The viewing room was dominated by a one-way mirror, allowing him to see into the four sealed medical rooms, each one inhabited by a single person. A handful of other researchers were watching with interest, but no one spoke. Nicolas knew that they shared the same ambivalence about the experiment that he felt himself, the certain knowledge that they were doing something necessary, matched with the concern that they were doing something inhuman. If word got out, there would be uproar.
He glanced down at his notes. Subject One was a former infantryman who had been caught in the act of raping an Iraqi girl back during the occupation. The media had made much of the act, but they had largely refrained from noticing that Subject One had been tried, sentenced and bundled off to the toughest prison in the United States. Subject Two was a former USAF officer who had been convicted of terrorism after planting a bomb in a USAF aircraft, claiming that his religion demanded opposition to his country. The important detail, as far as Project Wildfire was concerned, was that both of the former military personnel had been injected with smallpox vaccine during their induction into the military.
Subject Three, on the other hand, came from a civilian background. He had raped and murdered four young girls before he had finally been caught and sentenced to death by an outraged jury. He had been working the appeals process ever since, struggling to remain alive, despite the country’s fury. His fellow prisoners had taken a dim view of him; his face bore the scars from a brutal beating he’d taken while in the showers, before he’d been placed in solitary confinement for his own protection. Subject Four, the only woman in the group, had deliberately murdered her own children, for no apparent reason. She too had been under sentence of death when she’d been pulled out of Death Row and transferred to the base.
Nicolas shook his head as the prisoners paced their room. They didn't know it, but their compartments were linked to Miss Henderson’s room and smallpox particles were drifting through the air towards them. The doctors would watch and monitor to see which of the prisoners caught the disease and study how it attacked their system, charting its course from infection to death. He wondered if the prisoners knew what was going on, or if they would have volunteered for the experiment if they had been told what was going to happen, yet they had to remain unaware. The medical system in the outside world was already tottering under the weight of people thinking themselves ill, convinced that they were suffering from smallpox and were going to die any second, and the prisoners couldn't be allowed to warp the results in the same way. The whole experiment disgusted him, yet there was no choice.
The President hadn't been entirely truthful when she’d addressed the nation. There wasn’t enough smallpox vaccine to inject everyone in the continental United States. The various drug companies had been urged to produce more as rapidly as possible, but the most optimistic figures suggested that it would be months before production was re-established and new vaccines started to come off the line. The immunisation program was proceeding as rapidly as possible, yet it was proving a difficult task. It didn't help that the internet was already buzzing with rumours that the government intended to withhold the vaccine from certain elements of the public, purely in the hope that those elements would do them the favour of dropping dead. It was absurd, yet people were starting to panic. They would believe anything if it offered them the hope of surviving infection.
He shook his head and walked out of the chamber. The other doctors would continue to observe the patients, tracking the disease, but he didn't want to even look at them. Deliberately infecting people – even criminals who deserved
He glanced down at his notes. Subject One was a former infantryman who had been caught in the act of raping an Iraqi girl back during the occupation. The media had made much of the act, but they had largely refrained from noticing that Subject One had been tried, sentenced and bundled off to the toughest prison in the United States. Subject Two was a former USAF officer who had been convicted of terrorism after planting a bomb in a USAF aircraft, claiming that his religion demanded opposition to his country. The important detail, as far as Project Wildfire was concerned, was that both of the former military personnel had been injected with smallpox vaccine during their induction into the military.
Subject Three, on the other hand, came from a civilian background. He had raped and murdered four young girls before he had finally been caught and sentenced to death by an outraged jury. He had been working the appeals process ever since, struggling to remain alive, despite the country’s fury. His fellow prisoners had taken a dim view of him; his face bore the scars from a brutal beating he’d taken while in the showers, before he’d been placed in solitary confinement for his own protection. Subject Four, the only woman in the group, had deliberately murdered her own children, for no apparent reason. She too had been under sentence of death when she’d been pulled out of Death Row and transferred to the base.
Nicolas shook his head as the prisoners paced their room. They didn't know it, but their compartments were linked to Miss Henderson’s room and smallpox particles were drifting through the air towards them. The doctors would watch and monitor to see which of the prisoners caught the disease and study how it attacked their system, charting its course from infection to death. He wondered if the prisoners knew what was going on, or if they would have volunteered for the experiment if they had been told what was going to happen, yet they had to remain unaware. The medical system in the outside world was already tottering under the weight of people thinking themselves ill, convinced that they were suffering from smallpox and were going to die any second, and the prisoners couldn't be allowed to warp the results in the same way. The whole experiment disgusted him, yet there was no choice.
The President hadn't been entirely truthful when she’d addressed the nation. There wasn’t enough smallpox vaccine to inject everyone in the continental United States. The various drug companies had been urged to produce more as rapidly as possible, but the most optimistic figures suggested that it would be months before production was re-established and new vaccines started to come off the line. The immunisation program was proceeding as rapidly as possible, yet it was proving a difficult task. It didn't help that the internet was already buzzing with rumours that the government intended to withhold the vaccine from certain elements of the public, purely in the hope that those elements would do them the favour of dropping dead. It was absurd, yet people were starting to panic. They would believe anything if it offered them the hope of surviving infection.
He shook his head and walked out of the chamber. The other doctors would continue to observe the patients, tracking the disease, but he didn't want to even look at them. Deliberately infecting people – even criminals who deserved
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