The Jakarta Pandemic Read online

  The Jakarta

  Pandemic

  A novel by

  Steven Konkoly

  Copyright Information

  © 2012. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Features Index

  Acknowledgments

  About The Jakarta Pandemic

  Dedication

  Map of Durham Road Neighborhood

  Prologue

  Arrival

  Quarantine

  Survival

  Excerpt from The Perseid Collapse (unedited)

  Background Material Cut from first draft of The Jakarta Pandemic

  Media Excerpts cut from the first draft of The Jakarta Pandemic

  Excerpt from Black Flagged

  BACK IN BLACK

  Acknowledgments

  I have a host of people to thank for the version of The Jakarta Pandemic that you will read. To my wife, Kosia. Her first reading was for pure enjoyment, and then she took out the pen...several of them by this point; to my informal editors: Trent, Jon, and Diane. Thank you for keeping track of the early errors; you'll receive advanced copies of my next novel; to Mom and Dad. Mom read through the book in record time, poetically blind to her son's typos and grammar errors; Dad took three weeks, and sent me a long list; Noah Mullette-Gillman, fellow author, for taking the first fully objective swipe through the manuscript. And to all of the readers who have reached out with e-mails or reviews. Without a doubt, your comments have improved the quality of this book.

  Finally, I'd like to thank my editor, Felicia A. Sullivan, who has been a pleasure to work with, on what I hope to be the final revision of The Jakarta Pandemic. Her professional and artistic eye toward editing has taken the book to a new level, and I look forward to bringing her onboard my next project from the very start.

  Cover art design by Jeroen ten Berge.

  About The Jakarta Pandemic

  The Jakarta Pandemic was released in the fall of 2010 containing roughly 150,000 words, cut down from the 200,000 words present in the first draft. Much of the cut material consisted of media clips and radio broadcasts, which I had originally felt would be compelling within the story. Eventually, I realized these clips were more a reflection of my desire to pass scientific information to the reader. My original reason for writing the book had far less to do with education than telling a chillingly realistic tale, though I feel both were accomplished given the cautionary nature of the subject matter. My initial instincts proved partially correct. Readers enjoyed the story, but still felt bogged down in the remaining "informational" scenes. Cutting 50,000 words hadn't been enough. At the suggestion of my newly found editor, I cut another 25,000 words and streamlined the remaining media scenes to better compliment the story, re-releasing the novel in the spring of 2011.

  For readers interested in learning more about pandemic topics through research based, fictional narrative, I have included over 30,000 words (roughly 100 pages) of "cut" material, accessible through the Table of Contents or the links in the paragraph below.

  This material is broken down into two sections. Background and Media. The Background material is my fictional account of the 2008 Avian Flu pandemic, which set the framework for society's response to the much deadlier Jakarta Pandemic featured in my novel. Media contains scenes resurrected from the first draft.

  Update 11/04/2013: The Perseid Collapse, sequel to The Jakarta Pandemic will be released on Dec 1st, 2013. You can Pre-order a copy here: Pre-order The Perseid Collapse. An excerpt from The Perseid Collapse can be found through the Features Index or this link: The Perseid Collapse excerpt.

  Dedication

  To my wife…for her constant encouragement and support.

  I would still be about “halfway” done without her.

  To my children…for ensuring a balance between work, writing and family.

  Mostly in their favor.

  To all of the men and women who have served in our Armed Forces.

  Your sacrifices will never be forgotten.

  Map of Durham Road Neighborhood

  Prologue

  Alex checked his watch for the tenth time in less than twenty minutes. 5:50 p.m.

  Where are they?

  He had started to lose his patience early, which came as no surprise. He had been lying under the McCarthy’s play set for nearly an hour, as a vicious Nor’easter dumped thick waves of snow on him. This would be enough to test anyone’s patience…and physical limits.

  He lowered his night vision scope for a moment and rubbed his eyes. Now, even the green image in the scope added to his discomfort. He just hoped that Charlie was keeping a better watch over the stretch of ground that defined the ambush site.

  He’d better be, or they could stumble right through here undetected.

  Alex had doubts about spotting them with his night vision scope. The near absence of ambient light combined with a blinding snowstorm continued to degrade the already grainy image formed by the inexpensive first generation night scope.

  He twisted open the green ceramic thermos and poured the last of the hot tea prepared for him by Kate. He sipped the steaming tea from the thermos cap, placed the cap down next to the rifle in front of him, and took another look through the night vision scope. He could still see the Hayes’ house, but the image was even grainier. He knew the batteries were not the issue; he’d just changed them. Soon enough, he’d have to rely solely on Charlie to spot them in time to spring a coordinated ambush. If not, he’d have to take the three men down himself, which wasn't optimal, but was still well within his range of capabilities. He didn’t want to think about what could happen if they slipped by him. Nothing would stand between these psychopaths and his family.

  As long as I see them before they’re right on top of me, I’ll be fine.

  Alex swigged the rest of the warm tea and replaced the lid. He tucked the thermos into his backpack and checked his rifle again. Looking through the Aimpoint scope, he saw that the red dot still glowed brightly in the center of the sight. He pulled back on the AR-15’s charging handle and ejected the bullet loaded in the chamber, leaving the brass cartridge in the snow where two other bullets lay. He’d ejected one bullet every half-hour to ensure that the freezing temperatures had not affected the weapon’s mechanical action. A malfunction tonight would spell disaster.

  He suffered a sudden, violent, and insuppressible full body shiver, which rendered him useless for a few seconds. He couldn’t last out here all night, and he knew it. He looked through the night vision scope again, and the green image confirmed that he was still alone. Staring through the scope, he wondered how it was possible for things to have spiraled so far out of control.

  So far gone, in fact, that he now found himself lying under a neighbor’s play set in a blizzard, eagerly waiting to kill. He never thought twice about doing this in Iraq. It was his mission. He didn’t really have any problem with it here either, and he could rationalize this act on several levels. He had to do it: for the good of the neighborhood, and probably society in general, but most importantly…for the immediate safety of his family.

  And in the end, that was all that really counted for Alex.

  Arrival

  Chapter One

  Friday, November 1, 2013

  Alex was jarred awake by a loud pulsing vibration. He squinted in the darkness and labored to turn his head toward the source of the persistent buzzing sound.

  Shit, my phone.

  The phone’s display illuminated a half empty glass of water on the nightstand. He watched,
still helpless, as the phone moved closer to the edge with each vibration. Breaking through the murk of a broken sleep cycle, he reached for the phone to check the caller ID. Maine Medical Center. A jolt of adrenaline shot through his body, and Alex headed out of the bedroom to the hallway.

  “Alex Fletcher,” he answered in a whisper.

  “Oh…Alex. It’s Dr. Wright. I thought I’d get your voicemail.”

  “No problem, Dr. Wright. I usually don’t keep my phone on the nightstand. Just happened to end up there tonight,” he said, closing the door to the master bedroom.

  “I’m glad you’re awake, Alex. I’m fairly confident we’ve seen our first cases of the new pandemic flu tonight. Cases started rolling into the ERs early this evening.”

  “You said ‘ERs’. More than one?”

  “Yes. Three cases at Maine Med. Two came from Westbrook and one from Falmouth. And one case at Mercy, patient walked over from somewhere in the west end. I also have a confirmed case at Maine General in Augusta and possible cases at Eastern Maine Med up in Bangor.”

  “Confirmed as what?”

  “Confirmed as nothing I’ve ever seen before. That’s why I think we’re dealing with the new virus out of Hong Kong,” Dr. Wright said.

  “That’s more than six cases. How did this pop up here first and not Boston? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

  “Boston has been hit with several dozen cases, possibly more.”

  “What do you mean? I didn’t see anything on the news, or on any of the websites. We’ve been keeping an eye on this,” Alex said.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, but I know for a fact that Boston has been slammed. A friend of mine at Mass General called to tell me to get ready. He said that area hospitals in Boston saw dozens of cases trickle in overnight Wednesday, with more showing up as the day progressed. Several dozen more by the time I talked to him.”

  “Why didn’t the media catch this yet?” he asked.

  “Well, between you and me, and I don’t have to remind you that this entire conversation never happened—”

  “Of course. Absolutely, Dr. Wright,” Alex said instantly.

  “We have been instructed by the state health department to report all cases directly to them so they can coordinate resources and notify federal health agencies. I assume that direction filtered down from DHS. They also asked us not to notify the media, in order to avoid a panic. I can understand part of that logic, but if you ask me, I think they’re trying to keep this under wraps because they’re not prepared. Unfortunately, this is the only direction we’ve received so far from the state or feds. Or maybe that’s a good thing for now. Aside from rushing us more useless avian flu detection kits, nothing else has been done. Alex, I have to let you go. I have a long night ahead of me.”

  “Sorry to hold you up. Thank you for the call, Dr. Wright. I really appreciate the heads up, seriously. The preliminary case fatality rates in Asia look high.”

  “Yeah, we’re not taking any chances. This is different than the avian flu, which was bad enough. It makes the swine flu look like a common cold. And thanks for making a trip over here yesterday, especially considering the fact that the state’s anti-viral stockpiles will fall under federal control if the flu spirals out of control. Your samples will really come in handy.”

  “Could you use some more? We’ve been instructed to keep our distribution of TerraFlu to a minimum, but I have no problem hooking you guys up. Really.”

  “I’ll take whatever you can give me at this point, but I don't want you to get in trouble with Biosphere, Alex.”

  “I’m not worried about them. What time works for you tomorrow? My schedule is pretty clear, so I can make a trip over any time.”

  “How about 12:45? I plan to be back from the hospital at that point. My first patient is at one. We could take care of it then,” Dr. Wright said.

  “Works for me. See you at 12:45. Good luck tonight,” Alex said and waited for a reply, but the line was already dead.

  He headed back into the bedroom and looked over at Kate, who was soundly asleep. He walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead. She barely moved.

  He left the bedroom and walked to his home office, activated his computer, and checked the Boston Globe and Boston Herald. Still nothing.

  He checked the International Scientific Pandemic Awareness Collaborative (ISPAC) website and navigated to their pandemic activity map. The map had changed dramatically since he’d last seen it and was now interactively linked to Google Earth.

  Color-coded symbols represented reported flu locations, and when you passed the mouse over one of the new icons, basic information appeared in a text box, which could be further expanded for more detailed information. Light blue: cases of interest, yellow: initial outbreak, orange: small-scale outbreak, red: medium-sized outbreak, violet: large-scale outbreak.

  He zoomed in on North America.

  Cases in Canada, Mexico, Central America…wait, wait, look at this, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. He looked at the East Coast and saw no colored icons. Alex adjusted the map to focus on southern California and placed the cursor over the yellow Los Angeles icon.

  “Los Angeles. Population 4,089,245. Isolated outbreaks. 190+ cases reported. Uncontained. Isolated outbreaks among ethnic Asian populations.”

  In a separate desktop window, he navigated to the Los Angeles Times homepage. He looked for the California/Local section. Here we go. He found an article and began to read:

  Hong Kong Flu Hits Asian Community.

  “Cedars-Sinai confirms at least a dozen cases of Hong Kong flu. Mainly confined to Asian community. UCLA Medical Center confirms several cases. Mainly Asian community. East LA Doctor’s Hospital sees its first cases late in the evening on October 31. Community leaders decry nearly one-day delay in reporting cases to the public. Employee at Cedars-Sinai contacts Los Angeles Times with information about suspected flu cases. Cases were being kept isolated from other patients and under a tight information seal. Times reporters launched an immediate investigation into all area hospitals, uncovering several dozen more cases.”

  Alex put the cursor over the yellow San Francisco icon.

  “San Francisco. Population 853,758. Isolated outbreaks. 100+ cases reported. Uncontained. Isolated outbreaks among ethnic Asian populations.”

  He moved the map to China and saw that dozens of southern coastal cities were shaded either orange or red; Hong Kong and the surrounding areas were shaded violet. He passed the mouse over one of these areas.

  “Greater Guangzhou city. Population 12,100,000. Massive outbreak. 8,000+ reported cases. Uncontained. Containment efforts focused on Guangdong Province.”

  8,000 plus cases in one city? I thought there were only 26,000 altogether in China yesterday?

  Alex passed the mouse over a few more cities in the area around Hong Kong and saw similar text fields. He quickly added up the other numbers and calculated roughly 77,000 reported cases in southern China.

  He zoomed out of China and settled on a worldview. Colored dots appeared to sweep outward in a concentric wave from Southeast Asia. A solid perimeter of blue dots extended from Japan, through South Korea and Vladivostok, then reached across northern China and connected with Pakistan and India. India was covered in blue dots and yellow dots; orange icons appeared centered over several major cities within India. Oddly, Java Island contained no dots. He placed the cursor over Java.

  “Java Island. Population 150,000,000. No reports.”

  Something’s up over there.

  Beyond Asia’s ring, blue-colored dots littered every continent, concentrated on nearly every major city. He almost wished he hadn’t seen the map. He felt his stomach churn as a wave of anxiety blanketed him. Still, he walked back to the bedroom and lay down next to Kate, feeling secure lying there with her. He closed his eyes and started breathing deeply in a futile attempt to induce sleep.

  Chapter Two

  Friday, November 1, 2013

  Ale
x’s body shuddered. He searched the bright room to confirm that he was still lying in bed with his wife, Kate, in their Scarborough, Maine, home. His heart pounded through his shallow breath. He touched his forehead with the back of his right hand and wiped the sweat on his gray T-shirt, leaving a dark stain near the neck. He turned his head to look at his wife. Kate’s face was turned away; she had the covers pulled up over her neck, and all he could see was her jet-black hair.

  Thank God she didn’t wake up. I don’t need her starting in on the VA counseling again.

  He’d successfully dodged a phone call to the Togus Veteran’s Hospital for the better part of nine years.

  Sitting up slowly, careful not to wake Kate, he stared out of the window next to the bed at the bright orange eastern horizon. Alex slid out of bed, walked over to Kate’s side, and kissed her on the forehead. Her head stirred slightly, and she settled back into the pillow, her mouth forming a nearly imperceptible smile. She looked peaceful buried under the covers, and he watched her for a few more moments, mesmerized by her tranquility. Kate slept soundly every night, while he woke to nightmares. His heart thumped rapidly as he walked to the master bathroom.

  Several minutes later, in his home office, he sat down to check for any updates to the flu situation. He scanned the national and international headline summary section of the homepage and shook his head slowly.

  China Acknowledges Deadly Disease Within Border; China Imposed Quarantine To Keep Deadly Disease Out; Unknown Disease Spreads Through China; China Admits WHO (World Health Organization) Teams To Outbreak Areas; Deadly Disease Outbreak In China.