Chapter 5

By default, John was now assigned to either buyout the other tenants or acquire another site. His old military training took hold. He did both. Since he had been told that money was no object, his selection of choice was an abandoned military base. It was of the 'Cold War Era' and renovations were started for both housing as well as command and control requirements. It would have almost been funny if the pain in my chest did not hurt so much when I laughed.

Joey was put to write and document procedures, policy, deployment, recall, and an assortment of training required for specific regions. The categories for deployment ended up far more than I thought were necessary. Arctic, Mountain, Desert, Forest, Urban, Water, Remote, Rescue and Combat were selected, each with different and unique skill sets added. Burn, gas, radiation, germ and disaster teams were also configured. Medical and surgery centres were planned for each region, and suddenly the number of staff and infrastructure required took on the proportions of a small UN. It was deemed to need a doctor to run it.

"Well my dear, know anyone interested?" as Doc handed Joey her business card with the name 'Josephine Manzioc M.D.' into her hand. She began to cry. "Had to hurry things up a bit!" he said. Doc handed her two other cards, one had her name as President of the POH Foundation, and the other had Vivian as CEO. All the Medicos you hire are to be part of POH, The Protectors Of Humanity foundation, Dr. Manzioc. Unknown to her then, 500 more staff were to be added to try to help those Joey had fought for to no avail. These 500 would be replaced as required, and this assignment served as a training ground for field medical teams.

With Vivian and Joey now set up to handle the medical, John going great guns with the facilities, and even the beginnings of a logistics command, we were actually a little ahead of schedule, John had hired all the veterans he could, disabled or otherwise. He was waiting for someone to tell him to stop spending money. That call never came. One day 'Doc' asked him if he might speed things up a bit and hire people to start 4 more bases, one was already set up in China and New Zealand, so he needed to hand over the one here to someone. It was a 'no brainer' when April's name was suggested.

One concern was that of Vivian. She had never been trustworthy, and soon was back to her old ways. She was to be replaced., even with 'extreme prejudice' if it became necessary. It would require a very special personality to replace her effectively. That would come.

Meanwhile, in Cairo. Chance was able to meet Mustapha, Penny and Miko, along with 30-40 of the new guards at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Giza when they left Damascus. The entire hotel had been booked until further notice. Security increased inside the compound, and the Egyptian army and Air Force stationed outside to secure the perimeter. If I ever thought Penny and Miko were way overboard about security, I was soon to learn just what real security was. As the sounds of jet aircraft was heard overhead, Mustapha, Penny and Miko entered and just sat down, saying something to me to have a seat, my 'clients' would be here shortly. This was said with a smile on their faces. Meanwhile the shaking and roar of a continuous stream of jet engines continued unabated.

I'm not sure when or even how, but one moment there was no one else in the room except the 40 or so of us, then a dozen or so more just walked in. The sounds overhead now were unmistakable. From the din, it must have been Hind aircraft. A man an a woman brought up the rear. The guards all were prostrated on the floor, Penny and Miko knelt while Mustapha and I were still seated. The 10 guards that had entered were unlike any I had ever seen before. They were not huge or fierce looking, rather the pale colour of their robes, offset by the bright glint of swords, and various SOCOM MK-23 machine pistols did not seem inconsistent. These guards were very serious and they were not all males. Two looked more like little girls until you looked closer at their body armour and the H & K - O.I.C.W. pistols slung across them, they were serious, too.