The Onyx Seed - A Story of Survival by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 5

Washington, D.C. is an international hub of politics and the seat of power that unites an entire nation. In the capital of what is believed to be the free world, there are many stories that could be told. But, to the eyes and ears of the American public, Washington is a bastion of secrecy and out of necessity, remains silent. Now, gathered behind closed doors, in a hastily assembled, high-level meeting, are some of the most powerful people in the country. Their expertise spread over varying fields. All of them had been brought together by one common denominator.

Everyone stood as the President entered the room, taking their seats only after he had been seated. The President knew that crisis is what molds a true leader. And the greatness of any leader is best judged by history. But history is created by those who live it. “Alright,” he began. “We all know why we’re here. No one is to leave this room until we have a plan.” Two Marine guards stood outside the room as the doors were closed.

“I want to remind all of you of how important this is. What is said in this room stays in this room. There will be no statements to the media until we have a firm grip on this situation. Do I make myself clear?” Everyone acknowledged the President's orders. “Colonel Hawkins,” he continued. “Bring us up to speed.”

Colonel Hawkins was the head of the CDC and one of the top epidemiologists in the world. He had recently returned from the middle-east and Africa, following up on reports coming out of the World Health Organization. He arrived in Washington at the urgency of the White House.

“Mr. President,” he began. “Seven state CDC offices are reporting widespread outbreaks. At first, we thought it was just a particularly virulent strain of Avian Flu, something that would make its way through the population, then, simply burn itself out.” He listed the cities where the outbreaks were being seen: Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, Chicago, New York, and Washington.

“Now, we’re not sure why it only appears in these cities,” the Colonel continued. “But what we do know is that it’s not the flu.”

The Colonel directed an assistant to turn on a slide projector. Immediately after, the assistant was asked to leave the room.

“Mr. President, this is a common form of the flu virus. Now, without taking up a lot of time with technical issues, you can see the cell membrane, the nucleus and all the structures one would expect to see.”

He pointed these things out with a laser pointer. “This sample came from our photo archive. But this was recently recovered from an infected corpse in L.A.”

He switched the projector to the next slide. “Notice anything different?”

Everyone took a moment to study the image. “Colonel, what are we looking at?” the President asked.

“Mr. President,” the Colonel answered. “This is smallpox.”

A grim silence overwhelmed the room. The President leaned forward with an expression of grave concern. “Colonel,” he said. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, Mr. President,” he answered. He took a deep breath, knowing that the situation was far worse than it seemed.

“There’s one more thing, sir. This is a strain we’ve never seen before, and we believe that it was engineered.”

“Do we have any casualty numbers yet?” the President asked.

“Um, Mr. President,” the Colonel continued. “This infection has hit seven major cities. We don’t have exact numbers and were still studying this virus.” The President took a moment to absorb the information.

“Thank you, Russel,” he replied. He then shifted his attention to Ellis Norton, director of the CIA.

“Mr. Director,” he said. “What do you have?” The director quickly referenced his notes. “Mr. President,” he began. “In 1979, smallpox was eradicated from the global population. The World Health Organization ordered all samples of the virus either destroyed or sent to one of two labs. One was ours. The other was in, what was then, the Soviet Union. The Soviets, in turn, began producing smallpox as a weapon, and they produced it by the ton. We believe that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a few rogue scientists continued to develop the virus, eventually selling samples to countries hostile to American interests. But, with so much turmoil and the eastern bloc, as well as the middle-east, it’s likely that most of those samples were simply lost.”

“Alright,” the President replied. “So, how did an engineered form of smallpox get into seven major U.S. cities?”

“Mr. President, the director answered. We have reason to believe that it was brought into the country by people who were intentionally infected. Since nine-eleven, we’ve been working closely with Homeland Security and the TSA. Our analysts have examined the flight records from every airport in each of these cities. At some point, over the last two to three weeks, several small middle-eastern families entered the country through each of these cities. Almost at the same time. After back-tracing the flight information on these families, we discovered that all of them came from Iran.”

A wave of shock swept over the room as everyone strained to maintain their composure. “Can these people be located?” the President asked. “Sir,” Ellis answered. “Finding these people is no longer the issue. By this time, they’ve been able to blend into the population. They’ve probably put their children into public schools, used public transportation, visited hospitals, grocery stores, and outlying areas. Eventually, they’ll die of the infection, but not before doing a tremendous amount of damage.”

“Mr. President, if I may?”

General Bryant Quinn, head of the Department of Defense, was brought into the meeting to provide recommendations regarding national security. “If we know that Iran was responsible for this, wouldn’t a response be called for?” he asked. General Warren Hart, the secretary to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed and suggested a tactical nuclear strike be launched against Iran, as well as its allies. “I think we’re getting way ahead of ourselves,” the President interrupted.

Colonel Hawkins raised a hand.

“Yes, Colonel,” the President said.

“General, with all due respect,” he began. “If the DOD could keep its missiles in its pants for a moment…”

“Colonel,” the President said calmly, cutting him off in mid-sentence. “Make your point.” Colonel Hawkins paused to gather his thoughts. “My apologies, Mr. President. I just don’t think that World War Three is the answer to this. Now, from what we already know, this looks like a bio-weapon and it’s been here for two to three weeks. That means it’s also in the global transportation network. This bug could have already circled the planet twice by now. Preston Bailey, head of Homeland Security, broke into the conversation.

Would the Iranians shoot themselves in the foot just to attack us?”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

Thomas Alexander, chief of counterterrorism, was quick with an answer.

“It wouldn’t be the first time that a fanatical group put their political views ahead of its own people.”

“Alright, everyone,” the President interrupted. “We can sit here and hypothesize all day. What I want are answers and I’m not about to tell six hundred million Americans that their country is under attack by something they can’t even see. Now, someone tell me how we can get ahead of this!”

After a momentary pause, Colonel Hawkins suggested a quarantine of all seven cities affected by the outbreaks. Leo Fleming, who had been appointed the head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, suggested a plan similar to the response to the nine eleven attacks, recommending that all air travel be grounded and that all border entrances be closed. The President agreed. Hawkins continued to argue for quarantine, even if it meant martial law. Now, Aaron Vaughn spoke up. He was the director of the Commission on Civil Rights and took issue with the idea of martial law.

“Excuse me, Colonel,” he began. “The establishment of martial law, at the federal level, requires a majority vote from Congress and the country has to be put on thirty days’ notice.”

The President nodded his head in acknowledgment. “So, what do you suggest?” he asked. Mr. Vaughn did not have an answer, but he was very aware that a quarantine plan needed to be created quickly. One that would not cause political chaos. Bernard Waters, director of the National Security Agency, suggested that the State Department coordinate with the governors of each state. Along with Homeland Security, martial law could be established overnight. But the words martial law would not be used. Instead, the government’s actions would be presented as a protective medical program. The goal was an indefinite closure of the country’s borders and an eventual shift toward centralized management of quarantine and population control, and the state's right to self-govern would take a back seat to national security.

The President was quick to eliminate the word attack from the vocabulary of the meeting. He wanted a clear plan based solely on the facts and no one had yet taken credit for the infection that would eventually bring the country to its knees. And no one would realize the true scope of the infection or the impact it was about to have on the whole of civilization. Any plan that Washington came up with would be too little, too late.