Chapter 38 Summary

This chapter steps out of the narrative and gives a brief history of the G8 summit meetings, which is a 35-year-old conference of major industrialized nations. In the novel, which takes place in 2007, G8 summit leaders are meeting in Los Angeles. Kang plans to send his disease-laden weapon over Los Angeles, and it would trail a deadly vapor of smallpox. Of the potentially 200,000 people that could be infected with the smallpox, a few people would notice immediately and Kang estimates a delayed reaction. Then, hospitals and medical centers would become overrun with people who haven directly or indirectly contracted the virus, or suspect they have. He expects the CDC to react by providing the health industry with vaccines, but his scientists have created a super-virus that make the smallpox immune to current medical defenses. Not only that, the super-virus also contains HIV-1 elements...