A squad of soldiers had been assigned to protect us, but as it turned out, they weren’t needed. Everyone in the village was already dead. Some had died from a type of hemorrhagic fever, but most had died violently. We contacted the command center, but instead of evacuating us, they quarantined us. Ten days later, every soldier and every one in my group had died, except, of course, for me. When I was finally flown out, I tried to explain what had happened, not only to my group, but also to the Hondurans, but no one, including you, would listen. Your sole interest was the hemorrhagic fever. Of the thirty-one people who died in my group, only seven died as a direct result of infection, the rest died violently, and probably unnecessarily.

As of last Thursday, there have been no cases of hemorrhagic fever reported in Colorado, and the only reasonable explanation is that no one is looking for it. The Colorado Health Department is reporting an unusually high number of deaths from a particularly virulent form of the flu, and I believe that many of those cases are, in fact, related to the Honduran Virus.

There has also been an unprecedented spike in the rate of violent crime in Colorado Springs. In the past six weeks, there have been forty-two murders and suicides — that’s twenty-five times their average. This is not a simple statistical anomaly.

If you check, you will find that the Colorado Health Department and Colorado Bureau of Investigation have already started investigations, and not surprisingly, neither one has found anything. You need to help them make the connection; you need to tell them what happened seven years ago!

I can imagine how an unsolicited e-mail asking for an investigation into an obscure virus will be received, but as I see it, you are in my debt. I also want you to consider the source; no one else knows what really happened in Honduras. I’m not asking a lot. Do your job, and let the Colorado Health Department do theirs. I’m certain that the results will confirm what I’m telling you.