The Emerald Virus (41 page)

    
While she was gone Andy thought how nice it would be to have a senior staff he
could trust like that.

    
Sam came back and told him that he was on speaker and that she had been joined
by her deputy and the head of their militia. Andy thought, the head of the
militia, how in the world did they get so organized so quickly.

    
He said, “Hi, I wanted to call and warn you about a conversation I overheard
last night. I won’t go into the circumstances but here’s how the conversation
went….”

    
When he finished with the explanation he said, “I don’t think I have any
grounds to keep them from leaving, and to tell you the truth I don’t think I
have the means to stop them if I wanted to. We are still really disorganized
here.”

    
Noah said, “Thanks Andy. I think all of us here agree that you really can’t do
much on your end. But I want to ensure you that your phone call will make a
huge difference to us as we prepare our defenses. We all thank you for that
courtesy.”

    
Andy sat back and wondered why he felt frustrated after having taken a positive
step. But he knew that he wanted to do more than make a phone call. He wanted
to be able to stop that group from moving on and doing harm. But how could he?
He didn’t know for sure they were going to do harm to anyone but only that they
had talked about it. And he had even heard them say they might not even make to
the other camp. They could choose to settle anywhere.

    
The only thing he could think to do would be to break in to Sandy’s RV and see
if he could retrieve any of the email, and that would only help if the emails
proved that Sandy had agree to wrongdoing, which wasn’t likely.

    
He decided to leave it alone before it drove him crazy. He called the Southern
California group next, looking for an update. He got through to Padraig, the
group leader, on the first try.

    
They talked for about organizational difficulties and Padraig told Andy that
his group looked like they were going to split into a number of smaller groups.
A group this size seemed to result in anarchy, simple because they could never
decide on a single issue without days of discussion and argument. Even the
simplest issues seem to be controversial.

    
Padraig continued, “I’m going to take a group to Pacheco State Park. They have
a wind farm there and the park is adjacent to the San Louis Pump Generating
Plant. It’s a Pumped Storage Plant and should give us both power and water for
irrigation for years to come. The plant has eight generators which operate
independent from each other. Which means that we only have to keep one operating
to meet our needs. That also means that we can use each one until it quits on
us, and then we’ll move to the next one. We could have electricity for a long
time.

    
“The wind farms nearby produce enough electricity for about thirty five hundred
families, so between the two of them we should be set for the foreseeable
future. We have two Hydro Engineers in our big group and I’m hoping one of them
comes with us to Pacheco.

    
“Of course power and water are our primary sources of controversy here. We’ve
located ourselves in the Imperial Valley. Most of us thought that would be
worthwhile for a lot of reasons. We could grow anything we wanted to; it’s
close enough to San Diego so we could move to the coast in the future, and we
wouldn’t have to worry about snow and cold in the winter.

    
“To the surprise of a lot of the group, the Imperial Valley is serious desert,
and there’s very little natural water here. The big lake people saw on the maps
is the Salton Sea, which is a large salt water lake.

    
“There are apparently thousands of miles of irrigation lines, pipes and canals
that move water from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley. By the way,
some of those canals take water from the Colorado and move it to you in
Phoenix.

    
“The engineers tell us we don’t have nearly enough people to maintain an irrigation
system that large. And if we have a dam collapse near the Colorado, water to us
could slow to a trickle overnight.

    
“So I’m moving to a smaller irrigation system and more secure water and power.
We formed a committee to come up with workable locations, but I had done my own
research and announced that I was willing to locate a group in the Diablo Range
in the Central Valley. It gets chilly there in the winter, but it doesn’t snow,
and it’s close to the ocean as well.”

    
Andy responded, “That sounds well thought out to me. Tell me, what size group
are you hoping for?”

    
“From my experience here I’d like to keep my group to a hundred or less,
although I’ll probably be okay up to one hundred fifty if need be.”

    
“Maybe that’s our problem here in Phoenix; the group is just too large. We
can’t seem to get agreement on anything.”

    
“Yeah I know that feeling. Well, if you get tired of Phoenix you’re always
welcome to join me in the central valley of California.”

    
“Thanks Padraig, take care.”

    
Andy hung up and spent some time thinking about breaking the group into two
parts and organizing smaller groups. The idea surely had merit.

    
Next he called Dale, the head of the Alaska group, and when he didn’t answer
Andy called Marci, Dale’s deputy.

    
This was a short conversation, Marci confirmed that they were snowed in, but
that they were all used to winter semi-hibernation. She confirmed that about
half of their group had never registered on the web site, and that they weren’t
even sure where everyone was from. A number of languages were being spoken and
while she recognized Russian and Inuit, there were others.

    
Many of the Inuit’s and Yupik’s were abandoning the RVs and setting out on the
ice in dog sleds. It was evident they weren’t looking for life on easy street. 

    
After finishing his conversation with Marci he called Charlotte to let her know
about his talk with Sam.

    
Charlotte said, “Andy, that’s all you can do. You can’t shoot people for
talking you know.”

    
“Yeah I know that, I’m just a little sorry about it is all.”

    
Charlotte laughed and added, “On the positive side Jack has finally come to
grips with the fact that he’s a survivor, although he has been procrastinating
badly about sending an email to everyone letting them know the good news.
Actually I think the problem is that he doesn’t consider it good news.”

    
“I know what he means, and so do you. It’s hard to consider yourself lucky when
you look around at the total devastation. I think I’m always going to feel a
little guilty about being a survivor.

    
Andy continued, “What do you think Sam and her folks will do. Do you know they
founded a militia? Holy cow, how did they get that organized?”

    
“Yes I knew about the militia, Sam and I talk every day, and they got organized
because the entire group realized early on that their life was liable to depend
on getting organized for the winter.”

    
“As to what they’ll do, I’m not at all sure. But to tell you the truth if I had
to put money on anyone in an upcoming fight, I’d put it on those folks in the
park.”  

    
Andy said, “I agree with that. But to change the subject, what’s Jack going to
do now?”

    
“I wish I knew. On Monday he told me no matter what happened I should plan on
taking over the TRV group. But when I pressed him he just said he hadn’t
decided yet. I don’t know him well yet, but I certainly trust him. We’ll have
to wait and see.”

    
“How are you doing on getting your group organized?”

    
“Pretty good actually, Jack took a group of veterans into Knoxville for some
equipment we needed. They went to a National Guard Armory first and got what
Jack referred to as Mop Gear for everyone. That’s some kind of chemical warfare
suit with a full head and face mask. They all dressed in their mop gear and got
on the bus Jack had picked up for the trip.

    
“Jack and a group of them took out the seats on one side of the bus so they’d
have plenty of room to get out of and store the mop gear when the time came. They
apparently also picked up quite a bit of other equipment at the armory.

    
“I asked Jack why they needed the mop gear and he explained how bad the cities
would be with all of the unburied bodies lying around. It’s really hard for me
to picture, but he has to be right about it. So he wanted to make sure that his
group was as protected as they could be.

    
“So, in the sense that we have twenty veterans doing things secretly, we have a
militia.  I’d worry about a coup except that the group belongs to Jack anyway.”

    
Andy laughed and said, “A coup would be strange anyway. You have to be crazy to
want to lead one of these groups.”

    
Charlotte didn’t laugh when she said, “Andy, power does strange things to men.
Some of them are crazy in the sense that they would do almost anything to be in
a position of power. Remember the gun battle you were in. Those men were trying
to exert their power over you, and others.

    
“You have men in your group who are only a couple of steps from being willing
to use violence as a means of securing a powerful position for themselves.
Until you move your group forward to the point that everyone understands the
need for, and truly agrees with a non-violent method of changing group leaders,
you have to stay on your guard.

    
“Andy, I’m sure that’s the reason that Sam agreed to a short tour as leader,
because the group didn’t vote for her. The rest of us have all used one year as
the limit to our terms. Anyone who wants to work towards defeating me in the
next election is welcome to do so. Anything is better than violence as a means
of determining who should rule.”

Wednesday
Evening: Old Faithful Inn, Wyoming

 Sam
and her senior staff had been discussing the defense plans for their group
since Andy had called. They had now moved to what Sam considered the heart of
the matter.

    
Danny still wanted to return to what they had been calling ‘Turner’s Saloon’.
Sam was convinced that had become too dangerous.

    
She now said, “Danny, whoever the insider is, he or she knows you have been
here. It just won’t work for you to return. I’m sure Turner will know you’ve
been with us. I don’t know what they’ll do to you, but I don’t think it will be
kind.”

    
Danny smiled and said, “Sam, I think you’re right about Turner probably knowing
that I’ve been here. I have been thinking about how to do this and I have a
plan I’d like to share with the group.”

    
Noah was afraid Sam was going to say no too quickly so he said, “Danny, we’d
like to hear your plan, but make it good, I’m skeptical.”

    
Danny said, “Thanks Noah”, while Noah intentionally avoided the fiery look Sam
was giving him.

    
“My plan requires a few assumptions. One is that the insider isn’t also a
member of the militia. If we can’t make that assumption, the plan becomes too
dangerous.”

    
Colonel Green spoke up, “Danny, I feel from a professional stand point that all
those men and women are as loyal as you and I. The problem is that I can’t
guarantee it.”

    
“I know Colonel. I’ve appraised everyone in the group and I agree with your
assessment. Let’s press forward accepting the premise that the militia is
loyal, but holding the final decision in reserve.”

    
“The next assumption is that I can explain to Turner and his group everything
we’ve done, without hurting our defensive posture.”

    
The Colonel said, “I think that’s 75% true. Some of what we’ve done I’d
consider quite sensitive and potential harmful if an enemy was aware of it.”

    
“How about we eliminate everything you and I have done with just the two of us.
How does that look.”

    
“It looks pretty good. We’ve restricted those sensitive things to the two of us
just to be sure we avoided the insider.”

    
“Right, which means that unless one of us is the insider we should be okay with
me talking openly.”

    
“I agree with that. All we’ve done as a group is organize, start to train,
close the camp at night, and put out guards. If Turner knew that he might
change his mind about attacking us, so I have no qualms about you talking to
him about our progress.”

    
“Good. So I now go to Turner with really solid intelligence about this camp.
And I tell him that I’ve looked at both sides and I think he has the better
idea of how to live in the new world. And I tell him that I believe I can now
move in and out of the park without anyone suspecting I’m working with him.

    
“He’s going to ask me where you think I’ve gone and I’ll tell him that I’m on a
scouting run. That I find it hard to stay in one place for too long, and with
the snowplow on the front of my RV I can go anywhere except into the mountains,
so I’m out looking at the world. That’s actually what I was planning on doing anyway,
until I diverted here.

    
“I’ll stop by Turner’s Saloon and then go on my scouting run. Maybe I’ll call
him from a couple of distant cities, so his cell phone will show an inbound
call from Minneapolis, or Salt Lake City.”

    
Sam asked, “But what good will that do? If you check in with him and then
leave, what can you accomplish?”

    
“That’s where the loyalty of the militia comes in. I’d like my partner to stay
behind when I go on my scouting run.’

    
Sam was looking at him openmouthed, “What partner, what are you talking about?”

    
“I’m talking about my Coup De Theatre. This will work if I can find a female
partner to go with me and spend maybe a week alone with Turner’s group.

    
“I can assure you, and her, that I’ll put the fear of God in Turner’s group
about her being my girl and I’ll take out anyone who touches her while I’m
gone. The problem is that I can’t guarantee she’ll be safe. I need someone who
can also look after herself.

    
“Sam, it can’t be you so don’t even think that. Turner will recognize you of
course.”

    
Sam said, “Well, where are you going to find this super woman who won’t mind
risking her life for us, and who can take on an Army by herself after you
desert her.”

    
Danny winced, “Sam, I’m not going to desert anyone. But if I do this right I’ll
have to leave for at least five, six, seven days. I don’t see how I can be
convincing otherwise.”

    
“You can stay at Turner’s Saloon the entire time.”

    
“Not if I want him to trust me I can’t. He is one of those men who see women as
toys, not serious players. Unfortunately there are enough women who want to be
treated as toys out there, so that men like Turner can ignore people like you
Sam. Turner would never believe that a woman, especially a woman who dressed
like and acted like a toy, could be a serious adversary.

    
“He would believe that such a woman would be loyal to me. I’d have to explain
that I needed to make the scouting run as I promised, and that she didn’t want
to be bored while stuck in the RV for a week. I’d ask him personally to keep
his eye on her while I was gone. And I would ask her to stay as close to him as
she could during the time I was gone.”

    
“What makes you think he would protect her while you were gone?”

    
“I know how that kind of man thinks. He’ll play the protector for the right
reason. The right reason is that I’d take a gift to him. Maybe a couple of
RPGs, although that might be too dangerous.

    
Sam looked up and said, “RPGs?”

    
“Rocket Propelled Grenades.”

    
“Oh great, now were going to help arm him. Have you gone totally crazy?”

    
With a lopsided grin Danny said, “Actually I think I’ve always been that way,
so I think the answer to your question is no, although in a roundabout way you
could say the answer is yes.”

    
“Danny, this isn’t the time to be cute. What else?”

    
“I need to make a substantial gift of some kind to him. If I used RPGs I’d
first take out about 65% of the explosives, so while they wouldn’t be totally
safe, they would not perform as expected.

    
“Next I’d have to start a fight with a couple of the biggest and meanest guys
in his group. Men like Turner understand strength, even if he is a bully. And
by the way, I’m not convinced he’s just a bully. He might actually be a tough
guy.

    
“If I can do that and convince him to trust me, and trust my partner, she might
be able to find out who the insider is. I don’t think he would tell her, but a
girl toy hanging around the big guy could overhear a lot of things in a week.”

    
Again Sam spoke up, although more calmly this time, “So if you survive putting
your life on the line, you think you’ll be better able to protect your partner
from a distance? And what if you lose the fight, what will happen to the two of
you?”

Danny
looked at her with a soft smile and said, “Sam on this point you’ll just have
to trust me. I don’t lose fights.”

    
Sam looked at Noah and Ted and saw them both nodding their heads. They believed
Danny and she realized that she did too. She didn’t know what all he was
capable of, but she couldn’t see putting any limits on the possibilities. And
she realized that everything he said rang true, if anyone could pull this off,
it would be him. But what if he was wrong this one time, what if he died. She
decided to ask.

    
“Danny, what happens if you guess wrong and somebody shoots you when you walk
in the saloon, or you die some other way?”

    
“The sad part would be that my partner would be in jeopardy. She would have to
get out at the first possible opportunity. And if she didn’t make it you would
know about it when we missed our first call-in to you. Then life would go on
for the rest of you.

    
“You would have the same problem you have now, and you would have capable men
and women ready to defend this camp. My death would be inconvenient for me, but
it won’t hurt this group. It would just mean I wasn’t able to help you.”

    
Sam was stunned as she thought about Danny’s statement. Two of their members
would lose their lives and the rest would go on as if nothing happened.

    
She realized that Danny was right. The question was if the risk was worth the
reward. She thought about what Danny brought to them and what the group would
lose and she realized that she was going to agree to this scheme. Not because
of the good it would do them if Danny accomplished this, but more because she
believed that he had the best chance of all to do this right, and get out.

    
She wondered if military commanders felt this way when they sent men to fight;
this mixture of fear for the safety of their men and confidence in their abilities
as soldiers. She wished her father was here so she could ask him that question.

    
She understood intuitively that Danny didn’t want to die, but that he was one
of those men who had to take action. And not just any action, he was always
going to be the one that took on the toughest job. And then she realized why
there weren’t more of these men in the world. They tended to die young. She
didn’t know until this moment how lucky she was to have had a father for all
these years.

    
Colonel Green looked at Danny and said, “Do you actually think Shelly will do
this with you?”

    
“Colonel, I’ll be really surprised if she doesn’t.”

     
Sam asked, “How can the two of you be sure she’s the right one.”

    
Danny responded, “I’ve trained with her this week. She spent seven years as a
Marine Corps Officer, working as a woman in a man’s world. And not only in that
world, but as a leader of some of the hardest men around and apparently she
excelled.

    
“She is also good looking, almost a knock out, and she’s well built. She could
be very convincing in floozy clothing. She would have to learn how to play the
part of course. While I’m not an expert in the area, it doesn’t seem to me that
playing a floozy can be that tough.”

    
“Colonel, how did you know Danny was talking about Shelly?

    
“For the reasons Danny mentioned, and for one he didn’t. She is totally
committed to defending our group. She understands better than most what we are
really up against. Without anyone telling her about Turner’s Saloon, she knows
there are bad guys out there, and that sooner or later we’re going to run into
them. She’ll be ready when that day comes, and I think she’ll want to help
Danny regardless of the danger.”

 
   “Noah, what do you think?”

    
“Sam, I think we have to let Danny try. He has a better than even chance to do
this. I don’t know Shelly as well as Ted and Danny do, but I agree with them
when they say she is one tough cookie.”

    
Noah looked at Danny and said, “I really dislike not being able to help you. In
fact it galls me to no end that I’m going to end up staying here while you walk
into the lions den.”

    
As usual Danny smiled and said, “I know it does Noah, and I would love to have
your help with this. But Turner knows you also and probably hates you for
humiliating him. You had your chance with him and you’re going to have to let
me have round two.”

    
Sam had a fierce look on her face when she said, “And if it comes to a round
three I’ll kill that son of a bitch myself.”

    
All three men looked shocked, but none of them laughed or disputed what she had
said.

    
Sam continued “Danny, “We’ll take you up on your offer to go to Turner’s Saloon
and try to find out the name of the insider. I don’t want to do this, but I
don’t have any options. We will never be able to thank you enough for your
offer, and I’ll never be able to repay you.”

    
With his ever present smile Danny said, “I’m not looking for either thanks or
reward, you have no obligation to me at all.”

    
“Do you want me to talk to Shelly about the mission?”       

     
“No, I’d like to do that myself. I’ll have to be totally honest with her.
She’ll know if I’m trying to pull the wool over her eyes. And if she doesn’t
agree, I’ll find someone else.

    
“If you don’t mind I’ll go to her RV right now and talk to her. I’ll also
explain to her that she and I are going to need to be seen together publicly
holding hands, arms around each other, and that type of thing. I’m also going to
ask her to resign from the militia until we get back.

    
“And Colonel, I’m going to stop participating as well. I’d like you to give the
impression that you didn’t care for how Shelly and I were acting, but that we
left voluntarily. Of course Shelly has to agree to all of this first.