Chapter 7
created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Chapter 7
The five cars and six motorcycles pulled up next to the plane. True to his word, Paul had the engine's running.
"Addison, We're at the plane, I'll call you on back in a few." Sarah said, getting out of the car after one of the officers had opened her door for her. Sarah smiled at the officer and he smiled back. The rest of the escort was standing at attention. "Addison said that Ogden is a possible E-coli outbreak. Still working on Boulder."
"Ok," Cassie said, walking up the steps to the aircraft. "Jim said that they are still expecting results from the tests in Boulder. He has a RRT on the way there now." Sarah climbed into the plane, Paul was standing next to door, ready to pull it up once Sarah was onboard. Sarah climbed the steps and went right to the table and sat down, buckling her seat belt and pulling her laptop out. There was a thud as the door came up and closed, the bolts sealing it shut.
"I already have the Iridium connected so you guys can keep working," Paul said as the plane started to roll.
"Gulf 983AT, copy, cleared for takeoff runway 1 left. Will contact departure Tilly on 126.65. Good Day Washington." Cassie heard Rich saying into the radio. "Tilly, this is Gulf 983AT, we've been handed off from the tower." There was a pause. "Copy climb to flight level 270, on a heading of 189. Also, we will stand by for Kilo flight. Tuning to 308.325." Cassie glanced at Paul, eyebrows raised.
Sarah saw Kilo Flight first. "Cassie, why is there an F-16 off our wing?"
"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Director Robertson's office, This is Sarah speaking, how may I help you?" Sarah said into the phone.
"This is the White House Operator," came a female voice from the phone. "Is Doctor Robertson available?"
"Yes, ma'am," Sarah said, looking at Cassie. "Let me put her on the phone." Cassie held the phone toward Cassie. "It's the White House." Cassie took the handset and glanced at her laptop. There had been no new updates out of Ogden or Boulder for the last hour and they both were receiving updates every fifteen minutes.
"We just passed the halfway point. Hour and a half to touch down." Rich shouted toward the back of the plane.
"Thank you." Sarah said. She had been in constant contact with Kiersten's secretary via the real time chat utility that was part of the email solution that the CDC used. Before Sarah had a chance to type anything a message popped that read 'Call me, ASAP'. Sarah picked up the other handset that was mounted on the wall next to the desk and dialed Ella Peterson's number.
"It's Sarah, What's up?" Sarah asked into the phone. Across from her, Cassie's eyebrows raised.
"Yes, I'll hold for the President." Cassie said. This wasn't the first time that he had called Cassie. The timing of this call was suspicious though...
"Shit..." Sarah said suddenly. Cassie glanced over at her as she started writing on the notepad in front of her. The first five words that were written were very troubling. 'Boulder RRT confirm novel H1N1. Ogden RRT still inconclusive.' "Ok, I'll let her know. Any word on Patient Zero?" Sarah listened for a few seconds as she jotted a few more notes. "Ok. Advise Boulder RRT that we will send reinforcements that way. Also, advise them that we will contact the Governors office to try to get assistance from the National Guard." There was a pause as she listened to Ella. "Ok, Thank you." Sarah hung up the phone and wrote a note on the bottom of the page and spun the notepad around so Cassie could read it. '2 dead, 30 infect, possible contam. School. 2 dead and 28 infect under age 12'
"Good Morning, Mr. President." Cassie said into the phone. She read the note and then looked at Sarah. "Yes, sir. We are actively working the three incidents." Cassie listened for a few seconds and then picked up a pen and wrote down a phone number. "Yes, sir. I will keep you updated as we go throughout the day. May I provide an update with what we know so far?" There was a pause. "Yes, Sir. Ok, the situation in Spangle Washington is contained. We isolated a section of the bubonic plague down to a lab in Cambridge Mass called BioTech Engineering. Yes, Sir. That information was already sent to the FBI and DHS. We don't know if this was an accidental release or a deliberate release. The RRT we sent to Boulder just sent in some results. As it stands now, we have two dead, and twenty eight children infected and two over the age of twelve. The RRT is reporting that this is an incident of novel H1N1." There was a pause again. "We have no new information on the situation in Ogden, Sir." There was a pause as Cassie listened to the President speak. "We haven't confirmed those yet, so I'm not at liberty to speculate. Yes, sir, I will call you with updates as soon as I have them." After the call had disconnected, Cassie and Sarah looked at each other.
As the plane descended into Hartsfield airspace, Kilo flight broke off and made a turn for nearby Dobbins Air Force base, presumably to refuel and then head back toward DC.
"Gulf 983AT copy, cleared to land on runway 8 Right, taxi to Echo 11, and then Echo 10 to parking." Rich said.
"Ok," Sarah said, feeling the plane touchdown on the runway. "Ella, we're wheels down. Should be back in the office in about twenty to thirty, depending on traffic. We're gonna go right to the fifth floor. I'm gonna call Wanda from the car and have her bring us some lunch up... We haven't eaten yet." The clock was going on eleven am, and the two of them had already been working for six hours. As Rich steered the plane toward the hanger Sarah saw that there were four Atlanta PD cruisers and four black, unmarked Surburbans sitting outside the hanger. All eight vehicles had red and blue lights flashing. "Cassie, looks like we have an escort back to the office..." Cassie peeked out the window. As the plane came to a stop outside the hanger, Paul was coming out of the cockpit. "We'll be there in a few minutes..." Sarah sat the phone back in the cradle and closed her laptop. Cassie had packed up as they were making the turn into the approach path at Hartsfield.
"Director, Sarah" Paul said, hitting the button to open the door. "It's been an honor and a privilege. I wish we had more time to chat, but duty calls." He stood at attention and gave a quick salute, and then extended his hand Cassie shook it.
"Thanks for the flight, Captain. I'm sure we will be going back to Washington in the next few weeks." Cassie said, shaking his hand. "I'll tell Airops I want you and Rich. You guys just got promoted to the flight crew for the Director." She smiled and then deplaned, stopping at the bottom of the steps to talk to the person that seemed to be in charge of the escort.
"Sarah, I will see you soon." Paul said, glancing out the door. "You'd better hurry if you don't want to get left behind..."
Sarah smiled and shook Paul's hand. He turned it so that the back of her hand was facing up and gave it a kiss.
Sarah giggled. "Thank you, Captain. See you soon." As Sarah started down the steps, Cassie was pulling the Yukon out of the hanger. It matched the Suburbans with the exception of the lights. Sarah went over and hopped in the passenger seat as the motorcade started it's precession toward a gate that had been opened by airport personnel.
Eight minutes later the motorcade pulled up to the front doors of the CDC. Sarah didn't wait for the Yukon to come to a complete stop before hopping out and running inside. Her shoes were in her hand and her tights were probably ruined, but she was bound and determined to set a record on getting from the front door to the fifth floor. An elevator stopped on the first floor and the doors opened seconds after Sarah had pushed the button. Sarah stepped on the elevator and stuck her key in the key hole on the control panel while holding the door open button for Cassie. The key would allow the elevator to bypass every floor between the first floor and the destination floor. Only department heads and their assistants had keys that would control the elevators like this. Cassie came running up to the elevator as Sarah released the button that held the doors open. Once the doors were shut, Sarah pushed the button for the fifth floor.
"Frank Welton is parking the car..." Cassie said as the doors slid shut. Frank Welton was one of the security guards, and obviously Cassie trusted him with the Yukon.
Cassie and Sarah walked into what could be best described as organized chaos in the conference room on the fifth floor. Two extra projectors had been brought in and were pointing at the two white boards on the wall and the blinds were shut.
"Alright, where are we?" Cassie asked, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear her. "We'll start with Spangle, then Boulder, then Ogden."
"Spangle is contained. We've had no new cases in the last forty eight hours. Current counts are as follows: one hundred seventy infected, thirteen dead. Forty of the one seventy infected and six of dead the are under the age of eighteen." Dr. Gaffin reported, pausing for a drink of his coffee. "Boulder is confirmed as novel H1N1. Current counts are forty-three infected, two dead. Thirty-eight of the forty-three are under eighteen, as are the two deaths." Dr. Gaffin rustled some papers so that he could locate the data for Ogden. "In Ogden, what ever we're dealing with has still not been confirmed, but we have a suspicion that it's either an e-coli outbreak or salmonella... Two hundred have been hospitalized, four are dead. Of the two hundred, sixty are under eighteen. All of the casualties are over eighteen."
"Alright," Cassie said. "Let's get back to work. I'm going to head up to my office for a bit if anyone needs me."
Sarah sat at her desk and looked at all the paper that had accumulated the previous day. She simply stacked it up as neatly as she could and stuffed it all inside of a folder. Today was a new day and had new problems; the problems of yesterday could wait. Her phone rang and she answered it.
"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Director Robertson's office, How may I help you?" Sarah said, instinctively grabbing for a pen.
"Is Sarah Wilson there?" The soft voice of a female asked. Her voice was barely audible.
"Speaking." Sarah said, spinning in her chair and sitting the folder on top of a stack of folders.
"This is Miranda Gordon," the girl on the phone said, her voice still slightly above a whisper. "I was talking to my dad earlier and I would like to help you..."
"You're the Senators daughter?" Sarah said, glancing at her computer that had just displayed an alert that an email had come in.
"Yeah," Miranda replied, the volume of her voice starting to come up. "My dad explained the basics of what was going on and I'm willing to help. I've done research on your devices before..."
"Oh?" It was out of Sarah's mouth before she could stop it. The devices weren't something that just everyone would be looking up.
"Yeah," the voice on the phone said. "My girlfriend, Natalie, didn't believe that they still existed. Now she wants me to have one..."
"Well," Sarah said with a chuckle. "This is something I've never thought about and I'm going to be wearing one... Would Natalie be up for joining us?"
"I don't know..." Miranda chuckled. "If this all comes to pass, it's not going to matter much is it?"
"Nope," Sarah chuckled again. "How hard would it be for you to get down to Atlanta?"
"I'm sure that dad could pull some strings and get me there. We just finished the term, so I'm not tied up in any schoolwork right now." Miranda said. "Should I try to get Nat to come with me?"
"You can, it's up to you. I think a companion might not be a bad idea..." Sarah jotted the number on the caller ID off of the phone and onto a post-it note. "Did you call from your cell phone?"
"Yeah, why?" Sarah picked up her phone and sent a text message to Miranda's phone.
"That's why." Sarah said, chuckling after she heard the notification of the text message arriving. "Let me know what your dad says about getting you down here. If need be, I can call upon Airops and get you on a private plane down here."
"I can do that." Miranda said. "I'll try to get Nat to come down, she might be willing to help, worst case scenario is that I have someone to talk to on the way down. Should I wear anything specific?"
The question caught Sarah off guard. It wasn't a 'normal' question for most people to ask. "I wouldn't think that there should be anything specific you need to wear, but just think about the environment that you're going to be in."
"Ok." Miranda said. The environment was an area that she was accustomed to entering. "One more question, do you guys have metal detectors?"
Sarah felt her eyebrows raise. Now that was an even odder question than the one about clothing choices. "Yep we do, Miranda, why do you ask?" Sarah actually had forgotten about them as she was able to go around them.
"Umm," Miranda paused for a second, almost like she was trying to compose her thoughts. "I have some jewelry, yeah, that I'm not allowed to take off... It sets the detectors at the Capitol off. Also, call me Mira. All of my friends do, and I think that we're going to become friends pretty quickly."
"Alright, Mira," Sarah said, glancing up as the elevator opened. Doctor Jones was stepping off of it, his face looking grim like it had the previous Friday; Addison stood behind him, her face also grim. "Let me know about the flight, and I will see you tomorrow. I have to go, the head of Vital Stats is walking up to my desk."
"Ok," Mira said, her voice cheerful for the first time since the call had begun. "I'll let you know, Sarah. It was nice meeting you, even if only over the phone at this point. I'll text you later. Bye!"
"Bye, Mira." Sarah said, aware that she was smiling at Mira's enthusiasm as she moved her hand toward the base of the phone to replace the handset.
"Sarah, is Cass in?" Addison asked. Even her voice, normally cheerful, matched her current state of expression. Something wasn't right and the was that Addison had asked if Cassie was in was a really big clue.
"Yeah," Sarah picked up the phone and hit the intercom button. "Doctor, I have Doctor Jones and Addison out here, are you available?" Sarah listened for a second. "Alright, we'll be in." Sarah hung the phone up and grabbed a legal pad that sat on her desk.