John Ringo - Under a Graveyard Sky

“Petty Officer,” the voice said, sharply. “Calm down. You’re doing great. You’re a God damned credit to the Coast Guard that you can be this coherent after what you’ve been through. Okay? Calm down. You’re doing fine.”

“Yes, sir,” Kuzma said. “Sir… There really isn’t anything on land?”

“ Family?” the voice asked, softly.

“Yes, sir,” Kuzma said. “My… I have kids, sir.”

“So do I,” the voice said. “ They were in DC. I was…not. Petty Officer Kuzma, go get Wolf, then stand by. It appears I need to talk to the commodore.”

“Yes, sir,” Kuzma said. “He seems like a good guy, sir. But…I mean they really don’t know nothing about the sea. I’m surprised any of them have survived at all. These are the kind of people that we usually rescue. Not the other way around.”

“We are living in strange times, Petty Officer,” the voice said. “Get the commodore.”

* * *

“Wolf.”

“So you’re a commodore?”

“I’m in command of six small boats,” Steve said, calmly. “And a support vessel. In the World War Two British Navy I’d be a Reserve, Hostilities Only, Lieutenant Commander or so. I was given the moniker by my next senior captain and it was voted upon, against my wishes, by the captain’s board. Feel free to call me Mr. Wolf or Captain Wolf. May I have a name?”

“Mister… Blount? My mother’s name. It’s not a huge security issue. We are in contact with all the rest of the remaining headquarters, such as they are and they know who I am.”

“God,” Steve said, his eyes closing. “You’re the NCCC.”

“You’re well versed in security issues.”

“I was a history teacher,” Steve said. “Including twentieth century. My masters in history was on the defense of Malta during World War Two. I thought that was bad. If the NCCC is talking to me … That’s even worse than my worst nightmares. That means this little flotilla really is it , doesn’t it?”

“You’re…unfortunately perceptive. There are other forces, but…”

“The subs aren’t infected but they also don’t have vaccine,” Steve said. “I’ve had time to think about this, sir.”

“You’re Australian?”

“I’m a naturalized American citizen, sir,” Steve said. “But at this point, I think borders are a bit passe. Be that as it may, I’m an American. Passport and everything. Two children who are quite American.”

“From what I’ve heard, the best of America,” the NCCC said.

“Fought their way out of the last concert in New York,” Steve said. “A tale I’d be more than happy to tell as soon as we can get you out of whatever fortress you’re in.”

“Come again?”

“My plan had been to just survive,” Steve said. “Keep hiding. Find a place my family and I could survive. Let someone like, well, you, sir, handle this. But… You save one person and it gets addictive. And this situation…annoys me, sir. I…shortly after we took the Toy I told my wife we were not going to bow to the zombies, sir.

“So, yes, my goal, not plan, goal, is a zombie free world. I’ll start with the U.S. So that wasn’t a joke. Say the goal is to get to the point where a lightly armed convoy can pull up with busses and deliver vaccine to your people and then you can take over and I can go fishing. Don’t ask me what the plan is, though. I didn’t know I was going to find a coast guard cutter. I don’t know what disaster or success is going to occur next. All I can do is work the goal. Sir.”

“Ambitious. Do you think you can do it?”

“I’ve only got a few boats, sir,” Steve said. “But if I have the CG personnel behind me, officially, it will help. I’ve got one active duty special forces sergeant but I’m going to need more help from surviving military. The sub personnel, especially, as soon as we can produce vaccine. I’m going to need their technical expertise if this is going to work.”

“ About that,” the NCCC said . “We picked up the snippet where some was mentioned. Might I inquire where you secured it?”

“I don’t know,” Steve said. “Can I get a written pardon?”

There was a long pause.

“Were you…active in producing it?”

“I was not someone who…acquired the materials,” Steve said, cautiously. “I knew someone who was. And I know someone who was involved in production of vaccine.”

“Attenuated virus vaccine? Successfully?”

Steve thought about that for a long time.

“Yes.”

“ Know someone? As in they know how to produce it? Have done so? And are available?”

“Yes, although absent that pardon you’re going to have to break out thumbscrews to get me to say who. And thumbscrews won’t work.”

“Stand by.”

* * *

“That is better than we could have hoped for,” Dr. Dobson said. He had been brought in on the conversation early on.

“I still don’t think some drug dealer…” Commander Freeman started to say.

“Wolf, despite his grandiose name, does not sound like a drug dealer,” Galloway said, holding up a hand.

* * *

“Captain Wolf? Blount, over.”

“Wolf.”

“First of all, since I didn’t cover it. No, there will be no charges. Can I absolutely guarantee that someday in the fullness of stupidity, some group will not bring charges of crimes against humanity for production of attenuated vaccine from human spinal cords? No. We are human and such things happen. What I can guarantee, and I’ll get someone to send you a facsimile of a document to the effect, is that to the extent I have the legal power to do so, I will retroactively permit the production as well as authorizing future production for the good of the United States and humanity. That way if there is ever an ICC again we can both hang. But right now, without vaccine we are truly stuck. I won’t ask you to reveal much about it but we need to get some issues straight. Doctor?”

“This is Dr. James Dobson. I’m the Acting Director of the CDC. Can you detail, at all, the nature of the person you have who is familiar with production of attenuated vaccine? What are his or her qualifications?”

“None, essentially,” Steve said, carefully. “They were recruited by a clandestine, but highly professional, lab to assist in the production. They were the primary laboratory technician for the production of the vaccine my family used and currently has. We only have a few remaining doses, which I’m using for clearance personnel since they are more likely to get blood contamination. It works. None of us have contracted the disease and my daughter, handle Shewolf, contracted the virus after only the primer but survived. It was touch and go but she made it.”

* * *

“Sounds like his wife was the lab-tech,” Brice said, grimacing. “That had to be cold.”

“Can you define ‘highly qualified’?” Dr. Dobson said. “In a way that…”

“Fully prepared lab including Scanning Electron Microscope and all that sort of stuff,” Wolf replied. “Run by a PhD in microbiology. I hope you won’t mind if I avoid the name. But he used to work for you, Doctor. He was a consultant for a…well heeled group.”

“Corporate lab,” Dobson said, grimacing. “The FBI was aware they were around. New York, L.A. and San Francisco were particularly rife with them. They produced the vaccine for senior corporate officers and support. But they were professionals. But a lab tech… That’s not the same as the doctor…”