The creatures descend from the sky, their hovering transports hidden under cover of darkness, to launch an invasion on Earth. Silently, simultaneously, millions of people are attacked. The invaders are clever. They can change form to avoid identification. They use human bodies as incubators, seeding them with spores and using human blood to feed their deadly spawn.
Millions die as the creatures continue to spread across the planet.
The scourge is on the rise again worldwide, claiming anywhere from 1 million to 3 million lives per year. Given the threat, the U.S. Army did send out a crack team to do battle. But it was sent to Seattle, armed with microscopes, cell cultures, computers, and funding from Bill Gates. He and colleagues from Walter Reed will work with the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, a private organization located at the north end of Queen Anne that specializes in infectious diseases of the developing world. It was a big boost for the small, non-profit firm but just a fraction of what Gates has done for malaria research worldwide.