Pathogen

By George Ross

A luxurious cruise ship is found grounded with all aboard dead. A frantic search for the cause sets off international repercussions as a horrific sixty year old secret is revealed. The discovery of the source is only the beginning of clouded history of two multi-nation corporations and their involvement with the governments they support.
To protect their interests and the secrets they have been hiding for over half a century,the corporations must stop the investigators before the truth becomes public.

• Language: English
• Publisher: George Ross
• Release date: Aug 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9780988138315

George Ross

I live in a small village in New Brunswick with my partner and best friend. We spend a lot of time enjoying our home, travelling and reading. I am retired after spending most of my career working as an engineer involved in many projects from retrofitting gas processing facilities to inspecting the refurbishment of a nuclear generating station. I began writing 8 years ago as a hobby and enjoy taking historical accounts and building a story around them. I am as factual as possible without risking legal action. I have been rejected by numerous publishers, however, thanks to Smashwords, I am getting my stories out. My desire is to entertain. So enjoy. George Ross

Book preview

Pathogen

A Novel by George M Ross

Copyright 2012 George Ross

Smashwords Edition

As the United States awoke to the shock that Pearl Harbor had been attacked by the Japanese on December 1941, they were unaware of a deadlier plot unfolding close to the Continental States. It would be more than 60 years later that cruel twist of fate would bring the details of an unimaginable terror plot to light. It was now up to the best minds to trace the origin of a deadly strain of bacteria and determine who or what is to blame for its appearance on a modern cruise ship. The search uncovers the history of a horrific plan by a sadistic military leader to annihilate the American enemy in their own country, the United States. The search also reveals a post war American connection, leading to the government. Now those hunting for the truth behind the mystery become the hunted and must stay ahead of the people who have the resources and power of the US Government and the determination to silence those who are getting too close to a secret which must never be made public.

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ISBN 978-0-9881383-1-5

PROLOGUE

August 19th 1940 Harbin China

As he pulled the heavy door open, General Imo Nagashi was assaulted with the foulest smell he had ever encountered. He choked back a wave of nausea, fighting to maintain his balance and some semblance of authority as the ranking member of the Japanese Imperial Army. He had been ordered by the Emperor to verify the progress and viability of the tests being carried out in this highly guarded, secret military installation. Nagashi brushed off attempted assistance from his aide, Lieutenant Jino Hanaka, who also looked as though he would lose control of his stomach contents any moment. Slowly, as he gained some control, Nagashi followed his guide, who seemed oblivious to the putrescence which clung to their clothes and clogged his airway. Acting as though none of this bothered him, Nagashi glanced at the rows of steel enclosures, looking like very large bird cages, and tried not to think of what those inside the cages were enduring. Each pen contained a person, or what had been a person, each in various stages of decomposition although none were dead, but rather writhing agony as some organism ate away their life forces.

Nagashi was unconscious to the monologue spewing from the guide who gestured at each cage as he rambled about the experiment responsible for the creature behind the metal bars. Nodding while trying not to show his disgust and horror at what he was witnessing, Nagashi indicated with a wave of his arm that he had seem enough. Exiting this building, Nagashi drew a deep breath of clean fresh air from outside in the warm damp atmosphere. He thought he would never remove the foul stench that clung to every pore of his body no matter how hard he scrubbed his body with soap and disinfectant.

Their guide took the two army men to a smaller building which served as an office and lab complex.

Even here Nagashi could still smell and taste the foulness, and realized that it was the odour which clung to the guide, who was probably immune to the stench. After giving a brief description of what they had just witnessed, the guide brought the two men to a small, well equipped lab where they were introduced to another lab person. The scientist again gave them a spiel about what and why the Japanese military were experimenting with at this facility, named simply Unit-731, and why it was so important to the Imperial Nation of Japan, that they succeed.

At the end of the tour, Nagashi was given the culmination of years of experimenting, all packed in numerous crates, awaiting transfer to the homeland.

Several hours later the crates were loaded aboard a heavy Mitsubishi medium rage bomber, stripped of all its armaments, in preparation for their journey to the island of Japan.

September 18th 1941, Fukuoka Japan, Kuyusho University.

Trying to keep his hands from shaking too badly, Doctor Tonei Tonoka slowly withdrew the slim glass tubes from the cabinet near the far wall of the quarantine lab. There were about ten centimetres long and eighteen millimetres in diameter, each. The entire complex was hermetically sealed to prevent the escape of any air or substances from the research centre. Behind the glassed in enclosure stood Shiro Ishai a military officer of the Japanese Imperial Army and a medical doctor. Ishai watched as the creation of his years of labour cultivating some of the most deadly strains of bacteria known to man were about to be tested on a scale even he could not have imagined.

He had field tested many of the strains during the last nine years, beginning in the cold climate of Manchuria and the progressing to the warmer climes of the Philippines and Indonesia. He had a great variety of people to choose from after Japan invaded China, and this huge complex was built outside of Harbin. Here in this sprawling collection of labs and containment areas, Ishai was able to spread his work out and have more accurate test results, results which help bring to the point he was at today. He watched with interest as the younger doctor carefully removed the glass tubes of various coloured liquids from their holding containers and placed them in insulated cartons, for their journey to Yokosuka.

Within two hours the young doctor and several assistants were on their way, in a small military transport plane, to the seaport with their cargo. Four hours and twelve minutes later they came into view of the harbour and couldn’t believe the activity. For as far as they could see were ships of every shape and size. Tonoka estimated there were well over a hundred, including several large air craft carriers, light cruisers, two large battleships and dozens more, tenders, fuel ships, munitions carriers. There were even a few submarines tied to the docks.

The area was alive with hundreds of personnel who were loading supplies from the docks to the many ships moored in the harbour. The carrier decks were loaded with what seemed like hundreds of Mitsubishi Zeros, and tenders scrambling around the torpedo-bomber planes, like ants at a picnic.

The plane landed at a nearby strip and as the passengers disembarked where they were met by a group of soldiers who unloaded the cargo from the plane and carefully placed them in the back of the trucks, noting the markings warning not to drop or damage the crates. They drove the two hundred metres to the dock, slowly avoiding the rough spots on the compacted dirt road, as instructed by Tonoka.

Once they reached the area, the crates were immediately taken by the waiting naval personnel and ferried out to one of the large sub tenders, Tsurugizaki, anchored about a kilometre away from the rest of the fleet.

Four days later, the first of the vessels weighed anchor and headed out of the harbour soon followed by many others, in succession. There were a total over thirty-eight ships beginning their long voyage which would take it within five hundred kilometres of the American bases at Pearl Harbour and into the pages of history.

Chapter I

December 3rd 1941 was a cool dreary night as Captain Hiro Mamoto peered into the gloom of the starless night as his ship, Tsurugizaki steamed at sixteen knots towards the Hawaiian Islands. He was preparing to break away from the convoy, which included the pride of the Japanese Navy. Among them, the Agaki, along with other aircraft carriers Kaga, Hiryo, Soryu, Zuikagu and Shokaku, the support cruisers, battleship and numerous fuel and supply ships attached to the group.

As he prepared to leave, Mamoto knew he would be on his own to complete his mission. There was absolutely no radio transmissions of any sort, during night time running. Tiny line of sight illumination was used to keep the ships of the convoy far enough apart to avoid stability problems from the wakes of the huge carriers on the smaller ships.

Using the internal voice communication system, Mamoto had the bridge pilot begin changing course from one-zero-three to their new heading of zero-seven-zero.

As she changed course the Tsurugizaki’s wake changed to a brilliant blue-green hue. Phosphorescent plankton were churned up by the massive prop wash from the two large screws of the almost two hundred and twenty metre ship.

Thirty-nine hours later, cruising at a constant twenty knots, the Tsurugizaki was less than one hundred miles off the coast North America. The ship again changed course to one-eight-nine, and began running on a parallel line with the American coastline.

Second Lieutenant Naganu Sunaki went below decks to inspect the five HA-19 mini subs stored on cradles in the belly of the huge sub tender. The dull black subs were nine metres long, with a short thirty-centimetre diameter nozzle welded on top. This served as the portal for getting in and out of the vessel which was about one and a half metres in diameter. It was powered by a small DC electric motor and with its battery packs fully charged would give the subs a range of about two hundred and fifty kilometres at fifteen kilometres an hour, just enough power to reach the American shore. The Tsurugizaki, meanwhile would be steaming for the North Pacific once the subs had been deployed. Each sub pilot was a volunteer, a man who was willing to sacrifice his life in exchange for the anticipated victory this brazen attack on American soil would have for the homeland. These brave kamikaze warriors sincerely believed they would indeed help bring the Americans to their knees.

Capture by the enemy while carrying out their mission was not a fear held by these young warriors. They knew the weapons they had packed in the vessels around them would bring certain death to whoever came close to them and their subs. They had been told this by their glorious commander, and although they were never told what the weapon was, they devoutly believed their leaders.

Sixteen hours later the Tsurugizaki slowed to four knots and with nightfall blanketing their action came to within seventy-five kilometres of the southern tip of Washington State.

Since no one, especially the Americans would even dream of the Japanese planning an attack on the continental States, Mamoto felt fairly confident they would accomplish the mission as planned.

The sub pilots had maps of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and once there would wait until dark using the lights of Seattle and Tacoma to guide them to their intended targets.

The subs were small enough as to be almost invisible when cruising on the surface. They were, however, prone to flooding in high swells, and had to be wary of sudden high winds and impending storms.

The pilots made final checks of the rudimentary navigation systems they had, which included a magnetic compass, small waxed paper maps , a crude underwater speed and distance indicator and a battery life indicator. A walk around the little subs, checking the hatch, rudder and propeller, was also carried out. Noticeably missing was any food or survival gear. Packed in the cramped space of each submarine were twelve waxed, leather quivers, each containing fifty vials of various coloured liquids.

A few hours later, the men, each given the ceremonial drink of Sake and having the Rising Sun bandanna wrapped around their foreheads settled in their respective subs, preparing for the launch which would make them infamous.

The gaping mouth opened in the aft of the Tsurugizaki and slowly each sub, in turn, swam silently away from its mother, heading for the shores of the United States.

Mamoto watched for a few minutes until the wakes disappeared in the darkness and silently wished each man good mission. He turned and headed back to the bridge and directed his lieutenant to change course and begin the trip back to meet with his fleet somewhere in the North Pacific.

Sansii Sakunu felt the impact through his whole body as the sub hit the water and then realized how absolutely alone he was. Alone, except for the millions of living organisms sharing his tiny space in the vessel.

According to his calculations, he had another one hundred and twenty five kilometres and fifteen hours to go; this schedule would bring him to within two kilometres of the Washington State coastline where he would again wait for dark to finish his mission.

His next scheduled stop was in five hours, which seemed like a lifetime away.

While concentrating on his mission consumed most of his time, Sakunu began thinking about what he was actually doing right now. At just barely eighteen years old, Sakunu had known a good life, with parents, two sisters and an older brother in a loving, tightly knit family. Very patriotic, Sakunu’s father had been a teacher who had volunteered to teach young recruits the American language in preparation for the day the Japanese begin implanting their agents into the United States, once victorious in Asia. Sansii had been one of his best students, mastering the American English flawlessly, prior to enlisting in the Imperial Navy. At first Sakunu had a problem, his mother was European, so Sansii did not have the true Japanese profile, his hair was not black and his facial features were more Caucasian than Oriental. Although the Navy was hesitant at first to enlist someone not of pure Japanese lineage, they relented and allowed him in. Perhaps because of his mixed blood, Sakunu was chosen as a ‘volunteer’ for the Pearl Harbour mission.

Now, however, he was finished after this mission, which required his scuttling the craft in shallow water, inside the harbour bordering Seattle and Tacoma and detonating the enclosed explosives to complete the task. Although he was never told what was in the glass containers, he did suspect it must be terribly lethal judging by the way the officers gave the handlers a wide berth as they brought the substance on board the ship and the way the handlers placed them so gingerly in each midget sub.

The more he pondered his situation the more he convinced himself that the reasoning behind his suicide mission was flawed. As he played the scenario over and over again, he reasoned that it would make greater sense if he were to remain alive and witness the effects of his mission and report back to the homeland, so they could evaluate the project.

Yes, he said aloud, I can see the heroic welcome when I finally get back to the homeland, as a large smile spread across his face, he had finally come up with a reason why he should not end his life. Now his whole demeanour changed. Rather than fearing the end of the trip, which previously meant his death, he now looked forward to his new self initiated mission.

When he figured he had lingered a little longer than the prescribed fifteen minutes, Sakunu scrunched back down into his small cavity of space. This time he was extra vigilant of the proximity of the quivers filled with vials round him. He did not want an accident now to end his newly formulated goal.

Eleven hours later, Sakunu looked from his standing position in the sub as it gently bobbed on the surface of the nearly swell free waters of Strait of Juan de Fuca. From here he could see the lights of the city. He wasn’t quite sure whether it was Seattle or Tacoma, but regardless, both were targets, so it didn’t really matter where he beached.

His plan had been devised during the last six hours of his journey. He would get as close to the ship piers as possible, and wait for a vessel to hit and sink the sub with its cargo aboard. The impact should trigger the explosion, and if not, at the very least, shatter most of the vials. The substances will be dispersed into the harbour to put into effect the final phase of his mission. Again he reasoned that his death would serve no purpose, so his plan was to go ahead with what he had decided. Yes that should work, he thought smiling. It’s a lot better than sacrificing myself, when I can do so much more alive.

Sakunu’s plan had been to jump from the sub, while it was running at idle, about five hundred metres from the lines of piers. He hoped it would slowly glide into the path of one of the many ships traversing the harbour. Even if a ship didn’t strike it, the sub would ground in shallow water and stay there until hit by a keel or rudder of a bigger ship.

As he approached the piers Sakunu stopped and stood again. He was very close, less than half of a kilometre from shore. It was now time to put his plan into action. He stopped the sub’s motor and forced some of the quivers gently under the rudder pedals and wrapped his now useless bandanna around the steering column. He then removed most of his uniform, keeping only his shorts and T-shirt. He emptied one of the leather quivers, intending to use it to store his few possessions once he hit the water, and for the first time saw their contents as he dumped them over the floor of the sub. In the dim light he saw very many, small glass, cigar-like tubes rolling towards the low point in the belly of the craft. He picked one up and brought it close to the dim light coming from the instrument panel. Although he could not discern the colour or contents, it was evident that it was some type of liquid, about ten to fifteen millilitres each, he guessed. Wondering what kind of weapon they were, he finished emptying the holder and quickly stuffed his possessions into the empty leather container.

Once he was ready, Sakunu started