by James Cook
I turned my gaze to Faraday. The affable veneer he’d displayed earlier was gone. His eyes were steady, his demeanor calm and focused. This was an intelligent, calculating man. I couldn’t understand why, but I had a feeling he was more dangerous than he looked.
Gabe looked at Faraday. “Tell me again the symptoms this virus causes.”
Faraday sighed wearily. “I already discussed that at length during the meeting. I hardly think we need to-”
“Just fucking do it.” Gabe’s voice came out like a cracked whip.
Faraday paled and hesitated before speaking. “Well… within 24 hours after exposure, the subject will begin to experience flu-like symptoms. Fever, nausea, coughing, sneezing, that sort of thing. After six to eight hours, the symptoms recede, only to return with more severity shortly thereafter. Usually within one to two hours. This is the point at which the virus’ replication accelerates and the subject experiences extreme lethargy in addition to the other symptoms. This lethargy lasts up to forty eight hours. If the inoculant is not administered within this timeframe, the virus goes into its next phase and begins attacking the central nervous system, including the brain. This results in permanent brain damage that disables the body’s ability to regulate temperature. Soon thereafter, the body exceeds 107 degrees, at which point the enzymes inside the brain begin to denature. This, combined with the virus’ attack on the subject’s vital organs, results in seizures, severe heart palpitations, kidney failure, and, ultimately, death.”
“So it literally cooks people from the inside out,” Gabe said. His grip on the arms of his chair tightened.
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Jacobs cut in. “We have the inoculant on standby. I won’t authorize the air drops unless I’m certain beyond doubt we can get it to the camps in time to save the prisoners. Once KPA forces have been neutralized, we’ll administer the inoculant ASAP. Believe me, Gabe, I don’t want this to go bad any more than you do.”
“What about the old and the infirm?” Gabe said. “What about small children? Pregnant women? People who are malnourished, dehydrated, or sick? Do we know how they’ll be affected?”
“Actually, we do,” Faraday said. Gabe’s attention shifted back to him. The man’s thin hands shook a little as he sat up straight and resettled himself.
“And how, exactly, do you know that?”
Faraday adjusted his glasses and shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I’m not at liberty to discuss-”
“You know,” Gabe interrupted, “because you’ve conducted experiments on people. On living human beings.”
“Well…I…”
Gabe got out of his chair and squatted in front of Faraday so the two men were eye to eye, less than a foot apart.
“I’m going to name a few places. Places I was sent a while back when I worked for a company you’ve probably heard of.” Gabe leaned closer. “A company called Aegis.”
Faraday looked like he’d been kicked in the gut. His mouth opened a few times, but no sound came out.
General Jacobs’ tone was a warning. “Gabriel…”
Gabe held up a hand to silence him. “Welam Village, outside of Erambo in Papua New Guinea. Ring a bell?”
Faraday said nothing. His posture reminded me of a mouse cornered by a housecat.
“Dolong, Indonesia. How about that one? Maybe Al Hait? Good cover up you guys pulled on that one, blaming the massacre on Al Qaeda. They were all good cover ups, come to think of it. But the one that really stands out in my mind is that little fishing village on the Changja River near the Chinese border. Place didn’t even have a name. But if you drop me somewhere close, I bet I could find my way back to it. And you know what I’d find there, Doctor Faraday? I’d find bones. Men, women, and children, all shot in the head. Sound familiar?”
Faraday wiped his face and attempted to stand. Gabe pushed him back down in his seat with a single finger to the chest.
“You made it, didn’t you? You created it.”
“Gabriel, that’s enough.” Jacobs said sharply.
Gabe ignored him. “Answer the question, Faraday.”
The tall scientist took a deep breath and seemed to gather himself. “What are you referring to? AIM-38, or the Reanimation Phage?”
“I know you made AIM-38. I’m asking about the second one.”
“Then the answer is no.”
Gabe blinked. I had never met anyone in my life as good at sniffing out a lie as Gabriel Garrett. But from his expression, I could tell he had detected no deception from Faraday.
“Bullshit,” Gabe said.
Faraday shook his head. “No bullshit. We didn’t make it. We retrieved samples from the Outbreaks we responded to, and we conducted experiments to see how it worked, but as far as where it originated, we’re as clueless as anyone else.”
Gabe looked down, his expression lost for a moment. He stood up. “But you let it loose. You infected people in isolated parts of the world and watched to see what would happen.”
“Yes.”
“And afterward, you sent in operatives from Aegis to clean up the mess.”
“Yes.”
“And AIM-38. You know what it does because you did the same thing.”
“It was never tested on Americans,” Faraday said. His voice was hushed and weak.
“How very noble of you. Can you tell me how many people died in those experiments? How many lives were destroyed?”
Faraday cleared his throat. “We were careful about who we tested.”
“You got a lot of fucking nerve. What about Atlanta? You have anything to do with the Outbreak?”
Faraday shook his head slowly. “No. It wasn’t us. We have our suspicions about who might be responsible, but we had nothing to do with it.”
Gabe fixed him with a level stare. “But all the other places. The smaller outbreaks. That was the Phoenix Initiative. You were behind it. All of it.”
“We were working to prevent a larger catastrophe. And for the record, no, not all of those outbreaks were our doing. I’m not proud of what we did, Mr. Garrett. But we had our reasons.”
“Reasons.” Gabe’s lip turned up, his face a mask of contempt. “There’s always fucking reasons. I’m sure Hitler and Stalin and Chairman goddamn Mao had their reasons. What were yours? Stopping the end of the world? Preventing a global outbreak of the Reanimation Phage? Tell me something, Doc. How’d that work out for you?”
Faraday swallowed and looked down.
“Yeah. Nice work, you son of a bitch.”
Jacobs stood up. “Mr. Garrett-”
Gabe stopped him with an icy stare. For a moment, no one moved. The general’s face went a few shades lighter. Finally, Gabe strode angrily to the door and walked out of the office. After the latch clicked shut, the room remained silent. Jacobs slowly sat back down, smoothed his wrinkled shirt with his hands, and scraped a hand across his mouth.
“Mr. Jennings, what questions do you have?”
Tyrel let out a breath and crossed his feet. “Those inoculations you insisted we all get before we left the Springs. That was for AIM-38, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And the assholes that followed us to the clinic. Those your guys?”
Jacobs reddened. “Yes. Although perhaps they’re not as well trained as I thought.”
“So just to clarify, when those airbursts go off and people start getting sick, we’ll be okay?”
“Yes. I’ve taken the inoculant myself, same formula given to you.”
“Fair enough. That’s all I got.”
Jacobs nodded once. “Captain Grabovsky?”
“I’m good.”
The general turned his attention to me. “Captain Hicks?”
I was silent a few seconds, thinking how best to say what was on my mind diplomatically.
“Just to be clear, we’re talking about using a weaponized, lethal biological agent on American citizens.”
“Yes. But they are not the intended target.”
&n
bsp; “Yes sir, I got that. The virus is intended to disable the KPA forces guarding the prisoners.”
“That’s right.”
“Has anything like this ever been tried before?”
Jacobs looked at Faraday. The scientist shook his head. “No.”
“Then how do we know it’ll work?”
“We’ve used the virus against enemy forces before,” Faraday said. “It works. And we know for a fact the inoculant works up to fifty hours after the virus enters the bloodstream. We engineered it that way, and it has been tested extensively.”
“But nothing on this scale has ever been tried?”
“Well…no.”
“Is AIM-38 contagious while the victims are infected?”
Faraday nodded twice. “Yes. It’s an airborne virus. It’ll spread much the same as any cold or flu would.”
“Okay, so how long will these people need to be quarantined?”
“A week should be long enough.”
“What about us?”
“The same.”
“And since we have the inoculant already in our systems, we won’t be affected by the virus.”
“No, you won’t. The inoculant will stop AIM-38 in its tracks.”
“And once the inoculant is administered, how long until it takes effect?”
“The longest any test subject has ever taken to begin recovery is four hours. I think you’ll find the inoculant works very quickly.”
I let that soak in. I still didn’t like it. “You said during the briefing it was possible the North Koreans had the formula for the inoculant. You didn’t say how they got it.”
“That’s not important,” General Jacobs said. “All that matters is some of them may have been inoculated, so we’ll have to take that into account during the assault.”
“Actually, General,” Faraday spoke up, “it’s probably best if they know.”
The general looked displeased. “Why is that?”
“Because it may affect the extent to which they need to be cautious when searching for inoculated troops.”
Jacobs clearly didn’t like it, but he nodded anyway. “Fine.”
“Prior to the Outbreak,” Faraday said, “the Chinese directed a cyber-attack against the CDC and various other government agencies. This attack was the culmination of years of espionage carried out by Chinese and Russian spies. Luckily, the NSA detected the attack quickly and moved to shut it down, as did the CIA and other agencies. But certain data was compromised. The records for the AIM-38 inoculant were among them. However, the inoculant was incomplete at the time. It had not been fully tested and proven effective, although, admittedly, it was well on its way. It’s not outside the realm of possibility the Chinese were able to glean enough information from what they stole to engineer the inoculant themselves. If they did, which I believe is very likely, there is a better than even chance they shared this data with the North Koreans.”
“How long before the Outbreak did this happen?” I asked.
“Just over three years.”
“And you think they could have completed the formula, or whatever, in that time?”
“It’s possible, yes.”
“It takes time to make vaccines, right? How much inoculant could they have made?”
Faraday tilted his head from side to side, weighing his response. “It took us two years to prove the inoculant reliable and effective. Manufacturing it took a few more months, but we were able to make enough for roughly ten thousand people. I realize that sounds like a lot, but you must realize it doesn’t take much. You could fit everything we made in the back of a typical delivery truck.”
“That’s fine, but my question was about the Chinese.”
“Oh, yes, of course. Well, there are a great many variables to consider. I doubt they would have been able to finish the formula, as you call it, nearly as fast as our teams. But if they did, considering their pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities at the time, perhaps they could have made as much as we did, although I think that is unlikely. If it took them longer, they would have made less. It’s hard to know, exactly.”
“But they couldn’t have made enough for all of them?”
Faraday shook his head. “That I highly doubt. If I had to guess, I’d say they only were able to make enough for perhaps two thousand people, maximum. I could be wrong, of course, but that is my best guess.”
I gave a nod. “Okay. Next question. How is the virus going to be spread? I mean, you said it was weaponized. Weaponized how?”
Faraday looked to Jacobs. “Without getting too technical,” the general said, “we load an aerosol laced with the contaminant into containers that spread it over a wide area via gas dispersion. The container is launched from a missile and can be precisely programmed where to detonate via a timed fuse. The container emits the gas as it falls to the ground on a forward trajectory, sort of like an unmanned crop duster. The people it hits will feel only a fine mist if they detect it at all. The container itself will fly well beyond the target area and break apart upon impact. Any remaining trace of the virus not in a living host will be dead in four hours. ”
“Won’t they notice the missile firing? The KPA troops I mean.”
“Doubtful. The missiles will be launched far enough away they’ll be over the horizon from the enemy’s positions, and they’ll be flying at fairly high altitude. On a clear night, if you just happen to be looking in the right direction, you might catch one of the missiles flying by. Otherwise, they’re easy to miss. The guards on duty might hear the jets, but they’re used to that by now. We’ve been flying regular sorties for months to get them accustomed to it. According to our spies, they think we’re just conducting aerial reconnaissance. The North Koreans actually consider this a good thing. By their logic, our seeing the prison camps on a regular basis keeps us well in mind of what’s at stake if we launch an all-out attack. They don’t realize we’re conditioning them to be less alarmed by aircraft.”
The more I heard, the more uneasy I became. Jacobs and Faraday had said a lot of qualifying words like ‘should’ and ‘I think’ and ‘doubtful’ and ‘might’, the kinds of words people use when they’re making suppositions and not stating known facts. I don’t like unknowns. And I have a deep seated dread of chemical and biological weapons. The fact we were planning to not only use them, but use them against our own people, did not sit well with me. Not to mention the fact I would be exposed to the virus myself, and inoculated or not, I was not comfortable with that.
“I have to tell you, General. This seems like a bad idea.”
“I know it does,” Jacobs said. “And believe me, it wasn’t my first choice. But we’ve run through every other scenario we can think of, and this is the one with the highest probability of success. I know you all have your doubts. I know you’re worried about what will happen to the people exposed to AIM-38. All I can tell you is this—even if everything goes wrong, they won’t be facing any worse of a fate than what’s already in front of them. Make no mistake, gentlemen, most of the people in those camps will not survive the next winter. We have to act, and we have to do it soon, or there won’t be anyone left to rescue.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was no choice, really. The decision had been made. General Jacobs was only fielding questions out of professional courtesy. The mission would proceed with or without us. And in my case, I had come too far to back out now. My only choice was to see this thing through.
“Well, I guess that just leaves one question.”
“And that is?” Jacobs said.
“What do you need us for? You’ve got plenty of special ops guys to run this mission. Why put this team together? Why do you need me, of all people?”
Jacobs looked at Mike, then at Grabovsky and Tyrel. Finally his focus returned to me and he leaned forward and steepled his hands on the ugly, piss-colored desktop.
“We think we know who caused the Outbreak,” he said. “We think we know why, and we think
they may be able to get us closer to the ultimate weapon against the undead.”
I blinked. “And that is?”
“A vaccine.”
I felt my face go cold. My breathing became shallow. I was glad I was sitting down.
So that’s what this is all about. He wants to keep this under wraps, so he handpicked a team he knew he could count on to do just that. Not because he trusts us, but because he has leverage. He could send me to prison. He could shut down the Blackthorns. He could end Grabovsky’s career. Gabe owes him for helping recover his trade from the Storm Road Tribe. Mike wants the war to be over with. I wonder what he’s holding over Faraday.
Jacobs talked for another half hour. We all listened without interrupting. He gave us photos and dossiers and told us who we were looking for and ordered us to take them alive at all costs. When he was done, he opened the floor to questions. There were none. I stopped on my way out and said, “General, Gabe will need to be briefed on this.”
A nod. “I’ll track him down and talk to him.”
I could think of nothing else to say, so I went back to my room and sat alone in the darkness.
THIRTY-TWO
There was nothing scheduled the next day, so I explored the bunker.
It turned out to be larger than I first thought. The warehouse, conference room, barracks, and administrative offices were only about two-thirds of the underground complex. There was a separate wing for Phoenix Initiative personnel, a large mess hall complete with a kitchen and dishwashing area, an armory, a twenty-five-yard shooting range, and an exercise room with treadmills, free-weights, benches, racks, pull-up bars, and several punching bags of various sizes.
I hadn’t done my regular PT in a few days, so I threw on comfortable clothes and a pair of running shoes I’d brought with me and started on the treadmill. Eight miles later, my blood was flowing and I felt a little better. Then came squats, dead lift, overhead press, power cleans, pull-ups, and twenty minutes of core work involving a medicine ball and a forty pound kettle bell.
