Rescue Branch (Kinsella Universe)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  “Sir, you can take the word of those of your people who've seen it. You can do as I will offer the rest of you: get someone from your best, brightest, and toughest and get them on a shuttlecraft; Fleet or your own. Get them here ASAP. We will take them on a tour. I am not prepared to characterize this on a link with who knows how many people on it.

  “I assure you, gentleman: when this become public, all of you stand to lose your jobs. If you want time to make the proper preparations, you need to keep it in the bottle until you are all ready. I would suggest that you need to send very discreet investigators -- the toughest you have -- and take the briefing with only your top advisors.”

  “Once again you make demands,” the President of Germany bombasted.

  The Chinese Premier laughed. “And once before the rest of us stepped on you. It can happen again. I trust Admiral Kinsella completely. I've already dispatched someone to Erfurt; she will be there in less than half an hour.”

  Stephanie ignored the German. “There is, however, more, which is why you people are on the link, even the honorable President of the Russian Confederation, who would not normally have been invited, since they are probationary members.”

  “I wondered about that,” the Russian President said. “You were quick enough with the warning of the plague, even to the non-aligned nations. I am disposed to be quite reasonable.”

  “And I'm going to offer all of you, except Germany, a freebie. We have found evidence linking this site with others in China, Russia, France, the UK, and the US. I assume you'd rather deal with these sites on your own, without the Federation asserting sovereignty in your territories.”

  There were guarded laughs. “We'll pass the site locations to you by secure ground links. Obviously, you will be in charge of what you do; all I can do is advise. Send your best people; the ones who won't talk and who chew nails for breakfast and spit them out. Send a medical team as well. Everyone involved, in fact, should be people you can rely on to keep their mouths shut -- and the toughest you have on hand.”

  “And you won't characterize what you expect us to find, Admiral?” the American President asked.

  “Sir, we have here a site of a crime against humanity. All we have as evidence about other locations is a volume of encoded emails in a code we haven't been able to break, although the spooks assure me that they are working on it.”

  “And you think we could lose our jobs?” the German President sneered.

  “Sir, I'll make you a bet.” Stephanie dipped into her purse and pulled out a checkbook. “You bet a mark and I'll match it with a billion marks if I lose. Twenty-four hours after this becomes public, your career is destroyed, your party is crippled and there will shortly be new elections, where it will be a miracle if any member of your party wins so much as a single seat in the Bundestag.”

  The Chinese Prime Minister laughed. “He's thinking about it! Admiral Kinsella! Please, allow me to double the stakes! Sir, put up two marks! If you win, China will match Admiral Kinsella!”

  The French President grimaced. “Could we move past personal issues? While I don't have quite a billion francs of trust in Admiral Kinsella -- I do have quite a bit. It behooves us to do as she requests until we have further information.”

  “Admiral Kinsella,” the EU President spoke up. “You have asked other heads of government to observe this meeting. I am curious about that.”

  “Indeed. Sirs, we have a matching number of nations who are unaligned and available, who could send investigators to your sites. I'm willing to accept any observers any of you send to the site in Erfurt. It is my opinion that you will need to be able to assure the citizens of your individual countries that all that is possible to be done to remediate the events is being accomplished... having neutral investigators would help immensely.”

  There were a few more minutes of back and forth, and then the Chinese Prime Minster spoke again.

  “We sent a flying squad to the site Admiral Kinsella gave us. One of my generals is apoplectic with rage. Everyone at the site has fled, but he wants permission to hunt them to the ends of the Earth, to any colony of the Federation, and return them to China for justice. He vows to give them a swift death!”

  “And what Admiral Kinsella is saying is true?” the German President queried.

  The Chinese Prime Minister sniffed. “You were a fool with the plague; your people should have removed you. This time you are an even bigger fool. This will destroy you, personally. It will destroy your party. If I were you, I'd be thinking about a quick trip to Bolivia.”

  Stephanie glanced at Robert Campbell, who could only shrug. That was clearly a private joke.

  The UK Prime Minister broke in. “I just got a report from the people we sent to the site to the west of London. The man in command put his pistol in his mouth and killed himself. The second in command is shrieking; he appears to be a gibbering idiot. We have no idea what is going on; more senior people are on the way.”

  The French leader grimaced, “You'll have to excuse me for a moment; our people are approaching the site outside of Nice. I want to warn them that it might be rougher than we told them.”

  “We need to do some internal damage control,” the Chinese Prime Minster told the group.

  “Again, you let this woman do whatever she wants,” the German said, his voice bitter.

  “And again, you ignore what Admiral Kinsella says at your mortal peril,” China told him. “I have here,” he held up a piece of paper, “an order to call up our reserves.” He bent down and signed the paper. “China will be ready.”

  The American president coughed. “We'll have to call ours up, you understand?”

  “Russia will too,” the Russian President added.

  The Chinese President sighed. “This will be for internal control. Do what you must as you need; China will understand.”

  “What's going on?” the EU President asked impotently.

  The Chinese Prime Minister laughed. “You need better national means. My lead scientist saw the site, walked outside and he also put a bullet into his head. You all will have to excuse me; I have many duties demanding my attention at the present time.”

  The German Prime Minister pointed to President Campbell. “The Federation Charter, I'm told, specifies that it takes three justices of the Federation Supreme Court to declare a 'Crime against Humanity.'”

  President Campbell grinned thinly. “One of the three justices sent, died in the inspection. I've seen the site; Federation Senators have seen the site. All declare it a Crime Against Humanity. We're waiting for another Federation Supreme Court Justice to add to the two votes of the survivors.”

  Abruptly, the French President started throwing things. “Merde! Merde! This cannot be! Merde! Merde! What were those fools thinking!”

  The Chinese Prime Minister was back. “China will accept a neutral third party inspection. Brazil would be good.”

  “England accepts Japan,” the English Prime Minster said, clearly pale.

  “Germany, most reluctantly, accepts Sweden.”

  The Russian Prime Minister was blunt. “My advisors tell me that the reason that Poland is on the list is that you want to have them look at us. We accept. My government has issued warrants for about fifty people who we think were the responsible parties.” His voice quivered. “We are not you; you are not us. Still... this is monstrous. We will act in concert with the rest of you.”

  “Germany has no idea what's going on,” the German leader said sadly.

  “I can send you a personal representative,” Stephanie told him. “Or you can send one to us.”

  “I will not surrender myself to Federation justice,” he told them.

  Stephanie was patient. “Sir, you will have to face your people, not the Federation. We will only bring those actually involved with the deeds to Federation courts; accessories before and after the fact will have to be tried in local courts.”

  Someone handed the German President a piece of paper; he was clearly
angry, and in spite of so many people watching, turned to whoever handed it to him. “This tells me nothing! You find out, do you hear me! You go there and you find out!”

  The Chinese Premier nodded. “I've read the full summary of our report now, at least the major portions. The anger and distress appears to be from shock?”

  “Yes, sir,” Stephanie told him.

  “From what I’ve heard, this will not go down well with the Chinese people. I realize it will not go down well anywhere, but for us it will have a terrible resonance.”

  “It won't go down well with anyone,” the British Prime Minister agreed. “You are going to have to excuse me. I need to call an emergency cabinet meeting; we're trying to quietly alert all of the police and military in the country. I really don't know how long we have until the lid blows off.”

  “Hours, at most,” President Campbell told them. “We've put every one on alert that we can. We're calling up the reserves.”

  “You are expecting a worst-case scenario?” the French President asked.

  “Yes,” Stephanie replied simply.

  “I have a quick proposal,” the Chinese Premier spoke quickly. “I think we all are agreed of the importantance of finding those involved with this. From our first quick check, they all seem to have vanished. Spouses, children... everyone.

  “Still, we need to know where, when and how. I would like to establish a joint Chinese-American police task force to hunt these criminals. We would welcome representatives from other affected nations, but we have the manpower, expertise and resources available to do this as quickly as possible.”

  “The Federation has no objection,” President Campbell said quickly. “I'd like Admiral Kinsella on board.”

  “Oh, agreed!” The Chinese leader said. “She can lead the effort, China has no problems with that at all.”

  There was a chorus of agreement and the meeting broke up.

  Herr Hoffman was waiting. “I have the officials you requested -- although none from the Koop Institute itself. The ones from the city, the university... those are all we could find.”

  Stephanie nodded and followed him to the first subject, Karl Rasmussen, Mayor of the city.

  “Herr Rasmussen, I am Federation Fleet Rear Admiral Kinsella.”

  “Why am I here?”

  “The Federation has declared the Koop Institute the site of a crime against humanity.”

  The other blinked. “I know nothing of any such thing.”

  “Sir, I'm predisposed to believe you. However, if I find that you are lying to me, I will turn you over to your local courts for judgment.”

  He seemed to relax.

  Stephanie went for the jugular. “The crimes are bio-tech experiments on human subjects. Given Germany's history a century ago with such experiments, you might want to be cautious.”

  “I know nothing of such experiments. I knew the university had a college of medicine; I knew the college of medicine had a number of subsidiary laboratories. What each did -- I'm sorry, I never visited any of them.”

  “Just so you understand the serious negative consequences of lying.”

  “Don't threaten me!” he blustered.

  “Sir, I'm not threatening you. I'm saying that if you're lying, I'll turn you over to your nation's civil authorities.”

  “That's a threat.”

  “More like a promise.”

  The other drew himself up. “I know nothing; nothing of any experiments that could possibly be categorized as 'Crimes against Humanity.'”

  “The Federation and a number of the larger nations have established a police task force to investigate these crimes. You will be detained until further notice.”

  “I have rights!”

  “Sir, right now you are being held as a possible accessory before the fact in a crime against humanity. You will get all due process.”

  She waved and he was led away. The head of the city council wasn't defiant -- he was terrified. Still, like his mayor, he was remanded to the police.

  Next was the head of the university. “Herr Weymund, I am Admiral Stephanie Kinsella, Federation Fleet.”

  He shrugged. “You have no authority over me.”

  “Sorry, sir, indeed I do. Talk to me about the Otto Koop Institute for Bio-Medical Research.”

  “It is a genomics lab that a researcher from the college of medicine established.”

  “Have you ever visited it?”

  “I run a modern major university. I don't have the time to visit each and every facility the university funds.”

  “Otto Koop -- do you know him?”

  “I've met him a few times at University functions. I was told he was a bio-technical researcher.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I was told his lab was doing cutting edge research in human genetics. Beyond that, I know nothing.”

  “You never investigated? You never went to see for yourself?”

  “The university is a huge enterprise, Admiral. I haven't visited each and every activity that goes into the university's make-up.”

  “Assuming you survive, I imagine you will be more careful in the future.”

  “Assuming I survive?” the man said, leaning forward, sweat appearing on his brow.

  “Your fellow countrymen are liable to take significant umbrage with the research done here. I do believe you will want to make a better case than you have so far.”

  “Who, among your staff, would have overseen the grant monies paid to Dr. Koop and his institute?”

  He gave a list of three names and Stephanie had him hauled away as she'd had the others... hold, pending further investigation.

  She was preparing to face another city official when Charlotte Rampling arrived. “I came,” her former friend said economically. “What in the hell is going on here? This must be every free Marine in the Fleet!”

  “It is, there are -- all we could scrape up. Charlie, we've had our troubles but right now you have to put it behind you. I'm Admiral Kinsella and you're Dr. Rampling, the foremost biologist in the Fleet.” Stephanie saw Joe Stark, Hoffman and another man in a German Air Force uniform talking not far away.

  “Come,” Stephanie and led the way to the three men.

  “Admiral,” Hoffman said, “This is Luftwaffe Major General Horst Bierbaum; he's from the President's office as his personal representative.”

  “General, I realize that this is a delicate question and could easily be misconstrued or found offense; still I have my reasons. Sir, are you Jewish?”

  “Yes, Admiral. Conservative, not Orthodox or Reform.”

  “Again, I'm going to sound rude; for one thing your stars trump mine. Still, I'm going to admonish you. You are a representative of the German government, with a particular set of your own baggage as well. It will be important for you, more than for most, not to lose control.”

  “I do not 'lose control,' Admiral,” he said stiffly.

  “General Stark, you, General Bierbaum and Dr. Rampling may accompany me. We will make only three stops; this may well be the most difficult thing you've ever done in your lives.”

  “Admiral, could you just get on with this?” Charlie Rampling said. “The warnings are beginning to bore me.”

  “Whatever you say, Granny. Just don't forget that I told you so.”

  She led them in and down the steps. Joe Stark laughed when he passed the guards. “Imagine my surprise when my Marines wouldn't let their own Commandant pass. I needed, they told me, Admiral Kinsella's presence to be allowed inside. The major at the door was very firm.”

  “Polite too, I expect,” Stephanie told them as they reached the bottom of the steps and stood looking over the wide expanse of the basement.

  “We train them well,” the commandant said with a laugh.

  “Come,” Stephanie led them into the first enclosure. She made a beeline for the one baby who saw her and smiled again. Stephanie turned to Charlie. “Say hello to your granddaughter, Granny.”

  The biologi
st walked closer and the baby wound up its face and started to cry. Charlie ignored the squalls and picked up the card. She looked at Stephanie. “This reads like a stock book entry. Is she really Dick's and your daughter?”

  “That's what we think.”

  “Obviously that is unethical; but obviously I'm missing something.”

  “These are human-animal chimeras, Dr. Rampling.”

  “Again, a potential for not being ethical, but we've been creating chimeras for some twenty years now.”

  Stephanie nodded and held the curtain open and ushered them into the next space. “Dogs,” General Bierbaum uttered. Then his face changed. “Du lieber Gott in Himmel! Unmoeglich! Einfach unmoeglich!”

  “Justice Taylor of the Federation Supreme Court took one look at them and said 'Puppies!' and stepped forward to pet them. I wouldn't let her; after a few moments she understood.”

  “Why couldn't someone pet a pup...” Charlie's voice stopped and her throat worked. “Oh no!” her voice was barely audible.

  “More chimeras, Admiral?” General Stark asked.

  “Yes, sir. Sir, the files we've found are encrypted. About all we know is that they have had extensive correspondence with labs in the China, Russia, France, the UK and two labs in the US. We don't know what sort of research was done, or how much of the human genome these victims contain. However, there they are, watching us. They aren't excited; they observe us with quiet regard.

  “I have ordered that all of the victims, until such a time as their true heritage can be determined, to be treated as if they were human.”

  There was a flurry of activity from the third enclosure and Stephanie peeked out, seeing someone being carried out on a stretcher. General Stark pushed past her.

  “What happened, Sergeant?” he asked the medic.

  The man shrugged. “Sir, he said he was a pediatrician who specialized in birth defects. He said, sir, that he'd seen everything. I need to figure out what to feed them; they are getting hungry. I explained what I'd been doing for a couple of minutes. His eyes kept going back to the victims. Then he started crying. Admiral, sir, I've seen this before. I hit him with sleepy juice right then.”

  Stephanie’s voice was cold. “Generals, Dr. Rampling. This is the money stop. Once you've seen this, you've seen all you need to see. Except, as you have observed, it is fraught with peril.”