Read Online The Widow's Strike by Brad Taylor - Free Book Online
Authors: Brad Taylor
Tags: thriller
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prison can bring pressure to bear in other ways.”
11
C rossing the Key Bridge, Chip Dekkard couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He said, “Hang on, hang on. I gotta close up.”
He pressed the button that raised the glass shield between him and the driver up front. Once it was secure, he went back to the phone.
“What the hell do you mean a lab tech died? You guys assured me you could get this done in accordance with all applicable regulations.”
He listened a little bit more, the traffic in downtown Washington, DC, a low hum in the background. The mention of a date caused his blood pressure to rocket.
“Wait, wait. This happened three days ago? And I’m just now finding out? Jesus Christ! Shut it down. Shut it all down.”
The person on the other end started to protest, and Chip cut him off. “Shut it down, now. No more protocols. No testing, nothing. Destroy the virus and shut it down. And in the future, tell your boss that if he wants to keep his job he needs to understand a fundamental truth: Bad news doesn’t get better with age.”
Chip hung up the phone without another word, wondering how he could have been so stupid as to allow the project to start in the first place. The CEO of a major US conglomerate, he oversaw multiple companies producing everything from textiles to pharmaceuticals. Seven months ago, one of the firms in the portfolio, Cailleach Laboratories, had come up with an idea: a vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu virus. But not for the one that currently existed. A vaccine for a mutated virus.
The major health bodies, such as the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were all petrified of H5N1, as it had upwards of a 70 percent mortality rate when contracted by humans. The good news was that while it could spread like wildfire in birds, killing them in the hundreds of thousands, it didn’t transmit human-to-human very easily. In fact it was nearly impossible. So far, almost all of the deaths related to bird flu were the result of someone working with infected poultry or other avian species.
The bad news was that viruses mutated continuously. All health organizations felt it was only a matter of time before this occurred with H5N1, creating a virus now transmittable human-to-human, bringing on a pandemic that would dwarf the 1918 Spanish flu due to the interconnected reality of the modern world and its proven lethality.
Cailleach Laboratories had proposed forcing a genetic mutation, in effect creating the killer, then developing a vaccine to combat it. It had already been done once for simple research purposes, raising a hue and cry from the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. They demanded censorship of the details to preclude someone with nefarious purposes from re-creating the study. The controversy had provided the genesis of the idea.
Cailleach had no intention of keeping the time bomb intact for potential abuse. Once the vaccine was created, they would destroy the virus and bide their time, waiting on the natural mutation. When it occurred, they’d make a proverbial killing, as it took upwards of six to nine months to create a new vaccine. While their vaccine would most assuredly not be perfect, as there was no telling how the virus would mutate, Cailleach would be head and shoulders above everyone else, getting a vaccine out much earlier and making an enormous profit in the panic from the onslaught of the pandemic.
The downside to this, of course, was the virus itself. They were playing with fire, and they knew it. They’d decided to set up shop in Singapore because of the stringent US requirements for inspections and licensing. Not to mention the litigious nature of American society. Vaccine production in the United States had dropped from twenty-seven producers in the 1970s to three today, simply because the cost wasn’t worth the risk. At the end of the day, you could prevent the disease, then find yourself on the
11
C rossing the Key Bridge, Chip Dekkard couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He said, “Hang on, hang on. I gotta close up.”
He pressed the button that raised the glass shield between him and the driver up front. Once it was secure, he went back to the phone.
“What the hell do you mean a lab tech died? You guys assured me you could get this done in accordance with all applicable regulations.”
He listened a little bit more, the traffic in downtown Washington, DC, a low hum in the background. The mention of a date caused his blood pressure to rocket.
“Wait, wait. This happened three days ago? And I’m just now finding out? Jesus Christ! Shut it down. Shut it all down.”
The person on the other end started to protest, and Chip cut him off. “Shut it down, now. No more protocols. No testing, nothing. Destroy the virus and shut it down. And in the future, tell your boss that if he wants to keep his job he needs to understand a fundamental truth: Bad news doesn’t get better with age.”
Chip hung up the phone without another word, wondering how he could have been so stupid as to allow the project to start in the first place. The CEO of a major US conglomerate, he oversaw multiple companies producing everything from textiles to pharmaceuticals. Seven months ago, one of the firms in the portfolio, Cailleach Laboratories, had come up with an idea: a vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu virus. But not for the one that currently existed. A vaccine for a mutated virus.
The major health bodies, such as the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were all petrified of H5N1, as it had upwards of a 70 percent mortality rate when contracted by humans. The good news was that while it could spread like wildfire in birds, killing them in the hundreds of thousands, it didn’t transmit human-to-human very easily. In fact it was nearly impossible. So far, almost all of the deaths related to bird flu were the result of someone working with infected poultry or other avian species.
The bad news was that viruses mutated continuously. All health organizations felt it was only a matter of time before this occurred with H5N1, creating a virus now transmittable human-to-human, bringing on a pandemic that would dwarf the 1918 Spanish flu due to the interconnected reality of the modern world and its proven lethality.
Cailleach Laboratories had proposed forcing a genetic mutation, in effect creating the killer, then developing a vaccine to combat it. It had already been done once for simple research purposes, raising a hue and cry from the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. They demanded censorship of the details to preclude someone with nefarious purposes from re-creating the study. The controversy had provided the genesis of the idea.
Cailleach had no intention of keeping the time bomb intact for potential abuse. Once the vaccine was created, they would destroy the virus and bide their time, waiting on the natural mutation. When it occurred, they’d make a proverbial killing, as it took upwards of six to nine months to create a new vaccine. While their vaccine would most assuredly not be perfect, as there was no telling how the virus would mutate, Cailleach would be head and shoulders above everyone else, getting a vaccine out much earlier and making an enormous profit in the panic from the onslaught of the pandemic.
The downside to this, of course, was the virus itself. They were playing with fire, and they knew it. They’d decided to set up shop in Singapore because of the stringent US requirements for inspections and licensing. Not to mention the litigious nature of American society. Vaccine production in the United States had dropped from twenty-seven producers in the 1970s to three today, simply because the cost wasn’t worth the risk. At the end of the day, you could prevent the disease, then find yourself on the
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