for the first and last time to keep your fucking nose--'
The door crashed open and Nick's wife stood wilting against the light. Her face was in silhouetted shadow, but they didn't need to see it to know that something was badly wrong. Cheryl felt the nausea churn in her stomach.
Nick was on his feet, staring at his wife. 'What is it, Jen?'
Her voice sounded like an ancient gramophone record, indistinct and scratchy, periodically fading so that some of the words were lost. 'It's Jo . . . please come, she's been . . . horrible and I can't believe . . . please come now. ... oh please . . .'
She would have fallen to the pine floor if Nick hadn't caught her in time.
22
The genetically adapted virus containing tetrachlorodibenzo-paradi-oxin, developed in the Zone 2 laboratories on Starbuck Island, had been spectacularly effective in contaminating the most densely populated areas of Africa, Asia, the subcontinent of India, China, and the Far East.
Burrowing its way into the gut of animals--from small rodents to man--the virus attacked the cellular structure of its host, causing cancer, disruption of blood-cell function, deformation of the liver and other organs, leading eventually and inevitably to death.
It was deployed via the water supply and thence by the contaminated hosts themselves, which passed it on to other animals and humans by means of direct contact, infected feces, and by the rotting corpses, each of which was a bacteriological factory in miniature. A single contaminated corpse, for instance, could wipe out a village or small town. It was the modern version of the Black Death, which swept Europe in the Middle Ages; only this time the plague was man-made, scientifically deployed, and a hundred times more virulent.
No one had been forewarned. No one--not politicians, scientists, business leaders, nor even military personnel--could be trusted not to reveal the existence of the Primary Plan before its inception, and therefore everyone without exception in the Designated Areas was included.
Contamination squads--specially trained units operating under orders from Advanced Strategic Projects-- dumped canisters of the TCDD virus in streams, rivers and reservoirs. Only a few parts per million were required. Even had the authorities suspected that some form of toxic contaminant was being added to the water supply they would have needed highly sophisticated detection equipment, which they didn't have, to verify the fact. As it was they were in total ignorance that the covert operation had been mounted and put into effect.
The virus had been bred from various strains and was capable of retaining its effectiveness over a wide temperature range. Once ingested by the population it went immediately to work, and by C Day + 7 (one week after Contamination Day) had infected nearly 50 percent of those in the Designated Areas. By C Day + 12 the first deaths were reported, and thereafter the red line on the graph rose steeply to the vertical as millions perished in writhing agony.
Once begun, the process was self-perpetuating. The mounds of rotting corpses, left where they lay because there was no one to bury them, spread the contamination to the soil. Rainwater washed it into sewers, streams, and rivers. A black stain spread across continents, killing every form of animal life it encountered. The numbers of dead and dying went rapidly from hundreds of thousands to millions, to tens of millions, and then to hundreds of millions. Statistics were meaningless. Megadeaths became the standard term of measurement.
It was the Chinese who tried most desperately to find an answer. They managed to isolate the virus, but their centuries of experience in 'natural' medicine were worse than useless when dealing with a chemical substance that hadn't existed until man invented it. They were vainly seeking an antidote to the most deadly poison on earth, and no such antidote existed.
Three weeks after C Day it was estimated that over one and a half billion people had died. This was still a long way short of the projected target of 4.3 billion, but it was an encouraging start. The poison would carry on doing its work because there was no way it could be stopped. Even the most remote regions with their own independent water supply weren't safe, thanks to cloud seeding: God's rain falling from the skies brought death in parts per million.
The scientists at Starbuck had warned that this technique should be used only as a backup to the main operation. Clouds were at the beck and call of winds, and winds were no respecters of national boundaries. A cloud bearing its deadly load of TCDD might cross an ocean and drip creeping black death on friend instead of foe--or, worse still, on the land of its perpetrators. Great care had to be taken to confine the cloud-borne contamination to specific geographical localities whose meteorological patterns and trade winds could be plotted with a high degree of certainty.
As the weeks went by and the death toll mounted and entire cities, regions, states, countries, and continents were progressively laid waste, the decaying carcasses were subjected to the gradual yet ineluctable processes of nature.
Still alive and thriving inside the cellular structure of the dead, the virus increased in concentration and began to infect the soil. Sewers became biological fermentation tanks. Rivers were log-jammed with sodden decomposing corpses that added their toxic load to the already bacteriologically fertile water. On the seaboards of every affected continent mighty rivers and small streams alike discharged their quota of chemical-bearing virus into the oceans.
The black stain spread from the landmasses and began to seep outward in ever-widening circles, carried by the mingling currents into every ocean of the world. In relation to the volume of water it was an exceedingly minute concentration. But it had been genetically adapted to survive in conditions that otherwise would have dissipated and destroyed it.
To the scientists at Starbuck, who had accomplished the task set them, their pride and jubilation was unclouded by any fears of what might happen now that the Primary Plan had been implemented and successfully concluded. They reasoned that the amount of TCDD in global terms was infinitesimal, hardly enough to be measured even with the most sensitive instruments.
Literally a drop in the ocean.
The film was all the more horrific because it was silent: mute dreamlike images of death.
Continuous movement and fast disjointed cutting engendered in the viewer the impression that this was the work of an insane director who'd abandoned the conventional techniques of moviemaking and instead pointed his camera randomly at bodies erupting with cancerous growths and babies decaying in gutters. As a horror film it was brilliant in its totally objective noninvolvement: a clinical record in lurid, disgusting Technicolor.
Shot by telephoto lens from a helicopter, whose shadow flitted brokenly over buildings and raced along streets, this was official ASP footage of the results of the Primary Plan--proof of its success for the politicians and military brass.
'I'm impressed, Lloyd,' hissed Wayne Hansom, the secretary of state, into General Madden's ear. 'Not a sign of life and yet all facilities left intact. We couldn't have achieved this even with our neutron bomb capability.'
'Aside from which, the expense would have been prohibitive on this scale. The cost effectiveness of a bacteriological strike can't be matched by any other method.' Madden's voice was soft and measured as usual, yet with an undercurrent of excitement, of nervous glee. 'We're talking about a few cents per hundred thousand, Wayne. Plus we made use of the army's existing delivery technology--no fancy systems had to be developed. It was all the usual hardware manned by crews specially trained in handling contaminants.'
They lapsed into engrossed silence, watching the film, an aide replenishing their glasses when they ran dry. Madden had seen it perhaps a dozen times already but wasn't bored. The close-ups were fascinating. The Primary Plan had fulfilled all their expectations and the secretary of state would have no hesitation in commending ASP's role to the president when he made his report.
One of the State Department officials had a question. How soon before the target figure of 4.3 billion was met? At this moment in time, he pointed out, there was a considerable shortfall.
Madden delegated that one to Major Jones, whose stolid black features concealed a brain bulging with data. 'Our original projection was C Day plus four months for virtual wipeout of the Designated Areas, but it now appears more realistic to think in terms of C Day plus six months. Right this minute we're approaching two billion, which means that all cities and large towns have been zilched. Obviously the dense urban populations were easiest to hit. The rural and less-populated regions will take longer for precisely that reason. But the virus will get to them eventually because nothing can stop it. By C Day plus six'-- he turned down both thumbs--'total wipeout.'
Hansom and Madden exchanged looks, smiling into each other's eyes.
