Islands of Rage and Hope (eARC) (4 page)

"You seriously think these two could lie about this?" Walker said to Olga.

"Getting to the point of saying no," Olga said. "That spastic series of sentences could only come from a virgin."

"The point is, there are other ways it could tear," Walker said. "Did you use tampons or pads?"

"That's pretty private, don't you think?" Lee Ann said.

"I think we're way past that point of privacy about your twat, Lee Ann," Walker said. "Tampons or pads?"

"Pads," Lee Ann said, pouting.

"Okay, now, Miss Olga is going to go with you into the cabin and she's going to ask you to get like with the private parts doctor. And she's going to have to fiddle about in your private area."

"Why me?" Olga said.

"Because if there's a woman on this boat more familiar with that view than you, I'd be much surprised," Walker said.

"Is that a problem?" Olga said.

"No," Walker said. "But if it comes up again, I'd like to watch."

"Okay, you two, time out," Sophia said. "So you want Olga to do an inspection? Down there?"

"Yes," Walker said. "If she is virgo intacta there's no way that he intentionally knocked her up. No seventeen-year-old heterosexual male can stop at 'I'll just put in the tip.' Cannot. We don't have a speculum but for something this simple you can use your fingers. Use gloves."

"Miss McGregor," Sophia said. "Are you okay with this? I'm saying, as the captain, that if everything is...there, then it's not Kevin's fault...."

"And I'll get the spare room ready for three wise men," Olga said.

"Hell, I'm calling the CDC," Walker said.

"Ahem," Olga said, coming out the lower decks. She was drying her hands off.

"Well?" Sophia asked.

"Well..." Olga said, frowning furiously. "Ahem... The smarmy bastard appears to be right."

"Smarmy?" Walker said.

"Seriously?" Sophia said.

"Seriously," Olga said. "It's there. Fully intact. Shouldn't
it
have stopped them?"

"Super sperm," Walker said, shrugging. "And, Ensign, we really should call the CDC on this one. It's not their field but it's truly fascinating, medically."

"I really didn't do anything!" Kevin said. "Honest."

"Except, you know,
go
all over a lifeboat," Olga said.

"That is really not something that can be prevented," Walker said.

"I know," Olga said. "It's just...Jesus she's young, Tom!"

"Mary was thirteen," Walker said, shrugging. "She's not even the youngest in the squadron. Although the rest were pretty straightforward 'what happens in the compartment' and, no, we don't want your help, thank you. We're going to be looking for a desert island..."

"So what happens now?" Kevin asked.

"What happens now is that when Lee Ann gets her composure again, I get to piss all the women off again."

"You're serious?" Olga said, furiously. "You want them to do it? What is it with you men?"

"You want the full lecture?" Walker asked, seriously. "Or just the medical one? Here's the medical one. Lee Ann is small. Very small. She's not fully developed as a woman. She needed about a year to be really ready to be a prima gravitura..."

"What?" Sophia asked.

"First-time mother," Walker snapped. "She is going to need all the help she can get with the delivery if it's not going to be a C-section. Rate of survival on nonanesthetized, no antilabor drugs C-sections is essentially zero. C-section is out. Theoretically, somebody, not me, could perform a late-term abortion."

"No," Lee Ann said, clutching her stomach. "This is my baby."

"I said theoretically," Walker said. "We don't really have the tools. Back at the squadron with some help from the CDC and the shop on the
Grace
, maybe. Maybe Lieutenant Fallon could do it without botching it. But Lee Ann says no, anyway. So the only functional alternative is natural delivery."

"Get to the part where Kevin
has
to boff his twelve-year-old girlfriend," Olga said.

"Could be any male at this point but Kevin is the best choice," Walker said. "Vaginal sex during late pregnancy thins the cervical walls and makes for an easier delivery. No matter what, Lee Ann's delivery is unlikely to be anything like easy. But it makes for an
easier
delivery. It's the difference between likely to be deadly and maybe possible. With some actual medical assistance and something resembling an infirmary, which means she needs to be back on the
Boadicea
. ASAP. But, yes, Kevin needs to begin having sex with Lee Ann. Soon. And frequently. At least once a day."

"I'm in favor," Lee Ann said, raising her hand. But she looked a little frightened.

"We need to call this in to Squadron, anyway," Sophia said. "And we'll get a medical read on it from CDC. If they know anything about pregnancy."

"There are books," Walker said. "I'm sure they've got more than epidemiology on their servers."

"You know what?" Sophia said, rubbing her face. "I know the whole thing about not jumping the chain of command. But this isn't really military. And I really need to talk to my da right now..."

"So he's right?" Sophia said.

"From what I've read, yes. That was known back when you were...Never mind...Just...Technically he is right. Over."

"Ick," Sophia said. "I just...Maybe calling you
wasn't
the best choice, Da. Over."

"I'm glad you did. We never get to talk. But, I've got to get this straight. This Walker guy thinks she got pregnant from involuntary emissions on the damp bottom of a lifeboat? Over."

"Yes," Sophia said. "She's...virgo intacta. And they're both...Like Olga said, only virgins could be that incoherent about it. Over."

"You're not particularly incoherent about it, over."

"You've been talking to us about it since we were kids in one way or another," Sophia said. "And let's just say this cruise has been a real eye-opener."

"I'd say sorry but I didn't start the Plague. Okay, Walker. What's his medical background, over?"

"I'm not sure," Sophia said. "He said he took a course once that included advanced midwifery. I'm not even sure what that means except it has to do with delivering babies."

"God knows we're going to need it. Okay, I'm going to get the CDC to call you and see if they can confirm what you've said. I'm also going to pass this around in the official news bulletin. Over."

"Uh, isn't this a little private, Da?" Sophia asked.

"Well, it's that or every little old lady on the
Boadicea
will be beating him with their canes. Squadron, out."

"Permission to speak, sir?" the chief of boat of the
Alexandria
said.

"When do you ask, COB?" Vancel replied. "Sure."

"Hate the situation that we're in, sir," the COB said. "Really getting to hate fish. Don't want to think about what's happened ashore, sir. But this Wolf Squadron thing is like the best soap opera
ever
."

"And turns out she got knocked up by sitting where the guy had spewed in his sleep!"

"No fuckin' way!"

"That has got to be the
lamest
excuse
ever
! 'No, seriously, Mom, I got pregnant from a life raft deck!'"

"Can you describe these involuntary emissions in more detail?" Dr. Chang said, leaning into the screen. Arnold Chang was an internist as well as an epidemiologist at the CDC whom Dodson had brought in for the consult. "What were the conditions on the interior of the life raft?"

Sophia had seen boiled lobsters less red than Kevin. Lee Ann was just looking pissed. But in a second she'd start crying.

"Doctors..." Sophia said.

"Doctors," Walker said. "Any of us could describe common conditions in life rafts. The interiors are frequently wet from salt spray. When there is rain, it is usually admixed with spray. The salt content is always high, generally higher than salt water. The clothes also tend to develop high salt content, one of the reasons persons tend to disrobe in the tropics besides heat. It would be useful to keep in mind that you are dealing with two victims of extreme trauma. They are still suffering from dehydration, exposure and malnutrition. They are, in addition, quite young. A degree of care needs to be used in your approach with all due respect."

"Preliminarily, I concur with your hypothesis, Mr. Walker," Dr. Dobson said. "As I concur with your sentiment. Among other things, well, one of the reasons to get into research is we don't tend to
have
much in the way of bedside manner. Having reviewed what we have on pregnancy, not enough given your conditions, I also, reluctantly, concur with your advice to begin and maintain sexual congress. That would probably get me de-licensed, given the young lady's age, were there still a Medical Licensing Board. However, it is the correct medical advice and given that the two are...already in the current condition...I concur. And, yes, this is one for the record books...."

"One last," Dr. Chang said. He'd been leafing through a book as they were speaking and now looked up. "Found a coincidental item. Medical report on an accidental pregnancy in Miami, 2007. Persons were in a group that was engaging in sexual activity. They were, in their minds, protected by condoms. However, they did not understand how to properly use them and were sharing. When one male would get done, the other would flip it inside out. Three young ladies became pregnant due to incidental contact. The young ladies were monogamous to single partners but were all pregnant by partners who had shared the condom rather than their primary partners. So something similar has been documented, although a condom being passed around is not the bottom of a rubber lifeboat."

"Close enough," Dobson said. "I would say that is a fair confirmation. Tell the young lady and gentlemen we're sorry for the indelicacy of the questioning. But we're researchers who have nothing to research. We're sort of starved for something new. CDC out."

Dobson looked across the lab at Barry Martin, his lab assistant.

"You know," he said, leaning back and interlacing his fingers on his shrinking belly. "When you get into this profession, you think about what you're going to be doing in the event of a really bad plague. I always saw myself, out there, in the ruins of civilization, wearing a moon suit and searching for survivors. Never in my wildest dreams did I picture being on Skype with a yacht in the middle of the Atlantic trying to figure out how a twelve-year-old girl got pregnant. Just was
not
on my bucket list..."

"Hey, I just figured something out," Olga said.

"What?" Sophia asked wearily. She felt like she'd just fought her way through a typhoon.

"Walker, Dobson and Chang," Olga said.

"Your point?" Sophia asked. "Other than it sounds like a law firm?"

"Three Wise Men! Okay, two wise men and a wise guy..."

Zero Three Hundred local. The definition of Oh Dark Thirty. Everyone should be asleep. And the Hole should be up.

Walker opened up the cabinet that contained one of the Navy handhelds. They were generally kept off unless there was an away team. None of the boats in the division had away teams operating at the moment.

He turned it to a random frequency and keyed it.

"
Alexandria
,
Alexandria
, Marigold, over."

He waited.

"Calling station unidentified. Identify for verification, over."

"Verification is call sign. Following eyes only, FDOSAC. Code is Marigold, repeat, Marigold. Verification: Four-One-Three-Six. Will contact same time, same frequency, tomorrow. End message. Repeat: Eyes only, FDO. Do not, repeat,
not
contact Squadron. Over."

"If you are screwing around on this frequency, we
will
find you and have your ass."

"Contact only the FDO," Walker said. "Or I shall have yours. Marigold, out."

"Skipper, sorry," the duty officer said. "We just got a weird, really weird, call. Voice only."

"Go ahead," Commander Vancel said, rubbing his eyes. He wasn't getting out of the rack unless it was important.

"Where'd it come from?" Vancel asked, replaying the recording on the handheld.

"Somewhere in Division Seven," the OOD said. "I can't tell if this guy is fucking around or...Well..."

"It's for General Brice," Vancel said, rolling out of his rack. "She was the flag duty officer at SAC when it went down. I'll send it on as a personal e-mail attachment. Log it, though."

"Marigold?" Brice said, looking at the e-mail. She really wasn't terribly busy most of the time and today was one of those days. She was good at her job, which involved getting other people to do theirs and then just keeping that going. Unfortunately, since most of the people she had working for her were uber-competent, that meant she had lots of time on her hands. In the middle of an apocalypse. Not a good thing.

So her curiosity was piqued.

She typed in the word as a search in the intelligence database. It wasn't by any means a complete database. The "complete" database had been the whole of SIPRNET, the DoD's secure version of the internet. But The Hole was designed as a backup in the event of, well, an apocalypse, and it had at least extracts of a lot of stuff.

There were various references. Several operations had included "Marigold" in their operations name. Most of them were black ops but not all.

However, there was also a flag officer code name listed.

Upon retirement, all flag officers as well as "select" others were given a code name and a contact method. The reason was that flag officers held a lot of secrets in their heads. Even after retirement, they were potential targets for espionage or terrorist assassination. If they happened to be travelling in a country where a revolution kicked off, they could call a number and response would materialize. Even if the USA had to send Rangers in quietly--as it had on numerous occasions.

She clicked the link and blanched.

"Oh..." she said, panting. She felt slightly faint. "Ooof-dah. Oh, it
can't
be..."

She listened to the voice recording again and compared the information. The four digit code was the last four of the Social. The voice even sounded the same.