Winter Kill - War With China Has Already Begun

by Gene Skellig

  Once everybody was looking at her, Nora crossed her arms with an X, pointed her arm south, in the direction of the far side OP, then extended her arms at shoulder level and made a double-throttle motion to indicate snowmobiles, then showed one finger, then another X, then five fingers. This silently conveyed the message that: Far Side OP had contact with one snow mobile and was holding position to listen and report in another 5 minutes before calling for the whisper sled.

  After seeing JJ nod, Nora headed back to the near side OP to protect the extraction route while JJ gathered the work party around him. He had them take up a defensive position about half-way between the wood piles and the Near Side OP. His job was to keep the work party silent and invisible, ready to fight or flee or to return to continue work if it became safe to do so. He had to rely on Nora and Decklan, and trust in the SOPs. Were he to go to Decklan’s OP to micromanage him, he could compromise its location and put everybody in danger. So he stayed with the work crew as per SOPs. By now everybody could hear the sound of a skidoo not far off to the south-east.

  Decklan heard the sound much better than the others as the OP was on top of a ridge looking over a gulley to the south east. Using the head-strap mounted Yukon Viking 1x24 night vision binoculars, he could see a single man on a skidoo coming over a rise just 500 meters away. Between Decklan and the skidoo was a ridiculous sight he had never seen before.

  There was a herd of moose jumping awkwardly in the deep snow. It was strange to see moose in a herd as they were normally a solitary animal. But Decklan understood from the weekly ecology discussions lead by Zlata and Nora that animal behavior had changed drastically during the nuclear winter. They were trying to adapt to the unseasonable snow which had begun to persist and then accumulate last September, after the sky darkened permanently.

  Using the NVGs, Decklan saw what was happening very clearly in the dim light. He saw that a hunter was harassing a group of moose. Once he was very close, the hunter pulled up and stopped his snowmobile, and took his rifle out of its mount on the back of the skidoo. Decklan saw that the group of six or seven moose were abandoning their unusual herd behavior of moving in a line to conserve effort against the heavy snow, and were now trying to escape the terrifying and noisy hunter by darting off in all directions. As the hunter took aim and waited for his prey to be in the best position, Decklan looked at the largest moose.

  It should have been an impressive animal, with its massive rack of antlers, but it now looked bedraggled and scrawny. It was clearly exhausted, with steam coming out of its mouth. The other moose were also exhausted in their effort to plow through the heavy snow on their own. The cracking of the single gunshot was heard a split second after the moose fell. The other moose looked pathetic and weak, as though they also wanted their misery to end.

  Decklan reported that the hunter would remain in the vicinity, butchering and loading his kill into a cargo sled, and did not appear to be a threat.

  After figuring that they were safely downwind from the hunter, JJ decided to give the work party an early lunch break. They ate their meal quietly, taking their time as Decklan periodically updated everybody on the hunter’s progress.

  The hunter soon headed away. By the time the work party had completed its task, with Danny making three round-trips to haul the four cords of firewood to dump outside the garage, it was much later than it should have been. Tired as they were, however, they did not skip the important routine of erasing their tracks in the final few hundred meters before approaching the HOTH property boundary.

  Using a clever deception routine that Danny himself had come up with, they made a large circle taking their tracks back to rejoin their path in a two kilometer teardrop. Then, hooking up a section of chain-link fence that was stored hanging from spikes driven into a large tree, Danny pulled the improvised snow-grooming tool across the tracks between the teardrop and the HOTH property. If anybody came across the skidoo trail from the wood harvest site, and followed it to its destination, they would wind up back where they started, having made lots of noise in the process.

  While Danny put all the equipment away and had a shower, his thoughts turned to his personal life. He realized that he had already missed his chance to say a special good-night to April. He had been thinking about her all day and wanted to see if she still blushed when he talked with her. She was much younger, but Danny was certain that she welcomed his attention. He had to be careful because the HOTH was so crowded it was difficult to keep anything private.

  10

  CONSTRUCTION

  03 July: 22.5 Months Before NEW

  The extra large coffee that Casey had purchased at Tim Hortons that morning had not been enough. He was up all night going over the stack of résumés he had received in response to his newspaper ad: “Help Wanted, construction work, must have own hand tools and experience.” The ad had been deliberately vague.

  With unemployment now at 24% in the region, Casey had expected a large response. But he was surprised by the quality of many of the applications. Not only had they provided their qualifications and work history, but most had included well written cover letters demonstrating their leadership attributes and good character. To Casey, the level of effort they put into finding a short term job meant that they were in distress.

  Casey used an unusual set of criteria for the Applicant List Reduction. He organized the stack of résumés into three piles. The first pile, Too Experienced, would be rejected simply because they knew too much about construction and would ask too many questions. The second pile, High Risk, was for those whose work history indicated that they had had exposure to environments conducive to organized crime and drugs. Applicants were deemed High Risk when Casey found an erratic work history, long gaps in the employment record, too great a variety of low-skilled jobs, and any long term exposure to mining or forestry work.

  The third pile was for Good Prospects. Being a good prospect had nothing to do with their suitability for employment on his project. Rather, a Good Prospect was someone who was likely to be trustworthy, indicated by long-term employment with a single employer, a history of community engagement and volunteer activities, and some indication of strong family ties. Home ownership, particularly rural properties, also helped.

  Casey’s aim was to employ people who were suitable for construction work, to be sure, but he really wanted people who were not likely to become Security Risks.

  One of the Good Prospects was Stuart Greystone, a hobby farmer with ten acres on Grafton Road. Stuart and his wife had three teen-aged children. Another was a welder named Grant, with a large family to support and a small hobby farm near the Errington Market. Another was a young man named Kendal Kelly.

  Kendal had worked the past six years for one of the log-home manufacturers in the region but was now unemployed. So here was a man adept with a chain saw and heavy equipment, accustomed to performing hard physical work, yet also a craftsman. Certainly he could be trained to set up the scaffolding, form-rigging, and laying down of dunnage and plywood sheeting involved in suspended slab construction. Kendal would find working with the styrofoam ICF blocks to be child’s play and laying rebar was simple, albeit physically demanding. The man’s knowledge of wood working could come in handy as well.

  Another excellent candidate was a man still holding down a part time job at Pal Palamino’s On The Fly Gun & Tackle Shop. Casey had actually interacted with Peter Wright on a few occasions. Peter seemed to be a respectable young man. His ties to Pal made him a good strategic pick, although Casey had to be careful to assess his character before exposing him to any sensitive information.

  One woman making the Good Prospects cut was a single mother, Zlata Jones, who had a seven year old son to care for. Her unusual qualifications caught Casey’s attention. She had a Master’s degree in Climate Science from the University of Victoria, and several years experience in field work. Of note, she had led a research team to a glacier calving area near Narsarsuaq, Greenland. After a quick internet sea
rch, Casey found articles on the expedition and read the Executive Summary of the team’s Final Report. He was intrigued once he figured out what Zlata had been researching.

  The actual collection of the ice-core samples had gone smoothly, however there had been an unexpected finding that proved to be serendipitous. In one layer of ice, which had been carbon-dated as having been laid down at the start of the last ice age, they had successfully collected a missing series of data which had allowed climate scientists the world over to fill in the blanks on an important question in atmospheric science. It had something to do with microorganisms living as high as twenty miles up in the stratosphere. Casey was skeptical, and did not agree with her theory that the origins of the microbes was from the eruption of a super-volcano. Casey thought it more likely that the source was the effects of a moderate sized meteor impact. Regardless, the paper certainly demonstrated that Zlata was a legitimate climate scientist, and living right here in the Oceanside area.

  Zlata was an impressive young woman. Casey discovered that she had attained a solid reputation in the area of atmospheric modeling. Yet here she was, struggling along as a single mother in the Oceanside area. Certainly she was a Good Prospect, but not for construction work. She was someone who could contribute to the long term survival of his family, and his community, in the face of any disaster or climate crisis.

  He added Zlata to the “Special Projects Qualifications Register”, or SPQR, along with the annotation “Climate Science”. The only other names on the SPQR at this time were Marty Penner, annotated with “Film Festival”, and Henry Davidson, annotated with “VHF-FM/Tug”. Two more SPQR files still awaiting names were the “Geiger” and “Kodak” projects.

  Turning his attention back to Selection List Reduction, Casey found two more good prospects before reaching the bottom of the mountain of applications. He finished updating his three lists for later database entry, and tallied twenty five Good Prospects. He later contacted each in turn, informing all twenty five that they had been selected for a job interview.

  The interviews were conducted at Casey’s office in Qualicum Beach. When he interviewed Dr. Zlata Jones, and later Dr. Lloyd Skinner, he informed each of the PhDs that they did not meet his criteria for the construction job, but that he could offer them alternative employment if they were interested. In Zlata’s case, he made her an offer that she had not been expecting to come out of an interview for a laborer’s job.

  “In addition to the construction project for which you applied, I am also associated with a private research institute for which I serve as a consultant,” Casey began, gauging Zlata as he continued. “I actually am a head-hunter and coordinator of sorts. We’ve been looking for someone qualified to conduct a short study which will be used in support of a position-paper on public policy. We need expert analysis of the scientific aspects of an emergency response and disaster mitigation piece which we need to back up with peer-reviewed science. We can offer you a $30,000 term contract for a 20,000 word submission over which our foundation will have ownership of the intellectual property including distribution rights. It’s a six month contract with monthly draws laid out according to requisite Milestones.”

  Casey could see that Zlata was interested.

  “The task is to complete a review of relevant literature in Climate Sciences regarding two reference scenarios, to compare and contrast each, and to provide advice in support of disaster mitigation efforts at the local and regional levels.” Casey noticed that Zlata has sat up attentively to hear more.

  “The first scenario is a large-scale nuclear war with two gigatons yield. The second, the effects of an Apophis impact.”

  Zlata had no questions regarding the first, as she had been exposed to it in graduate school. The second was another story.

  “What exactly is an Apophis impact?”

  “You can see on page nine of the Scope-of-Work section in the contract before you,” Casey said as he passed her a twelve-page document which included specifics on the peer-review standards, confidentiality agreement, termination clause and other legal aspects. It also had eight pages of supporting details to provide the baseline and start conditions for the research. Zlata turned to page nine.

  “Astronomically named “99942 Apophis”, the Apophis asteroid was in the news back in 2004 when NASA announced that there was a one-in-forty chance that the asteroid could hit the Earth in 2029. With its 300 meter cross-section and twenty-seven billion kilogram mass traveling at 45,000 kph, the kinetic energy associated with an impact of an Apophis-sized meteor would have an equivalent of one point eight gigatons of TNT. With several years of additional data, astronomers are now confident that Apophis will not strike the earth,” Casey summarized.

  “Oh, yeah, I remember now. At graduate school back in Warsaw, we all laughed at that first prediction that it could hit the earth. And when they made new observations, confirming that it would not hit the earth, we quickly lost interest in it.” Zlata said this with a professional tone. “So you are just using it as a baseline of comparable magnitude to a large scale nuclear war? Why don’t you use the standards set out in the –Near Earth Object Program?”

  “Simply because we don’t know of another NEO close-approach asteroid that has ever reached the public consciousness. And it’s about the right size to make life very difficult for humans. After all, the purpose here will be to inform public policy makers, who are not scientists. They need real life examples that will help them understand the issues better.”

  “You can say that again!” Zlata said, reflecting on her own challenges in getting through to bureaucrats.

  “As you see on the final page of the contract, you are free to use a different NEO object that provides a suitable baseline for the compare-and-contrast portion of the project.”

  “How long do I have to think this over?”

  “You can take as long as you like, Dr. Jones, however we are going to post this offer on the internet at the end of the month if we have not found a suitable candidate here in the Vancouver region. Our preference is for someone in this region, as we may have some follow-on questions to have researched.”

  “OK, I can give you my answer now. My answer is “YES”, however that is with the understanding that you will give me some lab access. I live in a small apartment with my son, Pavel, so I need a quiet place to work away from our home.”

  “I appreciate your honesty, Zlata. You could use one of the rooms here in my office, if you like. And I can provide you with one of these new “Pentium-Premium” computers with an internet feed, if that would be sufficient. You’re free to bring in any external hard drives or other equipment you need, however that would be at your own expense. Agreed?”

  “Agreed, Mr. Callaghan. However, you can do away with the charade that you’re a head-hunter for this foundation. I can see that you are the foundation, and want this analysis done for your own purpose.” Zlata said this with a mischievous smile.

  Casey froze. Yet another one of his attempts at secrecy had been easily seen-through by a perceptive person. The first time had been with Rob Mynarski, the architect; the second time with Pal Palamino at the Gun Club.

  “If that were true, Zlata, how would you feel about it?”

  “Oh, I’m OK with that. After all, science, like art, is often funded by benefactors. If you’re interested in how to survive the effects of war or an asteroid, or other climate disaster, that’s your business. I wish that the world at large was more concerned about these things, so I guess I am philosophically in line with you. I can do this project for you. It will be my pleasure - and I need the work!” She smiled.

  Casey liked Zlata’s energy and directness and, from that moment on, had a trusted ally in her. The position paper she ultimately provided had been immensely helpful in completing the design of the HOTH, and in planning various items needed to fully outfit it. As his friendship with Zlata grew, he gave her additional contracts to chase down minor technical issues. Casey was happily surpri
sed to learn that Zlata was something of a tinkerer and inventor, a habit Zlata had picked up in problem solving on her many field expeditions.

  The recruitment of the actual construction workers also went well. Casey had his nephew Danny along for the interviews. His other trusted helper, Yuri, would arrive soon from Winnipeg with his young wife in tow. Other than Yuri and Danny, however, the rest of the workers would be locals.

  In all, twenty of the applicants signed the employment contract. Casey had considered having them sign non-disclosure agreements, but he realized that this would provoke their curiosity. Far better to treat it as routine construction work, and have none of them present when he, Danny and Yuri took care of the more sensitive little jobs, Casey decided.

  The actual construction started in earnest that June, immediately after a water drilling contractor completed the seventy-meter drilled well. Not surprisingly, given the number of crystal clear rivers in the area, the well was a success. Potable water was intercepted at forty meters, with a volume rate of flow of over one hundred liters per minute.

  Casey started with just two of the eighteen laborers, until he was far enough ahead on the high-skilled work of laying out footings and grades that unskilled help could be kept busy. Once there were ICF form walls going up in several areas, and Casey had trained the initial cadre of laborers, he brought in more and more workers. By the end of July, he had six helpers on at any given time, along with Danny and Yuri.

  Casey had lots of experience in construction, but not much with suspended slabs. His troubled young nephew, Danny, however, had worked for six months on high-rise projects in Vancouver before he got into serious trouble with the law and spent the next few years in prison. Danny had always had a problem with his explosive temper. All it took was a sideways look and he would run across the street and beat the crap out of the offender. But he sure drove the body hard, Casey noticed. And Danny was family, which meant a great deal to Casey.