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worked through past crises that she knew she could rely
on him now. He had an innate ability to see the future impact of today’s
decisions.
        
She said, “On another subject, have you talked with Harry today?”
        
“Yeah, he called about an hour ago. There’s been no progress finding a reason
for survivors. Scotland has decided to move all survivors to the Royal
Infirmary in Edinburgh for two reasons. The first of course is to enhance the
research. The second is to make sure no one gets left alone in the countryside.
Harry doesn’t think they can find and move all survivors, but he does think
they can locate the majority of them. He is in close contact with Irish
officials who are trying to do the same thing. Their biggest problem is what to
do with survivors if the virus remains unchecked. I told him we had started
working on that issue here in the U.S. and that I would keep him informed as to
what we were planning.”
        
“Good, he’ll need all the help we can give him. The entire country should be
getting close to the panic point, except no one seems to know what to do or
where to run. For the time being, almost all of Scotland is being stoic, as we
Scots tend to be. The same is true in Ireland. I’m sure there will be some
problems as circumstances worsen but I hope for the sake of so many dying
people that the end is at least peaceful.”
        
A.J. added, “I talked to Harry’s boss earlier and he said that one of his staff
members began showing symptoms this morning. I asked him how that affected the
rest of the staff and he said they were simply ignoring it. They’ve known all
week this was going to happen and that it could happen to any of them. The
staff member displaying symptoms insisted on finishing his current round of
tests in the lab; and said he would then go home to his family, a wife and
three year-old son.
        
“I’d like you to let your team leaders know this to prepare them for the shock
of Harry showing symptoms. Unless he is one of the chosen few it seems
inevitable at this point.”
       
Jack responded, “I know, and I’ll prepare the team as best I can, but, God
knows, I hate the thought of what’s to come.”
        
“Don’t we all. I don’t know how we’re supposed to handle this.”
        
As they arrived at A.J.’s outer office she asked Nancy to bring coffee. As they
sat in their normal arm chairs A.J. said, “We need to discuss emergency
evacuation protocols.”
        
Jack responded, “I asked Irene to look into that and she’s found that members
of Congress and their immediate staff will be relocated to a large bunker somewhere
in West Virginia, although there isn’t enough room for families. The President
and his staff, plus Cabinet members and Supreme Court justices will go to a
site in Virginia where there is room for immediate family members, which means
spouses and minor children only. The CDC has a combination lab and bunker near
Atlanta’ that will accommodate some of the scientists involved in Emerald Virus
research; no room for staff or families though. And of course the military has
a number of bunkered command posts across the country. These will accommodate
only those military and civilians assigned to them, which in emergencies
includes the Joint Chiefs and other key military leaders. However, no families
are included.”
        
“Irene did a good job. There are a couple of other top secret sites for the CIA
and NSA but we don’t need to include those in our discussions. What we need to
do is decide who on your staff will be included on the roster for one of the
bunkers. After working with you the past three days I’ve come to believe that
while CDC is doing all that can be done to find a cure, no other agency except
ours has a positive role to play. And our role is critical. Someone has to
continue to communicate with the American public, both for morale purposes, and
to provide usable information to