Moosehill Militia (Book 1): INFECTED (9 page)
The two Huey’s turned and flared out, landing near the last hanger where the Flight School setup operation. At least two dozen of Mohan Group employees took advantage of Mike’s offer for free flying lessons including Mike himself he only had a few hours to go and he could test for his certificate in one of three Robinson R22 Beta II helicopters. Mike also purchased two Robinson’s R44 Raven II helicopters, and two S-300C Sikorsky utility helicopters, and two Twin Star AS355 Aerospace helicopters. These choppers are for the benefit of training on different helicopters and also utility use, transportation and they are just plain fun to drive Mike admitted to himself.
Helicopter license for the general public require forty hours, twenty with instructor and twenty solo. More realistically the average is 45 hours in addition to an oral test with an FAA examiner, and usually about an hour of a practical flight test in the helicopter. The Mohan Flight School which will be driving Huey’s, a military style chopper requiring around one hundred hours of flight time plus testing and class room time. Mike figures he can test next week when two scheduled FAA instructors will be here for two days testing students.
In front of the building on the Paved Apron was parked a C-130 along with two Huey’s painted in a camouflage pattern along with two M113A2 Armored personnel carriers and one YPR-765A1 the Netherlands upgraded version of the M113. The museum acquired twenty YPR-765A1’s from the Netherlands, they retired all two thousand and seventy nine vehicles to surplus. The museum had or was about to acquire sixty M113A2 from various country's surplus stock also one hundred Hummers from surplus stock after the two gulf wars. The Mohan Group has a large group of mechanics even volunteers to work and bring all these vehicles up to inspection standard.
“Here we are sweetie, let go for a ride.” One of the Museum employees was giving a tour to school children from one of the local schools they were inside one of the M113A2. The ramp was down and the kids were in and out of the vehicle. Mac was at the other M113A2 and just walked down the back ramp. “Hey Boss, what’s up.” He asked.
“Is this rig up and running? Do we have any of those rubberized track accessories for running on roads I ordered? I’d like a team working on those.” Mike asked.
“Sure, we have about half of the two hundred you ordered these two have them installed all ready. One team can do a complete install on two vehicles a day in a ten hour period and it won’t degrade performance on the kind of off road terrain around here either. I was just checking over some maintenance and these will be good for a spin.” Mac replied.
“All right, I promised you know who, a ride if she behaves herself at school, you up to driving Miss Daisy.” Mike winked at Mac.
“Dad! I thought Sergeant Mac was going to drive us.” Mary complained.
“He is honey, just a figure of speech from an old movie. Let’s mount up.”
Mike, Mary and Mac entered the M113 and the ramp lifted off the ground and closed. Mac sat in the driver’s seat with the drivers hatch open for an unobstructed view. The command chair was occupied by Mary on Mike’s lap and elevated the command chair until they were riding above the command copula. Mike put on the commanders helmet and gave the order to Mac to move out. Mike and Mac envisioned the Museum being very hands on so with that in mind they designed a course through the woods for about a half a mile loop that they could give rides. They went down the dirt path around 10 mph and Mary was whooping it up the entire time. By the time they got back the tour group that was there, a bunch of little people were demanding rides, so Mike and Mac became drivers for an hour or more and those kids never had so much fun.
***
Day -100
Mac followed Mike into the Mohan Manor. After going through the main gate that looked like an old castle entrance they entered the main building and entered the large hall with a wooden table that looked like it could seat fifty people. Mike and Mac went to either end and sat down, nodding to about thirty people that were at the table. Everyone here was in the loop, and by loop he meant something more was going on than just the show to the public, to certain extent or another. He was going to tell everyone her the whole truth.
“Thank you all for coming today, this will be our final full meeting of the Mohan Group before I either go to jail or I’m hailed as the greatest planner in history.” Most of the people laughed and gazed around the table. Some looked back at him with neutral expressions. Some looked confused like they didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Before we proceed and I explain the full purpose of the Mohan Group to those looking confused. Lets’ hear from our department heads first.” Mike looked down the table at Mac his executive officer of the Mohan Group, to proceed.
Mac stood and turned to Lester Holt, the recent expert hired in the last six months to get their power supply up and running. “Lester please give us your report on the Mohan Power Company.”
Lester stood up. “Gentlemen the Mohan Power Company is operating at sixty percent of capacity, crews are still assembling Photovoltaic panels and installing inverters and equipment associated with them and the wind turbines are still to be finished and come on line. This location is perfect for wind power, the first of ten, two hundred foot towers are going up now. We figure in three months we should have all but two up and running that should add a considerable jump in power production with about three additional megawatts. The system is set up in blocks with all its own associated equipment. So seven blocks are online, and three are yet to be finished. They should be done within a month and a half. As of right now we are producing close to ten megawatts of power. We’re using about one megawatts and selling back approximately $30,000 worth a month at a reduced cost, of course. By any standards a complete success. Upon completion we can produce eighteen megawatts of power enough to run the whole complex three times over. Plans and supplies are also in place to tie in additional solar farms adding around twenty more megawatts.
“Thank you Lester.” Mike Said.
“Next how about our museum curator. Master Sergeant Sean Thornton, retired.” Mac added.
“Thank you Mr. McDermott, and I’ve appreciated the warm welcome I received at the museum on my arrival three months ago. With the additional help that I hired with Mr. Mohan's approval, we have all the vehicles up and running except four M113A2, we are waiting on parts for those. All the APC’s will have the rubber tread kits installed soon. I’ve ordered spare parts for all the common issues associated with these vehicles, so we should be all set for the foreseeable future. I’ll just talk about our ground fleet and let your chief pilot talk about the air wing. As of today we have eighty M113A2 that will all be in working order soon and twenty YPR-765, and upgraded version of the M113A2. We have approximately one hundred surplus Hummers that have been rebuilt and run like they are brand new. We have an assortment of fifty other military vehicles for the museum that are in working order, mostly beginning with WW2 up into the cold war era.
“These are not part of the museum but I’ll cover them anyway. The group owns sixty new large diesel SUV’s and sixty new diesel extended cab pickup trucks. All are in black or dark gray right now with Mohan group insignia of castle imposed over a moose, we have paint booth that can change them anytime you want. In back of the Museum we have a fully operational eight bay Garage that can handle working on everything we have.” We also have an assortment of heavy equipment left over from all the excavating including ten, ten wheel dump trucks, ten six wheel dump trucks, four front end loaders, six excavators, four bulldozers, seven backhoes, six bucket trucks that linemen may use like telephone company or electric company, fork lifts and bobcats, This week we are expecting a shipment of eight Mack truck units and one hundred trailers along with six all-purpose farm tractors with assorted attachments. These last few items I have no idea what we need them for. I’m sure you’ll tell me when the time is right.” Thornton finished up.
“Next up is Captain Fred Masters Captain USAF, retired. You have the floor Captain.” Mac flourished his hands in Fred’s direction.
“Thank you Mac, since I was hired to head the aviation division of The Mohan Group, I’m proud to say our flight school has produced fifty qualified helicopter pilots and thirty fixed wing pilots, many of the pilots are cross licensed for both. The Moose Hill Transport Company has been up and running for three months and most of those pilots are employees of Moose Hill Air Transport Company now. We’ve been keeping six of our C-130 taking contracts into smaller airports then the commercial airlines can go. We seemed to have found a niche market, especially transporting high end motor vehicles over long distances for their owners. We’re making a moderate profit. But more importantly getting a lot of pilots experience. I’ve usually been running one of our trained hired pilots including myself with a least two of our new pilots on each flight.” Fred took a sip of water and continued. “The museum has had a least two Huey’s open to the public each day and the airport offers helicopter rides out to Quabbin Reservoir a thirty minute round trip. It’s been very popular. Another money making business, not much though but with the reasonable fare we have been charging, very popular. That and the museum are generating a lot of good will in the area. The five Robinson helicopters are ideal for the beginning lessons until moving up to the Sikorsky's and the Huey’s. Finally the more experienced pilots are getting time in the Blackhawk's, which demand a more experienced pilot. We are due to receive three Chinooks that I have no theory how you got. All I can say is thank you, I haven’t had this much fun in, well never actually.” Everyone laughed at that.
Mac stood back up. “Our Opus shelter expert Mr. Oddie Gussdorf has been here a month overseeing the last installation of his product, which just happens to be his very own units. Mr. Gussdorf is so impressed with our complex, he asked to be part of it. Just in case, you understand.” More laughter.
Oddie stood up. “Thank you Mac for that stellar introduction, although I think I met everyone here other than a few of the new additions. I’m happy to say you installers did a fantastic job and all units are in and up and running. I’ve been helping Mac with some odds and ends. This complex fully stocked can support five thousand for up to five years I’m estimating. When we get closer to whatever Mr. Mohan is going to talk to us about, I plan on moving in.” Oddie being a man of few words sat back down.
Mike stood up at this point, paused and with a smile, looked around the table. “A few of you already know the full story behind the Mohan Group and more have probably guessed what all this is about. I’m here to tell you everything, no more guessing.
In approximately one hundred days The Mohan Group led by me expects a world changing event that our governments will not be ready for or know how to respond too. This info had been developed by confidential sources that I’m not ready to divulge yet.
Now put yourself in my shoes, you just won the largest Lottery in history at one and a half billion dollars, since the win I have made another two hundred and ten million in investments. Now ask yourself if you knew a disaster was coming and you had the means to not prevent it, but survive it, and help as many others as you can. What would you do? We have spent on the order of eight hundred million dollars through the Mohan Group and its subsidiary businesses. I’m not sure how this is going to play out. I hope nothing happens, but I have reason to believe that’s not the way it will go. With that in mind we had to think about our security. The museum makes a perfect cover for the military equipment. Besides what Master Sergeant Thornton, aka the Duke, talked about, under my and Mac’s personnel supervision, Last Chance Gun store has accumulated on the order of thirty SAW (squad automatic weapons) the M240, thirty M60 Machine guns with extra barrels and four million rounds for each type. Also five hundred M4 Carbine’s with ACOG that stands for Advanced Combat Optical Gunsights either Aim point or EOTech with ten million rounds of 5.56, twenty 60mm mortar’s with five thousand rounds and also six hundred Semi auto pistols, Glocks, or M & P 40 or 45 Cal. With two million rounds. The Store has also gotten a hold of five hundred M14 Surplus rifles, several of them need work.
We also have purchased two thousand battle dress camouflaged uniforms with associated Molly backpack with field gear. Besides the tractor truck units with their one hundred trailers full of dry good that need to be unloaded into the Hill, we expect the arrival of three hundred fifty foot cargo containers with supplies to sustain us should the worse happen. Those weapons form a good base, but everyone I’ve hired has a license to carry or themselves are gun dealers, so when the time comes I expect or Armory to have two or three times that amount of weapons and ammunition. Ladies and Gentlemen in one hundred days give or take a few I figure we should know! The weeks leading up should show some hints of what’s to come possibly. This facility can be self-sustaining for a number of years if the worst comes to pass, with capability to expand. Don’t get me wrong, we are not going to sit back here and hide if the world goes to shit we will help as many people as possible in the coming years.”
Mike looked around at the stunned faces. He thought they may have guessed at his ultimate plan, but to hear it out loud was shocking even to himself. “Any question?” he asked…
***
Mary was really excited today, she had passed her ultralight qualification a while ago but had to satisfy her Dad’s standard. So today was it, she was going up solo with her Dad in anther ultra-light. She was now 13 years old and felt much more mature then her Dad thought she was.
