“So, we may not have special operations soldiers here, Ms. Dunn,” General Bhagat resumed, “but we have a wealth of experience fighting these things.” He glanced around the room. “We need to raid that facility and get all of the intelligence that we can.”
The general cleared his throat. “Dan, can you provide transportation for a team—a couple of platoons—down to Brazil?”
Hannah stared at the telephone, anticipating Colonel McTaggert’s response. He’ll say no, won’t he?
“Ah, I need to get back with you, sir,” McTaggert’s voice came from the speaker. “The briefer stated that there was a C-130 on site when she was there, so there’s the potential that we could land there. Just off the top of my head, without any planning, there’s no way a C-130 could make it all the way to Brazil and back without refueling, so I need to confer with my Air Ops officer and my planning staff before I commit to this mission to see if it’s even possible.”
“What kind of a turnaround are you thinking?” General Bhagat asked.
“We’ll need at least a couple of hours for initial planning, sir.”
Bhagat smiled. “Sounds good. We’ve got a lot of planning to do on our side as well. What do you think, Dave?” He looked at his operations officer. “Is fourteen hundred doable?”
Hannah looked at her old Timex watch, the one that all the operators on the Havoc team had made fun of her for using since it didn’t have GPS tracking, a pedometer, a heart rate monitor, or any of the infinite number of battery-draining features that their watches boasted. The simple timepiece had served her well and didn’t need to be recharged once a week—a bonus when the power grid went down. It was almost 10 a.m. now, so that gave the two groups about four hours to conduct initial planning. It was doable, but a lot of details would surely be overlooked.
“Yes, sir,” Colonel Tovey answered. “I think that’s enough time for an initial map recon, discussion with the brigade commanders about personnel availability, and to put together a rough plan.”
“Good. Is that enough time for you, Dan?”
“Yes, sir. I believe so,” the Air Force colonel replied through the telephone.
“Let’s reconvene at fourteen hundred. I’ll need your honest assessment about the feasibility of transporting a platoon or so all the way to Brazil and back.”
“Understood, sir. Are you calling us back or do we call you?”
“Ah, we’ll set up the bridge to dial into again, sir,” Major Calamante, the signal officer, replied. “We’ll just leave it open the whole time in case there are questions. Nobody else is using it.”
“Good job, Six,” the general replied. “Maybe next time we can get a VTC operational and we can see each other. Okay, let’s get back together here in my office at thirteen forty-five for a pre-brief. Just a small group, I don’t need every one of you here for the pre-brief. Everybody else, be standing by, ready to go for the fourteen hundred.”
General Bhagat stood and Hannah surged to her feet along with everyone else, accidently dropping her notepad at the unexpected movement as the others in the room said, “Iron Soldiers!” and saluted the general at the end of his meeting. Seeing it now, she realized it was one of the traditions that she actually missed from her days in the Army. It was a silly, inconsequential thing, but there it was, nostalgia creeping up on her. She leaned down to pick up her items from the floor.
“Sir, can I have a moment to talk to you?” Colonel Tovey asked the general. “We need to discuss options for refugee food shortages. We’re running out of food again.”
“Yes, of course, Dave,” General Bhagat said, glancing at the group. “Give it a moment though.”
“Yes, sir,” the operations officer replied. He turned back to watch as the group made its way from the room. “Oh, Ms. Dunn?”
“Yes, sir?” Hannah replied.
“Since you know the AO, I’ll need you to come help us with the planning of this mission.”
“Um, sure. Okay.” She gestured toward Colonel King. “I rode over here with the Aviation Brigade commander, so…”
“Excuse me. Carol?”
Colonel King nodded. “Yeah, I figured you’d be keeping her, Dave.” She put a hand on Hannah’s shoulder. “I’ll be back here for the thirteen forty-five pre-brief and we can take you back over to the brigade area after the meeting. Sound good?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hannah replied, ducking her chin.
“I know it’s tough, Hannah,” Colonel King stated. “You’ve been through so much already, seen way more shit than we have locked behind our walls, but we need you to help us out for just a little bit longer, then you can take some much-needed R&R, okay?”
“I’m fine, ma’am,” Hannah assured the older woman. “I’ve had a lot of time over the last year to work through my feelings and the implications of what we failed to stop down there. I’ll do anything to help put an end to this.”
The colonel’s fingers dug into her arm slightly as she squeezed. “Don’t go saying that too loud, dear, or they’ll take you up on it.”
Hannah’s mouth dried as the implications of Colonel King’s statement registered in her mind. Was she really prepared to do anything to set this right? She had a feeling that she was about to find out.
15
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
MARCH 6TH
“So, you’re the people I’ve heard so much about.”
Grady evaluated the man they’d waited hours to see. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected the post-apocalyptic warlord to look
