The Jakarta Pandemic Read online

  No surprises here. Only took them two days to acknowledge what the rest of the world already knew.

  He clicked on one of the articles and shook his head again.

  Fucking Chinese.

  **

  Alex walked out of the kids’ bathroom dressed and freshly showered, having lost his bid for the master bathroom. He quietly descended the hardwood stairs and eased into the kitchen unnoticed. The smell of coffee overtook him as he surveyed the area. A small saucepot simmered on the stainless steel gas range, cooking what he really hoped was something other than Kate’s lumpy oatmeal. A red toaster just to the left of the stove promised to deliver a more suitable breakfast alternative. A glass of orange juice, two open bread loaves and several containers sat in disarray on the black granite kitchen island. Kate moved quickly between the island, refrigerator and stove.

  His wife was dressed in a knee-length navy blue skirt and a pressed French blue shirt. Her navy blue suit coat lay folded over the back of one of the black high-back stools at the kitchen island. Her hair, arranged in a tight ponytail, starkly contrasted her deep blue eyes and fair complexion. Compared to Kate, Alex looked like he just returned from a Caribbean vacation, owing to a mix of Sicilian and Irish genes. His black hair was not as pure as Kate’s, but his eyes shared the same deep blue color. The toaster popped.

  “Toast’s ready!” Kate said, as she turned around and saw Alex.

  “Oh, hey. Good workout?”

  “A quick one. I didn’t get up in time for a run. I was up a little late last night. Got a call on my cell from one of the infectious disease doctors that I call on,” he said.

  “What time?” she asked, eying him warily.

  “Just past midnight. He thinks this mystery flu has already hit Portland,” he told her, putting both hands on the island.

  “We haven’t seen anything on the internet, or the news.”

  “I think we might be a day behind the West Coast. After I talked to him, I saw some articles published out of LA referencing possible cases. Dr. Wright also said that the cases didn’t resemble anything he’s seen before. I think he tried to run some lab tests and came up empty.”

  “Did he say that?” Kate pressed.

  “No, but he specifically said the cases didn’t resemble anything he’s seen before. I don’t think he was talking about symptoms.”

  Alex heard some mumbling from the great room and glanced toward the sound of the voice. He saw that the family room LCD TV was fully operational, set to the Military Channel. Ryan, their twelve-year-old son, scurried into the kitchen to collect his breakfast. He was already dressed for school, in faded blue jeans and a red long-sleeved rugby shirt. Ryan shared the same hair color as his father, but little else. He was born with emerald green eyes and his mother’s fair skin.

  “What’s up, Mr. Man?” said Alex.

  “Not much, Dad. Hey, are you picking me up today after cross-country?”

  “Yep, 4:45, right?”

  “Sure, but around back so I don’t have to walk around to the school pickup circle.”

  “I certainly wouldn’t want to add another hundred yards to your workout.”

  “None of the parents pick their kids up at the circle, Dad.”

  He smiled at Kate and raised his eyebrows. Ryan continued past his dad and pulled a plate out of the cabinet over the coffee maker. He slathered a piece of toast with butter and raspberry jam.

  “Did you see what’s going on in the Orient?” Alex asked.

  “Nice. Could you find a few more politically incorrect terms to slip into your conversations? Don’t listen to your dad, Ryan,” she said, turning back to the range.

  Ryan looked up at his mother, then shifted his glance to his dad. Alex raised his shoulder and mouthed the words, “I don’t know.”

  Ryan returned to the family room and the volume from the great room TV increased.

  “Mom, can you get my juice for me?” Ryan yelled over the noise.

  “Can you grab that for his royal highness?” Kate said to Alex.

  “Surely, my royal queen,” he replied and delivered the glass to his son.

  “Hey, should I teach Ryan the Chinese national anthem? Me Chinese…me play joke?” Alex asked.

  “You could probably skip it, and we’d all be fine. So what’s happening in China?”

  “They finally admitted to a full-scale outbreak of some mystery virus in the south, and they also claim to have imposed their one-way travel ban because they were confident the disease didn’t originate in China. They were trying to keep it out,” he said, shaking his head.

  “How does that make any sense? So they tried to keep the virus from entering their own country, but did nothing to keep it from spreading outside of China?”

  “Apparently, they’re convinced the epicenter is somewhere else. Hey, give them a break. At least they didn’t keep it a secret for three weeks like in 2008. I read an Associated Press article, and one of the Chinese officials sounded proud of their new transparency efforts, like they did a much better job handling the issue this time.”

  Alex lowered his voice. “It’s unbelievable really. Just like in 2003, when they put their first astronaut into orbit. Who gives a shit? It took them forty years to finally steal enough information about our rocket program to put a human in space. Congratulations. And now? Well, now they only sit on information critical to mankind’s survival for two days, instead of weeks. I don’t think we can ever trust them. I have a bad feeling about this one,” he said.

  “Whatever it is, we’ll be fine,” Kate answered.

  “Hey, I’m gonna eat and run. Emily’s in the shower, so she should make the bus. I promised the folks at the Mercy ER that I would stock them up with TerraFlu, so I want to hit them early. I guarantee that Biosphere is going to ask us to stop signing over samples,” he said, pulling a coffee mug from the cabinet.

  “Is that a big deal? I mean, aside from making your day easier than it already is.”

  “Very funny. Eliminating samples in the face of a pandemic crisis will not be perceived as a cool move by Biosphere.”

  “Can’t the doctors just write a prescription for the pharmacy?”

  “Sure, and at this time of year, the pharmacies should be well stocked with anti-virals, but most of the offices are looking for any reason to stop seeing reps, and they barely tolerate us as it is. It’ll get ugly quick if Biosphere restricts samples.”

  “They won’t buy off on the ‘greater good of the community’ speech? Stockpiling drugs for the national pandemic response?” Kate asked.

  “Would you?”

  “Probably not,” she admitted.

  “Especially when they know for a fact that they won’t see any of it when the shit hits the fan. Health and Human Services will swoop down and grab it all for selected treatment centers,” he said.

  “Sucks to be you today,” Kate taunted.

  “Let’s hope not,” Alex said as he walked over to fix some breakfast.

  “Seven o’clock. Turn on the Morning View,” Kate said to him.

  Alex found the remote and turned on the kitchen TV, just in time to see the host appear on the screen. “Someone better say something about the fact that the Chinese sat on this for two days.”

  “Good morning, on Friday, November 2nd. The news dominating the thoughts of all Americans today comes to us from Southeast Asia, where the evidence of a growing pandemic virus is mounting. Earlier this morning, Chinese government officials verified that an unidentified flu strain has caused several major outbreaks in the southern coastal regions of China.”

  “Turn it up, honey, I can’t hear over that frigging Military Channel,” Kate said.

  Alex raised his voice, “Ryan, can you turn that down? We’re trying to listen to something important about the world over here.”

  Kate responded first, “Are you seriously going to get into it with him again? Just turn up the volume, please, we’ll miss the whole segment by the time you two figure it out.�
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  Alex shook his head and raised the volume so he could hear the host clearly.

  “Thomas McGreggor from the Department of Health and Human Services joins us this morning to shed some light on these developments. Mr. McGreggor, welcome.”

  “Thank you, Matt.”

  “One of the Department of Health and Human Services’ major roles is to implement the national strategy to prevent or slow a pandemic’s entry into the United States, and to limit the domestic spread of the disease. That sounds like a monumental task, and frankly, some experts just don’t think it’s possible for a single department to accomplish these goals. They argue that very few of the recommendations in the plan have been implemented. Some experts cite a compliance rate of less than ten percent with the plan’s recommendation at local levels, and it appears that little money is flowing down from Washington.”

  “Certainly these critics like to point fingers at Washington whenever they can, but a pandemic is a complex emergency, requiring an effective and coordinated response on many levels. The bulk of the costs occur once the pandemic strikes, and when this occurs, each state will receive disaster level funding to ensure continuity of pandemic response operations.”

  Matt shifted in his seat to respond.

  “Let me read directly from the DHS manual. ‘Ideally, states develop a multilayered strategy that delineates responsibilities at all levels of society to ensure the viability of government functions and essential services.’ This sounds like an expensive proposition. My parents’ hometown can barely scrape together enough money to repair winter damage to its roads. Where will towns and cities get the money to implement these preparations?”

  “Well, first, I don’t agree with the statistics that claim only six percent of the national plan is implemented. We’ve seen amazing progress throughout the nation, without reliance on more federal money. An appropriate level of funding is available at all levels for implementation of the plan.”

  “I hope you’re right, because the situation in China has health officials concerned that the world might be on the verge of a deadly pandemic.”

  “Matt, the United States is in good hands. Since the 2008 Avian Flu pandemic, our nation’s pandemic response capability has been vastly improved. From vaccination production and research capability, to anti-viral stockpiling. We learned from 2008 and applied those lessons to the national plan in place today.”

  “So given the events unfolding in Asia, what is DHS’s primary concern at the moment, and what part of the national plan is being implemented?”

  “We are working in close coordination with the CDC and WHO to receive real-time information regarding all aspects of the crisis. Our number one priority will be to prevent this disease from entering and spreading in the United States. Currently there is no indication that the disease has spread to the United States, though we have activated passive foreign traveler detection protocols. Customs officials have been alerted to identify and track any foreign travelers that appear ill.”

  “Is this for real?” Alex said to no one in particular. “It’s already here. How could he not know that? Full of shit.”

  Kate silenced him with a hand signal, so she could hear the rest of the segment.

  “Will these travelers be detained?” Matt asked.

  “Not under passive protocols. Active protocols will be implemented when it is certain that a pandemic grade illness is headed to our borders. As you can imagine, implementing active protocols represents a significant resource deployment. We want to be certain before committing to that kind of a massive response.”

  “Has DHS considered the possibility that the disease has already entered the U.S. in considerable numbers? The ISPAC website indicates that it may have already hit the west coast.”

  “We’ve definitely considered this, and fortunately, the number of passengers traveling to the U.S from China within a three day period is small. We are tracking all of these passengers and taking steps to ensure that if any of them are sick with this disease, they will be identified immediately. We feel confident that the disease is limited to China right now, and thanks to the Chinese government, the information is flowing much more efficiently than in 2008. And to address the ISPAC website, keep in mind that none of their figures are official CDC or WHO statistics. If the flu arrives in the U.S., we’ll know first.”

  “You’ve gotta be shitting me,” Alex said, clicking the TV off.

  Kate stifled a laugh. “That guy didn’t sound very convincing,” she commented.

  “If this guy represents the government’s attitude toward the situation, then we’re screwed.”

  “Looks like your day is most assuredly going to suck,” Kate said, wearing an overly fake sympathetic face.

  “Yeah, I really need to get rolling here.”

  Chapter Three

  Friday, November 1, 2013

  Alex sipped a hot cappuccino and admired the trees that flanked Route One just north of Falmouth’s commercial center. After supplying Mercy Hospital’s emergency room with at least ten times the amount of TerraFlu drug samples he was currently authorized to distribute, he picked up a capuccino and decided to take a scenic drive north toward Yarmouth. It was a little late for peak leaf peeping, but he wasn’t disappointed. Dense marvels of orange, red and brown still served as the foreground for a stark blue sky.

  As he left Falmouth, he wondered how many people in town knew about the flu case in their midst.

  Probably not very many. They’re keeping this quiet for now.

  During his visit to the ER, nobody had mentioned the flu case that Dr. Wright said had passed through their doors the night before, and he hadn’t seen any unusual signs of activity inside the ER. Not wanting to compromise his source of information, Alex resisted every urge to push for information. The only thing out of order was a single police officer stationed at the ER entrance, chatting with hospital security. He had been through these doors over a hundred times, and this was the first time he’d ever seen an officer posted at the hospital.

  Alex entered Yarmouth and passed through the business district. A few minutes later, he saw a modern, two-story medical office complex come into view on his left. He activated the left turn signal and cruised over the yellow median into the Yarmouth Medical Building’s parking lot.

  Parking in front of Yarmouth Family Practice Associates, Alex started to open his car door just as his smartphone buzzed in the center console tray. The screen read “Mike G.” Mike Gallagher was his Portland sales colleague and one of a few good friends at Biosphere Pharmaceuticals.

  “Hey, Mikey.”

  “I saw you called earlier. What’s up?” Mike said.

  “I got a call from Dr. Wright last night. Late. He said that several suspected cases of the mystery flu rolled in last night. Three of them at Maine Med, one at Mercy and a few cases scattered up north. He said that one of the cases is a guy from Falmouth. The others are from Westbrook and Portland,” Alex said.

  “Jesus, already? Fucking Falmouth?”

  “Yeah, but what’s worse is that he also said the hospitals down in Boston started seeing cases late Wednesday night. A friend of his at Mass General called him Thursday morning and told him the cases started trickling in on Wednesday night and have continued ever since. I scoured the Boston papers on the internet, but didn’t see shit about it.”

  “They probably want to be one hundred percent before they start running stories about the flu, right?”

  “I don’t know. Dr. Wright also said that they were told by the state to sit on the information for now. Only report to the state. He was told the state would disseminate the information to the feds. I was in Mercy this morning, and they didn't say a word. Nothing. There was a real cop at the door.”

  “No shit. What did he mean by ‘sit on it’?” Mike asked.

  “He said they were told to keep the media out of it until further notice. To avoid a bum rush of the system I guess,” Alex answered.

  “Firs
t case in Falmouth, of all places. I need to get Colleen and the kids out of the school.”

  “I definitely think you should keep your kids out of the schools at a minimum, and your wife needs to get out of the classroom, at least for a couple of days until they can figure out what’s going on with this thing. Can you convince her to take a few days off?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know. I think I can convince her to let the kids stay home, but she just started teaching at the high school last year. It’s near impossible to get a job at the high school level in Falmouth. She’s afraid to do anything to piss them off.”

  “I can imagine. Just make sure she plays it smart. Give her one of those stupid patient education handouts about washing hands, and send her to school with a case of Biosphere hand sanitizer bottles,” Alex added.

  “Yeah, because we all know a little hand sanitizer will stop the flu in its tracks,” Mike said sarcastically.

  “Better than nothing.”

  “I don’t know. I need to give her a call, man. I’ll call you later.”

  “Yep,” Alex said and put down his phone.

  He got out of the car and walked around to the back of his company car, a hybrid Subaru Forrester, to open the hatchback. He pulled a black nylon sales bag from the rear cargo area and slung the padded carry strap over his shoulder. The strap pulled down on his suit coat, exposing most of the white dress shirt on his right shoulder, so he adjusted the bag and his jacket. Alex stood behind his car for a moment, enjoying the warm breeze blowing across the parking lot. The winters in Maine were long enough for him to fully appreciate the gift of a seventy-degree day in early November. He took a deep breath and headed for the entrance.