Contagion Domination

By William Nisol

Zhihao and her father do not realize they are being used as pawns to produce a deadly novel virus. Forced to work on the confidential project, virologist Zhihao genetically engineers a virus for the Chinese government. A virus so effective and deceptive that an infected individual would not know they had it until days later. A perfect attribute to cause its exponential spread. Much to their sorrow, by the time they discover the plot to spread the virus around the world, it is too late.

Contagion Domination is about power and intrigue at the highest levels of government, a story about how intimidation, assassinations, and stealth can be used to create global chaos with no enemy to blame.

This compelling geo-political thriller chronicles the extreme measures taken by China to overthrow the United States and consequently rise to power to dominate the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Nisol
• Release date: Mar 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005198299

William Nisol

William Nisol lived in China. China is determined to surpass the United States, economically and militarily. His book, Contagion Domination, was inspired by true events.

Book preview

Contagion Domination

The Fall of the American Empire

By William Nisol

Copyright 2020 William Nisol

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Prologue

The novel is a work of political fiction based loosely on the events of the year 2020 that ends fictitiously with the rise of China and the collapse of the United States of America. The leaders at the time were President Xi Jinping and President Donald J. Trump. The backdrop is the chaos in the world due to a pandemic.

An enemy of the United States concocted a deadly virus, developed its antidote, and threatened the lives of tens of millions of Americans. In addition, the country would not share its antidote with the United States unless it succumbed to its punitive demands.

It is about China seeking power and domination by engineering an invisible weapon, using it to cause a global pandemic, and manufacturing a synthetically developed vaccine that could not be replicated in the short term.

China’s intention is to replace the United States as a world power, both economically and militarily, and to destroy America’s industrial base so profoundly it can never again be a threat.

This story includes China’s aggressive foreign travel policy, which pushed international flights out of the city of Wuhan, China, where the virus was engineered, to Europe and the Americas but halted all domestic flights.

It seemed overnight, in all corners of the world, the impact of the pandemic caused unprecedented tragedy.

Chapter I: A Strange Mission

Part I

Wuhan City, Hubei Province, The People’s Republic of China, October 2019

In a small, dimly lit laboratory in a nondescript district, a lanky woman in her early thirties is peering into a microscope. She is wearing a white lab coat and a pair of gloves. Her nameplate, clipped on the upper left side of her lab coat, says, Zhou Zhihao, MD, PhD, with Virologist written underneath. Even without makeup, you can tell that she is beautiful. However, the large dark circles under her eyes and the poorly tied-back hair make her look old for her age.

There are several other slides with specimens placed neatly on the left side of the microscope. On her right is a thick book titled A Textbook of Fungi, Bacteria, and Virus (3rd Edition). There is an opened notebook filled with notes and scribbles right beside it and a pen without a cap at the centerfold.

After staring at the specimen for several minutes, she looks up and puts her right hand on the nape of her neck, giving it a gentle squeeze to ease its soreness.

She suddenly feels her stomach rumble. Zhihao realizes she has been so focused on her research she has not had anything to eat. She takes off her gloves and walks out of her lab and into the hallway to grab a snack from the vending machine. She is not surprised to see there is no one else in the facility but her.

She checks her watch—it is already past one in the morning. Surely, she could not have possibly worked for sixteen hours straight.

It’s time to go, she thinks.

Zhihao goes back to her laboratory and takes her lab coat off. She washes the used microscope slides in the sink, closes her book and notebook, and places them in a drawer. She takes out a key from her bag and locks the drawer. Before she leaves, she grabs a file folder and in it places a single sheet of paper filled with written notes of her work.

When she walks out of the entrance of the building toward her car, you can clearly see the words Wuhan Institute of Virology mounted on the facility’s red brick walls.

While driving home, Zhihao ponders how strange her newest project is. Sure, she has worked on a few small assignments from her father in the past, but this particular one has a certain ominous feel to it.

She starts to recall the conversation she had with her father over the phone. It feels like more time has passed, but the phone call took place only a few days ago.

"The minister of health wants me to genetically engineer a virus with these specific and unusual attributes? What is this for?" a bewildered Zhihao asked him.

"It is purely for research purposes. The country wants to get an academic and economic advantage by showing the world how advanced our science and medical research facilities are in Wuhan. Eventually, we will publish everything about it in the Scientific Journal of Medicine," answered her father.

The whole assignment seems fishy to her, but there is one particular detail about the assignment that completely boggles her mind—the virus cannot be any random virus. It has to have underwhelming symptoms. A condition where an infected person does not even think something is seriously wrong until it is too late. At the same time, it has to be highly contagious and deadly. It must also remain active on hard surfaces for several days. Most viruses, like the common cold, are usually noticed within twenty-four hours or less. The virus my father wants me to engineer must not show any symptoms for at least four days. The need for a virus to have this unusual, specific property will make it difficult, if not impossible, to deliver.

Apart from creating a new strain, her father also instructed her to create a cure for it, as if it were easy to do such a thing. Unlike other assignments given to her by her father, she has to do all of this in secret and complete the mission as soon as possible.

Zhihao has no idea why on earth such a significant and top-secret government assignment has been given to her—a random virologist from a tier–two city. Surely there are far more capable people than me, and superior facilities, the government can entrust this assignment to. She shakes her head and sighs.

Well, at least my father thinks I am smart enough to pull this off, Zhihao says out loud enthusiastically.

Several minutes later Zhihao arrives at her home. She is living by herself in a small, one-bedroom house in a low-level building area of suburban Wuhan. The first thing that greets you when you go inside is the living room with aqua-colored walls and several flower and plant arrangements strategically placed here and there. Its whole appearance is one of careful, meticulous planning that exemplifies neatness and tidiness.

On one wall there is waist-high teak shelving with neatly arranged books, mostly medical texts and novels, and several DVDs. She also has many music albums neatly stacked beside the movies. On the top of the shelf is a record player and CD player. Above that is a wall-mounted, medium-sized, thin-screen television. At the center of the room is a mahogany coffee table, which is in front of a taupe couch. On the coffee table is a large, beautiful arrangement of flowers—plum blossom, orchid, and camellia. You can tell she prides herself on the care and comfort of her home.

The gray and white, small kitchen is simple yet functional. Very clean and organized. Not a dirty dish in sight. At one end is a small round table with four spindle chairs.

Her bedroom walls are taupe, with several framed watercolor paintings. An ornate blue and white porcelain lamp sits on top of a night table beside her single bed. A small bureau is on one side, as well as a chair.

At the back of the house, twin doors open to a lovely garden with many small trees and lots of flowers.

Finally finding time to relax, she checks her cell phone and sees several missed calls from her father. How strange, she thinks to herself. Her father has never called her this often before. Ever since he gave her the assignment, her father has been reaching out to her at least once a day. She is well aware that this must be because of the assignment and nothing more, but she is happy nonetheless to be talking to her father more frequently lately.

Part II

It is seven-thirty in the morning, and Zhihao is woken up by her alarm clock. She checks her phone and sees two missed calls from her father. She smiles faintly and gives him a call.

Hello, Father. Silence.

I’ve got nothing for you right now, Father. I have been researching nonstop, but I still can’t think of a virus that perfectly matches your description. I’m sorry, but don’t worry, I will keep working until I find it.

Her message is followed by more silence. Her father then hangs up.

This brief, one-sided conversation is enough to break Zhihao’s heart. All along she thought she was already making progress with her father, but she had her doubts. She thought her father would be understanding about her lack of progress. After all, what he is asking of her is such a monumental task.

I will not let this lack of progress happen ever again. The next time I call my father, it’s going to be to tell him that I have done everything he has asked for, she vows to herself.

Zhihao looks up to her father with a lot of respect and admiration. After all, growing up, she had no one else to look up to but him. She is her parents’ only child—because her mother passed away when giving birth to her.

While her father raised her well and has always been there to support her needs, she feels he secretly blames her for her mother’s death. She cannot even say for sure if her father truly loves her.

Despite their distant relationship, Zhihao still loves him more than anything in the world. There is nothing she wants more than to make him proud of her. In a way, she believes if she does this her father will forgive her for ending her mother’s life. This is precisely why even though she has uncertainties about this assignment she cannot say no to him.

Part III

Moments later Zhihao realizes that it is Sunday, and she remembers having reluctantly agreed to a breakfast get-together with her friends from medical school. Her friends have been reaching out to her for months, incessantly trying to convince her to meet up with them. Finally, after all the persistent pestering, she has agreed.

She lets out a large groan, rushes to the bathroom to take a quick shower, and gets dressed.

She arrived at the tea house at eight-thirty in the morning, and everyone is already there. Only four of them have shown up, but since two of them have brought their kids, who are currently chasing each other around the table, she feels like she is at a small party.

She has not seen her friends in months, and while she was hesitant about going in the beginning, it does feel nice to reunite with old friends once again. All of them, apart from her, are already married with children.

Can you believe it has only been eight years since we graduated from Wuhan University? It feels like ages ago, says Dr. Kai Cheng, a tall, bulky man and a surgeon at the Zhongnan Hospital.

The four of them exchange funny and memorable stories from medical school and update each other on what they have been up to recently.

Dr. Shih Xiyu is still as beautiful and ageless as ever. She is no longer practicing medicine and is a full-time mom to her three children. She has gained a little weight from giving birth, but somehow that has only made her even more stunning. Zhihao has always been intimidated by her beauty, but Xiyu has such a wonderful personality it is almost impossible not to like her. One of her kids, Tao, has been coughing for almost a week now, and the little girl is still active and playful as ever.

Dr. Li Wenliang, a short man with spectacles, is practicing ophthalmology at the Wuhan Central Hospital. He just celebrated his thirty-third birthday a few weeks ago.

How about you, Zhihao? What have you been up to? asks Xiyu.

I am working as a virologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Other than that, I’ve got nothing going on. I’m turning thirty-four this year, and I’m still single with no children.

Come on, Zhihao, don’t be so negative about it. As long as you are happy, that is all that matters, said Wenliang.

Zhihao responds with a sad smile. I guess you’re right.

How’s the family, Wenliang? asks Cheng, noticing Wenliang’s wife and children have not come.

They’re fine. The kids, they grow up so fast. My beautiful wife is healthy and full of life, responds Wenliang.

The group spends another hour chatting before bidding each other farewell.

You take care of yourself, Zhihao, says Wenliang as he waves goodbye.

Part IV

It is Monday, and Zhihao is back in her lab. She has read the textbook from beginning to end at least three times now, and she still has no idea where to start.

All of a sudden, it hits her. Xiyu’s daughter. The little girl was coughing the entire time they were having breakfast, but no one seemed to be alarmed by it.

A cough. Yet she was as playful as the other children, running around tables.

She then remembers the SARS pandemic that took place in 2002. Severe acute respiratory syndrome. It is a strain of coronavirus that usually only infects animals, mainly bats, but somehow it transferred to humans.

It is highly infectious, too. It is an airborne disease that can spread through droplets of saliva. Contact with objects and surfaces touched by a patient can also cause infection.

Its symptoms are just like that of the flu—fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, and muscle pain. Its incubation period is about two days.

While the pandemic has been contained and no new cases of SARS have been reported since 2004, there is still no vaccine or cure for the disease.

This is exactly the type of virus that father needs. It checks almost all the boxes. I can’t believe it has never entered my mind. I’m so grateful I went to that get-together. Bless your heart, Xiyu’s daughter, whatever your name is. Viruses continuously evolve. If I create a new strain of coronavirus and its cure, this will give the country greater medical recognition over the rest of the world. Father will be pleased with me,