by Ricky Sides
***
“You’re absolutely certain of these results?” asked Jim.
“Yes,” Maggie confirmed. “Yesterday, I injected the test rats with contaminated blood taken from the dead rats. I also injected ten control animals that had not received the vaccine. This morning, the ten control specimens were all dead, but the thirty-two test subjects that had received the vaccine were alive and healthy. Blood tests showed that the antibodies in the rats, developed by the vaccine, had wiped out all traces of the disease. There was absolutely no trace of the disease in their bloodstream.”
“I’m not sure I understand why the control group died overnight,” Jim said. “That’s faster than humans die from exposure.”
“Oh, that’s because I injected them with a massive dose of the contaminated blood, but it was the exact same dosage as the test group received.”
“Then the test is indisputably valid?” Jim queried.
“It is, Admiral. It’s not uncommon to utilize that procedure in such cases,” Maggie confirmed.
“Thank you, Doctor. Your discovery has just offered hope for millions of your fellow Americans,” Jim stated.
“And doomed six hundred thousand to a horrible death,” Maggie stated bitterly.
“They would have died anyway, Doctor. I assure you that we will inform those lucky enough to receive the vaccine of the risks. No adult will take it without first knowing there is a twenty percent chance that they will contract the disease and die as a result.”
“Lucky, sir? I hardly think that’s the right word to use regarding this vaccine.”
“Then consider this, Doctor. As best we can tell before this plague hit us, we had approximately seventy million people residing in the United States. At least a million people have died already. There are three million doses of the vaccine available for a population of sixty-nine million. We cannot produce more. The British may be able to help, but will they? We intend to ask them. Meanwhile, we have to go on the assumption that we will receive no more vaccine and begin distributing it. We know from the experience of New Orleans that it will take time for the vaccine to work, so placing it in a city that is already contaminated almost guarantees a waste of the vaccine. That’s hard to justify, given the situation with the limited supply. Therefore, after this meeting, Patricia and Pol will input several different distribution plans into the models and see which gives the biggest yield in saved lives. Even we don’t know who will get the opportunity to take the vaccine yet. So yes, Doctor, despite the risk, I use the term lucky.”
“When you put it that way, I get what you’re saying,” Maggie stated.
“Excuse me, Doctor. I have to go and break the news to Ramon. I’m afraid we have insufficient supplies of the vaccine to help Cuba. Then I have to try to contact Admiral Banes and ask for the help of the British.”
When Jim left the room, Maggie said, “He seems angry. I didn’t mean to make him mad.”
“It’s not you. It’s this damned situation. He doesn’t like playing god, and that’s just about what it comes down to when you think about it,” Tim explained. He added, “He also doesn’t like having to break his word to Ramon, although, technically, he isn’t. Ramon’s request was for vaccine once we had a sufficient quantity for our needs. Still, it bothers Jim to have to turn a friend down when he knows it will lead to loss of life in Cuba.”
“Maybe it won’t make it to Cuba,” Maggie said hopefully.
“It’s already present on the western end of Cuba,” Tim stated, causing Pol to turn his head and stare at him. “The word came in just before you arrived from the test lab. Ramon asked for two hundred thousand doses during the conversation. Officially, we should have voted on it, but Jim’s taking on the responsibility himself.”
“We should have voted,” Pol protested.
“I know, but the vote would have changed nothing. I’d have voted with him to give it to the Americans we can save.”
“As would I, my friend. But now, Jim must shoulder the burden alone.”
“And we even let him go to tell the man by himself,” said Tim rising. “Excuse me, everyone.”
“I will accompany you, my friend.”
***
“I’m truly sorry, Ramon,” Jim was saying as Tim and Pol arrived. “But we have just confirmed the count. We have only three million doses of the vaccine for our own population.”
“I understand, Jim. I really do. Such a great loss of life is afflicting your country, and there isn’t much you can do for your own people. Do you have any advice that could help us save as many as possible?”
“Ramon, these are desperate times. You won’t like my advice, but yes. I can tell you how to save most of your people.”
“As you say, these are desperate times. I am a desperate man. Please tell me what I must do that the Cuban civilization does not disappear from the face of the earth as did those of the Mayan and Aztec people.”
“You say that the western end of the island is the extent of the contamination as of now, correct?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Seal it off. Don’t let anyone in or out of the affected area. Kill any who attempt to cross your line if you have to, but stop them,” Jim advised.
“That would be impossible. That area is too large. We lack the manpower to adequately seal the region.”
“But the people who are infected are currently confined to one location there. Is that correct?” Jim asked.
“It is.”
“How many people would you estimate live there?”
“Around seven hundred,” Ramon responded. His voice sounded troubled. “I hope you aren’t going to suggest what I fear you are thinking.”
“I wish I didn’t have to, but the sad truth of the matter is, it’s going to come down to you deciding who to save. You can sacrifice those seven hundred in order to save the rest, or you can do nothing and lose two hundred thousand.”
“Senor, you are a hard man,” Ramon protested.
To the surprise of everyone in the room who was listening to the conversation, Jim laughed.
“I am glad you find my predicament amusing,” Ramon stated, his voice was stiff and stilted with anger.
“I’m not laughing at your predicament. I’m laughing at what you said. I wish you were right, Ramon. I wish to God you were right. I wish I was hard enough not to worry about what I’m about to have to do to my countrymen. I wish to God I had your problem instead of my own. You are worried about having to kill seven hundred of yours to save two hundred thousand. I have to let sixty six million die to try to save three million. Six hundred thousand of that three million will die when they take the vaccine. So yeah, Ramon. What you said about me being a hard man was funny. I wish to God I was hard enough to do what I have to do without it bothering me every day for the rest of my life.”
A dead silence followed Jim’s monologue. Then Ramon spoke with compassion evident in his voice as he said, “My God, Jim. I have been so worried, so caught up in our problems that I had not stopped to think what this must mean to you American peacekeepers. Forgive me my harsh words, my friend. You who have befriended the Cuban people so much in the past deserve our compassion and not our disdain.”
“There’s nothing to forgive. We all are faced with terrible choices. But I will bear my burdens. If you love your people, then you must bear yours. Will your men obey you if you order an attack on the stricken city?”
“Only time will tell the truth of that matter, but I think they will if they know the whole truth.”
“Patricia, send Ramon the package,” Jim ordered.
“Yes, Admiral,” she responded.
“Ramon, we are sending you video surveillance shot by various sources. There is an hour of footage. I suggest you watch it. If your men are hesitant, take them to a room where they can see it too. Tell them that this is what they are facing if the disease is not stopped.”
“I will view your evidence and then make a decision,” Ramon pr
omised.
“May God give you the strength you need to get through this crisis. I have to go now. I have preparations to make. I will try to get the British to promise us more vaccine. If they agree, then I can have what you need in Cuba tomorrow. But know this. If you use the vaccine, forty thousand will die, so it is better that you kill seven hundred now, and use the vaccine only as a last resort.”
“I understand, Jim. God be with you.”
Jim signaled for Patricia to cut the link to the Havana.
Chapter 13
In Havana Cuba, Ramon called a conference with the base commander and pilots of the Cuban peacekeepers. His strike force team waited in the ship guarding it. When the meeting opened, he said, “I have called you here for this meeting to discuss the plague that is now afflicting the Americans. It is now here in Cuba as well on the far western tip of our island. But first, you need to see what is happening in America for it will soon be happening here as well.” Ramon nodded and someone turned down the lights. Then he activated a machine that started a recording of what was transpiring in America. The recording was displayed on a large flat screen television.
The first scene depicted was New Orleans. Taken the previous month, it depicted a busy and energetic city. Everywhere you looked in the scenes, people were going about their daily business. Many walked or rode bicycles down the streets. Then the scene changed to footage that is more recent. The Cubans saw burned bodies in the streets. Here and there, rats gnawed at the bodies. There were scenes depicting people moaning pitiably as they lay in their own bloody vomit while scores of people crossed the street to avoid them. Next were massive funeral pyres with more bodies being dumped onto the piles.
That segment ended with a piece of footage of men dragging an elderly sick man from his home. He was forced to kneel down in the street. Then, a clear plastic bag was slipped over his head and taped tightly closed around his neck. They saw the man gasping for air. The inside of the bag grew opaque with the fog of his breath. Finally, they saw the bag suck back in toward his mouth, the concave shape of it providing mute testimony to them that he had taken his last breath. Fuel was poured over the body and someone threw a lit rag onto it.
The scene changed again. Once more, they saw a large healthy city, this time the vantage was from hundreds of feet in the air. Then they saw that same quarter, from almost exactly the same relative perspective, only this time, there was no city. Everything they had just seen had been burned to the ground. A moment later, the two pieces of footage were run side by side.
Then in rapid succession, they saw bodies in different cities that were named in the captions as were the dates the film was shot. There were many such scenes. Nineteen cities were represented.
Los Angeles was next. There was video footage of people being dragged from their houses by desperate men who killed them and set their bodies on fire. Other scenes depicted mass rioting in the streets in which no one was safe. Still others featured masked men breaking into homes along a residential street and emerging with food and clothing. In one scene, a young woman was fighting with the men who were taking her food. They cut her throat in front of her two children.
One by one, the scenes of the mass violence and looting that was occurring in Los Angeles were depicted. There seemed no end to it. Then they saw peacekeepers trying to help people whose homes were being burned. More than one burning body lurched horribly from the burning structures in a vain effort to escape the tormenting flames that were consuming his body.
Next, they saw someone throw a brick and hit a peacekeeper in the head. The peacekeepers picked up the body and tried to flee, but more men in the crowd began to hurl bricks. When another peacekeeper went down, another member of the team beside the downed man fired his rifle and killed two of the closest men who were hurling the stones.
Next, they saw a scene with a large truck smashing through an electric fence. Dozen of rioters dropped to the ground and didn’t get up. The crowd surged through the break in the fence and fell upon the guards who were hopelessly outnumbered. The rioters savagely beat the men to death. Still more of them poured into the fence and they broke inside the large brick structure. Soon, they came out with boxes of items. When those emerging slowed to a trickle, Molotov cocktails were hurled inside.
“This was our last and best hope,” Patricia’s voiceover said in Spanish. She then explained that the structure was the last remaining vaccine manufacturing facility in America.
To conclude the video, there were scenes of people being treated and eventually dying inside a sanitary hospital environment. The lesions were clearly visible, as was the bloody vomit.
When the video ended, Ramon said, “This is what has been happening in America the past few weeks. I fear that it is a prelude to what is going to happen in Cuba unless we prevent it.”
“What do we do, Ramon?” asked a man in the front row.
“That is the question I asked of Jim Wilison, I did not like his answer. You will not like his answer either. But if Cuba is to survive, we must contemplate his advice tonight.”
“What was his advice, Ramon,” the same man asked impatiently.
“We must attack and destroy the infected city. Not a man, woman, or child can be permitted to escape. Then we must burn the city. We must do this from the air to prevent infection.”
“I am a peacekeeper. I swore an oath to protect the weak and innocent. Now you tell me that I must kill them without mercy, even though many will be healthy?”
“Most may well be healthy, but if we are to save the many, the few must die.”
“What of the vaccine, Ramon?” shouted a man angrily. “Will they not share this life saving drug with us?”
“They have seventy million people in their country. Well, they estimate a million have died already, so it is sixty-nine million. Yet, they have only three million doses. No, my friend, they will not share with us. They cannot. They tried to get more from the British with whom they shared the knowledge of the vaccine, but the British will not have the ability to make the drug for weeks to come. But even if I knew the Americans could bring us this vaccine tonight, I would still ask you to consider this thing I ask of you.”
“Why, Ramon? Have you lost your mind?!” asked the base commander angrily.
“Not yet, my friend, but before this thing is over I may wish I had.”
“Then why would you suggest we do what you ask even if we had vaccine?”
“The vaccine is not perfect. Twenty percent of the people who take it will contract the disease. It will kill them. That means that if we give it to our population, at best forty thousand will die. If those who contract it from the vaccine contaminate others, then that number will be much higher. If we had the vaccine, the deaths of seven hundred would still be better than using it.”
“Not if you are one of the innocent seven hundred who must die,” shouted another man.
“I will not do this thing alone,” Ramon said simply. “We can do nothing. In that case we will surely see what is happening in America come to pass here in the streets of Havana, or we can do this thing and pray that we do it right. Those are the two options facing us, and that, my brothers, is the sad truth.”
“There is another option,” the base commander stated.
“Then let us hear it for I would not do this thing if it can be avoided,” Ramon stated.
“Cabo de San Antonio is located on the coast. Your ship and the fighters can hover just beyond the city and kill only those who try to leave. You can warn them to stay inside their homes for seven days. By then, the sick will have died and the remaining people can leave the city in an orderly fashion”
“Yes,” said another man Ramon recognized as the base commander’s second in command. “That is preferable to murdering all of those people.”
“That will not work,” one of the fighter pilots said in a calm voice. “Did you not see the rats in the film?”
“What do rats have to do with this?” asked the bas
e commander.
“Do you not remember your history? Rats carry fleas that bite humans. They contributed to the black death and bubonic plagues,” the pilot accurately stated. Ramon was grateful that the man had spoken of the problem. To that point, he had been the only one to speak in favor of the mission, and had he been forced to point out the obvious flaws in the plan, it would seem that he was just adamant to get things done his way.
Another pilot spoke up then, saying, “You forget the other issues involved. The infection must have come from Mexico, west of Cuba. That means someone traveled by sea to the region. There are thirty fighters. It would take at least ten even to attempt to prevent the people from fleeing the city. If we stay in position eight hours a day it would take all of us to cover that region.”
“Then you can do it?” one of the base officers asked.
“Yes, but who will patrol offshore to watch for more refugees carrying the plague? Who will watch our southern beaches to ensure no one from Central America lands with it? But most of all, why do you think it is even possible for so few men to prevent anyone from fleeing the city? I could easily slip through such an air defense, as could you. We all could.”
“I could do it in the daylight, but would wait for night so that it would be cooler,” affirmed one of the men. Ramon noted that he was a peacekeeper assigned to the base. He was glad to see that it wasn’t going to come down to a division between the air force and the ground forces.
The discussion went on for another twenty minutes, and then they held a vote. The plan to attack Cabo de San Antonio was defeated. Despite the fact that it meant Cuba now faced a future where the prospects of survival were very dim Ramon left the meeting relieved that he wouldn’t have to carry out the dreadful plan. He had advocated the plan because, intellectually, he understood that it was the best way to ensure that the Cuban people survived this crisis. Although, in his heart, he couldn’t help but compare himself to the men who had placed the bag over the old man’s head in the film. If the Cuban peacekeepers had done what was needed, the distinction between them and such men became blurred.