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Canada.
From the reports we have pieced together, all of these incidents occurred in
the separate places within five to ten minutes of each other. There is no
doubt it was a concerted effort. Each incident involves the spreading of a
very light, airborne substance, delivered by various means.
Each of the perpetrators was either killed, or committed suicide when
approached by authorities.
We are working with local authorities and the FBI at this point to try and
identify these people and determine something about their background. None of
them had any personal identification on them and for those who had cars, their
license plates are a dead end. Either stolen or fabricated in each instance.
When Director Langstrom had stopped speaking, the President turned to the
Secretary of Health and
Human Services, Jill North.
Secretary North, what is the latest on the symptoms and what we know of the
material that these people attacked us with?
Jill North had been a part of the Weisskopf administration. She had lived with
the knowledge that such an attack was possible, even probable, since 2005 when
major hostilities in the Middle East began. She had been surprised, but
thankful, that nothing had transpired to date. In the intervening years, she
and her staff and the agencies under her, had taken the time to plan and
prepare.
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But, as symptoms of these incidents were beginning to display themselves and
as the disease was spreading, she knew that she could not have been fully
prepared for this.
Mr. President, we are studying the substance. Samples are already in Atlanta
and I will let the Director of the CDC address that particular question in
just a moment.
As to the symptoms that victims are displaying& it is extremely troubling and
something we need to immediately take into consideration. We may not know at
this point exactly what the substance is, but we do know that it is extremely
contagious and that it proves to be fatal, very quickly.
Our most direct example of this occurred with one of our first responders. In
St. Louis, the Sheriff's deputy who responded to the incident there, and was
personally instrumental in helping end it, was exposed to a liberal dose of
the substance. Within three hours of exposure, he began developing severe
flu-like symptoms that led rapidly to severe hemorrhaging and the expulsion of
bloody sputum. Most disturbing was a rapid swelling and severe pain in the
lymph glands and then the appearance of sores in his mouth and on his skin
that rapidly spread over his entire body, these sores rapidly filled with an
opaque fluid and then turned into sharply raise pustules.
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This deputy died in great pain less than an hour ago. Several motorists and
other officers that the
Deputy came in contact with after the incident, and then several of the
initial medical workers who dealt with him, have all come down with the same
symptoms within the last two hours.
We are treating all of them now in secure, environmentally controlled
facilities. The entire episode, including all incidents are being treated as a
class 3 contagion and we are following procedure to cordon off and quarantine
areas. We have a major lock down on the city of St. Louis now, where hundreds
of cases of these same symptoms have now been reported.
We are experiencing similar conditions in all of the affected cities. Panic
in those areas is becoming a very real concern as people are hearing of the
disease and its symptoms, and as they observe official governmental efforts to
cordon off areas. The result is that many are trying to leave and escape in
front of it. The problem is that many of those trying to escape have already
been infected.
Let me ask Dr. Slater to step in at this point and talk about the substance
itself. Dr. Slater?
Dr. Ian Slater, a medical Doctor, held a PhD. from John Hopkins in the study
of contagious pathogens.
He had been working with Secretary North for several years to prepare for just
this type of an outbreak.
That work had included significant coordination and cooperation with the
Department of Homeland
Security, who coordinated the efforts with the states, and with NORCOMM.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, we have an extremely serious situation
on our hands.
This substance is highly contagious and exhibits very dangerous and quick
acting symptoms both in terms of its incubation period, but also in terms of
its onset and maturity. In the end, those qualities may actually help us as
its spread plays out& but right now, it is hurting us badly, as is evidenced by
Secretary
North's description of current conditions.
The agent itself is rather complex. We are almost certain at this point that
it is at least a binary agent& perhaps an agent with as many as three or four
pathogens factored into it.
The President interrupted briefly at this point.
Excuse me, Dr. Slater, but for the benefit of those who may not be aware,
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please explain what you mean when you say it is a binary agent.
The Doctor immediately understood the need to be a little more basic in his
explanation and complied.
Certainly, Mr. President.
A binary agent is one that is activated to its full potential when the two
agents are combined. Standing alone, the two agents may or may not be
dangerous, but when combined, their threat posed by them usually rises by
several orders of magnitude.
We believe that this is what we are dealing with here.
We have already isolated
Bacillus anthracic as one of the agents in this deadly mix. For those of you
unaware of the significance of that statement, let me fill you in.
Bacillus anthracic was the substance that was used in the anthrax attacks in
the United States after 911.
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Our test have already indicated that this particular strain is of the same
variety as that which was used in
2001. In other words, this substance comes from the same source as that used
in 2001.
With this statement by Dr. Slater, several of the individuals in attendance
immediately began asking questions, or making statements simultaneously.
Several of the attendees literally shouted at the Dr.
himself about the sensitive nature of the statement that he had just made.
The President considered the nature of the statement and the security
clearances of everyone in attendance. He judged for himself that their
clearances were adequate and that there was a definite need to know for
everyone on the room, given circumstances. He judged that this warranted him
making an important and startling revelation.
Okay everyone, let's have some order.
Everyone please be quiet so we can continue.
Once everyone settled down and order was restored, the President continued
Alright, I am about to make a statement that must be considered by everyone
in this meeting to be a Q
Class Secret, Eyes Only and Ears Only. You are not to discuss it outside of
this meeting, or other meetings that deal specifically with this topic and
specifically with the people you know are cleared for this information.
For all intents in purposes, that only includes the people in this meeting
unless you are otherwise informed in person by myself, the Vice President, the
Director of Homeland Security, or the Secretary of
Defense I will now ask each of you directly, for the record, if this is
clearly understood.
After querying each person regarding their understanding of the statement he
had just made, and seeing that everyone had quieted and been sobered by the
statement, the President continued.
In 2001, following the 911 attacks, this nation was subjected to a biological
attack by anthrax. It was a small attack and we wondered at the time why a
more major attack was not forthcoming.
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