Pandemic Pandemonium

By Patricia D'Costa

A science prodigy. A genetically enhanced virus. A global pandemic. A family's desperate fight.

 

Recently appointed as Director of the Institute of Virology, Mia's elation is short-lived when news of a mysterious virus spreading indiscriminately across the globe breaks. All signs point to a virus that potentially mutated in the institute's laboratory. She is desperate for answers, but soon discovers the pandemic is only part of a sinister equation.

 

Danger looms at every turn while the truth remains in the shadows. When danger hits close to home, Mia will need more than her brains to survive. She must fight like never before to reunite her family and protect the world from a brutal death.

 

Unbeknownst to her, the key to saving the world lies in the hands of a child—one time and distance prevent her from reaching.

 

Will her desperate fight to save the world succeed, or will the malicious evildoers continue their reign of terror and hold the world at ransom indefinitely?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patricia D'Costa
• Release date: Dec 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393779537

Book preview

BOOK ONE

THE NEXUS TRILOGY

PANDEMIC PANDEMONIUM

Patricia D’Costa

Pandemic Pandemonium

Copyright © 2020 Patricia D’Costa

Cover art by Mark D’Costa

Cover design by Anurita Argal Acharya

Patricia D’Costa asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, print, photocopying, scanning or recording without permission in writing from the author, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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DISCLAIMER

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

For my family, you mean the world to me

and for the frontline workers who put their lives on the line each day so we can live our dreams.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my husband, Fahad without whom this novel would have been completed pre-pandemic.

Joking aside, thank you for your infinite patience and encouragement. I would never have succeeded in writing this book without your everlasting love, jokes and cups of hot chocolate.

I am forever grateful to my mom, Joanna. From reading early drafts to patiently editing the novel through endless versions, you made the difficult parts easy. You are the wind beneath my wings.

Mark, my little brother, thank you for being my partner in crime through this entire endeavor. This book is as much yours as it is mine (but instead of your name on the cover, all you get are these few words). You never cease to amaze me from creating the cover art to the book trailer. You are one talented dude!

A special thanks to my sister Michelle for reading the earliest version of the novel and not having a good laugh at my expense. I adore you for nudging me to never give up. Thank you for also being a sport in modelling for the lead character. You inspire me every day and in every way.

Nisho thank you for being my photographer and reviewing the novel with a fine-tooth comb. You see things in a uniquely wonderful way that I value more than you will ever know.

Thank you to my dad, Joe for listening to me narrate a story while we made supper and encouraging me to put it down on paper. This novel would not exist if you did not suggest I take a leap of faith into the unknown.

To my dear friend, Anurita for always being the one I can turn to when crazy ideas pop up in my head. Thank you for everything from designing the book cover to reading the earliest drafts. You are the epitome of creativity at its best.

Thank you to Jeff, my editor. We never worked together before this novel but you just got me right from the get-go.

Finally, I would like to thank my beta readers Aneesa, Neethena, Junaid, Nausheen and Rummana. Each one of you helped me improve the novel with your thoughtful suggestions and ideas. I cannot thank you enough for the time and effort you took to make the novel the best it can be. The world is a better place because of people like you who uplift those who try. Thank you for always being there for me.

Contents

ONE: A WONDERFUL WORLD

TWO: STILL WATERS RUN DEEP

THREE: CLOSE CALL

FOUR: LOST IDENTITY

FIVE: REVELATIONS GALORE

SIX: CAN’T CATCH A BREAK

SEVEN: MASTER’S WORLD

EIGHT: NEAR MISSES

NINE: A SHARED LOAD IS A LOAD SHED

TEN: ENEMY UNKNOWN

ELEVEN: EYE OF THE STORM

TWELVE: EXPOSÉ

ONE

A WONDERFUL WORLD

Year 2034

Hanoi, Vietnam

U

nder the hail of ceaseless gunfire, she ran down a dark, musty alley, wondering whether tonight was the night she would find the answers she was desperately seeking. It had been a long time, too long. But if she found Mia tonight, it would all have been worth it. She would know everything. She would be whole.

She saw the glow of a distant flashlight and slipped behind an overflowing dumpster, holding back the urge to throw up from the stench emanating from rotten garbage. She took a slow breath, closed her eyes and listened intently, trying to stay calm. Everything seemed to have slowed down around her. She could hear her heartbeat, the sound of sewer rats squealing as they fought over dinner in the dumpster. She could hear the buzz of distant traffic, the rapid footsteps approaching her now. Still, she tried to remain calm, willing herself to remember her training, everything the master had taught her. She closed her eyes, listening, waiting. Mia’s beautiful face floated before her, the warm smile she knew so well in childhood. When she opened her eyes, they were piercing and green, the color of emerald. She could see everything clearly as if with night-vision glasses. She saw them before they did her. There was a steel to her nerves now and she was ready.

She sidled to the edge of the dumpster and peeped at the men. They were moving in tandem, their backs to each other in a triangular block, guns at the ready to shoot in every direction. She didn’t want to hurt them. There had been too many lives lost already. But they were advancing steadily, closing in on her. She tossed a metal can lying near the dumpster in the opposite direction. All three men spun around to face the direction where the sound of metal on concrete came from. Two men ran off in that direction and disappeared around a corner. She spun into action, surprised by the swiftness of her movement. She approached one of the men, yanked at the handguard of his gun, backing it right into his chin. And then his forehead. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

She raced in the direction of the other two men and peeped around the corner. One man stood watch, the other advanced down the alley. When she tried to back away, her arm caught the wall, forcing a loose brick down. The man swirled around and opened fire. There was a ruthless edge to the men that made her realize that they had been given direction to kill her and anyone who stood in the way. The man pinned her to the wall with gunfire, shooting until he ran out. He was trying to change the clip when she approached him, a fleet-footed blur, and hit him square in the face, causing him to lose his footing. She elbowed him in the nose and then the chin. He stumbled to the ground, then tried to wriggle to his feet. She delivered a brutal head kick, knocking him out.

The last man was not to be seen. Where was he? She stepped back, looking around. Then there he was, gun in hand, his bullet missing her by a hairbreadth. She picked the empty rifle beside her and hauled it at the man, before launching her body at him, tackling him to the ground with precision. She tried to press her fingers into his eyes, but he was quick to dodge the attack. They scrambled for his gun a foot away, and somehow, she got ahold of it before he did. She hit him across the head with the back of the gun, striking him again and again. She raised it once more, purposefully, mustering all the strength in her fierce little frame, and brought it down, knocking the man out cold.

She tossed the gun to the ground like a scrap of filthy metal. She knew the master would be pleased if he could see her now, considering she had grown far from the defiant little girl she had once been. She ran further down the alley and disappeared into the shadows.

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Year 2019

Goa, India

Mia turned over in bed toward her bay window, and her lips curled up at the corners. Ever since she was a child, she loved the warmth she felt when the morning sun shone through her bedroom window. The day she’d been waiting for was finally upon her. That was right, Dr. Mia Dias was the brand-spanking-new director of the Institute of Virology, in China. She had applied for the job on a whim, never thought that a young doctor like herself, from India no less, would be selected. Although she was a rising star in her field, she felt indebted to her mentor, Dr. Ramanujam, for his recommendation. This was just short of her dream job, and she was ecstatic. It was unfortunate that the job required complete confidentiality, which meant that even her loving parents would never know where their choti betee—little daughter—had reached in her career.

It helped that the institute had approved for her mentor to know of her whereabouts, seeing that he was her trusted supporter right from medical school. Her mind flashed back to the day he had stood up for her when the college dean accused her of hacking exam papers. He didn’t even know whether she was innocent, but he put his reputation on the line for her. Through corporate politics and backstabbing colleagues, he had given her the confidence to excel and forge forward with her career. And then, all these years later, when the offer letter from the Institute of Virology arrived, Dr. Ramanujam was so proud and supportive of her. He treated her like a daughter, and she knew Rohan often showed a hint of jealousy at his father’s support for her career over his own son’s future. Then again, Rohan had tried to ride on his father’s coattails for far too long, and Mia did not regret pushing forward with her life and dreams without him.

Mia could hear her mother rustling up breakfast in the kitchen, and she knew her father was probably sipping his tulsi chai and reading the newspaper. She stretched as she climbed out of bed. She knew she would miss her teal wallpapered bedroom, the comforting sound of her parents in the other parts of the house, and her beautiful bay window overlooking the quiet beaches of Zalor, Goa.

She tossed a couple of knickknacks in her suitcase and glanced around the room to check if she had forgotten to pack anything. Her eyes fell on a picture on her wall. Drawn to the memories, she moved towards the picture, running her thumb across it, delicately. Beside it was another picture in which she held her neon surfboard, dressed in an electric yellow bathing suit. She always thought she’d end up being a professional surfer before she took a keen interest in science. It was all she thought of back then. Her sun-kissed skin appeared duskier in the picture, and all her time in the water had made her lean and agile. She had forgotten how short her brown hair used to be, compared to the one that fell over her shoulders now, lush and heavy. Her hazel brown eyes beamed from the photograph, confirming what her friends often told her: that she had a piercing gaze. Her fingers stopped where a long pinkish scar ran down her left thigh. She smiled as she traced it. Although painful at the time, it brought back fond memories.

The day it happened, she had arrived with her surfboard as usual, hepped up by her never-ending fascination with the ocean. The day was clear, and she remembered the warmth of the sun on her skin, the tingling of white sand under the soles of her feet. She tossed her surfboard into the crystalline waters and maneuvered her body, sailing over a breaking wave, and then another, until adrenalin was pumping through her body. She caught the next staggering wave and glided over it like she was one with the ocean. It was glorious. Then it wasn’t. Because in the next moment a sudden current crept under her, knocking her right off her board. She tumbled into the expansive ocean and the jagged edges of a large rock gashed her flesh.

Hours later, she held onto her mother’s hand, squeezing as the doctor treated her leg. She vowed never to surf again. A couple of months passed, and there she was again, the slender girl chasing a mighty wave with a scar that ran down the length of her left thigh. Mia learned that life is full of the unexpected. It’s a matter of jumping in with both feet irrespective of what life hands you. She was back to riding waves every morning shortly after her accident. Then came the award of science prodigy by the science community, and her pursuit of excellence in her field took priority over all else.

Now her days of surfing on the beach felt like a lifetime ago. Mia placed the picture in her suitcase, hoping that the photograph would serve to remind her of her roots if she ever felt lost in her busy new world.

She scurried around her bedroom, organizing the tiny desk where she used to burn the midnight oil over her medical books. She straightened the beanbags where she learned to play guitar, crushing on her young guitar teacher instead of concentrating on the cords. She placed her video game consoles in a drawer, smiled as she remembered her friends, how they all huddled in the nook by the window until the wee hours of the morning, engrossed in their video games. On her way out of her bedroom, she turned and gave the room a final glance, this place she shared her dreams and childhood with.

Mia walked into the living room and was shocked to see a cake on the coffee table and her parents beside it. Mother wiped a tear from her eye.

Surprise! they both squealed in delight. On the cake, it said, Congratulations! Frankfurt’s gain is India’s loss. Mia’s heart sank remembering the lie she had to tell her parents. They had to believe that she was somewhere in the world other than China, and Frankfurt was the first place that popped into her mind, so she went with it. Her flights were booked, intentionally diverting through Frankfurt to avoid any trails. Mia thought it was an excessive precaution on the part of her new employer. Then again, she had never flown to Germany before and was excited for the quick trip halfway around the world, only to be brought closer to home via a diverting flight.

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Two days later

Hubei, China

Welcome! Dr. Dias, Dr. Li Wei said to Mia. They were standing in front of the Institute of Virology, a cluster of buildings spread over acres of lush landscape. I’m Dr. Li Wei. I’ve been with the Institute for the last four years as a senior virology specialist. We are so happy to have you on board. He was a tall lean man with dashing features, eyes that always turned up with glee. He had a friendly demeanor and a warm smile. He seemed to find a way to make a joke out of everything. Mia was never one to go by first impressions, but she knew right away that she would get along well with Dr. Wei. She never liked those stereotypical serious doctors whose conversational skills revolved only around science and more science.

Li introduced her to every single person she met on their way to her cabin. He then began explaining a few standard company policies. I should let you know that the Institute has just started to go paperless. Yes, we are that ancient and are just getting on the digital bandwagon. We are still migrating since we have tons of old medical records.

Well, better late than never, I guess, Mia replied. We, of all companies, need to look after the environment. But I hope this paperless policy doesn’t apply to the washrooms! She chuckled at her own joke and