| abstract | - On the morning of Day 3, former MI6 agent Stephen Saunders orchestrated a series of biological attacks in cities across the United States of America using a highly lethal weaponized strain of the Cordilla virus. Saunders, a vengeful British soldier abandoned by the U.S. after a failed joint mission in Kosovo, purchased the highly-lethal Cordilla virus from a group of Ukrainian scientists using middleman Michael Amador (who staged a fake auction of the virus to the Salazar syndicate and to a Nina Myers-affiliated buyer). Using the threat of creating a mass grave of Americans as leverage, Saunders dispatched couriers with vials of the virus to no fewer than nine major American cities, including Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; and Las Vegas, Nevada. He used the threat of a nationwide epidemic to make a series of demands of President David Palmer, which were intended to force the United States to retreat within its own borders and "make America clean again." Of the cities targeted, Los Angeles was the hardest hit; one vial of the virus was released in the Chandler Plaza Hotel in the city's Downtown area, as a demonstration of its potential for destruction. An escaped guest initiated a wave of infection across the city, resulting in a major citywide outbreak that was barely contained by the agents of National Health Services and CTU Los Angeles. Additionally, in the course of evading capture, Saunders also orchestrated a helicopter attack on the local MI6 office, and the government-sanctioned assassination of a high-ranking CTU administrator. Saunders was captured at the end of the 22nd hour of the day. After Jack Bauer threatened to infect his daughter Jane Saunders with the virus, Saunders enabled the government to capture or kill almost all of his couriers. However, he was shot to death by the distraught widow of one of his victims, which permitted the final courier to escape the dragnet. This man was eventually killed, and his virus safely contained, bringing the national security threat to an end.
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