Free Plague Zone by Jeff Carlson

United States. Bringing those eyes to bear on the American West had been the easiest part of Jia’s preparations, because China had long since realigned its orbital assets. After the near-total destruction of traditional enemies like Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea, all four of China’s Zi Yuan satellites were aimed solely at India and the U.S. The same was done with most of China’s other, far less precise weather and communications satellites. Jia had simply patched into several eyes that were already perfectly arranged, supplementing his surveillance grid with ASN-104 unmanned aerial vehicles. The UAVs provided the best video, yet those feeds were limited to small areas, less than a square mile, whereas the satellites saw everything.
     
There was no way to track the mind plague itself. In many places, the disorder it created was easily visible, but for the most part Jia’s team was only able to track the spread of the mind plague via computer projections. They combined wind and atmospheric models with military intelligence on American population centers and eyes-only data on the nanotech’s parameters and replication speed.
     
The projections were conservative. Even so, Jia worried about missing some pockets of enemy territory. The nanotech was shown on his screens as swirls and clouds of darker blue. The mind plague blossomed as it touched American populations, especially the larger military bases that had grown alongside the old cities. In some places, there were also pathetic evacuation attempts. Vehicles and pedestrians lunged in chaotic stampedes for the highways, which were the clearest routes into the mountains.
     
Nearly all of them ran for elevation. That instinct was strong even in Jia. Every survivor would always think of the highest mountaintops as safe, although none of the enemy made it that far. The clumps of people and trucks all darkened with the same unstoppable blue shapes. Then the wind carried the plague deeper into American and Canadian lines.
     
Together, we win, Jia realized with certainty. It was the one thing of which he had no second thoughts.
     
There was a deafening crash behind him. The door was only reinforced wood, the weak point in the box. It splintered open as a trooper in black assault gear fell to the floor, thrown off-balance by the steel ramming cylinder in his grip. Light slashed into the room—the yellow, searing brilliance of floodlamps. The light was as much of a shock as the assault itself, although it rippled as other men rushed the door.
     
They were Second Department troops. A dozen of them burst into the room, pinning Jia’s team with short-barreled Type 5 submachine guns. “Down!” they yelled. “Get down!”
     
Dongmei leapt up with her pistol drawn, still tied to her equipment by her headset.
     
“No!” Jia shouted. “Don’t fight!”
     
The other men continued to yell. “Get down! Get down! On your knees! Down!”
     
But it was Jia’s command that Dongmei answered. She lowered herself to the floor, placing her weapon as far from herself as possible. Her teammates obeyed, too, kneeling with their hands lifted high. Huojin and Gui winced in the dazzling light. Jia also saw Yi react to a voice in his headset, wanting to respond but stopping himself.
     
Was there a problem with Yi’s planes? Were the pilots receiving new orders on the same frequency? Jia’s thoughts surged with frustration, but he was far more unsettled when he saw Sergeant Bu Xiaowen among the Second Department troops. The black-uniformed men had spread out, encircling his team. Bu stood to Jia’s right. He must have been among the first soldiers into the room. Their eyes met for a single, startled instant until Jia wrenched his gaze away.
     
“I said get down!” another sergeant yelled.
     
Jia remained standing, looking for their commander. The Second Department was the electronic counterintelligence division of the Ministry of State Security, the top intelligence wing of