“Barring some chance encounter that we have been unable to discover, it would seem likely that at least the farmer caught the disease directly from something in the environment. Doctor Rush will have more to say on that aspect. But apparently, the Infection has arrived.” She sat down.
“Thank you, Doctor Vreelander. John, I’d like to hear from you next.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.” John Richardson a tall rangy Army veteran who had graduated from West Point and ended up second in command at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He had been tapped by the President to be his Director of National Intelligence because of his plainspoken style, and his way of cutting directly to the heart of the matter.
“Sir, with the help of the CIA, the State Department and the various branches of the military, we’ve been attempting to get an overall picture of the outbreak worldwide. At this point we’ve identified 2,142 confirmed outbreaks, and another thousand or so that we strongly suspect. WHO has set up a reporting system through the UN, but a lot of countries are slow to report. Surprisingly, we’re now getting good data from the Russians. They’re really getting beat up around Vladivostok and central Siberia. Not all countries have been forthcoming with data, most notably China, Iran and North Korea. The Norks, in fact, are denying they have a single case, but our sources paint a vastly different picture.” He turned to the large video screen at the opposite end of the conference room, tapped his phone a couple times, and a grainy, dimly-lit photo appeared.
“This was taken by an American aid worker with the group Catholic Friends of North Korea. The Korean police shot and killed her moments after she uploaded it. It was taken in Sonbong, a small manufacturing city in the Rason district a few hours down the coast from Vladivostok.” From the angle of the photo it looked to have been shot from a third or fourth floor vantage point. A small dirty river flowed in the foreground. On the other side lay what appeared to be a warehouse district. Dozens of people, all naked, were running in the same direction. Beyond them, other large groups could be seen between the buildings, all running as well.
“There are a few things that are obvious from the data we’ve collected. One is that the forward edge of the outbreak is moving steadily from east to west. Another is that the outbreaks in the affected areas are getting larger. Our analysis shows that the number of primary cases is growing in those areas. In other words, more and more people are coming down with this disease on their own and not through bites.” He looked around him for a moment and sat down.
The Chief of Staff leaned down and whispered in the President’s ear. The President looked down the table. “Doctor Rush?”
Doctor Eugene Rush, a small, wiry man with caramel-colored skin, wore the uniform of an Army two-star general. He had a reputation as a brilliant researcher and could have made a fortune in private life, but instead served as the head of the USAMRIID at Fort Detrick. “Mr. President, as you know, three days ago we had a breakthrough. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, using materials supplied by our Special Forces Command in Manila, succeeded in isolating what we believe is the cause of these outbreaks. Since then we’ve learned quite a bit more about it.”
He thumbed his phone and a new picture appeared on the screen. It showed several objects, clearly under very high magnification. Each one was oblong, about the shape of a football. Each one had a translucent outer coating, surrounding a solid inner core, which was bluish gray. “The University of Manchester produced these on what is currently the world’s most powerful optical microscope.,” he said.
“This little monster, ladies and gentlemen, is what we are calling the Tawada-Soseki parasite, and it’s a nasty little critter. It’s basically a spore, along the lines of the kind that cause your bread to mold, but much, much smaller, far smaller than any spore ever discovered. Spores come in all sizes, from the clearly visible to the microscopic. They’re everywhere, including this room. We breathe them in with every breath. The smallest known spores are around five microns, or around five one-millionths of a meter. This bad boy is .03 microns, which is three one-hundred-millionths of a meter, or about one hundred and sixty-seven times smaller.
“You see this clear coating? That’s where it gets clever. When a foreign object enters the body, the body’s first line of defense is T cells, which we all learned about because of the AIDS virus. Basically, the body manufactures hundreds of types of T cells in every conceivable configuration. When a foreign invader like a virus or bacteria is detected, random T cells are rushed to the site where they all try to attach themselves to the invader. When one manages to do so, it essentially signals the body’s immune system to come over and kill whatever it’s attached to. The body then starts mass producing that particular type of T cell by the millions, and thereby defeats the invader.
“This process works for every living organism that enters the body, because all living organisms are made of proteins, and proteins are what the T cells are designed to attach themselves to. But this tricky little bastard… oops, my apologies, sir.” Only the President was allowed to swear at these meetings. The President smiled at him and nodded for him to continue.
“Anyway, this little fellow is different. I won’t bother with all the details for now, but even though its outer sheath, here, is made out of the same atoms as protein, it is basically an inorganic material, like nylon. Now when a piece of inorganic, or inert material as we call it in the medical trade, like say a plastic mesh for a hernia repair, is introduced into the body, all the body’s normal defenses go to work on it. The body’s temperature is elevated to bake out any pathogens, which produces a fever, and T cells and white blood cells flood to the area, producing an inflammation. But since the material isn’t made of protein, the T cells can’t find it and therefore can’t direct an attack.
“Because of this coating, the parasite acts just like any inert medical material, and the body’s defenses are all blind to it. And what the body can’t see, it can’t fight.”
“Now as far as we can tell, the path of infection is through the upper respiratory system, specifically the nose.” Another slide appeared, a diagram of the human head. He pulled out a laser pointer and began highlighting areas. “The spore embeds in the nasal passage, makes its way through the sinuses, and then somehow moves through the blood vessels here and passes through the blood-brain barrier. Then it settles into the lower regions of the brain below the limbic cortex and begins to sprout.” The object in the next photo looked like a mop, but one where every strand was made up of a string of cells. “Each one of these cells has the same non-reactive coating. The parasite attacks the base of the brain, and takes over these areas; the mid-brain, the medulla oblongata and the pons, which together make up the brain stem. It weaves a web around and through them and then goes on to colonize the rest of the nervous system. What we don’t understand is how those areas continue to function normally while the infection builds, but we’re working on it.”
He brought up another photo, this time of someone’s hand, palm up. There was an ugly blue-gray tint to it, especially around the fingertips and the lines in the palm. “The discoloration you see here is the parasite, which has created an architecture overlaying the body’s nervous system. It’s most pronounced wherever there are lots of nerves close to surface of the skin.” In quick succession he brought up photos of lips, a nipple, the bottom of a foot, and a man’s genitals. The head of the penis was a dark purple-gray, like a plum. There were gasps around the table, and a lot of the men cringed. Then he clicked to a photo of an eye. In the whites you could see veins of blue and gray. “Looks almost like blue cheese, doesn’t it?”
He brought up a photo of an Infected, its eyes hollow and mouth gaping. “When the infection reaches a certain point, it shuts down the rest of the brain and simply takes over control of the body. The brain dies. The body dies. The victim dies, and the parasite then operates the body for its own purposes.”
“On the plus side, and this is a HUGE plus, as far as we’ve been able to discover, this organism only attacks human beings. Not even our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are susceptible. We’ve reached out to scientists all over the world studying everything from penguins to dragonflies, and there’s no evidence anywhere that this thing can jump species. That’s very good news, because in a world full of zombie houseflies or mosquitoes, mankind wouldn’t stand a chance.”
The Secretary of the Navy, a stern-looking woman in a crisp white uniform, leaned forward and asked, “Doctor, do you think the Infected are aware of what’s happening to them?”
“Possibly, but not for long. When the parasite activates, it shuts off all blood flow to the brain, causing it to begin to die within minutes.
“Now here’s something else we’ve discovered. Once the parasite cells spread, they begin to differentiate themselves. So far we’ve identified five different types of cells, with some further specialization among them.” A new slide appeared with each type. “One type creates these long chains that wrap around the nervous system, very much like our own neurons. This is what gives its victims those telltale blue streaks. One seems to travel individually throughout the body, killing every microorganism it finds. We think this is why the body, though clinically dead, doesn’t seem to rot. One forms these long tendrils that extend through the muscles and tendons. We believe these allow it to make the body move. Another forms chains that coat the victim’s entire digestive system, especially in the throat. This makes sense because, as the infection advances, all the internal organs in the body are cannibalized. They also overlay the structures throughout the rest of the body. We think these are involved in absorbing and transferring nutrients. Then there’s these.”
The slide showed a group of cells similar to the spores, but round. “These are only found in the mouth. They resemble the spores, but they’re about a hundred times bigger. These are the agents that transfer the infection during a bite. The others types don’t, even when transferred directly to another live human. You could take a spoonful of the other types and rub them directly into an open wound, which we’ve done, and they won’t cause an infection.”
The Speaker of the House’s eyes narrowed. “Are you saying you’ve been experimenting on live subjects? Probably people who are incarcerated! That’s monstrous!” She leaned toward the Senate Minority Leader, who sat next to her, and whispered something. He pulled back from her with a skeptical look on his face.
“No, ma’am. Volunteers. Mostly elderly vets at VA hospitals, and terminal patients who jumped at the chance to serve their country one more time.”
One of the generals, an expert on chemical and biological warfare, leaned forward and asked, “Can these go airborne as well?”
“We don’t believe so. They’re contained in a kind of a semi-liquid paste in the mouth, like a gooey saliva. We believe that a single bite might deliver millions of them into a wound. We’ve tried drying them and seeing if they’ll diffuse on their own, and even sprayed them in an aerosol, but they degrade very quickly in the environment, in a matter of minutes, so I don’t think that’s a part of the infection cycle. None of the spore collectors around the world have turned up any, and believe me, we’ve been looking.
“One more point. It seems that some people might have a natural immunity. Around two to five percent of the volunteers exposed to the spores did not develop symptoms. There is also anecdotal evidence of people who have been bitten and not turned.”
The President asked, “Do we have any idea why?”
“No sir, but we’re trying our best to isolate it. We don’t know if it because of some pre-existing medical condition in the body—”
“You mean like the way sickle cell anemia prevents malaria?”
“Exactly, sir. It might be environmental, like an elevated chemical in the body due to some outside exposure. It might be that these people are making a little more or a little less of some hormone or protein in their bodies that’s rendering them immune. It’s impossible to say at this point, but there are people working on it all over the world.”
The President stared at the screen for a moment. “Do we have any idea where it came from?”
“Sir, the short answer is no. This is obviously not something which occurs naturally. For one thing it has triple helix DNA, which is extremely rare, and the way it’s constructed is unique. We’re working hard on sequencing the DNA, which the triple structure makes very difficult, but already we’ve identified strands from half a dozen different organisms, from a common variety of mold fungus to a Madagascar fruit fly. We have no idea how they work together, but one thing is for sure—somebody made this thing.”
The President looked to his DNI. “John, do we have any idea who?”
The Director of National Intelligence slowly shook his head. “Honestly, sir, not a clue. Our analysts say no one out there is anywhere close to this level of technology. The Chinese, the Japanese, the Russians, the Germans, heck even the Dutch are doing some great work on recombinant DNA, but this is light years beyond any known capability. And then there’s motive. There isn’t a country east of here that hasn’t had at least one outbreak, and I guarantee that as we’re talking here dozens more are popping up around the globe. Seems like we’re all sitting on the same branch when it comes to this. Sawing it off to get at your enemies is an act of suicide.”
“What about terrorists?”
“Again, I can’t rule anything out, but I don’t see a bunch of ISIS guys with the technology to do this.”
The Speaker of the House snapped. “What about home grown terrorists? A bunch of alt-right nut jobs?”
The DNI refrained from rolling his eyes, but just barely. “Ma’am, again, it’s a matter of capabilities. Unless you’ve got some billionaire, mad scientist living in a hollowed-out volcano, I don’t know how someone would possess the knowledge and capabilities to do this, especially without us knowing. You know, we keep pretty close track of cutting-edge science, both here and around the world. There’s nothing like this out there.”
The party heads from both the Intelligence committees remained expressionless. The US government was not supposed to spy on its science community, but the operative word here was supposed. Many scientists had assumed themselves to be working in obscurity right until they made a discovery that might affect national security, only to find themselves in a conversation with two or three well-dressed government employees who had last names like “Smith” and “Jones” if they had any last name at all.
The Secretary of the Air Force leaned in. “Mr. President, if I may?” The President nodded. “It’s not just the technology, it’s the logistics involved,” he said. “You’d have to have a way to disperse it all over the planet. You’d need a fleet of planes, all equipped with aerosol spraying equipment, flying back and forth all around the world. Imagine crop dusting, but on a planetary scale. There’s no way we wouldn’t have noticed. I mean, you could dump a few trillion of these spores into a couple spots in the atmosphere and let the wind patterns disperse it, but it wouldn’t produce anything like the methodical movement from east to west we’ve seen in the outbreaks. From what I understand, the front wave of the infection is moving steadily west at about 250 miles a day.”
A young aid to the Secretary of the Treasury suddenly sat upright. He leaned forward and tapped the Sec/Treas on the arm and whispered in his ear. The Secretary looked at him, and asked him a quick question. The young man nodded.
The President, having caught the exchange, said, “Son, do you have something for us? Stand up.”
The young man blushed and stood up. “Curtis Arnold, Treasury. Sir, I’m kind of a regular on Reddit. It’s a—”
The President cut him off. “I’m familiar.”
The man continued, “Well, there’s this old Marine Corps vet outside of Chicago, and he’s got a theory that’s been getti
ng a lot of traction. He’s been tracking unexplained bird deaths around the world. All the deaths he’s pointing out are very high-flying birds, like cranes, and they’ve been dropping out of the sky from high altitudes, stone dead. These aren’t the usual plane strikes, because the birds are pretty much unmarked, except for what you’d expect from the fall. A normal bird strike grinds ’em up like hamburger. Totally sick! Uh… sir.
“It’s happening around the world, sir, but what makes it really pertinent is that the incidents started in the Far East about two months ago and moved steadily west, at a rate that works out to about 250 miles a day.”
There was a quiet buzz of voices from around the table. The President raised his voice slightly. “So what does this Marine think is the cause?” Chatter ceased.
“Well, he says it’s uh… well, aliens, sir.” There were eye rolls and a few mutters from around the table.
“That’s an interesting theory, son, but it does seem a little out there.” The young aide sat down, feeling foolish.
Until the head of AMRIID said, “I would say that’s not unlikely.” All heads turned toward him. “No country or group on Earth has the capability of pulling off something like this. Not the technology, and not the distribution. It’s simply impossible. And when you dismiss the impossible, you have to take the improbable very seriously.”
“Why would aliens do this? What could they possibly want?”
Doctor Rush looked at the President steadily. “I have no idea, sir. They certainly haven’t reached out and made any contact I’m aware of. But maybe they’re so advanced, they’re experimenting on us like we experiment on flatworms. For all I know we may be some alien kid’s high school science experiment.”
The Old Man & the End of the World | Book 1 | Things Fall Apart Page 11
