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more advanced than the processors that run the average household laptop.” Dr. Bellany was clearly in awe of the virus’s makeup. “If we had time to study this thing, we’d be able to make huge leaps in medical science and computer engineering.”
    “You mean if any of us are left,” Paulson said, unable to rein in his sarcasm. “So you’re telling us that one of these microscopic nanoviruses has more computer processing power than a full-sized computer? And there are millions of these things floating around in the air?”
    “Billions, and growing in number as they pass from person to person. I know how that sounds, but that’s what I’m seeing here, Mr. President,” Bellany said.
    “Does that mean they could be intelligent in any way?” Rowan asked.
    “I have no way of knowing. They were clearly built or evolved to do a task, and they’re damned efficient at that task. And that is to kill us. Humans . Watch this.”
    Bellany touched his screen and the video showed several large drops entering the screen near the inert nanovirus.
    “I’ve added cow’s blood to the mix here. Look how the nanovirus remains inert, not moving in any way. Now here’s blood from one of our monkeys.”
    The virus shuddered, and its small sharp edges started to unfurl as it spun toward a large semi-circular object on the screen. Other nanoviruses entered the picture as well, heading for the object.
    “See how they respond to this chimp red blood cell? Now watch.”
    The viruses swarmed the red blood cell and one used its sharp edge to cut in. Once inside, it appeared to absorb some of the cell’s material, then it stopped moving. Its sharp edges retracted and it immediately returned to its dormant state. The cell remained intact, relatively uninjured.
    “You can see what happened here. It ignored the cow blood but homed in on the chimp blood cell. But when it entered the cell to start replicating, it absorbed some DNA material and then stopped the process. Now watch this. This is human blood.” Bellany moved a robotic arm to add more drops to the mix.
    A sudden flurry of activity lit up the screen. Thousands of nanoviruses starting attacking the human blood cells, sharp spikes flying and spinning as they cut their way inside. Within each cell the virus replicated itself until eventually there were so many in the cell that it burst open, releasing thousands more viruses which then moved on to the next cell. The slaughter subsided when all the red blood cells in the sample lay ruptured. The thousands of new viruses returned to their dormant stage and drifted in a dark cloud across the screen.
    “Shit,” Paulson whispered.
    Bellany said, “Now imagine this happening to every cell in your body. You literally explode from the inside out at an incredibly fast rate. Extrapolations from our computer algorithms show that just one nanovirus in the average human body would spread and kill that person in less than an hour. The only symptoms would be a slight fever and cough or runny nose. That is until the very end when he’d start coughing blood, every organ in his body turning to mush, and his lungs collapsing.”
    “So this thing knows to target only humans? How is that?” Paulson asked.
    “It apparently uses its sophisticated processors and chemical readers to target cells that contain only human DNA.”
    “So they’re just out there hunting us?” Rowan asked.
    “Yes, they’re out there in very large numbers hunting us. If you go outside and breathe contaminated air, you’ll be exposed.”
    Paulson pressed his hands to his eyes, squeezed hard, and then dropped his hands back to his desk. He could feel the plane shake lightly as they hit some turbulence. “How long can they survive? And how do we kill the bastards?”
    “As for how long the virus can survive, we don’t know. I would assume that if it can survive in space as a spore, then it could survive on earth for a very long time. And as for a cure, we’re working