Islands of Rage and Hope (eARC) (27 page)

"I would not have authorized it, Lieutenant," Hamilton said.

"I understand that, sir," Faith said. "In the future I will keep that in mind, sir."

"And you really think it was a good idea?" Hamilton said.

"I'm sure you don't think so, sir," Faith said. "However, sir, having very briefly swept the two resorts, the smaller one by the main beach and the big one, I'm of the opinion that I could walk from one end of the island stark naked with maybe one pistol and not have a problem. Except I don't go around stark naked, sir. Obviously. Sir, I think this island is
clear
, sir. I mean, pretty much deserted. No real threats left. Or so close that I'm not sure we'd pull up leakers with one more sweep. We did detect one possible infected, sir. But it was...shy. It was following us but it was staying away."

"Really," Hamilton said, leaning back. "A shy infected doesn't seem..." He paused and frowned.

"My da ran into something similar one time, sir," Faith said. "Early on he made a covert landing on one of the small Bermuda islands. It's where he picked up his little helpers, sir. And he ran into a female that just ran away when he...sort of did like a chimp. Oook! Oook!" she finished, bowing up.

"So some of them are beta?" Hamilton said.

"Yes, sir," Faith replied. "Still not...word...sounds like sentence..."

"Sentient?" Hamilton said.

"Yes, sir," Faith said. "They're still not sentient, sir. But they're also nonaggressive. Or at least less aggressive. I'm not sure I'd want to try to catch one, sir. On the other hand...I had a clear shot at this one and didn't take it, sir. She didn't seem to be a threat, sir."

"Plausible," Hamilton said. "The human brain is a tricky thing. But that means the island is not clear."

"You saw how the zombies act, sir," Faith said. "Your pe--The personnel from Gitmo had more time watching zombies than any of the rest of us. They are territorial and only...swarm when there's an apparent food source, sir. Sort of like piranha. The...beta ones that are...smarter have probably learned to not even turn up for the feeding frenzies. Which means they avoid the normal attractors like light and sound, sir. On the other hand, based on this one and the one in Bermuda, they also are low-threat. Sir...we need a secure ground base, sir. I think we have one. Low yellow to...lightish green, sir. Yellowish green."

"Chartreuse?" Hamilton said.

"Excuse me, sir?" Faith said.

"Yellow with a touch of green, Lieutenant," Hamilton said drily. "Slightly more yellow and less green than lime or spring-bud. And, no, despite the recall of Don't ask, don't tell, I am not gay. Just into information."

"I would say more lime, sir," Faith replied. "More green than yellow."

"Perhaps spring bud, then," Hamilton said.

"Are we actually having this conversation, sir?" Faith asked.

"Not anymore," Hamilton said. "More important item. I've convinced Squadron that Gunnery Sergeant Sands is more valuable to us than to Guantanamo."

"Oorah, sir," Faith said.

"Oorah, indeed, Lieutenant," Hamilton said. "So he and the captain are on their way down. The captain wishes to talk directly to our astral visitors, and the gunnery sergeant will take over as platoon sergeant as well as running training. Issues?"

"No, sir," Faith said, a slight tone of surprise in her voice. "Looking forward to it, sir. NCOs handle training, sir. That's how it's supposed to be as I understand things, sir."

"I understand that you ran the training of the
Iwo
Marines, Lieutenant," Hamilton said.

"That was before the gunny was back on his feet, sir," Faith said. "And I wasn't an officer then, sir. And it was showing them the difference between regular clearance and zombie clearance, sir. NCOs handle training, sir."

"Very well," Hamilton said, ticking off an item on his checklist. "When the gunnery sergeant gets here he will coordinate training for all Marine personnel as well as Navy Landing forces with the appropriate senior NCOs on the Navy side. Once training is complete, or as complete as we can make it given time constraints, we will consider doing a night sweep as further supplemental training."

"If I may add, sir?" Faith said.

"Yes?"

"There are sure to be some liners tied up over in St. Martin, sir," Faith said. "No training like crawling around in the bowels of a ship, sir."

"They also take a good bit of time to clear, Lieutenant," Hamilton said. "And we are already well over our planned time for this sweep."

"Yes, sir," Faith said. "Permission to ask when the gunnery sergeant will arrive, sir?"

"They're supposed to be arriving this evening," Hamilton said. "Apparently they left Gitmo in your father's fast boat, then sent the message. If I'd had more warning I'd have had everyone do a nice GI party."

"Yes, sir," Faith said.

"As it is, we
will
have a greeting party," Hamilton said. "Go get with Staff Sergeant Barnard and have her ensure the greeting party is prepared. I'll have Sergeant Major Barney do the same on the Navy side."

"Yes, sir," Faith said.

"And that's it," Hamilton said. "We're on short time. Roll it, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir," Faith said.

"Welcome aboard, sir!" Hamilton boomed, saluting Captain Smith.

"Thank you, Colonel," Smith said, returning the salute, then saluting the colors. "Very nice turn-out."

There was a line of sailors and Marines in surprisingly neat uniforms lined up to greet the arriving Commander Atlantic Fleet.

"Thank you, sir," Hamilton said, returning the gunnery sergeant's salute. "Pleasure to have you aboard, Gunnery Sergeant Sands."

"Thank you, sir," Sands said, running a gimlet eye over the Marine guard. He didn't look all that pleased. "Looking forward to joining your force, sir."

"Shall we repair below, sir?" Hamilton asked.

"Of course," Smith said. "Though, you'll need to get a working party together. We didn't just bring ourselves. One of the containers we opened was destined for a hospital in Ghana. It didn't have much in the way of materials to produce the vaccine but it did have useful medical supplies. So we arrive bearing gifts. What we could fit in the
Achille
. There's more on the way via the
Pit Stop,
which is following us."

"Yes, sir," Hamilton said. "Sergeant Major Barney. Manage that."

"Aye, aye, sir," the British sergeant major said.

"Get those to Mr. Walker, Sergeant Major," Smith said. "Now let's repair below. You lead, Colonel."

Here I am
Alive among the injured and the dead
Here I am
Thy will be done
Santa Sophia (here I am)
Pieces borne to your victory
Athena Sophia (here I am)
Thy will be done

How can I hope to live
What I cannot dream?
You cannot map the ways of divinity
This much is known only unto God

--"Sophia"
Cruxshadows

"The materials on the
Achille
are mostly what Fontana thought Walker would need for a recovering gunshot wound," Captain Smith said as soon as they were seated in the colonel's office. "Notably, Keflex. I'm not putting that on you, by the way, Colonel. I didn't give you time to get trained before you went on the float and the short time your units had together was doing police call. In retrospect, I should have had the gunny run them through combat action training. My mistake. One I'm not prone to repeat."

"Yes, sir," Hamilton said. "My man, my failure, sir."

"Not if you were under other orders, Colonel," Smith said. "And it touches on one of the main issues I have, both upward and downward, with the current situation."

"Sir?" Hamilton said.

"In the pre-Plague military, that sort of thing could have been a career killer," Smith said, taking a sip of the scotch Hamilton had produced. "Just as this might be. It would depend mostly on politics, I suppose. But as with my decision to essentially not give out awards like so many Christmas presents, I'm trying to get both the newly inducted civilians
and
the professionals to grasp that this is
not
pre-Plague. The military culture can't be, exactly, pre-Vietnam in nature. We don't have the sort of personnel numbers to afford that degree of fatalism. We cannot
afford
a Somme or a Hamburger Hill. On the other hand, we also do not have an infinite supply of even
vaguely
trained officers and NCOs, so we can't kill any career over any fault without it affecting our overall efficiency. That, as much as any reason, is why I'm here. I have already pointed out to the Joint Chiefs that the blue-on-blue was as much my fault as anyone's and offered to retire in favor of Mr. Walker, whatever or whoever he is."

"I...don't see that working, sir," Hamilton said, frowning. "There are cultural psychology issues..."

"Which is sort of the point, Colonel," Smith said. "They said the same thing. Nor can I kill your career over it, demote you or something. It wouldn't be honest and I need
you
just as the Joint Chiefs need
me
. In fact, we can't even get all that down on PFC Curran. We're that short on Marines. And it was a training failure which falls on us, not the PFC. Now, if he can't seem to control his fire in the future..."

"He won't stay a Marine, sir," the gunnery sergeant growled.

"And where are we to get a replacement, Gunny?" Smith asked. "But that is probably the way to go. I leave it up to you two. The subject is closed except to say that you don't continue the mission until the gunnery sergeant is satisfied with the small unit tactical training of the Marine Force. We're going to have to be a bit more lenient with the Naval Landing Forces."

"They are...honestly about as good as could be expected, sir," Hamilton said. "Sergeant Major Barney has been taking their training in hand very well. And they're not used for missions that are..."

"Difficult?" Smith said. "I think you and I both realize that daytime clearance of one of these islands is not difficult by pre-Plague standards, Colonel. Which is another philosophical issue I brought up with the JCS."

"Sir?" Hamilton said.

"Does your career stretch back to Grenada, Colonel?" Smith said. "No, it wouldn't, would it?"

"No, sir," the colonel said. "Shortly before my time."

"It was, from all reports, an absolute cluster fuck," Smith said. "But the U.S. military learned from it. So was much of the Aussie response to the Indonesian quake, which I was in on. But we learned from it. The point is that the U.S. military got so good that it was expected to be able to perform any mission, anywhere, under any circumstances, and get it right, first time, every time. Which, surprisingly enough it was able to for some values of 'right.' An example is the essentially 'green' units in the first
and
second invasions of Iraq who
performed
like
veterans
. Do you know how historically insane that is, Colonel?"

"Yes, sir, I do," Colonel Hamilton said. "I read a paper on it from CGSC and had to agree with the conclusions."

"Which was the amount and reality of training," Smith said. "I think we read the same paper. The problem being, we no longer have the luxury that the DOD did to do that amount and reality of training. We don't even have
blanks
much less MILES gear, Simunitions, AirSoft, entire bases like Polk devoted solely to as realistic training as possible, et cetera. And we don't have the months that it takes or the people to do the training. We may occasionally get the false impression that things are going well. One look at a satellite map tells a different story. The
entire world
is bleeding every moment of every day. We have word that there are some other groups, similar if less organized and still out of contact, doing something similar in other areas. But they are smaller and, as noted, disorganized and not in contact. They also don't have our resources and aren't close enough--they're in the Pacific--to get to them to help. We cannot afford six months of training to get your Marines to the elite level of pre-Plague Marine infantry. Even if we
could
do so with a group that is mostly composed of 'fobbit' MOS's. I don't think anyone questions the ability, in this world and our missions, of my daughter in terms of lethality and ability..."

"No, sir," Hamilton said.

"But she wouldn't have stood a
chance
in Marine Infantry Officer Course," Steve said. "I take it you agree with that as well?"

"Yes, sir," Hamilton said, shrugging. "Sorry, sir, but as good as Lieutenant Smith is--"

"She is both thirteen and female," Smith said. "She might have made it through entry qual, with some training and if she was fully grown. I doubt she'd make it all the way through the course. No woman
had
prior to the Plague. I
know
how tough it was. Nonetheless, she has shown her ability to lead and fight in
this
environment."

"Agreed, sir," Hamilton said. "She is even...flexible, sir. She reacted extremely well to the change of mission to a night attack and sweep. Her...methods raised some question of favoritism towards the Marines who were from the
Iwo Jima
..."

"Official questions?" Smith asked.

"Unofficial, sir," Hamilton said. "And I stomped on them. The lieutenant's methods were mostly proven by the results, sir. The Marines from Guantanamo were under-trained for this mission and it showed. I'm considering a change to the TOE based upon it."

"If I may, sir," Gunny Sands said. "Let me have them for a week and then we'll look at it, sir."

"Agreed, Gunny," Hamilton said. "A Marine officer should not show any weakness, but I can honestly say I'm glad you're here."

"I'll get 'em dialed in, sir," Sands said.

"I needed him to organize the helo unit," Smith said, shrugging. "It was necessary, then. But Januscheitis has it well in hand at this point. Another example of critical personnel. At this point the gunny would have to be caught with a dead
boy
in his bed."

"That
ain't
gonna be an issue, sir," Gunny Sands said, grinning. "I'll get 'em dialed in," he repeated.

"The point to this discussion is that, much as with the vaccine production and beginning clearance of the continents, we simply have to do the best with what we have," Steve said. "And we have to accept that perfection is simply going to be unobtainable. So we maximize what we
have
, both in terms of materials and personnel. Which means that the competent people we have are always going to find themselves having to do more and more. And one aspect of that is, sometimes,
selection
.

"Gunny, this is not disrespect to the Marine Corps. In any group of people there are those who are better at some jobs and less so at others. I threw every Marine I had into the breach from the time we found Hooch to now because I
had
to. I still would prefer to. Clearance is the number one issue after finding the materials for a vaccine. But if any of them are determined to be either truly incompetent at clearance or just too difficult to get trained to do it...we'll find somewhere they can help. And I'm not just discussing Decker and Condrey. If they cannot be trusted to keep their damned finger off the trigger, after reasonably sufficient training, I do not want them trying to clear liners. In the distant past the infantry was the place you put your incompetents. That is
not
the case in Wolf Squadron's Marines. The clearance personnel
will
be our
best
. That's an order."

"Aye, aye, sir," Gunny Sands said.

"That goes for NCOs as well," Steve said. "I can't imagine a Marine NCO who is truly incompetent at battle, but if any of them cannot handle battle management...we'll find somewhere for them. That
does
include Staff Sergeant Decker."

"We've been...managing the staff sergeant, sir," Hamilton said. "For example, he's excellent at ensuring all sterile protocols are followed with the astronauts."

"Do you have to keep to this harbor while the astronauts recover?"

"Not really, sir," Hamilton said. "We can float with them as cargo."

"We just added an island to your operation," Steve said.

"Which one, sir?" Hamilton asked.

"Sint Eustatius," Smith said. "It's on the list after you check Saba. And we'll need Sint Eustatius as clear as this one."

"The oil storage point," Hamilton said.

"You noticed," Steve said. "Yes. When you're approaching it, we'll send down a POL and security team to secure it and get it into operation. Probably permanently, or at least as long as the materials hold out."

"It's primarily unprocessed crude, though," Hamilton said. "Isn't it, sir?"

"No," Steve said. "Yes, by volume. But there are also supplies of diesel, aviation, gas and even bunker C. Assuming the stuff hasn't leaked or something. And large stores, larger than Gitmo. At last report, which was pre-Plague. There are two other facilities like it in the Caribbean but that is the only one in the Leeward Islands and the largest on the smallest island. So securing it is important. It's going to be a long time before we're pumping crude again, much less refining it."

"Yes, sir," Hamilton said, making a note.

"We'll punch the team down on the
Pit Stop
when you get to Saba," Steve said. "And that covers all the major issues. I suppose I should go talk to our visitors..."

"Hello," Steve said, looking through the plexiglass and using the external mike. "I'm Captain Smith, U.S. Navy and acting Atlantic Fleet Commander. Hope my people are treating you folks well?"

"Just fine, sir," Commander Daniels said, sitting up in his chair. "Better than we'd had any reason to expect, sir. Really appreciate the hospitality."

"Out of four thousand plus survivors we have one guy with a masters in mechanical engineering," Steve said. "Zero MDs, zero SEALs and, really importantly,
zero
microbiologists. To say that I was surprised when I was informed of this mission is an understatement. I'll add when I was told who we were rescuing, I was
overjoyed
. I'm obviously hoping that you're all interested in helping out."

"We are," Commander Daniels said. "We've been having some difficulty adjusting to current realities. Even seeing all the lights turning off couldn't quite prepare us for
how
bad it is."

"I fully recognize, and even understand, Dr. Shelley's reported discomfort with the vaccine program," Steve said. "I don't even have an issue with it. Given her many areas of training and education, there are other areas where she can contribute tremendously. I've given the order that it's simply not a subject for discussion. She should make her own decisions on it. And until we can secure the rest of the production materials, the question is moot. Not why I'm here to talk with you. I'm not even really here to see you, particularly. Could have done that over the video screen. There were some issues to address with the Marines having to do with clearance ops and some other conversations I'd like to have. Dr. Price, I understand you've been reviewing the obstetrics issues."

"I have," Dr. Price said, smiling wryly. "OB was one field I'd never even considered as an MD. But...guess it's time to be a baby doctor."

"I'd like you to discuss with Dr. Chen at the CDC and Mr. Walker the viability of setting up an...assembly line, if you will, for C-sections on mothers who are likely to have complications or are already experiencing complications," Steve said. "Among a thousand things we haven't found and need is countercontraction medication. But it seems likely that going ahead and pulling the kids would make more sense than waiting until we've got complications in childbirth. We're going to have enough of those as it is. We'll probably need the assembly line prepared when the tidal wave hits to handle the complications, then."

"I'd...have to review what literature there is available," Dr. Price said. "And discuss it with Dr. Chen."

"Of course," Steve said. "It's something that I'm leaving up entirely to the medical team. My knowledge of obstetrics begins and ends with standing by my wife going 'Breathe, honey, breathe,'" he added with a grin. "Twice."

"That certainly seemed to have turned out well enough, sir," Commander Daniels said.

"Indeed," Steve said, sighing slightly. "Mr. Lyons."

"Sir?" Lyons said.

"I can always use a mechanical engineer," Steve said. "I'm honestly not sure whether I need a mechanical engineer or a SEAL more. We're going to crack the boats at some point and many of their engineering officers can at least hum the tune. So I suppose the answer is 'a SEAL.'"

"If you're asking would I prefer to shoot zombies or run a CAD program, sir, the answer is 'kill zombies,' sir," Lyons said, smiling. "Take me a while to get back in shape, but I'm your man, sir."