Live Free or Die-ARC Read online

  "We didn't even have time to put him on ice," the pathologist said, examining the pustules covering the man's body with a simple magnifying glass. He was wearing a full body cover, mask and respirator like the rest of them. "He just started popping up these lesions all over his body. When we saw that we called a bio alert."

  "Can I see that?" Dr. Johannsen said.

  "Hmmm . . ." the pathologist said, handing over the glass.

  Dr. Johannsen leaned into the body so that his mask was almost in contact then leaned back.

  "Oh . . . damn."

  "Nematodes?" Dixie asked, her stomach sinking.

  "Yes," Dr. Johannsen said. "Nematodes."

  "Congratulations, Jojo. You were the first person to identify. At least, you were the first to get an email through. Chuck at Johns Hopkins was fifteen minutes later. And WHO hasn't reported anyone, yet. Since this may be a new pathology you probably get to name it."

  "I'll take that," Jojo said. "Anyone have any idea what we're dealing with?"

  "No." Dr. Leona Cline was Director of the National Center for Preparedness, Detection and Control of Infectious Diseases at the CDC. She'd gotten into epidemiology when it was still considered a 'man's' field. Being black and female were benefits in any government position but it wasn't why she'd gotten to her current job. That had been sheer will and brains of steel. "We're still working on disease progress but you're not the first facility to report a death. The nematode apparently stays in the wound, more or less quiescent, for a period we're still trying to pin down. At a certain point it submerges into the bloodstream and starts to spread. Again, acting essentially benign. The spread causes a sharp fever spike but not much else. Then it goes to a third stage where they begin attacking the body widely and the patient terminates rather quickly. If you don't stop it when it's in the initial presentation, it's pretty much the whole shooting match."

  "I'm trying and failing to come up with a disease that acts in that manner," Dr. Johannsen said, thoughtfully. "Chagras is the closest that immediately comes to mind."

  "You're not the only one," Leona said, smiling thinly. "Pretty much everybody is scratching their heads. The general conclusion is a tailored system."

  "I can see that," Jojo said. "Theoretically. I don't know of any laboratory that could produce such a species."

  "Again, general conclusion," the CDC agent said. Also that it's not a natural spread. We got slammed by reports starting this morning. Everyone has their own patient zero with no commonalities."

  "That is . . . very ungood," Jojo said.

  "We've called a wildfire," Leona replied, referring to a mass infection event. "USAMRIID has to call a bio attack. But that's our gut. There's a flip side, though. Which is really what's putting the hold on calling it as an attack."

  "Which is?"

  "Nothing about it makes sense," Dr. Cline said. "Patients with the lesion that have been treated show little or no signs of continued infection. It looks like, and I'm going a bit out on the limb here, if you just treat it, it goes away. And the treatment is . . ."

  "Most people with it probably aren't even reporting it," Dr. Johannsen said. "Most people are just going to pour some peroxide on it and put on a band-aid."

  "And even that will kill the nematode," Dr. Cline said, nodding.

  "So it's absolutely deadly if untreated but treatment is simple?" Dr. Johannsen said.

  "That's insane," the President said. "What kind of a biological attack is that?"

  "That's the problem, Mr. President," the head of USAMRIID said. "It's why we're having a hard time calling this an attack. And it's so dispersed . . . we can't even figure out the infection method. It's showing up . . . well, everywhere. All over the world and certainly across the US. At more or less the same time. Our models are kicking that out as invalid information."

  "You guys need to quit looking in microscopes so much," the Marine Commandant said.

  "Your point, General?" the President said, trying not to snarl.

  "Just look at the information we've got Mr. President," the Commandant said. "A plague which is not only a new species but acting in a way that our best experts cannot figure out how it does it. Which has apparently been spread all around the world, more or less at once." He paused and looked around. The only one nodding was the head of SpaceCom which was slowly migrating to being a member of the JCS.

  "Horvath," the admiral said, nodding. "They did that ball and twine orbit. They passed over every major landmass . . ."

  "Oh . . ." the general in charge of USAMRIID said, wincing. "Then . . . we can't be sure of anything."

  "Don't doubt yourself," the Commandant barked. "You're saying that if you treat this thing, there's no sign of more of these toad things?"

  "Not . . . apparently," the microbiologist said. "Nematode, General."

  "Whatever," the Commandant said, sitting back and nodding. "Kind of weird, but it makes sense in a way."

  "General," the President said. "If you could perhaps make it clear to those of us who are still . . . catching up?"

  "Yes, Sir," the Commandant said. "If it works like the brigadier said, sir, then it's a separator."

  "Separator?" the Chairman said, shaking his head. "What the hell are you . . ."

  "Separate the sheep from the goats, General," the Commandant said. "If you treat it, you live. If you don't, if you're just so . . . If you don't have good personal hygiene, or access to medicine I guess . . ."

  "Alcohol will kill it," USAMRIID said. "Peroxide will kill it. Putting any antiseptic on the wound will kill the bacteria and starve it."

  "If you just aren't worth . . ." the Commandant said and paused again. "People with any sense will treat it. They live."

  "Why would the Horvath do that?" the President said.

  "Aliens, sir," the Commandant said, shrugging. "But it looks to me like that's what's going on. Question to keep in mind, is this the only bug they spread?"

  "Oh," the Chairman said. "What a sweetly good thought, Commandant. Thank you so much."

  "Yer welcome," the Commandant said, his arms crossed. "Not my job to blow smoke, General." He paused in thought for a moment then shrugged his shoulders again.

  "Horvath are monolithic, communalist and Hobbesian," the Commandant said. "They also are eugenic Darwinists. They weed their own population, aggressively, for what they perceive as defects. If they did spread other biologicals we'd better be ready for them to be as eugenic in nature. Looks to me as if this was a test of personal hygiene. Of personal care?"

  "More than that," the Chief of Naval Operations said, thoughtfully.

  "How?" the President asked.

  "The . . . nematode can be killed with any number of antiseptics, correct Brigadier?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "But . . . if you use alcohol, for example, what is the effect on the patient?"

  "High levels of pain, sir," the brigadier said, nodding. "It's painless if you leave it alone. It's not even particularly painful to treat if you have the right materials. Field expedient treatment will be painful."

  "You also need to have access to that information," the admiral pointed out.

  "So we need to do a broadcast," the president said. "Fast. Blanca, get a press release out as fast as possible. Do not mention the Horvath."

  "Yes, Mr. President," the White House Spokesperson said.

  "Do that now," the President said. "Consult with CDC and USAMRIID. But get it out fast. Within the hour. Emergency broadcast regulations. We need to get people treating this themselves. Or our medical facilities will be overrun."

  "Yes, Mr. President," Blanca said, getting up and walking out.

  "I may be extending this . . ." the CNO said, musingly. "But the first people to get treated, or to treat themselves by buying the appropriate materials, will get the materials that work and are painless. Those are going to be rapidly depleted. If everyone rushes to their local drug store and buys . . ."

  "Betadyne is the best choice," the brigadier said.
"There are also generic versions. Next would be peroxide. Works most of the time but requires reapplication since it doesn't always kill the parasite, just the bacteria culture. After that . . . you get to more painful measures."

  "So the people that either have stocks or react quickly and effectively get the easy way," the Commandant said. "The rest have to suffer. If they're not willing to, they die. If they don't listen, they die. If they don't have access to the information and aren't interested in a little sore . . ."

  "They die," the President said.

  "We're going to have a very significant die-off from this no matter what we do," USAMRIID said. "We're already seeing it. Mostly . . . I need to get unPC here, Mr. President."

  "Go ahead," the President said.

  "The majority of the casualties, so far, have been among the lower socioeconomic class," the brigadier said. "Minorities. Followed by elderly. And many of the victims, unfortunately, have been children. Especially the lower socio-economic groups."

  "Their parents don't care," the Commandant said, his face hard. "Wish it had been something that just yanks a kid out of an environment like that rather than kills them. Horvath . . ." His jaw worked as he clearly refrained from saying something.

  "I agree," the President said, his own face hard. "What about the military?"

  "We've been seeing it turning up in our own medical side," the CJCS said. "We're going to distribute a FLASH order through channels immediately after this, Mr. President. Most of that can be taken care of at the unit levels. We should be able to manage this fairly effectively."

  "We need to make sure everybody knows it's not a hard-core issue," the Commandant said. "There's probably 20% of those dumb bastards are going 'Hey, it's just a little sore. I'm not going to be a sissy and go on sick call.' We're probably going to lose some hardcores over it. Especially forward deployed units. SEALs and Recon running around in the hills just aren't going to notice it." He paused and looked at his wrist. "Case in point," he finished, holding up his wrist. "Wasn't there this morning."

  The President slowly pulled down his shirt sleeve and then looked up.

  "Do we have any betadyne in the house?"

  "Son of a bitch," Tyler swore, quietly. "Doc, do we have any betadyne?"

  "Yes, sir," Dr. Laura Tobias said. Laura, despite a career as a flight surgeon and a diving medical officer, had jumped at the chance to take a job for low pay and not much prestige on the Monkey Business.

  She wasn't actually being paid low but she probably could have made more as a specialist on earth. Didn't matter. Like most of the crew, she was crazy for space.

  Tyler had quickly solved the problem of finding crew for space operations. He simply contacted various people in fandom. That didn't mean that most fans were suited for space operations and given that he only had forty personnel on the Monkey Business everyone who was suited couldn't get a slot. But he sure didn't have to go looking for people. They were queuing up.

  "We've got plenty of betadyne," Laura continued. "But the only person who's been on earth since this started was you, sir. So if there's contamination . . ."

  "I've got plants," Tyler said, his brow furrowing. "According to my research, I should be immune to practically anything. Sort of . . ." He paused and thought about it. "Unless it really is a new organism. Then the hypernet has to get updated with the information."

  "Say again?" Nathan said. He'd come up with Tyler less to oversee the shift to mining Twenty-Nine than because he could catch a ride.

  "We're getting to the point, and the Glatun are long past the point, of Junior's Home RNA kit," Tyler said.

  "Junior's what?" Dr. Tobias said, laughing. "What is that?"

  "When any script kiddy can write a biological virus," Tyler said, his face blank.

  "Oh," Laura said. "That's less funny."

  "Much," Tyler said. "We've gotten to the point where we can tailor viruses to go after particular DNA sequences. We can make a virus that makes most people sick but only kills one selected person. Or one race, because there are genetic differences."

  "I don't think a . . . script kiddy could modify a nematode," Dr. Tobias said. "Much harder than a virus. And this one is just . . . weird."

  "Didn't say it was a human," Tyler said. "Spread is all wrong. Sorry, I'm looking at information as we're talking and it's definitely Horvath. Point is that the Glatun already have to deal with this sort of thing. Not a lot, but they do have to deal. It's like computer viruses."

  "Lost me again," Laura said.

  "Lost me a long time ago," Nathan said.

  "If anyone can write a pestilence, how do you fight it?" Tyler said. "Like a computer virus. Part of the implants is nannites that work with your immune system. They carry the basic data for every known hostile micro-organism and update your . . . B cells Doctor?"

  "Probably," Dr. Tobias said, interested. "You're kidding?"

  "Nope," Tyler said. "Triple redundancy on all the . . . I guess you'd call it legacy stuff. Black Plague. Smallpox. Measles. Yellow Fever. The sort of stuff you get vaccinated for if you're travelling. There are at least three nannites, out of billions mind you, in your body that have data on those. They update the B cells as they go through. Check to see you have the antibodies ready and go on. Also for stuff like cancer by the way. The system pre-programs your immune system to scrub for cancer cells. But that hardly fills up the mass of nannites. The rest are filled by update. I don't know when it happens but when I'm around a hypernet my nannites get updated with the latest virus to affect humans. I guess this stuff if it's on the net, yet. I'm not even sure who does the updating or if new stuff is covered for humans. But I'd bet nine to one that I'm immune."

  "It sounds like the whole planet needs that," Dr. Tobias said.

  "Sure would be nice," Tyler said, then paused. "It might be possible but it would drive people nuts."

  "Why?" Dr. Tobias asked.

  "Most nannites are limited by numerics," Tyler said. "You have to have a license for them and the license spells out how many you can make. I looked this stuff up cause I was interested. Anyway, the exception is medical nannites that can only survive in tissue and have their own internal limitations. The nannites will only build a certain number in any single organism. They survive and replicate on your blood. Calling them nannites is sort of wrong. They're really biologicals with some nannite like features. But my blood, the blood of any person with plants, should serve as a vaccine. To just about everything but especially to this stuff. If it's even in the database."

  "How do we find out?" Dr. Tobias asked.

  "I have no fracking clue," Tyler said. "I never have really dealt with Glatun medical. I know who to call, though."

  * * *

  "Cori's Plants and Cybers! It only costs an arm and a leg!"

  "Cori, it's Tyler Vernon," Tyler said.

  "Hey, Tyler!" Cori buzzed. "Good to hear from you! Thanks for all the business! Like the new slogan?"

  "Very nice, Cori," Tyler said. "I need to speak to Louisa, please."

  "What, I'm not good enough?" Cori said. "Some friend."

  "Cori, we've got a plague," Tyler replied. "You really want to be involved?"

  "Hell no!" Cori said. "Louisa! Phone."

  "I heard, Tyler," Louisa said. "The medical AI network monitors all hypernet transmissions for word of biologicals."

  "Will the Glatun help?" Tyler asked.

  "It is more or less one of those conditions where it is assured," Louisa said. "But support has to be requested."

  "They haven't asked?" Tyler said.

  "Not so far," Louisa said.

  "Is the organism identified by the update net?" Tyler said. "I mean, if you've got plants does it get . . . Do you know what I'm saying?"

  "Yes," Louisa said. "All six organisms have been identified and updated."

  "Six?" Tyler screamed.

  "Yes," Louisa said. "Your pilots were infected when they came through. The organisms were neutralized and updates created. I didn
't mention it to them because there was little or nothing they could do. You are updated as is anyone with the appropriate nannites in range of a hypernode on your planet. Everyone else is at risk. That is not quite precise. All of the organisms are tailored for specific tasks. The nematode is designed to sort for persons who are lazy or sloppy. One might go so far as to say stupid. Despite current reports it will require multiple treatments over the course of a month. With those treatments, however, it is survivable. Anyone infected, which is by our estimate 87% of the human race, has to maintain the treatment or get Galactic level of treatment to entirely remove the nematode and all released cysts. It is the only one, however, that is treatable by human technology.