“Fuck,” Sophia said quietly, lowering her head.
“I am somewhat out of my depth, sir,” Walker said, looking back and forth. He thought for a moment, then looked at Sophia. “Seriously?”
“I was told you were quick on the uptake,” Steve said.
“Somebody had to do it,” Sophia said, shrugging. “Better me than Faith.”
“I’m still unsure that it needed to be or should have been my fifteen-year-old daughter,” Steve said. “But you are the only thing we have close to an expert. We haven’t even picked up any biology laboratory technicians.”
“I barely counted as one of those, Da,” Sophia said. “And I’m really hoping that I’m not going to be stuck in a lab making vaccine until who knows when.”
“You won’t be,” Steve said. “We’ve found people with…well about the same background as you had when you started working for Doctor…Damn, what was his…?”
“Curry,” Sophia said. “Doctor David ‘What is it about Mad Scientist you don’t understand?’ Curry.”
“Do I have a purpose here, sir?” Walker asked.
“I suppose that is up to you, Mr. Walker,” Steve said. “I have some people who are generally capable of managing a lab. I don’t, sorry, consider one of those people to be Sophia. On the other hand, I’ve been given the impression that you have some abilities over and above tying knots. And, frankly, the ensign is going to need someone…”
“As emotional support when it becomes common knowledge that Seawolf the Hero started out working in a clandestine human chop shop?” Walker said.
“That. Yes. Although for now that will continue to remain confidential.”
“I’ll be okay, Da,” Sophia said. She didn’t look okay.
“You will be eventually,” Steve said. “Because this will eventually become sort of ‘well, that’s how it works.’ And, note, we’re going to have to vaccinate all the babies we’re about to have. They won’t automatically be immune to H7D3.”
“I hope somebody has some clue about that because I’m totally clueless and I don’t want to kill a baby,” Sophia said.
“Mr. Walker, will you admit to some knowledge of this field?” Steve said.
“Honestly?” Walker said. “I passed the Special Forces Medical course, if that’s what you’re asking. I haven’t been in anything resembling a biology lab in thirty years. And even then it was a very brief course on analyzing medical complaints under field conditions.”
“So I was right,” Sophia said, brightening. “You were Special Forces!”
“Yes, I was,” Walker said. “Am, for certain values. You’re never ex-Special Forces unless you get thrown out. In fact, technically, I’m still a member of the U.S. Armed Forces.”
“Whatever you’re willing to admit to, that brings up an entirely separate issue,” Steve said. “We are about to have a baby boom. Lieutenant Fontana is a graduate of the same course. You and he are, in fact, our best trained people at, well, everything medical. Our one trained nurse worked her whole career in a doc-in-a-box. And even then she was mostly a triage and taking blood pressure type.”
“Special Forces medics are not doctors, sir,” Walker said. “We’re very clear about that.”
“There are no doctors, Mr. Walker,” Steve replied. “The only known MDs in the world are in a hole at the CDC. When in the fullness of time we retake the Atlanta area they will be mobile. In the meantime, we have no doctors nor nurses nor any of the rest.”
“Checked the islands, sir?” Walker said.
“Which ones?” Steve asked.
“Most of them,” Walker said. “There were little medical schools all over the Caribbean, sir. I’d be unsurprised if some of the instructors didn’t survive. Even the advanced students would be useful.”
“That is…interesting,” Steve said. “And something no one else had brought up. But it is not germane to the current discussion. I’m aware that I cannot order you to do anything, Mr. Walker. Both because you insist you are a civilian and, from what I can surmise, if you did ‘blow your cover’ I’d be outranked.”
“Really?” Sophia said.
“That is not to be discussed, Ensign,” Steve said. “But we need medical personnel desperately. Both for the vaccine program and for the approaching baby boom. Would you be willing to temporarily suspend your cruise to assist?”
“You don’t need to sweat it, Captain,” Walker said. “I was planning on bringing it up. Just wasn’t sure when was appropriate. I am at your service in this matter. Both to help set up the lab and as a baby doctor.”
“Thank you,” Steve said. “You are hereby the lab manager for the initial vaccine production. Sophia is in charge of the lab, you manage it. Does that work?”
“Absolutely,” Walker said. “And as soon as we get it up and running, and someone else to manage it and run it, I’ll segue over to baby doctor. I’d appreciate a brush up with the doctors at the CDC.”
“You can feel free to schedule that for yourself and Fontana,” Steve said. “You’ll both be talking with them extensively. I’m going to pull Fontana off of running Marines and put him in charge of setting up the facilities for pregnancies involving medical emergencies. Nurse Fallon is already getting swamped with late-term complications. So…Sophia, are you ready to break cover? At least with the Powers-That-Be?”
“What’s that thing that Lee said at Appomattox? I would rather die a thousand deaths. Ready.”
Steve clicked something with his mouse and nodded at the screen on his computer.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Dr. Dobson,” Steve said. “As has been discussed, one of my original crew had experience working in a professional if clandestine laboratory that produced attenuated vaccine prior to the breakdown in civil order. NCCC Galloway, we have assurances that there will be no legal repercussions from your office.”
“None,” Galloway said. The National Constitutional Continuity Coordinator, functionally the Acting President, was formerly the Under Secretary for Under Deputy Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Arms Proliferation Control. He was one of many civilian appointees rotated through secure points in the event of a disaster like, laughably, a zombie apocalypse. The point was to have a civilian, preferably someone elected or approved by Congress in charge of the military and nuclear release codes. He was number one hundred and twenty-six on the very long list. “You have the documents as well as my personal assurances.”
“Very well,” Steve said, touching another control. The conference came up on the large plasma behind his desk. “Ladies and gentlemen, my daughter Ensign Sophia Smith.”
“Sophia?” General Brice said, startled. “Seawolf?”
“Somebody had to do it, ma’am,” Sophia said, her face tight. “I won’t say I’m glad or anything, but if we hadn’t we’d have been in the same boat as the Lawtons and the subs. Even if we didn’t get the Plague.”
“And the other gentlemen is…?” Dr. Dobson said.
“Thomas Walker,” Steve said. “He is a former SF medic who has management experience as well as some slight lab experience. He knows a Bunsen burner from a test tube anyway. He will be managing the lab.”
“Sophia,” Dr. Dobson said. “Since there is a blanket pardon in place for all persons involved in the vaccine production you were involved in, could you give us a few more details, please?”
“The lab was for Bank of the Americas,” Sophia said. “It was run by Dr. David Curry…”