Washington/Montana/and Moscow
Here is the latest update:
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Date: November 22, 1944
Location: Washington, D.C.
Time: 9:00 a.m. [EST]
NATJAB met for its regular morning meeting not knowing about the developments occurring in Montana.
As far as the team could tell the number of infected were slowly declining throughout the U.S. Numbers of new cases were now on the decline in all the cities, even Detroit. The patient zero for Detroit had finally been tracked down. As was feared he was already dead. He was a mid-level plant manager who had recently taken a trip to Los Angeles to help correct some faults in aircraft engines that had been manufactured at the Ford plants. He had been in Los Angeles during the Japanese raid and had returned to Detroit according to his neighbors two days afterward. He had been ill when he had gone to work two days later and had been sent home to get some rest. That had been the last anyone had heard from him until a concerned neighbor in the apartment complex he lived in had called the police. She had not heard from him for a few days even when she had gone to knock on his door. The police had investigated and found the body of the unfortunate man. An autopsy stated he had likely been dead at least 24 hours by the time he was found. By that point however many people in the plant had been infected. Fortunately it was hoped the number of infected would now begin to decline in Detroit as well.
The team looked at the score sheet and felt confident enough to send a report to the President informing him that they believed the worst was finally over and with any luck the outbreaks would decline and all be contained before the end of the year.
The Score Sheet:
Cities/ Number of Casualties/ Deaths/ Special
Los Angeles/ 2,400/ 279
St. Louis/ 168/ 80
New York/ 138/ 51
Seattle/ 15/ 10/ contained
Portland/ 10/ 8 contained
Youngstown/ 16/ 10
Detroit / 50/ 20
San Bernardino/ 3/ 1/ contained
San Francisco/ 6/ 3/ contained
Chicago/ 2/ 1/ contained
Oakland/ 2/ 1/ contained
Atlanta / 1/ 1/ contained
Total Infected: 2,811 Total Deaths: 465
Date: November 22, 1944
Location: Peter Ander’s ranch in Montana
Time: 9:00 a.m. [CST]
Peter Anders’ ranch was now a virtual bivouac for FBI agents, state police, and agents from the Department of Agriculture. He and his sons had been asked to confine themselves to the house while they were interviewed by the FBI, and the agents from the Dept. of Agriculture. Meantime still more agents were examining the strange item Peter had discovered.
Now, one of the FBI agents came in to talk with Peter. Peter was told that he and his sons needed to be taken to a local hospital and examined, “to be on the safe side.” Peter had of course heard about the raids out west by the Japanese now 17 days ago and immediately wondered if he and his boys were infected. The FBI agent, one Andy Pruitt* reassured Peter, “We don’t think it’s the same thing that hit Los Angeles. What it is we aren’t quite certain yet, but we need to have you examined and we need to quarantine your cattle herds for now and have a veterinarian check on them. In addition we’ll be moving the object off of your property and sending it back east to be examined by experts.” Peter didn’t argue. The fact that the herds had to be quarantined worried him. They were his livelihood and that of his family. But if this were something aimed at them, better to find out now and deal with it rather then wait until something happened.
By noon an army truck specially prepared with a sealed cab arrived and the object was carefully loaded into it by special army technicians wearing gloves and masks. The object would then be taken to Butte, Montana and by nightfall a specially requisitioned army air transport would be taking the object back to Fort Detrick for further study.
Peter Anders’ would turn out to be a lucky man. After the true nature of the balloon was discovered it was also determined that most of his cattle had not been infected. After he and his cattle were vaccinated against the anthrax contained in the infected corn seeds he would find he would lose only a half dozen head to the disease. Other ranchers around him however would not be so fortunate.
Date: November 22, 1944
Location: Moscow, USSR (The Kremlin)
Time: 3:00 p.m. (Moscow Time)
In the Kremlin Yuri Gorkov was reporting personally to one of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union, Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov. The Trans Siberian Express had arrived several hours earlier and now Luis Fernandez was preparing for the next stage of his journey via plane to Ankara and then to Lisbon. Gorkov had managed to arrange just enough red tape to keep the Portuguese ambassador in Moscow for a few hours while he made his report.
The fact that the ambassador of Portugal to Japan had suddenly asked for Soviet assistance in speedily getting out of Japan and that he had some vital information for his government had set off some alarm bells in the Kremlin. Intelligence had hinted that Luis had met with a very high ranking Japanese official before he had left to return to Lisbon. What the meeting had been about was of course unknown but any meeting that prompted Portugal’s ambassador to seek to leave Japan with some sort of confidential documents was something that needed to be investigated.
“This much we have been able to determine comrade Defense Minister,” Gorkov said. “First, the documents carried by Ambassador Fernandez are of such a sensitive nature that he allows no one access to them. He keeps the briefcase with him at all times, even when he sleeps and the key as well. Attempts to gain any information from him proved futile. However, we had a little more success with the guards.” Gorkov smiled as he remembered sharing some good Spanish wine with the two embassy guards during the times they guarded the Ambassador’s sleeper during the night. A bottle or two of good wine and some friendly conversation could do wonders in opening up tight lipped people. “This much we have learned. Ambassador Fernandez met with a high ranking Japanese official under extremely secretive measures. Who and what that meeting was about we do not know but we do know that Ambassador Fernandez is returning to Lisbon and will be asking the Foreign Minister there to immediately arrange a meeting with the American ambassador.” After a moment Molotov spoke, “You are certain about this meeting with the American Ambassador?” “Yes comrade, that much I was able to determine,” replied Gorkov.
Foreign Minister Molotov was already considering the ramifications of this. The reasons for this private meeting could be many but one possible reason stood out and was very worrisome. Was Japan perhaps preparing to negotiate a peace with the West? There had been rumors that several high ranking members of the government in Tokyo were looking for some way to end the war now while Japan still had some leverage at the negotiating table, especially after their rather audacious raid on Los Angeles of several days ago. If Japan negotiated peace with the Allies now then once German surrendered the Soviets would be unable to invade Manchukuo and Japanese occupied China to expand their influence in the Far East, not without angering their “allies.”
The Foreign Minister turned to Gorkov and said, “You have done well comrade. The information you have gathered could prove to be very important. You may leave and I will tell your supervisor to put a special commendation in your file.” Beaming, Yuri Gorkov bowed and left Molotov’s office. After he had gone the Foreign Minister touched the button on his intercom to his secretary. “Contact Premier Stalin and tell him I have some important information for him.”
