Islands of Rage and Hope

CHAPTER 31

“Permission to poke my head in the cockpit?” Harry asked.

The last lift was going out. Staying behind were twenty Gurkhas and ten Warders. The Warders were all former military, all veterans and all determined that whatever happened, the Tower would remain in British hands.

“Grab the jumpseat,” Colonel Kuznetsov said, pointing to it. “Colonel Nikifor Kuznetsov, Your Highness.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Colonel,” Harry said.

“Captain Milo Wilkes,” Wilkes said. He was piloting the bird. “Pleasure to have you aboard, sir.”

“Very glad to be out of there, Captain,” Harry said. “I shouldn’t feel that way but being trapped like that was… unsettling.”

“You’re the first people we’ve pulled out of a city,” Wilkes said. “It’s… unpleasant. I can’t believe the fire damage.”

“It is… worse than I’d realized,” Harry said, looking at the torched landscape. “But there are survivors.”

“A few, sir,” Wilkes said, pointing to the side with his chin. “We’ve passed this group three times. I’m sure they’re getting annoyed.”

“Can we pick them up?” Harry asked.

“I’m going to request we be allowed to as a supplementary mission from the colonel, sir,” Wilkes said. “That one, at least. But not right now we can’t. From the looks of it, we’d have to winch someone down and then winch them back up. We can do it. We have the equipment. But it’s not part of the primary mission.”

“With a helo and some support we could pick up pretty much everyone,” Harry said. “Most of them had to access rooftops to survive.”

“Like Katrina,” Wilkes said, nodding. “I didn’t work it but I knew people who did. Marine Reserve picked up more people than the Coast Guard. But it would take a lot of support. You’d need somewhere to keep them, food, and…Lots of logistics, sir.”

“There is that,” Harry said, grinding his teeth. “But these are my people, Colonel. In a very real sense. It’s possible I’m their sovereign if the reports of Grandmum’s death are accurate. I need to do something.”

“Take that up with higher, sir,” Wilkes said, banking around. “It’s possible they’ll support it. Or give you support to support it. Until the subs are vaccinated, though, we’re sort of focused.”

“You cleared in the Caribbean,” Harry said.

“We were looking for vaccine materials, sir,” Wilkes said. “Give me a moment, would you? Winds are tricky…”

“Welcome aboard, Captain,” Colonel Hamilton said, shaking the prince’s hand. “We’re sort of crowded at the moment but we’ve got a room for you below. Although I’m sure you’d like to get some food in your belly…”

“We can do that,” Hamilton said, nodding. “The one group, at least. I’ll have Captain Wilkes schedule it for later this afternoon.”

“Is there any possibility of staying in the area to do more recovery?” Harry asked. “That’s an official question of the British government.”

He was sipping soup. They’d been on very short rations for a very long time, and as other survivors had, he needed something light to start.

“Our first and primary mission is recovering some supplies from the London Research Center,” Hamilton said carefully. “After that…it would be up to higher. But let me point out that what holds for London holds for every city in the world. There are survivors. There are survivors everywhere. With helos you can pick some of them up. But we only have two pilots, three with you, and one fully functioning helo. The other is ready for a test hop but…Logistics. Support. Especially for the helos. Do you have any other pilots?”

“No,” Harry said, frowning. “We have one more helo, though. I flew it in on my own. It’s tucked up against the wall in the Tower. Getting it fueled and supported, though…And it’s not very good for rescue. It’s a Lynx. Only a few people at a time.”

“That’s all you generally get, Captain,” Hamilton said. “Hang on. Sergeant.”

“Sir?” Sergeant Weisskopf said.

“Tell Captain Wilkes he’s authorized to pick up the survivors spotted on the way to the Tower,” Hamilton said. “Assuming the bird is still good. And he’ll need a detail with it. Take Januscheitis and his team.”

“Yes, sir,” Weisskopf said, leaving the compartment.

“Thank you, Colonel,” Harry said.

“It’s not outside our parameters,” Hamilton said, frowning. “There should be something we can do…I hate to do this. PFC!”

“Sir?”

“Get Shewolf and Seawolf in here,” Hamilton said.

“Shewolf was the young lieutenant we met at the Tower, sir?” Captain Whiteshead asked.

“And her sister, Sophia,” Hamilton said. “They are…green as grass and yet far more experienced at this than I am.”

“And…cold, sir?” Harry said. “She seemed very…flat.”

“Faith is…” Hamilton said. “You’ll have to see the introduction to Wolf Squadron video to even begin to comprehend either one of them. And it really doesn’t cover it.”

“You sent for me, sir?” Sophia said, sticking her head in the door.

“Grab a seat, Ensign,” Hamilton said. “Have you met Captain Whiteshead and Captain…Wales…?”

“Can the platform on the Social Alpha handle that other chopper?” Faith said as the conversation paused. She’d spent most of the last ten minutes sitting with her mouth shut, leaning on her hand.

“Yes,” Prince Harry said. “Probably.”

“Whatever,” Faith said. “Reinforce it. The Grace has got a machine shop. You can fly the helo off from there or at least support it.”

“That is a point,” Colonel Hamilton said. “Assuming we’re willing to give up the Social Alpha.”

“Dad will dump that ghost-ridden tug in a heartbeat, sir,” Faith said. “Trust me, he likes it about as much as I do. Eventually, you’ll need somewhere bigger to put people. And you need to be able to feed them.

“What you need is a cruise ship that’s not too wrecked. Bottom line, you want no more than one direction the infected can attack and if you can get out on water you’re golden. You’re going to need supplies. There are fricking boats alongside, wrecked, drifting, every way from Sunday. Salvage. You got supplies. Not sure about helo supplies. Don’t know about that. But you can do it. We can’t do it. You can do it. It’s just a matter of doing it.

“If we take a liner, we can show your Gurkhas and the new Dutch Marines the Wolf Way of Clearance Fu and get a liner for you to use at the same time. Of course, they take a bit of clean-up, but that’s the breaks. For ammo and even helo parts I’m sure we can get a shipment up to you from time to time. Or you can come back to Gitmo and do pretty much the same on the other side of the Atlantic. Up to you. Sirs.”

“Sounds like the first thing we need is a not-too-damaged liner,” Whiteshead said after a moment.

“Saw one alongside in some docks just upriver,” Faith said. “Of course, it’s alongside in a city. A really big city. But you can probably use it. You just got to do some serious scrumming to get the main hatches closed,” she ended with a feral grin.

“We don’t have gunboats to support you this time, Sis,” Sophia pointed out.

“Where’d we put them fifties?” Faith said. “We made the other ones right here on the Grace.”

“You are suggesting clearing a liner which is alongside, Lieutenant?” Hamilton asked. “Tied to a dock.”

“It’ll be easy compared to most of the stuff we’ve done, sir,” Faith said. “Among other things, this time I don’t have to climb over the side. We can slide down, sir.”

“I thought you didn’t like air-assault,” Sophia said.

“Beats climbing up into a scrum over shark-filled water,” Faith said. “Beats it all hollow.”

“I’d have to check on changing the mission orders,” Hamilton temporized. “And only after the main mission is complete.”

“Understood, Colonel,” Prince Harry said. “If it is possible… It would be a great aid to the British people.”

“We’ll look at the feasibility,” Hamilton said. “After the main mission is complete. Lieutenant, Ensign, get your final preparations for tomorrow’s mission done, then get some rack time. Tomorrow is not going to be a walk in the park. Even Washington Square.”

“You rang, Colonel?” Steve said. It was earlier in the day in Gitmo and while Hamilton had put off replying on the prince’s plan, he was interested in the answer as well.

“His Royal Highness brought up some points in our first meeting I thought you should be aware of, sir,” Hamilton said.

“Which are?” Steve asked.

The colonel gave a quick precis of the discussion before asking, “Not do you approve the notional plan or disapprove, sir,” Hamilton said. “I’m wondering what you think?”

“With some rather critical bits left out, you just covered Plan Sisyphus,” Steve said, leaning back.

“The Greek legend of the man who was condemned to roll a ball up a mountain, sir?” Hamilton said.

“The same,” Steve said. “Details you left out, not to mention getting ahead of yourself. Take about ten barges, lash them together. Cover in steel plates. Stick some containers onboard with housing and support. Anchor in the water source of the major city. You now have a helo-port that infected cannot access. Use a liner if you have one available as discussed to house the refugees. Otherwise find some land facility with strong defenses, such as the Tower of London, to do so. I’d suggest using the Tower until you have a liner cleared. But that is the simplest synopsis of Plan Sisyphus.”

“That won’t clear all the cities in the world, sir,” Hamilton said.

“Ninety percent of the major cities in the world are on a navigable waterway, Colonel,” Steve said. “Some of them will be difficult to get to, but they’re mostly on water. It’s practically a requirement to be a major city.

“With enough helos or time, you should be able to rescue ninety percent of the survivors in a major city. Which in the case of, say, London, will require more than one liner. To do it, you’ll need some trained personnel. Since you’re not focusing on boat crews, as we were at sea, you’ll need a core of trained personnel to train the willing. Which is why I need the sub crews.

“No disrespect to people like Staff Sergeant Januscheitis, but what takes six weeks to learn for your average aviation mechanic is a week’s class for a nuclear machinist’s mate. They’re simply a different breed of cat. They can absorb the information at phenomenal rates. Their primary purpose won’t even be wrench turners. Their primary purpose will be ensuring that newly minted helicopter mechanics are doing the job right. There’s not enough sub crews in the world to maintain all the helicopters we’re going to need. And we need them for other tasks.

“You’ll also need more helos and more helo pilots. And a better, more mobile, platform would be useful. I said—Jesus, it seems like years ago but it was in my first serious discussion with the Hole—that I’m going to need the Iwo Jima and lots of helicopters. Now you know why. Questions?”

“Am I the only person you’ve discussed this with, sir?” Hamilton asked curiously.

“You, my wife and Mr. Walker,” Steve said. “He was the one who suggested the helo barge. I was still at your plan or using the deck of a ship. He also extensively critiqued my written version. I’m starting to lose patience with ‘just leave him alone.’ I need his brains and experience, whoever he is or was. Whatever he is or was. Anything else?”

“Should I authorize the mission?” Hamilton asked. “Getting ahead of myself, sir.”

“As long as the primary one succeeds,” Steve said. “With the caveat that until we’ve built up the right force structure, the prince is going to be more or less on his own. All we’ll be able to supply is some parts, not as many as he’ll need, and some ammo. Starting an area and then having it bootstrap itself is part of the plan. Wolf Squadron, the U.S. Navy, the entire pre-Plague U.S. military were it still extant, cannot make a dent in clearing the world. Every nation will have to bootstrap itself. All we can do is give them the seeds. But we still need the sub crews to have any chance of even that succeeding. So we are back to the primary mission. What are your thoughts?”

“If they can access and close the doors,” Hamilton said, “I think they’ll be able to clear the building, sir. If they cannot…Abort. We also don’t know if the materials are available.”

“Positive thinking has long been shown to have an effect far beyond the strictly rational,” Steve said. “Some quantum physicists argue that sufficiently large belief can move a sufficiently small mountain. In other words: Don’t take counsel of your fears. You will succeed. We always do. After which we get a more impossible mission,” he added with a grin. “Wolf out.”