It had been nearly a month since John and Shahim had managed to stave off a detailed investigation into the rapidly spreading antigen’s effects. They had done their best, and in truth the time they had bought had translated into the effective completion of the antigen’s spread in most urbanized nations. The same was true in the rural areas that were linked to those urban centers by the trains and roads that gave the cities their life. But just as the team had predicted at their meeting in Boston, this same success was inevitably going to be their downfall. And sure enough, events in Europe and America were now beyond the team’s ability to dissemble. With local news stations reporting ‘miracles’ and anomalies in previously critical AIDS, Diphtheria, Lyme Disease, and Hepatitis patients, and the number of new cases of other infectious diseases dropping off dramatically, Shahim and John had known that the time was coming when they would no longer be able to delay the inevitable. As Lana’s report uploaded into the Council’s minds, John and Shahim both braced themselves.

Lana Wilson’s avatar spoke, “After the observations of the AI a few weeks ago I have continued to hear of these anomalous cases. This culminated in a report I saw on television yesterday from a hospital near my location. After hearing the report I travelled to the hospital and managed to procure a blood sample from one of these ‘miraculous’ cases. Though I was unable to conduct a chemical analysis without proper equipment, I was able to scrutinize the blood visually at high resolution. I have since uploaded my imagery of it to the AI for confirmation of my analysis. The images are in the reports that have been provided to the Council.”

Here it comes, thought John. Shit. His avatar remained outwardly calm but the Agent himself subtly cued up a response routine he had laid in for this moment. He had several protocols that he had planned out with Neal and the rest of the team. He knew that the team wasn’t completely ready yet. The antigen had spread far faster in heavily populated nations than others, and in certain pockets tens of millions were still defenseless. Every day they waited more people would be safe from the attack and maybe he and Shahim could delay things just a few days longer.

But as Lana’s report went on, John’s heart started to sink, “The results were disturbing. The man’s blood contained significant numbers of some kind of cellular defense mechanism. This cellular construct appears to have capabilities similar to those of the Bio-Immuno-Defensive-Constructs that we have long relied on back on Mobilius.