"One civilian, two health workers—a nurse and a doctor who treated the first patient. The doctor was sharp enough to call in guys in hazmat suits to deal with everything from then on, so nobody else got infected. They burned his clinic to the ground, they isolated every monkey that had the pathogen, everything was burned or frozen and removed for further study."
"And so this is a problem how?"
"We had a couple of scary hours there. And it occurred to us that with all our planning, we don't really know how to respond to something like this. Not medically, but politically. So we've come up with a plan and we want to run it past you."
"I'm listening."
"Quarantine," he said.
"The traditional method."
"And it has the great advantage that if you can really make it stick, it works."
"But that's the job of the government of whatever country has the first outbreak," said Cecily. "It's not under American control."
"That's not the kind of quarantine I'm talking about. There's not a government in Africa that can be trusted to enforce an effective local quarantine."
Cecily thought for a moment. "You're talking about quarantining an entire continent?"
"We could do it," said Torrent. "We can't stop it from spreading inside Africa, but we can prevent any plane or boat from leaving Africa."
Cecily laughed. "Seriously?"
"I'm serious we can do it, but you're not referring to that, are you?"
"Let's see how this will play. 'Dear American people, we're going to let everybody in Africa catch this terrible disease and die, but that's okay, because they're only black people, and the rest of the world won't catch it."
"Come on, you know me better than that."
"That's how it'll play, and you know it."
"Not if I give a speech in which I explain, There's nothing we can do that will stop it from spreading within Africa. But maybe we have a chance to save the rest of the world by sealing off the continent. Let the disease run its course there, let the governments in Africa handle quarantining between countries as best they can. And when it's under control, we can resume communications and the rest of the world will be safe."
"Okay," said Cecily. "But you say it like this: It's too late to put this monster back in its cage. We have only two choices. Either it rages through the entire world, devastating every nation, killing billions of people. Or we confine it to one continent and prevent it from spreading even further. It will still do terrible damage in the continent where it first appeared. We can't do anything about that and we never could. But as President of the United States, I have no choice but to take the actions that will protect the people of this country. These actions will also protect the rest of the world, outside the continent of origin."
"They'll just say I'm avoiding saying 'Africa.'"
"You say it once at the beginning, then you avoid repeating it. Then when people ask you—and if the reporters don't, black leaders will—you refuse to answer any hypotheticals. 'What if this disease had first emerged in Europe? Would you quarantine Europe?' Or Britain, or Australia—whatever you say will be hopelessly wrong. So you look them in the eye and say, 'This disease originated in Africa. I have no choice about that.' And refuse to discuss it further."
"Political results?"
"It all depends on what happens in Africa."
"But which way works best for us?"
"Does it matter? Can you affect it?"
"Assuming there's no cure, and no vaccine. If we have a cure or a vaccine, of course we'll make sure that it gets delivered everywhere we can."
"I assumed that," said Cecily. "Politically, for you, the worst outcome is that the governments of Africa respond vigorously and the disease is confined to a few countries at most and then it dies out because they quarantined themselves and one another effectively. Then you'll look like an idiot because you consigned an entire continent to this plague, and it was never that big a threat. Torrent the mass murderer."
"Oh, please," said Torrent.
"Come on, you're the historian," said Cecily. She was never sure whether he was playing devil's advocate or really needed her input.
"So how do I manage that?"
"You promise to support African countries in taking effective measures on their own. But you'll only support those countries that respect the international quarantine. You keep making reports about who the good guys are. You make it so that African countries behaving responsibly is your program, and your international quarantine is only for the losers."