Робин Кук - Pandemic

“It would have been difficult to call or text since my phone was confiscated,” Jack said.

“Why?” Laurie demanded. “Who took your phone?”

“Listen!” Jack said, trying to sound more in control than he felt. “I’ll tell you everything, and believe me, there is a lot to tell. But first I’d like to hear how you have fared here in the city with the flu pandemic false alarm.”

“Luckily, things are getting back to a semblance of normal,” Laurie said as Jack grabbed his own desk chair, pulled it over to Laurie’s desk, and sat down. “The subways are mostly running again,” she continued. “The buses are back in service. The airports are functioning relatively normally. The schools are also open — or will be tomorrow. Theaters are open. And the media has been extraordinarily helpful in getting out the message that there is no pandemic flu or any viral outbreak spread by aerosol.”

“Thank God,” Jack said. “But it is still being reported that there is a kind of mini-pandemic brewing. Correct?”

“Absolutely,” Laurie said. “The media has made it clear that although most of the deaths have been here in the New York metropolitan area, there have also been similar deaths in London, Rome, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.”

“I hadn’t heard it’s also popped up in California,” Jack said. “Good lord, I don’t know whether to be impressed or appalled. Considering the fluidity of the youth culture of today, I feel like a stodgy prude.”

“There was a death in each of those California cities,” Laurie said. “And I have to give the media credit for getting the general public to understand that the NYC subway played absolutely no role whatsoever.”

“That’s appropriate,” Jack said. “Associating the outbreak with the subway as if it had something to do with its cause is an example of journalism at its worst.”

“It’s a tabloid tactic,” Laurie said. “People harbor an atavistic fear of subways, like basements. Making the association probably sold more papers, which ultimately was the goal.”

“Whatever,” Jack scoffed. “It was irresponsible and certainly contributed to the panic, considering how many people rely on the subway.”

“The regular media made up for tabloid irresponsibility,” Laurie said. “They have gone out of their way to make it absolutely clear that the disease spreads by body fluids like HIV and not by the respiratory route. The initial fear that it was a rapidly fatal respiratory disease is what made this disastrous false alarm as bad as it was. All day today, while we have been struggling to control the situation, all of us, from the mayor on down, have marveled that no one seems to have anticipated this kind of false alarm could have happened. Even that bogus incoming-missile alert that happened in Hawaii in January 2018 didn’t make anyone realize in retrospect that all the planning, drills, and exercises directed at the feared reoccurrence of a 1918 Spanish flu pandemic would have set the city up for a false alarm of this magnitude. The expense that this has caused is beyond belief, especially when the losses that businesses sustained are factored in.”

“Has any solution been proposed?” Jack asked.

“Not specifically,” Laurie said. “But in general, it is recognized that there has to be some sort of failsafe mechanism in place so this doesn’t happen again. We can’t have a single watch commander in the city’s Emergency Operations Center sitting in front of a switch capable of unleashing the whole shebang.”

“What about my administrative leave?” Jack asked. “Did that come up again?”

“No, and I didn’t try,” Laurie said. “Nor do I plan to, at least not for a few days. This has been a serious debacle and heads are going to roll, and it could be mine. Both the mayor and even the Commissioner of Health are looking at me. Particularly, the mayor sorely needs a scapegoat even bigger than you.”

“I’m sorry,” Jack said with true sincerity. “I’ve certainly learned my lesson about loose talk.”

“I should hope so,” Laurie said. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re home.”

“Thank you,” Jack said. “What about the CDC? Did they show up even though it was a false alarm and not a flu-like respiratory problem?”

“They did for sure,” Laurie said. “And they are centering their attention on the real outbreak. But tell me! Have you had anything to eat?”

“I haven’t,” Jack admitted.

“Are you hungry?”

“I should eat something, I suppose,” Jack said.

“Caitlin made a pasta tonight,” Laurie said. “There is some left over. Are you interested?”

“Sure,” Jack said.

Together they walked out of the study and down the hall to the kitchen. While Laurie got the pasta out of the refrigerator and put it into the microwave, Jack sat at the countertop. He used her mobile to place a quick call to Warren.

“I have to make this very short,” Jack said when he got Warren on the line. “I just got home after a harrowing day. The problem is that I’ll be needing some serious protection for me and my family from a kind of Chinese Mafia. What happened last night out in the street wasn’t an accident. The person who was shot was gunning for me. I’ll call back later to give you the full story, but first I have to tell the story to Laurie. Can you supply the protection? It has to start now.”

“I suppose,” Warren said. “But I’m sure as shit going to need to hear why.”

“I promise I’ll give you all the details a bit later,” Jack said before he disconnected.

“What was that about?” Laurie asked with concern. She had paused with her hand on the microwave door when she’d heard what Jack had said. “Why do we need protection?”

“I’ll explain it all in a minute, as it needs a bit of background,” Jack said. He put Laurie’s phone down on the countertop. “First tell me what the CDC has done.” He reasoned there was a grace period before the bad guys found out he’d managed to fly the coop and might have managed to get home.

Laurie eyed Jack for a moment, unsure if she were willing to let the protection issue wait. Jack assured her again he’d tell her everything but wanted to know what the CDC did.

“They did a lot, and I give them full credit for taking total command,” Laurie said. As she spoke she got the pasta out of the microwave and put it in front of Jack. “They are incredibly organized and efficient. A full team arrived here this morning from Atlanta, headed by several Epidemic Intelligence Service Officers, and went to work immediately. They are all really incredible. Already they have made significant headway identifying all the possible contacts here in New York City. And two additional teams went out to the West Coast to do the same thing. And with their sister organization in Solna, Sweden, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the same thing was accomplished in London and Rome.”

“Has the CDC identified the virus yet?” Jack asked. “Or has the Public Health Laboratory here in the city?”

“I don’t believe so,” Laurie said, “but I understand they think that they are on the brink.”

“I already know what the virus is,” Jack said. “So we can give them an important leg up. It’s a type of gammaretrovirus B that has the ability to infect human cells.”

Laurie’s jaw went slack and slowly dropped open as she stared at Jack in disbelief. “How on earth do you know what kind of virus it is?” she questioned.

“My Jersey Boys told me,” Jack said. “Kidding aside, researchers out at GeneRx in Dover, New Jersey, were able to identify the virus rather quickly because they had an idea what it was. And what’s more, thanks to CRISPR/CAS9 and an entire team of molecular biologists working around the clock, they already have devised a rapid test to diagnosis it, as well as a cure to get rid of it. So we’ll be able to give that to the CDC as well, which should go a long way to improving your standing vis-à-vis the mayor and the Commissioner of Health.”