John Ringo - Islands of Rage and Hope

“Very well,” Steve said, touching another control. The conference came up on the large plasma behind his desk. “Ladies and gentlemen, my daughter Ensign Sophia Smith.”

“Sophia?” General Brice said, startled. “ Seawolf?”

“Somebody had to do it, ma’am,” Sophia said, her face tight. “I won’t say I’m glad or anything, but if we hadn’t we’d have been in the same boat as the Lawtons and the subs. Even if we didn’t get the Plague.”

“And the other gentlemen is…?” Dr. Dobson said.

“Thomas Walker,” Steve said. “He is a former SF medic who has management experience as well as some slight lab experience. He knows a Bunsen burner from a test tube anyway. He will be managing the lab.”

“Sophia,” Dr. Dobson said. “Since there is a blanket pardon in place for all persons involved in the vaccine production you were involved in, could you give us a few more details, please?”

“The lab was for Bank of the Americas,” Sophia said. “It was run by Dr. David Curry…”

“I could see Dave doing that,” Dobson said, grinning mirthlessly.

“I…saw many of the CDC teleconferences when the Plague was spreading,” Sophia said. “Dr. Curry kept it running in both the hot and cold zones. So I recognize you, sir. My job was most of the processing. Dr. Curry would…do initial preparation of the materials. It was the one bit I wasn’t willing to do.”

“Initial preparation?” General Brice said. “Sorry but we’re going to have to approve this for use by the sub crews. We need to have some idea of what exactly is going on.”

“Grinding up the spinal cords,” Sophia said tightly. “They would be brought in by…” She stopped and looked at her dad.

“My brother Thomas Smith was General Manager for Security and Emergency Response for Bank of the Americas,” Steve said. “Tom’s teams, covering as one of the standard contract Biological Emergency Response Teams, would find infected, secure and terminate, strip the spines and deliver them to the lab.”

“I see,” General Brice said. “Go on, Ensign.”

“Dr. Curry would do that part of the preparation. It isn’t tough except emotionally. Drop the spinal cords in a blender and hit blend.”

“Okay,” Secretary Galloway said, twitching slightly.

“Then he would give me the materials for processing. Centrifuge until the layers are separated. Remove the liquid containing the virus bodies using a pipette. Separate using a medium, which is the most time intensive part. Also… “tedious” doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s like watching paint dry except you have to actually pay attention to it. Measure an exact volume of virus bodies into containers. You can use glass test tubes for that but we used disposable ones. Calculate the X-ray charge for that volume depending on whether it was primer or booster. X-ray with the specified output and time. Remove the irradiated virus bodies and place precise quantities in vaccine containers. Mix with specific levels of deionized water. Then there’s quality control. When we started, Dr. Curry would test it with reagents, I’m not even sure what kind, then double check with the SEM…”

“Sem?” Galloway asked.

“Scanning electron microscope,” Dr. Dobson said. “According to your records, there’s one at the immunology lab at Guantanamo. May or may not be working. On the other hand, there’s a way to make one that’s not too hard. According to Commander Freeman, a nuclear engineering specialist would find it child’s play. Ditto the mass spectrometer they’re going to need. And we know what the reagents were. That’s different from them being available. What about a vaccine test kit?”

“They had those in New York,” Sophia said uncomfortably. “That’s what he switched to when they came out.”

“Vaccine test kit?” Galloway said. “Again, what?”

“When vaccines suddenly hit the street, there was only one source,” Dobson said, just as uncomfortably as Sophia. “Which at the time was classified as first degree murder with bells and whistles. What we are now planning on doing in job lots.”

“Agreed and understood,” the NCCC said. “On the other hand, we’re already killing the infected in job lots. Might as well put them to some use. Callous? Yes. Necessary, also yes. We’ve had the discussion.”

“The point is, sir, if I may,” Sophia said, gulping, “street dealers were offering vaccine. Sometimes it was just distilled water. Say one of them gets busted. What is he actually carrying? Remains of a person who was murdered or just water? One is a con, the other is conspiracy to murder. So they came out with small test kits for ‘street vaccine.’ Cop busts a guy with what looks like vials of water, tests it, it’s vaccine, he busts him for possession plus they start capital murder charges.”

“Ah,” Galloway said, nodding. “Makes sense.”

“I was sort of there on the sharp end, sir,” Sophia said. “I spent a good part of the time in New York terrified somebody would burn us and I’d end up in prison. I knew the Fall was coming. I did not want to be in prison when it hit. Thing is, the tests were cheap, mass produced, and they actually were accurate enough to tell if the vaccine was good or not. Not only could they tell if it was good, they could determine if it was good primer or booster and even whether it was from a human or another ‘higher order primate.’ Just inject a few drops into the plastic thingy and it gave you a response in a few seconds. So then the dealers and people who wanted to buy vaccine on the street started buying them. They were selling over the counter in New York before the Fall. We’re going to need more than the X-ray generator. We’ve found those. What we really could use, for quality control, is some vaccine test kits. Not to mention graduated pipettes, tips, syringes…And separation medium. That’s going to be hard to find. There’s a lot of material besides an X-ray generator.”

“According to our records Gitmo should have all of it,” Commander Freeman said.

“Then I guess we need to take Guantanamo Bay, sirs, ma’am,” Sophia said, shrugging. “If it’s as well stocked as indicated, I can get the lab up and running in a day or so. And then we can start taking poor deranged Marines, sailors and civilians and turning them into vaccine,” she ended, a tad bitterly.

“Ensign Smith,” the NCCC said. “I want you to know that whatever your feelings in this matter, this will not be held against you legally in any way. And for myself, personally, thank God you did do what you did, didn’t get caught and are going to do again. It is, literally, the salvation of humanity. Hole is out.”

“Anything we can provide on this end at this time, Ensign?” Dr. Dobson said.

“Prayer?” Sophia said. “I’ll get back to you when we’re getting the lab set up.”

“Another fine day at Guantanamo Bay, Sergeant!” Hoag said as she popped her head up through the roof hatch.

It was dawn and changing of the guard at Building Fourteen Survival Center, Gitmo. A constant watch was maintained on the rooftop. Nobody was, at this point, absolutely sure why. While the infected level had dropped, it hadn’t dropped enough for them to get out. Not nearly enough ammo. And there was, so far, no sign of any relief.