The President studied him for a long moment. “Assistance in producing our own fusion reactors,” he said, simply. “And superconductor batteries.”
“American firms are already involved with the research efforts,” Steve pointed out. “And some of the components cannot be manufactured on Earth.”
“Then we would want additional supplies of both,” the President said. “And some military assistance.”
Steve lifted his eyebrows. International terrorism was reeling, both under the sudden loss of their leadership cadres and their financial backers. For once, the War on Terror had come genuinely close to being won. But there were growing problems in the Middle East and Pakistan, which was experiencing a terrifying level of civil unrest. It was quite likely, Steve knew, that the Pakistani Government would fall soon enough. And it wasn’t the only major headache.
“What sort of assistance would you like?” He said, finally. “And why?”
“We believe that North Korea is undergoing severe economic problems,” the President said, softly. “Their Chinese patrons have been distracted and the Russians aren’t interested in feeding them these days. It is quite possible that their government will consider making a lunge for South Korea, unleashing a bloody war.”
Steve scowled. He hadn’t seriously considered Korea, but he had to admit the President had a point. “We could wipe out their leadership too,” he said. “And yet that would certainly result in civil war.”
The President shook his head. “We would like some military assistance if the North Koreans do start attacking the South,” he said. “And we would like their nuclear program destroyed.”
Steve nodded. “Very well,” he said. “It will be done.”
“An approvable decision,” Romford said, four hours later. “Getting rid of North Korea as a nuclear power will definitely make the world safer.”
“I suppose,” Steve said. He looked around the training complex. It was surprisingly impressive, reminding him of Camp Pendleton. “These guys didn’t miss much, did they?”
“I believe they were retired Marines,” Romford confirmed. “The training program had its limits, but it certainly did a good job at turning out cohesive teams. And they proved themselves in combat.”
Steve nodded. International Warriors had been one of the large private security companies in the world, recruiting soldiers from all over the world and hiring them out as everything from bodyguards to local police forces. Steve had met a couple of their recruiters back when he retired from the Marines and he had to admit that he had been seriously tempted. If he hadn’t had the ranch, he might well have signed up and been deployed to Africa or the Middle East as part of a private bodyguard team.
But that might have gotten me killed, he thought. The last report from Saudi Arabia had suggested that a number of hired bodyguards had been slaughtered by the Saudi National Guard. No one was quite sure why. Or I might never have seen the starship.
He looked around the training complex, thoughtfully. The owners had designed it to simulate every possible field of combat, from house-to-house fighting to jungle or naval combat. It wasn’t too surprising, he knew. They’d supplied guards for freighters cruising near the coast of Africa as well as private security teams. The former Marines or SEALs who made up such teams wouldn’t want to let their skills slip. Besides, lacking the endless government bureaucracy, the company had been able to adapt, react and overcome quicker than some aspects of the Pentagon. Rumour had it that they even paid bonuses for soldiers who spoke foreign languages.
“So tell me,” he said. “Is this suitable for our purposes?”
“More or less,” Romford confirmed. “We can run basic medical checks here, give everyone a translation implant, then start running through training cycles until we get used to working as a team. We’ll probably run into problems when we start recruiting people from outside the United States, but we will overcome them. It will help, I think, that we won’t give a shit about political correctness.”
Steve nodded. The agreement with the President, which was currently being examined by a select group of American politicians, would effectively turn the training camp into a private fiefdom. As long as the soldiers entered willingly and signed the right contracts, they could be put through the most intensive training possible without worrying about bureaucratic rules and regulations. Knowing the dangers of abuse, Steve had been careful to hire training officers he knew and trusted… with the private thought that he could do almost anything to a training officer who failed his trust.
Something lingering in boiling oil, perhaps, he thought. Or maybe simple exposure to hard vacuum.
“Give us a couple of months, I think, with the first volunteers,” Romford added. “Then we can start recruiting others. But we’re going to have to experiment a bit with the training programs.”
“True,” Steve agreed. This wasn’t a standard military deployment, no matter what it looked like on the surface. The soldiers would be travelling to alien worlds and fighting there. “It wouldn’t do to recruit an xenophobe.”
“Or someone with a deathly fear of little blue men,” Romford agreed. He smiled, brightly. “Anyone who read Green Lantern will probably be very suspicious of our… noble benefactors.”
Steve gave him an odd look. “I would never have fingered you as a comics fan.”
“There was a kid who came to see his granddad in the damn residence,” Romford said. “I think he was bored out of his skull, so he used to show me the comics and try to read them to me. The last few issues had the Guardians creating a Borg rip-off and sending them to turn the entire universe into thoughtless monsters. And then they all died.”
“A likely story,” Steve said. It wasn’t uncommon for soldiers to enjoy reading comics as a form of escape from their lives. Hell, he’d been a great fan of Doctor Who for precisely that reason. The episodes were unrealistic, but that was the point. War movies would have been a bit too close to home. “I think you bought them for yourself.”
Romford looked away. “Anyway, we will be watching for people with an adverse fear reaction,” he continued, changing the subject rapidly. “Part of the training program will include holograms of many of the nastier-looking alien races, particularly the ones that look like spiders or movie monsters.”
“Exposure will probably help,” Steve said.
He winced at an old memory. He’d once been deathly scared of scorpions, to the point where he hadn’t even been able to look at the creatures. Iraq and its legions of deadly scorpions had cleared that right up, even though he still found them creepy. Hell, they’d spent the boring days before crossing the border capturing scorpions and watching them fight each other for entertainment. But what if there were soldiers who literally went to pieces when confronted with alien life forms?
“Let us hope so,” Romford said. He smiled, suddenly. “We’ve also started constructing a holographic training room, where we can test people to the limit. A few more days and we should be able to start offering training that is as close as possible to reality.”
“Good,” Steve said. He took one last look around the training field. “They’re willing to sell?”
“They’ve been having legal and financial problems lately,” Romford said. “There’s some problems with operating a mercenary company these days — and the UN really didn’t help, when it bitched and moaned about guards doing their damn jobs. And yet, everyone in an unstable place wants trained bodyguards to watch their backs.”