Gnash by Brian Parker Read Free Book Online

virus had been stolen from Fort Dietrich, Maryland.  In early 2009, the Army finally admitted to losing the three vials of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis.  The official investigation determined that when a freezer containing the samples broke down, everything had to be destroyed but no one kept a record of what was destroyed.  Anyone familiar with laboratory procedures knew that meticulous records are kept concerning everything that happens with a specimen and everyone knew that the military kept excessively detailed records.  It was a shoddy cover-up at best, but the media believed it and moved on to more exciting stories.
    That virus came from horses and could be spread to humans by mosquitoes.  It was deadly in only 1 of 100 human cases.  The strain developed in the Pennsylvania lab was mixed with several other similar viruses stolen over the years from pharmaceutical labs, including the dreaded H5N1 virus, or the Avian Flu as it was commonly called.  The group’s scientists believed they had the perfect biological weapon, but when their initial trial run was released in a backwater Mexican town, it mutated too quickly to be effective for concentrated use. 
    The media called the resulting disease the Swine Flu because of the town’s large number of pig farms.  When it mutated, it became less lethal and most of the townspeople survived because their bodies had developed antibodies to various flu strains over the years.  In a fairly short period of time, the Western medical establishment was able to develop a vaccine and the terrorist’s scientists went back to work to develop something more useful.
    The current generation, and the coup de grace, contained a little known ancient disease called Septicemic Plague that the Russians had been able to weaponize during the Cold War and after the country’s collapse, sold to the highest bidder.  All of these extremely contagious diseases were mixed together and stabilized to work together instead of the viruses attacking and killing each other off in the lab.  The cocktail proved 100% lethal in every test animal they’d used. 
    Then, the call went out from the Brotherhood for action and human trials were skipped in favor of planning the attack.  This cell had the vital mission to cripple the military of the United States by annihilating all the top leaders at the Pentagon.  It had been tried before, in 2001, but that attack wasn’t planned well enough to do much more than cosmetic damages and kill a small number of people.  This attack would kill every one of them.
    With the exception of the coward Navi, who fled with their third delivery truck last night, every one of the men present for this mission had made their peace with Allah at dawn.  Tonight, they would be in Jannah [7] , treated like kings for the rest of their eternal existence and celebrated by the faithful worldwide. 
    The tenth vial contained a simple chemical compound known as VX Nerve Agent, stolen from the U.S. Army when they were clearing chemical weapons stockpiles in Utah.  That agent, when released near the chemical agent monitors, would trigger impenetrable locks to engage across the entire building and no one would get in or out.  With the detection of the nerve agent, even the secret escape tunnel running from the second sub-basement to Fort Myer would be sealed.  It was a very secure system for all the U.S.A.’s top generals and it would keep them safe from any outside attack, except this attack would be from the inside and when the life support systems began pumping oxygen into every floor, every corridor of the building, it would be spreading the virus, one vial for all eight floors of the Pentagon and an extra one to drop into the gym’s air supply system.
    The two members of the terrorist cell dressed as policemen split up and went in opposite directions.  One of them carried a small satchel with all the vials of the super virus in it and headed towards the first