First wave
April 1918
"Welcome to Supplies, Alan! Haven't seen you for a while. Is there a problem with your newest set of maps?"
"As always, they are excellent. Director Spears is most pleased. But do you have a world map of the oceans, showing shipping routes?"
"Oh, certainly, we supply them to Maritime." Senior Vollmer unrolled one with a flourish. "How's this? Newly updated. You won't want the shoals and shipwrecks, I suppose, just the major and minor shipping lanes? Or is there something else you want to track?"
"I would like to know the routes the ships take, all over the world."
"Peacetime or wartime? There's a considerable difference."
"One of each? I know absolutely nothing of sea travel. But suppose I heard of a disease in one port, and wanted to predict its probable spread?"
"For now, you probably want both. A prewar map will show you the civilian trade and passenger routes; once the war ends, those will be re-established quickly. Wartime will show routes for troop transports, hospital ships, navy patrols. We can remove any submarine and warship patrol routes which only touch one seabase."
"Yes, that's good, they won't be spreading the disease."
"When the war ends you'll need new maps, probably every week or two at first, land and sea, as the winners divide the spoils, staff new garrisons, and send troops home. I can recommend a couple of Maritime officers who can teach you how to read the routes and compare the maps as they change."
"Thank you, sir. Please send a set of the largest size to the Map Room, and a medium-sized set to my office."
22 May 1918
Eric shook out another newspaper. "Well, me Light, the King of Spain has La Grippe, and so does most of his country because they won't quarantine. Everyone else has it too, of course, but Spain is neutral in this war and their newspapers haven't been forbidden to report it. They call it the 'French disease' or the 'Naples Soldier' or 'that fever the seasonal laborers brought in from Portugal,' but other countries are picking up the story of Alfonso XIII and calling it the 'Spanish influenza.' It's in Glasgow now and spreading rapidly."
"I asked Chandra Gupta to pass a copy of my predictions to his countrymen. Almost all of India's doctors are on the European battlefields. Their Academies had huge class sizes ending five years ago. I'm sure they know all this already, but I felt obliged. Also the designs for the field hospitals. Maybe not necessary if the local demons hold to the Admin agreements until the worst is over. We're doing our best."
2 July 1918, Ten Hagen and Terry
"Hey, Sam. Alan says Chilwell blew up everything in a three-mile radius last night."
"Eight tons of TNT exploded. Only a hundred thirty-four casualties. Could have been worse, one worker managed to dump burning TNT off a conveyor belt before it set off another fifteen tons."
"Ugh. Are our Hospice Reapers all right?"
"Chilwell's Reapers did quite well. Their Death Books gave them enough warning to ask for some help from Nottingham. Nottingham's Director assigned an experienced Junior from Long Eaton and an injured but recovering senior team from Stapleford. They're an African man and a French woman. He reported to Eric that Chilwell worked well with them. Maybe they've learned some tolerance, or at least civility."
"Or they've acclimatized enough to realize that the Director of Nottingham will not put up with divisive behavior. And that he holds their contracts now, and can fire them. Did you know that Nottingham's Director was a trainee of Eric's a century ago? I will bet that they are aware of that, too."
"Absolutely. Nottingham called them in for an interview when the contracts were transferred. They made it perfectly clear what behavior was required of them, and that any failure of respect to anyone was cause for termination. I've kept in touch with the two original Reapers there. From their reports, I feel that four of the convalescents have grown up, one simply agrees with whoever talked to him last, and one is a vicious sneak who needs to be sent back to his Academy for evaluation and retraining."
"Will they send him back?"
"Not our problem, Dutch. Also very much not our business unless he applies for a job here. We've learned to listen in bars, though. From an expert. The news will arrive eventually."
20 July 1918
The new map room; a huge map on a large table; Spears and Slingby
"Report, Slingby."
"The Ludendorff Offensive has stalled. It's beginning to reverse. German stormtrooper units are foot soldiers. They are limited to the food and ammunition they can carry. Resupplying them is difficult because the land's devastated. Bomb craters, abandoned trenches, the roads destroyed. They can't live off the land; nothing's left. These are their best men, which they are spending rapidly without much to show for it. Their replacements are less effective and limited in number. They make small sallies into enemy territory. If they are successful, it increases the length of the front they must defend. Theoretically the rest of the front will catch up to the sallies. It isn't happening. Most of the German operations along the front have been stopped, with about equal losses on both sides. We are keeping up with the casualties, barely. One last push has just started at the River Marne. It will fail. Their air corps is outnumbered and low on fuel. They have lost the element of surprise.
"The French and British are weary but they are resisting more successfully than the Germans anticipated. Their Generals are starting to issue dramatic die-to-the-last-man speeches. That never does go over well with an experienced army. The audience is underfed, overworked and knows that the plump and well-dressed speaker is going to stay well behind the action. They are fighting for their lives and for each other, not for any glorified ideal.
"The Americans are now arriving in force and bringing supplies for the French. Canadian and Australian troops are in place, the British are reinforced by troops back from Italy and the Sinai, and by a few reserve forces from Britain. There will be a counteroffensive soon, as soon as the Allies can agree on who gives orders to whom. The Allied generals dislike each other only slightly less than they dislike the Germans. Throughout history, battles have been lost because generals would not cooperate with rivals, even in the presence of enemies. The Romans lost a whole army once because one general considered another a social inferior and wouldn't accept direction from him. Don't think it will be quite that bad here.
"The Germans have begun a retreat. Casualties on both sides, enormous. We are keeping up with Collections. The Demons are sticking to their treaties with the Angels, mostly. The Transylvanians have fielded five female Reapers, the French have fielded twenty, the Russians fifty, and most of our allies are too grateful for the help to grumble about who's giving it. Humans are dying in their thousands every day. We are steadily losing Reapers to madness, because it's just too much. Don't lecture us about Duty, Will. It makes it worse. What we need is rest."
"I am scheduling rest rotations for our people. It is inefficient to destroy irreplaceable resources. Do you think we are nearing the end of the war, Slingby?"
"I do. Not immediately, but soon. Five or six months, maybe? The German generals are also quite willing for their troops to die to the last man. Pro patria mori and all that rot. Their men are beginning to disagree with them. They are hungry and badly supplied, but so will their attackers be – outrunning their supply lines again, because no road is no road in both directions. Tanks can get over rough ground if the mud's not too deep, but they break down too often and can't haul supplies. Nobody is going to want to spend another January in the field.
"The British Expeditionary Force have an outstandingly outdated and pigheaded field marshal in command; the 'hero' of Passchendaele. He believes firmly that the war can only be won by sending mounted cavalry against machine guns, and sending infantry ranks in formation at a slow walk across no-man's-land. He's lost whole armies without learning a thing. He'll keep on doing it. His military superiors in England think he's wonderful and agree with his strategy. Civilian leaders have been resisting sending him any more men to waste. His troops hate him. He'll make a lot of work for us.
"Senior Gruber of Vienna reports that Germany's suffering from the allied shipping blockade. The home country's starving. There are no more men to conscript except convalescents, boys just turning eighteen, or older men doing vital war work in the factories. Their culture inhibits them from using female workers in responsible positions outside the kitchen, nursery, sickroom or church. And soon there will be another enemy attacking all sides."
"Disease?"
"Aye."
"How long, Slingby?"
"The second wave? Late August or early September. You've seen Alan's report. The end of the war? My best guess; November or December. The Germans will retreat to the Siegfriedstellung, or Hindenburg Line, fail to hold it, and fight rearguard actions all the way home. Desertions will begin. Hungry and cold and running out of ammunition, facing a fresh and well-supplied army, I think the German troops are going to start surrendering in numbers. They just want to go home. Their best hope for survival is to get away from their leaders and into the hands of the enemy. They'll wait out the war doing forced labor in prison camps, then be freed quickly because it's cheaper than feeding them."
"They'll be crowded into trains… We'll need to be sure that we Reapers go with them."
"We?"
"We as in all Reapers, not we as only British Reapers. Madame has been promoted – not away from us, fortunately. She has given me additional assignments. Some of them are wider in scope than I am used to. This is going to be very difficult, reaping the war casualties at the same time that the Pandemic is sweeping across the world. Indeed, the Pandemic may cease before the armistice is fully arranged. It means a significant reassigning of our forces, sharing personnel worldwide as necessary."
"Ah."
"You may expect to see foreign Reapers from countries not involved in this war. They will be training to handle mass Collections before the Pandemic strikes their own shores. We will be assigning them to experienced individuals; their Admins will also be studying our Administrative methods. Thus they will not need to reinvent proven processes. Expect them to fill the positions previously held by Thorns convalescents."
"Aye."
"We will send help where it is most needed, once the armistice has been achieved."
"Aye. Will ye send me? I am not so much needed at the Academy now." The Academy had volunteered its students into Admin support jobs part-time to free the fully trained into more urgent work for the Library. There would be no class of 1919. Possibly there would be two classes of 1920. Evidently it had been decided that there were enough Reapers to cover the next year.
Will sighed. Time to issue his warning. There was a reason that Humphries was not at this meeting.
"It has occured to me, Slingby, that foreign assignment to plague-stricken areas is not precisely battlefield work. Be advised."
Slingby raised his eyes from the map. "Aye, Will. I understand. But where he goes, send me also."
"I will try. It may not be possible. Indeed, it may not be my decision. But Madame's promise to you shall be kept. I will do my best to assure that any foreign assignment will be short-term. In the meantime, I propose to reassign Humphries' increased Reaping hours to hospitals receiving wounded soldiers. This is important now that his teaching hours have been reduced. It will be hard work, but local, and unlikely to be deemed non-essential. Thus, as the influenza arrives, he already will be in place, filling a vital position. You yourself must expect foreign assignment as an experienced battle veteran. You may be assigned well away from home for longer than the pair of you are comfortable with. Be prepared for it."
Slingby paused, and thought. "Thank ye, Will. That is kind of ye."
"I am not kind by nature. But at least I know my failings, and I have Grell to compensate. She is the one you should thank. I will attempt to assign you hospital work as well, with Humphries, when you are eligible for a rest rotation to London. I want you here, working a regular schedule, when the second wave is at its worst in the City. When it moves on, I may need to send you with it or return you to the front. I can make no further promises at this time, knowing I may not be able to keep them."