As a new army captain in Iraq, Joe Rush received a rush of intel that forced a decision at a cost of 8 Marines but saved hundreds. His reputation has followed him throughout his career.
Rush is now a physician-colonel with special interest in biowarfare and assigned to perhaps the most underfunded outpost in Alaska. He got assigned there after his memo to military management suggested that the next bug to surface naturally was as likely to surface as the polar caps melted as it was to come from the more widely acknowledged tropics.
His director is a DC politico (“Hollywood for ugly people”) whose call tells him a Virginia-class sub is mired in ice, on fire, with a large number of sailers either sick or dead from a rapid and deadly germ, stranded some 500 miles north of Barrow, Alaska. He is to assemble a team fast, fly up to Barrow, board the only icebreaker in the arctic, a Coast Guard ship, and take command of the mission. Get up there and determine the problems and possible courses of action.
And do it fast because a Chinese sub is also en route. If they get there first, they will board the sub and make every attempt to glean as much technical intel as possible. When Rush gets to the sub, he has to assess the problem and might have to make a number of difficult decisions, the easiest of which will probably be whether to scuttle the sub to keep it out of Chinese hands.
Headed to the sub, the ice breaker becomes stuck to the final miles will have to be done over the masses of ice. Once they arrive at the sub, it’s still smoldering and the surviving crew are protected against the elements in a makeshift tent city. Inspection of the dead, the sick, and the dying bring Rush’s fears expressed in his memo to reality - some frozen biologic has thawed and once it really warms up in the body, can kill in less than 24 hours. And because it’s an unknown strain, no one has a clue about treatment.
This was really frightening. That a bug frozen for who knows how long could actually survive and infect any humans in its path. The tension of the various scenarios presented is palpable and the decisions that Rush must make at each confrontation, be it human or biologic, resonates to the reader. Abel presents a medical thriller way better than I remember from the late Michael Crichton. The story borders on relentless and I found myself holding my breath on more occasions than I can count as Joe Rush has to be right in order to save the crew and prevent the spread of a disease with the potential to carve a wide path through whatever population it infects. Terrific, suspenseful, relentless, tense. What more can I say?
East Coast Don
No comments:
Post a Comment