Chapter 2 Summary

The narrator is interviewing Bob Archer, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia. Archer admits the CIA was already focusing on China at the time of the breakout, but China hid their disease by claiming they were cracking down on dissidents. The CIA believed the mass killings, curfews, disappearances, and reserve forces in action were all a part of a political strife within the People's Republic of China. The CIA diverted assets from areas where they outbreak was just beginning, thereby missing the disease all together.

Purges within the CIA prior to the outbreak left the agency with agents who were the bottom of the barrel in terms of skills, ability and insight. When Archer discussed the issue with coworkers, he was transferred to Buenos Aires. The CIA knew about the Warmbrunn-Knight report, but ignored it.

In Vaalajarvi, Finland, the narrator...