Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

76 JEFF EDWARDS
“Sir, you’re scheduled for back-to-back Situation Room briefings at
nine thirty and nine forty-five,” the chief of staff said. “The topics of
interest are developing events in China and the status of the British
Embassy investigation.”
“That’s fine,” the president said. “But the embassy attack is on my
front burner; Greg can give me the ten-cent version now.”
Brenthoven paused for a second as though mentally shifting gears.
“The casualty count has stabilized. Sixty-eight people dead and forty-nine
still in treatment. With the possible exception of two who are still on the
critical list and could go either way, the doctors are expecting all of the
remaining victims to recover.”
“Both of those numbers are higher than the ones I got from homeland
security,” the president said.
The national security advisor nodded. “Yes, sir. The FBI has been
tracking down people who came in contact with the agent at the embassy,
but were somewhere else when they developed symptoms. They’re using
the embassy visitors’ logs as a checklist, and they think they’ve found
them all now.”
“That’s one piece of good news,” the president said.
“Here’s another one, sir,” Brenthoven said. “So far, everyone who’s
come down with symptoms has actually been to the embassy. CDC was
right. The bio-warfare agent used isn’t robust enough to spread by human
contact. The concentration level has to be pretty high to ensure infection.”
“Have we identified the agent yet?”
Brenthoven nodded. “Yes, sir. CDC ran the micrographs, and
USAMRIID cross-checked them. It’s a strain of T2, a trichothecene
mycotoxin that comes from corn or wheat mold.”
The president frowned. “Mold? Clark told me that the highest agent
concentrations were in the carpet. If we’re talking about mold, that seems
like something that could occur naturally. Can we be certain this isn’t
some kind of rare natural phenomenon? I remember reading an article on
Sick Building Syndrome where the ventilation ducts become infected with
mold or a virus and then spread it through the building.”
Brenthoven shook his head. “No, sir. There is no room for doubt.
Natural forms of this mold grow on corn or wheat, not carpets. Besides,
the agent used was not actually a mold at all; it was a chemically
engineered mycotoxin that is manufactured from mold. The T2 mycotoxin
doesn’t exist anywhere in a natural form. It’s strictly a man-made agent.”
“So we are one hundred percent certain that this was a biological
warfare attack?”