“I agree,” Jack said while quickly peeling a banana. “It must be a strain completely out of the ordinary, like the bird flu everyone has been worried about becoming transmissible from person to person instead of just from poultry to humans. That would be really bad. What would be the best-case scenario is that it’s an influenza strain that this year’s flu vaccine covers. Then the city could do a massive vaccination program to take care of it.”
“Wouldn’t that be lucky,” Laurie said. “That could make all the difference in the world. But coming on this early makes me think it’s got to be something out of the ordinary, as you said. Maybe it’s something like SARS or MERS. Whatever it is, the prospect is really scary. I don’t thinkthere are nearly enough ventilators available citywide. Some scenarios have predicted up to a thousand hospital admissions a day in this kind of scenario. As you know, everybody in city government has been terrified of this happening for years. It’s why there have been so many exercises and drills. Ever since I have been in the front office I’ve been concerned that all the Emergency Management people have been whipped up into a frenzy anticipating this.”
“I understand,” Jack said. “Should I call us a car?”
“By all means,” Laurie said. “Are you coming with me?”
“I will.” Jack took his phone out and opened a ride-hailing app. “The weather is hardly bike-riding weather, even for me.” The wind was driving raindrops against the kitchen window hard enough to sound like rice. It was one of those particularly ugly November mornings.
“What are you people doing up so early?” Dorothy asked as she suddenly appeared, coming up the stairs. She was in her robe as usual. She was wearing what looked to Jack like a shower hat covering curlers in her hair.
“There has been a sudden, serious outbreak of influenza,” Laurie said. “Apparently, it is a very dangerous strain. We have to get to work to prepare for”—Laurie paused, trying to think how best to complete her sentence—“for being busy.”
“That’s awful,” Dorothy said, immediately understanding, despite Laurie’s sanitized choice of words. “Especially since you have two young children to think of. For the life of me I don’t understand why you didn’t listen to me when I pleaded with you not to become a medical examiner. You could have been a pediatrician or a surgeon like your father.”
Laurie rolled her eyes for Jack’s benefit out of her mother’s line of sight. “I’m going to wake Caitlin and tell her to keep the children home until we know more about what is going on with this influenza situation,” she said, ignoring the irritatingly recurrent comment.
Jack finished summoning a car and slipped his smartphone into his pocket. He eyed Dorothy warily. He wished Sheldon had appeared withher. Despite Jack’s initial misgivings, Sheldon was turning out to be a helpful moderating influence.
To Jack’s relief, Laurie reappeared almost immediately. “Shall we go?” she asked him.
“By all means.”
Downstairs, they each got umbrellas and then waited in the foyer until a car appeared and slowed. When it then stopped in the middle of the street abreast of their building, Laurie and Jack ran out into the rain and piled into it. It was a black Toyota Camry.
As they pulled away from the curb, Jack made it a point to glance out the car’s back window. Although he wasn’t totally surprised, a black Suburban that had been parked up near Central Park West pulled out behind them and followed at a distance. Facing forward, Jack wondered if the driver or drivers were Asian, and if they were, which group they might represent: the group that possibly wished him harm or the group that had seemingly protected him. Although he didn’t know if he was guilty of wishful thinking, he had a sense it was the latter.
“I’m going to try to call the health commissioner,” Laurie said.
“Good idea,” Jack responded. As Laurie made her call, Jack again twisted around. As he expected, he could still see a black Suburban following at a distance.
30
THURSDAY, 5:48 A.M.
From the backseat of the Toyota, both Jack and Laurie were appalled by the size of the crowd gathered in front of the OCME, and the line of TV trucks parked along the curb with their antennae extended. Jack tried to get the driver to go straight and stay on 30th Street so that he and Laurie could be dropped off at the receiving bay instead of the front door, but it was too late. The man had not understood the command and was already in the middle of the turn onto First Avenue.
With no room to stop in front of their destination because of the TV vehicles and the milling people, the driver was forced to pull ahead. As they passed the aged OCME building, it was clear to both Jack and Laurie that the throng were all journalists, a situation both had witnessed before, but not with quite so many people.
“My God,” Jack commented as they passed. “What a horde. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I’m not surprised,” Laurie said. “The Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan calls for an immediate information release to the Health Alert Network, and that’s at least fifteen thousand subscribers. I’m telling you, as soon as the plan was initiated, all governmentagencies of the city, state, and federal government as well as most media outlets would have learned of it. I know because part of my indoctrination in becoming chief was to get up to speed by practically memorizing the OCME Pandemic Influenza Surge Plan, which is also automatically activated. It’s our responsibility to coordinate with all the involved agencies. I’ve participated in several exercises and drills already in the short time I’ve been chief.”
“All city agencies?” Jack asked. He swung around to keep the mob in view. He was wondering how difficult it was going to be to push through them to get to the OCME’s front door. The only positive aspect was that at least the rain had temporarily stopped.
“All the important agencies from an emergency-management point of view,” Laurie said. “Department of Health, Greater New York Hospital Association, fire department with EMS, police department, and of course Emergency Management. There’s been so much coordination and so much planning and so much worry. It’s why I didn’t want to give anyone a heads-up when you were worried about the first subway death. A heads-up alone could have caused what we’re seeing now. The whole system was like a tightly wound-up spring.”
As soon as he could, the Uber driver pulled over to the curb, which was practically in front of the NYU Langone Medical Center. Jack and Laurie piled out to hurry south. Just beyond the entrance to the medical center’s parking garage, they started to encounter the reporters, who were acting like a swarm of bees. The two medical examiners managed to get about halfway to the OCME front door before someone recognized Laurie. From the press briefings that she’d occasionally held in response to particularly newsworthy cases, Laurie was gradually becoming a known commodity.
“Dr. Montgomery,” one of the reporters called out. “Can we have a statement about the pandemic?”
News of the presence of the chief medical examiner spread throughthe crowd like wildfire. Suddenly both Jack and Laurie were surrounded by pushy reporters, many with microphones or smartphones, all competing with one another to get theirs as close as possible to Laurie’s face. Jack literally had to push several electronic devices out of the way. It was amazing how obnoxious reporters could be when competing for a scoop, almost as bad as paparazzi.
“I’m sorry, but I have no comment,” Laurie called out over the crowd. “I will be briefed as soon as I get into my office and will schedule a news conference about the OCME’s role in the current situation. It will be held within the hour in the auditorium at the OCME building, 421 First Avenue, not here at 520. Now please let us pass!”
Jack began acting as a point man to get Laurie through the crowd, at times yelling at insistent, pushy reporters with their microphones or cameras to give way. The going was slow.
“Please!” Laurie shouted from behind Jack. “Let us through! As I said, you’ll have my statement within the hour. Before then, you people should be at Emergency Management out in Brooklyn or at the Department of Health, because they are calling the shots, most likely through the Department of Health’s Incident Command System.”
