Part 2 of All Excerpts from Silent Lips about a virus in New York City - just for you!

Part 2 of excerpts from my novel Silent Lips, which deals with a deadlly virus that leads to New York City being quarantined.

Click here for Part 1 of excerpts!

Post 33 - BEYOND DOUBT

Excerpt from my novel Silent Lips, which deals with a deadly virus that leads to New York City being quarantined (available as an eBook for ONLY 99 cents):

It is my considered judgement, Mr President, the general's flat voice had said softly a few minutes ago, that we are licked. If this was a declared war with another nation then I would unhesitatingly recommend that we sue for peace, at any price.

He sighed and turned back to the spare figure of the officer.

The black lined report lay on the table between them. 

"General, you are recommending an act of aggression against the Russians that amounts to an act of war without any declaration of war, something we have never done before."

The man opposite him nodded.

"If your basic assumption that the Russians have been responsible for the introduction of the disease into the country is incorrect, then your proposal would lead to a spread of the disease from our land to the rest of the world."

He bent forward, his large head shadowed, and stared sombrely at the military man.

"We would be responsible for the end of the world if it is unchecked."

"Yes, sir. I have considered that, sir. But there is a better than even chance in my mind that they did bring it to us and that they do have an antidote."

The President flipped through the report until he found the summary.

He read it again and then stared at the general. 

"You are proposing that we introduce the disease into Russia and see whether they have an antidote. If they do then we will insist on its being provided to us or we will declare war on them, using all weapons at our disposal."

General Holcroft nodded. 

"All the contingency plans are ready, sir. We have selected the Russian personnel in the jails in Europe to be used to carry the disease back into the country. Our own people are also on standby. As you know, sir, some of our troops in the city are infected. We would be using them.  Some have volunteered; they know they are going to die. We have had dry runs in the past, sir. They have all worked out. All the men we slipped into Russia came back. The routes are all planned and are all still available, despite the fact that the Russians have tightened up their security on their borders. The last team came out a few hours ago."

The President pushed his chair back and strode to the window again.

He spoke with his back to Holcroft. 

"What if we are wrong, general? What if they did not do it?" 

He turned, his eyes burning into the other man's. 

"We have not established beyond doubt that they did. If we had, then I would authorise the operation. I would have no other choice. You told me that you thought others might have gotten to the Russian monument and perhaps introduced the toxins into it, if it did come from the monument. How do we find out?"  

Holcroft smiled thinly.

"I believe we might try one last thing, sir."

He leant forward in his chair and explained his plan in some detail.

The President listened in silence, then he stood up signalling that the meeting was over. 

"It is the lesser of two evils, general. You are authorised to implement it immediately.  Just make sure it works."

Part 1 - Excerpts from my novel Silent Lips about a virus attack on New York just for you!

Part 1 - Excerpts from my novel Silent Lips, which deals with a deadly virus that leads to New York City being quarantined and a desperate search for a cure in a ParkLab laboratory set up in Central Park.

Note: First 30 posts here, next 13 in next post

Click here for Part 2.

Post 1 - NEW YORK CITY QUARANTINED

Covid19 has struck New York City and it is reeling with the impact.

The Governor is calling on the President to use laws to force manufacturers to produce medical equipment so desperately needed to treat the sick.

A few years ago I wandered through Central Park and wondered how the city would react if a virus was let loose inside it.

How would it cope?

I then wrote Silent Lips, at thriller about NYC struck by such a disease.

The President orders the city quarantined, and the Army sets up a Parklab in Central Park, where doctors from inside the city frantically try to find a cure for the spreading disease.

Other doctors fly into the city, knowing they will be unable to leave it, but coming to help.

You can read excerpts of Silent Lips at my Amazon Author Page at this site (click on the eBook Silent Lips picture to see the excerpts): https://www.amazon.com/author/glennashton

Here is the chapter describing the setting up of the Parklab.

The ParkLab, Central Park

The sweeping of Central Park started at nine at night, with the first troops driving into the middle of the Great Lawn next to the lake in jeeps and half tracks, and fanned out from this central point, pushing towards the boundaries of the Park.

They formed lines three deep and moved through the trees and bushes, their handheld lights probing every bush and behind each rock, their fixed bayonets forcing the people they found out from the Lawn, towards the edges of the Park.

Lights were spaced at regular intervals around the lawn and the edges of the Park, facing outwards.

Further back, batteries of searchlights were mounted with their beams at low angles to allow them to cover the ground.

 Behind the sweep teams, other troops unrolled the barbed wire that was to be strung along the Park's boundaries to keep the New Yorkers out of the area. 

Moveable steel barriers were erected in front of the barbed wire to keep the crowds that were expected to arrive the next day off the barbs of the wire.

By seven an area a half-mile square had been secured, and teams of sappers started throwing up the guard posts every hundred yards apart. Made of metal cylinders with firing slits cut in at three heights, they had their own independent backup generators to power their lights in case of a general power failure. Each one had a telephone link to the central command post that was situated to one side of the Great Lawn, as well as portable radio communications.

Their fields of vision overlapped so that the whole perimeter  of the Parklab was under surveillance. 

From my kids' book LittleTown:

Nuts in a Log

"Humph!" said  Goodwi the chipmunk.

He was sitting next to the old log in which he had stored his nuts.  It had a nice hole in one end, big enough to let him in, and was hollow for almost its whole length.  Last night a storm had covered the log with sand.

Goodwi thought about it.

He could dig through the sand to open the hole and get his nuts out that way.  But there was a lot of sand. 

Or he could gnaw a hole through the log to get inside.  But it was a pretty thick log. 

Or he could leave his nuts and collect others.  But they were his nuts, and he wanted them.

Perhaps, he thought, there was another hole? 

He climbed on top of the log.

 Nothing on top.

He ran along the one side of the log.

 Nothing there.

He tried the last side.

A hole.  Very small, but a hole.

He slowly squeezed his head into the hole. He could see four of his nuts, right there under his mouth.  Only four.  No more.

Kanga hopped onto the log

Four nuts are better than none, he thought, and opening his little mouth as wide as he could he grabbed them, one after the other.