The secretary of defense — called SecDef — conceived of the idea and had convinced the president to approve it so that the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security could obtain real-time, hard data in advance of an inevitable, actual terrorist-sponsored bioweapon attack expected to occur someday against some American city.
The former deputy secretary of defense — the Deputy SecDef — who had been the SecDef’s confidant also knew of the president’s role. The Deputy SecDef had implemented the president’s plan for the Department of Defense and was intimately involved in all aspects of the experiment.
There also were the man and woman at the Pentagon who had helped the Deputy SecDef carry out the plan on behalf of the Pentagon. It was not at all clear that they knew of the president’s role, but had to be considered potential treats when the president mopped-up the mess he’d created for himself.
Last among government employees who possibly knew the president’s secret was the woman at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She certainly knew of the Pentagon’s role in the matter, and had secretly supplied the Pentagon with the deadly pathogen used to implement the president’s plan. She, too, had to be considered a loose end.
Then there were the two outsiders who were not employed by the federal government — a Washington, DC lawyer named Trace Austin, who was an ex-Navy SEAL, and his wife, Isabella. They had stumbled upon the truth while vacationing in Fort Lauderdale while trying to survive martial law and quarantine.
Seven loose ends, the president thought. And just eight months to eliminate seven problems.
NO SAFE PLACE Page 31