by Bobby Akart
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Other Works by Bestselling Author Bobby Akart
The Pandemic Series
Beginnings
The Innocents
Level 6
Quietus
The Blackout Series
36 Hours
Zero Hour
Turning Point
Shiloh Ranch
Hornet’s Nest
Devil’s Homecoming
The Boston Brahmin Series
The Loyal Nine
Cyber Attack
Martial Law
False Flag
The Mechanics
Choose Freedom
Seeds of Liberty (Companion Guide)
The Prepping for Tomorrow Series
Cyber Warfare
EMP: Electromagnetic Pulse
Economic Collapse
Pandemic: Level 6
The Pandemic Series, Book Three
A novel by
Bobby Akart
Contents
or Start Reading
Dedications
Acknowledgements
About the Author, Bobby Akart
Author’s Introduction to the Pandemic Series
Previously in The Pandemic Series
Epigraph
Prologue
PART ONE WEEK EIGHT
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
PART TWO WEEK NINE
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
PART THREE WEEK TEN
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
PART FOUR WEEK ELEVEN
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
The saga concludes in … QUIETUS
Copyright Information
ACRONYMS Used in The Pandemic Series
Dedications
This book is dedicated to my darling wife, without whom life would be hopeless. Thank you for loving me. Bullie and Boom, seeing your wiggly butts at the end of a long day behind the keyboard makes it all worthwhile.
My friends and readers, please heed the warning of this series. A global pandemic can strike in an instant. I write this book to entertain you, but also to get you ready for the next global war.
Thank you for supporting me!
Finally, the Pandemic series is dedicated to the disease detectives, the shoe-leather epidemiologists of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, who work tirelessly to keep these deadly infectious diseases from killing us all. They are selfless, brave warriors, risking their lives and the loss of their families in order to fight an unseen enemy more powerful than any bomb.
Acknowledgements
Writing a book that is both informative and entertaining requires a tremendous team effort. Writing is the easy part. For their efforts in making the Pandemic series a reality, I would like to thank Hristo Argirov Kovatliev for his incredible cover art, Pauline Nolet for making this important work reader-friendly, Stef Mcdaid for making this manuscript decipherable in so many formats, John David Farrell and Kris Adams, who together with Marshall Davis, my producer, have brought my words to life, and the Team—whose advice, friendship and attention to detail is priceless.
The Pandemic series required countless hours of research. Without the background material and direction from those individuals who provided me a portal into their observations and data, I would’ve been drowning in long Latin words. Please allow me to acknowledge a few of those individuals whom, without their tireless efforts, the Pandemic series could not have been written.
Brant Goode, CDC CEFO Supervisor.
Colonel Mark G. Kortepeter, MD, a preventive medicine officer in the Operational Medicine Division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, USAMRIID, where he teaches the medical management of biological weapons casualties.
Rear Admiral Stephen C. Redd, MD, Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) at the CDC.
Thank you and thank you for your service to humanity!
About the Author, Bobby Akart
Bestselling author Bobby Akart has been ranked by Amazon as the #3 Bestselling Religion & Spirituality Author, the #5 Bestselling Science Fiction Author, and the #7 Bestselling Historical Author. He is the author of sixteen international bestsellers, in thirty-nine different fiction and nonfiction genres, including the critically acclaimed Boston Brahmin series, the bestselling Blackout series, and his highly cited nonfiction Prepping for Tomorrow series.
Bobby has provided his readers a diverse range of topics that are both informative and entertaining. His attention to detail and impeccable research has allowed him to capture the imaginations of his readers through his fictional works, and bring them valuable knowledge through his nonfiction books.
SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES and receive free advance reading copies, updates on new releases, special offers, and bonus content. You can contact Bobby directly by email ([email protected]) or through his website www.BobbyAkart.com
Author’s Introduction to the Pandemic Series
In the mid-twentieth century, a new weapon shocked the world with its ability to destroy the enemy.
For centuries, another weapon has existed…
One that attacks without conscience or remorse…
Its only job is to kill.
They are the most merciless enemy we’ve ever faced…
And they’re one-billionth our size.
Be prepared to become very, very paranoid.
WELCOME TO THE NEXT GLOBAL WAR.
Biological weapons, delivered under the right conditions against an unaware, unprotected population, will, pound for pound and dollar for dollar,
kill a million times more people than a nuclear weapon. A nuclear bomb doesn’t come close to matching the potential footprint of a biological weapon.
Over the past half century, the number of new diseases per decade has increased fourfold. Since 1980, the outbreaks have more than tripled. With those statistics in mind, one has to consider the consequences of a major pandemic.
Death has come to millions of humans throughout the millenia from the spread of infectious diseases, but none was worse than the Black Death, a pandemic so devastating that uttering the words the plague will immediately pull it to the front of your mind. From 1347 to 1351, the Black Death reshaped Europe and much of the world.
In a time when the global population was an estimated four hundred fifty million, some estimates of the death toll reached as high as two hundred million, nearly half of the world’s human beings.
This plague’s name came from the black skin spots on the sailors who travelled the Silk Road, the ancient network of trade routes that traversed the Asian continent, connecting East and West. The Black Death was in fact a form of the bubonic plague, not nearly as contagious and deadly as its sister, the pneumonic plague.
Fast-forward five centuries to 1918, an especially dangerous form of influenza began to appear around the world. First discovered in Kansas in March 1918, by the time the H1N1 pandemic, commonly known as the Spanish flu, burned out in 1919, it took the lives of as many as fifty million people worldwide.
Why does the history of these deadly pandemics matter?
Because it has happened before and it will happen again—despite the world’s advanced technology, or because of it. People no longer stay in one place; neither do diseases. Unlike the habits of humans during the Black Death and the Spanish flu, an infection in all but the most remote corner of the world can make its way to a major city in a few days.
Terrible new outbreaks of infectious disease make headlines, but not at the start. Every pandemic begins small. Early indicators can be subtle and ambiguous. When the next global pandemic begins, it will spread across oceans and continents like the sweep of nightfall, causing illness and fear, killing thousands or maybe millions of people. The next pandemic will be signaled first by quiet, puzzling reports from faraway places—reports to which disease scientists and public health officials, but few of the rest of us, pay close attention.
The purpose of this series is not to scare the wits out of you, but rather, to scare the wits into you. As one early reader said to me, after reading the Pandemic series, “I now realize that humans can become extinct. Not a comforting thought.”
The Pandemic series is a new dystopian, post-apocalyptic fiction series from fifteen-time bestselling author Bobby Akart (the Blackout series, the Boston Brahmin series and the Prepping for Tomorrow series).
The events depicted in the Pandemic series are fictional. The events, however, are based upon historical fact.
Note: This book does not contain strong language. It is intended to entertain and inform audiences of all ages, including teen and young adults. Although some scenes depict the realistic threat our nation faces from a devastating global pandemic and the societal collapse that will result in the aftermath, it does not contain graphic scenes typical of other books in the post-apocalyptic genre.
I believe more of our young people need to lead a preparedness lifestyle. Studies show that our millennials do not have any of the basic survival skills. By writing this series free of vulgarities and gratuitous sexual innuendo, I’ve intended it to be suitable for everyone. Thanks.
Previously in The Pandemic Series
The Characters
Dr. Mackenzie Hagan (“Mac”)
Dr. Mackenzie Hagan, is in her mid-thirties, tall, long blonde hair, slender, athletic build. She graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree before entering post-graduate study where she obtained a dual master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Applied Genetics. She went on to receive her PhD in Microbiology from MIT and a Medical Degree from the University Of Chicago School Of Medicine.
After completing her residency, Dr. Hagan began her career in public service as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the National Center for Infectious Diseases. Her successes in fighting the West Africa Ebola outbreak lead her to the CDC where she served as the Associate Director for the Office of Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Hagan also holds the rank of Lieutenant Commander for the U.S. Public Health Service. As the daughter of a retired Commanding General of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Hagan often says infectious disease is in her blood.
Agent Nathan Hunter (“Hunter”)
Nathan Hunter holds the formal title of Threat Reduction Specialist with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, an arm of the Department of Defense based in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Hunter graduated with high honors from the Virginia Military Institute where he majored in International Studies with a minor in National Security.
Never a serious dater, Hunter is thirty-three years old, 6’, 2”, well-built and single. He lives in his deceased parents’ estate on Lake Barcroft, Virgina. Upon their unexpected deaths, his father, a very successful defense contractor, established a financial trust for Hunter worth approximately one billion dollars.
Hunter served in the United States Army as an Operations Officer (Combat Support Squadron), Master Sergeant, First Special Forces Operational Detachment: 1st SFO Delta, also known as Delta Force in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
At the DTRA, Hunter works with other members of the Project Artemis team to hunt terrorists, especially those engaging in bioterrorism, before they can act.
Janelle Turnbull (“Janie”)
Janelle Turnbull is in her late twenties and single. Mac describes her as perky, but she is very serious about her career. Janie works for the CDC as a CEFO, Career Epidemiology Field Officer. Janie was educated as a veterinarian which attracted her to the CDC to study zoonotic infectious diseases. She currently lives in Atlanta. Her parents are still living, as is her younger sister, a student at Georgia Tech.
Major General Barbara Stinchcomb Hagan (“Barb”)
Mac’s mother and married to Thomas Hagan, her husband of forty years. The couple lives in Coos Bay, Oregon. Barb is in her early sixties and in good health.
She is a retired medical doctor who began her career at Denver Health where she met Tommy. After they were married, Mac was born and soon thereafter, Barb joined the United States Army. After several years of service, Barb rose through the ranks of USAMRIID, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases until she became Commanding General stationed at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
During the Ebola crisis, Barb became a political pawn and scapegoat for the current administration and the media. She was forced out of her post and retired.
Thomas Hagan (“Tommy”)
Mac’s father, Tommy, is a retired high school chemistry teacher. He spends his day gardening and tinkering around the house. He loves to hunt, fish, and train for the senior triathlete competition when he turns sixty years old. Tommy is a prankster and a jokester.
Supporting Characters of Importance:
President Tomas Garcia – In his final year of his first term, currently running for re-election. Indirectly responsible for the termination of General Barbara Hagan from her post at USAMRIID. Enjoys his brandy. Close friends with his Chief of Staff, Andrew Morse.
Chief of Staff Andrew Morse – Right-arm and close confidant of President Tomas Garcia. Has a unique ability to manipulate and keep the President on message.
Donald Baggett – Former accountant and political appointee of the President charged with cutting the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is constantly at odds with Mac, who refers to him, privately, of course, as D-Bag, short for douche bag, due to his constant unwanted advances toward her.
Doctor Kwame Okoli – Native Nigerian who battled Ebola in Africa. He is curr
ently on staff at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
USAF Master Sergeant Scott Jablonik – coordinator of Project Artemis within the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Hunter’s immediate superior.
Ali Hassan – Son of Abu Ali Hassan, a senior leader on the Islamic State Leadership Council. Ali Hassan is the mastermind behind the bioterror plot.
Doc Cooley – General practitioner in Breckenridge, Colorado who befriended the Hagans. He makes a living as a doctor but made his fortune as a poker player. Now he’s a central figure in the fight to protect Breckenridge from the plague, and others.
Primary Scene Locations
Denver, Colorado – largest city in Colorado.
Fort Collins, Colorado – located an hour north of Denver. It is the location of the DTRA/CIA laboratory formerly operated by the CDC.
Breckenridge, Colorado – known as a ski resort destination. Population during the summer is just over four thousand residents. The population grows to nearly twenty thousand when the tourists and skiers begin to arrive with the first major snowfall.
Quandary Peak – A 14er, terminology for a Rocky Mountain peak in excess of fourteen thousand feet. The Hagans have a second home just below the treeline near Blue Lakes at the base of Quandary Peak.
Cheyenne Mountain – location of NORAD and the hideaway for the President as part of Continuity of Government.
Secondary Scene Locations
Guatemala – Location of the initial outbreak was in the jungle near the small town of El Naranjo. Mac and Janie begin their investigation when they meet the mysterious operative with the DTRA—Hunter. The CDC has a regional office in Guatemala City, about a mile from the United States Embassy.