The Nightmare Scenario by Gunnar Duvstig Read Free Book Online

you that by that he does not mean ‘easy,’ just‘relatively easy.’ Because of the geographic conditions the military effort would not be large.”
    “Okay, that brings us to priority number two: information and understanding. I assume there’s someone on the way already?”
    “Yes, the local office has dispatched two people.”
    “What do we know about them?”
    The second act of the opera had apparently ended, and people were streaming out from La Scala for breaths of fresh air. Walt’s voice was temporarily drowned out by their chattering and the clinks of champagne glasses, brought together in toasts. Aeolus turned up the volume on the phone, put a finger into his left ear and started walking away from the crowd. “Come again, Walt. I didn’t get that.”
    “I said, absolutely nothing.”
    “Okay, get hold of Dr. Chen-Ung Loo at the Singaporean CDC, they’re close enough. Tell him to send his two best guys. Also, figure out who we should send from our side. I wish I could go myself, but I guess I’m of better use coordinating from the center.”
    “I think we’d all agree to that, sir. Who do you want to send?”
    “I don’t know. Pick someone I like.”
    “I don’t believe there’s anyone on staff you’ve expressed any particular liking for, just varying degrees of dislike.”
    “Well, then find the ones I dislike the least.”
    “Very well, I’ll select someone based on your performance ratings.”
    “Come to think of it, forget about our staff. Send Rebecca Summers. She’s seen this before. Find her and get her down there.”
    “If I may be so bold, sir, she’s half a world away.”
    “That’s fine. Loo’s guys can hold it together until she arrives.”
    “As you wish.”
    “Oh, and send that intern too, the one called it in the first time.”
    “Why would you send him? We know nothing about him. I’m not even sure he’s an MD?”
    “You’re wrong. We do know something about him. He has a brain, a good one even. As I’ve told you many times: intrinsic ability trumps experience nine times out of ten. Also he speaks the language, and can probably be on site in a matter of hours. That works for me in terms of a liaison until Rebecca gets down there. Also, it’s going to take me a while to get back, given the hour. Have someone pull an all-nighter and compile
everything
we have for me by tomorrow morning. Someone smart.”
    “You really should pay closer attention to your staff.”
    “So you keep telling me.”
    “Also, if I may say, this would have been a good time to have had a deputy, sir.”
    “Which I would have, Walt, if there had ever been a candidate with the qualifications required.”
    “Some say your standards are too high.”
    “Yes, they are high, and for good reasons.”
    “If you say so. There is one more thing. One of the doctors and a nurse at the hospital are showing symptoms.”
    “Hmm… For now, I would just write that off as a consequence of the primitive state of their equipment. That reminds me, we need to send gear.”
    “Already done. Basics dispatched from Jakarta and proper lab equipment with full kit is on its way from Singapore.”
    “Do we have samples?”
    “Yes, samples have been sent, blood and swabs, for all I know by raft, to Jakarta.”
    “Reroute them to Dr. Loo. They’ll do it faster and better.”
    “Consider it done.”
    “Good prep-work, Walt. I have no idea how this organization would function without you.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    The bell sounded and the noise from the crowd outside the opera house waned as the audience started making its way back inside for the third act. Aeolus watched the men in tuxedos and women in cocktail dresses retreating, floating, wraithlike, across the square, bathed in the monochromatic light from the glowing disc of the moon.
    Mother Nature had thrown down the gauntlet, but he was not one to shirk from a challenge. He straightened his back in a defiant posture, staring back at the moon,