If you breathe...It will find you.The list of 10,000 names was created for maximum devastation. Business leaders, housewives, politicians, celebrities, janitors, children. None of them is aware of what is about to happen--but all will be part of the most frightening brand of warfare the world has ever known.The germ--an advanced form of the Ebola virus--has been genetically engineered to infect only those people whose DNA matches the codes embedded within it. Those whose DNA is not a match simply catch a cold. But those who are a match experience a far worse fate. Within days, their internal organs liquify.Death is the only escape.The release of the virus will usher in a new era of power where countries are left without defense. Where a single person--or millions--could be killed with perfect accuracy and zero collateral damage. Where your own DNA works against you.
Germ
by Robert Liparulo
To my boys—
Matt, always thoughtful and a joy to know
and
Anthony, who keeps me young and smiling
IF YOU BREATHE IT WILL FIND YOU
The list of 10,000 names was created for maximum devastation. Business
leaders, housewives, politicians, celebrities, janitors, children. None of them
is aware of what is about to happen—but all will be part of the most
frightening brand of warfare the world has ever known.
The germ—an advanced form of the Ebola virus—has been genetically
engineered to infect only those people whose DNA matches the codes
embedded within it. Those whose DNA is not a match, simply catch a cold.
But those who are a match experience a far worse fate. Within days, their
internal organs liquify.
DEATH IS THE ONLY ESCAPE
The release of the virus will usher in a new era of power where countries
are left without
defense. Where a single person—or millions—could be killed
with perfect accuracy and zero collateral damage. Where your own DNA
works against you.
THE TIME ISN'T COMING. IT IS NOW.
PRAY THE ASSASSINS GET YOU FIRST.
Facts
Ebola is one of the most lethal viruses known to man.
With each outbreak, a higher percentage of people who contract it die. In 1995, an airborne strain of Ebola was discovered. Even thirty years after the first Ebola outbreak, no one knows where it came from or where it resides when it is absent from humans or monkeys.
The Guthrie test, also called a PKU test, was developed by Robert Guthrie in 1962. It involves drawing a sample of blood from a newborn's heel and helps diagnose certain genetic diseases, such as phenylketonuria. It is routinely administered to all babies born in industrialized nations.
Most Guthrie cards, with these blood spots, are stored in warehouses and never destroyed.
The blood on these cards contains DNA that identifies the donors.
With the advent of gene splicing, scientists are capable of encoding viruses with human DNA.
Theoretically, this gives viruses the ability to
—George Bernard Shaw
—Lord Byron,
—G. K. Chesterton
one
Hardly resembling a man anymore, the thing on the bed jerked and thrashed like a nocturnal creature dragged into the light of day. His eyes had filled with blood and rolled back into his head, so only crimson orbs glared out from behind swollen, bleeding lids. Black flecks stained his lips, curled back from canted teeth and blistered gums. Blood poured from nostrils, ears, fingernails. Flung from the convulsing body, it streaked up curtains and walls and streamed into dark pools on the tile floor.
