Dead Drop - Rise of the Elites (Chapters 1-5)

Operation Rapture

The handoff was expected to go off without a hitch, but Allen McGrath took a deep breath to settle the nervous excitement fluttering in his stomach. Flanked by a pair of armed bodyguards, he entered a lavish conference room in the business district of Karachi, Pakistan carrying an aluminum attaché case in his right hand, a West Point class ring on his third finger. His custom tailored Italian suit cost more than three months' worth of captain's pay. It didn't matter. His trust fund provided him with more money than he could ever spend.

The opening act of Operation Rapture was his first official assignment for the World Federated Nations, the first of many for the betterment of mankind and the fulfillment of his destiny. Ambition was a fire that surged through his veins. His mother had always described it that way, and he had to agree.

Two officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, under orders from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, waited inside the office next to a large window that faced the bustling harbor. Dressed in business casual, both men wiped the sweat from their faces with handkerchiefs.

McGrath felt a twinge of sadistic pleasure in their discomfort. Speaking perfect Farsi, with only a hint of an American accent, he asked them to have a seat at the conference table in front of the locked case. Then he recited a sequence of numbers.

The soldier closest to the case entered the combination. It opened with a click. Inside were three stacks of gold certificates from various countries, including the U.S.; a letter-size, manila file folder; and a vacuum-sealed metal canister.

A faint smile teased the corners of McGrath's mouth as he pulled a small container of hand sanitizer out of his jacket.

One year later – April 23rd

After arriving in the port city of Tampico, Mexico, thirty-two Iranians, twenty-two men and ten women, crossed the border into the US and arrived undetected in Houston with assistance from the Gulf Cartel. The World Federated Nations had paid a large sum of money for the cartel's services and their silence.

Each bio-martyr carried a small leather pouch that contained a metal vial and two cotton swabs. Five days later, the second phase of Operation Rapture would unfold in sixteen major airports across the country.

The vials held a weaponized subtype of the A/H5N1virus not previously detected in animals or humans. The virus was developed as a catalyst for a worldwide influenza pandemic designed to reduce the world's population by half. Symptoms would appear three to four days after contact—after the infected were already contagious. The vials also contained a weaponized H2H rabies virus, an unapproved addition that not only ensured virulence but would allow the Iranians to maintain a measure of control. They alone possessed the cure.

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