-1500s. It started when twelve ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. Estimates are that the world population was reduced by thirty percent. From four hundred seventy five million to under three hundred fifty million. Most of the deaths occurred in the first five years, but the plague continued for two hundred years. The world's population wouldn't return to the previous level until the 17th century. Several smaller bubonic plagues have occurred, but without such devastating consequences.
Another sad tale is Columbus and the Native Americans. The crews of those three ships were immune to, and carriers of, thousands of years of diseases which the Native Americans had yet to encounter. The mortality rate was phenomenal. The New World before Columbus: no typhoid, no flu, no smallpox, no measles. The New World after Columbus: epidemics of death. We will never know the exact magnitudes of the depopulation, but current estimates are that ninety percent of the Native American population was decimated in the one hundred years following 1492. Within 50 years following contact with Columbus and his crew, the native Taino population of the islands of Hispaniola, which had estimated populations between 60,000 and 8 million, was virtually extinct. Central Mexico's population fell from around 15 million in 1519 to approximately 1.5 million a century later. Historian and demographer Nobel David Cook estimates that, in the end, the regions least affected lost 80 percent of their populations; those most affected lost their full populations; and a typical society lost 90 percent of its population.
In comparison, the 1918 flu pandemic lasted under three years. Quite deadly as roughly 17 million died, but statistically that was only about one percent of the global population at the time. Some like to refer to it in a racist fashion, but it was a global pandemic, so H1N1 is the proper way to refer to it. H1N1 has reared its head a few more times, but modern medicine and best practices limited its impact.
A little about DNA and viruses. Have you ever used a Velcro fastener? It works with hooks and loops. Your DNA creates surfaces which vary slightly from person to person, think of them as the loops. Think of virus surfaces as having hooks. The immune system attempts to close the loops and flatten the hooks before the virus can multiply. Some DNA combinations are more susceptible to a particular virus. In those people, the virus hooks a loop early on and multiples at a pace faster than the immune system can respond. Thankfully our immune system remembers the hooks that it doesn't like.
The most contagious viruses are those with hooks of many shapes and sizes. They enter the body and immediately find a surface to hook. Since there are many shapes and sizes, flattening one type of hook does little to stop the spread.
The worst viruses are those which hook onto the lungs. The lung becomes covered with the virus, inhibiting proper movement, which produces pneumonia. No lungs = No life. A vaccine helps the body produce new antibodies which coat the lung loops and flatten the virus hooks, thus preventing the virus from attaching. Some people have lung surfaces which already prevent certain viruses from attaching. The purpose of a ventilator is to exercise the lung, preventing pneumonia, until the body's immune system can overpower the virus.
The most heinous, like the Black Death, find a DNA map where the introduction of the virus causes problems that the body can't combat in a timely fashion. The results are painful, deadly, and quite contagious. With the research Richard is doing, he has learned that the Black Death not only wiped out the sickliest, but also completely eliminated a DNA pattern.
Statistically, you can't deny it. If you had a particular DNA 'hole', there isn't a single person alive today with that same hole. It took the virus over two hundred years to track down all of those people, but a virus never really goes away. It may lay dormant, but it's always there. There are people who have the virus, but it doesn't affect them. They can still spread it when they sneeze. Outbreaks occur when multiple susceptible people are infected in a short period of time.
Think of it this way. Every person in your family is likely to have roughly the same inherited risks in their DNA pattern. So, it makes sense that when anyone in your family becomes infected, the likelihood that you will also become infected is quite high.
With the work Richard is doing, they hope to be able to find a DNA pattern in those most adversely affected by new viruses. Knowing that, vaccines can be distributed for those most at risk.
Enough about what Richard does for a living. He's been pondering if infidelity is something that could be detected by analyzing DNA. Imagine the possibilities.
'Lady, before you say I do, are you aware that Mister has a seventy percent chance of cheating? Mister, before you say I do, are you aware that Lady has a twenty percent chance of cheating?'
Why has he been pondering that? Because his former bride must have had one of those high chance of cheating numbers.
Richard was married to Colette. Same old boring background, complete with sex before marriage, dwindling sex during marriage, and then sex outside of marriage. No, not swinging, but Colette spreading her charms hoping that Richard wouldn't find out. Until recently, about six months after his divorce was granted, Richard hadn't had sex with another woman since he and Colette swore to be exclusive with each other.
Richard had fun bringing them down, and there just isn't enough evidence to bring charges against him, yet.
Richard felt like he was clueless, as he suspected most husbands were. You assume your spouse is committed to your relationship as much as you are. So what went wrong?
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Nine months ago:
Richard and Colette were thinking about buying their first home. This would also be the first time applying for a home loan. The lending paperwork spelled out how the interest rate would be set based upon their individual credit scores. It was advised that they 'clean up' the inaccurate negative reports prior to applying for the loan.
The lending company's website had a sample rate calculator. The first thing was to establish an account on Experian, so each could see their credit report. His credit rating was six eighty and simply getting it above seven hundred would save big bucks on the mortgage payment. He knew enough about Colette to set up her account on Experian. Her credit score was six twenty.
The task became 'find the problems' and 'eliminate them'. Not much he could do about those late payments. There was a ding item from a company he'd never heard of. He filled out the objection form and submitted it.
It was getting late, so Richard shut down the computer for the evening.
Colette's credit report was perplexing. There was only one negative entry, which wasn't enough to justify her lower score. So Richard practiced his broken English and waded through various customer support people. Even though he told them that he understood that they couldn't discuss Colette's account, they still wouldn't help giving an overview of how that score was computed. Finally a very nice lady explained that quite possibly, 'hint hint hint' she said, someone could have too many credit cards for her stated income.
That made no sense. He thought they had the same charge cards and he only made two grand a year more than she did. So he looked closer. Sure as hell. He had two credit cards and Colette had three. The rogue credit card gets paid off monthly. The amount paid ranged from one fifty to two hundred. Richard hadn't caught it because he was solely focused on finding the negative reports.
Now that Richard knew of the card, he needed to find out what those charges were. He worked until three in the morning before exhaustion overcame him.
Friday night Richard successfully hacked into Colette's credit card account. All of the charges were for Luxury Suites Motel on the south side of town, about twenty miles away. Every Tuesday as it turns out.
To say Richard was in a foul mood over the weekend is more than accurate. He had a plan, and was lining up the necessary players. That required using a throw-away phone, which he picked up early on Saturday. Did he need further proof? Not really, but decided he could suspend his devious plan if something seemed amiss.
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Tuesday, noon, Luxury Suites Motel, a very small business:
"As you can see Mr. Travis, we are still undergoing some renovation. Instead of your normal room, you'll be in one of the temporary trailers. Don't worry, it has more features than our standard rooms."
"That's fine, we had one last week. We're not going to be here that long."
"Great. You'll be in the trailer without a number, about twenty yards past the one numbered fifteen. The numbers are clearly marked in the upper left. Have a great stay" winking as he handed the key to Bart, who was sporting a big smirk.
The clerk smiled. They both knew what was about to happen.
Walking outside, key in hand, Bart motioned to Colette.
"It'll be easier to walk than drive. Here's your credit card back" he told her as she approached.
Hooking wings, they strolled down the line of trailers. As advised, the unmarked trailer was the last one, oddly placed considering that one through fifteen were in a tidy row. Entering the trailer they quickly pulled the curtains closed.
"Let me silence my cell phone" was followed a few seconds later with "that's strange, I have no service" Colette calmly told Bart.
"That is weird, I have no bars either. I did back in the office. Whatever, we didn't want to be bothered anyway."
Colette started doing a strip tease for Bart. He slowly worked his belt open, then the snap, and finally his zipper. Pushing the lump in his boxers aside, the pants slid down his legs.
Once Colette was naked, he pulled her close. Her hands slid into his boxers, fondling his hard cock. Squeezing her boobs, and flicking her nipples, Bart's cock started leaking pre-cum. Sinking to her knees, she slid his boxers down, and licked the released cock. His hands found the back of her head and he thrust his cock deeper into her mouth. He didn't want to cum in her mouth though. Rather, he found great pleasure in leaving his cum inside his conquests. Making cuckolds of husbands stoked his ego.
