An African Rebound

by Dan Doyle

  It took only another twenty minutes for the soldiers to unearth the bodies, which were still draped in cloth and exuded the wretched odor of death.

  “Now,” said Dr. Fish, “what we are about to see might make many of you ill. It’s up to each one of you, but I’d suggest that you let Dr. Nicombero and I perform our duties. I’ll call you over if we need you.”

  Most everyone followed Dr. Fish’s advice, but Jim Keating did not move. As the Marines pulled both bodies from the small ditch to the level ground, they each held their breath to avoid inhaling the stench that saturated the air.

  Sergeant Rush carefully slit the cloth that covered Leonard. Dr. Fish, having served in Burundi for two years, thought he was immune to the horrors of post-mortem examination. But when he saw Leonard’s body, he gasped, causing Jim to lean forward for his own look.

  Jim felt a surge of nausea, stepped back, dropped to one knee, and murmured, “I can’t believe this.” He turned and waved Rush toward him.

  “Clive,” he said softly, “Give a hand to the doc.”

  Fighting to maintain a stoic demeanor, Rush fell to his knees across from Fish and helped him gently remove the cloth from Leonard Tangishaka’s mutilated body.

  The others could no longer contain their curiosity. The group approached hesitantly and stared at a mass of skin that appeared as if it had been punctured by dozens of bullets.

  Jim had seen bullet holes in bodies many years ago, but was perplexed by the holes in Leonard’s body. Some were the size of a pencil eraser, some were larger and ragged, as big as a quarter. The reactions of the rest ranged from stunned silence to a hulking Marine vomiting within seconds of his glimpse.

  “The lesions in the skin, Dr. Fish,” said Ambassador Foster. “It looks as if they were somehow gored in by some small spike or spear.”

  “Ambassador, if you look closely, you’ll see that those holes are not the result of something entering the body—but instead from something exiting it,” the doctor said. “The only thing I have ever heard of like this is called Guinea worm disease. While I have never personally observed a case of this disease, I have read studies and have seen photos. The Guinea worm, spread through contaminated water, forms near the joints of the victims. After a time, it emerges from the body as a long ribbon-shaped worm in a brutal escape through the skin that is beyond painful. In fact, it’s downright excruciating. It occurs in Africa and Asia, particularly in West Africa. Several years ago, former President Carter was quite active in a campaign to eradicate it. I remember him calling it one of the cruelest maladies on the face of the earth.”

  Dr. Fish continued. “But this . . . this is something far worse. These lesions are much larger than those of the Guinea worm. To my knowledge, no one else in this country or, for that matter, anywhere in Africa, has ever been afflicted by anything like this.”

  Visibly shaken, Fish said, “My initial thinking . . . given the actions of the men the two boys saw, is that this is not some runaway, never-before-documented natural occurance. On the contrary, it’s as if some madman concocted this in a lab and tried it out on Consolaté and Leonard. But rather than doing any type of preliminary autopsy here, I’d prefer that we bring the bodies back to Bujumbura.”

  Dr. Nicombero spoke up. “I agree with Dr. Fish; there appears to be evil behind this. Also, you all recall how gaunt Leonard looked in the picture taken by the Marines? This explains that look, for this process would certainly suck the blood and tissue out of anyone’s body, causing the face to appear that way.”

  “Plus,” said Sergeant Rush, “it explains why those Tutsi men insisted to our Marines that the picture be taken with the cloth draped over Leonard’s neck.”

  “Dr. Fish,” said Ambassador Foster. “Let’s get back to your point about a madman concocting this.”

  “Ambassador,” he said, “if that is the case, and, as I said, my guess is that it may be, then we could be looking at something as serious as any form of germ warfare known to man.”

  The group fell silent, unsure of how to absorb and react to this sort of information.

  The two doctors found the same gaping holes throughout Consolatés skin. “Let’s load both bodies in the largest trailer and head back to Bujumbura,” said Fish. “We’ll need proper equipment to perform the full autopsies.”

  On the trip home, Cynthia Foster sat next to Finnegan. “Finbar, depending upon what the autopsies reveal, I’m worried about a panic. How do you propose to handle your report?”

  “I have to report the facts, Ambassador. If the autopsy bears out what Dr. Fish and Dr. Nicombero suspect—that this was concocted in a laboratory—then a well-presented report will not only help in the investigation, but also will help diffuse any panic. This is bound to leak, quite possibly by the bad guys. The worst thing that can happen is for misinformation to get spread around.”

  “On the other hand,” said the ambassador firmly, “we aren’t sure of much just yet. It would seem that your piece should wait or, if done, be done with great caution.”

  “Ambassador, whenever it is done, it will be done with great caution. Be assured of that—and for a lot of reasons.”

  When the jeeps reached Bujumbura, they went straight to the Prince Regent Charles Hospital. The hospital coroner, a Tutsi named Osano Bagatui, Dr. Fish, and Dr. Nicombero worked for five hours without a break conducting the autopsy.

  When they finished, Dr. Fish called the ambassador. “It’s pretty much as I thought. Whoever did this took the principles of Guinea worm disease and made it much worse. We isolated the bacteria and did some laboratory tests. What is particularly disturbing—as is pretty much confirmed by Consolaté’s letter—is that these bacteria can be ingested, sight unseen, from drinking water. And once they get into the bloodstream, there is no stopping their rapid growth.”

  He took a deep breath before continuing. “Ambassador, this is potentially disastrous—catastrophic would not be overstating the case—if we don’t stop it.”

  Ambassador Foster asked Drs. Fish and Nicombero to join her at an emergency meeting she arranged with President Buyoya. Buyoya immediately raised the possibility of withholding information from the public “until we try to find who is behind this.”

  But following Finbar Finnegan’s reasoning, the ambassador persuaded the president that a factual, well-documented report was far more advantageous.

  “First of all, Finbar made the valid point that leaks are inevitable—including the real possibility of leaks being spread by those behind this. He also pointed out that the worst thing we can have out there is misinformation, for such misinformation will invite panic. While there is no guarantee that Finbar’s report will produce meaningful leads, an airing on CNN might have that effect. Finbar is an excellent reporter who wants to see justice done. I am confident that he’ll handle this story judiciously.”

  Turning to Fish and Nicombero, Buyoya said, “In the meantime, what can we do to prevent disaster?”

  Fish’s reply was as solemn as it was ominous.

  “Mr. President, we can certainly develop some preventive measures to employ in your office, in the Charles Hospital, and other places in the Bujumbura area. But frankly, out in the rural areas, there’s absolutely nothing we can do. And even in Bujumbura, our impact will be limited.”

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  “I know we want to be first on this, Finbar,” said Bureau Chief Sid Hawkins. “But this is one of those once-in-a-career tidal wave kind of reports. We’ve got to make damn sure that we’re accurate.”

  Hawkins had come to enjoy his role as Finbar’s mentor. But he also knew that the quality of this piece could impact both their careers—not to mention bring focus on a potential calamity as alarming as any Hawkins had ever covered.

  “I’m goin’ to be very, very demanding of you because this one’s got to be perfect.”

  Finnegan’s first step was to spend several hours with Dr. Fish and Dr. Nicombero. Finbar asked them to review the lab tests with him. There was a taci
t understanding among the three that although Finnegan understood the fundamentals of these kinds of reports, he was, nevertheless, encountering an especially complicated case. The doctors also understood that Finnegan was a reporter. They were patient, almost plodding, in their review.

  When they finished, Fish said grimly, “Problem number one is that we’re talking about a microbe that multiplies in water faster than anything I’ve ever seen or heard. Problem number two is that while it can be detected with sophisticated equipment, it cannot be seen by the human eye.”

  “So,” said Finnegan, “are you saying there’s not only a possibility that a bunch of lunatics developed this microbe, but that these same people could drop these microbes into a reservoir and within days the reservoir would be contaminated?”

  “I’m saying that depending upon the size of the reservoir, it could be hours, not days.”

  Fish let his statement take hold, then continued.

  “But let’s take it a step further. Let’s say the bacteria is placed in wells and reservoirs in Burundi. A person drinks a glass of water and the bacteria is ingested into the bloodstream. It appears to us that the next thing that happens is that contact with the blood not only continues the multiplication process, but also enlarges the bacteria into the size of little gumballs you’d purchase at a candy store. And, of course, the next step is the most horrid of the process. These little balls want to escape.”

  “And the only escape route is through the pores?” asked Finnegan.

  “Exactly.”

  “Can testing systems be put into place to monitor the water?”

  “Burundi doesn’t have the kind of equipment to do this. However, I’ve already contacted Red Cross headquarters in the States. There will be a worldwide effort to help set up the systems. Hopefully, in the next week or so, something will be in place, though I’m not sure how effective it will be. Plus, we can’t monitor every reservoir in Africa.”

  “Or for that matter,” said Finnegan, “countries outside of Africa. I mean, who is to say that these people, if in fact they’re as evil as we’re guessing, are just targeting Burundi— or other African countries?”

  Fish nodded slowly. “You’re right, Finbar. Who is to say?”

  “Let me ask you one more question, Dr. Fish. On a global scale, are we virtually defenseless?”

  “Well, I’ll put it this way. To put reasonable detection equipment into place around the world, it will take billions of dollars, unprecedented cooperation among governments, and months—maybe years—of time. And the end result will be imperfect at best.”

  “So, what’s our best hope?”

  “Our best hope is to catch these people before they put their master plan into action,” replied Fish.

  After three days of exhaustive preparation, Sid Hawkins, who had flown to Bujumbura to oversee the preparations, said to Finbar Finnegan, “Okay, we’re ready to go.”

  Next day, Finbar’s exclusive was the lead story on the CNN World News. In his account, viewed by 60 million people in 130 countries, Finnegan took a guarded approach. He noted that there was no hard evidence, only suspicion, of a widespread plot—and that the potential impact of the bacteria was far from conclusive

  In a prepared statement, which he read on air, Dr. Joel Fish said, “We are talking about the only two cases known to the medical community and the utilization of testing devices that are not of the standard of most countries. We cannot draw any conclusions beyond the fact that only two people have died as a result of this bacteria.”

  Nonetheless, the following morning, the “microbiciee bacteria,” as Fish had called it, was on the front page of every major newspaper in the world.

  President Buyoya and Ambassador Foster both took public positions of caution on the burgeoning crisis. At a hastily called press conference, Buyoya stated, “We are implementing a number of safety measures. However, at this time, we have no reason to think that this bacteria has implications beyond the deaths of Leonard and Consolaté Tangishaka.”

  But in the privacy of their offices, Buyoya and Foster feverishly worked the phones, calling on various international agencies to help in a situation that both leaders knew could have devastating consequences.

  Over a forty-eight-hour period, battalions of Red Cross workers, UN peacekeeping forces, and other medical experts entered Burundi. The Red Cross workers took charge of dispensing more than five million bottles of pure spring water donated by Poland Spring, Perrier, and Evian. The UN reps were responsible for warning people throughout the country to refrain from using well or reservoir water until all preventive measures were put into place.

  In the late evening of day two of the crisis, six UN cargo planes stocked with sophisticated equipment to monitor every major drinking supply in Burundi landed at Bujumbura International Airport. The equipment was on loan from several European Union countries, along with the United States and Canada. The monitoring procedure involved more than eighty lab technicians testing water supplies every ninety minutes. It was a massive and costly operation that would be hard to sustain for an extended period.

  The relief and medical workers were joined in Burundi by a throng of media. Due to the short supply of hotel accommodations, many news teams bunked four or five people in one room. But the crowded accommodations did not prevent the press corps from trumpeting the microbiciee bacteria as a major world threat. “Operation Deliverance,” the name coined by the media, was now the lead daily story around the world, and Dr. Fish, Dr. Nicombero, Ambassador Foster, and others directly involved were the reluctant recipients of their fifteen minutes of international fame—plus overtime.

  Under top secret request from the United Nations, and a series of personal calls from the President of the United States and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and Canada, three major medical research centers—one in New York, one in Toronto, and one in London—worked together to develop an antidote to the bacteria. But because the malady involved was known in only two cases, and due to the inferior testing techniques in Burundi, it was difficult to efficiently conduct the detailed analysis that would lead to a miracle drug that would kill off the bacteria.

  A confidential conference call involving physicians and top government officials from the three countries was conducted under CIA surveillance to ensure that no tape recording or phone tapping took place. On the call, Dr. Paul Arnold of the Harvard Medical School stated, “We’re looking into the possibility of creating a vaccine or other curative procedures. However, it could take months, even years, to accomplish this.”

  Even with the ironbound security measures employed by various governments, Wall Street still felt the winds of chaos that blew hard from Burundi. Volatile trading took place, particularly in stocks that involved bottled water or bacteria-related medical research.

  At week’s end, and despite the intense efforts of more than one thousand people, no microbiciee bacteria was detected in Burundi. The same was true after two weeks, three weeks, a month; at which time many volunteers and members of the media began to take leave of Bujumbura. At this point, a few journalists and several ranking officials of governments directly involved began to question the wisdom of such a comprehensive, if not impulsive, reaction to the murders of Leonard and Consolaté Tangishaka.

  Senator Fred Hutchings of Wisconsin stated, “It is quite possible that these were merely two isolated deaths in a remote country that came as a result of something that we will never likely see again. It is also possible that the panic was for nothing. In my judgment, CNN, which broke this story, has a lot of explaining to do.”

  Six months passed with no new leads and a growing belief that Operation Deliverance was nothing more than a fluke of science in a small, out-of-the-way African country.

  A poll commissioned by the International Herald Tribune revealed that 92 percent of those surveyed thought that the matter never should have been reported and had caused undo stress to millions of people. Many politicians second-guessed the amount o
f money spent on the project, and in an op-ed in The New York Times, Daan Basson, Secretary-General of the United Nations, confessed, “We might have acted hastily.”

  Even CNN tried to diffuse the criticism leveled at them by means of an oblique mea culpa. Barry Glenn, anchor of The World, concluded a primetime broadcast by stating, “Based on the information available to us at the time, CNN felt it appropriate to report on Operation Deliverance. While we still maintain the story has merit, we regret any panic that our reporting may have caused.”

  The public outcry also produced various degrees of fallout for those at the genesis of the story. Ambassador Foster was called to Washington to testify before a special Senate panel convened to investigate Operation Deliverance. Only her sterling reputation—and documented evidence that she and her staff had scrupulously followed diplomatic protocol regarding release of information to the media—saved her from reassignment or, worse, forced retirement.

  Ironically, because Burundi was so preoccupied in stemming the genocide still raging between Hutu and Tutsi, most Burundians quickly forgot about Operation Deliverance, and President Peter Buyoya retained his precarious hold on power.

  Dr. Joel Fish and Dr. Natare Nicombero were the subject of criticism in some quarters of the medical community. But both physicians stood by their findings and their professional conduct during the investigation.

  “We never made any public statements about a conspiracy,” stated Fish in an interview in Time magazine. “We merely reported what we had discovered.”

  Nonetheless, the Red Cross, reacting to the harsh criticism of anything linked to Operation Deliverance, reassigned Fish to Kenya, where he silently vowed to continue research into an antidote. As for Nicombero, he remained in Burundi, his practice uninfluenced by outside reaction.

  Finbar Finnegan, who had used proper caution in breaking Operation Deliverance, became the casualty of guilt by association. Sid Hawkins, fond of Finnegan and aware of the young man’s considerable talent, was still forced to reassign his protégé to South Africa.