James Barrington - Pandemic

Mike Murphy’s personal specialization was cleaning things up – he sometimes even referred to himself as ‘The Cleaner’ – and the offer he’d received was to continue working for the Agency but as a freelance operator under contract, at a substantially increased salary and with a complete absence of the bullshit invariably associated with any organization funded by any government. The downside was that, as a contract employee, the CIA could legitimately disavow him if the manure impacted the air-conditioner. If Murphy made a cock-up, he had to face the consequences without the protecting hand of the US Government to help him. Even so, it hadn’t been a difficult decision.

The call from John Nicholson had reached him as he was heading out to do some grocery shopping, one of the more boring tasks faced by any bachelor, and he’d happily postponed that one when he heard what Nicholson had to say. Ninety minutes later he was walking down the hallway of the Arlington safe house, instructions memorized.

He was going to return to his apartment in Falls Church to pack what he needed before getting a cab to Baltimore to catch a transatlantic flight. Nicholson had calculated that Murphy would arrive in Crete about twelve hours after Krywald, Stein and Elias, which was just about right.

But before he went home, he had an extra job to do for Nicholson, immediately.

Number Two Briefing-Room, HMS Invincible , Sea of Crete

The Operations Officer stood waiting for them at the front of the room, a clipboard of notes in his hand. Before him, in tiered seating that ascended towards the rear, sat most of 814 Naval Air Squadron. Some looked interested, some looked bored, but most just looked irritated. Their run ashore in Athens had been keenly anticipated.

‘Commander (Air),’ the Operations Officer announced as the heavily built, bearded officer walked into the briefing-room and down the steps to the front row. Everyone not already standing stood up, then relaxed back into their seats as the Commander himself sat down.

‘Carry on, please.’

‘Thank you, sir. Gentlemen, this will be an outline briefing only, as we have yet to receive detailed tasking instructions, and we have no confirmed start time for any flying operations. For this reason I have dispensed for the moment with the meteorological briefing and other detailed information on the area. You will be briefed on terrain, high ground, safety altitudes, inbound and outbound routes, operational frequencies and so on, before your individual sorties.

‘This briefing will cover five topics: ship’s position, other forces present in the area, operational background, anticipated tasking and forecast operation timing.’ He picked up a pointer and turned to the bulkhead behind him, where a large map of the island of Crete was displayed.

‘ First : ship’s position. Invincible is currently here,’ he said, pointing to a location about ten miles to the northeast of Andikíthira, ‘and we’re making our way to here,’ he pointed again, ‘just north of Réthymno, which is more or less the mid-point of the island. The ship will be holding clear of the civilian ferry routes into and out of Irakleío and Chaniá, but we will only be about thirty miles from the Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport here at Irakleío and around the same distance from the island’s second airport on the Akrotíri Peninsula. We will remain in the same general area until further notice.

‘ Second : other forces. As some of you will be aware, the airport at Akrotíri has three different functions. First, it’s the civilian airport serving Chaniá and the western end of the island of Crete. Second, it’s the home of the Hellenic Air Force’s 115th Combat Wing, which operates two squadrons of A-7H Corsairs. It’s also home to the US Naval Support Facility of Soúda Bay, with quite a large presence – over one thousand people altogether. The primary function of the base is to provide support to US and allied ships and aircraft operating in the eastern Mediterranean.

‘We’re not concerned about the surface vessels they may have, because we are unlikely to become involved with them, but you should be aware of the range of air assets they can deploy. Currently, the Americans have based their Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Two Detachment at Soúda, flying two EP-3E Aries II aircraft. Their Patrol and Reconnaissance Squadron Five, operating P-3C Orions, and Detachment One of the 95th Reconnaissance Squadron, flying RC-135s, are also based there. Additionally, there’s an Air Mobility Command weekly trooping flight from the Naval Air Station at Norfolk, Virginia, to Soúda Bay and back again for personnel and light stores. What you will have noticed immediately is that neither the Greeks nor the Americans operate a dedicated helicopter squadron out of Soúda, which is where we come in.

‘ Third : operational background. We now have some further information about the medical emergency on the island. Apparently the disease broke out in a small village called Kandíra, which is here on the south-west coast of Crete.’ He pointed to a location on the coast about halfway between the small town of Soúgia and the equally small settlement of Agía Rouméli, and south of the peak of Psiláfi, then turned back to face his audience.

‘The latest information we have is that one person is confirmed as having died, and we now have unsubstantiated reports of a second death. What worries the Cretans is that the man whose death began this emergency was reported as being alive and apparently healthy late on Monday evening, yet dead by the following morning.

‘The cause of his death is still unknown, but the Cretan Health Ministry believes, based upon the initial report from the doctor who examined the victim, that he could have been attacked by a very fast-acting virus, possibly a filovirus like Ebola. For those of you who don’t know, Ebola is a very rare virus previously only encountered in the Congo. It is highly contagious and normally fatal.

‘The only good news is that this outbreak has occurred in one of the smallest villages on Crete, which is perhaps why the death toll up until now is so low. Kandíra has a population of under five hundred: if this had happened in Irakleío, Chaniá or Réthymno, and if the causative agent is indeed some kind of virus, there could already be dozens dead and hundreds infected.

‘The consequences of an Ebola-type epidemic anywhere are horrific to contemplate, so the Cretan authorities are well aware that swift and decisive action is necessary to contain the situation. They have therefore requested the assistance of the Centers for Disease Control at Atlanta in Georgia, and have already established a police cordon around the village of Kandíra. Nobody is to be allowed into or out of the village until the CDC personnel arrive to assess the situation.

‘We have been informed that the Cretan authorities have begun transporting tents, bedding, clothing, latrines and washing facilities, cooking equipment and provisions to Kandíra. These are obviously for the benefit of the police and other personnel assisting in this operation.

‘Some police officers are already inside the barricade because they had been originally tasked with investigating the first death, so were actually there in the village itself when the doctor realized that they were facing a possible epidemic. Because they are possibly contaminated by the pathogen, they will have to remain within the cordoned-off area for the foreseeable future.’

The Operations Officer – Ops One in the parlance of the Royal Navy – turned back to the map and pointed again at Kandíra.

‘ Fourth : anticipated tasking. The biggest problem the Cretans have in this emergency is access,’ he said, tracing a route on the map.