Carlie Simmons (Book 5): One Final Mission (2 page)

Chapter 2

Pavel started out the briefing, discussing
his breakthroughs with the antidote and the need for a mass vaccine replicator.
Carlie soaked up the intel while shooting an occasional glare at Shane across the
table. She was fuming inside, knowing that she had been left in the dark about
this potential operation and angry with Shane for taking on a dangerous
assignment without discussing it with her first. Carlie had been used to
running point on missions for so long she wasn’t sure if she was taking things
too personally. Still, she found it difficult, if not downright unhinging at
times, to balance her relationship with Shane, going from hellish field operations
one day to passionate evenings the next. She had never been involved with a man
for long interludes like this and the foreign soil she was treading upon could
be nerve-wracking. However, she couldn’t imagine being without him regardless
of how bull-headed he was, but right now she wanted to slug him in his jaw.

Her mind darted back to the scene at hand
as Duncan walked to the front of the room and delved into the specifics of the
forthcoming operation. As she heard more of his briefing her fury dimmed when
she understood that Shane had been selected to head this mission because of his
maritime experience in the SEALs.

“The device we need was last known to be
in Osaka, Japan, on loan there from our navy medical corp for use in
propagating vaccinations for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease.” He flipped
to the next slide which showed the cumbersome device from a stock photo used by
naval doctors. The eight-foot-high-by-three-foot-diameter stainless-steel
object had numerous spigots, pressure regulators, and flow tubes emerging from
the top which led to a large rectangular control module to the right; the photo
showed a technician in blue scrubs manipulating it.

“Regrettably for us, there were only a
handful of these machines that were in the military’s hands even before the
outbreak. As Pavel explained it to me earlier today, the centrifuge attachments,”
he said, pointing to the square protrusions on the stainless-steel object, “are
the most critical pieces of hardware for large-scale vaccine replication.
Without these, we can only inoculate people here at an agonizingly slow rate
over the next six months with little hope for doing much beyond our own immediate
population.” He walked around the room and looked at each team leader.
“However, if we have this bad boy then we can expedite production to take care
of all the residents in the northwest as well as begin reaching out beyond our
borders. The acquisition of this device is imperative.”

“And where is this pot of gold located,
exactly?” said Carlie.

“Kitano Hospital in the heart of Osaka.”
The next slide showed the fourteen-story tan structure towering over a bustling
street of pedestrians below.

“What are the means for extraction?” said
Hadley, a combat pilot seated by the shuttered window.

“Well, therein lies the first of three
challenges,” said Duncan, moving to an aerial overview of the city of Osaka.
“First, we have to get our team to Japan, which is a 13-hour flight on a C-130.
Then the team has to get from the LZ to the hospital without incident. And
frankly Japan has been a black hole since the outbreak. We only have limited
imagery from our remaining satellites with their failing hardware. We’ve been
pouring everything into analysis of the LZ which looks to be relatively clear
of undead. As for the rest—you could be walking into a country of goddamned
biters or one full of desperate survivors who aren’t going to take lightly to
having us zip in and out.”

“And the third thing?” said Matias, who
was sitting with his arms folded.

Duncan was silent for a moment, looking
around the room and then letting out an exhale. “We only have enough fuel for a
one-way trip in the bird.” Everyone looked at each other and then began
mumbling concerns but Duncan raised his voice. “During these many months of
running constant missions at home here to provide Pavel with what his staff
needed, we have depleted our reserve aviation fuel supplies. Other jet aviation
tankers that we’ve managed to scrounge up in other locales have fuel that is
past its prime, having sat untouched for nearly a year. We are literally
running our remaining helos and planes on vapors and will only have enough to
muster for this single run to Japan.”

“Can’t we convert our tankers of vehicle
fuel somehow or modify the engines in the plane to accept a lesser grade of
fuel?” said Jackson, a sinewy operator sitting in the rear of the room.

Matias spoke up. “Aviation fuel is a
high-purity fuel specifically designed to withstand colder temperatures
associated with high altitude and has additives to prevent the engines from
fouling. We can’t modify things on either end and it’s highly unlikely we could
locate any operational tactical-grade birds in Osaka.”

Shane had been silent during the briefing.
The two men locked eyes and Duncan nodded at Shane to pick up the discussion.
Shane rested both his arms on the table and clasped his hands together. “Exfil
plans involve getting the device to the Yodo River which, as you can see on the
map, is less than a click from the hospital. After part of our team commandeers
a small vessel, we will head downriver five clicks to Osaka Bay where we will
rendezvous with one of our fast-attack submarines that Duncan has already made
contact with.”

Duncan interjected, “As most of you know,
we’ve only got a few operational nuclear subs left around the globe that
escaped the wrath of the virus. The USS
Olympia
is one of our smaller
fast-attack subs currently off the coast of Hawaii where they’ve been operating
for the past few months. They can make it to Japan within two days once they
receive my orders.”

“Why not just have a few teams board the
sub here and take it over to Japan, getting in that way?” said Carlie.

“It’s too much of a detour to have the sub
divert here then reroute to Japan. We can’t wait on this—hours not days are
what we’re up against.”

Duncan flipped back to an older satellite
image taken a few weeks back. It showed the city of Kyoto to the north of
Osaka. “We picked up a faint plume of emissions outside of Kyoto. Now, this
could be nothing or it could be connected with emergency venting of the nuclear
facility there. If it’s the latter, then our timeline is even more critical.”

The room grew silent as everyone pondered
the information, the odds, and the implications of the mission. Duncan rested
both his fists on the edge of the oak table. “Our numbers are so few in this
world—we’ve been knocked down on the food chain to the point where the future
of our race’s survival hangs by a thread. Once we can mass produce this
vaccine, we will no longer be at the mercy of this virus and can start
reclaiming what was once ours. Everything now rests on the success of this
mission.”

What are the contingency plans in the
event the sub doesn’t make it to Japan for some reason
—
how will the
team get back home
? thought Carlie, but she already knew the answer and
refrained from positing the question.
What a nightmare scenario. We’re
surely doomed if we don’t go and very likely doomed if we do. How can our
operational capabilities and options be so limited?

Duncan turned off the projector and set
down the remote. “Shane will be the leader on this one.” He glanced over at
Shane. “Assemble your own team and be ready for lift-off at 0600 tomorrow. And
try to get a good night’s sleep—it’s only the future of our species that’s
resting on your shoulders.”

Carlie looked across the table at Shane, who
averted his eyes from her as she shot a confounded expression at him. She could
see the lines of stress already creasing his tan forehead. She knew he would be
detaching and mentally preparing for a mission that was highly stacked against
him—probably why she had been so puzzled by his mannerisms these past few days.
Any feelings of frustration she had felt, she would somehow need to push aside
as these would only serve as a detriment going downrange. Her frustration at
his lack of communication was considerable but also seemed frivolous compared
to what they all faced. She took a deep breath, slipping back into the warrior
mentality that she had tried to ratchet down during the past eleven days of
being stationary at Lewis. Carlie brushed the remaining dried dirt from her
fingers and thought about how her shoulders would once more feel the weight of
her rifle sling and ballistic vest.
Time to return to the storm front. Time
to count my blessings each day for making it through one more sunrise in this insane
world.

Chapter 3

As Shane pored over the gear roster on the
clipboard in the armory, he thought about how poorly he handled things with
Carlie. His mind kept racing over the image of her face, her eyes, her hair.
Then he would feel a lump in his stomach when the satellite photos of Japan and
the mission ahead seeped through his psyche. These past few months of living
with Carlie had been blissful, like no other point in his life that he could remember.
Until this mission reared its head, he felt like he could let go of his usual
mindset of being the big brother to everyone around him and always worrying
about Carlie’s safety on their separate missions. They both knew that there were
no longer any certainties in this new world—regardless of your training and
combat experience. There were simply too many variables to control. You might
get overrun by zombies on the next resupply trip to the city or die on the road
from the weather or at the hands of a desperate group of marauders.

He had thought of requesting Duncan to alter
Carlie’s schedule of security detail rotation at the Grand Coulee Dam so she
wouldn’t be present for his departure. Then he thought of just telling Carlie
everything the night before the mission briefing. But every time he
contemplated how to handle things, he got more frustrated at his lack of
control over the outcome. The fact of the matter was that he didn’t want her
coming. As skilled as she was, he needed to know that Carlie would survive if
he didn’t return. Whenever he left on deployments in the SEALs, he always said
farewell to his family and friends with the mindset that he would never be
coming back. Detaching from everything he loved made the misery and hardship in
his path acceptable and kept his emotions in check. With Carlie along, there
was the risk that he might think of her safety first over the welfare of the
mission, and they had never faced anything of this magnitude before. Shane’s
entire life had been spent protecting others for as long as he could recall. From
the time his mother died when he was eleven and he took on the role of raising
his siblings, he had found himself in the role of eternal sheepdog with the
loved ones in his life. Protecting others was woven into his DNA and, with
Carlie complicating things, he knew it would only serve to impede his judgment
on this already precarious undertaking. Still, she was coming and he knew
there’d be no way of talking her out of it.

Chapter 4

Carlie was rummaging through her
belongings in the private room that she shared with Shane when he entered. He
solemnly closed the door behind him and leaned against it with his hands on his
hips. “I should’ve told you sooner. I regret that.”

“I’m sure you were focused on planning and
what lay ahead,” she said without looking up while vigorously stuffing some
t-shirts into a backpack.

“I was waiting actually.”

“Waiting for what? Were you going to
discuss it over dinner tonight?” She stood up and faced him, her arms folded across
her chest. “I mean, there were two other team leaders with waterborne ops
experience in that room that Duncan could have chosen. But you…” She paused,
shaking her head as her cheeks turned red. “You just had to toss your hat in
the ring, didn’t you?” She lifted her arms in the air, raising her voice. “Is
this becoming too much for you—what we have living together—you had to sign up
for a fucking one-way deployment? Did you think that I’d just stay here?”

“I had hoped you might but knew there’d be
no convincing you.” Shane felt like there was a thick veil of sea fog rolling
over his brain. He had rehearsed what he would say to Carlie but now it was all
swept aside in his confusion as his feelings for her wellbeing crept to the
forefront and obscured his rational side.

“So, this explains your distance the past
few nights. What I don’t get is why you decided to spring this on me at the
briefing.”

Shane removed his camouflage ball cap and
ran a hand over the black stubble on his head. He arched his head up to the
ceiling and sighed. “I had hoped this would all turn out differently. Duncan
and I spoke about this mission two days ago and…you know…things were just going
so nicely between us…I didn’t think…”

Carlie interrupted him. “That’s your
problem—you didn’t think this through. It became all about you—did you plan on
me just waving at you from the runway as the plane took off?”

Shane moved forward, placing his hands on
her shoulders. “Carlie, stop. It’s not like that.” Shane was trying to hold
back the tidal wave of emotions that was beginning to seep through the steely
walls of his hardened exterior.

She stepped back, shucking off his grasp.
“Then why don’t you tell me what the hell is going through that thick head of
yours. Apparently Duncan knows—you seemed OK talking about it with him before
me.”

 “Would you shut up for a minute…Duncan
mentioned last week, before all of this, that he might be adjusting the security
detail rotation at the Grand Coulee Dam and that you might be heading that up. When
I found out about this mission, I half-hoped that things would already be set
in place and you’d be locked into another assignment.”

Carlie’s eyes narrowed and the muscles
quivered in her clenched jaw, nearly bursting through the sides. Shane
instinctively stepped back like he’d trained himself to do if he sensed a
physical altercation coming.

With her lips trembling and her face
flushed, Carlie raised up a balled fist and extended her index finger, pointing
at him as she readied her verbal volley. Shane put his hand up, palm out, and
felt his heart pounding. He gazed into the fiery eyes of the woman before him—the
one woman he’d ever known who, even now with her tempestuous glare, could pierce
the innermost chambers of his soul. “I knew you’d want to come with me if you
were here…” he said.

Carlie’s face was still filled with fury
as she lowered her poised hand. “I just don’t get you—with all we’ve been
through, how can you think that you’d convince me to not go with you and the
others? That I’d stroll along the walkway of the dam, whistling a sad song while
watching the skies for your return. You’re forgetting the hundreds of tight
spots we’ve been in since this world went to hell and acting like I’m now
simply your woman—and a woman who needs coddling at that.”

Shane’s head was swirling, the helm of his
thinking gone astray from the bungled navigation afforded by his feelings.
“Look, you can stay or go—it’s your decision,” he said, raising his hands in
the air and shaking his head. He turned back towards the door. “I can’t deal
with an outburst between us like this right now.” Before closing the door on
his way out, he paused. “If you come then I need us to just focus solely on
what’s ahead and not have you second-guessing me.”

Carlie picked up her pack and slammed it
on the bed. “I’ll have your back as always. As for the second-guessing part—you’re
already handling that on your own just fine.”