Pestilence (Jack Randall #2) (30 page)

The large man simply stood until Kimball spoke.

“Assignation.”

The door was opened and they were allowed to enter. The room was strangely silent. As if all sound were sucked into it and swallowed. They made no noise as they traveled down the short entryway and turned the corner.

The man sat alone at a large table. He was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a sweater. A glass of water sat on the table in front of him and nothing else. He rose slowly to greet them.

“Good evening, gentleman, and to you young lady.”

Sydney gaped at the man until a nudge from Jack shook her out of it.

“Good evening, Mr. President.”

WHO alerts countries to watch suspicious flu cases.
April 25, 2009—USA Today
 

—TWENTY-FOUR—

“M
r. Randall, I’m afraid I don’t know this young lady with you.”

“Forgive me, sir, this is Sydney Lewis of the FBI. She’s one of my people.”

“Moral support, Mr. Randall?”

“Something like that, Mr. President.”

“We may all need it after tonight, please sit.”

They all took seats at the table. The President sat heavily in his chair and rubbed his face and hair before gazing across the table at the three of them.

“You’ve had an interesting past few weeks, Mr. Randall. An embassy bombing, a raid on a terrorist camp, a shoot-out in the Delaware countryside . . .”

“Yes, sir.”

“But that’s not what you’re here about today at this ungodly hour, is it?”

“No.”

“You have some questions?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then please ask.”

“Sir, in the course of our investigating the embassy bombing, we’ve discovered a quantity of medications that have proven to be what we believe is a biological weapon of some kind. This is in violation of numerous treaties as well as being highly controversial. Several people have died, and there have been numerous breaches of security at my agency as well as my home. We have reason to believe this is being carried out with the backing of a government agency of some type. To make a long story short, we came here tonight to discuss this with you before we go to the press and the proper authorities.”

The President nodded before replying, “Do you intend to go to the press?”

“We haven’t yet made that decision.”

“I really have no problem with you going to the authorities as you say, that has been handled already.” He gave a nod in Kimball’s direction. Jack looked at him for his reaction but the man was stone faced. “But the press could be a nuisance.”

The President rose from his chair while motioning them all to remain seated. “If you don’t mind, I was a teacher once and I just find it more comfortable to stand while giving a lecture.

“You stumbled onto something quite big, Mr. Randall, and you might be surprised to know that I’ve learned a great deal more about your actions these last few weeks than you would think. You and Miss Lewis here have really done yourselves a job. I wish I could commend you. But if you’ll allow me a few minutes, I think you’ll understand why I cannot.

“This all started well before my time, before yours to be sure. In the late ’60s the United States was still fighting the Cold War. The nuclear arms race was still in full swing. Vietnam was happening. The space race was progressing. But there was another cold war being fought, one the public had little knowledge of and never really understood. It was a biological war, and it was fought in secret by both parties. It went on for several years. The US had several labs throughout the country working on all manner of bacterial and viral concoctions. As did the Soviets. They were actually ahead of us for some time.”

“No one knew of this?” Jack asked.

“It’s a lot easier to hide a lab with a few bioreactors than it is to hide an intercontinental ballistic missile. We kept everything very close to our chest. Just not close enough. The spy game was going full tilt. Leaks on both sides were rampant and the other country’s advances were well known. Fear was tantamount. People could wrap their minds around the idea of nuclear war, no matter how horrific. But compared to a deadly virus eating its way through the population, it was beyond the minds of all involved. Both sides had arsenals large enough to end the human race several times over. Vats of smallpox as large as this room, plague, Ebola, Marburg and anthrax, to name just a few. We also had the means to deliver it. Everything from aerosolizers that would fit in your pocket, to ICBM’s capable of air bursting the virus over an entire city. Submarine-launched missiles, bombers. The list went on and on.”

“But didn’t President Nixon sign a treaty?”

“Correct, in 1969 Nixon ordered the total dismantlement of the US biological warfare program. Up until then, seven hundred million dollars had been spent developing agents. About this time several of the scientists involved began to question what they were doing. One of which was your friend Doctor Miles. They called it a perversion of science, and I tend to agree with them. Unfortunately, the threat still remained and the advances being made in vaccine technology were the direct result of the offensive side of the research. The program had to continue, treaty or not. Our intelligence at the time revealed a massive program being run by the Soviets. Over fifty labs and 65,000 researchers all working in closed cities on nothing but germ warfare.”

“But Nixon went public with the treaty. Why?”

“The historians never asked did they? They simply assumed it was from a desire to formulate a relationship with the USSR, perhaps from the belief that bio-weapons were both unreliable as offensive weapons and difficult to stockpile safely. There was also the fear that Third World countries would be encouraged to start their own weapons programs, setting off an arms race among them. Why would the United States, the most powerful country on the face of the earth, with its massive arsenal of technically superior nuclear weapons, make the possession of weapons of mass destruction cheap and easy for other nations? No, we wanted the arms race to be on our terms. We made it official in 1972 with the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons, more conveniently known as the Biological Weapons Convention. Everyone thought Nixon was a fool, that the Soviets would never adhere to the treaty.”

“They didn’t,” Jack stated.

“Not to the treaty, no, but they did adhere to another.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Nixon was no fool. He knew that such a program was too easy to hide. Luckily there were cooler heads behind the public blustering of the leaders at the time. Both countries agreed to continue research in secret. He made a deal like no other. Delivery devices were scrapped. Large quantities of agent were eliminated, but the research went on, with both sides sharing the results.”

“What? Why would they agree to that?” Sydney blurted out.

“The Cold War forced men in my position to look far down the road into the future. A new threat was beginning to show, and it was one that could not be defeated or deterred by nuclear weapons. But I’ll get to that in a moment.”

“This was now the late ’70s and early ’80s. The Soviet Union was still the Soviet Union and being what it was, it suffered a long list of defectors. These defectors leaked stories of the country’s bio-weapons program thinking them great bargaining chips to smooth the way for them into the United States. They were simple researchers and had no idea of Nixon’s plan, which now had been inherited twice by succeeding presidents. The defectors were quieted as best they could be, or discredited if the need presented. An accidental release of anthrax from one of their research cities killed a number of people and also made things difficult for awhile. But mostly the agreement held and the process continued, as it does to this day.”

“You mentioned another threat, sir?”

“Yes, one that has gotten closer and closer over the years until today it’s known to everyone on the planet. A threat of our own making.”

“In the ’60s India, Pakistan, and several other countries around the world experienced great food shortages. This, combined with the post World War II jump in population, gave us our first hint at what the future held. Fortunately Norman Borlaug came along with his invention of dwarf wheat and these countries could increase their wheat production and feed the exploding population. But we had already seen the edge, and we knew there wouldn’t always be a Norman Borlaug to save us.”

“Mankind is capable of many things. Unfortunately many of these things are also to our own detriment. The world population stands today at just under seven billion people. Economic growth is the highest it’s ever been, exceeding predictions made decades ago. Resources are being used at an alarming rate. The very basics such as food and fresh water are once again becoming scarce. Food production is nearing its peak output. The world’s fish stocks are dwindling each year. They tell me 90% of the edible fish stocks will be gone by 2048. China has been the only country thus far to make any attempt to control population growth. Their one-child-per-family law was seen by the world as barbaric and criminal. Yet the population of China increases every year by millions. The developing world screams for energy and we pump oil at a record pace. Climatologists tell me we can’t burn much more of the oil available without increasing the global temperature greatly. Some say peak oil is already here. The ice caps are melting. If the Greenland icepack slides into the north Atlantic we’ll see a stop of the Gulf Stream current. This will bring an ice age to Europe, making its climate on par with that of Siberia. The ocean will rise and flood most coastal areas. Low-lying countries such as Bangladesh will cease to exist. Deforestation continues despite efforts to confront it. It all comes back to population.”

“The headlines have been screaming this for years, but the world keeps on going as if nothing is happening. My predecessors saw all this coming, and they have taken steps to slow it and if need be . . . to fix it.”

“Slow it, sir? How exactly?”

The President returned to his seat and took a sip of the water in front of him before lifting his head to meet their eyes.

“How would you slow the population growth, Mr. Randall? Or you, Ms. Lewis? Short of starting a nuclear war or all-out genocide they had only one choice.”

“Disease,” Sydney whispered.

“Exactly. Efforts were made to find a virus that would cause infertility, but it has proven to be beyond our grasp. The alternative, while distasteful as it may be, is the introduction of disease.”

“This has been done?”

“Yes, several times in the past four decades.”

“My God.”

“God
has
tried. But our scientists keep defeating him. It seems to be up to us now. In nature there is a natural check and balance process. When a population grows too large for its environment the inhabitants become crowded together. This becomes a natural breeding environment for viruses and they soon mutate into a deadly form and thin the population to a more sustainable level. It has happened throughout documented history. Modern medicine defeats this process. Our population has gone unchecked by disease for some time. There are still some diseases out there. The flu takes an average of 30,000 people a year here in the United States alone. Malaria outbreaks do the same in Africa and South America. Every corner of the globe has its viruses that do their damnedest to thin the population. But medicine has proven stronger. We vaccinate every year for the flu. We wiped smallpox from the face of the earth. Defeated polio. Yellow fever was conquered to build the Panama Canal. Yet we never once thought that we
needed
these diseases for the balance they provide. Not once. There hasn’t been a deadly world pandemic since the 1918 Spanish Flu, and, as a result, the population has exploded. So the decision was made to force the issue. In the late ’70s HIV was introduced into the world. It was thought that it would start what’s called a slow burn over the globe and hopefully stem growth for a few decades before being defeated. While its success was not what was predicted, it served to teach us many things. Since then others have been tried. SARS, bird flu, West Nile, to name a few. The current swine flu is a test of the world’s response to a pandemic. It has shown a predictable outcome. It won’t be enough to stop the spread, but the virus lacks the strength to cause much change.

“Since its conception, the program has grown. It’s overseen by a committee of five people, all of whom represent the major population centers of this earth. I inherited my position from my predecessor. Mr. Kimball here heads our research and production facility here in North America as well as taking care of . . . operational issues.”

“God’s little soldier.”

The President’s head snapped up at the remark. Jack met his glare with his own.

“I do
not
consider myself God, Mr. Randall! I did not choose this task for myself. Every day I look for an alternative, but four decades of looking by myself and many others has failed to come up with one, so before you go showing me your superior moral character, let’s hear your solution!”