“Details are only now beginning to surface, Candace,” Drew said, before staring straight into the camera for a close up. “Five deaths and eighty-four hospitalizations have been attributed to anthrax thus far. The source of the anthrax is still under investigation, but the suspected cause is tainted meat.”
Blake felt his heart stop and then explode as the graphic behind Drew changed to “Tainted Meat.” He was sucked into a tunnel that connected him to the graphic, one that threw off his equilibrium like he was stranded alone, trying to make his way across a bridge in the vortex tunnel of a haunted house.
“What exactly is anthrax, Drew?” Candace asked.
“Candace, anthrax is one of the oldest diseases known to man,” Drew began. “In fact, many Bible scholars believe that anthrax was the fifth and sixth of the ten plagues of Egypt.”
“Do they know what causes it?”
“Yes, Candace, the organism that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, can poison the soil for decades, even hundreds of years. In fact, it’s so common to find anthrax in soil that deadly outbreaks among grazing animals occur frequently, although not so much in the U.S. Normally, humans contract anthrax only by coming into contact with livestock or infected animal hides and carcasses.”
As the reporter spoke, footage scrolled on the screen of dead cows, pigs, and sheep lying on the ground. Stiff carcasses with their legs spread out dissolved into pictures of humans with gruesome, widow-black blisters that covered their entire arms or faces. Drew continued to narrate as the CNN horror reel played.
“There are three forms of anthrax, Candace. Cutaneous, gastrointestinal, and the most deadly and rare form, pulmonary or inhalation anthrax. Gastrointestinal anthrax generally comes from eating meat infected with anthrax. Conversely, when a person inhales the spores of anthrax they settle deep into the lungs, forming inhalation anthrax. Once there, the bacteria multiply rapidly and produce very deadly toxins. It’s the inhalation form that’s most associated with bioterrorism, as was the case in the 2001 attacks on the United States.”
The background footage stopped and the camera panned back to show a third talking head join the other two.
“Dr. Chandak, do we know which form of anthrax caused the deaths?” A graphic appeared under the new talking head that read “Dr. Sachi Chandak, Neurosurgeon and CNN Medical Correspondent.”
“Candace, we’re told that it was inhalation anthrax that was the cause of death for the victims near Boston and Athens, Georgia, and for the fifth victim in New Jersey,” Dr. Chandak said. “Now I’d like to stress that there is no evidence of bioterrorism and that anthrax isn’t a contagious disease. You have to come directly in contact with it.”
The graphic to the right of the talking head changed to read “Woolsorter’s Disease.”
“As Drew said,” Dr. Chandak continued, “inhalation anthrax is the most rare human form of anthrax and is almost never seen in a foodborne illness since, normally, one doesn’t inhale their food. It’s also known in other parts of the world as Woolsorter’s or Ragpicker’s disease because, throughout history, the inhalation form was most associated with those who sorted wool. The most famous case of woolsorter’s disease was in Bradford, England, where the disease killed many of the town’s workers for decades throughout the 1800s. Today, the disease even shows itself sometimes at music festivals, when drums made from animal hides infected with anthrax are beaten, thereby aerosolizing B. anthracis spores that may be inhaled.”
“What is the prognosis for victims that contract anthrax, Dr. Chandak?”
“Unfortunately Candace—I’m afraid that it isn’t good at all for victims of inhalation anthrax. Most estimates show eighty percent to ninety-five percent fatality rate, even–”
“Ninety-five percent fatal?” Candace interrupted. The graphic behind the doctor changed to read: “DEATH IN 24 HOURS.”
Dr. Chandak dropped his shoulders solemnly. “Yes Candace, up to ninety-five percent fatal even with antibiotic treatment,” he said. “And inhalation anthrax acts very fast, sometimes killing its host within 24 hours. As for gastrointestinal anthrax, which would likely result from consuming tainted meat, the fatality rate is twenty-five to sixty percent. Cutaneous anthrax is very treatable and generally not fatal.”
“Oh my! Drew, why do we suspect tainted meat?”
“Well Candace, it’s very rare in the United States to get anthrax in any form, so much so that when we think of foodborne pathogens we think of salmonella, e.coli, listeria, campylobacter, even staphyloccus, but almost never anthrax. However, in this case over fifty victims or their family members have been interviewed and here’s what we have discovered.”
Blake waited. Nick waited. Both leaned forward in their chairs, breathless, over one hundred miles apart, connected through the conduit of television by this bearer of horrific news that, if he released the words that dripped from his lips would rain destruction on each of their lives.
“Every single one of the victims, both dead and those still hospitalized, ate at an underground supper club last Saturday,” Drew said. “Now here’s the strange part. The supper clubs were held in ten different cities across the country and were hosted by ten different chefs, but—here’s the catch.”
Nick picked up his glass of Maker’s Mark and slugged it, knowing what was coming, knowing he was powerless to stop it. He tried to act calm, in control, even in the privacy of his study. His legs remain crossed, relaxed, as he tugged up his socks to be perfectly in place when the verdict was read.
“Every chef was employed by the same restaurant owner and the events were all part of the same club,” Drew said.
“And who was that, Drew?” With the focus off the hurricane in the Bahamas, Angelica rose from the sofa to check on the girls.
“Candace, the chefs all work for acclaimed restaurateur Nick Vegas, owner of all ten restaurants that employed the chefs and founder of the recently announced 50-Forks Club. The dinners last weekend were the first for the new club’s members.”
Angelica stopped. “Nick Vegas,” she said and she looked down at Blake, his head supported by his fists, his eyes locked with tunnel vision to the set. As he leaned forward his shirt collar pushed back allowing Angelica to see a pulsing black blister on the back of his neck. She tugged his collar slightly, the pressure still not distracting Blake from the television. Her eyes widened as she took in the hideous black lesion on Blake’s neck. The oblong blister looked to be about the size of Blake’s 9 MM pistol barrel and just as black. Angelica gently removed her hand from Blake’s shirt and walked to the kitchen to straighten up the dishes as she continued watching the news.
“And have you spoken with Mr. Vegas?”
“Yes, Candace, but he declined comment or to be interviewed for the story.”
Candace paused for a moment, either unsure what to say or waiting for a teleprompter. “But...but, isn’t meat inspected? How would tainted meat get into the food supply?”
“That’s the question that regulators and, perhaps even law enforcement officials, will want to have answered,” Drew said. “My understanding is that the Food Safety Inspection Service is already working with local health department officials and the chefs to determine the source of the anthrax. I need to emphasize once more that this is still very preliminary and that all we know for certain is that health officials have verified inhalation anthrax as the cause of death in five victims.”
“Doctor Chandak, have cases been confirmed for gastrointestinal or cutaneous anthrax?”