the virus with them. He heard on the news about an airliner making an emergency landing in Baltimore with a sick crew member. He wondered if there might be a connection. As he was thinking of the ramifications, there was a quiet knock on his office door. It was Amy, his assistant. “Dr. Ambrose, Mayor Donnelly of New York City is on line one.” Thanking her, he picked up the phone.
“Dr. Ambrose speaking.”
“One moment please,” said the operator. After a few minutes, the Mayor came on the line.
“This is Mayor Donnelly speaking. Is this Dr. Ambrose?” he asked.
“Yes, this is Ambrose.”
Donnelly, not hesitating, said, “We need your help, Dr. Ambrose. First of all, do you have anything to report regarding the subway incident samples?”
“No, sir. We hope to know something soon,” Ambrose answered. “Our lab in New Jersey will let me know as soon as they have an identification. More samples will be studied here. We are waiting for their delivery.” He looked at his watch, noting it was 11:00 a.m. “These identifications can take time. And no reports from Quantico, as yet.”
“The regional director of Homeland Security, Tom Bennett, has called a meeting for noon today in my office. Could you possibly conference in? There will be representatives present from various agencies, including the police commissioner, Health and Human Services, FEMA, the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority, and the FBI, including two agents working on the case. The Deputy Mayor, Mary Henderson, will be attending, as well. We need your input, Dr. Ambrose.”
“Yes, of course. Let’s go over some agenda items,” answered Dr. Ambrose.
The Mayor said, “Fine, thank you. Our assistants will sort out the conference call.” They continued their discussion, with Ambrose jotting down critical points. He would be prepared and hoped to have some test results.
Ambrose called his assistant, Amy, into his office. “The Mayor’s assistant is on the phone. Please arrange the conference call that will connect me to the noon meeting.”
Amy nodded, “Yes, sir,” and returned to her office.
Ambrose dialed extension twelve.
“Paul Miller speaking.” Miller was the logistics and distribution manager for emergency supplies.
“Paul, Ambrose here. We may need large quantities of antiviral medications. Please inventory what is available and their locations. The epicenter of the possible outbreak is New York. I need to know what we have and how soon we can transport these supplies. Please call me back as soon as possible.”
“Yes, I’ll see what quantities are available.” Paul knew what this meant. He had heard the news reports coming out of New York. Nothing had been substantiated but he suspected the worst.
“This is classified,” Ambrose said and then added, “Please get back to me as soon as possible.”
“Yes, sir,” answered Paul.
“One more thing, Paul. Please alert Dr. Rudolph. As soon as we ID the virus, we will begin the manufacture of a vaccine. Rudy needs a heads-up on this,” said Ambrose. “We need his team ready by this afternoon. We will need all drug companies’ cooperation in this effort, as well. Please notify those on our list of approved manufacturers to be on standby.”
“Yes, Dr. Ambrose, I’ll call Rudy first.”
“Thanks,” said Ambrose.
His next call was to the tracking center. The CDC was getting reports indicating numerous patients with severe influenza-like symptoms were being admitted to medical facilities in various parts of the country, but the majority of cases were in the New York and New Jersey area. He would have updated counts and locations for the noon meeting.
Dr. Ambrose put his head in his hands. He thought of the months it would take to manufacture a safe and effective vaccine, with all the phases and trials necessary. He could only imagine how many would be dead by then.
.
34
Suzy drove back to her office as quickly as she could. She didn’t want to attract attention to her lengthy absence. The lab director, Dr. Eric Adams, was out of the office for the afternoon, something to do with “moving his college age son back home from the university,” code known around the office that he was meeting Karen from Human Resources for a “noon-er.” His car was still gone from the parking lot, so she knew that he wouldn’t be aware of her extended absence. His mind would be “distracted” anyway. “What a pig,” she thought. It was the perfect time to implement the next step of her assignment.
His office wasn’t far from hers. Most staffers were busy, and it wasn’t unusual for Suzy to be in and out of Dr. Adams’s office, sometimes several