For the people ... (Soldier Up Book 4)

by Steven Linde

  SSG Maxwell really didn’t have a clue, “No why don’t you enlighten us Byrd.”

  “That’s a vintage shortwave radio; it has tubes instead of the solid state circuitry that we use now. This is great! It should work just fine as long as we have a power source and antennae.”

  “You mean like those?” Specialist Cox pointed to the hand generator and antennae going out the window.

  “Exactly!” Responded Corporal Byrd clearly her enthusiasm overwhelming her. She moved to the radio, “Excuse me, do you mind?” asked Corporal Byrd directed toward Dr. Elden. Dr. Elden shrugged, got up and moved, Corporal Byrd sat down in front of the radio studying it. She looked over at the secret service agent, “Any time you’re ready slick.” Corporal Byrd told the secret service agent. The agent clearly not happy at being called slick went ahead and began to crank the generator. Corporal Byrd waited a couple of minutes, then powered it on. Her face lit up like it was Christmas, her enthusiasm was infectious, and everyone in the office was on pins-and-needles.

  “The frequency that you have it tuned to has been dead now for about ten years no one would have ever responded. “ Stated Corporal Byrd. “I’m going to set the frequency to the MARs emergency net.” No one in the room knew what she meant but didn’t interfere with her.

  “Any station this net, over?” Said Corporal Byrd. “Any station this net, over.”

  The radio kicked alive! “Unknown station please identify yourself, this is a restricted net, over?”

  “Oh shit!” said Corporal Byrd, she was looking around the oval office, everyone was standing, very attentive. “Unknown station I don’t have a call sign at this time, we just brought up the radio. I can tell you I’m Corporal Byrd United States Army broadcasting out of the oval office in the White House.”

  The response came and laughing could be heard on the other end, “Corporal Byrd, if that’s who you really are, this is a restricted military net, if you were really Army you would know better than to access this net without call-signs and authentication.”

  “Roger that.” responded Corporal Byrd. “I’m from White House Communications and we were only notified of the existence of this radio twenty-five minutes ago. We can get them and be back on this net in thirty mikes.”

  There was at least two minutes of static, “Roger White House, give us a call in thirty mikes then, we’ll be here. We monitor this station twenty-four seven.”

  Corporal Byrd was beyond excited, “Roger wilco, can you tell me who and where you are at least?” she begged.

  “Roger, this is Fort Huachuca Arizona, United States Army MARs, this is Sergeant First Class Emilio Estrada.”

  “Wait, what? Really Fort Huachuca?” asked Corporal Byrd.

  “Roger.” was all that SFC Estrada said.

  “Do you have that short little fuck Sergeant Barry Neal there? He’s about five-four, skinny as a rail and where’s birth control glasses?”

  Again static on the radio for at least five minutes this time, “Who the hell is this?” a familiar voice came back at Corporal Byrd.

  Tears started to stream down her face at hearing his voice, “It’s your fucking wife you asshole!”

  “Donna?” said Sergeant Neal.

  “Yeah baby it’s me? How the hell are you?” Corporal Byrd and Sergeant Neal had married a month prior to the event. They hadn’t had time to make the name changes to her uniform as she was in transition from Fort Huachuca to White House Communications. Sergeant Neal was scheduled to follow her to D.C. as he had been assigned to 3rd Infantry Regiment.

  Everyone in the oval office watched in amazement as Corporal Byrd spoke with her husband for the first time in almost nine months, neither of them knowing if the other was still alive. The President was standing behind Corporal Byrd now, he gently laid his hand on her shoulder, she looked back, over the radio she said, “Listen Barry I’m really in the oval office and the President of the United States is standing right here with me. I can be back on in thirty mikes with correct call-signs and authentication; can you be back on and with someone with a little more rank than Sergeant Estrada?”

  “Roger Donna we’re on here twenty-four seven. We’re under orders that when we make contact with someone new, we contact the post commander and he comes down. From there, if it proves to be real it’s escalated back to the west coast command.”

  The President took the microphone, “This is President Washington, can you tell me what the hell is going on?”

  Everyone back at the MARs station at Fort Huachuca knew the voice of the President of the United States, but they also knew that if they gave out any more information they would be skinned alive without proper authentication, “All I can tell you sir right now is that the United States Military is alive and well, we’re holding it all together.”

  There wasn’t a dry eye in the office which was full of people by now, word had spread quickly that they had contacted a fort in Arizona, “That’s all you can tell me?” asked the President.

  “Yes sir operational security and all.” said Sergeant Neal.

  “Alright then in thirty minutes I can find out more?”

  “Roger that sir if authentication proves to be good you’ll be able to talk to the General.”

  “Fine we’ll be back here in thirty minutes.”

  “Roger, out.” said Sergeant Neal.

  With that the net went dead. Then sparks started to shower Corporal Byrd that were being thrown off by the old radio set and it died. The Corporal signaled for them to keep the generator going and the tried everything to revive the radio, nothing worked, it was dead dead dead. Everyone in the room was in shock. “That was our only one. “Said Dr. Nightly sadly.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Jake arrived at the Pentagon forty-five minutes after leaving the President’s office and headed directly to General Wallace’s office. The first thing Jake noticed as he walked through the halls was that it seemed unusually busy. He entered General Wallace’s outer office where he was met by his senior administrative assistant, SFC Robert Wilson. As Jake walked in there was quite a bit of commotion going on in the General’s office, he noticed the General yelling at several underlying’s that he wanted something and he wanted it now, they had better find him at least one working set and he didn’t care how they got it.

  Jake strolled into the General’s office, SFC Wilson was hurrying out “He’s expecting you.”

  “About time you got here!” Said General Wallace to Jake. “Do you know anything more about the contact with Fort Huachuca?”

  Jake had no idea what he was talking about, “I’m sorry General I’m here to talk to you about the train.”

  Now it was the Generals turn to look puzzled, “What the hell are you talking about, train?”

  “Yes General, the President sent me over, we have an armored World War Two steam locomotive that we want to use.”

  “You don’t know do you?” asked General Wallace.

  “Know, know what?” Jake was seriously puzzled now.

  “Our science team found a shortwave radio that uses tubes instead of solid state. They took it over to the President’s office to demonstrate it. The President called in some White House Communications people to operate it. They were able to make contact with Fort Huachuca in Arizona; they said to tell everyone, the United States Military is alive and well. Then the radio set went belly up, I’ve sent out everyone to find as many of those radio sets they can and bring them back. Now what the hell are you talking about trains?”

  Jake was momentarily taken aback by the news; it was good news no doubt, now he wished he had hung around the president’s office a bit longer. “We found three working trains at the transportation museum. One of them being a large armored World War Two steam locomotive I’ve been assured by the museum personnel it’s in fine working order. What we want to do is fit it with what modern weapons we can, take it and head south to other military posts to see what we can see, that’s where you come in, and it would be a mili
tary operation.”

  It had been a very busy day so far for General Wallace and now this dropped out of the sky into his lap, his head was swimming with all of the possibilities. He had often thought that if he had the manpower he’d send out convoys in multiple directions to see what was going on. Now, he was being handed something that, although in one direction, was busting them out of their perimeter. He certainly had the manpower to deal with this. “When does the President want this operation to start?” asked General Wallace.

  “You know like everything else, yesterday.” Replied Jake.

  “We’d need to get folks over here from 3rd Infantry Regiment and then have a look at your train.”

  “How long General?”

  “Sergeant Wilson come in here please.” SFC Wilson had only momentarily stepped back into the Generals outer office. “Yes sir.” Said SFC Wilson.

  “Please send someone over to 3rd Infantry Regiment and have their commander report to me ASAP.”

  “Yes sir.” With that SFC Wilson turned and headed out of the office once again.

  “When can we see your train?” asked General Wallace.

  “Anytime you’re ready.”

  “Great I need to get out of this office and this is as good a reason as any.”

  “You don’t want to wait for the 3rd Infantry Regiment commander?”

  “No I’ll leave a message for him to report to the museum.”

  “Alright then let’s go.”

  General Wallace wrote out his note and taped it to his door and shut it so SFC Wilson would see it. General Wallace took his own Humvee with his own personal guard detail, all-in-all they now had a small convoy of six Humvees heading over Behring Center. It was going to be a short trip from the Pentagon to Behring center; it was basically just across the Potomac. Once there they quickly made their way into the huge Smithsonian museum complex and headed directly to the transportation side and to the trains. They exited out of the back of the museum to where the large armored World War Two locomotive was. The first thought that occurred to General Wallace that it was a huge monster and he couldn’t wait to ride in it. General Wallace hadn’t even seen a train this size before, a huge black behemoth sat in front of him; it was intimidating to say the least. The engine itself was huge taking up almost half of the available space outside. Near it were also the rest of its cars some of them were also armored, primarily those for carrying troops and for storage.

  There were only a couple of flatbeds, but they looked like typical flatbeds that were being used now. As General Wallace and Jake were being given a tour of it by Chester, the lead curator responsible for the trains and former train engineer himself, SFC Wilson and Colonel Johnny Lambert the commander of the 3rd Infantry Regiment. Once Colonel Lambert saw the train his first response was, “Wow!”

  “Well what do you think Colonel?” asked General Wallace.

  “It’s incredible.” Said Colonel Lambert. “Hard to believe they moved men and equipment throughout the nation and the rest of the world using these things.”

  “It’s yours.” Stated General Wallace.

  “Pardon me sir?” said a clearly surprised Colonel Lambert.

  “I want you to assign one infantry company to this, retrofit it with any modern weapons you can think of. Stock it; load what vehicles you think you’re going to need to potentially need to fight with, food, fuel, and other material you see fit. Our first stop will be Quantico I want you to make contact with the Marines there and find out what’s going on. We’ll have to work out some sort of means of communications the further south they push. Hopefully I’ll have something soon that will solve that issue.”

  This was a lot of information to take in all of a sudden Colonel Lambert thought. His day had started out so peacefully too. Now he was being given a huge mission that may define the entire region and also sending men and woman under his command into the unknown. “Sir may I ask is the train fit for service?”

  This immediately drew a sharp rebuke from Chester, “You’re damn right she is I’ll put her up against any modern train out there, well if any of them still ran. You listen to me young man; she’s up to it if you are.”

  This drew a smile from Colonel Lambert, “Hey…hey no offense old timer I was only making sure.”

  “I got you’re old timer right here!” said Chester grabbing his crotch, he was still angry at Colonel Lambert though the Colonel really meant no slight.

  The trip from Washington D.C. to Quantico, Virginia was only thirty-six miles and there had been some communication between the oval office and Marines there but not much. It was time that the Pentagon reasserted their power and showed the flag along the way. There was also going to be other obstacles, logistical mostly, they were going to need water, wood and coal to keep the furnace on the train going, Colonel Lambert and his staff certainly had their work cut out for them. “By-the-way Colonel I want this all under way in the next seventy-two hours.” Said General Wallace. With the news Colonel Lamberts jaw dropped open, but he quickly caught himself, “Yes sir will do.” Replied Colonel Lambert.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Commander Hall arrived back at the convoy within a couple of minutes; he ordered them to set up all of the medical facilities in place. The camp at this time was considered active with the plague and anyone entering it would have to be dressed accordingly. As soon as they get set up they will notify the camp, they will begin the screening of all its occupants. They needed to separate the healthy ones with the sick ones. Once that was done the healthy ones would be relocated, the sick ones that were diagnosed with the plague would be isolated, after that the camp would be burned to the ground to prevent the disease from spreading any further.

  The Sailors were very experienced and set up the medical facility very quickly it was part of their training; it took almost four hours to get everything in place. Once they had done that they created four teams, three of those teams dressed in hazmat suits would go into the camp, set up one of their own screening tents on the other side of the camp away from the camp’s hospital. The fourth team would be sent out to the Aviation Museum to screen the Marines and Sailors out there that had passed through the camp. It was going to be a long day for everyone involved.

  The fourth team moved out to the Aviation Museum, the good news was that the Marines and SEALs didn’t spend much time at the camp at all. Most of the men and women never even entered the camp, however the SEALs and the Navy OIC did, in fact they were at the hospital. It’s entirely possible that none of them contacted anything at all; again they weren’t really there that long. Word had been sent by Commander Hall after he had found out what exactly the situation was at the camp to Captain O’Hara that he and the SEALs needed to isolate themselves immediately.

  The medical team arrived at the museum within fifteen minutes; they quickly set up a triage area away from the main body of the Marines. Once they were set up Captain O’Hara and the SEALs reported to the doctors, very nervous, for the SEALs they were at a loss this wasn’t something they could see and fight. They were at the mercy of a deadly disease, Captain O’Hara who was by-and-large the most exposed, he knew that he would be quarantined but he felt as the man-in-charge he needed to show that he felt that it was safe to proceed. Granted not the best move, things in combat always clear sometimes you have to show leadership in unexpected ways or the people you’re leading won’t follow. Captain O’Hara felt that in this case ne needed to show strong leadership and not cause a panic amongst the troops.

  Captain O’Hara was ushered into the medical tent for a full physical and blood work, he told them at this time he was feeling no ill effects from being around the camp hospital. After Captain O’Hara each SEAL went in separately and went through the same physical and blood work. So far after twenty-four hours not one of the Sailors had shown any sign they had been affected by the disease. Their blood work came back negative after several hours and the Captain and SEALs were given the all clear by the medical team and
the quarantine was lifted.

  Back at the camp it was an entirely different situation the Navy Medical personnel were finding it difficult to lure the people in the camp into the medical tents for a check-up. They were skeptical and didn’t trust the Navy; they weren’t even sure the Navy personnel were really Navy at all. They were also scared by the Navy personnel walking around in hazmat suits. Certainly there were a handful of people that were willing to go through the check-ups, as they left they were asked by the Navy personnel to spread the word they needed to get checked out. That there was a dangerous disease in the camp and they needed to be checked to verify that they didn’t have it and if they did they could get treatment for it.

  Word did spread and people started to trickle in one-by-one then two-by-two within three hours they were lined up three and four deep for a hundred yards. MRE’s and water was brought out to everyone in line, others that hadn’t joined the line yet saw this and decided what could it hurt if they were going to feed them and give them water. The medical personnel worked diligently throughout the day and night it took them twenty-four hours to work their way through everyone in line. Out of roughly two hundred people they saw only four looked as they might have been infected. They were removed to the primary field hospital down the road for further tests. As people were shuttled through the medical tents they were given notice that the disease was the bubonic plague and they were told that ten people within the camp had already been diagnosed with the disease.

  They were also told that at 1900 that evening there would be trucks made available to them that would relocate them back toward Oceana NAS. Once there, they would be provided temporary housing in one of the several camps that now surrounded the base, but it was only temporary, they would have to work out the details with the camp’s leaders. It was a mandatory move out order, they were told they had no choice the camp was being burned to the ground to prevent the disease from spreading. People were not happy, were scared, but generally understood, and most knew the stories from the Middle Ages and the black plague that killed millions throughout Europe.