Executive orders - Tom Clancy [495]
The first of the MPS ships to sortie from the large anchorage was USNS Bob Hope, a newly built military-type roll-on/roll-off transport displacing close to 80,000 tons, and carrying 952 vehicles. Her civilian crew had a little tradition for their movements. Oversized speakers blared Thanks for the Memories at the naval base as she passed by, just after midnight, followed by four of her sisters. Aboard, they had the full vehicle complement for a reinforced heavy brigade. Passing the reef-marked entrance, the handles were pushed down on the enunciators, demanding twenty-six knots of the big Colt-Pielstick diesels.
THEY WAITED FOR Goodley and van Damm to come in, and then it took ten minutes to bring them up to speed on what was going on. By this time, the enormity of it was sinking into the President's consciousness, and he had to struggle with emotions now in addition to intellect. He noted that Cathy, though she had to be as horrified as he was, was taking everything calmly, at least outwardly so. Well, it was her field, wasn't it?
I didn't think Ebola could survive outside a jungle, Goodley said.
It can't, at least not long-term, or it would have traveled around the world by now.
It kills too fast for that, SURGEON objected.
Cathy, we've had jet travel for over thirty years now. This little bastard is delicate. That works for us.
How do we find out who did it? This came from Arnie.
We interview all the victims, find out where they've been, and try to narrow the focal centers down to one point if we can. That's an investigative function. Epidemiologists are pretty good at that but this one's a little big, Alexandre added.
Could the FBI help, Doctor? van Damm asked.
Can't hurt.
I'll get Murray over here, the chief of staff told the President.
You can't treat it? POTUS asked.
No, what happens is the epidemic burns itself out over several generational cycles. What I mean by that-okay, one person gets it. The virus reproduces in them, and then they pass it on to somebody else. Every victim becomes an imperfect host. As the disease reproduces and kills the victim, the victim passes it on to the next one. But, and here's the good news, Ebola doesn't reproduce efficiently. As it goes through these generational cycles, it becomes less virulent. Most of the survivors in an outbreak happen toward the end, because the virus progressively mutates itself into a less dangerous form. The organism is so primitive that it doesn't do everything well.
How many cycles before that happens, Alex? Cathy asked.
He shrugged. It's empirical. We know the process, but we can't quantify it.
Lots of unknowns. She grimaced.
Mr. President?
Yes, Doctor?
The movie you saw?
What about it?
The budget for that movie is quite a bit more than all the funding for research in virology. Keep that in mind. I guess it isn't sexy enough. Arnie started to say something. Alex cut him off with a raised hand. I'm not on the government payroll anymore, sir. I don't have any empire to build. My research is privately funded. I'm just stating a fact. What the hell, I guess we can't fund everything.
If we can't treat it, how do we stop it? Ryan asked, getting things back on track. His head turned. A shadow crossed the South Lawn, and the roar of a helicopter came through the bulletproof windows.
AHH, BADRAYN OBSERVED with a smile. The Internet was designed to give access to information, not to conceal it, and from a friend of a friend of a friend who was a medical student at Emory University in Atlanta, he had the password to crack into that medical center's electronic mail. Another keyword eliminated all of the clutter, and there it was. It was 14:00 hours on America's east coast, and Emory reported to CDC that it now had six cases of suspected hemorrhagic fever. Better yet, CDC had already replied, and that told him a lot more. Badrayn printed up both letters, and made a telephone call. Now he really had good news to deliver.
RAMAN FELT THE DC-9 thump down in Pittsburgh after a brief