The week after Geneva was a vigil. The world held its breath, its attention split between the verdant Mekong Delta and Kandalar's arid plains. News cycles had countdown clocks, speculating which prophet would be vindicated.
Reuben's HON, operating on a razor's edge of credibility, managed to guide a trickle of aid and one assessment team into the Jarama settlement, their reports confirming the appalling conditions but finding no trace of the alleged smallpox vials.
The second week, the silence began to feel oppressive. In Ha Tanh, heightened surveillance of the wildlife markets yielded nothing out of the ordinary. The local health authorities, who had been on red alert at first, began to grumble at the disruption. From Kandalar, the HON team reported an increase in all types of sickness—
