Instinct: A Chess Team Adventure - By Jeremy Robinson Page 0,15

not like you could shoot something microscopic.

Sara rolled her neck. She had explained this more than ten times in the past day, and it was getting old. She’d been shuttled from one facility to another as the backbone of a plan was formulated with her at its core. “Bird flu is not typically contagious to people, but there are cases of it jumping species, and this strain looks like nothing we’ve seen before. It’s mutated in a way that it is just as contagious as any other flu, but it also carries genes, which it adds to the host’s DNA.”

“The gene for Brugada,” King said.

Sara nodded. “Turning a typical nasty flu into a guaranteed killer, at least to men. It’s airborne, so a cough or sneeze will do the trick in spreading it to the people around you. It spreads like the common cold, but kills as surely as a bullet to the back of your head. What was once passed down through birth is now contagious and the whole world is at risk. Several of the president’s aides who came down with the flu have also tested positive for Brugada, as have the Secret Service men who revived him and the doctors who treated him. The White House is now under quarantine. No one comes or goes. But that’s just the beginning. We had to track down everyone who visited the White House, and everyone they came into close contact with for the past week. Hundreds of people have been quietly quarantined in their own homes until we can have everyone tested, but many are showing flulike symptoms already.”

Sara paused to make sure all eyes of the stone-faced team were on her, and then continued, “The president caught the disease from someone else, so we knew there was a source. We traced all of the president’s meetings over the past few weeks, backtracking the itineraries of anyone he came into contact with. We got a red flag one week back. Daniel Brentwood, owner of Elysian Games, met with the president after spending some time in Asia, incubator for most of the world’s emerging bird flus.”

“And Brugada,” King added.

“Yes.”

“So this is what? A new bioterror weapon?” Rook asked.

“That’s possible, but we have yet to determine a motive or goal and no one has claimed responsibility. But we know one thing for sure: if someone gave Brentwood Brugada, they took a huge risk. If this had gotten out in the open it would have been a pandemic that would make the Black Plague look a light shade of gray.”

“Was this created in a lab?” Queen asked.

“We don’t think so, but it seems likely someone is now weaponizing it.”

“Have you warned anyone?” Knight asked.

“Warning people would only complicate things at this point.”

“Are you saying,” King said, “that the majority of people in the United States . . . in the world, could contract this genetic-disease-carrying bird flu, which could kill them at any time, and you’re not telling anyone about it?”

“You need to understand that there is no cure for this. And we believe the new strain is contained for the time being. Telling people would be counterproductive. Picture a world where every person might just drop dead at any moment. Can you imagine what kind of chaos revealing this threat would create? We’d see more people being murdered than actually dying from the disease. There is no quick fix here. It’s more than a simple virus. The disease alters genetic code. Permanently.”

“I didn’t think that was possible,” Knight said.

“Under normal circumstances, it’s not. Most of us die with the genetic code we were born with, and if we’re not hit by a truck or struck by lightning, it’s the same genetic code that determines the time and method of our death. But mutations do occur. Overexposure to radiation, the sun, or ingestion of certain chemicals can alter our genetic code.”

“You’re talking about cancer,” Queen said.

Sara nodded. “That’s the typical manifestation, yes. When a mutation occurs in a cell and it’s not repaired, and the cell divides, that mutation will be carried on so that all cells duplicated from the one will contain the DNA change. This is an acquired mutation, and is generally not passed on to our children, but that doesn’t hold true with Brugada, which is typically passed down through generations.

“To find a cure, we need to find the source, or a person near the source with an immunity. Even then, our chances are slim, but if we don’t