Deliberately he paused to let the argument sink in ... a favorite habit of his.
"A new kind of war! That's the answer! A war that is over before anyone realizes it has started—and a war that cannot be blamed on them, so there is no danger of retaliation."
He drew hard on his cigarette, butted it firmly, and went on.
"I believe that this present epidemic has been started by enemy agents. I further believe that it is due to a synthetic virus which combines the terrific contagiousness of the 1918 flu with certain features of mumps, and perhaps German measles. I think the virus has been built up in such a way that there is no cross-immunity with any natural virus; in other words, having had mumps or flu or shots for either will be no protection. And, to make it even more diabolical, they have deliberately made it a mild type of infection so that almost everyone gets better, and people are therefore not concerned about it. As Joe Armstrong said, the stuff isn't serious. So why suspect sabotage until it is too late."
"But the Russians themselves are reporting cases," I said, "and how do you explain this pandemic in Red China that's killing off so many people. That is an entirely different disease."
"I agree," Hallam said thoughtfully, "and that's the beauty of the whole plan. If you learn to make one virus that transmits its characteristics, you should be able to make others. A killer virus let loose in North America would alarm the entire continent overnight. Our public health people would isolate whole cities, if necessary, and probably eliminate it before it got out of hand. We have no quarantine for this epidemic. Nobody is worried about it and many authorities feel if a big epidemic cannot be controlled by their inadequate medical staff they might as well be killed off now."
"You mean the Soviets want to eliminate the Chinese too?" Pat was incredulous.
"Yes, I do." The Chief nodded emphatically. "They want to rule the whole world, not just a part of it. As time goes by, the Chinese are more and more of a threat to their supremacy. That threat must be eliminated."
"What about reports of flu and the new small pox thing in Russia and Siberia?" I asked.
He was almost enthusiastic. "It's a lovely plan. Yes, lovely, if it weren't so horrible in its implications." He paused to drain his cup. "For the past several years there has been very strong emphasis on public health measures in the USSR. A tremendous drive for vaccination against polio, small pox and various other communicable diseases has resulted in the immunization of millions of children and adults. I'll bet if we could get some of those vaccines we'd find the antidote to both our flu virus and the Chinese small pox-measles, whatever it is. I think there has been deliberate selection of part of the population to carry on the Soviet system and the rest will be sacrificed just to fool us. After all, the Reds believe in genetics as we do, now that Lysenko and his theories are discredited, and what more logical than breeding a better race?"