by JT Sawyer
Reisner reflected on the admiral’s words, remaining forces, but was hesitant to ask, given the somber nature of his own visit. He removed a flash drive from his pocket and slid it across the desk.
“You may want to look at this first. Then, I am at your service to answer the questions you have.” He removed his fingers from the flash drive as if he was shielding the admiral from being blinded. He looked over at a bottle of brandy and some glasses on the table to his right. “And sir, trust me—you might want to pour yourself a drink.”
Chapter 40
The next morning, during her navigation attempt through the massive aircraft carrier, Selene had to stop three times to ask crew members where the conference room on the second deck was located. Soon, she would be giving a briefing to the admiral and his staff as well as numerous other allied commanders around the world via video. She needed some time to not only compile her data on the outbreak but to compose herself. This kind of presentation would normally have been handled by one of her superiors at the CDC or WHO. Instead, she was the one people were now looking to for answers, and she thought back with nostalgia to the solitude of the medical library at Johns Hopkins that she had been hidden away in only a few days ago.
As she walked around two engineers gathered by a console, she almost slammed right into Connelly coming from the other direction. The two women swerved to avoid contact, and she noticed the young operator giving her a wary look.
“Hey,” said Selene, looking over the woman’s new outfit of tactical pants, black boots, and a t-shirt with the navy logo on it. “That’s a better look than the ill-fitting clothes Tso got for you guys back in Taiwan.”
Connelly raised her right eyebrow then gave a slight nod. “I suppose so.”
Selene could see tension lines on the woman’s face that hadn’t been present a few seconds ago. “I’m headed to the conference room but need to ask your boss something first—have you seen him down here?”
“Will—no, sure haven’t.” Connelly folded her arms in front of her.
Selene felt like the woman’s eyes were slicing through her. Not sure what her problem is, but she’s got some attitude.
“Alright then. Tell Reisner I need to talk with him if you run across him.” Selene moved past Connelly, noticing the woman barely stepped out of the way as she brushed by. Selene wondered if Connelly was always bullheaded with everyone or if it was just directed at her.
A few minutes later, she arrived at the conference room and found Reisner and a navy officer standing before a large wall monitor. They were examining a map of the Marshall Islands. Selene didn’t actually need to talk with Reisner, but there was something she wanted to say to him, and the sooner the better.
“Ah, look who’s here,” said Reisner with a hint of sarcasm upon seeing her enter. He waved her over and introduced Lieutenant Douglas Kent, who was in charge of intelligence operations on the USS Reagan.
“The good lieutenant and I were just trying to pinpoint the location of an island where Hayes supposedly conducted his initial research on the virus.”
“And you know this how?” said Selene.
“Before I lost touch with my boss—” He paused, trying to remain confident that Runa was still alive. “I was informed of a classified document that had been in the possession of the director of the CIA. It contained references to a place called Ithaca Island, which is also the name of a file I discovered on Hayes’ flash drive.” He motioned up to the map on the monitor. “So here we are, trying to figure out where the hell that place might be amidst a few hundred possibilities.”
Selene glanced around at the spacious room with its oblong table in the center. In a few hours she would be presenting her briefing here and she knew it would not be the same tranquil setting then.
“Well, don’t let me interrupt. I am just going to—”
“Why don’t you stay a while—you always seem to blurt out what you’re thinking and I’d really like to get a second opinion on this.”
She sighed and then stood between the two men as Kent continued with his description of the Marshall Islands that he had pulled up from his tablet.
“Prior to World War II, the Japanese had built fortifications on some of the larger islands. When the war ended, the U.S. was given control of the region, which lasted until 1986, after which time the region gained its independence, although the U.S. still provided around one billion dollars in aid.”
Kent moved around towards the monitor while reading from his tablet. “The Marshall Islands contains two large chains of inhabited islands with a population of close to fifty-three thousand people spread over the area and over 25 coral atolls. Interspersed throughout this area are hundreds of smaller islands which are largely uninhabited.”
Reisner moved closer to the large monitor, craning his head up to study the immense chain of islands dotting the Pacific.
“Since the only clue I have from Hayes’ files is a place called Ithaca Island, I’m not even sure where to begin looking. Since Greek and Marshallese don’t have much in common.” He glanced over at Selene, raising an eyebrow and grinning. “Unless you speak Marshallese by some bizarre chance.”
“First I’ve heard of it.”
He pointed to a group of dots on the map in the center of the Marshall Islands. “Hayes would have selected an area that didn’t have a lot of shipping traffic to keep his passage quiet.” Reisner waved his hand across the monitor towards a group of thirty smaller formations to the east. “What about these—was anyone living there?”
Kent pulled up the data for the region. “I have a brief description from the UN but that’s about it. Jebwe Island is the only place listed. It’s in an obscure region and was once used as a forward operating base during nuclear testing that the U.S. did in the ’40s.”
Kent showed the satellite images of the area, which indicated some dilapidated concrete structures clustered in the center of the four-mile-long island. “Jebwe means paddle according to the Marshallese language,” he muttered as he glanced over the written description.
“Come again,” said Reisner, staring at Kent then back up at the small island.
“Jebwe—it means paddle. The islanders used to bury their dead there long ago and would place paddles in the sand by the graves. Why, does that matter?”
Reisner looked over at Selene, who was giving him a quizzical expression.
“The name of Hayes’ vessel was the Atropos and this island he used was Ithaca—he cloaked things in Greek to suit his own quirks. Ithaca was where King Ulysses lived,” Reisner said with a smile.
“So?” said Selene.
“At the end of the Odyssey, the god Poseidon tells Ulysses to travel to the farthest reaches of the world where no one recognizes the god and to place a paddle in the sand in his honor, after which Ulysses can return home for good.”
Selene tilted her head, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Reisner. “I don’t know, Will. Maybe, or it could be a crap shoot.”
He realized it was the first time she had called him by his first name. Reisner moved closer to the monitor and studied the layout of the island based upon the old photos.
“Can you get Admiral McKenzie to acquire a current SAT image of that area? There’s only one way to be sure.”
“Yes, but give me some time. I’ll get back with you shortly,” said Kent as he turned and exited the room.
Selene moved alongside him, her arm brushing against his as they both stared at the dizzying array of islands amidst the blue screen.
She took a deep breath and sighed, staring down at the floor for a moment. “Look, I came here to say I’m sorry for the things I said to you back in Taipei—about you being a monster.”
“And if only one helicopter had shown?” He stood up straight, looking at her.
She lowered her head then bit her lower lip. “I’ve had to make life-and-death decisions in my field too, though admittedly not on the scale of what you’ve done. I thought at the time that you w
ere a heartless person who only cared about getting the job done. I was wrong.”
“Go on, I’m mildly intrigued,” he said, still feeling like he needed to see her squirm some more for what she had said earlier in Taipei.
She let out a sigh. “You’re not the kind of person I would have pegged for being with the CIA. I always associated those types with a morally ambiguous person who coldly executed his orders without any thought of whether it was doing any good for the world or even himself.”
“It’s never that simple, Doc. Doing this kind of work isn’t about being a good person. That’s secondary to the mission sometimes.”
“But what you did—saving the others in Taipei. That was the right thing to do.”
First she condemns me, now she praises me. Did I just step into a Senate Oversight hearing? He had no doubts about his actions but he still didn’t appreciate her searing tone in Taipei. That was an attack against his integrity that would take time to forgive.
Reisner rubbed the back of his neck, wanting to change the subject. He noticed a strand of silver chain hanging out of her pants pocket.
“What is that? I saw you grab it off your desk before we got out of the building.”
Selene removed the timepiece and reluctantly handed it to him. Reisner marveled at the fine etchings on the surface, which resembled an eagle.
“It’s exquisite.” He opened it and saw a faded photograph of a soldier, his face beaming and holding a contented smile.
“It belonged to my grandfather. He was in Marine Recon in Vietnam and stayed in the military as an advisor afterwards.”
“I can see how you wouldn’t want to let something like this out of your sight. Did you know him?”
“Just briefly. I remember him sitting with me, telling stories about his childhood growing up on a farm. He made it through three goddamned combat tours in Vietnam only to die years later from pneumonia after complications from getting the flu.” Her voice lowered as she spoke. “Imagine surviving the horrors of war and then you die slowly in your bed as an invisible enemy ravages your body.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too. I wish I had known him better. It’s what spurred me on when I was younger to learn everything about science and medicine. He was an incredible man—one of those people who just kept pushing on no matter how shitty things became. He was a fighter to the end.”
He handed her back the watch. “Well, it sure seems like his granddaughter inherited his best traits.”
She glanced up and smiled. “I’ve never shown this to anyone before.”
“We all have that part we keep locked away, sometimes even from ourselves.”
“Says the guy who keeps secrets for a living.”
He looked over at her, seeing into her gentle blue eyes and letting out a faint smile, then he quickly averted his gaze and moved to the desk.
“You should get some rest, Doctor. It’s been a long couple of days and there’s more to come.”
“You can call me Selene. And I’ll get some rest if you will,” she said, slowly walking away towards the exit. “And don’t give me any nonsense about how you’re on guard duty or something like that, especially when you have a bulldog like Connelly on your team, who seems like she’s on edge 24/7.”
“New agents can be wired tight sometimes, trying to make an impression on their teammates.”
Or their team leaders, she thought as she walked away, suddenly understanding something about Connelly as she gave Reisner another glance.
Chapter 41
Two hours later, Admiral McKenzie summoned all of his senior staff to the conference room on the second deck. The rest of the crew were able to see the presentation televised throughout the ship or on audio in the engineering section. In addition, it was broadcast to the remaining U.S. Navy fleet around the world and to NORAD and MacDill AFB.
Selene tried not to dwell on all the eyes and ears that would be looking to her for an explanation of the deadly pathogen they were facing. She felt like she was only one step ahead of understanding what was happening and now she had to sound like the subject matter expert on a novel virus. As she listened to McKenzie’s introduction, which was designed to bolster confidence in his people for the long road ahead, Selene knew she had to present them with hard facts.
When Selene stepped up before the podium, she felt like a hundred-pound pack was hanging off her shoulders.
“My name is Doctor Selene Munroe and I’m an epidemiologist from Johns Hopkins Medical School.” She paused, thinking that the university she knew and all her friends and students were probably dead.
“The virus that you are all very familiar with which has been listed as avian flu, H5N5, is something that myself and my colleague Doctor Victor Tso are still in the process of studying. From the data we’ve collected from CDC centers around the U.S. and the World Health Organization in other parts of the world, we believe that this is a unique virus that was originally created as a bioweapon.”
The room filled with chatter and she heard mention of a number of rogue nations and terrorist groups being whispered in the rows closest to her. She knew saying anything alluding to the CIA being involved in its origin without evidence would only cause pandemonium. Plus, what did she really know for sure other than there was supposed to be a mysterious ship at the bottom of the ocean and the sketchy stories she’d heard from Reisner and his team.
Selene clutched the sides of the podium and began her PowerPoint presentation, staring at her laptop as the images came onto the large screen behind her.
“We believe patient zero originated in southern China. After becoming infected with the avian flu which was transmitted from oribatid mites at a tea plantation in Fujian Province, he then traveled to Hong Kong and later Taipei, where my colleague Doctor Tso treated him at the Cheng Hsin Hospital. Shortly after being admitted, he showed signs of a high fever and vomiting, not unusual for the flu, but this man presented with symptoms of Bertiella parasites in his emesis.” She looked at the puzzled faces around the room. “Worms in his vomit.”
She showed a map of Taiwan and China. “At some point, patient zero may have come into contact with passengers disembarking from a cruise ship. They then carried the virus back to their own home countries, which changed this from being a local epidemic to a global pandemic.”
She heard several voices of derision in the audience blaming the Chinese and muttering for retaliation. Selene switched to slides of her autopsies of patient zero and several others from the hospital in Taipei. The audience grew silent.
“You are all well aware by this point of the overwhelming number of formerly deceased patients who have become reanimated.” She paused when she heard several murmurs of the word ‘zombie.’ “The parasites seem to exert some type of control over the corpse through their presence in the cerebellum, though the exact mechanism isn’t understood yet.”
She leaned forward, thrusting her chin up. “What you may not be aware of is that most every major city saw the deceased return to an animated form at precisely the same time around the world.” She showed video footage from news stations in Copenhagen, Seoul, Bogota, and Anchorage with the time stamp highlighted in the bottom-right corner. Frightened voices erupted around the conference room. McKenzie moved beside the podium and motioned for the crowd to be quiet.
“Clearly these are not zombies in the classic sense of the word—there is an intelligence to these creatures and they seem to have some form of organization.” She clicked on the next slide, which showed a formation of slower-moving creatures methodically shuffling towards a line of police officers who were firing upon the crowd but were overwhelmed by the sheer number of attackers. A few seconds later, a cluster of faster-moving beasts bounded around the first row and began pursuing stragglers.
The audience grew silent, even amongst the senior officers at the back of the room.
“The good news is that we have recently acquired some critical information that may lead to answers i
n how to combat this virus.”
She glanced around, hoping her last statement might slightly buoy the group, but found most of them still staring at the footage of the assault on the police. Selene clicked off the slide and moved around the other side of the podium.
“Are there any questio—” She was cut off by McKenzie, who abruptly stepped up next to her. Nearly every hand in the room shot up. Selene could see she had overstepped her welcome with the admiral by the taut look on his face.
“Doctor Munroe has time for only two questions as she has pressing work back at her office.”
McKenzie chose two individuals amongst his senior officers, and she hoped they were selected based upon their potential for being curt.
“How is the virus being spread?” said a short man with a shaved head. “I haven’t seen any quarantine areas for the new people arriving here.”
Selene stepped forward, folding her arms. “Initially, during the first twenty-four hours, the oribatid mites were the primary disease vector which spread the influenza virus. These mites are similar to those found in dogs that get mange, or if you have ever had the misfortune of getting scabies. The mites have a short lifespan outside of their host—hours, perhaps. The Bertiella parasites, which are external parasites naturally found on mites, somehow mutated, burrowing their way inside their new human hosts. At present, transmission is occurring only through the bite from one of these reanimated creatures, which spreads the parasites, or through contact with a single parasite. After infection, the individual dies shortly afterwards and then reanimates within minutes.”
McKenzie called upon a young woman in navy whites with short brown hair. “Is there a cure for the infected? I talked to my little brother back in Baltimore three days ago and he was sick with the virus. Is there a vaccine?”
