“Appreciate that,” Fred muttered.
“I just wanted to tell you, you’re a tough old SOB,” Jeremiah proclaimed with a grin.
Fred looked at the first sergeant and a hint of a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth.
“Heads up,” Sammy whispered.
They turned and saw the president and Rhinehart walking over.
“Well, you got that out of your system, Mister McCoy, although I cannot say I approve,” President VanAllen remarked. “So, are you going to accept the job?”
“Said I would, didn’t I?” He had finished putting on his gun belt but he was too hot to put on the vest. He stared at the president, waiting.
For some stupid reason, Gil VanAllen, a desk riding financial consultant in his past life, tried to stare down Fred McCoy. It didn’t work. Instead, he turned to Jeremiah.
“First Sergeant, please brief Mister McCoy on his responsibilities for this mission.”
“Aye, sir,” Jeremiah replied, but he did not salute. After the two men had walked away, a few people walked over and complimented Fred. Jeremiah waited until everyone had left before speaking.
“We have a mission briefing in an hour with everyone that is going on recon missions, and before I forget, I must thank you.”
“For what?” Sammy asked.
Jeremiah gestured at Fred. “If it weren’t for this, only a couple of people had planned on volunteering, if any. There’ll be a few more now” He smiled and gave a mock salute to Fred. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
“I’ll be there,” Fred replied. He turned to Sammy. “I’ve worked up a powerful appetite. Let’s go eat.”
Chapter 15 – To Cauterize or Not to Cauterize
Doctor Stephen Kincaid made a tsking noise as he inspected Justin’s arm. His friend and colleague, Doctor Hiram Smeltzer, did the same.
“Well, Captain, I have good news and bad news.”
“Spit it out, Doc,” Justin said.
“Cauterizing it at this point would be painful and probably ineffective. Stretch seems to have done a good job of cleaning and dressing the bites, but there was a delay of a few hours. Your tetanus vaccination is still good for a couple more years, but it won’t prevent rabies. Do you have excessive salivation?”
“No. In fact, I could stand to have something to drink. A cup of hot tea maybe,” he said and looked hopefully at Ruth. She nodded and hurried off.
“Alright, that’s a good sign. We’re going to leave these wounds open and keep a loose dressing over them. I have some Neosporin in the lab. It’s expired, but it won’t hurt to squirt some on these bites.”
“So far it sounds like good news, Doc,” Justin said.
The doctor frowned. “When Shooter called this in, I did a little reading. Rabies may take ten to sixty days before it presents itself.”
“If I have it, what happens?” Justin asked.
“I’m afraid you will die,” Hiram said. “There is no cure. If you don’t have rabies, I’m concerned that you may have sustained nerve damage. The wounds are pretty deep.”
Justin gave a terse nod as Ruth came back with a steaming cup of tea. He gave her a small smile and took a sip. It was n herbal spice blend that he could have done without, but he didn’t complain. Stephen started to say something more, but Justin cut him off.
“Alright, Doc. If you two have something to take care of, do it now. We’re going to have an important meeting in thirty minutes in the cafeteria and it’ll last until lunch.”
They indicated they understood and hurried off. Stretch waited until they had shut the door before speaking.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
“Shitty with a healthy dose of shitty,” he replied. “Rhinehart has always been difficult and VanAllen is worse. They think they know everything. He was a financial consultant, back before, did you know that?”
Ruth scoffed. “My uncle was a financial consultant. He told me it didn’t matter what he told his clients to invest in, he got a commission no matter how poorly the stock or mutual fund performed.”
“Sounds right up his alley,” Justin muttered. “They showed me the intel report from Missouri. Clay had pictures of Chinese soldiers getting off a paddle boat.”
“A paddle boat?” Ruth questioned.
“Yeah. Think about it. It wouldn’t take much to convert some of the older ones back to steam engines. My guess is they came up from the delta. And, if I had to guess, there was more than one paddle boat full of Chinese troops traipsing around.”
“What did Rhinehart and VanAllen think of that?”
“They had very little interest,” Justin said. “But we’ll go over it together. If there are more, and I’m sure there are, Fort Detrick is a possible target.”
“Alright, I’ll get on the intercom,” Ruth said and sighed. “This shit never seems to end. So, how’s your arm, really?”
“It hurts like hell.”
“I’ll rig you up a sling. You should take a quick shower and change before the meeting.”
“Yes ma’am,” Justin replied.
Chapter 16 – Recon Briefing
Fred and Sammy walked in the Tactical Operations Center almost an hour after the fight. When they walked in, Joker looked up and grinned.
“I hear we missed an educational tutorial in the fine art of fisticuffs,” he said.
“You should have seen it,” Sammy exclaimed. “Fred put it on him.”
“It was long overdue,” Flash remarked. “That man has a mouth on him, and he’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t like blacks.”
The three of them talked while Fred studied one of the many topographic maps that was lying on the table. Someone had created overlays of sectors around Mount Weather. Fred suspected it was Zach’s work. Joker stood and walked over to Fred.
“What are your thoughts?” he asked.
Fred glanced over. There were now others in the room that Fred had not heard enter, which made him question if he had taken a few more punches to the head than he’d realized. To be honest, while sitting in the cafeteria, he’d stiffened up and his hands began to
