"Well," Raising the volume on the radio a little to hide his words, the priest confided his anxieties to his friend. "That's the fifth person I've seen today with illness, I usually see five in a week..." His eyes hunted the night, seeking for answers he did not have. "The symptoms are much the same, high fever, and raised welts, I haven't seen the like any where, it's not cholera or scarlet fever, I've seen those. I tried telling the city health department something was wrong, but this is a poor neighbourhood, you know what it's like, they're busy enough."

And then another person, a young girl, asked if the priest could come see her mother at home, she was too poor for a doctor...It was on the way home so Blade gave them a lift. Years of growing up in what amounted to a ghetto had hardened the girl, but she worried, for her mother was her only relative.

At the apartment block, half of it's windows boarded up like a decrepit warehouse, the priest was glad he had an armed policeman as a friend, though he let him return to his car once he'd found the woman. Too many junkies wouldn't think twice about robbing a doctor, or priest.

A few minutes later the old man returned, "Get the city health authorities, quickly John!" The priest, a veteran of the killing fields, who'd seen pestilence before, was badly frightened. "The woman's dead, and I think several others in the building are down with the same thing! It's an epidemic of some sort."

In this situation, Blade was out of his league, so he let the priest make his calls. "Do you think we could have caught it?" Bullets were one thing, but the policeman had no strategies, no amour to protect from mankind's oldest enemies: bacteria and viruses.

The overstretched, underfunded health authority had finally been getting some money, now that the public, and more importantly the politicians, had got it into their heads that disease was no respecter of class or wealth, and the recent epidemics of TB, tyhpus and AIDS had forced them to take action. So a crew could afford to be sent to this neighbourhood, under police guard of course.

"Hey! Blade, so you been whacking some of these bums?" The sargeant who'd escorted the health workers was an old aquantaince, his line in dark humour had earned him the nickname "Angel", as in "Angel of Death", but he was a good man, he was so cynical because he was fed up with the constant garbage. "You know a family on the Southside all died of the same shit? I was down there today. God awful it was, their faces had big swellings all over them, yuch!"

The priest and the SWAT commander had plenty of experience of death, but this was something different, very chilling, when a murderer roamed the streets of one of the world's greatest cities. A murderer who had no name, who could kill with impunity, and against which no defence was known...

"Mister President, this is the four hundreth confirmed major outbreak in the past twenty four hours! Every state in the East coast, has the plague, and it's running rampant! Our technicians have conformed it's contact transmitted, but haven't isolated it yet, but the lethality, the excesive communicability of it....!!! Sir, the country is in grave jeapordy!" Despite the fact that the only the General's face could be seen on the monitor, he was delivering his word's with the sharp power of a boxer's punches. "At a conservative estimate there's been four thousand deaths. We can't tell yet whether this is a biological attack from person or persons unknown, or some horrible pestilence brought into the country from abroad, or escaped from a research lab. But, and I must emphasize this Mr President, if our analysis is correct, it will make the Black Death look like a dose of chicken pox...we could lose a third of the population, if not more!"

For once, the President of the most powerful nation on Earth, was neither a fool nor a political impotent figurehead. He was an astute man, and understood what General Bain was leading to...it was a frightening prospect! His stomach knotted in fear...Over the past hour he'd been in tele-conference with his advisors. One option had been to nuke, nuke! New York, as that had been the first confirmed area. Contingencies for such emegencies had been drawn up before, back in the '50's even.

In his gruff way, that only a diplomat as skilled the White House imcumbant could recognize as an act desgined to give strength and reassurance, the General continued: "At present, the disease seems to be airborne, but that doesn't explain how such a large number of people have been infected in such a short time! Perhaps by ingestion through drinking water or direct spraying, either that or it's so contagious as to frankly scare the shit out of me, sir! The Russians have already made it known that if there's danger of it spreading...well they would be forced to use chemical or nuclear force to "sanitise" our country! And for once, I couldn't blame them... We can't contain the disease, so far it hasn't appeared to any other country, but that's probably down to good luck. All aircraft are grounded, and the Mexican and Canadian armies have been mobilized to protect their borders."

Indeed, the President had the distinction of being the first to tell the Heads of State of two of his allies that they had permission to kill American citizens. He cancelled the feed for a moment and took something to calm his nerves, "Just say no!" he muttered in bitter irony.

When he continued the broadcast, he reffered to the document he'd just been emailed. "This, this surely can't be possible? We don't have the technology to do this kind of thing?" His eyes were pleading, hoping against hope.

For once, the ultra-discrete General's iron-tight lips spoke of things supposed to be kept secret, his nation was at stake, and he held his vow to the country as his guiding rule. "Sir...you'll have heard all the rumours about what happened in New Mexico back in '47? Lets just say they aren't nearly as wild as the truth...These technologies are possible because we learned of things way beyond our present achievements. I've already placed the subjects under cryonic suspension, while they should be immune to the disease, we have no knowledge of what may happen, or how long it will take. In the event that it was a deliberate attack, they can exact revenge, hence the codename: Nemesis. If it's merely a natural plague, they are capable of preventing external forces from capitolizing on our weakness and conquering our nation, though they'd probably call it "annexation". Do I have your approval sir?"

Breathing slowly, the President saw his country, his people, his friends, his family...and what was unfolding across the various monitors, as new plague cases were reported...."Yes! Do what must be done, General, and may God save us all"

"Yes, sir...yes, Michael!" He said in a gesture of friendship and respect. He knew the truth, the President had the infection, and he owed him that much at least, for America, and perhaps the world, owed him a great deal more....