“This committee is the counterpart of a similar group that we are working with in the United States. I have been asked to be the spokesman because the Army is at the forefront of the effort to contain the epidemic.”

“I have been out of touch,” Lee said, “so I know only that quarantine has been imposed around the area where the outbreak began.”

“That’s correct,” Ming said. “The Army was able to contain the epidemic for a time, but this is an enemy we are not equipped to fight. The virus is winning.”

“How bad is it, Colonel?”

Ming had expected the question, and a square appeared in the upper-left-hand corner of the screen showing a map of China’s northern provinces. Red dots were clustered around one village, with a few stray dots outside its perimeters.

“This shows the outbreak before the quarantine,” he said. “The clusters represent virus outbreaks.”

Another picture appeared. The dots were centered in one area, but scattered outbreaks were showing up in neighboring towns.

“This too represents outbreaks before the quarantine?” Lee asked.

“No,” Ming answered. “The quarantine is in full effect, but the virus has managed to spread despite all that we have been trying to do. I will reserve comment on the next few images.”

As the maps were thrown on the screen one after another, the red dots could be seen expanding over a greater part of the Chinese landscape. They clustered and then metastasized like cancer cells. More alarming still, the virus was dangerously close to Beijing in the northeast, and it was sending out spokes toward Shanghai along the southeast coast, Hong Kong to the south, and the sprawling city of Chongqing to the west.

“What is the period of time covered by these projections?” Lee asked, her throat so dry she could barely get the question out.

“One week,” Ming said, “ending today. The Ministry of Health projects that the spread of the virus is accelerating. It will hit Beijing first and then spread to the other cities less than two weeks later. You understand better than I what that means.”

“Yes, I do, Colonel,” she said. “In military terms, it would be like lighting a fuse leading to many different ammunition dumps. The embers thrown out by those explosions will ignite other fuses around the world.”

Ming pressed his lips together in a tight smile.

“I understand you were involved in planning for the worst-case scenario, as this appears to be,” he said.

“That’s correct, Colonel Ming. I drew up the plans to establish vaccine-production centers in locations where it could be best distributed. It’s a bit like you and your colleagues planning for a battle.”

“Tell me about the vaccine that has been under development in the missing laboratory.”

“The last I knew the vaccine was very close to being synthesized from the toxin.”

“That is very good news,” Ming said.