Virus

The novel "Virus" is divided into three sections. The plot of the first part begins in a Polish town on the Baltic coast. Captain Andrzej Ranecki, an officer of the European Security Service, is given the chance to return to the rank of colonel from which he was demoted. In order to do so, he has to capture a targeted terrorist. The terrorist dies during the operation, but it is deemed a success and Ranecki is reinstated as a colonel. During the action the terrorist hands over a memory stick with mysterious data. While on leave, Ranecki's wife becomes acquainted with the data. She is then assassinated. The protagonist continues his service in the ESS and with the help of his father-in-law, Poland's interior minister, he is offered the chance to retrieve the data from the memory stick. He goes to the US, to the ESB's liaison with the US government. There he receives information that an agreement is being prepared between China, Russia and the US on a new world order, in which the European Union is to be involved. This information causes the governments of the EU to take an active part in the negotiations and to appoint Warsaw as the place for signing the agreement. After returning to Europe, the alleged killers of Ranecki's wife are tracked down and one of them is arrested. At the end of the first part, the protagonist learns that a vaccine against the virus exists and that he is inoculated with it just like the rest of the EU power elite. This part also reflects on why the societies of Europe have agreed to limit their freedoms at the expense of security. The second part is a flashback that shows how, during the four waves of the virus, zones were created in European cities divided into red, orange and green zones. This part shows how the European Security Service came about, how governments restricted the personal freedoms of Europeans and why societies agreed to it. It also shows the political intrigue that led to the formation of a new authoritarian government in Poland. It also shows work and life during the first waves of the epidemic. The third part focuses on the preparations for the protection of the Warsaw summit and the investigation into the truth about the assassination of Andrzej Ranecki's wife. The three protagonists, an English journalist, a Polish painter and a Ukrainian refugee are preparing an assassination attempt on the leaders of the countries meeting in Warsaw. The assassination attempt is eventually thwarted. An agreement is signed under the dictates of China, which used the epidemic to create a new world order. Authoritarian power is strengthened. Andrzej Ranecki learns that his wife's death was a mistake on the part of the French service, which, under special procedures, can liquidate potential terrorists. The memory stick handed over in the first part contains the results of a sociological study conducted in secret by a group of scientists. At the end, Ranecki proposes cooperation to the scientist arrested in the first part in order to conduct sociological research on the new society