James Barrington - Pandemic

The reality is that one of the more conservative studies of the scale of the pandemic by 1987 put the figure at 75 million . Other estimates suggested the figure could be almost double that. To achieve the lower of these two figures suggests a first-year infection of around five thousand people – far too many for several entire troops of virus-carrying green monkeys to infect – but well within the number of people who could become victims if the method of transmission was some kind of inoculation programme.

The only way that such a vast number of people could have become infected in such a short time is if the disease had multiple coincident sources. In other words, a very large number of people in the same area had to contract – or be given – the disease at more or less the same time. No other mechanism can account for the sheer scale of the pandemic.

And AIDS broke out almost simultaneously in Africa, Brazil, Haiti, Japan and slightly later in the United States of America: if one infected green monkey managed to achieve this, it must have been the most well-travelled primate in the history of the world. Or is it more likely that the infection was actually transmitted through the smallpox vaccination programmes that were known to have been in operation in, strangely enough, Africa, Brazil, Haiti and Japan in the early 1970s, and the hepatitis vaccinations in the States later in the decade? [17] ‘W.H.O. murdered Africa’ by William Campbell Douglass, M.D. URL: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/who.htm .

Independent research suggests that the most likely scenario is that in the early 1970s certain WASP-dominated covert factions behind the American Government and military decided to try to eliminate what they saw as particularly ‘undesirable’ sections of the human race – principally the populations of Third World nations, homosexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts and blacks – and created a disease that would do the job for them very efficiently without a shot being fired in anger. [13] ‘AIDS: Biowarfare Experiment Out of Control?’ by Sean MacKenzie, 1993. URL: http://mindgallery.com/hiddenroom/biowarfare.html .

After all, there would be a huge public outcry if the American Government simply lined up known homosexuals against a wall and shot them (though all the indications are that many members of Congress and the Senate, if not the current British Government and Opposition, would be privately supportive). But killing them secretly with a disease – especially a disease that the American medical establishment is actively and very publicly trying to eradicate – was a far better solution.

Unfortunately, if that were the case, they did the job rather too well, and as a result AIDS now threatens everyone – straight, gay, black, white, you, me, and more especially our children and our grandchildren. Already, babies are being born HIV-positive, and it’s probably only a matter of time before children emerge from the womb with full-blown AIDS contracted from their innocent, white, non-drug-abusing, single-partner, heterosexual, American or European parents.

Our children are the future. When infected parents produce infected children, the entire human race stands in jeopardy.

Is it possible that shadowy powers behind the American Government of the 1970s engineered not only the destruction of what they perceived to be undesirable elements infesting this planet, but also the end of our whole civilization?

James Barringtonis a trained military pilot who has worked in covert operations and espionage. He now lives in Andorra and this is his second novel. His previous novel, Overkill , also featured Paul Richter.

Paul Richter series

OVERKILL

FOXBAT

TIMEBOMB

PAYBACK

Writing this book required extensive research in areas with which I was unfamiliar, including post-mortem examinations, biological warfare and open-water diving. Much of the information was obtained from the Internet and my own resources, but I would particularly like to thank Tony McGovern – a friend, former paratrooper and very experienced professional diver – for casting his expert eyes over the underwater sequences.

I must also thank my friend and agent, Luigi Bonomi, for his unfailing enthusiasm and encouragement, and Peter Lavery at Macmillan for his talented editing, which undoubtedly substantially improved this book. I’m also grateful that Macmillan was prepared to accept without demur a manuscript that, although a work of fiction, is nevertheless highly controversial.

And, of course, Sally.

One of the difficulties in writing about a country like Crete, where the language is Greek and uses a completely different alphabet to the rest of the world, is the spelling of place names. In The Times Concise Atlas of the World , for example, you will find that the town I have called ‘Chóra Sfakia’ is spelt ‘Khóra Sfakíon’, but in The Collins Road Atlas of Europe , it’s just called ‘Sfakia’. I elected to take the spellings I have used in this book from the Automobile Association’s Spiral Guide to Crete . This is a most useful pocket-sized guide to the island, full of helpful information and with the most detailed maps of any publication I was able to find.

800 NAS800 Naval Air Squadron: Sea Harrier squadron

814 NAS814 Naval Air Squadron: Merlin helicopter squadron

Aden cannon30mm cannon, which can be carried by a Sea Harrier

AGRAnti-gas respirator

AIM-9L or AIM-9MSidewinder air-to-air missile

AMRAAMAIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile

APCAir Picture Compiler

APUAuxiliary Power Unit: used to start the main engine on a Sea Harrier

ASaCAirborne Surveillance and Area Control Sea King Mark 7 helicopter

ASIAirspeed indicator

ASWAnti-submarine warfare

AWOAir Warfare Officer. More correctly Anti-War Warfare Officer, responsible for the defence of a ship against airborne threats

BerettaItalian company which manufactures weapons, including the Model 92 semi-automatic pistol

BIOSBasic input-output system: low-level software that runs when a computer starts

Blue VixenFerranti coherent pulse-Doppler radar fitted to Royal Navy Sea Harriers

BLVBovine Lymphotrophic or Leukaemia Virus: a slow-acting virus affecting cattle

BogeyRoyal Navy slang for a potentially hostile airborne radar contact

BSL4Bio-safety level four: a maximum-safety biological research laboratory

CAPCombat Air Patrol: defensive air patrol mounted by pairs of Sea Harriers to protect the aircraft carrier and other vessels from air attack

CDCCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia

CIACentral Intelligence Agency: the Americans’ foreign espionage organization

Cockers-peeRoyal Navy slang for a cocktail party

CollectiveThe control lever in a helicopter which alters the angle of attack of the rotor blades and causes the aircraft to climb or descend

CPOChief Petty Officer: senior non-commissioned officer in the Royal Navy. Also known as ‘Chief’