The Doomsday Infection by Martin Lamport Read Free Book Online Page A

information, then call the President, the sooner he acted the better.
    Fifteen minutes later he made a scrambled telephone call to the President. “With reference to the viral outbreak in Florida, we believe we know what it is.”
    “Hit me with it.”
    “The Black Death.”
    “The Black Death?” He chuckled. “You mean the Bubonic Plague? You’re kidding me, right? I mean, that was eradicated years ago.”
    “Or, so we thought. This is a new strain. In fact, according to the World Health Organization this is long overdue.”
    The President sucked in oxygen through a hand-held mask attached to a bedside cylinder. He shuddered, taking in the news.
    Quinn continued on video-link and paced his office. “The WHO knew that it was never a matter of IF a virus would cause a worldwide pandemic, it was more a ma tter of WHEN.” Quinn gazed out of his office window watching the world go by. Folks were on their way to work without a care, going about their daily business, not realizing the horror about to be unleashed upon mainland America. He continued. “It’s arrogant of man to think we can continue breeding at this rate without paying the consequences.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “The world’s population has increased by a billion since 1999, by four billion since 1960.”
    “You’re kidding?”
    “It’s more than doubled in our lifetime.”
    “And what is the optimum level?”
    “Around the four billion mark.”
    “And what’s the figure now?”
    “Over seven billion.”
    “And our resources are already in short supply.”
    “Exactly, this is nature’s way of reversing that trend, culling the herd.” The President sucked in more oxygen, as Quinn continued. “Last time, the Black Death wiped out over two hundred million people and that was at walking speed, now we’ve got airplanes trains, automobiles. The way the population is crammed together on this over-populated planet this virus will encircle the globe in days.”
    “My God . . .”
    “Of all known species to have ever lived on this planet of ours, ninety-nine point five percent have been wiped out – survival of the fittest, et cetera.” He took a deep breath and continued. “Another way of looking at it is if you took the history of the globe as a twenty-four hour clock, man appears at one minute to midnight, our future is far from assured.”
    “But we’re talking about an ancient disease?”
    “Precisely. Do you know how many doses of antidote for the Black Death we have here in the United States?”
    “Surprise me.”
    “None.”
    “None?”
    “That’s how much we have dismissed this virus. We did not think it necessary.”
    “My...god.”
    “And on top of that, this is a new strain.”
    The President hefted himself up in his bed. “And this Intel is sound?”
    “Rock solid.”
    He flopped back onto his pillows. “How in hell are we going to implement the counter-measures? Any sort of panic and we’ll have riots on our hands. Can you imagine what would happen to the stock market? We need to handle this with finesse, while at the same time try to quarantine southern Florida.” He assimilated the information, then asked. “What’s the projected death toll percentage?”
    “Almost one hundred percent.”
    “My god . . . the Miami area has two and a half million people alone.”
    “Even if we act now we’ve still conservatively estimated the death toll to be five million.”
     
     
    08:30 AM
     
    Luke sat back in his business class seat and thought back to the day before. Christ, was it only yesterday that a helicopter blade sliced his good buddy in half? So much had happened since then. He cursed his boss’s reluctance in backing him on his story and contemplated running the story on an anonymous website, but thought against it. He did not want the authorities on his back – again. Someone sneezed behind him and he felt a chill go down his spine. It made him realize how many people were sneezing at the airport. Could