“You are not going to be coming with us?” Charlene blurted out.
General Briggs shook his head. “My place is here, maintaining a defense of our capital.”
Charlene feigned a look of horror. “You are not suggesting you would fire on American citizens, whose only crime is taking ill.”
General Briggs showed no emotion, in his response. “I have taken an oath to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. If there are unaffected citizens, they are the priority.”
Charlene turned towards Candace. “Madam President, certainly you do not sanction violence, against American citizens.”
Candace took a breath in and let it out, slowly. “I have heard nothing to suggest violence is being taken, against our citizens. Quite the contrary I am only hearing, the General’s plans are to defend our citizens, an action I endorse to the fullest extent.”
Candace turned her attention to General Briggs. “General, any news on finding a cure to this disease?”
The General nodded. “Shortly, we will establish a satellite uplink with Cheyenne Mountain and Doctor Gunther Konig will brief you, on his progress.”
Nansen slapped his packet down on the table. “And precisely who,is Doctor Konig and who vetted him?”
General Briggs, stifled a smirk. “Senator, virologists are in even shorter supply than congressman. Doctor Konig is a renowned virologist, working closely with both the WHO and CDC. He has been directing the research on this outbreak, from the beginning.”
Steve Holdap gave a signal to General Briggs, indicating the uplink with Cheyenne Mountain was in place. The large screen, behind the General, lit up showing an older man with close cropped black hair, a narrow face, his blue eyes aided by wire rim glasses perched on his aquiline nose. The man was still in conversation, with someone off camera. “Ja, ja. Das ist gut.”
Doctor Konig faced the camera. “Guten tag damen und herren. Excuse me, good day. The satellite ve are linked to vill be moving out of alignment, sooner than ve like, let me make a brief statement, it should answer the majority of the questions you have and speed up this process.”
Nansen spoke up, in an effort to take charge. “Doctor please tell us, you have a solution for all of this.”
Anger flared across Doctor Konig’s face. “This vould go much quicker if you listen and hold your questions, until I have finished. This disease has an infectious rate significantly greater, than anything ve have dealt vith before. It has spread across the globe so quickly, there is no vay of telling vhere it initiated. All of the CDC and WHO facilities investigating, have gone dark, before ve could identify the specific virus. Be that as it may, I am able to make some informed conclusions, on the virus. Ve have labeled the virus, Z naught M B 1.”
Candace wrote in her packet. ‘Z0MB1 Virus’ a wry smile broke out on her face as she tried to guess if the doctor had a sense of humor or not.
Doctor Konig continued his dissertation. “I can say vit confidence, this virus is an engineered bio-veapon. Due to the rapidity it has spread, it most certainly is airborne. The good news is, even if there is a one percent rate of survival, that still leaves millions of survivors vorldvide.”
Charlene could no longer be silent. “What do you mean, engineered?”
Candace spoke for the doctor. “He is saying, someone made this virus and released it on the world.”
“Who would do this?” Charlene queried.
Doctor Konig, shook his head. “North Korea, Iran, Isis. There are plenty of bad actors, take your pick.”
“Russia, it has to be Russia.” Charlene asserted.
“If the good doctor is right, the rest of the world is worse off than we are. They will need us to lead them out of this.” Nansen observed.
Candace closed her eyes and opened them slowly, attempting to maintain her calm. “We need to look to our own, before we start planning on any designs for the rest of the world. Doctor Konig, please continue.”
Doctor Konig nodded. “Sank you. This connection will fade soon. Ve have transmitted a protocol to transfer you here. It includes a three day quarantine period to make sure none of you have contracted this disease. You should be getting copies of it now. Please take our remaining time for questions.”
Nansen began to speak, but Candace silenced, him with a raised hand. “What will we know, if we survive the quarantine period?”
“You are in a biologically clean zone. If you all survive the quarantine, ve know none of you have contracted the disease and none of you are carriers. It vill be safe to bring you here.”
“Once we are at Cheyenne Mountain, then what?”
“You cannot leave, until ve discover a cure. It von’t be long, before this virus vill have contaminated, not only the air, but the vater and soil, as vell. Only the small percentage vit natural immunity, vill survive.”
“Have you made any progress, towards a cure?”
“Nein.”
“You are, able to continue your research?”
“Ja. Still, it vill take time.”
“Doctor, I’m just a small town girl from Kansas, but I know a thing, or two, about viral infections. Albeit, my experience is with crops and livestock.”
Nansen scoffed “It’s good to know we can count on you, if we come across any sick chickens.”
Candace ignored the barb. “My point exactly, has this virus shown up in any other species?”
“Nein.”
“Isn’t that unusual?”
“Ja. Except this virus vas engineered to specifically target humans.”
“Now let me get this straight. Someone had the skill to create a virus, with an infection rate near 100% and only targets humans, but got caught up in the aftermath of its release?”
“I’m just a virologist. I chase the bug. You deal vit the bad guys.”
Candace nodded and held up her packet. “I’ve looked this over. The description of the infected is chilling, to say the least. There are several reports here of the infected, being animated dead. Can you corroborate any of this?”
Doctor Konig burst out laughing. “Excuse me. I have read those reports. Those are merely figments of overactive imaginations and chilling circumstances. There is not,nor has there ever been any infection, that can animate a dead body.”
Three days later the eleven of them, Sergeant Major Smith, Steve Holdap and a handful of government employees, put on hazmat suits and boarded a helicopter for Cheyenne Mountain. That was thirty months ago, in that time, life in the mountain complex had taken on a routine.
Doctor Konig spent long hours in his lab, only appearing on rare occasions, when he did he was either ecstatic about a perceived breakthrough, or more often despondent, over the latest failures. Lately, when he did show he sought support in conducting human trials in his research. Base commandeer USAF General Anson Mount and President Cho steadfastly rejected his proposals.
If the good doctor wasn’t their only hope for a cure and release from this complex, General Mount would have found a way to shove the doctor out an airlock. In contrast to the disdain the General had for Doctor Konig, he was impressed as hell with this woman president. She never panicked, she easily got along with everyone, had a quiet respectful leadership style, yet left no doubt she was in charge. However, the thing that impressed Anson the most was her ability to keep an upbeat moral, within the complex.
Senators Bohm and Tiller were polar opposites of President Cho. They held the military in contempt, only cared about the others in the complex as far as they would serve them and were a continual disruption, within the complex.
Fifteen months ago, Nansen pushed for a presidential election, throwing his hat in the ring. Some rumors started that President Cho was impeding Doctor Konig’s research and promises were made a vote for Nansen Bohm, would see them out of Cheyenne Mountain within the year. There were few secrets in the complex and everyone knew President Cho was protecting them, against dangerous elements of the doctors research. Still, Nansen was ab
le to get ten percent of the vote.
The day to day business of the complex remained, relatively the same as before the outbreak, monitor for threats. The facilities satellites were used to surveil foreign countries for signs of organized survivors as well as seeking out survivors in country. Over the past thirty months they met daily to review the most recent surveillance and to decide on revisions for the next pass.
A broad range of radio frequencies was monitored. For a few months they picked up transmissions from individual ham operators, broadcasting from their homemade bunker, but eventually they all went silent. An automated transmission from a Michigan Army base, Fort Custer, brought initial hope. Several months of monitoring the call back frequency with no reply and satellite images showing no activity at the base got it pulled from the list.
At today's meeting General Mount had two significant events to relate. “First off we’ve picked up a new transmission.”
The General motioned to his aide to playback a recording of a man’s voice, with a distinct midwestern drawl. “This is Timshel Nebraska reaching out to any survivors. We are part of a coalition of nearly fifteen thousand survivors and we can offer community and security to those seeking peaceful coexistence. If this is you respond back at the top of the hour.”
Candace remained silent choosing instead to see how the conversation played out. Charlene was the first to speak. “We should contact them, right. I mean if that many survived it may be safe for us to?”
Doctor Konig making a rare appearance, shook his head. “Fifteen thousand is just a drop in the bucket. Ja, they are genetically immune to this virus, but ve are not.”
Charlene pressed. “But couldn’t they be a source for a cure?”
Doctor Konig shrugged. “If there vere children from two immune parents, then maybe I could manufacture a retrovirus to introduce their immunity into our DNA.”
Charlene smiled broadly. “Well damn, what are we waiting for?”
Candace spoke quietly, commanding attention. “General you spoke of a second event?”
General Mount motioned to his aide again. The monitors in the room lit up showing a man and woman, probably in their fifties, waving their arms. “This couple is camped just outside.”
Candace pursed her lips, considering her options. “Can we bring them safely inside?”
The General nodded.
“Make it so.”
Red Rises (Book 2): Dead To Rights (HZA, Vol. 4) Page 34
