Our greatest fear has always been that a terrorist group would realise a method to take a disease and transpose it into something more deadly. This has been achieved and, regretfully, I must tell you that the current strain of smallpox has a one hundred per cent fatality rate.
I have chosen to speak to you from a joint seating of Congress with the full support of all those present, Republican and Democrat.
Currently, we are projecting fatalities in Montana of over one hundred thousand and in the north-west an additional eighty-five to ninety thousand. The outbreaks throughout the country, undefined at this present moment, will possibly be as high as one to two million.
The Martial Law that was enacted in Montana will now be extended nationwide.
The details of control are as follows:
All road transport intercity within the United States of America is suspended.
All airports in the United States of America are to be closed.
No flights will be allowed to leave or enter the United States of America.
Any person who believes they may be infected is to contact their nearest police station. They are to use the phone, not visit. Medical personnel will visit them, wherever they are, within twenty-four hours. Once they are declared free of the infection, they will be given a certificate to that effect.
Any persons who have been in contact with an infected person within the last seven days are to use the phone, not visit, their local police station.
This executive order will take effect twenty-four hours from the conclusion of my speech today. After that, the military has full authority to take what actions may be required, including force.
There is to be a total ban on large gatherings of people. This includes shopping centres, sporting events, religious institutions, and entertainment centres. As areas of the country are declared free of the infection, they will be exempted from the restrictions.
This is a Global Extinction Level Event. We have seen the Middle East, primarily Israel and the Palestinian Gaza, experiencing fatalities in the order of fifteen to eighteen per cent of their populations. Outbreaks are also occurring in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. It is believed Cairo, the capital of Egypt, will suffer a loss of at least thirty to thirty-five percent of its population.
There is a confirmed outbreak in a refugee camp in the north of Kenya. With their poor level of nutritional health and crowded conditions, the fatality numbers may be as high as eighty percent in the camp, forty to forty-five per cent in East Africa.
Current projections worldwide of between ninety to one hundred million fatalities appear to be realistic. In the USA as I stated before, we are projecting two million, and that is by taking aggressive measures. Failure to take such actions will see well over five million, possibly more.
This is not a time for despair. It is a time for us, a people of a proud nation, to unite as one and to emerge triumphantly.
I thank you for your support and God Bless.
***
The next day the Daily Mail in England emblazoned with the American President’s speech, proudly announced that they were first with the details of the bioweapon ready to be deployed to the south-west of London. A smaller headline, three weeks later, announced that their editor, Gordon Smithers, a rough-talking lover of a pint of ale and the lovely barmaid at the Ye Olde Cock Tavern on Fleet Street, had died.
His wife, the honourable Sophie Augustus, second daughter of a minor aristocrat in the north of England, had adored Smithers. She readily forgave him his excessive drinking, his occasional philandering, and his paper’s often inappropriate headlines, as long as he kept her well-supplied with a gold-plated credit card and the house on the south coast of Devon.
He had been piloting his late model Jaguar down for the weekend – it was too expensive to refer to it as just ‘driving’ – when he stopped in at the Guildhall Shopping Centre in Exeter. She had asked to pick up some overly-priced and no doubt silly object. At least she would be in a good mood, he thought. He hoped it would lead to some night-time romance to compensate for the knockback he had received from the barmaid at his favourite watering hole the night before.
His visit, unfortunately, coincided with Malik Khan, who armed with a broom and a dust coat, was contentedly sweeping the floor. It seemed logical his spraying the air just where little Jimmy Uxbridge had thrown up after eating two burgers layered in chilli sauce.
The weekend went well, the romance with Sophie was as expected. Twelve days later, he started to complain of irritating sores in his throat. It was ironic that it was his paper that had revealed the bioweapon possibility to the nation and that he, the editor, would be one of the first to feel its effects.
Malik Khan had focussed on Exeter. His two colleagues, the brothers Ahmed and Yousaf Taseer, had travelled further down towards Cornwall. Ahmed focussed on Newquay as he had been there for a holiday as a child. Finding no shopping centres worthy of his time, he visited the hospital out on Saint Thomas’ Road. Yousaf travelled on to Penzance, to the Wharfside Shopping Centre.
With the sprays exhausted, the Taseer brothers, as well as Malik Khan, waited in a caravan park for twelve days more before continuing their journeys around the West Country. Gordon Smithers had been one of the first infected, he was not to be the last.
‘It’s too late. The sprays have been released,’ Harry said to Charles. ‘There’s confirmation coming in of smallpox outbreaks in Devon and Cornwall.
‘There was only one crate. What can we do now?’
‘Not a lot, from what I can see,’ Harry reluctantly admitted.
***
Two days later Detective Inspector Charles Proctor and Harry Warburton found themselves sitting across the table from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
‘What’s the situation?’ the Prime Minister asked. ‘I know what’s happening in the States and the Middle East. Is this what we have here?’
‘Yes, Prime Minister,’ Charles replied.
‘Martial law, is that what you are saying?’
‘That’s what they’ve used in America. You must have advisers who would have told you this?’ Harry said.
‘Advisers, yes, plenty of them, but it’s an election year. Some say I should declare martial law; others say I should wait and see. You guys are independent, I’m asking you. Warburton, you’re the Earl, and Proctor, you’re a policeman. The advice from both of you may be more relevant. You’ve been in the Middle East. You know what we’re up against.’
Tom Davis, elected with a clear majority five years previously, had been a firebrand trade unionist in the north before turning to politics. Tall, red-haired and with an intimidating personality, he had shouted down many a politician, including the previous Prime Minister, who had foolishly agreed to debate him in an open forum.
The former Prime Minister, as well as the majority of Tom Davis’s fellow unionists, failed to realise that behind that frightening presence, was an articulate and very smart man, tactically far superior to any of them. The previous government’s campaign to get the unemployed back to work when there wasn’t enough work had lost them the wide-based support they had enjoyed in the electorate. The subsequent reduction in the unemployment benefits for failing to take a job three hundred miles away had sealed their fate. His opposition party had been elected in a landslide.
Although an ardent socialist, fighter for the poor and disadvantaged, he had wasted no time in enrolling his two sons, Billy and Alfred into Harrow, the school for the country’s elite. An avid exponent of government schooling, he was not going to chance his sons’ luck when he knew the best came with a price tag that he could now afford.
‘You need to declare martial law in the West Country immediately,’ Charles said. ‘It’s a peninsula. It should be possible to put in place a barrier.’
‘What do you suggest we do about the people who’ve moved around the country? What about them?’
‘We need to find them the best we can,’ replied Harry. The c
urrent Prime Minister had little use for titles of privilege. There had been none of the bowing and scraping that irritated the reluctant Earl.
‘Are you both free to help?’ the Prime Minister asked.
‘Sure, and Charles can bring in the full police force,’ Harry said.
‘Yes, I can do that,’ confirmed Charles. It’s ironic, he thought, not so long ago I was confined to a mind-numbing office job, put out to pasture, and now, here I am advising the Prime Minister.
‘I’ll phone the Police Commissioner,’ the Prime Minister said.
‘That’s fine.’ Charles could only smile.
‘Is there any more of this virus in the country?’ The PM asked.
‘We believe we have accounted for all in this country,’ Harry said. ‘There’s a missing crate in New York.’
‘The President never mentioned that in his speech to Congress.’
‘That would have caused more panic,’ Harry said.
‘It’s appreciable from the reports we’re receiving,’ replied the PM. ‘The rioting in the cities affected, senseless vandalising, untold rapes and murder. All true I suppose?’
‘That’s only what is being reported. There are some serious clamps on the media there now. The rural areas are acting in a spirit of harmony, but the mainly rundown parts of the major cities, where there are confirmed outbreaks, are now without law and order. The military is sending in jets and helicopters to strafe as needed. They’ve even used missiles on some groups trying to break out of the blockades. We’ve seen the best in some people, the worst in others.’
‘And that’s what we’re going to see here?’ the PM asked a question, knowing the answer.
‘There’s no question on that score, but what else can you do?’ Harry said.
‘Nothing. I’ll need to announce it to the nation tonight.’
It took a full meeting of Prime Minister Davis’ cabinet, plus the opposition leader and his deputy in Downing Street, to agree on the wording for his address to Parliament. It was delayed for twelve hours to give time for the military to mobilise fifty thousand troops down to the border of Devon. A line had been drawn from the west of Lyme Regis in the south to six miles east of Lynton in the north. Any infections into Somerset and Dorset and the military would progressively move eastwards to isolate infected areas. It would, in time, be the biggest military operation in England since the D-Day landings some seventy years earlier.
***
Prime Minister’s Speech to the Nation.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am addressing you from the Houses of Parliament in London.
It has been confirmed that Devon and Cornwall have been targeted by a terrorist organisation. The outbreaks of smallpox that have occurred in the United States of America and the Middle East have unfortunately now been confirmed in the United Kingdom.
Initial reports indicate that Exeter, Newquay, and Penzance are the primary targets.
I do not need to tell you the seriousness of the outbreak in this country and the determination of the Government, the Opposition and the Military to contain and eradicate the disease. The virulence of the disease, the reported lack of a vaccine, requires drastic measures. Measures that we as a nation are uniquely placed to deal with.
Commencing with effect twelve hours from the time of this broadcast, the eastern border of Devon will be cut. From that time, no movement in either direction will be allowed. The armed forces of Great Britain will be charged with full authority to implement what actions are necessary without recourse to Parliament for approval.
It would be foolish and counterproductive, indeed irresponsible, to offer words of platitude at this time. The situation in America is extreme, the death tally high and rising. It can only be assumed that we will see a similar situation.
It is clear that movement from the affected areas to other parts of the country will have occurred, and when infections are confirmed elsewhere in the country, those areas will also be isolated.
Now is a time for unity, not division, and it is hoped that good sense and a solid community spirit will see us through this difficult time.
Smallpox is a highly infectious disease. It is spread through airborne contact. Anyone showing symptoms of the disease is to be isolated. It is imperative that no contact with other persons is allowed. There is no cure. Medical treatment will only alleviate suffering. It is not a time for the government to offer a false promise of a vaccine and a statement that the effects of the disease will be minimal.
It is clear that the population of this country, in fact, the majority of the world will suffer a substantial reduction. It is for us to show the world how to act in a dignified and responsible manner.
I thank you, God bless.
Chapter 14
North East Afghanistan seemed a million miles away from what was happening throughout the world. Samir Habash was becoming increasingly irrational. The wispy beard, almost fully grown, impressive even by the standards of the Taliban. The clothes, the black turban and the rifle over his shoulder were all as they should be. His transformation from brilliant scientist to tribal leader was almost complete.
‘Samir, it is a great thing that you have done. The great Satan is close to collapse. They will embrace our cause as we march triumphant into their capital. They will see Islam and Allah as their saviour,’ Rehmani, his tribal mentor, said in joyous celebration.
‘It has come at the cost of many of our people in Palestine.’
‘They have martyred themselves to the cause. Their rewards will be waiting for them in heaven.’ Rehmani cared little as to their fate.
‘You are right,’ Samir replied, as they sat cross-legged on the floor chewing pistachio nuts and drinking tea.
‘We will continue to attack the infidel countries until they are destroyed.’
‘You would contemplate the deaths of hundreds of millions?’
‘To achieve our aim in the glory of Allah, it would cause me little concern.’ Abdul Rehmani was a savage individual even by the standards of the Taliban. ‘A world dedicated to the devotion of Allah justifies any cost.’
‘I lived among them for many years. I knew them as friends.’
‘You mention the name of a woman in your sleep.’
‘I knew her in Jordan.’
‘Did you know she was sent to spy on you?’
‘She was employed at the German University to teach languages.’
‘How naïve you are. I know of her from when we were fighting the Americans in Helmand Province.’
‘I cannot believe you. It cannot be true.’
‘What did she do, sleep with you? Profess love?’ Rehmani sneered.
‘Yes, and I professed my love for her as well.’
‘Then you have a lot to learn, my poor deluded and lovesick fool. You will come to realise that women are mere chattels, of less importance than a donkey or a rifle.’
Rehmani gladly added another depth of his cunning to convert Samir Habash to his ideology. ‘I will grant you she is a remarkable woman. Her ability to move undercover as a local woman, to speak the language is uncanny. She killed six of our men in close combat without a scratch on her.’
‘The woman I knew was not a fighter.’
‘You are more a fool than I took you for. She is a remarkable woman. A Muslim, yet she fought with the infidels. What we would have done with her had we caught her. It would have not been death for her, but a life of pleasuring us as we wished.’
‘I will accept the truth of what you say.’ He had no reason to dispute Rehmani’s claims. ‘I will endeavour to serve Allah and the Prophet, peace be unto him, more faithfully under your guidance.’
‘So when and where can we inflict more damage?’ the devious Taliban asked.
‘We need more of the virus to be sent to wherever we want.’
‘Do you have any more?’
‘I brought four crates with me. We can choose four countries. Which ones do you choose?’
‘Can we send more
to the Great Satan?’
‘They are already infected. After the release in New York, their death count will go to over one hundred million.’
‘But there are more people than that in their country, aren’t there?’ Rehmani wanted the country destroyed after what they had done to him in Guantanamo, what they had encouraged in a torture cell in Egypt.
‘Yes, there is three times that many.’
‘Then why don’t we kill them all?’
‘You don’t need to. Their economy will collapse before then. Even now, there is no movement in the country. It has blockaded all its borders and famine will soon occur. They will never threaten Islam again. In time, their military will fold, and you will be dealing with a farming community, not a dominant military power.’
‘I will take your advice,’ Rehmani said.
‘If Yanny is as you say, an employee of the CIA,’ Samir said, careful to control his emotions in the presence of one of the most ruthless Taliban leaders, ‘then I would choose her home country of Germany.’
‘So would I. My brother was killed when he blew up one of their armoured personnel carriers out on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad. Is Satan’s friend, England, finished?’
‘It will be. England will not be able to contain the virus to one part of their country. It will quickly enter into every corner of their land. The release of the virus in New York will soon spread throughout the world. Our people will release the virus once the borders reopen.’
‘Our people in New York,’ Rehmani asked. ‘Are they safe?’
‘They will not be discovered until the time is ready to release the virus.’
‘Time is what we have in plenty. Time enough for me to complete your conversion.’
***
Ed Small, still in America, had assumed leadership of the team attempting to find the missing crate in New York.
‘What do we know of the people who took it?’ he asked.
Terrorist: Three Book Boxed Set Page 17