The Virus: A Novel

By Harry Katzan Jr.

Virus is a work of fiction and should be regarded as entertainment and no more. This book uses history but is not history, as the persons, places, events, and relationships are all elements of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is strictly coincidental. The names of aircraft and their characteristics are standard knowledge, as are the buildings in London. The names of royalty are all made up.

This book was written during the pandemic and many of the events may have actually happened, but the author has no knowledge of them. The Buckingham Palace is an impressive facility and it may or may not have guest rooms and conference facilities. England is a historic country and the notion of a Royal Monarchy is definitely something to be enjoyed.

The book continues with the author’s tradition of no violence, no sex, and no bad language.

Thanks to my wife Margaret for help and inspiration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663207500

Harry Katzan Jr.

Harry Katzan, Jr. is a professor who has written several books and many papers on computers and service, in addition to some novels. He has been a advisor to the executive board of a major bank and a general consultant on various disciplines. He and his wife have lived in Switzerland where he was a banking consultant and a visiting professor. He is an avid runner and has completed 94 marathons including Boston 13 times and New York 14 times. He holds bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees.

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Copyright © 2020 Harry Katzan Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0747-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0751-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0750-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020915582

iUniverse rev. date: 10/06/2020

CONTENTS

Prologue

Part I Emergence of A Problem

1 A Casual Morning of Golf

2 Ashley Appears Unexpectedly

3 The Coronavirus Project

4 Lunch Meeting

5 Matt and The General Meet Harry

6 Staffing The Team

Part II Gathering Relevant Information

7 Recruiting The Team

8 Getting Started

9 Recruiting Ashley and The Accident

10 Discussing The Accident

11 Anna’s First Report

12 Amelia is Picked Up in DC

Part III Executing The Project

13 Amelia Robinson Comes on Board

14 Preliminary Activities

15 The First Team Meeting

16 There is Always Time for Golf

17 The Flight that didn’t Happen

18 Matt and Ashley Team Up

Part IV Meetings in London

19 Security for Matt and Something for Ashley

20 Travel to London

21 Matt and The General Talk During The Flight

22 The Palace Breakfast

23 Colonel Bunday’s Team

24 Matt’s Team

Part V Finalizing The Project

25 Important Conversations

26 The Report

27 Knighthood, Travel, and The Final Result

28 Matt and Ashley

Afterword

For

Margaret

PROLOGUE

Matt Miller and Ashley Wilson had been friends from the day they met in Dr. Marguerite Purgoine’s creative writing course. They commonly met at Starbucks to discuss life’s never-ending set of problems. Matt was an established mathematician and a prize winning golfer. Ashley had been a person seeking celebrity status. Dr. Purgoine, known personally as Anna for some unknown reason, was a distinguished professor and award-winning author. Matt’s grandfather, Les Miller, was a retired general in the U.S. Air Force, and subsequently the founder of an influential political polling company. He was referred to as the General, because of his collection of major accomplishments. The General was wealthy and liked to help people. This led to several keen adventures for Matt and the General.

Ashley, on the other hand, was frequently the subject of Matt’s and the General’s adventures. Ashley had married, at least from a Royal view, Prince Michael of Bordeaux, an accomplished astrophysicist and most recently the director of the local university’s astrophysics lab, and Ashley was a professor of drama at a community college. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here is what happened.

Matt was sitting at his favorite window seat at Starbucks drinking a caramel macchiato and reading a math book, which was his customary pastime. Today he was reading about non-Euclidean geometry, a subject in which Matt had forgotten a few details. He looked up and there was Ashley.

I hoped you would be here, said Ashley. The meeting was cordial since the two people liked each other. There relationship was not romantic, but more like brother and sister.

It was then that Ashley described the problem. Michael was gone. He had traveled to England for a conference and decided to stay and return to his position in the Royal hierarchy. The Queen was recently retired as head of the country, and the position of King of the United Kingdom was give to the next person in the hierarchy, who in this case, was the Queen’s son, the Duke of Cambridge. The retired Queen was now known as Catherine Penelope Radford, thanks to the efforts of the Royal Lexicographer. The retired Queen was a friend of the General and visited the States as a private citizen of the Royal Kingdom. As is the custom among celebrities, Prince Michael, who retained a position in the Royal Hierarchy, was seated next to Catherine at a welcoming dinner hosted by the General. The lavish dinner was a social success, but from the viewpoint of Ashley, Matt, and the General, it turned out to be an unfortunate event, as there was some question as to what had transpired between Catherine and Michael concerning Michael’s future in the British system.

The General contacted his World War II Army buddy Buzz Bunday, subsequently a member of the British Security Service (BSS), concerning Prince Michael and was informed that Michael had gone bonkers resulting from the stress of his U.S. position, and British government people were considering putting him into an asylum.

The General proposed a dinner meeting between he, Matt, and Ashley to iron out the difficulties, and when Matt went to a pre-arranged meeting at Starbucks, Ashley did not show up.

The story continues from there.

PART I

EMERGENCE OF A PROBLEM

1

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A CASUAL MORNING OF GOLF

It was a bright balmy Saturday in New Jersey, and both Matt and the General looked forward to their usual 18 holes of golf. They normally played on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, since they were usually busy during the week. Matt had been practicing with his new titanium shafted MAX driver with adjustable weights in the head of the club. He had spent some time with it on the driving range and was anxious to try it out on a golf course. The General was a scratch golfer with years of experience. Matt was a NCAA champion and had won the amateur Master’s a few years earlier. Both golfers were tall, straight as an arrow, and tanned. They looked like golfers. After the ninth hole, the General initiated a conversation on an interesting subject.

Have you heard from Ashley lately? asked the General.

Not a single word, replied Matt. She didn’t show for our planned meeting, so I kind of dropped the subject. How about you?

I called Buzz, and he said that the Prince had gone bonkers, because of the stress of his U.S. position. I thought he had some PhD helpers, said the General.

I never asked around, Matt said. I didn’t want people to be saying, ‘Why is he asking’? You know the drill.

I do, and it’s the same for me, continued the General. Things like this normally don’t concern me, but I’m not comfortable with subjects like Royalty and Astrophysics. By the way, what in the devil is Astrophysics, anyway?

Actually, it is a combination of math, physics, and astronomy. Normally, we associate Astrophysics with galaxies, comets, cosmos, and subjects like that. But, physicists have recognized that there are forces out there in space that affect entities that we can’t even see. We can’t see those forces and the entities and we call it ‘dark matter,’ but we know it’s there. Black holes are dark matter, for example. Some astronomers have observed galaxies that are far away, such as many light years. I know you are going to ask what a light year is. I’m a teacher. A light year is the distance light can travel in one year. It’s a measure of distance. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, so a light year is approximately 6 trillion miles. Actually, a light year is 5.879 times 10 to the 12th power miles. I had to learn this information for a college course that I took. Astrophysicists have discovered comets, for example, that travel through several distant galaxies and we see them only once per year.

It all seems very complicated said the General.

If a person can handle the math, then it is not so bad. said Matt. If a person can’t handle the math, then he or she is in trouble.

The General just smiled.

There is a lot of equipment involved with looking into space and doing the calculations, said Matt. There are three ways of approaching Astrophysics. The first is experimental, wherein scientists study operational phenomena. The second is observational, wherein scientists examine actual space hoping to find something that hasn’t heretofore been seen. The last is theoretical where scientists use math to relate astronomy and relative physics. The latter category, for example, is concerned with the origin of the universe.

I can now understand how it might make someone go ‘bonkers’, said the General. I talked to Prince Michael at the dinner and he seemed stable to me."

He seemed normal to me also, said Matt.

2

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ASHLEY APPEARS UNEXPECTEDLY

Matt