He slowly turned his eyes from the god-awful scene to the arriving vehicles and his heart sank further. They were not ambulances to take them to the safety of a hospital, but military vehicles, each with a soldier standing with a rifle trained upon them.
CHAPTER 14
12:00 MIDNIGHT
President Hamilton Parker slouched back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk, behind him the Washington skyline. He offered a Cuban cigar to General Malloy who took it gratefully. He lit the Cohiba and puffed on it lustily. “Outstanding!” He blew out a plume of blue smoke when a thought struck him.”You sure we’re allowed to smoke in the White House?”
“Hey, I’m the acting President; I can do what I like!” he grinned from ear-to-ear. “Now, to business, we’ve implemented road-blocks, we’ve blockaded the ports and grounded all aircraft. Nothing’s coming in and nothing’s going out. That’s the official line. But we’re still getting reports of people trying to escape and even some half-wits trying to enter the exclusion zone.”
General Malloy said. “What else can we do?”
“I’m going to escalate this mission, we going to be proactive, take control and wipe out this pestilence.”
“What are you suggesting?” the general asked slyly.
“The medical reports are claiming a ninety-nine percent death toll, so let’s speed that up to stop the disease spreading. We go in, kill the contagious, save the healthy.”
“That won’t go down well with the voters.”
“That’s why we’re not going to tell them. We’ve declared martial law, we can pretty much do what we what.”
The general slapped the desk. “Now you’re talking my language. This is what I’ve been waiting my entire life to hear. But logistically it’ll be problematic.”
“I’ve thought of that, we’re designating sports-grounds and other such venues as refugee camps, for the diseased to go to voluntarily, we’ll step that up and give the troops orders to round up undesirables, take them to the camps and we will take care of them in one fell swoop.”
“You, sir, are a genius,” said General Malloy. “What about President Burgess?”
“What about him?”
“He’d never go for it. If he gets better and comes back…?”
“Then we will stop him from getting better, won’t we?” The vice President grinned.
“We?"
“Well, you actually. There’s a helicopter waiting for you.”
He grinned slyly. “I would enjoy that very much, Mister Vice Pres — or should I say Mister President?”
00:15 AM
Quinn Martell stomped down the echoing corridor from the war room, entered his temporary office and slammed the door. He searched through the papers on his oak desk, found his i-pad and connected with President Burgess.
James Burgess’s pale face filled the screen almost immediately. “Good evening, Quinn, what can I do for you?” The President heaved himself up into a sitting position in his bed, the effort tiring him.
“It’s Hamilton, sir. He’s drunk on power and making all sorts of crazy decisions.”
“Aw, he’ll get over it. It’s all new to him. I’ll soon be better and when the Bubonic Plague has blown over, I’ll be back.”
“That’s just it, Jim, word has reached me that he’ll do everything in his power to stop you ever coming back. He has extended the exclusion zone further north to include your summer residence. Effectively you are now trapped in the Bubonic Plague exclusion zone.”
“What! That’s outrageous! I’m the President and—”
“You gave him the power, sir, to make such commands.”
“But we’re twenty miles north of the previous zone.”
“It’s legitimate, Jim, I’ve checked.”
“Goddamn him, that slippery snake. I’ll get him for this you see if I don’t,” he raged, his face flushed red, he clutched his heart and flopped back on his bed,
The surgeon general leaned forward towards the screen, reaching towards it wanting to help somehow from his great distance. “Jim! Jim, are you alright?” He watched his life-long friend clutching at the sheets in agony. The monitors beside his bed went haywire, alerting the crash-team who rushed in to attend him. “I’m OK, I‘m OK, stop fussing me,” He waved the medical staff away. “I thought about this, there’s no one here at my compound that’s disloyal to me. Not one person would try to confine me here if I chose to return.”
“He’s thought of that, Jim. He’s sending General Malloy down there to enforce the quarantine.”
“Jumpin’ Jack, that sonofabitch? I’ll sort him out don’t you worry.” His face flushed an angry red.
“I thought you two had history?” Quinn reminded his friend.
“Don’t sweat it. That’s old news,” the President said, then calmed. “I blocked his promotion to a four star General a couple of times, but he got there despite me. That’s water under the bridge.”
“My information is, and I quote, ‘he’s going to make you see the error of your ways’ should you make an effort to return to DC.”
“Ha! What’s he going to do — shoot me?”
Quinn switched off his i-pad. He turned to look out of his office window at the pitch-black sky above the Washington skyline. He sighed heavily with a sense of foreboding. He would not put anything past General Malloy.
CHAPTER 15
00:30 AM
Sophie slowed the Jeep and approached the guardhouse at the President’s summer residence north of Palm Beach. She could see that the two young guards were staring at her incredulously. One rapidly raised his rifle to his shoulder and aimed at her as she approached, driving what was clearly a military vehicle.
She showed her identification and the documents the sergeant had been carrying and after a few telephone calls was permitted into the compound.
It was still a stiflingly hot night and Sophie found herself feeling anxious as she prepared to meet the President of the United States. She composed herself, and breathed deeply. It seemed so surreal to her, that she, of all people, should be having an audience with the President! She swallowed down her anxiety, when the guard accompanying her, knocked on the door and after being granted access, opened the door for her. “Doctor Sophie Garcia, Mister President.”
Sophie’s mouth dropped open when she saw the President lying in bed wired to monitors. “It’s erm, I had no idea…”
President Burgess waved his arm around the room as if it was nothing. “Don’t let all this high tech gadgetry fool you, I’m fighting fit, and fit as a fiddle. This stuff is my doctor over-reacting, as usual.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Mister President.”
“Doctor, the honor’s all mine, I’ve heard nothing but high praise from the surgeon general of you and of your work. He tells me that you are an expert in the field of the plague this great country is facing. Now, please sit.”
“Thank you,” she sat next to the bed and quickly scanned his medication, noting the drip in his arm and knew that he was far from all right, and was indeed, an extremely sick man.
“Is it bad out there, doctor?” he asked her.
“Both of my escorts succumbed to the plague on the journey here,” she said gravely. She remembered them and shuddered.