Category X

Absolution

The green LED light lit up shortly after her badge crossed over the sensor. A click pronounced the bar unlocking, the nod from the security guard told Dr. April Reeves that it was okay for her to proceed into the CDC's Roybal campus. The walk to the elevator took only moments, but before she could push the button she heard her name being yelled from across the lobby.

"Dr. Reeves, Dr. Reeves," came the voice laced with undeniable urgency. The culprit was a short man in a wrinkled suit that was jogging across the lobby directly towards her.

"Can I help you?" she questioned as he approached.

"Please, Doctor, I need you to come with me."

The man was young, younger than she had previously thought. He had sandy blonde hair and a face that she doubted required much shaving. His eyes were tired, she could tell, as he looked as though he had not slept in some time. Pressures of the job, she thought.

"And you are?" she questioned, not quite sure what was so important to flag her down in full view of everyone in the lobby.

"I am Jack Leyland, personal assistant for Dr. Arlen Burns."

Dr. Reeves frowned. "The Director?"

"Yes, ma'am," the man named Jack said with a forced smile. "Please, I was told to bring you up as quickly as possible." He motioned for her to follow him.

They were heading away from the elevators, but then the thought occurred to her that the Director of the CDC would not necessarily use the same elevators as everyone else. It only took me four years to meet the Director, she thought as the short man led her through a door marked Do Not Enter and finally into a keycard guarded elevator. The twelfth floor was their destination, she knew even before Jack pressed the button.

"I don't suppose I could ask for a heads up on what is going on?"

Jack glanced at her from the reflection in the mirrored walls. "A situation has developed that the Director believes will fit nicely with your skillset."

"An outbreak? Wouldn't there have been a cluster alert, or something from PulseNet?"

"It is much worse than that, I'm afraid," Jack said as the elevator doors slid open.

Dr. Reeves struggled to keep up with the man, a nagging feeling in the back of her mind about the oddities surrounding this mysterious visit, or the apparent disregard of standard operating procedure. What could possibly be worse than an outbreak? she found herself thinking.

Her questions were answered, in a sense, the moment she stepped into the Director's corner office. The room was filled with not only every one of her bosses, but also the CDC's lead virologist, Dr. Edward Van Strat; he was, for all intents and purposes, a rockstar in the epidemiology community. She frowned at the thought of calling a double PhD a rockstar, then cursed herself for letting her mind wander in a room full of people who controlled literally every move of her career.

"Dr. Reeves, please, join us," Dr. Arlen Burns said, motioning to an open seat at the end of the table in the center of the room.

She nodded and took a seat with the rest of the room. "Thank you, sir," she replied, not quite sure what else to say. There was a glass of water sitting in front of her, and the only thought she had at that moment was how the water would feel running down her parched throat.

"You know Greg, Carmen, Adam, and Susan; and I am sure you remember Dr. Edward Van Strat, our chief virologist." She nodded in response, flashing a quick smile to the room. The director continued. "We have called you here because we received a credible threat late last night and, due to your expertise in population based epidemiology, we wanted your professional opinion about its viability."

"Of course," she responded. "What do we know?"

Dr. Burns motioned to his assistant, Jack, who moved forward and handed Dr. Reeves a folder labeled Top Secret. "We received this letter around midnight. It is rather...disturbing, to say the least."

She opened the folder and enclosed in a clear plastic cover sat a small, handwritten note with odd stains scattered about the paper. It read:

Your view of the world has always been obstructed, an illusion created by those with power for those without. History writes its story by the hands of the present, but history cannot save you. You are, all of you, victims of misguided faith, false hopes, and counterfeit dreams. The truth is that you are all doomed, many fates left in the hands of a few.

The world is spiraling out of control. The end result can only mean one thing: chaos.

I stand, proudly, with the unadulterated solution; the answer to all of the world's problems.

Tomorrow the world will meet Category X. Tomorrow the world will meet absolution.

Mark my words, people will die.

X

She looked up after reading the note. "This is credible?"

Dr. Burns glanced to his left at Carmen Lassant, the CDC's Chief Operating Officer who immediately sat forward and began speaking. "Almost a year ago the World Health Organization received credible source information about a virus known only as Category X. They liased with our investigators and uncovered an unsanctioned lab in Dushanbe, Tajikistan that was experimenting with a concept of weaponized virology. Most of the samples were inconclusive, but a communique from that lab was intercepted the day before with a description of a virus named Category X. Now, the direct effect of Category X on the host's cells could not be ascertained from the communique, but they were able to partially reconstitute one of the samples and glimpse, at least in part, what exactly the virus can do."

"It causes sterility," Dr. Reeves guessed.

Obviously surprised, Carmen glanced back at Dr. Burns before answering. "Yes, or at least theoretically. We believe that it may cause sterility, as well as irreparable fetal abnormalities. How the virus will affect an adult host is still unknown."

"It's clever, calling the virus Category X, the only pregnancy category with evidence suggesting sterility and abnormalities," she finished with a curious glance around the room. "What are the stains all over the parchment?"

Dr. Burns answered. "We tested the substances shortly after receiving the note. Essentially, this note contains every communicable virus in the known world, from smallpox to rabies to yellow fever."

"They have access to these viruses, which means they have the means to do something terrible even without this Category X." Dr. Reeves glanced over the note once more. "What do you need from me?"

"We need you to be the eyes and ears for the CDC in this matter. The reconstituted sample of Category X is in the possession of the WHO, but they have agreed to play ball with us in order to figure out what exactly this is and how much of a threat it poses to the world." He motioned to his assistant once more. "Jack here has all of your flight information and will accompany you to Geneva. Please, Dr. Reeves, help us stop this threat."

She was light headed. Epidemiologist turned investigator in asingle morning, she thought. It was not a request, but she still did notknow how to take the information. The ride to the airport was a blur, and theonly thing she could think about was the fact that she did not even have atoothbrush.