“Dad will dump that ghost-ridden tug in a heartbeat, sir,” Faith said. “Trust me, he likes it about as much as I do. Eventually, you’ll need somewhere bigger to put people. And you need to be able to feed them.
“What you need is a cruise ship that’s not too wrecked. Bottom line, you want no more than one direction the infected can attack and if you can get out on water you’re golden. You’re going to need supplies. There are fricking boats alongside, wrecked, drifting, every way from Sunday. Salvage. You got supplies. Not sure about helo supplies. Don’t know about that. But you can do it. We can’t do it. You can do it. It’s just a matter of doing it.
“If we take a liner, we can show your Gurkhas and the new Dutch Marines the Wolf Way of Clearance Fu and get a liner for you to use at the same time. Of course, they take a bit of clean-up, but that’s the breaks. For ammo and even helo parts I’m sure we can get a shipment up to you from time to time. Or you can come back to Gitmo and do pretty much the same on the other side of the Atlantic. Up to you. Sirs.”
“Sounds like the first thing we need is a not-too-damaged liner,” Whiteshead said after a moment.
“Saw one alongside in some docks just upriver,” Faith said. “Of course, it’s alongside in a city. A really big city. But you can probably use it. You just got to do some serious scrumming to get the main hatches closed,” she ended with a feral grin.
“We don’t have gunboats to support you this time, Sis,” Sophia pointed out.
“Where’d we put them fifties?” Faith said. “We made the other ones right here on the Grace.”
“You are suggesting clearing a liner which is alongside, Lieutenant?” Hamilton asked. “Tied to a dock.”
“It’ll be easy compared to most of the stuff we’ve done, sir,” Faith said. “Among other things, this time I don’t have to climb over the side. We can slide down, sir.”
“I thought you didn’t like air-assault,” Sophia said.
“Beats climbing up into a scrum over shark-filled water,” Faith said. “Beats it all hollow.”
“I’d have to check on changing the mission orders,” Hamilton temporized. “And only after the main mission is complete.”
“Understood, Colonel,” Prince Harry said. “If it is possible… It would be a great aid to the British people.”
“We’ll look at the feasibility,” Hamilton said. “After the main mission is complete. Lieutenant, Ensign, get your final preparations for tomorrow’s mission done, then get some rack time. Tomorrow is not going to be a walk in the park. Even Washington Square.”
“You rang, Colonel?” Steve said. It was earlier in the day in Gitmo and while Hamilton had put off replying on the prince’s plan, he was interested in the answer as well.
“His Royal Highness brought up some points in our first meeting I thought you should be aware of, sir,” Hamilton said.
“Which are?” Steve asked.
The colonel gave a quick precis of the discussion before asking, “Not do you approve the notional plan or disapprove, sir,” Hamilton said. “I’m wondering what you think?”
“With some rather critical bits left out, you just covered Plan Sisyphus,” Steve said, leaning back.
“The Greek legend of the man who was condemned to roll a ball up a mountain, sir?” Hamilton said.
“The same,” Steve said. “Details you left out, not to mention getting ahead of yourself. Take about ten barges, lash them together. Cover in steel plates. Stick some containers onboard with housing and support. Anchor in the water source of the major city. You now have a helo-port that infected cannot access. Use a liner if you have one available as discussed to house the refugees. Otherwise find some land facility with strong defenses, such as the Tower of London, to do so. I’d suggest using the Tower until you have a liner cleared. But that is the simplest synopsis of Plan Sisyphus.”
“That won’t clear all the cities in the world, sir,” Hamilton said.
“Ninety percent of the major cities in the world are on a navigable waterway, Colonel,” Steve said. “Some of them will be difficult to get to, but they’re mostly on water. It’s practically a requirement to be a major city.
“With enough helos or time, you should be able to rescue ninety percent of the survivors in a major city. Which in the case of, say, London, will require more than one liner. To do it, you’ll need some trained personnel. Since you’re not focusing on boat crews, as we were at sea, you’ll need a core of trained personnel to train the willing. Which is why I need the sub crews.
“No disrespect to people like Staff Sergeant Januscheitis, but what takes six weeks to learn for your average aviation mechanic is a week’s class for a nuclear machinist’s mate. They’re simply a different breed of cat. They can absorb the information at phenomenal rates. Their primary purpose won’t even be wrench turners. Their primary purpose will be ensuring that newly minted helicopter mechanics are doing the job right. There’s not enough sub crews in the world to maintain all the helicopters we’re going to need. And we need them for other tasks.
“You’ll also need more helos and more helo pilots. And a better, more mobile, platform would be useful. I said—Jesus, it seems like years ago but it was in my first serious discussion with the Hole—that I’m going to need the Iwo Jima and lots of helicopters. Now you know why. Questions?”
“Am I the only person you’ve discussed this with, sir?” Hamilton asked curiously.
“You, my wife and Mr. Walker,” Steve said. “He was the one who suggested the helo barge. I was still at your plan or using the deck of a ship. He also extensively critiqued my written version. I’m starting to lose patience with ‘just leave him alone.’ I need his brains and experience, whoever he is or was. Whatever he is or was. Anything else?”
“Should I authorize the mission?” Hamilton asked. “Getting ahead of myself, sir.”
“As long as the primary one succeeds,” Steve said. “With the caveat that until we’ve built up the right force structure, the prince is going to be more or less on his own. All we’ll be able to supply is some parts, not as many as he’ll need, and some ammo. Starting an area and then having it bootstrap itself is part of the plan. Wolf Squadron, the U.S. Navy, the entire pre-Plague U.S. military were it still extant, cannot make a dent in clearing the world. Every nation will have to bootstrap itself. All we can do is give them the seeds. But we still need the sub crews to have any chance of even that succeeding. So we are back to the primary mission. What are your thoughts?”
“If they can access and close the doors,” Hamilton said, “I think they’ll be able to clear the building, sir. If they cannot…Abort. We also don’t know if the materials are available.”
“Positive thinking has long been shown to have an effect far beyond the strictly rational,” Steve said. “Some quantum physicists argue that sufficiently large belief can move a sufficiently small mountain. In other words: Don’t take counsel of your fears. You will succeed. We always do. After which we get a more impossible mission,” he added with a grin. “Wolf out.”
CHAPTER 32