Chapter 15

The following new character appears in this chapter:

Dr. Bentley

Epidemiologist, Lieutenant Commander, 5’-11’’ tall, 180 pounds, 36 years old, blond hair, blue eyes

When I caught up to the Colonel again, after dealing with Henshaw, I found her in commo. She was just finishing her report to the Admiral.

“Those idiots!” the Admiral was saying as I entered commo. She was definitely upset.

“What is your next course of action?” she demanded on cooling down after a short time.

“We intend to go into New Bangkok and seize at least 500 doses of the vaccine. It will require at least that many to inoculate all of our people and the Marines. There will also be enough left over for the hospital people to investigate it,” the Colonel told her.

“Good, to simplify things, I am authorizing you to seize as much of the vaccine as there is available. Take the two assault vehicles with you. I am also authorizing the emergency launch of two more assault vehicles to be landed at your compound to replace those going with you. Additionally, I have alerted the Marine Platoons on standby up here to launch two of their Attack Shuttles with their assault vehicles. They will land at the New Bangkok space port. Heaven help anyone who gets in their way. When will you be ready to leave?” the Admiral finished.

“We should be ready to depart in 45 minutes. It will probably require an hour to reach the city and the location where the vaccine is stored. I’ll have Henshaw call ahead when we near the location,” the Colonel informed her.

“All right, the mission is authorized, all parts of it. My people up here will coordinate with the Marines on standby for their launch time. The additional assets will be launched as soon as they are ready. The shuttles will loiter for as long as they have fuel in case you need them,” the Admiral told us, but had additional information before ending the transmission.

“The hospital ship, The Pasteur, does have an Epidemiologist and a lab to do vaccine research. Dr. Bentley, the Epidemiologist, will be on one of the shuttles landing at your compound. He will require several samples of the vaccine to send back to the lab. That’s all for now. Good luck and good hunting. Tokugawa out,” and the transmission ended.

“Who all is going?” I asked the Colonel right after that.

“All of Tiger Team in our Operation vehicle. The two assault vehicles and possibly Team A-23. Kanisha will be in charge here. Teams A-31 and Jaguar Team will remain here and help guard the compound along with the remaining Marines,” she told me before remembering something, “oh yes, Greg will go with us to coordinate with the two assault vehicles landing in New Bangkok.

“Get everyone ready. We need to leave shortly,” she told me before heading for her office to talk to Kanisha and Captain Chesapeake.

I put out a mental call to all of the Teams for a meeting in the warehouse in five minutes. On the way back there, I could see that the Marines were still guarding the vehicles that Henshaw and his security detail had arrived in. The two remaining Monks were also in the parking area, and I stopped to talk to them.

“Venerable Khong, some of us will be leaving for the city shortly. You may leave with us if you wish. You can ride in the car that brought you here,” I told him.

“What of the others?” he asked.

“Mr. Henshaw will be traveling with us. His security detail will be returning alone. The trucks that brought the wood are already gone,” I told him.

“Yes, we will go with you. What of the others here?” he asked in concern.

“Our people and the remaining Marines will be perfectly safe here,” I assured him before hurrying to the warehouse to start the meeting. Everyone but the Colonel had arrived by the time I got there.

“For those of you not up on the latest news, there is a widespread pandemic here. The government has a vaccine but isn’t distributing it and hasn’t made enough of it. We, that is Tiger Team and Team A-23 along with the assault vehicles are going into the city to seize the available supply of vaccine. Two more shuttles and assault vehicles will be landing here. An Epidemiologist, a Dr. Bentley, will be with them.

“Team A-31 and Jaguar Team will be remaining here to help guard the compound along with the remaining Marines. Major Ollennu will be in Command while we are gone. We don’t expect any trouble, but we didn’t expect the first attack either,” I reminded them.

“Everyone see to your Partners, and Tiger Team and Team A-23 prepare to move out shortly,” I finished. The Colonel arrived shortly after that.

“Kanisha is read in on what is going on and what to expect. Greg will be going with us. Captain Chesapeake wanted to go also, but someone needs to remain here in charge of the Marines.

“I’m not sure how much space 500 doses of the vaccine will take up, but we should be able to load it on the two Operation vehicles,” she told me as we prepared our Partners and ourselves for the mission into the city to seize the vaccine. I dragged Henshaw out of Bob and Susie’s mobile home just before we went to the trucks. He was a sorry looking mess.

We were ready to leave in just under 45 minutes. The Colonel and I were the last ones to load up. She had spoken to Captain Chesapeake again, while I saw to everyone loading up.

“Keep the security detail here for a half-hour after we leave, then release them,” I heard her tell him before she joined us.

I had put Henshaw in one of the prisoner seats in our Operations truck. Trish had confiscated his communicator before starting to question him, and she still had it. Greg was also riding with us and would be in communications with the two assault vehicles with us and also with the two that would be landing at the space port. Both Teams had all of their Partners and personnel. Kanisha joined us as we prepared to depart.

“Good luck,” she told us before we closed the door and Joel pulled out of the compound. Lucy was riding up front with him in case we needed some Magic to clear the way. Naomi and Kaera were with Kanisha, and they would close the wards on the front gate after we left.

Our convoy had the assault vehicle that had been lookout on the south approach to the compound in the lead. Our truck was next. The two Monks were in the third vehicle. It was followed by Team A-23’s Operation truck. The assault vehicle that had been watching the northern approach to our compound was last. We hadn’t gone far when we heard a Marine shuttle preparing to land at our compound.

The trip into the city went fairly well. There was little traffic until we were close to the city. Even then there was little trouble, as the assault vehicles are large, heavy, armored, and armed. Few would dispute their right-of-way, even large trucks.

On the outskirts of New Bangkok, the Colonel turned on her battle board. It already had a map of the city loaded on it. She had questions for Henshaw then.

“Where is this storage facility?” she demanded. He gave her an address, but it meant little to us as it was in Thai.

“What part of the city is it in?” she demanded next.

“It’s to the southwest of the government’s buildings,” he finally told her after I had Bob move closer to his seat. Trish adjusted the map to show the correct area.

“Show me where it is,” she demanded. It required many seconds for Henshaw to familiarize himself with the orientation of the map before he answered.

“It’s here, right here,” he indicated, touching the board with a finger. A symbol lit up where he had touched the board to indicate the location. The Colonel then plotted a route to the symbol from our present location. When satisfied with it, she sent the map with the route on it to each of our vehicles.

Shortly after we entered the city, the car with the two Monks left our convoy to return them to their Wat or temple. In the meantime, Trish as the Colonel had returned her attention to Henshaw.

“Alright, Henshaw, it’s time for you to make a call to that secure warehouse. Tell them that our trucks are coming to pick up doses of the vaccine for our people and the Marines. Be extremely careful what you say and how you say it. Bob will be watching you the entire time. If you screw up or try to pass on additional information, he will tear your throat out before he eats your most tender parts,” the Colonel told him with a grin. Of course, he didn’t need to know that our Partners didn’t consider human meat all that tasty. Henshaw had wet himself on hearing this.

Trish handed him his communicator with a grin on seeing this. He dialed a number but fumbled it and needed to redial it to get the correct number. We heard someone pick up on the other end.

“This ... this is Attache Henshaw. I’m on my way there to pick up vaccine for the First Mobile Headquarters Team and the Marines assigned to them. I’ll need about 500 doses,” he told the person on the other end of the call.

“Yes, I know that is most of the current supply, but they need it to operate against the terrorists,” he told whoever he was talking to.

“Yes, today. We will be there shortly,” he finished and disconnected.

“They aren’t happy about you getting the vaccine,” he told us after Trish had relieved him of the communicator.

“They will be even less happy if they don’t have it ready when we get there,” she told him.

There was a slight problem with the route that Trish had selected as one of the roads was one way in the wrong direction. Fortunately, we didn’t need to travel far on it, but it messed up traffic for quite some distance on that road, and the police were really unhappy with us about that.

Greg had been on the radio with the arriving shuttles while we had been busy with the route and the phone call.

“The two shuttles will be landing in a minute or so. They made an assault drop from orbit and have warned the space port to clear the runways for them. Those at the space port weren’t happy about either event, but they have cleared the runways and suspended other landings temporarily. I’ll need a route from the space port to the facility as soon as you can plot one,” Greg told the Colonel. She soon had one plotted and sent it to his radio to be passed on to the two assault vehicles on the incoming shuttles.