Jakarta Pandemic, The (6 page)

“Take it easy on the house in there,” he yelled.

“Sorry, Dad,” Ryan said and flashed by them on his way upstairs.

“Hey, no hug for your mom?” Kate said.

“Sorry, Mom,” Ryan said and returned to the kitchen to begrudgingly hug Kate.

“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Tell Emily to wash her hands and start making her way downstairs. You too. Love you,” she said.

“Love you too, Mom. I’ll be right down,” he replied and scooted up the stairs.

“Anything good happen?” he asked, nodding at the TV.

“The UN declared an emergency session. They’re considering a travel and commerce ban against China. Chinese officials plan to release more information about whatever is going on over there.”

“When?”

“Some time tomorrow.”

“Hey, look at that. They’ve officially named it the China Crisis. How original. They should call it the Great Chinese Bend Over of 2013. Or Encore 2008,” Alex said sarcastically.

“Do you ever quit?” She smirked, shaking her head.

“I was being nice with ‘bend over.’ I can think of a few graphic terms that might better describe the situation,” he added, taunting her with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m sure you can. Why don’t you change and grab the kids on your way back down. I’m pretty much done here.”

“You got it,” he said and started to disappear up the stairs.

Alex closed the bedroom door behind him as he pulled off his tie. He turned on the flat-screen TV, which took a few seconds to display a picture.

“CDC officials have confirmed the flu strain as an H16 variant. Little is known about the new strain at this point, and many serious questions remain unanswered. So far, neither the CDC nor WHO has responded to demands for information. CNF news correspondent David Gervasey reports from ISPAC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. David?”

“Denise, roughly fifteen minutes ago, we were fortunate to get a brief interview with one of their senior spokespersons, Dr. Allison Devreaux.”

The screen changed to the previously recorded interview with Dr. Devreaux.

“Dr. Devreaux, what can you tell us about the virus that we don’t already know?”

“The virus has been classified as a new subtype H16,”
she answered in a French accent.
“The strain is classified as H16N1.

“This subtype has never been seen before in humans or animals, so it is truly a novel strain. Right now, our own scientists are trying to match its genetic characteristics with previously seen subtype strains. In this way, we can make some rough predictions regarding its behavior.

“We know that the virus is highly contagious, and its acquisition by a host leads to typical flu-like symptoms, including high fever, marked weakness and pulmonary distress. In essence, it behaves like a highly pathogenic disease. We know this from our investigation of an ever-increasing number of cluster outbreaks throughout the far Pacific Rim, and we are extremely confident that the strain found by ISPAC investigative teams outside of China is the same as the strain causing the outbreak inside of China.”

“When do you anticipate further information to be available from your field teams?”

“We receive constant reports and engage in discussions with these teams around the clock. When new information is verified, we will post this information on our website. You can also subscribe to our Pandemic News Alert service and receive automatic email updates as new information is posted. We are striving to pass all relevant information on to the public so that they can make the most informed decisions to prepare for a potential pandemic virus.”

“Does this look like a pandemic on scale with the 2008 avian flu?”

“Frankly, not enough information exists for us to draw any conclusions. The virus is highly contagious, certainly. At this time, we just don’t know anything regarding clinical attack rates, case fatality rates, infection and symptom timelines…all of the key parameters that allow us to project its spread and impact on the world’s population.

“However, based on its efficient capacity for human to human transmission, I feel confident projecting that this virus will rapidly reach all corners of the globe. Let us hope that this virus in not as deadly as the avian flu. Thank you, David.”

The screen cut back to a live broadcast from ISPAC headquarters in Atlanta. David Gervasey stood in front of the modern, ten-story glass and steel structure.

“
You heard it here first, Denise. We’re going to remain in place to get the latest information as it becomes available.”

“Thank you, David. As you can see, live ISPAC website information is located at the bottom of our screen, and we will be broadcasting any new ISPAC website updates as they are posted. Stay with us, we’ll be back in a moment.”

Alex stared at the screen for a few more seconds and then returned to his closet to change into jeans and a gray long-sleeve fleece pullover. He headed back toward the stairs and stared down the hall at his office door.

I need to get the kids down to dinner, or I’ll have more to worry about than viruses. I need to check one more thing first.

He entered the office and typed “Hong Kong International Airport” into Google. The search engine’s first link was the airport’s official website. He scanned the page and clicked on “flight information,” then “departures.” The screen filled with the day’s scheduled departing flights.

Jesus. If this virus is deadlier than the avian flu, we’re in trouble.

By noon on any given day, over a hundred flights departed HKIA for every major city in world, and by midnight that same day, flights originating from HKIA landed in major hubs on every continent. From there, these passengers embarked on journeys to every conceivable corner of the planet. Within sixteen to eighteen hours of leaving Hong Kong, an infected passenger could be sharing a pint of Guinness with friends in a Dublin Pub, sipping tea with family in the suburbs of Damascus, or meeting a friend for Italian food in Boston’s North End.

And this thing has been brewing in China for more than three days. This thing is everywhere.

He minimized the web browser and got up to call the kids to dinner.

**

The Fletchers ate dinner sitting at a large rectangular pine table located between the kitchen and family room. The eating area was separated from the family room by two half walls, with a wide opening centered between them, anchored by sculpted wood columns extending from the top of the half walls to the ceiling. Alex served butternut squash soup to everyone, and Kate started the evening interrogation.

“So, anything huge going on in class for anyone? Emily?” Kate said.

Emily replied, “Not much, we’re still learning some Spanish. I have homework again.”

“Yeah, you’re going to have a lot more than the one spelling test you had last year. Try homework like every night, and more tests. I have like two hours a night now,” Ryan complained.

“Well, I think we’re going to have about the same as you. I heard from Lauren that her friend in Mr. Leahy’s class already has over an hour of work to do every night,” Emily said.

“I doubt it. I never had that much work in third grade. Third grade is like kindergarten compared to middle school.”

“Okay, crazies, Ryan wins the award for most oppressed by homework. Anything other than that going on this week?” Alex said.

Both children shook their heads slowly.

“Really, there’s not much,” Ryan said.

“Of course not,” Alex said.

“I think I might join cross-country like Ryan. Lauren is running in it,” Emily informed them.

“You already have soccer practice three times a week,” Kate reminded her.

Kate looked at Ryan and asked, “Don’t they run their meets on Thursday?”

“Yeah, but the meets are optional, and they’re done by four thirty. They only run like a mile or maybe less. She could probably do it.”

Emily’s face brightened.

“If she wasn’t so slow,” Ryan added, emitting a terribly annoying laugh, and Emily reached over the table to hit him.

Kate grabbed her arm, and pointed her finger at Ryan. “That’s enough! Both of you. No hitting, and you, cut it out.”

Alex shook his head, half smiling, and then turned to Ryan. “Really, quit agitating your sister. It’s starting to become a very annoying habit.” He turned back to Emily. “Anyway, sweetie, I don’t think you should double up on practices in the same day. Soccer comes first, and you make as many running practices as you can. Sound good?”

He turned his head back to Ryan and raised his eyebrows, sending a clear warning to his son.

“As long as she makes a couple practices, they don’t care. It’s a really laid-back program,” Ryan answered.

“Thank you, Ryan. There you go, sweetie. Go ahead and sign up. We’ll get you some running shoes,” Kate said.

“Thanks, Mom.”

Alex realized that he was the only one at the table eating and talking. “All right, let’s get some food down, or you won’t have enough energy to walk to the school bus, let alone run any races.”

Both kids started eating their soup, and Alex could tell by their initial response that they liked it.

“Honey, the soup is awesome.”

“Thanks. Whole Foods was stocked with different squashes, so I picked up a bunch,” she said.

Alex nodded his head and finished his soup. Kate was only halfway through her bowl when he got up, walked to the kitchen island, and grabbed their dinner plates. He put them in an open space on the table and sat down to wait for everyone to finish their soup. He nodded at Kate, and she started in on their planned conversation.

“Ryan, did you guys talk about the situation in China at school?”

“A little bit.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Well, Mr. Brett asked us if we had seen it in the news or on the internet this morning. I heard some of it when you guys had the kitchen TV on, and I saw an article on CNFkids.com at school.”

“Cool. What did you think?”

Alex started to load Emily’s plate with rice, stir-fry and tofu. She protested the amount with her hands, trying to wave off the second heap as he hovered the wooden spoon over her plate, and he acknowledged her silent refusal by moving the spoonful to his own plate.

“I don’t know. Everyone seems pretty mad at China. Aren’t they doing the same thing they did in 2008? Keeping everyone in the dark?”

Kate answered, “Well, nobody really knows what’s going on over there. At least this time, the world knows something is brewing. What did Mr. Brett say?”

“Not much. He really just wanted to get some discussion going. We spent some time talking about the 2008 pandemic and looking at some facts about China.”

“Nice,” Alex said. “Did any of your teachers talk to you guys about pandemic flu in general, or anything like that?”

Kate finished her soup while they talked. Emily was busy emptying her plate, clearly happy not to be the focus of attention.

“Yep, we talked about it in science. How the flu spreads, how scientists classify strains of flu, past pandemics. It was pretty cool. Pretty scary, too. Dad, do you think we could have another pandemic? Ms. Ullman said that major pandemics usually don’t happen so close together, and that’s why the swine flu pandemic never really took off.”

“Sounds like you guys really learn some advanced shiiii…stuff in that class. Sorry.”

Emily laughed. “Daddy, you’re starting to talk like Mommy.”

“Thanks a lot, Emily,” Kate said ruefully.

“Another impartial witness to Barnacle Bill’s mouth,” Alex said.

Kate clearly wanted to give him the middle finger as she tapped her index finger on the top of her water glass.

“Anyway, historically speaking, your teacher would be right. However, there are a lot of experts out there that think it can happen at any time if the conditions are right. So to answer your question, I don’t think anyone can really predict these things,” Alex said.

He looked at Kate and rubbed his chin. Kate picked up on his cue.

“You guys really don’t have to worry about it. You know that, right? We’ve made some preparations at the house over the past few years that will get us through any major crisis. Pandemic, major storm, whatever it might be.”

Both kids nodded their heads. They appeared to have anticipated this talk.

“You mean all of that stuff locked up in the basement?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, that’s part of it. We have plenty of food, water and supplies stored down there. We also have our own power supply: the sun. And we can keep the house warm with the wood-burning stove,” Kate answered.

“Can’t we heat the house with the furnace if we have solar power?” Ryan asked.

Alex laughed. “This kid’s too smart. Yes, we could, but the furnace eats up a lot of power. During the summer, when the sun is strongest, we could get away with it. But who needs to use the furnace in the summer, right? Other than to heat up water, that is. Winter is a different story because the sun is so much weaker. Even on a beautiful day, the batteries will charge more slowly than a crappy day in the summer. We’d really have to watch the charge level.”

Kate brought the conversation back on track. “What I want you two to understand is that we are prepared for anything really scary like that, and that you don’t have to worry about it. Other people need to be worried because most other people won’t be prepared at all. They may actually not even believe it’s happening until it’s too late for them.”

“How will we know if it is happening?” Emily asked.

In a calm tone, Alex said, “Your mom and I know what to look for. Trust us, we’ll know. The hard part will be convincing others to listen and prepare.”

“Right, and if something like this happens, we need to be ready to stay in our house for a very long time, without coming into contact with anyone, even friends and family. Unless they prepared like us,” Kate said.