A history of "Wuhan-400"(part from novel)
advantages over most biological agents. For one thing, you can become an
infectious carrier only four hours after coming into contact with the virus. That's
an incredibly short incubation period. Once infected, no one lives more than
twenty-four hours. Most die in twelve. It's worse than the Ebola virus in Africa
—infinitely worse. Wuhan-400's kill-rate is one hundred percent. No one is
supposed to survive. The Chinese tested it on God knows how many political
prisoners. They were never able to find an antibody or an antibiotic that was
effective against it. The virus migrates to the brain stem, and there it begins
secreting a toxin that literally eats away brain tissue like battery acid dissolving
cheesecloth. It destroys the part of the brain that controls all of the body's
automatic functions. The victim simply ceases to have a pulse, functioning
organs, or any urge to breathe."
"And that's the disease Danny survived," Elliot said.
"Yes," Dombey said. "As far as we know, he's the only one who ever has."
Tina had pulled the blanket off the bed and folded it in half, so she could wrap
Danny in it for the trip out to the Explorer. Now she looked up from the task of
bundling the child, and she said to Dombey, "But why was he infected in the
first place?"
"It was an accident," Dombey said.
"I've heard that one before."
"This time it's true," Dombey said. "After Li Chen defected with all the data on
Wuhan-400, he was brought here. We immediately began working with him,
trying to engineer an exact duplicate of the virus. In relatively short order we
accomplished that. Then we began to study the bug, searching for a handle on it
that the Chinese had overlooked."
"And someone got careless," Elliot said.
"Worse," Dombey said. "Someone got careless and stupid. Almost thirteen
months ago, when Danny and the other boys in his troop were on their winter
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