Dawn of a New Day (17 page)
Authors: Nick Mariano
July 2016-It was almost six months since the coordinated attacks on ISIS in the Middle East and Africa and initial intelligence revealed that the United States and its allies had been successful in dealing a crippling blow against the terrorist organization, and in some cases, completely eliminating it in that part of the world. In the weeks following the attacks the news agencies reported about the Special Operations on January 1st and mentioned how a mysterious virus had killed several of the ISIS encampments. Mangled bodies were found at training camps in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. It almost appeared like some animal, or something, had attacked the camps and killed everyone in sight.
The spread of the super virus elsewhere in the world was finally under control and adequate supplies of the new vaccine were now on hand in case the virus suddenly reappeared. No new cases were reported in the last ninety days although scientists knew that it could be lying dormant somewhere in the world just waiting to be stirred up. Researchers at the CDC and Fort Detrick continued to analyze and dissect the super virus to better understand its make up and how it worked once it entered a host.
California had finally dug out from the rubble and was beginning to repair and rebuild the city of San Francisco. Scientists continued to analyze the recent earthquakes in an effort to determine if and when another one might hit.
The current President had approximately six months left in his term and Democratic and Republican candidates traveled the United States campaigning. Some the candidates preached a more aggressive stand against terrorism and some even proposed keeping all Middle Easterners out of the country.
ISIS, although severely crippled by the New Years Day attacks, was not completely gone and began to reorganize. Other terrorist groups and Lone Wolves lurked in the background and waited for an appropriate opportunity to launch new attacks.
The Year 2016 looked like it would be a very interesting year indeed.
Nick Mariano was a Special Agent with the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security for over 25 years and traveled around the world protecting people and diplomatic installations. His assignments took him to Turkey, The Netherlands, Denmark, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Italy and the Island of Malta. He currently resides in Myrtle Beach, SC, where he is a professional photographer and scuba diving instructor, in addition to now being a published author. He has received numerous awards for his photographs and displays many of his works at galleries in the Myrtle Beach area. He has written five other books, which are currently available on the Internet. You can review his writings at his web site
http://www.myrtlebeachbooks.us
and his photographs at
www.worldpics.org