The Visitor (33 page)

CHAPTER 25

The video in the briefing room depicted a newsman for a British news service. “...this is a report from Tibet, where there is an epidemic of what has been confirmed to be a hemorrhagic viral fever. It’s believed to be a virus similar to Ebola Zaire, the most deadly on the planet, named after its outbreak at the Ebola River in Africa. I’m reporting from Lhasa, which is in a state of chaos. The government in Beijing has sent in all of the available bio-warfare suits and breathing masks for soldiers to use, but there are not enough to go around. There are also reports that many of the Chinese-made bio-warfare suits are defective, causing some soldiers to catch the virus.”

The film panned to the background behind the young newsman to focus on a street in Lhasa with two soldiers in the special suits with AK-47 Chinese-made rifles in hand.

“The sight of soldiers,” the newsman continued, “instills fear and even panic. Here is a scene from downtown Lhasa.”

The film then switched to a scene depicting Chinese running about in panic.

“The Chinese government put more of the same suits into immediate production, but it’s too little, too late. Worse, much of the military is infected, and thousands more are becoming infected daily. But oddly, only Chinese are getting sick. It is uncertain if the bio-warfare suits are working or not, as so many of those using the suits are becoming infected. One government official was allowed to leave Lhasa at the early stages of the epidemic to go to Beijing, and he later was diagnosed with it in Beijing. He infected several persons on the government plane as well as three hospital staff in Beijing, all of whom, along with anyone he came in contact with, are either dead or in quarantine.

“The task of the military, as they tell us, is to try to keep order, to segregate parts of the cities from others, to prevent looting and riots, and to set up bases on the outskirts of town for citizens to come to if they do not have Ebola.

“Anyone not obeying a soldier is shot on the spot.”

The camera switched to a scene depicting a Chinese person lying face down, clearly dead, with blood stained bullet holes on the back of his jacket. The scene then switched to a large fire, with soldiers in bio-warfare suits throwing bodies onto it.

“Large fires have been built to put the bodies in, as the virus lives quite well on dead tissue for some time, and the bodies are a further source of spreading the epidemic.”

The picture switched to soldiers in bio-warfare suits forcing a couple at gunpoint to enter a tenement.

“People are ordered to stay in their homes. Every medical facility is trying to operate at several times full capacity, and we have reports that many of the staff people at the hospitals are infected. The cities of Xigatse, Sakya, Gyantse, Jukundo, Derge, Kandze, Sungpar, Chamdo, Dartsedo, Litang, and Batang all have the same epidemic. The cities of Choni and Labrang to the north, and Amdo and Nagchu to the west report occurrences as well, but not as widespread, indicating that the epidemic did not start there, but may have traveled there with people traveling to those cities from the major cities that are in such a horrible state...”

Colonel Doctor Chamberlin of the US Army Medical Corps turned off the video and addressed the group of five volunteers and a dozen others in the room, who would be in contact with the volunteers or who were otherwise participating in the event. The lecture was at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, in Frederick, Maryland, the main location of four where research on US bio-warfare was conducted. The facility was well equipped with the various air locks, pressure suits, and equipment needed to work on volatile things like Ebola.

“That news film was taken by a British news service with a news person already in Tibet,” the Colonel said. “Since he was already there on another assignment, he was able to provide that report via satellite. He is not infected as you can see. We are going over to collect samples and to determine whatever we can about this epidemic. We have been granted permission from Beijing to proceed.

“Each of you is very brave to volunteer, as the possibility of infection if anything goes wrong is extremely high. You are all trained in bio-warfare and Ebola, and you have been selected because of your medical background. We are not allowing any Chinese volunteers.

“Let me give you a quick refresher in Ebola. It has never been considered as a likely tool for bio-warfare, as it is simply too damned dangerous. It always kills, whereas things that make a person swell up, get red-eyed and temporarily lose vision, get sick, go to sleep, or become temporarily incapacitated have been considered more valuable as bio-warfare agents. When an anthrax victim dies, his body can be disposed of without much risk as anthrax is not carried from one person to the next. This is not the case with Ebola. An infected person, and even a dead body, has many pounds of tissues for Ebola to feed on, and it will live, using the remaining tissues, even after the victim dies.

“Viruses associated with most hemorrhagic fevers are zoonotic, which means that these viruses naturally reside in an animal reservoir host or arthropod vector. They are totally dependent on their hosts for replication and overall survival. Animals can be carriers, as well as humans. It is well known that monkeys carry it. We must assume that quite a number of animals can feed off the remains, and spread it--rodents, possibly vultures, and who knows? Maybe even insects.

“Ebola can enter the body by the mouth, by being breathed in, by sexual contact, by ingestion of water or food, by getting it on a hand or utensil which later ends up in the mouth, and, of course, through an open wound. Close contact with an infected person will transmit it by breath, much like catching the flu.

“Regarding early detection, there is simply no way to tell that a person on the street has just contracted it. You might think that taking a person’s temperature would reveal he just caught it, as it is a hemorrhagic fever, but that is not the case. There is no rise in the person’s temperature until the body starts to react to the infection, by which time, he will be close to very seriously ill and most likely unable to get about very well. After two days, a person might get a cough. Only after a few more days, will he usually show a fever. Soon there will be bleeding from the urinary track, nose, mouth, or anus, all of which are clear signs, but these usually do not show up in the first two days. As to the contagiousness of it with a newly infected person, Ebola is highly contagious shortly after a person has first become contaminated with it, and this means that people who look healthy and have no idea that they have it are spreading it like wildfire. For several days after a person is infected, he will be unknowingly infecting many others, and they will infect many others, exponentially.

“We have detection systems for many biological warfare agents, like the Biological Integrated Detection System, or BIDS. However, none of these will detect Ebola. So, we simply have to assume that it is everywhere where you will be going.

“We are to treat this as the most dangerous, level-four hazardous substance known. We must exercise the most extreme precaution in decontaminating. We are going over in a Boeing C-17, and the plane will let us and the equipment off and then take off right away, leaving without being touched or fueled by anyone at the airport. It’ll be flown to one of our bases and immediately sprayed upon landing in case it picked up any of the virus.

“As for equipment, we’ll be in a Block II Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance System, or NBCRS, when we roll off the plane. If any of you have not been in one, it is the eight-wheeled reconnaissance vehicle made just for this sort of mission. We will be in our Self Contained Toxic Environment Protective Outfits, or STEPOs, before we open the hatch of the NBCRS. If it is too hot in the suits, you will also have the new Advanced, Lightweight Microclimate Cooling System, or ALMCS, to attach to the suit, which will keep the temperature inside your suits comfortable. If any of you have not yet used them, your metabolic heat is transferred to the fluid in the ALMCS. Communications among us when in the suits will be by the PRC-127 headsets.

“We will be living in one of those inflated tents, an M20 Simplified Collective Protective Equipment, or SCPE. We will also take a spare in case it fails or gets ruined. We will inflate it inside a building like a big bladder. We’ll have a motor blower for inflation, portable toilet, and cots inside for sleeping. We’ll use M291 decontamination wipes. The batteries of the suits are good for four hours, and then they need re-charging or replacement, so we better plan on getting back each time we go out with enough reserve to make it in case of problems. When we get back to the tent, we will first spray ourselves with a decontaminate. Once back inside, you can use the toilet, rest, eat, and then go back out for another four hours. We’ll stay there only three days, and then the plane will return for us. The Chinese government is providing us with soldiers who will guard our tent and will also defend us as we go out to observe. They will have their own bio-warfare suits.

“We’ll make observations, get samples, and get out. The samples will land with us in Guam and then be packaged to come right back here. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about the virus and come up with recommendations. England may also send over a medical team, and possibly other countries. However, it is not feasible that members of other countries to go together with us as they are not trained on our equipment nor we on theirs, and time is of the essence as people are dying by the thousands.

“I frankly don’t have high hopes that we can do very much, as we already have good information that it is Ebola or a variant for which there is no cure. As for recommendations on how to keep it from spreading, I suspect it will be hard to do much, considering the standard of living there, which is so low, with people sharing utensils, sharing food, and living in close quarters with one another. And, there is chaos. But we are commanded by our president to try, and it will be an interesting, but dangerous, challenge.

“We have reports that the Tibetans have not been contaminated, and their monks attribute their lack of infection to their holy status. We suspect the Tibetans have something that resists the infection. But frankly, we have many reports of crazy things there, some conflicting, and we really don’t know what to believe. And, of course, the Chinese are superstitious and inclined to add their own interpretation on things--so much so, that we have reports that sound crazy.

“Now, for coming back, we will be sent to quarantine upon return to Guam, to make sure that we don’t have it. Chances are that if any one of us gets it, the whole group might, as we will be together when not suited up, eating, and sleeping, just the same as the Chinese.

“Any questions?”

Lisa Chapman, one of the volunteers, asked, “Is there any information on how it got so widespread so quickly?”

“Nope,” the colonel answered. “That is one of the highest priority issues that we have to address. But that may be best addressed when we return and evaluate what we learn there. Perhaps we can glean information to better theorize just how it happened. Right now, the only plausible explanation is that some traveler or travelers got it in Africa and then went to Tibet and brought it there. There are many students that travel in the poor areas of Africa and Tibet, and it could have been brought in by a student or a group of students. But as yet there is no evidence, or at least none that the Chinese government has given us, that any such person or persons have been found or traced.

“But the fact that it did spread so quickly to so many is of great concern, something that presents a new way of thinking to people like us in the US. We simply are not prepared to deal with anything so large in scope. It is of the magnitude of the largest epidemic ever and so overwhelming that it presents an entirely new challenge. The White House wants full reports as soon as we can provide information.”

***

The huge C-17 airplane made a most impressive drop off at the airport at Lhasa. Planned for just such a bio-warfare scene, the plane performed its designated task by coming in and touching down on the runway. It did not stop, but instead, kept rolling at a slow speed so as to minimize contamination from any bio-warfare agent that might be present. The rear cargo door was opened and out rolled the olive-colored NBCRS. With four wheels close together on either side, it rolled easily off the plane, even with its attached trailer full of equipment. As soon as the vehicle cleared the ramp, the pilot of the C-17 hit the throttles and closed the cargo doors as the C-17 picked up speed and took off, away from the biological hazardous area. The NBCRS then motored over to the area near the terminal where soldiers were waiting in their Chinese bio-warfare suits.

One of the soldiers came over from where he was standing near his jeep to meet the group. Colonel Chamberlin got out to greet him.