Peter May - The Firemaker

REUTERS:

DATELINE SUNDAY, 21 JUNE; WASHINGTON DC:

VIRUS CLAIMS BY US DOCTOR

The existence of a deadly new virus which may have infected up to half the world’s population was revealed last night on the Internet by an American doctor working in the People’s Republic of China.

Dr Margaret Campbell, a forensic pathologist from Chicago, claims that the virus, known as RXV, mutated during the development of a genetically engineered super-rice which was introduced across the People’s Republic three years ago. The new rice, which increased yields by up to one hundred per cent and turned China into a major exporter, was developed during five years of research by the US-based company Grogan Industries.

A spokesman for Grogan refused to comment on the story which appeared on up to a dozen sites across the Internet late Saturday night, accusing the company of resorting to murder in an attempt to cover up the discovery of the virus.

Dr Campbell, who describes the virus as being similar to but more dangerous than AIDS, says that RXV is ingested with the rice and lies dormant in the body for up to five years before attacking and destroying the immune system. She claims the world could be less than two years away from a catastrophe unprecedented in human history.

To date there has been no official response from the Beijing government.

REUTERS:

DATELINE TUESDAY, 23 JUNE; BEIJING, PRC:

MEMBER OF POLITBURO ARRESTED

Rumours are circulating among US diplomatic staff here in Beijing today that Pang Xiaosheng, the man China watchers were tipping as the next leader of the People’s Republic, has been arrested on murder and corruption charges.

It is believed that Pang, a leading member of the Politburo, was detained after a wide-ranging criminal investigation into a series of murders committed in the Chinese capital.

The authorities, however, have refused to comment, and there is now widespread speculation that Pang’s alleged arrest is linked with the detention of five Beijing-based executives of the international biotech company Grogan Industries.

Pang was Minister for Agriculture and a leading proponent of the genetically engineered super-rice developed in China by Grogan during the nineties. Claims that the genetically modified rice is a carrier of a lethal virus which could have infected up to half the world’s population have created panic in China and grave concern among the international community.

REUTERS:

DATELINE TUESDAY, 23 JUNE; BEIJING, PRC:

HIGH-RANKING LEGAL MANDARIN ON CORRUPTION CHARGES

The second-highest ranking law officer in Beijing, Deputy Procurator General Zeng Hsun, was arrested here today on corruption charges.

Zeng, the equivalent of a US Deputy District Attorney, will face a closed-door trial to be held within the next three weeks, and could be executed if found guilty. The nature of the charges against him has not yet been made public.

REUTERS:

DATELINE WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE; BEIJING, PRC:

CHINESE APPEAL TO WHO

The Chinese government today appealed to the World Health Organisation for help in tackling the fight against RXV, the virus carried in genetically modified rice which, it is claimed, could wipe out up to half the world’s population within the next two to five years.

An international team of medical experts, set up by the WHO during the last forty-eight hours, is expected to leave for Beijing immediately. The Chinese authorities have promised unfettered access to the work that was carried out there during the development of the so-called super-rice.

With, potentially, more than a billion Chinese infected by the virus, the search for a cure will be a race against time, with the first symptoms expected to appear within two years.

REUTERS:

DATELINE THURSDAY, 25 JUNE;

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA:

COMPANY OFFERS HOPE OF RXV CURE

The California-based biotech company Grogan Industries today announced a 100-million-dollar investment in the search for a cure for RXV.

The announcement comes just 24 hours after the company condemned and discredited its China-based executives currently held in Beijing, in the People’s Republic, pending trial for murder.

A Grogan Industries spokesman said: ‘While the company cannot accept any responsibility for the illegal actions of overseas executives acting on their own initiative, we feel morally obliged to take the lead in the search for a cure for RXV.’

He continued: ‘To that end we are prepared to invest 100-million-dollars of our own resources.’

With some of the world’s leading geneticists and virologists at its disposal, Grogan Industries say they are confident they can make progress towards a cure in the two-year window of opportunity most experts believe exists before the virus becomes active.

Industry experts believe that a cure for RXV would generate multi-billion-dollar profits for the patenting company.

This story is a work of fiction, but its background is authentic and its premise frighteningly plausible. It involved copious amounts of research in which I received invaluable help from the following people, all of whom gave their time and expertise with a willingness and generosity for which I will always be grateful: Dr Richard H. Ward, Professor of Criminology and Associate Chancellor of the University of Illinois, Chicago; Professor Joe Cummins, Emeritus of Genetics, University of Western Ontario; Zhenxiong ‘Joe’ Zhou, Office of International Criminal Justice, Chicago; Professor Dai Yisheng, former Director of the Fourth Chinese Institute for the Formulation of Police Policy, Beijing; Professor He Jiahong, Doctor of Juridical Science and Professor of Law, People’s University of China School of Law; Professor Yijun Pi, Vice Director of the Institute of Legal Sociology and Juvenile Delinquency, China University of Political Science and Law; Professor Wang Dazhong, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, Chinese People’s Public Security University; Mr Chen Jun, Secretary-General of the Eastern Film and TV Production Centre, Beijing; Police Commissioner Wu He Ping, Ministry of Public Security, Beijing; Steven C. Campman, MD, Forensic Pathology Fellow, Northern California Forensic Pathology; Robert D Cardiff, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine; Kevin Sinclair, writer and journalist, South China Morning Post ; Liu Xu and his mother Shimei Jiang who were my tireless sherpas in Beijing.

I could not complete a list of credits without mentioning the biggest contributer of all — the Internet. Without it I would not have made contact with many of those who helped and advised. Nor would it have been possible to access so quickly and freely the information I required to build a detailed and authentic background to my story.