Extinction Level Event (34 page)

"Motion to pass Resolution 1555 is not passed.
Supermajority is not achieved, and Resolution 1555- the World
Agricultural Stabilization Plan- will not be passed with a simple
majority according to the Security Council resolution."

"I shall now call on those representatives who wish
to speak in explanation of vote. I should like to remind
representatives that explanations of vote are limited to 10 minutes
and should be made by delegations from their seats", states the
President. From the back, Bao notices Manjak's face has turned to a
sullen gray, visibly unhappy about the defeat of the resolution.
However, there is nothing she can do about it at the moment. Not
surprisingly, in response to the President's call for individual
explanations, a host of nations rise up to defend their voting
position, particularly the ones that voted negatively to the
resolution. The representative of one of the Middle Eastern
countries begins his rebuttal to the Stabilization Plan. Bao
listens intently as he rattles off a long list of grievances
including infringement of sovereignty, massive costs burdened by
people from third world countries, political dominance by the
Security Council onto smaller nations, lack of property for
construction of such facilities and general infeasibility. The
representative receives a mixture of applause and silence from the
rest of the audience at the conclusion of his thirty-five minute
explanation. Bao privately acknowledges merit to some of his
arguments but overall considers the timing of their delivery to be
terrible and detrimental to the UN as a whole. Seven more
representatives then takes turns defending their reasons for their
vote, two aggressively support the plan while the remaining five
back the first speaker's comments. After three hours of non-stop
rebuttals, criticism, and rebukes the President calls for a recess.
As the delegates swarm out of the arena to call their governments,
discuss the issue with their colleagues, or merely go the bathroom,
the area outside the General Assembly Hall is crowded with
pinstripe suited people from all the corners of the globe. Bao
walks over, and after greeting several UN co-workers she spots
Manjak in discussion with the Japanese representative.

Bao Feng makes her way through the sea to her
'technical' boss. Manjak notices her approaching, and quickly
excuses himself from his conversation with the Japanese man. "Not
what you expected?", asks Bao as she walks within earshot of
Manjak. "No", answers Manjak glumly, "This is too important for
insignificant politics to stop, yet, I see that when problems
aren't addressed earlier people will bring them forth whenever they
have a chance to do so." "Many of the countries opposing are less
developed ones. They see your plan as a push by the developed world
for something that they cannot afford." "Yes, but I think that
while we are all equally affected by this disaster, they have felt
it hit harder and faster than the developed countries. Haven't they
learned a thing during these months?"

"Don't be too hard on yourself. You're doing a great
job so far." "I know. Trust me, the Security Council will ask for a
re-vote. But that will be wasting an entire month or two before the
next meeting." "In the meantime, the countries in favor of the plan
will proceed to implement it. Those include all of the G8 plus most
of the other major players. Agricultural stabilization as you
realized it may not happen worldwide yet, but it certainly won't be
postponed." Manjak cocks his head. "No it won't.", he acknowledges,
"and it will be our task to make sure that all the countries
sticking to the plan follow the guidelines and regulations, and
make sure the project succeeds. That is our first and foremost
priority." "And the WFP?" "No change. Keep rationing whatever there
is left for another year. Bao, I have to leave." "Where are you
going?" "Los Angeles. Flight leaves in two hours. I need to see
first-hand the effects at the center of gravity, the epicenter of
this epidemic. I'll be back in Rome in three days." "Fine. Have fun
in LA, Trip. See you in three." "You too." Manjak waves off his
co-worker friendly a brief short distance friendly wave before
moving out amongst the crowd back towards the entrance. Bao sees
his head for another minute before he disappears completely behind
some security guards.

Bao, as the head of the WFP, is mandated to stay at
the conference, even if it involves her doing little except
listening to the representatives heatedly argue their points. The
session resumes shortly afterwards, continuing the along the same
pattern of discussion that it held after Manjak's speech. After
another four hours the Assembly is adjourned until the next day.
Bao, however, realizes that until a consensus is made it is useless
to remain at the Assembly session. As such, she decides takes a
flight back to Rome the following day and get back to running the
WFP's operations at full throttle.

Washington, DC

At the Department of Agriculture headquarters,
Stephen Onassis finishes a teleconference with the Vice President
of the United States, arguing back and forth over the feasibility
of a program to supply Canada with small quantities of rations.
Stephen Onassis completely rebuked the proposal called it a
thinning out of already stretched resources, which had not gone
well with the Vice President. The VP had good intentions in
proposing the deal, in a effort to start his own "Good Neighbor
Policy." Unfortunately, with total national food production at an
all time low of 50% normal productivity and caloric value at only
67%, there was no way any food was to be spared if the nation's 306
million residents were to be fed and kept alive until a more global
and lasting solution could take effect.

Onassis was surprised that the VP didn't see that,
although he suspected that he proposed the policy in order to make
a name for himself. Perhaps he though now was the time to
strengthen alliances with needed support.
Irrational. and
Illogical. Not to mention untimely
, thought Onassis.

Another pressing issue for the Secretary of
Agriculture's menu was the joint NSA and FBI investigation into Dr.
Konovalov's work. Onassis would be one of the witnesses called to
at the geneticist's upcoming trial, basically to explain the by-now
obvious consequences of the Doctor's actions. Nonetheless, Onassis
was interested in finding out how Project Deniability had started
and how the secret program was run. While not having high security
clearance, particularly for defense matters, Onassis was still
allowed to read some of the files and all of the files from
Konovalov's private research firm, all of which were deemed to be
"controlled unclassified" information by the NSA. Onassis had spent
many hours over the past five days pouring over Konovalov's files
outlining his collaboration with NBACC to develop the ultimate
earthworm killing bio-weapon.

As it turns out, the project was the brainchild of
Dr. Jackson Medina, who proposed it to the Secretary of Defense.
Unbelievably, Project Deniability was approved by the Secretary who
saw it as a potentially useful weapon that skimmed the line between
legal and illegal. According to the Secretary, he briefly explains
how the BWC is designed to outlaw weapons targeting humans, but
makes no reference in relation to other potential target
populations. Realizing the loophole, and the viability of Project
Deniability, the Defense Secretary gave Dr. Medina the green light
to start development of the EWK-1 virus. Dr. Medina was given full
responsibility for the program, as well as plenty of jurisdiction
over the running of the program. It was mandated to be top secret,
and as such very few people, amongst them the Secretary of Defense
and Dr. Medina, even knew of its existence. Dr. Konovalov merely
had compartmental knowledge of the program, yet somehow had gained
access to the laboratory where the EWK-1 samples were housed
in.

How did he figure out what the program was and
where the experimental samples were kept? Odd. He must have gotten
that information from Medina. But then why would he give him
classified information?
It was more and more obvious that
Medina had a much bigger role than he previously admitted.
Could
the two of them have collaborated in stealing the virus? Was this
intentionally released instead of a transportation accident?
The fact that Konovalov was entrusted to transport the secret
shipment seemed odd and worrisome as it was.
Were they on the
payroll of an outside group to give them a sample of EWK-1?

These were all questions that Onassis hoped the NSA
and FBI would soon have answers to. He also knew that their
investigations would have to be very quick and precise, since so
far the only results have been the implications of two well-known
and highly respectable public figures in a two seemingly
unconnected, yet both disparagingly harmful gross mistakes. At this
point, Onassis deeply felt that the public's confidence in its
scientists and leaders had already been shaken, and was being still
being tested daily by their ability to weather the crisis
precipitated by the actions of the two men in question. Onassis
himself was under constant public scrutiny over his management of
the USDA during the last six months. On more than one occasion he
was even chastised by reporters and during a congressional hearing
over USDA activities prior to the outbreak of EWK-1, even though
there was no way for the organization to predict such an event. The
worst possible criticism came from a particularly nosy interviewer
who seemed to view the entire episode as not a unexpected crisis,
but rather a failure of the USDA to foresee and prepare for a
national food shortage. Of course, USDA policy was designed to
introduce techniques and policies to avoid such shortages in the
first place, and less so to counteract them in the event of one.
Onassis admits to himself that, unfortunately, this time that
guiding principle had fallen short.

The phone rings. "Onassis", the Secretary answers as
he picks up the phone. "Sir, this Colonel Tompkins from the NSA. We
have something interesting for you to see." "What is it?" "We have
uncovered some new unnerving evidence, and strongly recommend that
you meet us at Fort Detrick, NBACC facility. As the Secretary of
Defense is no longer leading this investigation, we still need a
cabinet-level position to oversee this aspect of the
investigation." "I will be on my way immediately, as soon as you
tell me what is so urgent." "We have had a bigger security leak
than we realized initially. We believe that you should also inform
Dr. Krishnan at the NBACC before you leave for the facility." "Very
well. What did your team find?" The Colonel explains in a few
sentences the NSA's revelations after going through the Fort
Detrick's digital security records, which, unlike the base's
cameras', was still operational at the day before first
contamination. Onassis is quickly briefed on the new information,
and once again asked to head to NBACC by the Colonel.

Without further ado, Onassis clicks off the phone and
dials Dr. Krishnan at NBACC.

California

California, being the epicenter of the ongoing
earthworm extinction, bore the fruits of the disaster long before
any other locale. At this point, the damage was more or less evenly
distributed across the planet, so therefore being the geographical
epicenter or not made little difference to the landscape and local
flora and fauna. But psychologically, knowing that this is where it
all began would be enough to make a person pause and take notice;
contemplate silently within their own thoughts; and give respect to
the unimaginable power which nature twisted in an unnatural way can
possess over a given environment.

Sitting at his window seat in the Delta Air Lines
Boeing 767, "Trip" Manjak gets a full view of the lifelessness and
bleakness below him as the plane descends towards Los Angeles
International Airport. What was once a lush, verdant paradise for
mediterranean weather enthusiasts only months before was now
transformed into a mayhem of dead and dying botanical wildlife.
Green replaced by yellows, browns, and shades of grey in varying
degrees blanket the landscape in a dull mirage, a color scheme that
lacks its most vibrant element. As far as the eye could see, the
only green left are a few shrubs used to poor nutrient quality and
little water. All for the lack of one of the Earth's smallest and
less noticed species. South California's famous Palm trees have
lost their color, if not most their palm fronds as well. Heaps of
unrecycled detritus matter is littered across the plains and hills,
a painful reminder of the absence of the essential workers who used
to clean up the biological garbage for a living. Now, instead of
being recycled and used as nutrients by the living world, the dead
matter causes even more pain to the living by taking space and
wasting precious resources.

California's status as an agricultural state has all
but vanished. Fields that were once fertile and full of produce
such as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, grapes, and almonds now sit
stilled by the silence of death. Death not from a thousand cuts,
nor from disease, nor a war, nor a single strike to the heart.
Rather it is a death from loneliness. The fields, alone and by
themsleves, could not survive without the company that they craved.
That company was the company, and companionship, of the earthworms,
which kept them alive and well in the living world. That cycle kept
both the earthworms and the fields content and productive in their
livelihood.

That companionship is now dead, and the only remnant
of that bond is now the dead stalks of plants strewn across the
barren land.

When the first species died out, the species that
depended on them started to feel the pressure as well. Now, six
months into the global storm, thousands of species across the globe
are dying out at a rapid pace as a result of the breakages in their
food and nutrient cycle, or as some call it, the great circle of
life. Now, multiple species of birds, terrestrial animals, and even
some species of insects have nearly completely disappeared from the
face of California. What few remain have resorted to cowering in
isolated spots by themselves, disengaging from all social contact
with their peers. Hunting for their own food, jealousy and greed on
the part of individuals prevent them from finding mates and helping
continue the species. California has become a more lonely place, a
place of shadows and echoes of the previous wildlife.