Blowback

“Like I said, it was your Count Dracula reference that got me thinking. None of us had looked at it that way. It took some doing, but I was able to track down a journal article I had read several years ago. A doctor by the name of Juan Gomez-Alonso from the Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, had published an article in the journal Neurology where he explored the similarities between the mythical vampire and the symptoms of human beings infected with the rabies virus.

“Those similarities are astounding. Not only do vampires bite people, but so do human beings affected with the rabies virus. Vampires are said to seduce women; rabies sufferers are known to be hypersexual. Vampires attack people; rabies sufferers often show a dramatic increase in aggressive behavior. Vampires roam the earth at night; rabies patients suffer severe insomnia due to interrupted sleep cycles. Vampires are erratic and suck blood; rabies patients often experience convulsions and bloody frothing at the mouth. Vampires hate garlic; rabies patients are often hypersensitive to strong odors, especially garlic. Vampires avoid mirrors as they do not cast a reflection; rabies sufferers cannot bear the sight of their own reflection and avoid any object that might cast a reflection. Vampires are afraid of sunlight; rabies patients often develop acute photosensitivity. Finally, vampires are afraid of holy water, and rabies patients often develop hydrophobia.”

Harvath was astounded. “The symptoms are a perfect match.”

“Not only are they a perfect match,” replied Whitcomb, “but they explain the other symptoms we couldn’t directly attribute to Azemiops feae venom.”

“So that’s it then. The Carthaginians combined the venom with rabies. Now I understand how the dogs fit in.”

“Dogs?” replied Whitcomb. “What dogs?”

“The crate I told you about that we think was used to transport Hannibal ’s mystery weapon,” said Jillian on the other phone, “it had a series of scenes depicted in relief along the side. In addition to a magical book, which I believe was a reference to the Arthashastra, there were the wolves we had seen on the breastplates, except they weren’t actually wolves. After studying them, Scot figured out that they were dogs, and I guess we should now say rabid dogs.”

“It makes sense,” said Alan after thinking about it for a moment. “Rabies is one of the oldest infectious diseases known to mankind. Accounts of it date all the way back to Asia in 2000 B.C. but the best detailed medical accounts date from around 300 B.C.”

“Less than sixty years before the birth of Hannibal,” said Harvath. “But if rabies is the other component here, something doesn’t make sense. I’ve always understood that once you have rabies, it’s fatal.”

“You’re correct. Once clinical symptoms develop, there is no known treatment for preventing death from rabies. But, if caught early enough in cases of severe exposure, such as bites to the head or neck, anti-rabies serum can be administered; in cases of milder exposures, such as bites to the arms or legs, patients can normally be treated satisfactorily with vaccination.”

“But we’re not dealing with biting here as a means of transmission. Nobody bit the people who fell ill.”

“Contrary to popular belief, rabies is not solely transmitted by the bite of an infected host. There have been three modern confirmed cases of transmission without biting. The first involved a person inhaling virus particles in a bat cave; the second involved laboratory workers who, while using a power saw to cut the tops of skulls off rabies-infected corpses, created an aerosol and inhaled rabies particles; and the third involved a cornea transplant from an infected donor.”

“So in other words,” said Harvath, “there are multiple routes by which this illness might infect people.”

“Unfortunately,” responded Whitcomb, “that’s true. The Arthashastra was quite ingenious in its suggestions for weaponizing and delivering different pathogens. We don’t know what strain of rabies Hannibal was using and what resulted when it was combined with the Azemiops feae venom. Remember the duplexing examples Jillian cited? The resultant monster illnesses that come from combining two lesser illnesses can be radically different than anyone could ever imagine.”

Harvath had no doubt the man was correct, but he still had other questions. “What about Muslim immunity to whatever this illness is?”

“I think we agree that this illness has a cure or at the very least a vaccine of some sort. Regardless of what we know about the illness’s major ingredients, the focus must be on finding its cure, whether in the laboratory or via the people who deployed this themselves.”