ED3N- on the Brink of Extinction Read online

  Once the infected exhibit symptoms, mortality rates are 100%.

  No pneumonia bacteria or infection detected and likely don’t have enough time to take hold.

  Typical antiviral medications such as Tamiflu, Rapivab, and Relenza are ineffective

  What’s being implemented and next steps:

  Home quarantines to isolate the population and reduce the risk of exposure

  Mandatory vaccinations against H1N1 and H5N1.

  Manufacture a new quadrivalent vaccine to inoculate against both strains.

  I keep coming back to my last in-person meeting with David and his preoccupation with the case of the Oregon high school student. He stated it was the lack of person-to-person infection, even though exposed to the victim's blood, which intrigued him. But every case has ended with blood loss without person-to-person transmission to date so there must be another reason he keeps referring to the case. Does he have reason to believe this was patient zero in the US?

  Ruth logged into the CDC database and pulled up the case file. It was just as David explained and she captured the key points in her journal even though she’d already written something similar during their meeting. These were his entries the case file:

  The victim exhibited first symptoms near the end of the class period. Maybe friends and other students missed the symptoms earlier in the day but Jonathan hadn’t complained of being ill the prior day or even the morning of.

  Witness reported bleeding from nose and ears as well as sneezed blood onto the desktop surface just before losing consciousness and collapsing onto the floor.

  Exsanguination occurred in the arms of another student (Bryce Olsen) that tried unsuccessfully to save his life by raising his head to “stop the blood flow”.

  After isolated observations, no other students exhibited symptoms within normal viral incubation periods and all tested negative. Students released to their parents with orders to stay home for an additional 2 weeks.

  Items of note from patients medical history and parent interviews:

  The victim was prone to illnesses of all sorts including ear infections, pneumonia, seasonal allergies, bronchitis, asthma, frequent cold, and flu infections.

  Trivalent flu vaccine was administered 2 days prior to death

  Was that it? Had David zeroed in on the superinfection and determined the seasonal flu shot, particularly the H1N1 component, was the trigger? If so, why did he keep this information to himself and not warn me especially when vaccinations were the very recommendations we had arrived at? They had become a significant part of the President’s State of Emergency Declaration!

  Only speculative allegations at this point but if true very dangerous. I refuse to believe David could be behind this. Most of his career has been dedicated to reducing the spread of infectious disease and thereby saving lives. But he also isn’t someone to jump to conclusions and the impact of this discovery would have huge ramifications. No matter what, he’d be obligated to expose who was responsible and do his best to alert the public, or at least confide in me so we could reach a viable outcome.

  Did he discover evidence of an intentional act of bioterrorism as North Korean claimed? What if he’s involved in a cover up, possibly to save his own life? He could be in mortal danger, I’ll have to be careful in how I proceed.

  First, I need to prove my own suspicions.

  Chapter 11

  The Ark

  16 July 2021 – Ruth Atkin’s Journal Entry

  Day 13 of National Quarantine – being relocated to participate in ‘The Ark Project’

  It was just yesterday that The Shepherd ordered me to evacuate my post as Director of Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and relocate to this undisclosed location. As soon as I stepped off the plane I was approached by a soldier that didn’t even introduce himself but instead demanded to see my cell phone. He seemed pleased to find it still in a powered off state but promptly snapped it in half nonetheless. I was then blindfolded and helped into the back of a suburban for the short drive from the airstrip to the site. Based on the terrain, coastline, and direction of travel after leaving Atlanta I’d say it’s pretty obvious we’re in California. Once we got to the site I was escorted to my new lodgings and allowed an hour to rest and unpack prior to meeting ‘The Shepard’, as many referred to the vice president. So now I'm looking out at the expansive Pacific Ocean, from the 7th story balcony of my apartment. Three times zones away from where I called home for the last fifteen years and supposedly taking the reins of the Ark Project, but feeling more like a prisoner than a leader. Scanning the complex from this vantage point really is impressive. Even living up to the biblical reference that undoubtedly inspired the codename.

  The facility is a small city and I’m struck by how much is already in place and the frenetic energy of the complex. Especially being this high up, the commotion reminds me of thousands of ants instinctually swarming to repair a hill that has been carelessly kicked by someone’s shoe. The sights and sounds are overwhelming, a cacophony of army green, reflective glass, machined aluminum, and gunmetal blue. Heavy machines clank and rumble along as they muscle earth, trailers, and cargo into position. Diesel exhaust spews into the air in miniature black clouds. The Ark is literally alive with energy. It looks like an orchestrated clockwork of well-oiled, synchronized gears as convoys of trucks seamlessly mesh with human bodies and smaller material handling equipment. In the distance, a huge wall is surrounded by a 10-foot tall fence both of which encircle an area several miles wide. Wind generators, industrial-looking complexes, and 10 story high glass buildings are strategically placed within concentric rings. Loads of materials are being delivered by truck and rail, the contents of which are being offloaded by forklifts and moved to warehouses. Huge expanses of solar panels reflect sunlight in my direction from arrays that parallel the perimeter of the wall. I spot what appears to be desalination equipment and pumping stations along sections of the coast. Angry looking machine gun turrets and high tech cameras are also being installed in fortified towers at repeatable increments along the wall.

  Quick sketch of the city in an attempt to capture the layout. The fields and parks are obvious but I’m unsure what resides within a lot of the structures at this point.

  My apartment is located in the residential ring. The interior, simple and functional. A flat-screen display was mounted to one of the concrete walls, but I got nothing but ‘no signal detected’ when I turned it on. There are two small bedrooms, one bath, and the rest of the layout is an open area for the kitchen, living, and dining rooms. While showering, to hopefully clear some of the mental cobwebs that have gathered during the five hours of travel from the east coast, I go through the list of questions I have for the Shepard. What are his reasons for keeping me in the dark about the location? What exactly is going on here? And why was I was selected? Oh yeah, and why was I asked to completely power off my phone after takeoff and keep it off, only to have it physically destroyed?

  Vice President Shepard, a smile on his face, gave me a warm hug when we met on the sidewalk in front of my apartment. After our greeting, he explained there was no need for formal titles. Not here. Stan, Shepard, or even The Shepard would suffice and I’d soon realize the rules of protocol were a bit different here at the Ark. Though he clearly called the shots, for now at least, this place operated more as a collective of highly skilled partners in a new startup company. Everyone was well aware of their roles and knew the goals of the Ark couldn’t be achieved unless each of them pulled their weight. There were no time clocks or scheduled shifts. People worked until the task was completed or until they needed a break. All of which occurred without supervision. I asked how they stayed coordinated and knew what tasks needed to be performed next without supervisors. He pointed to a woman with electronic diagnostic equipment at the corner. It looked like she was inspecting a bundle of fiber optic cable running under the sidewalk. The Shepherd explained that the Ark was being controlled and monitored by a complex computer n
etwork, which had been designed to function like the brain and central nervous systems of our bodies. The city-wide operating system was a cutting edge artificial intelligence program that knew everything necessary for itself to function. Eventually it would be fully automated and would require very little support from humans. In the meantime, the network was generating the list of tasks needed to be completed before it could become fully operational and self-aware. This was truly the world’s first smart city. He interrupted the technician. On a flexible screen that hugged her forearm, she showed us how the interface displayed what needed to be done, and even instructions on how to do it. She completed the steps to calibrate the fiber optic rectifier and energized the circuit. The display on her wrist went through a series of steps that looked like the sequence of operations performed by a computer’s BIOS to initialize various devices during bootup. ‘Diagnostics complete. Status: Fiber optic branch S225R3 - Online.’ She then explained that S225 was short for ‘spoke 225’ and R3 represented Ring 3’. Apparently, the city was laid out as giant concentric rings and spokes with my apartment building in the third ring at the intersection of 225th Avenue, which radiates in a southwest direction of 225 degrees from the center of the Ark. Internet access and the city-wide intranet was now available in my apartment. She further explained that all electronic devices would also be wirelessly networked within days when that system was fully upgraded.

  That helped to explain what the hell was going on here but I knew I was only scratching at the surface. Shepard’s answers to my other questions were crisp and concise. He wanted to get past the questions as quickly as possible so we could get to work.

  As for the location, he wanted me to see it firsthand to fully understand the magnitude of the undertaking prior to sharing the location name. You couldn’t accurately capture the importance of what was going on here in words alone. You needed to experience a sense of urgency and see the scope of the operation to really understand the reasoning behind keeping this place a secret.

  Regarding my phone, he said they were concerned that someone could home in on my location via the standard interfaces exposed on mobile GPS devices and cell tower protocols. A number of applications had access to this information and all someone would have to do is hack my Google account to pinpoint my exact location. But my phone was no longer necessary anyway. He asked me to roll up my sleeve as he held one of the thin flexible displays against my arm. It wrapped completely around and snapped locked in place with a tiny pinch. A sample of my DNA was just taken and linked the device to me alone. It provided me with access to the entire city and could be used to interface with all of the systems within. All of my contacts, photos, music, documents, and apps were either downloaded onto the new device or connected via the Ark’s cloud network. He wasn’t sure which. I could explore the interface later but it would have to wait as we had more pressing matters. As we were rushing down the street I really didn’t have time to examine the armband but one line of text stood out to me. ED3N status: 35%.

  As we walked down 225th Ave toward the IT administration building at the center of the Ark, we had a much longer discussion about why I was selected to oversee operations at Ark instead of the Vice President himself. He had to return to DC to keep the gears of politics greased to ensure the quarantine efforts were carried out. He commented on my rank as Rear Admiral in the United States Navy and the sense of duty which came with it, saying I clearly knew how to be in charge and still follow orders. Of which he had only one. To get the city operational. Beyond that, I was on my own to lead as I saw fit. He also listed my ethical decision to shift from a career of 'protecting' the world to one of 'healing' the world by running such a large organization as the CDC specifically during times of crisis as his main reasons for choosing me. And I didn’t need to worry about the vaccines. He had already adapted to the new chain of command in Atlanta and started coordinating efforts with David while I was still mid-flight. David reported the 100 million vaccines we had stockpiled had been administered along with 50 million more that just arrived from the factory in China. The remaining 150 million would be delivered over the next two months. And both David and Shepard agreed with my recommendation to keep stopblue.gov accurate and up to date.

  At the center of town was a very wide, one story tall, circular building made of concrete and glass. The roof was a garden of wild grasses, flowers and fruit trees. It was literally an elevated park albeit one with an observatory dome, a few satellite dishes, and radio towers expertly disguised as trees. Upon our approach, 1-inch thick glass doors automatically slid open for us thanks to our armbands. Inside, we met Mark, the temporary head of IT. Why temporary I asked? Because once ED3N is fully operational it will be its own head of IT. Eden as in the Garden of Eden I asked? Mark then explained that ED3N (pronounced as Eden) was the codename of the artificial intelligence operating system running the city. He tried to explain how it wasn’t really written code at all, but instead, it was a program loaded with a number of parameters that once launched had the ability to create its own scripts to address specific tasks that it monitored with sensors of various types throughout the city. So that’s what the code on my wristband meant. At the time I just saw it as a collection of letters and a single number: E – D – 3 – N. In reality, the ED3N operating system was 35% of the way toward being fully operational. While interesting, most of it went over my head.

  He used a streetlight as an example, explaining how a traditional computer program could be coded to control the light remotely. Once launched, a few lines of code for the timer would determine when the switch should be turned on/off to provide safe visibility and also conserve energy. To automate the process further, photocells could replace the timer code in the program to detect levels of darkness and motion sensors employed to only come on when someone was present. That same concept was used everywhere in the city. Plus this system could call on specialized robots to repair wiring, circuits, and hardware should something fail. Even though Mark had recently arrived from the high tech world of Silicon Valley, and responsible for the world’s first line of fully autonomous vehicles, he was still in awe of what had been accomplished at the Ark.

  Admittedly, I didn’t know what to expect upon arrival at the site but a fully automated city sounded more than a little bit scary to me. I commented to both Mark and The Shepherd that the IT department appears to have the most power in this city. But Mark quickly corrected me by saying that wasn’t the case at all. Once ED3N is fully operational, the city will function like an atomic clock knowing the algorithms required to calculate precise measurements of time and never need to have its batteries replaced. The city would just run itself, perfectly, cleanly, and efficiently. Including the production of food, water, energy, housing, and even recycling of raw materials that would then be used to create complete products via advanced 3D printers and automated manufacturing lines.

  Mark said he’d like to run a little experiment with me by asking ED3N to turn the lights off in this room. I obliged by saying ‘ED3N please turn off the lights’, and the lights went off. Next, I was encouraged to remove my wrist band and try again. ‘ED3N please turn on the lights.’ But nothing happened. Then Mark issued the same command and the lights came back on. He then explained that when we’re wearing the wrist bands we’re part of the ED3N network. More accurately, each of us is a series of sensors providing input to the network.

  Shepard then went on to explain we're not just talking to a program that translates our words into commands for some computer operation. We're talking to the entire city. So in this manner, we made the city one giant connected organism. We, humans, were still individuals but at the same time something more. Through the ED3N network, we were also part of a real-time collective society.

  Mark couldn’t contain his enthusiasm and practically gushed about ED3N also being aware of our intent through the biometric sensors embedded in the bands. So the network could ascertain if say you were being sarcastic about something. I put th
e band back on my wrist and gave it a try. ‘Jeez ED3N, why don’t you just leave us in the dark while we’re talking. That would be really helpful right now.’

  Apparently, my snarky attempt at passive-aggressive behavior didn’t fool the system. Then for the first time, I heard Shepard issue a command. ‘No seriously ED3N, we’d rather be in the dark right now.’ Immediately the room fell into complete darkness. To test just how smart the system was I got up and tried to feel my way around the room unintentionally bumping into chairs and walls. A female voice issued from the band on my wrist. ‘Are your current actions intentional or would you like me to turn the lights back on?’ I stopped dead in my tracks amazed by the intelligence I heard in the voice. And without saying another word the room was once again bathed in light. I sat in the nearest chair and just stared in disbelief at both men.

  I then asked if the system was dangerous. Could it determine, on its own, how to restrain us or more? Could it take physical action against us, even something as simple as keeping a door locked so we couldn’t exit a room for example? Do we have the ability to override it? Mark said there was no need to. Remember the bumping around in the dark experiment? ED3N is aware of your intentions. It can only take measures to guard against actions it deems dangerous to human life or a threat to the city as a whole. Remember we’re kind of one big organism here. So the collective mindset sets the tone for what is normal. If one lunatic ran around trying to hurt others the system would detect and perceive the threat as experienced by the other people on the network. Their intentions would be measured against the outlier and if the innocent bystanders needed assistance it would be delivered.