Elevated Threat

by William Robson

  When two dapper gentlemen from the Deep Sea guest list dropped by to congratulate Chef Alberto on his marvelous new facilities, the chef was beaming with pride. When the two gentlemen informed him that they too were in the restaurant business back in their home country of Afghanistan, and that they would love to see how it all worked, the chef was more than happy to spend a few minutes giving them a tour around his new facilities. Chef Alberto was in heaven when the two men started gushing over the possibilities the vegetable preparer had for their new restaurant.

  Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a particularly nasty business. Imagine the morning after the worst drinking night you ever had. Or imagine the feeling you get after drinking milk that was so old it came out in clumps. Now imagine that feeling did not get better, even after you had flushed all remnants of the bad stuff from your system. Imagine feeling so bad that laying in the fetal position with your face pressed against the cool porcelain of a toilet actually sounded like a good idea. That feeling would only be the first stage of an attack of the particularly nasty strain of bacteria called E. coli O157:H7.

  Now imagine that you were really unlucky, and you were one of the 5% of the people who ingest E. coli O157:H7 where the infection adds a complication known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome. When this syndrome takes hold, your red blood cells are destroyed and kidney failure soon follows.

  Over 90% of this strain of E. coli originates in cattle intestines. Rendering plants and downstream meat processing plants have become adept at keeping the great majority of this pathogen from ever reaching the abundant beef and beef products that end up in our supermarkets. Cooking the beef to a minimum of 162°F will kill off any of the pathogens that the meat processors have missed. Fortunately for the general population of meat-eaters, the combination of proper slaughter techniques and the public’s understanding of the necessity of proper cooking, this particular strain is little known outside the world of white coated lab scientists.

  Naturally occurring E. coli O157:H7 is highly virulent and has a low infectious dose. An inoculation of only 10 to 100 CFU of E. coli O157:H7 is sufficient to cause human infection. Other E. coli strains often require over one-million CFU to cause an infection. Adding to the bad news, this nasty bugger of a bacteria has a long shelf life. It’s certainly a good thing that it doesn’t normally show up in vegetables since they are often served unwashed and uncooked. If that were the case, there would be far more than the 21,000 reported cases in the US in a typical year. In Third World countries with poor meat processing controls and poor health facilities the infection rate is exponentially higher and the recovery rate is much lower.

  It was while working on reducing this infection rate from E. coli O157:H7 in Third World countries that the Deep Sea passenger Dr. Quadri discovered an interesting effect of his gene manipulation. When Dr. Quadri altered a particular gene in a strand of E. coli O157:H7 DNA, instead of lowering the infection rate as hoped, he discovered that the adoption rate of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome in his test animals afflicted with E. coli O157:H7 increased from a naturally occurring 5% up to 90%.

  When the doctor’s modified bacteria producing much more deadly results was coupled with the bacteria’s naturally occurring low inoculation rate, he realized that very small volumes of this genetically engineered version could be added to a very large volume solution substrate and still achieve a large footprint of infections.

  As an added sinister bonus, a person infected by this strain of bacteria becomes very contagious and can spread it to others by skin transfer or by water transfer. The doctor created a perfect pathogen to use in a large capacity food preparer like the one on the Deep Sea.

  May 14, 2015

  By everyone’s account, the meal the chef prepared for the Deep Sea passengers on their final night was to die for. The consensus was that everything from the duck l’orange to the rabbit confitte had been prepared exquisitely. Chef Alberto’s signature vegetable plates were every bit as crisp and refreshing as they were billed to be. It was a real shame that two of the ship’s guests had to leave the ship in Grand Bahama to attend to family emergencies and, thus, had missed this masterpiece of culinary perfection.

  The dinner and dessert plates were continuing to be served well into the evening to the ravenous passengers. Dancing was held after dinner in the Grand Ballroom. The small carrot plates offered to the tired dancers were a perfect refresher from the copious drinks that they had been consuming. Even those passengers that were more attuned to spending the night in the ship’s casino, rather than the dance hall, were thrilled to have the vegetable appetizers available as they watched their stack of chips shrink before their eyes.

  All good things come to an end, so eventually even the heartiest of the satiated guests wandered off to their rooms to sleep off their long day of fun in the sun and the sumptuous meal. Many of the passengers would be giving up many diet points after this long day of eating and drinking. While the passengers slept off their long day, the crew of the Deep Sea went about the business of setting sail for the overnight journey back to Miami.

  Only two of the passengers on the Deep Sea had any symptoms that anything was wrong prior to the ships arrival in Miami. Of course, their vomiting and stomach cramps could have been attributed to their recent excess of alcohol, sun, or whatever else that they may have ingested. The ship’s doctor suggested they should drink lots of fluids, get some rest, and take an over-the-counter antacid if the symptoms didn’t go away in a day or so.

  Symptoms from E. coli infection typically show up between one and seven days. Yet within two days, over 600 of the Deep Sea passengers and crew had fallen sick. By the time the last case was diagnosed, nearly 1,200 individuals had been sickened, and just over 900 of those had been hospitalized. By day three, 382 had died with kidney failure. Since many of the passengers on board had been elderly, their lack of strength to recover from the kidney failure doomed them.

  It didn’t take the local health authorities long to trace the E. coli outbreak back to the Deep Sea, and from there on to the vegetable briner. What stumped the authorities was how such a small amount of the live bacteria, they were able to recover from the brine solution, was capable of causing such a massive number of people to get sick. Even more puzzling to the CDC was how fast the live bacteria that was collected was dying. They knew this strain usually had a very long shelf life, yet very few live bacteria had been found in the brine and most of what they recovered for testing was inert within hours. It didn’t take a great leap of imagination to understand the bacteria had been modified from its normal form.

  Even more suspicious to the investigators was how a bacterium like E. coli O157:H7, which is normally only found in cattle intestines, had not been found in any of the meat or dairy products they had tested from the Deep Sea. It was hard to imagine a scenario where the outbreak of sickness on the Deep Sea could have been accidental. The Center for Disease Control, and the FBI were alerted. The authorities informed the Deep Sea owners that all of their scheduled trips for the foreseeable future would be canceled. That was a moot declaration, as by the time the death count started rising, the owners already had their lawyers working on bankruptcy filings.

  The initial report from Dr. Thomas Flarety, the CDC’s chief investigator, to the FBI was startling. In part, the report stated that the E. coli they had been able to retrieve and test exhibited three very uncommon characteristics.

  Of the patients from the Deep Sea that had been infected, 86% of them had contracted hemolytic-uremic syndrome. The expected rate would be approximately 5%. Of the 86% who contracted hemolyticuremic syndrome, 60% had died despite intense inoculations of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which had previously shown very effective against E. coli O157:H7. With the naturally occurring death rate of in the 3–5% range, a new type of pathogen was the only explanation.

  E. coli O157:H7 has the ability to survive in acidic conditions similar to that of the ship’s vegetable briner for up to 56 days. Yet, the survival rate of the bac
teria found in the brine solution was estimated to be less than 24 hours. Therefore, the bacteria must have been inserted into the briner while the ship was at sea.

  Despite the very low inoculation rate of between 10 and 100 CFU being required to infect a human, the total amount of E. coli found in the vegetable briner could not have been able to infect as many people as fell sick. Therefore, there must be another source of the bacteria onboard that has not yet been found.

  In his private report to the FBI, Dr. Flarety’s summary of his findings led him to only one conclusion: the outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 from the Deep Sea was not an accidental occurrence, and that the pathogen itself was not a naturally occurring bacteria.

  The report Dr. Thomas Flarety provided to the press was far less dramatic. It read in part:

  “The hospitalization of the Deep Sea passengers was caused by an exceptionally virulent strain of E. coli O157:H7. The origination point of this outbreak was found to be the ship’s vegetable briner. We have not yet concluded how the bacteria was introduced to the briner. The CDC is currently investigating all produce suppliers to the ship. As of now, no other source for the bacteria has been found on board and tests that have been conducted on the food supplies from other cruise operators have been all negative for E. coli. At this time, we are not aware of any other threat to our food supply.

  The human-to-human infectious transmission period for this bacteria has now passed and, therefore, we do not believe that there will be any more infected individuals from this outbreak. The CDC has ordered that all other cruise ships’ food services must be inspected prior to any future sailings. In addition to these inspections, we will be reviewing all food preparation procedures to make sure your food will be as safe as possible.”

  The other cruise ship operators did not take long to respond to the outbreak on the Deep Sea. Within 12 hours, every one of the major cruise lines released a statement to the press. Each of the statements read like it had come from the same copy. Each declared that they were deeply saddened by the unfortunate accidental E. coli outbreak on the Deep Sea, and then gave strong assurances that they had tested all of their food and services providers. Despite their reassurances, cruise reservations were down 37% in one week.

  Reporters from many news outlets blasted the FDA and the cruise lines for their poor inspection processes and lack of effort to keep the food safe. Old stories were rerun about past E. coli outbreaks. Many of the old stories were not even related to cruise ships, but they were paraded out by the media nonetheless as evidence of the need for diligence and care with our food preparation, and to get ratings. Cruise ship reservations went down another 20% by the second week.

  The ever present lawyers started making cold calls to the families that had lost loved ones. Whatever the cause, someone was surely going to pay dearly for the great loss. Not to mention that fuel for a lawyers G5 doesn’t come cheap these days.

  The general public, not planning a cruise anytime soon, regarded the brewing controversy as just one more tragic trick of life that was caused by (a) a lack of governmental oversight, or (b) too much regulation caused by overtaxation.

  Agent Scholes and his team at the CIA were not so easily dismissive of the events on the Deep Sea. The FBI’s New York team’s inspections of the 14 ships, that had been emailed from the Maurou, had discovered absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. The CIA’s computer forensics team found no use whatsoever for the email contents that were sent to them. And now, right under his nose, a cruise ship contracts a major health incident. When Agent Scholes received a copy of the unfiltered CDC report from Dr. Thomas Flarety he knew he had been had. The emails from the Maurou, which he had been chasing down, were nothing more than a ruse designed to keep him looking at the terrorist’s left hand while his right hand had palmed the pea. Agent Scholes gave his team a new directive, find the two men who had exited the Deep Sea on Grand Bahama Island.

  It turned out to be surprisingly easy to follow the two men’s whereabouts immediately after leaving the ship. After having lunch at Shenanigan’s Irish Pub in Port Lucaya, they had wandered the marketplace square for several hours. Then the two rented a powerboat at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club for a two-hour charter. Every interviewed local who had come into contact with the two men had described them as sophisticated, intelligent, and friendly. None interviewed could identify their heritage other than that they were dark-skinned and likely from the Middle East. They were also big tippers.

  Surveillance pictures recovered from the rental boat office showed one was a short balding man and the other a slightly taller and much thinner man. Both were dark-skinned and they wore expensive clothes. The taller man wore a white Panama hat. Hotel records on the island were searched and all airplane and ship records were reviewed. Neither man had been seen or heard from after 4:00 p.m. local time. A valid US issued credit card had been used for all of their money transactions. The bank that issued the card declared that the account used was opened eight days earlier, had not been accessed prior to the day on the island, and had not been used since. The account still had several thousand dollars in it.

  Agent Scholes truly had been set up. Those emails had him and his team chasing phantoms in New York. The only thing Agent Scholes was sure of was that these people he was chasing were certainly not the ordinary jihadists he spent his career trying to find. He was starting to believe they must be state sponsored; they were just too good to be independents. But if they were, what country could be supporting them? And more importantly, what were they up to next?

  To the entire intelligence community, one very worrying thought was beginning to register. This new adversary on the East Coast had now proven they had control over a new form of a weaponized biological agent, and was still invisible to them. What if this East Coast group were somehow related to the biological events involving the shipping containers on the West Coast? With hundreds of cruise ships in the water on any given day, and hundreds of thousands of shipping containers reaching our shores daily, the possibility of something even more devastating happening was starting to seem inevitable.

  SHIPPING DEATH

  Name: Dr. Abasi Chalthoum PhD

  Age: 56

  Nationality: Egyptian

  Education: Faculty of Medicine Cairo University. Pharmacology primary focus.

  Professional History: Studied the biology of renegade neoplastic cells in leukemia, lymphomas, and solid tumors.

  Family history: Father (Fadil) was Principle Investigator at Cairo University, Mother (Ament) was an activist for women’s rights, killed during protest in 2011.

  Current whereabouts: Unknown

  Current watch-list status: Green

  May 18, 2015

  Seattle, Washington

  10 AM

  Over one month had passed since Agent Andrews’ outer layer of onion had been peeled back regarding the mysterious paint found on those five containers, and absolutely no new information about them had since surfaced. The forensics team could find nothing more than insignificant amounts of a common chemical blister agent mixed in with the paint. There had been no new suspicious containers arrive at any of the West Coast ports, and all containers that arrived up to two weeks prior to them checked out clean.

  The CIA teams in China had come up with nothing but dead ends. The Chinese government was claiming to be working with the US intelligence to locate the sources of the containers, but every time the CIA discovered a lead that showed bribery or incompetence by a high-level worker inside the port management, their investigation was curiously obstructed by the Chinese military. They claimed it was necessary for national security reasons, but the conclusion at Langley was that the obstruction was only to prevent the Chinese government from looking incompetent.

  Since the Chinese shipped thousands of cargo containers to the US daily, they also had a very large financial incentive to not do anything that would slow down those shipments. The administration’s diplomats were pressing hard for their cooperati
on. But the Chinese officials argued that since the US could provide no evidence that the minute traces of chemicals found on the containers could cause any health risk, or that there was any evidence of a repeat situation happening, or that an imminent threat was present from any other port in China, that it would be more prudent to move on and keep the precious cargo flowing to our shores.

  Over those same weeks, there had been no new alarms at any of the West Coast ports. Even Clyde had started to resume a normal life again. He was sure he had seen his last day on the docks after spilling his guts to Anne. But since nothing he said was untrue, and since Anne had used a master’s deftness in discretion when citing her unnamed source in her articles, the little white trailer continued to be Clyde’s home away from home five days a week. It didn’t hurt that firing a union dock worker with twenty-eight years on the job is well-neigh impossible,

  Without Clyde’s only trucker friend, Assad, around anymore and with Anne now busy with her new job at the AP, the days of weighing the loads had started to grow longer and retirement was looking better for Clyde every day. After the techs had adjusted those stupid chemical sniffers, they had stopped their annoying habit of setting off false alarms when it rained. Clyde was getting to the point where he almost wished ugly old Agent Andrews would come around and live out his threat, just to spice up the day. Fortunately, a ship loaded to the gills with containers was due in soon and Clyde would stay busy for the next nine hours.