Final Epidemic (26 page)

“He can’t help her,” Andi Wheelwright said. “Nobody can.”

The White House Washington, D.C.
July 23

The President was in his shirtsleeves when Krewell and Carson were ushered into the Oval Office.

They were not alone. A constant flow of people moved through doors normally closed, carrying folders, individual sheets of paper, even what appeared to be rolled-up charts. At the far end of the room, a cadre of advisors were intent, their faces reflecting the flicker of computer screens and television monitors around which they worked.

The President waved the two newest visitors to the sofa that covered the right corner of a large, deep-blue carpet on which was centered the presidential seal; he sat, with obvious weariness, in the red leather wingback chair nearby.

The chief executive wasted no time.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s hear it.”

Carson spoke first. “Mr. President, are you familiar with the acronym VIX?”

“No. What is it?”

Carson nodded to Krewell, sitting stiffly beside him.

Krewell said, “Yes, sir. VIX stands for Viral Influenza/Experimental. It is a prototype bioweapon that was developed
in the mid-sixties, only a few years before President Nixon officially shut down our CBW program. Agent VIX, as we call it, was—
is
—a viral weapon based on the same general viral strain that is today being used against us.”

“The United States developed a weapon based on the Spanish flu?” The President’s voice was incredulous and tinged at the edges with fury.

“Not as a lethal agent, Mr. President,” Krewell said. “VIX was intentionally—well, dumbed down, so to speak. Genetically moderated.”

“Exactly what is that supposed to mean?” the President demanded.

“As a weapon, VIX was designed solely as an incapacitating agent,” Carson said. “It was not intended to kill.”

“Exactly, Mr. President,” Krewell said. “Our scientists used the 1918 virus, yes. But that was largely because, unlike other influenza strains, it did not lend itself easily to a vaccine. Also because the target population—combatant soldiers—generally had no acquired immunity to the strain. They were too young to have been around in 1918.”

“Unbelievable,” the President said, his lips tight. “Un-
fucking
-believable.”

“Sir, VIX conformed to our standing bio-agent development orders in place at the time,” Krewell protested. “It is not persistent: the virus was engineered so that ultraviolet radiation from sunlight destroys it within three to five hours. Most important, it a self-correcting agent. It acts to trigger an aggressive immune response in those exposed to it. With VIX, you’re sick as hell for a day or so—but then the symptoms generally subside. By design, it’s merely a very bad twenty-four-hour flu.”

“Which the United States of America turned into a weapon,” the President said bitterly. “And which we have apparently maintained, in violation of international treaties that we as a country proposed and signed!”

“As a weapon, VIX has some very attractive features,”
Carson said. “It has an extremely high contagion factor. Physiologically, it spreads through the human body with an impressive speed. The onset of symptoms is within a twenty-minute time frame—that’s comparable to some of the slower-acting chemical warfare agents. The psychological impact adds to the effectiveness of VIX. You can imagine the demoralizing impact of seeing the disease spread almost before your eyes.”

“Billy, the last thing I want to hear right now is how great any of this . . .
filth
is,” the President said. “I simply cannot understand the reasoning behind this kind of insanity—particularly now, when it looks as if it may well destroy all of us.”

He gestured at the far end of the room. “See those people down there? That’s the United States government, helpless to stop this country from disintegrating. Since the news from Russia got out, all hell has broken loose. We have major riots in New York and Chicago, and martial law has been completely ineffective. Civilians are taking the law into their own hands, and we can’t stop them. Barricades are up around Salt Lake City to keep ‘plague carriers’ out, manned by regular citizens carrying shotguns and rifles. They’ve fired on police who ordered them to disperse. Los Angeles is being patrolled by the National Guard. There are all kinds of rumors going around about the Florida outbreak, and it’s got people acting insane. An hour ago, a crowd in Detroit surrounded a tractor trailer with Florida plates; they set it on fire and shot the driver when he tried to get out of the cab. It is getting worse by the minute. God help us if—
when
—flu cases start showing up in New York.”

The President’s voice had risen throughout the tirade, and now it fell abruptly. “We need a vaccine, dammit—a
cure,
not another weapon.”

“That is the point,” Carson said. “VIX and the new virus come from the same root. They’re related—cousins, if you will. But not
kissing
cousins.”

“I’m too tired for riddles, Billy.”

“An hour ago, I received information that an Army researcher had found something that may be vital. She was comparing VIX with H1N1-Florida—the lethal one.”

“And?”

“There may be a way to use VIX to fight it. It’s theoretical, but possible. Dr. Krewell can explain the details better than I.”

“Mr. President,” Larry Krewell began, “the human immune system uses three lines of defense against viruses: macrophages, antibodies and killer T-cells. The first two go after the virus itself; they’re like bodyguards, sir. But when the virus gets inside a human cell and takes it over, macrophages and antibodies are helpless. T-cells are not; they are ruthless and kill the infected cells. But if the virus spreads in the body too quickly, T-cells can cause a path of destruction while never catching up to the disease itself.”

“That’s what happens with H1N1-Florida,” Carson added. “Most victims die of respiratory failure or secondary infections due to the massive tissue damage. But VIX has been engineered to accelerate the immune process. In essence, it shortstops the virus before it can cause extensive tissue and organ damage.”

“What does this have to do with the Florida virus?”

Carson took a deep breath, and wished he could light a cigarette here. “In humans, Mr. President, VIX triggers a sharply
accelerated
immune response. Specifically, it combats the infective process with hyperproduction of macrophages and antibodies. Essentially, VIX stimulates the body to successfully fight its own infection—for the most part,
before
T-cells go into action and cause further damage.”

Carson took a deep breath to add emphasis. “And that response, Mr. President, also appears to effectively act against the H1N1-Florida virus.”

The President looked at Carson with unblinking eyes. When he spoke, there was a new inflection in his voice.

“Do I hear you right? You’re saying this VIX
cures
people who have this new disease?”

Krewell answered first, shaking his head firmly. “Mr. President, we don’t know that,” he said. “There has been no clinical testing—and, sir, there is not time for anything that would give us a conclusive answer to that. People already infected with the killer virus may be beyond any help. But VIX may give you a chance to save those who are not yet infected.”

“It does appear likely that the two strains cannot exist in the same body,” Carson added. “Not simultaneously. VIX appears to overwhelm the flu—to crowd it out, as it were.”

“Can we use it as—I don’t know, as a kind of vaccine?”

“It may confer some degree of subsequent immunity,” Krewell said cautiously. “Certainly, antibodies are generated, in prodigious volume, during an acute VIX infection. H1N1 is an engineered virus. It’s been artificially enhanced and modified, but some of the VIX antibodies might act against it.” He made a gesture that conveyed, for an instant, his own frustration. “At least, that’s one theory. The research simply isn’t there, Mr. President.”

“It may not be a cure or a vaccine, but Agent VIX might work as a firebreak,” Carson insisted. “Herd immunity isn’t a theory.” The national security director turned toward the President. “We think VIX gives a fighting chance. Perhaps our only chance.”

“You have a recommendation.” It was not a question.

Carson nodded. “You order an intentional, widespread release of VIX—as a first priority, in a broad, concentric ring moving into the Florida Quarantine Region. We would then do likewise around New York, in both cases using existing VIX stocks.” He looked at the President with steady eyes and admitted to the violation of international law. “There are limited supplies available for this purpose—here and at Porton Down, in England. Enough to initiate the VIX infection, at least. If successful, it will then begin to spread on its own.”

“Explain to me—
precisely
—how this will stop the epidemic.”

“Sir, a virus cannot live outside a host—in the case of the killer virus, an unprotected human,” Krewell reminded him. “Unless it finds new hosts to infect, it burns out and is gone. That’s what vaccination does. It takes people out of the pool of vulnerable hosts, which breaks the chain of contagion. Even if you can’t immunize everybody, it makes it much harder for the virus to get to the unprotected ones. That’s the herd immunity Mr. Carson referred to.”

“If we release Agent VIX,” Carson said, “we believe it will, at the very least, slow down the wildfire we’re facing in Florida. The way you contain a forest fire is with backfires, and that’s what we can do with VIX.”

“It’s a race, Mr. President,” Krewell added. “If we can get enough people infected with Agent VIX, in a broad enough band around the foci of contagion, we believe that we can set up a herd immunity scenario.”

“If they are infected with VIX,” the President said, “they can’t get the influenza.”

“In a nutshell, Mr. President, that’s it.”

The President thought for a moment. “Forest fires can jump over backfire zones. What if the virus jumps past our band?”

“Very quickly,” Carson said, “there would be no such band, sir. Agent VIX is highly contagious, Mr. President. That was the major reason it was considered experimental. No vaccine or antidote was successfully developed to prevent it from spreading to our own troops, which made it impractical as an operational weapon. If we release it, we must assume it will spread very quickly throughout the United States. On its own.”

“In essence, you’re recommending we use VIX to infect the entire country?”

Krewell and Carson exchanged glances.

“Yes, Mr. President,” Carson said. “If it is going to be
done, it has to be done quickly, before the killer virus spreads further. As Dr. Krewell said, we cannot know for certain that VIX will save people who are already infected. Plus, there’s reason to believe the flu virus has the ability to jump species, into pigs and migratory waterfowl. If we don’t act, they could form a reservoir of contagion from which we may never escape.”

“How quickly can this be done?” the President asked. “
If
I concur.”

“We’re making the arrangements now,” Krewell said. “Contingent on your authorization.”

“My authorization,” the President repeated. “Give me the downside. What haven’t you told me?”

“First, VIX is so contagious that it could easily spread
outside
the U.S.,” Carson said. “Frankly, I believe this is desirable. But even if we made the attempt to minimize this, the possibility is there. Technically, Mr. President, it would be illegal. In effect, we’d be using a biological weapon in violation of numerous treaties and international law.”

“The flu is highly contagious too,” the President said. “If it’s between H1N1 and VIX, I think most governments would make the obvious choice.”

“The choice isn’t quite that simple, sir. VIX was designed as an incapacitating agent against military targets,” Krewell said. “Mainly young, healthy people whose immune system could deal with the overload. Even so, in tactical situations where we would employ VIX, our projections indicate a fatality rate of about two percent.”

The President looked at Carson with hard eyes. “You’re saying that if we use this, we intentionally kill two percent of the American people?”

“More,” Carson said, and his voice was unflinching. “Widespread use will carry VIX infection far beyond its originally intended targets. To the elderly and the very young, persons with compromised immune systems. Other population groups probably have risk factors we can’t even envision
yet. When you factor in these groups, the projected percentage increases.”

“How much?”

“Statistically, between four and seven percent,” Krewell said. “As a realistic working percentage, we’re using five percent.”

The President sat very still, and Krewell could almost see him working the math in his mind, over and over. Krewell had done the same himself, done the horrific sums, the cold-blooded division, the ruthless subtraction.

The result always came out the same. The population of the United States, rounded off, came to about two hundred eighty million persons; world population was six billion souls. Five percent of those totals came to—

“Three hundred million people,” the President said. “If I order this, the chances are that I will kill three hundred million people—fourteen million of them Americans.”

“If you do not,” Carson said, “you doom the rest.”

Krewell spoke up. “There is something more to consider,” he said. “The symptoms of both diseases are virtually identical. For H1N1-Florida, we’ve seen some wide swings in the incubation period between infection and the onset of symptoms—for some people, it’s days. Others seem to succumb in eight hours or less. There’s a possibility the flu has already spread and is simply incubating in many people who have not yet shown symptoms.”

“And?” The President seemed not to understand.

“Well, sir,” Krewell said. “If we release VIX on a widespread basis, we’re certain to see flulike cases spring up all over—certainly in the U.S. and very likely elsewhere if it does spread to other countries. Millions upon millions of people will become ill within a short time span. We’ll incapacitate whoever is still working in emergency services and the health system—doctors and nurses will be as sick as anybody else. Same with law enforcement, the military. VIX
will literally shut everything down, very quickly. But—” His voice trailed off.