Strands of Sorrow (31 page)

“Very well,” Ramos said. “After you, Captain, Commander.”

* * *

It wasn’t only the general in silver suits. The helo crew, the people handling the helo and Steve were all in NBC gear.

The helo took off from Delta and stayed low to the water on exit, heading west.

“We’re technically violating every bit of Cuba’s territorial rights,” Steve said. “Not to mention, well . . . treaties, laws, regulations, international agreements, the UN charter and Executive Orders en masse. However, better to test things on Cuban than on U.S. soil.”

“I doubt they’re going to go to war over . . . chemical weapons?” Ramos said. “Especially since there is no Cuba. I can see the efficacy but you’d have to spray every inch of the U.S. with them. And that would cause some issues. I don’t have a problem with use of chemical weapons. Contaminating half the U.S. I have an issue with, Captain.”

“We won’t, sir,” Steve said. “About one percent. Possibly ten percent of urban areas. If I may ask the General to just wait. The flight is short, sir. And it works better as a visual, sir.”

“I’ll wait,” Ramos said.

* * *

They went feet-dry over the sprawling port city of Santiago De Cuba. It was a much better port than Guantanamo in terms of geography, a deepwater port cut inland that was highly protected. Also surrounded by a huge city which sprawled all over the hills surrounding the port. There were some mechanicals working in the port. The water wasn’t packed with bodies but they were noticeable even in the dim moonlight from the blacked-out helo. There were so many the sharks had clearly gotten full.

Besides the moonlight there were four sets of lights showing. They appeared to be rotating spotlights. The helo was headed for one of them.

The helo proceeded inland to a park, then began circling at about five hundred feet.

In the park there was a . . . device. It was lit up bright as day with flashing red lights and spot-lights that looked like car headlights pointed upwards. And there were bullhorn speakers on it. Even from the high-circling helo the general could hear some sort of announcement in a female voice but he couldn’t make out the words.

The lights permitted him to see the general design. Spread legs to hold it upright. Spikes to keep infected off of it. A cup attachment on the top that he suspected had to do with sling-lift. All the gear just below that. Down from that . . . it had some sort of heavy circular sleeve, the purpose of which wasn’t clear, and a down-curved circular shield, also quite large. The sleeve looked as if it was designed to drop, which would bring the shield down to just about cover the landing legs. He couldn’t get a good look below the shield. But whatever was below was the smallest part of the system.

And there were infected. Dozens,
hundreds
of dead littered the ground around the device and even more were feeding. There were probably ten thousand infected below, with most of the dead being within fifty meters of the device. Some of them seemed . . . sluggish. As he watched, one stopped feeding and just lay down. A few moments later, another started feeding on him. The pile was getting large.

“Jesus Christ,” Ramos said quietly. “Radiation?”

“Gamma radiation to be precise, sir,” Steve said. “Two mostly spent fuel rods from the Jacksonville nuclear power plant with a metal cover to prevent beta emissions. Pilot, back to Delta. I think we’ve seen enough.”

* * *

“My first thought was gas, sir,” Steve said as they proceeded back to Gitmo. “I’d come to the conclusion the best choice was Amidol, which is similar to VX but a bit less stable so it breaks down faster. Issues. Yes, it breaks down. It does
not
break down evenly or quickly unless it is exposed to sea water. It requires the NaCl for the reaction. If it gets into ground water, it breaks down very slowly indeed. We started by trying other chemicals with less permanency. But, well, war gases are war gases for a reason. The efficiency just was not high enough. Not even things like phosgene, which we tried, as well as chlorine and even a carbon monoxide generator. But only the war gases really worked well and ground soil and water tests indicated there would be large contamination zones after their use.

“Counterpoint: Every city in the world’s ground water is
already
so contaminated just by having
been
an industrialized city, I’m not sure it matters. New Orleans, post Katrina and all the way up to just pre-Plague, was still a toxic spill zone that nobody would be
allowed
to live in were it not for politics. It was a city-wide Superfund site worse than Love Canal. What should have been done with it was level all the contaminated areas and fill in with dirt. Past issues. They’re all back under water, anyway, and back to being a toxic stew. The same toxic conditions exist for most of the cities. Hell, most of the major rivers in the U.S. are not potable at this point. The only thing that’s going to fix it is time. Time heals all wounds, even chemical. Rivers should be useable in five years or so. Point being that contaminating all the cities would not have been an insoluble issue.

“Killer issue: Production on the scale we’d have to produce it. Models said clearing
all
the urban areas of the U.S. would require fifteen thousand one hundred and forty-two sorties. Or seven
million
five hundred and seventy-one gallons of Amidol. Which is a hell of a lot of poison gas, General.”

“I would have discarded the thought at that point,” Ramos said. “When you talk about ‘millions of gallons’ of complex chemicals in
this
environment. Infeasible.”

“I came to the same conclusion, sir,” Steve said, grinning. “What’s that thing about the proof of another man’s intelligence, sir? I had come to the reluctant realization that we were going to have to use pied piper and artillery. Which meant at the least starting up or finding an artillery plant. Nitrates . . . Et cetera.

“Then we found the
Nebraska
turned over pierside at King’s Bay. And after discussion with various officers who knew more than I about nuclear reactors, we decided we
needed
to right it and pull the reactor. Which set off a
very
serious discussion by
very
serious nuclear engineers of just how deadly dangerous that was going to be and how insanely safe we were going to have to be to keep from killing the salvage crews.”

“Deadly dangerous being a good thing in this instance,” Ramos said, nodding.

“The mechanicals are nothing more than a deliberate industrial accident, sir,” Steve said. “So I decided ‘why not a deliberate
radiological
accident?’”

“Contamination?” Ramos asked.

“Very minimal,” Steve said. “The device is filtered for gamma. Gamma rays don’t really leave much residual radiation behind, sir. We did a test of a spot one had been sitting on for two weeks and in another two weeks it was barely above background. They just zip through the infected and somewhat slowly kill them. Biggest problem is secondary contamination from the metals in the bot. Since you can’t feel, smell or touch gamma rays . . . the infected flock and feed. And die. And die. They’re not even heavily irradiated. But over time they get enough to kill them.

“We’ll have to dispose of the bots eventually.
They
are seriously contaminated. But not the ground. And although gammas keep going, they also spread in every direction. They’re basically a nonissue beyond a few dozen meters. Biggest problem is their limited range and the fact that the closer infected act to absorb the radiation. That one is going to have to be moved soon. What we’re looking at, now that we have some empirical data, is how often they’ll have to be moved to maintain utility. Again, that may turn into a killer logistical issue. There are no easy solutions to hundreds of millions of infected. So far.”

“You’re going to need a lot of nuclear material,” Ramos said.

“There are sixty-five nuclear power plants in the U.S., General,” Steve said. “Each has spent fuel rods in cooling ponds available for use as well as their internal fuel rods. That is quite a bit of material. We also have several thousand nuclear weapons in inventory, sir. They, too, can be used. Once you break them down to materials, sir, they’re not useable as nukes of course.”

“I was the guard commander for a site, Captain,” Ramos said. “I know how hard it is to get a sustained explosive reaction. This may seem ‘old school’ but the materials could be used for terrorism. Dirty bombs . . .”

“Until they are done with their work, they are extremely well guarded by infected, sir,” Steve said. “A tough nut for anyone but a military unit to crack. Some people may eventually have helos as well. We’ll patrol the drop points with Gunhawks night and day. That should discourage theft. And approaching from the ground would be . . . difficult. Gamma radiation goes through just about everything. You noticed the curved shield, sir? The reason there is a shield is so you can’t actually
see
the core from above. If you could, we’d eventually lose crews.

“When the helo drops a specially designed connector into the cup, that releases the shield, which drops and cuts off emissions. The bot is picked up and carried to another spot and begins again. Refueling the small generator on it is an issue, as is any other ‘maintenance’ on the system. It is
very
hot. We rotate the crews working on them and they use lead-lined gear. We can also use plutonium from warheads, although it takes two warheads to make a good emitter, or a couple of fuel rods from a civilian reactor. There are several dozen just in the cooling ponds at the nuclear plant in Jax. There are other sources. We can make at least three hundred with nuclear material currently available or that we can avail ourselves of. One reason we’re going to have to clear the
Stennis
at some point. We need the rods.”

“How many estimated infected in the U.S.?” Ramos asked.

“About seventy million at this point, General,” Steve said. “Based on models. Number is dropping slowly. There was a large initial die-off just after the Fall for a variety of reasons including cannibalism, then another during the winter. Unfortunately, things appear to generally be stable at this point. Current rough models are that we’ll drop to something like thirty million in ten years. In ten years, any survivors in sheltered redoubts are going to be out of materials. If the U.S. isn’t cleared in three years or so we’ll lose an estimated eighty percent of the remaining survivors. So we’re going to have to do this as fast and as brutal as possible. Ask me for anything but time.”

“Biggest mass murderer in history,” Ramos said. “I see why you told Lieutenant Smith there were more efficient ways to clear than a tank.”

“Notional plan is as follows, sir,” Steve said. “Move the ground force via railroad. Roads are blocked, railroads we can clear. Move into area that has been rough-cleared by Subedey. Set up a secure forward airfield. Have the helos fly in and prep. Helos pick up the devices, then move into surrounding area. Once the area is yellow cleared by the Subedey devices, move into it, away from the particular points, and do it all over again. And that’s all we’ve got at present, sir. The rest is details which, well, we’ve got the PowerPoint if you’d really like to sit through it.”

“Possibly at a later date,” General Ramos said. “You have discussed this with the Joint Chiefs?”

“Yes, sir,” Steve said. “Every flag officer is briefed, General. I ran this same brief for Admiral Hiscock just the other day. I, by the way, see this as an Army program, not Navy. Navy may use some for clearance on coastal cities but we’re mostly looking at it as Army. The Joint Chiefs see the potential efficacy, sir, and the issues. The current group is onboard.”

“I’ll need to see the full details and talk to some of the nuclear officers,” Ramos said. “But notionally so am I.”

“The cities are the problem, General,” Steve said. “Cities and suburbs. They are where the mass of survivors remain. Getting them cleared out is going to be key to freeing the world. We can’t simply nuke them. It would take out half the world’s survivors.”

“All understood,” General Ramos said, shaking his head. “It’s a big task.”

“It’s a small world, General,” Steve said. “But I wouldn’t want to paint it. Unfortunately, it appears we must.”

“What were your immediate plans for your forces?” Ramos said.

“Every task requires trained personnel, sir,” Steve said. “There are more of those in the military than in general civilian areas. Thus: Continue clearance of coastal bases is the near-term plan. Norfolk is, alas, a very big ticket. Lots of population density, lots of infected. We’ve been looking at it and rubbing our chins. We’re cutting out ships but clearing even the base, which has multiple perimeter breaches, is going to be a chore. We may start Subedey there. I’ve been talking with my staff about concentrating our forces to do so.
After
we’d cleared Lejeune and the surrounding bases. Once we have sufficient force, clear Savannah to get to Hunter and Stewart at which point we’ll stand the Army back up. There’s a notional plan for a deep strike to Bragg as well. Lots of high quality forces there and we’d anticipate similar survival levels to Lejeune.”

“I’m going to make one recommendation,” General Ramos said. “It is a recommendation, only. It is still up in the air whether I will continue at my current rank or take a position at a lower one. Given the numbers we have, that’s understandable. Especially with the example of General Montana, whom I’d met prior to the Plague and, like most warriors, admire. I’m not going to say ‘I’m in charge!’ like Al Haig just because I have stars. Recommendation only.”

“Yes, sir?” Steve said.

“We’re coming up on one year since the announcement of the Plague,” General Ramos said. “I would suggest that we need something to show how far we’ve come back.”

“As you say, sir?” Steve said.

“Norfolk is important,” Ramos said. “We need the personnel, we need the facilities. If for no other reason than to bring them to Jax. And the survivors and dependents are going to be our people. That is important as well. But I would recommend a mostly symbolic mission.”