Pandemic

"But if this virus is going to be used as a weapon, it will always be a threat until everyone is immunized… or has already been infected."

"Okay. Fair enough," she said. "Any more immediate suggestions?"

"The single best defense in outbreak control is communication. Especially in this case since the Gansu Flu could hit anywhere next. We need to put the world on notice."

"I think they already are." Gwen bit down harder on her lip.

"They might be aware, but now they need to act," Haldane said. "Every fever or cough on the planet must be assumed to be ARCS until proven otherwise."

Savard whistled.

"Can you imagine if we don't?" Haldane asked. "This bug has ground one of Europe's biggest centers to a halt. And we've just seen the beginnings of it. Wait until it comes to the States." He sighed. "And, Gwen, we both know it will."

His cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the call display, which read "Switzerland." Haldane brought the phone to his ear. "Hello."

"Ah, Noah, it's Jean," Nantal said as warmly as if he were calling to wish him a happy birthday.

"Can I call you back later, Jean?" Haldane said. "I'm in the middle of a debriefing with Gwen Savard."

"No, Noah, I wish I didn't have to interrupt you and the beautiful Dr. Savard, but my news is terribly important," Nantal said. "For both of you."

"What news?" Haldane asked.

"Two people have tested positive for the Gansu Flu in Vancouver," Nantal said.

"Vancouver, Canada?" Haldane said, more for the benefit of Gwen who watched him intently.

"Yes," Nantal said.

"New cases?" Savard mouthed the question at Haldane.

He held up two fingers for her. Then he spoke into the receiver. "Look, Jean, we believe somebody is deliberately spreading this virus."

"So it would seem," Nantal said without a trace of surprise.

"I imagine it will crop up all over the place soon. We need to meet with Gwen's team and set up a pandemic ARCS task force, sooner—"

"Excuse me, Noah," Nantal cut in. "There is something most peculiar about the latest Vancouver case."

"Everything about this is beyond peculiar," Haldane said.

"Yes, of course," Nantal agreed. "But aside from the nineteen-year-old girl who died in hospital, the other Vancouver victim was pulled out of a river." He paused. "And she had a bullet hole between her eyes."

CHAPTER 22

CIA HEADQUARTERS, LANGLEY, VIRGINIA

Ran Delorme had worked for the Agency for six months, but the twenty-four-year-old doubted he would be able to handle one more day at Langley. He had never expected (though he secretly hoped) to walk off the street and into James Bond's life, but neither had he expected to spend twelve hours a day in front of a computer reading mindnumbingly boring e-mails, which Carnivore had plucked out from the high-tech sewer of global chatter. Words like "terrorist," "bomb," and "hijacking" found their way into the most mundane of e-mails, but Carnivore did not know any better so the piles of "suspicious" e-mails accumulated daily to be reviewed by human eyes; in other words, Delorme and his hapless colleagues.

Delorme glanced at the clock: 11:50 A.M. He figured he could trash twenty more e-mails before lunch. He breezed through the first eighteen. He had scanned two paragraphs of the nineteenth before the red flags went up.

He read the e-mail again, and then printed it out. His hand trembling slightly, he highlighted the last sentence in yellow: "I cannot exclude the possibility of terrorism or the use of the virus as a weapon." He glanced from the name at the bottom of the e-mail to the electronic source. They both read: "Dr. Ping Wu."

Delorme's eyes darted around in search of a date stamp. They locked on to a date in the screen's bottom comer, which proved the e-mail was sent over a week earlier from somewhere in China. He tapped a few keys and the computer spat out a more specific location for the e-mail's source: Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province.

Gansu! He felt butterflies in his stomach. He had just read an article in the morning's paper on how the Gansu Flu was sweeping London.

Forgetting about lunch, his hand shot out in search of the phone.

HARGEYSA, SOMALIA

Hazzir Kabaal, Major Abdul Sabri, and Dr. Anwar Aziz sat in Kabaal's office staring at the tape recorder on the desk.

Kabaal hit the play button. There was a hissing sound, before a voice spoke up in Arabic. At thirty, the spokesman was one of oldest fighters in the compound. Physically nondescript, he had been chosen because of his anonymity and his deep raspy voice. "I am a representative of The Brotherhood of One Nation," the man said. "In the name of God and Jihad, we have struck at the hearts of our enemy. We have unleashed a new weapon in our holy war!" His voice quavered. "We have brought the outbreaks of the Gansu Flu to London, Hong Kong, Vancouver, and Chicago. More cities will follow soon if the fools and infidels do not heed our demands."