[On the coronavirus outbreak]

We don't know how or exactly where the outbreak started, and odds are we never will. Too many people in high places are invested in saving face. That's part of the problem, since serious people are considering the possibility that this is an escaped bioweapon.

Could the presence of not one, but two infectious disease research facilities within a short train ride of the first reported case be a huge coincidence? Sure, but Chinese officials' frustrating habit of keeping vital details close to the vest isn't helping to resolve the question.

This virus could just as easily be a freak product of the unsanitary preparation of bizarre foods as a black project cooked up to muzzle pesky Hong King protesters. The folks in charge aren't telling us. Even the World Health Organization was bafflingly slow in taking the outbreak seriously. Add in the possibility of cloak and dagger shenanigans involving the Canadians of all people, and the news starts to look like a dime spy novel.

That's the real cause for alarm. We knew the global ruling class was peopled with mediocrities going through the motions of operating machinery built by better men. Now they appear too dull-witted and effete to even pull the levers they long ago stopped understanding.

Corona-Chan probably isn't the harbinger of the apocalypse, but she has revealed that when the actual happening comes, our rulers will have no idea how to respond.

If you want an intelligent, exciting, and fictional spy story, check out Combat Frame XSeed!