The Ministry of Health had issued a flash across every network in the country. You knew it by the sudden crimson blur in your peripheral vision when nearly every screen within three hundred miles was showing the same thing. Such things could cause the closest thing to a standstill in a city of twelve million people.

"Mario, could you turn up the volume?"

"Sure, Jose," he replied.

"... at least fifty thousand have already been affected, with thousands more potentially affected. We strongly recommend wearing a breathing mask or handkerchief as an alternative, to prevent the spread of this endemic."

The slums were a mere half-mile away from my office and there were sure to be clashes between police and citizens in the coming hours, so I fled.