Plague: A gripping suspense thriller about an incurable outbreak in Miami

by Graham Masterton

  ‘You can’t let them in – you know that, don’t you?’ Dr. Petrie said. Even if they’re residents, they may have plague. This whole apartment building could be wiped out in an afternoon.’

  ‘Well, yes, sir, I know that. But I was trying to figure how to keep them out. They’re smashing down the doors, and some of them have guns.’

  There was another knock at the door. Dr. Petrie turned around, to see a stocky, bristle-headed man standing in the doorway, wearing a turtle-neck sweater, plaid pants and bedroom slippers. His face was bruised, and he had a magnificent black eye.

  ‘I hope I’m not interrupting you people,’ said the man. ‘But I was thinking we ought to get together and have ourselves a pow-wow.’

  ‘Good morning, Mr. Garunisch,’ said the super.

  ‘My name’s Kenneth Garunisch,’ said the new arrival, walking in and holding out his hand to Dr. Petrie.

  ‘How do you do. I’m Leonard Petrie. Dr. Murray at Bellevue said I should blow a hole in your head.’

  Kenneth Garunisch chuckled. ‘That sounds like Murray, all right. Are you a doctor, too? I guess I’m not too popular with doctors. What’s the matter, Jack? You look like you ate something that disagreed with you.’

  The super nodded. ‘I was telling this gentleman here, Mr. Garunisch. We got a pretty mean crowd of people down on the street, and they’re trying to break their way in.’

  Kenneth Garunisch took out a cigarette and lit it. ‘You got top security locks and doors down there, haven’t you? That should keep ’em out.’

  ‘For a while, I guess. But they look like they want to get in real bad.’

  ‘Do you want some help?’ asked Kenneth Garunisch. ‘I have an automatic, and some rounds.’

  ‘I’ve got this rifle here,’ said Dr. Petrie, pointing to the automatic weapon he had left in Ivor Glantz’s umbrella stand.

  Kenneth Garunisch said, ‘I think we ought to get ourselves together and form a defense plan. Is Professor Glantz around? Maybe we can rope him in, too.’

  ‘Wait there,’ said Dr. Petrie. ‘I’ll go see.’

  He walked across to Ivor Glantz’s study and rapped gently on the door. There was a pause, then Glantz said, ‘Come in!’

  The study was dense with cigarette smoke. The walls, papered in dark brown art-deco wallpaper, were covered in graphs and diagrams and illustrations of radiography equipment. Ivor Glantz was bent over a large walnut desk, with a slide-rule, log tables, dividers and a cramful ashtray. His shirt was crumpled and stained with sweat, and he was frowning at columns of figures through a thick pair of reading glasses.

  ‘How’s it going?’ asked Dr. Petrie.

  ‘Slow,’ said Glantz. ‘This problem has to have fifteen million permutations. Without a computer, it’s like trying to write the Bible in two days.’

  ‘Do you think it’s going to take you that long?’

  Ivor Glantz took off his spectacles. ‘Two days, you mean? Not a chance. It’s going to take longer. The trouble is, I don’t have any expert help. I need someone to double-check these figures, and give me some different angles and ideas. This could take months.’

  ‘Then do you think we ought to take the theory straight to Washington, and let them work it out?’

  Ivor Glantz shook his head. ‘It wouldn’t wash. If we turned up in Washington with that kind of theory, they’d laugh in our faces. They don’t have any bacteriologists on the government payroll with any imagination or style, and this theory would sink into the swamp of professional jealousy like a goddamned brick.’

  ‘But there are lives at stake, for Christ’s sake! We have people dying in thousands!’

  Ivor Glantz stood up. ‘Dr. Petrie,’ he said, ‘I know people are dying but it’s no use. What you forget is that Washington, right at this moment, is being inundated with theories and ideas and schemes for stopping the plague. Some of them good, some of them mediocre, and some of them totally crazy. Unless we can substantiate this theory with figures, it’s going to wind up in some minor scientist’s in-basket, and it probably won’t see the light of day until the tricentennial, if there’s anybody left alive to dig it up.’

  ‘You sound pretty cynical,’ Dr. Petrie said.

  Ivor Glantz nodded. ‘I am cynical. If you think that big business is a cut-throat game, you ought to try science. It’s a second-rate scramble for recognition, and honors, and as much money as you can milk out of as many foundations as possible. That’s why we have to waste our time here working out thousands of figures, and letting millions of Americans die.’

  Kenneth Garunisch poked his head around the door. ‘Is this a private harangue or can anyone join in?’

  Ivor Glantz grinned tiredly. ‘Hi, Mr. Garunisch. I was just sounding off about scientific ethics. You’ve met Dr. Petrie?’

  ‘Sure. Listen, Professor – do you think we can get some of our neighbors together for a council of war? Jack the super says there are people outside on the streets, trying to break their way in. I think we ought to work out some plan of defense.’

  Ivor Glantz sighed. ‘Mr. Garunisch,’ he said, ‘I have to do a month’s work in a couple of days. I don’t think I have time for councils of war. I don’t need defense, I need a first-class assistant bacteriologist.’

  Kenneth Garunisch pulled a face. ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to oblige you there. Professor. But let’s say you’re busy. I’ll ask Herbert Gaines and that Bloofer guy. If I need your help – can I call on you?’

  ‘Surely. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, it’s back to the slide-rule.’

  Four

  At five that afternoon, in Kenneth Garunisch’s mock-Colonial apartment, the residents of the sixteenth and seventeenth floors of Concorde Tower held a council of war. They were going to talk about self-protection, food and survival, and then their elected representative was going to speak to a meeting of representatives from all the other occupied floors. Mrs. Garunisch had made some rather clumsy cold-beef sandwiches, because her cook Beth had been out on the streets last night, and although Mrs. Garunisch didn’t know it, Beth was lying dead and posthumously raped in a side doorway of Macy’s.

  Herbert Gaines was there, incongruously dressed in a yellow safari suit, and looking nervous. Nicholas sat beside him, in a sailor sweater and jeans and rope sandals, as sullen as ever. Adelaide sat possessively close to Dr. Petrie on the big floral settee, and Esmeralda sat by herself, elegant and cool in a white pleated 1930’s suit. Prickles was allowed to sit in the corner, drinking coke and reading a picture book. Mr. and Mrs. Blaufoot hadn’t shown up, and it didn’t look as if they were going to.

  Kenneth Garunisch had appointed himself chairman. He had a louder and harsher voice than anyone else. He sat in his biggest armchair, with a beer and a pack of cigarettes, and he formally declared the meeting open.

  Herbert Gaines immediately raised his hand to speak.

  ‘Mr. Garunisch,’ he said, ‘I do believe we’re all wasting our time. The time we should have acted was days ago, when we were first threatened by this epidemic. Instead – in spite of my own personal warnings – everybody sat back and let it happen.’

  Kenneth Garunisch sucked at his cigarette. ‘With all respect, Mr. Gaines, I don’t think that two or three racialist speeches on television could have done anybody any good. In fact, I contend that last night’s looting and rioting can be pretty largely laid at your door. You, and your right-wing pressure group. Preaching intolerance isn’t going to get us any place at all.’

  ‘I don’t think that locking ourselves away in this ivory tower is particularly tolerant,’ retorted Gaines. ‘Perhaps we ought to be more democratic about it, and invite all those plague-ridden people in.’

  ‘Plague is nothing to do with democracy!’ snapped Garunisch. ‘The only thing we can afford to consider here is our own survival!’

  ‘I’m afraid I agree with that,’ said Dr. Petrie. ‘I’ve seen what the plague has done, all the way from Florida, through Georgia and Alabama and
the Carolinas, and there is no way that any of us can let ourselves come into contact with people who might have contracted it. We have to keep those street-level doors closed at all costs, and if we can’t do that, we’re going to have to build second-line defenses on the stairs.’

  ‘This is absurd,’ said Herbert Gaines. ‘We’re making the same mistake we made last week. We sat on our butts and let it happen. If you ask me, the only possible answer is to get out there and drive those people away. If necessary, kill them.’

  Nicholas looked up. ‘Herbert,’ he said quietly. ‘You can’t mean that.’

  Herbert Gaines turned on his youthful lover with a set, angry face. ‘Maybe I wouldn’t have meant it before, but what the hell does it matter? If you preach speeches at people, they go off mindlessly and slaughter each other. If you don’t preach speeches, they’re so careless and stupid that they might smother themselves in their own excrement and die of disease.’

  Dr. Petrie said, ‘Mr. Gaines—’

  Herbert Gaines waved him into silence. ‘Just listen to me for a moment,’ he said hotly. ‘When I made those political speeches last week, I didn’t believe a single word I was saying. Not one word. I stood up there and I mouthed whatever my political friends told me to mouth. I did it because they were threatening me – or rather, they were threatening Nicholas. I suppose you could call me a physical coward, and a moral coward as well, but I did it, and I’d like to know how many people wouldn’t have done the same.

  ‘The insane thing was that people actually paid attention to what I was saying. The television and the newspaper reporters actually took me seriously. People actually went up to Harlem and burned down stores and houses. My God, they say that people get the politicians they deserve, and they do. If I can stand up and speak poisonous crap like that, and the American people are prepared to believe me, then I can only say that they must have won this plague in some kind of celestial competition. This plague is America’s prize for stupidity, crassness, arrogance, prejudice and intolerance.’

  Herbert Gaines sat down. There was a long uncomfortable silence. Nicholas reached out and took Gaines’ hand, and gave it a slight, almost imperceptible squeeze.

  ‘Okay, Mr. Gaines,’ said Kenneth Garunisch at last. ‘You’ve made your point. But what we need to talk about now is survival, not divine retribution.’

  ‘What do we have in the way of guns?’ asked Esmeralda. ‘If these people do break in, we’re going to need them.’

  Dr. Petrie said, ‘We have a rifle and two handguns. Not much ammunition. We can’t rely on them for long. We have a baseball bat and plenty of kitchen knives if it comes to hand-to-hand stuff.’

  Adelaide asked, ‘If these people have got the plague, won’t they die anyway, after a few hours? Surely if we can hold out for a day or two, they’ll all be dead?’

  ‘The girl’s right,’ said Garunisch. ‘The only problem is, that’s a pretty fierce mob out there, according to what the super says. The plague may get them before they get us, but we ought to be prepared in case things work out different.’

  ‘I vote we go down and take a look at them,’ said Esmeralda. ‘At least we’ll know what we’re up against.’

  ‘I second that,’ said Dr. Petrie, raising his hand. Esmeralda looked across and smiled at him.

  Herbert Gaines said, ‘I vote we go down there and shoot them while there’s still time.’

  Garunisch stared at Gaines heavily. ‘Mr. Gaines,’ he said, ‘let’s just take this thing one step at a time, shall we?’

  ‘I think Pappa would like to come,’ put in Esmeralda. ‘If you can wait a couple of minutes, I’ll go and fetch him.’

  Eventually, armed with Dr. Petrie’s rifle, two automatics, and Nicholas’ baseball bat, they all, with the exception of Prickles, collected at the top of the service stairs and began the long descent to the street. The power was still working, but none of them wanted to trust the elevators. Ivor Glantz, who had reluctantly left his mathematics for half-an-hour, was puffing and gasping by the time they had reached the thirteenth floor.

  ‘Don’t you worry, Professor Glantz,’ said Dr. Petrie. ‘The return journey is even more fun.’

  ‘Fun my ass,’ growled Glantz. ‘I’ll be lucky to come out of this alive.’

  It took them twenty minutes to reach street level. The lobby was wide, spacious and glossy, with a veined black marble floor and walls clad in smokey mirrors. There were luxuriant potted palms, and a lingering scent of expensive perfumes.

  The front doors of Concorde Tower were of thick tinted glass, and almost fifty feet wide. The initials CT were engraved in the glass in elegant Palace script. There was a set of inner doors of the same heavy glass, but they hadn’t been fitted with the same security locks as the outer ones, and they probably weren’t capable of holding an angry mob back for very long.

  Dr. Petrie held Adelaide’s arm. Outside the front doors, pressed against the glass like distorted creatures in a gloomy vivarium, was a crowd of almost a hundred people. They screamed soundlessly at the building super and his five uniformed security men, who stood nervous but unmoving with billy-clubs in their hands. The crowd’s fists pounded against the armoured windows. They were trying to break them with bricks and hammers and chunks of loose rubble, but so far they had only succeeded in cracking two of the doors, and badly scratching a third.

  Kenneth Garunisch went over to Jack, the superintendent, ‘How long do you think those doors can keep ’em out?’

  ‘It’s hard to tell,’ said the super. He tried to keep his eyes averted from the men and women who were shrieking insults and obscenities at them from only inches away, their faces and hands squashed white and flat against the glass.

  ‘A couple of hours? A day? How long?’ prodded Garunisch.

  The super shrugged. ‘It depends. I’ve seen a few of ’em go down. I guess they got the plague out there pretty bad. But there’s always more. What I’m worried about is if they find a tow-truck, and get a chain through those door-handles.’

  ‘All right. Jack,’ said Garunisch. ‘If it looks like they are going to get in, don’t hang around to fight ’em off. They won’t be feeling very friendly towards you, so high-tail it to the stairs and lock the fire door. Then keep climbing those stairs until you reach the first occupied floor – that’s seven, isn’t it? – and lock the fire doors all the way.’

  ‘Okay, sir. I got you.’

  Ivor Glantz came across to Dr. Petrie and touched his arm. For some reason, he was looking pale.

  ‘Are you okay?’ asked Dr. Petrie. ‘You look a little sick. Is your heart all right?’

  ‘I thought I saw someone,’ whispered Ivor Glantz. ‘Someone I know – out there.’

  ‘Out there?’ said Adelaide. ‘Maybe it was someone who usually lives here, and they’ve been trying to get back in.’

  Ivor Glantz shook his head. He left Dr. Petrie and Adelaide and walked towards the glass doors of Concorde Tower like a man who has seen a vision. Only a foot away from him, the silently-shrieking crowd were thumping harder and harder at the windows, and knocking chips of glass away with hammers and bricks.

  Dr. Petrie was horrified and fascinated at the same time. Ivor Glantz stood there staring at the crowd, his arms hanging limply by his side, while the crowd were furiously howling and shrieking and battering at the glass.

  Esmeralda suddenly said, ‘Oh, my God.’

  Dr. Petrie turned. ‘What is it?’ he asked her. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Oh, my God,’ breathed Esmeralda. ‘Just look.’

  Right in the forefront of the shrieking crowd was a tall pale man with a bandage around his arm. He was staring at Ivor Glantz wild-eyed, and shaking his head from side to side in almost epileptic fear. The sight of this man had transfixed Ivor Glantz, and he seemed incapable of moving.

  ‘It’s Sergei Forward!’ said Esmeralda. ‘It’s the Finnish man that father’s been fighting in court! Oh, my God, they’ve got to let him in!’

  Dr. Petri
e took her arm, ‘They can’t. If they open those doors just an inch, then we won’t stand a chance. They’ll all get in. They’ll kill us.’

  ‘But don’t you see,’ said Esmeralda. ‘If we let Sergei Forward in, he can help Pappa with his work! We could finish it in days instead of weeks! Pappa desperately needs help – and look, Sergei Forward could do it!’

  Esmeralda ran over to her step-father, but Ivor Glantz turned away as if he hadn’t even seen her. He walked unsteadily back to Dr. Petrie, and held out his hand. ‘Professor Glantz?’ said Dr. Petrie.

  Ivor Glantz said, ‘Give me a rifle.’

  Dr. Petrie held back. ‘I’m sorry, Professor.’

  Glantz reached out and twisted the automatic weapon out of Dr. Petrie’s grasp. His eyes were bright and feverish, and he almost seemed to be snuffling in rage.

  ‘Professor Glantz – you can’t do that! Professor Glantz!’

  Dr. Petrie tried to snatch Ivor Glantz’s sleeve, but Glantz pulled away, and he waved the rifle towards him.

  ‘Get away!’ he said harshly. ‘Just get away!’

  He turned back towards the window, and raised the rifle in his hands. The people who were pressed against the glass could see what he was going to do, but there was such a crush of people behind them that they couldn’t escape. They simply opened their mouths in fear and screamed soundless screams. Sergei Forward appeared to be paralyzed with terror, and he could only stand there and watch, his hands pressed against the glass, as Ivor Glantz aimed at his face from only two or three inches away.

  ‘Christ!’ bellowed Garunisch. ‘Stop him! Someone stop him!’

  Jack the super made a half-hearted attempt at a football tackle, but Glantz stepped back and smacked him away. Before anyone else could move, he had lifted the rifle again and fired into the glass.

  The whole door collapsed outwards in huge slices. Nearly quarter of a ton of reinforced glass sheared into hands, faces, upraised arms, and broke on the ground outside with a horrific flat ringing sound.