To Die Standing
Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)
A collection of disorders caused by a genetic defect which results in weakness of muscles due to degeneration of motor neurons of the spinal cord and brainstem. Defects are commonly diagnosed with a gene test, which searches for a duplication of the SMN (Survival motor neuron) gene in chromosome 5. The symptoms of the disease are caused by deficiency of the SMN protein. The disorder does not affect mental coordination, but paralysis is progressive and will often eventually lead to death due to asphyxiation from weakened muscles which support breathing. In general, SMA is more serious in infants, though some with SMA were able to survive into adulthood. As a usual rule, the later the development of symptoms, the longer the lifespan of the individual.
As of yet, there are no treatments that can reverse the course of progression.
Chapter 5
" Ugh, how could I not have seen this before? I was so distracted by the radioactive chemical!" Abby grabbed the collar of her labcoat. " So, leeches inject this protein into the host which prevents blood from clotting. They were using leeches to inject this molecule in."
" How are they doing that?" Ziva asked. " It's radioactive."
Behind her, Tony and McGee were staring, paying more attention to her than to Abby. That morning, Ziva had come in, looking for all the world like she had not been sent home just a day ago, and Gibbs did not ask her why she was back. Ignoring something like that was a very Gibbs thing to do, actually, but when Ziva had fell on Gibbs' desk and spilled coffee over the keyboard, the man had not commented at all. Well, he did comment, with a snappy " Would you look where you're going?" But in the grand scheme of things, that was very much Gibbs, ignoring the problem.
Ziva was not very forthcoming either. Tony tried to bug her into telling him what the problem was, but she was extremely tight-lipped about it. Not to mention, unlike Tony's case with the sperm bank, there did not seem to be too many appropriate jokes to be made of Ziva suddenly losing her motor abilities. They were rare enough that they seem to happen only once in many hours, but even in a normal adult it all screamed " serious" to Tony. When he did summon enough will to press harder, Ziva had snapped, adamantly, that Tony should learn to mind his own business.
" Mind my own business?" Tony had cried. " Hey, who was the one that kept digging into my sperm donations?"
" You were practically welcoming the attention, DiNozzo." Ziva shot back, with such vehemence that Tony had instantly shut up. That, and the fact that she suddenly chose to refer to him by his last name.
It had been impossible to dig further at that point.
" You know," McGee opined to Tony, as they watched the boss and Ziva with Abby, " I kind of doubt whatever issues she needed to resolve were...you know, resolved."
" No kidding, Probie." Tony said dryly. In this line of work, no one has time for redundancies.
" So how come the Boss isn't saying anything?"
Tony was wondering about that too. " He probably knows something we don't. He just doesn't feel like telling us."
" So engineering cockroach-leeches? In order to put radioactive drugs into someone's bloodstream? Isn't it all a lot easier to just inject the thing into the guy if you're going to kill him?"
" Well," Here Abby looked more serious, " Guy seems to have a very sadistic taste. I mean, dealing with radioactive material has always been kind of, you know, dangerous. So my theory is, they engineered these leeches with cockroach characteristics which allows them to be immune to their own, new radioactive enzymes. They find the guy, take him to a room, then release these leeches which can then kill the guy without them having to be exposed to radiation."
" Seems like a likely theory. But this doesn't tell us where the guy is."
" Okay, so if Pfizer does not work, I looked up some places around here that work on leeches and cockroaches. This lab, Michaelson's lab," Abby pointed, " Works on both."
" Do you have the address?" Gibbs asked.
" Already wrote it down for ya." Abby grinned, handing him the slip of paper. " He's at Calvern Institute."
" Very good, Abby." Gibbs headed briskly out the door. Ziva stumbled a little, almost imperceptibly, on her way out. Tony and McGee exchanged a look. They then turned to Abby, who was wearing a look of complete confusion.
oO
" Yes." Said the research associate. The head of the lab was away on vacation, so he took over dealing with NCIS. " We happen to work on both roaches and leeches. We also work on tons of other stuff; ants, termites, tapeworms, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, you name it. Doesn't mean we had anything to do with your case."
" Any genetic engineering going on here, doc?" Gibbs asked, as the research associate was a Ph.D.
" Of course there's genetic engineering! What lab doesn't do genetic engineering? Depends on what kind you mean!"
" Well, merging roaches with leeches, for example." Gibbs replied.
" Not officially." Said the associate. " Mostly it's just mutated leeches with leeches. We fertilize the eggs and inject a virus which may add, delete, or modify a code for a protein, then we grow the leeches to see what happens to it."
" What proteins are you working on?"
" Anti-clotting enzyme." Some name that Gibbs did not care about. " We were thinking, if we can modify the leech, it can instead secrete enzymes that help with diseases like hemophilia."
" Clotting enzyme, you mean." Tony broke in.
" That's regulatory." The associate replied.
" Any of this radioactive?" Ziva asked. Tony glanced at her. Yesterday it had been strange not having her around. Today, seeing her so normal, felt even stranger.
" Radioactive?" The associate looked baffled. " We have radioactive isotopes, yes, but what do you mean?"
" Well what do you use the radioactive stuff for?"
" Labeling!" The associate went through some more jargon. " We use radioactive isotopes to mark the DNA for southern blotting! Every genetics based lab does that! We also have radioactive antibodies for western blotting, northern blotting. What are you getting at?"
Gibbs wished he remembered the name of the element. All he could remember was –nium, which was not very specific when talking about radioactive compounds. He turned around and took out his cell phone while Ziva continued to talk to them.
" You got any protactinium?" He asked when he hung up on Abby.
" Protactinium?" The associate looked bewildered, enunciating the syllables in that special way people do when they are not familiar with the word. " When I said radioactive isotopes, I don't mean that sort of stuff. What, you think we're making nukes here? I didn't even know there was a protactinium.'
" Well, you mind looking in your fridge, buddy?" Tony towered over the man. He was a good head taller than the scientist. " Probably your secretary decided to order some behind your back."
" Impossible." The associate headed over to the refrigerator anyway. " We'd have to explain why we need it. Last time we ordered francium, " And had to explain to both Howard Hughes and the Calvern what we intended to use it for, and fill out this huge list of papers and documents promising that we wouldn't make an explosive out of it. That one, mind you, was not radioactive, though if you ever mix that with water...don't mix that with water. We'd have a lot of explaining to do if we wanted to order something like...what was it? Protactium?"
" I'm sure you would." Gibbs folded his arms as the associate looked through the refrigerator.
He then did something very bizarre. He had been standing next to the research associate, with Ziva on the other side. He suddenly moved over to Ziva, pushing her back a little, and took his place in front of her, blocking her view.
Tony and McGee looked at each other.
" No." The scientist shook his head. " I can't find anything."
" You mind if we get some agents here to search?" Gibbs asked.
" Can you wait on that?" The associate asked. " This isn't my lab, you know. I just work here."
" When's your boss getting back?"
" He's supposed to come in tomorrow."
" Call him and tell him to come in tonight."