Bold Pursuit

Terry Brazier

Description

A pandemic rages on Earth robbing its victims of their memories. Heroes and true love are found in the most unlikely places.
A pandemic rages on Earth. Violence runs rampant in the streets. The U.S. and its adversaries struggle to control the mysterious virus robbing its victims of their memories.
The Center for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency represented by the brother and sister team of Nick and Ann Barbeck race to find a cure. Their search takes them on a 4,200-mile journey aboard the EPA’s research vessel, the Bold, as they strive to reach the Center for Disease Control and Prevention located in Seattle. There, they hope to experiment with the gene technology CRISPR. Enemies, both foreign and domestic, attempt to thwart their efforts at every turn.
The world’s largest research computer, Stampede2, located at the University of Texas, aids them in their quest for a cure utilizing artificial intelligence. Just when success appears imminent, enemies commandeer the Bold taking the crew and scientists prisoner. Stampede2 predicts World War III. Can the DNA of one of the researchers save humanity?
Bold Pursuit, an action packed adventure filled with suspense, reaffirms one’s faith in humanity. Heroes can be found irrespective of territorial boundaries and true love found in the most unlikely places.

Sujets

• Thrillers
• Kazán
• USNS Bold (T-AGOS-12)
• CRISPR
• SEAL Delivery Vehicle
• DSRV
• Kitsap
• Sous-marin de sauvetage
• Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
• Kazan
• Suspense
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 21 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798823003711
• Langue: English

Extrait

ALSO BY TERRY BRAZIER
The Ahilist
Trapped Under Coal Valley
Dormant Seeds
BOLD PURSUIT
 
 
 
 
 
TERRY BRAZIER
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]
 
 
 
 
 
© 2023 Terry Brazier. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 03/15/2023
 
ISBN: 979-8-8230-0372-8 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-8230-0371-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023904991
 
 
 
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.
 
 
 
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.
 
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.
CONTENTS
Dedication
Author’s Note:
Prologue
Part I The Prelude
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Part II The Pursuit
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
Part III The Taken
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
Part IV The Resolution
118
119
120
121
122
Epilogue
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my two grandchildren, Abbie and Billy, for in their generation lies the hope of the future. I pray that they can do a better job than we did.
 
 
 
Memories
Hang on to memories
For if they disappear
Life would be blank
Like a book with no w ords,
Hang on to memories
For when they’re gone
Life would be lonely
Like someone who can’t talk.
Abigail Brazier
From her book titled, “Poems” 2017, 6 th grade
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
The 225 foot Bold began its distinguished service in 1989, at the end of the cold war, as a Navy spy ship working the North Atlantic Ocean listening for signs of enemy submarines. Originally named the USNS Vigorous and crewed by civilians (since she wasn’t a commissioned ship), it was purchased by the EPA and placed into service as an Ocean Survey Vessel (OSV) on August 8, 2005. The ship and its crew collected water quality and sediment samples, fish, and other organisms in the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico. The OSV Bold was outfitted with state-of the art equipment such as side scan sonar, underwater video, water and sediment sampling instruments in order to monitor such things as the impact of regulated wastewater discharges, the health of coral reefs, and the impacts of ecological disturbances such as algal blooms. The Bold also served as a classroom and trained SCUBA divers as part of its DIVE Program.
In 2013, the Bold was awarded to Seattle Central Community College to be used as a merchant mariner training vessel and made the 4,200-mile trip from the Florida Keys through the Panama Canal in four weeks.
As a sad footnote, the Seattle Central Community College had failed to develop the promised plans for the Bold by 2015, so the GSA auctioned the ship to an undisclosed party. Its whereabouts are unknown.
All organizations and geographical references in this novel are real, including all descriptions of environmental concerns, gene editing technology, theories of human memory loss, advancements in artificial intelligence, and description of Williams Syndrome.
The challenges and their mitigation of a resulting pandemic and world conflict as portrayed in this book are strictly the imagination of the author.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to the events that transpired at various locales are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
PROLOGUE
Writers have imagined all manner of warfare scenarios of one kind or another through the ages – rockets carrying airborne contaminants, submarines delivering death killing bacterial agents to our shores. However, what if deadly scenarios existed that required neither man’s imagination, nor planned culpability, but were the result of humanities mere existence. What if he already carried the seeds of his destruction within him? This would make it far worse for it would mean no matter man’s intent, such a catastrophic outcome would be inevitable. It might only take a match to ignite the tinder box bringing about his destruction. Such a scenario this book attempts to address – what if....
PART I
THE PRELUDE
1
Puget Sound
Sept 25, 1959
Flames encircled the left engine of the U.S. Navy Martin P5M Marlin. Thick black smoke erupted from the oil leak and poured over the windshield quickly coating the surface with a dense layer of soot and burning oil. Captain Slater immediately feathered the left engine to stop the fire. He watched his instrument panel to gauge elevation and positioning, until that is, his aircraft, fondly known as the “Flying Boat” lost all hydraulic pressure making it an uncontrolled weight in the sky that gravity would shortly correct. They were going down in the waters of Puget Sound, not far from Whidbey Island where they had taken off.
Captain Slater and his crew had expected another routine reconnaissance mission until, shortly after takeoff, the oil pressure indicator lit up and then the resulting fire. They hadn’t gained much elevation so Captain Slater ruled out the possibility of saving the eleven man crew by parachuting. He would have to ditch in the waters below. A complication existed with that scenario, however. The aircraft carried a nuclear torpedo. He didn’t have time to radio for instructions. He decided to jettison the ordnance in shallow Puget Sound rather than the ocean so it could be more easily recovered.
He had already turned the crippled plane for the ocean when the torpedo hit the water and sank like a lead weight. It came to rest on a shelf about 250 feet below the surface and tumbled over the edge rolling another 50 feet deeper to a second shelf. As it tumbled, it loosened boulders that ultimately formed a rock like nest around the two ton nuclear depth charge.
2
Lake Lanier, Georgia
Present day
Nick Barbeck lifted the lid from his sample case. The mirror attached to its inside surface reflected the morning’s sun. Nick changed its angle slightly, revealing a young man in his early thirties with a three days growth covering his face. His high crowned, wide brimmed sable fedora, covering his short blond hair made him resemble his movie idol, Archeological professor, Indiana Jones. Sharp blue eyes sought out the test tubes he would need for a sampling. The respirator strapped to his face protected him from the airborne particles floating in the air above the blue green algae bloom. He realized that algae didn’t cause the bloom at all, but rather cyanobacteria. Most blooms didn’t pose a threat, but because of the sheer number of different varieties of blooms, one wasn’t sure of their virulence without testing in the lab. Although many varieties of blue green algae blooms existed that didn’t pose a threat to man, still animals, including humans, succumbed with regularity to the poisonous compounds being birthed in its depths.
Normally a wonderful recreational area where families could fish, boat, camp, and enjoy aquatic water sports, Lake Lanier enjoyed the reputation of being the most popular lake in the Southeast hosting several million visitors annually. Over 45 parks and 10 campgrounds lined its shores along its 700 miles of coastline making it the largest lake in Georgia. The water making up Lake Lanier came cascading down beautiful waterfalls from the Blue Ridge Mountains winding its way to the lake via Chattahoochee and Chestatee River. The completion of the Buford Dam on the south end of the lake in 1956 turned the area’s Chattahoochee and Chestatee River into Lake Lanier. This time of year, however, the blooms infected the lake with an ever increasing severity. The intensity of the blooms had become much greater along with their duration.
Even with Nick’s nose covered, he could smell and taste the rotting and bacterial infected plankton along with the dead fish that littered the shore. The green slime rocked their carcasses to and fro. As disgusting as it had become, Nick had gotten used to it in his twelve years with the Environmental Protection Agency. Although he had attained the title of assistant deputy in charge in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), he still liked to take a break