Every Last Mother's Child
Page 34
Chapter 3: Lady Hawthorne’s Assignment
Lady Hawthorne was shown into the conference room that Wilson was using for an office a little later in the day. This was the first time they had met in person. She had called the palace and checked in with him every day. They had discussed what her girls had gotten done. So far Wilson had been impressed. In the few weeks that she had been part of his staff, she had organized a team of women to spot check the census. Actually sending women out to areas that looked fuzzy on the census and seeing what was actually there. A couple of her girls had even started to find and catalog the Kingdom’s precious art.
“Good afternoon milady,” Wilson greeted Lady Hawthorne.
“Please! It’s Dolores,” The noblewoman said, “And it is certainly not lady! My title such as it was left when Kevin left.”
“Okay Dolores,” Wilson said, “I’m glad you stopped by. How are things out your way? Do you need anything?”
“No we’re okay,” Dolores replied, “My girls have been able to bring a lot of stuff. Food, fuel, and things we need. The house is over flowing. If there’s anything I need is space to work. But I’ve got a handle on that too. I’ve turned a couple of barns into work centers. I sold all of Kevin’s race horses. A couple of the Dames have brought recreation vehicles we can use for offices. We’ll be okay.”
“Good,” Wilson said a little relieved. It looked like Lady Hawthorne had things well in hand. “How many girls do you have unassigned?”
“Maybe thirty,” She said, “Not just girls anymore either. A couple of my people are men whose wives left in the middle of the night also.”
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Wilson said. “That may be good as I am sure some of what you are going to do is not going to require strong backs.”
“Tell me about it,” Dolores replied, “Although some of my girls are very fit. Some even better built than some of the militia men I see around here; I don’t have enough brawn male or female some times to get things done. We’re getting a handle on things.”
“You up for a critical task,” Wilson asked.
“I guess so,” Dolores replied, “What you got?”
“We’re going to start evacuating critical nursing home patients in the next couple of days.” Wilson responded, “Your girls have done a good job of putting the list together, now we have to organize how to do it.”
“Oh this’ll be fun,” Dolores said, “what is it you want us to do.”
“Starting at 0700 Monday the Imperial Marine Corps will be lifting the most critically ill off world. They and their surviving families will be transported to a hospital ship and then taken to an Imperial world where a military evacuation hospital will take charge of them and see that they are resettled.” Michael said.
“Okay,” Dolores said, “What about their personal belongings?”
“The first ones to go will be those patients that are sole survivors, and or whose spouse is in a nursing home too. That will give us time to identify those whose families are still around and get their things packed.” Wilson said.
“Okay,” Dolores said, “So I’ll have the marines to evacuate these souls. Who will I coordinate this with?”
“An IRS admiral by the name of Klond; she’s another old friend of mine. She’s the surgeon general for the Interstellar Rescue Service. She’s good people. She’ll be down sometime Monday with the first wave.”
“Where will they be landing?” Dolores asked.
“In the park outside of town will be their main landing site.” Wilson said.
“Anything else sir,” Dolores asked, she wanted to get back to her kids and get things moving on this assignment.
“Dolores,” Wilson said, “Thank you for coming in. I take it you have everything you need for this assignment?”
“I think so,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “Oh who decides which nursing home goes first?”
“You do, and before you ask, you make up your mind as why when and how.” Michael replied.
“Okay,” Dolores said, “I’ll have something to you by Sunday night.”
“Thank you Dolores,” Michael escorted the noblewoman to the door and turned back to the conference table that served as his desk.
As she drove back to her estate she made a couple of calls the first one to her estate, “French let me speak to Lady Hollingsworth.”
“Hi Delores,” The noble woman’s face floated over the dash board of her town car, “How did it go with the Marshal.
“He gave us more work.” Delores said as the intelligent traffic control system drove her car to the estate. “We have to take our nursing home census and then get the patients ready to be evacuated.”
“Lovely,” the older woman who nominally Delores second in command commented, “I’ll get the girls who did the census to get started to the homes.”
“Slow down Leila.” Delores commanded, “Just find out who we have and you might want to reach out to some of the other nobles and look at that list of volunteers we’ve been making up.”
“All right,” the woman replied. “Anything else?”
“Just make sure everyone knows this has to be done by Monday when the IRS will be coming to effect the lift.” Lady Hawthorne answered.
“Will do,” Leila signed off.