The Emerald Virus (3 page)

    
Jack watched her walk to her desk and pick up the phone. She buzzed her assistant
and said, “Nancy, please bring in a fresh carafe of coffee and some bottled
water. But first clear my calendar for the day, except for my two o’clock
meeting with the Secretary. Call Carl and let him know that I’ll be there for
the meeting and will bring Jack Sweeney and maybe others from my staff. Let him
know that the subject of the meeting has changed. We won’t be briefing the
Secretary on new technology as planned. We will instead brief him on a new
threat. Let Carl know that this one is really hot and he might want to clear
the Secretary’s calendar for the rest of the day. Please let him know I need
the time between now and then to put together some recommendations for
Secretary Kemper. Let me know his reaction when you bring the coffee.”

  
  Dr. McCloud looked at Jack and said, “How long is the recording?”

   
“We’re near the end now. Harry and I will talk again in about 90 minutes and I
plan to stay in close touch with him after that.”

    
“Okay, let’s finish the recording and then we’ll discuss options.” Jack was
impressed that she could maintain her composure so easily, but then realized
she really didn’t have any choice. Any other reaction could only be detrimental
and both he and Dr. McCloud were acutely aware of that fact.”

    
As Dr. McCloud returned to her chair Jack leaned forward and took the digital
recorder off pause. Jack’s voice was asking a question. “Harry, what can you
tell me about the one known survivor?”

    
“We know she is a ten year old female in perfect health, and we are mystified
why she is reacting differently to the virus. We hope to be able to find out
why she appears to be immune, and perhaps we’ll be able to discover a vaccine
in time to help those not yet affected. I wouldn’t bet money on that at this
point, but miracles do happen now and then. The kid’s name is Anne Hamilton and
she is in the Royal Infirmary, the hospital affiliated with the University.
It’s just down the street so we have easy access to her. I’ve met her and she’s
a great kid, but it looks like she’s about to lose both her parents and her
little brother and I’m worried what that will do to her.”

    
Jack wanted to ask how safe Harry was, but he knew it would be a futile
question. Instead he asked, “Harry, what about your family. Are they safe?”

    
“Jane and the kids are in Baltimore visiting her folks so they’re safe for now.
But I have to ask a big favor of you Jack. I’m not at all sure how this thing
is going to break, but it doesn’t look good at the moment. I don’t think any of
us have even imagined a virus with the potential to kill that the Emerald Virus
presents to the world. If I become infected I’m going to need help with Jane.”

    
Jack replied, “Harry I’ve known Jane for almost as long as I’ve known you. You
know I won’t leave her to fend for herself, even though she is with her family.”

    
As he listened to this part of the conversation again Jack mentally grimaced.
He knew what Harry was asking and knew it was because Jane had been estranged
from her parents for 15 years, before trying to make amends shortly before she
and Harry had left for Scotland.

    
Jane knew the Scotland deal was bad timing but she thought she would be able to
maintain a long distance relationship with her parents for the year they would
be in Scotland. However, Jane’s parents had been their old demanding selves,
and after four months Jane had felt obligated to take the kids to visit with
them. Harry wasn’t interested in making the trip for two reasons. First he was
buried with work, and secondly he had just recently met Jane’s parents and
realized they blamed him for the fact that Jane had stayed so distant for so
long. Jane’s decision to make the trip was in part to convince her parents that
Harry had never been the reason for her silence.

    
She still worried how she was going to make her parents understand that they
were solely responsible for her walking out of their lives. She was twenty-two
at the time and had recently graduated from Georgetown. She thought once she
had a good job her parents would stop prying, and their demanding ways would
change. Her parents did change but for the worse, and consequently Jane had
deliberately but painfully severed her relationship with them.

    
Jack knew that Jane would need his help if anything happened to Harry. He also
knew that if Harry was right about this being an airborne filo virus he would
be busier than he had ever been in his life. But somehow, he would keep his
promise to Harry.

    
Jack refocused on the phone call as Harry continued, “We’re working with the
public health officials and the Prime Minister’s office to figure out a plan of
action. My boss and his boss are both on the way to London to explain what they
know of the disease and the possible consequences. Personally I’m glad it’s
them and not me. I don’t know how to explain this, and the potential
consequences are pretty much horrifying.”

    
“I agree, I can’t believe this is moving so quickly, I feel overwhelmed already.”

    
“Believe me, I know that feeling. I wish I could have given you more notice but
until 48 hours ago all we had was a group of people with a bad case of the flu.
Most of the deaths have occurred in the past 24 hours and I called you first
thing this morning your time. Right now I wish I had called you eight or ten
hours ago, but that’s water under the bridge now.” 

    
“I appreciate that, but do you have any recommendations for me? You’ve
obviously had more time than me to think through this. Tell me what you and
your team have been thinking.”

    
“Jack, that’s the problem. This thing has come on us so fast that we can’t
think of anything to do except to focus all efforts on the one case of immunity
and see if we can create a vaccine for this thing before it spreads around the
world. The question is, can we create a vaccine soon enough to make a
difference? Quite frankly, I don’t see that happening. All the facts point to
this being a deadly and fast moving epidemic that will immobilize the British Isles
within weeks, or sooner. My only recommendation would be to send Anne Hamilton
to CDC in the hope that they’ll have more time to find a fix than will we.
However, I think that suggestion needs to come from your end. I’m not sure the
folks here have worked through the denial stage. They might not be ready to
admit that this thing is out of control. On the other hand, I think chaos is
about to breakout throughout this part of the world, and if we’re going to move
Anne I think it needs to be soon. Maybe I’m being parochial but I think the
best chance to find a vaccine will be to let CDC have at it, and soon.”

    
“Thanks Harry, that’s a good idea. I’ll float it on this end and see if we can
move quickly. In the meantime take the time to put together a quick history of
key points, including dates and times down to the minute where you can. See if
you can get the same history from the Irish officials. Email the information to
me as soon as you can. Let me know the minute you find out about any additional
survivors. It might be easier to talk the British out of Anne if there are
other survivors available. I’ll call you in two hours for an update and I’ll
talk to Dr. McCloud between now and then. Between us we may have some
recommendations for you.”

    
“Thanks Jack. If I think of anything I need from your end I’ll save it for the
next call. Keep your cell phone with you. I’d like to be able to contact you
night or day if need be.

    
“Okay Harry, I’ll talk to you in two hours, that’s 11:00 AM my time and 5:00 PM
your time. I’ll call you at your office. Try to take care of yourself.”

    
A final click ended the phone call and Jack reached out and turned the recorder
off.  As he waited for Dr. McCloud to say something, Nancy knocked lightly on
the door and entered the office without waiting for a response. She put the
carafe, water and the coffee service on the table between the two of them and
said, “I’ve talked to Carl and he said if need be he would tie the Secretary
down, and while he has not cancelled any afternoon meetings he will be prepared
to do so if needed. He said to tell you that the Secretary has only routine
stuff after your meeting. By the way, I’ve cleared your calendar for the day
but I didn’t call Roger to cancel lunch. I thought you might want to do that.
If I’m wrong let me know. I always enjoy talking with your husband. That will
give me a chance to ask him why in the world you married him.”

    
Jack was startled by Nancy’s light heartedness and then realized that Nancy had
no idea what was occurring in Europe at the moment.

    
Dr. McCloud smiled and said, “No, I’ll call him. I need to tell him a couple of
things. One of them is to stop flirting with young women like my personal
assistant.”

    
Nancy laughed on her way out of the office and said, “Say hi for me. If you
need anything else buzz me.”

    
Dr. McCloud looked at Jack and said, “Okay, now I’m the one overwhelmed. Why
don’t you start by telling me what you think we should or could recommend to
the Secretary?”

    
“Well, the 800 pound gorilla in the room is obviously closing all borders
starting with international flights, closing the southern and northern borders
to all foot and vehicle traffic and closing the ports to all inbound ships.
While closing the borders is the safest thing to do, there is such a downside
to the immediate closing of the Mexican and Canadian borders that I’m not sure
our political leaders will choose to do so without more evidence. On the other
hand if Harry is right about the virus, we’ll have all the evidence we need in
the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours. But by then it may be too late.”

    
“Work up a pros and cons chart for the two o’clock briefing with Kemper. What
else?”

   
“We have to consider how, and how quickly, we provide information to the
general public. I think Secretary Kemper should consult with the White House
and use either the White House press office or the Homeland Security press
office to release the first bulletin as early as late this afternoon. My guess
is that because the virus is proving to be deadly, networks and cable channels
will start coverage today. It’s in the leadership’s best interest to make the
notification first. We can follow up with a joint press briefing by Secretary
Kemper and you later this evening, but I think the President should talk to
America later today, and the sooner the better. The virus is already being
discussed on the cable news and this evening it has to hit the networks. We
have good data from Europe on the number of people afflicted, and we have solid
science from Harry and his colleagues showing that this is an airborne filo
virus. I hope Secretary Kemper agrees and makes that argument to the President.
I don’t want him to be the only person in the country not talking about the
problem.”

    
“Jack, I agree we need to be active in providing information to the public.
First it’s the right thing to do. Secondly, my hope is that we can avoid panic
by doing this quickly. For the briefing use Homeland Security’s ‘The Pandemic
Influenza Preparedness, Response and Recovery Guide’. We did some good work on
that following the Katrina disaster. As I recall it has a section on public and
media relations that I liked.”

    
Jack smiled as he remembered the hours he spent on helping to build that guide
and winced as he remembered his hope that it would never have to be used. He
said, “Good idea, I’ll make sure we use the guide as a reference. I’m also
going to review and use the ‘National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza’ that the
President chartered in 2005. I glanced at it briefly before I called you.
Neither of these guides envisioned anything like the Emerald Virus, but they
should keep us from reinventing the wheel.”

    
“Good Jack. Let’s keep the briefing short and non-complex. Secretary Kemper is
a big picture kind of guy; don’t bore him with too many details. We’ll need to
get his approval to release information directly to the White House Press
Secretary if we go that route. Secretary Kemper will have to decide if he wants
the technical information about the virus to come from this office or from CDC,
so make a recommendation as part of the briefing. Meet me here in my office at
one-thirty and we’ll go over the briefing together, make final changes, and
meet the Secretary at two o’clock.”

   
“Alright. Members of my emergency response team should be in my office by now.
I’ll use their best ideas and we’ll do as much research as possible between now
and then. I’ll talk with Harry at eleven o’clock and again just before I meet
with you at one-thirty.”

    
“I think I’d like to talk to Harry before the briefing. Let him know that you
and I will call him at one-thirty from my office. And Jack, I know you won’t
forget this but the next couple of hours will be the last time we have to think
before chaos and pressure set in. Make sure you and your team take advantage of
the time, and make sure you prepare them for the firestorm that’s about to hit
us head on.”

    
Dr. McCloud finished this sentence with the smile Jack had expected. However,
it wasn’t quite as warm as he was used to. Even she was having a difficult time
maintaining her composure in the face of this catastrophe.