Plague Nation 2 by Alex Scarrow

Author:Alex Scarrow [Scarrow, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Speculative
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK
Published: 2019-08-12T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 30

Fourteen Months Ago

‘This is insane!’ Tom Friedmann stopped halfway across the USS Gerald R. Ford’s deck and turned to look at his assistant. ‘We need every goddamn ship we can spare. Particularly this one!’

His assistant was an earnest young ensign, who seemed to have miraculously kept his navy whites crisp and utterly spotless so far. ‘Sir, the president was completely adamant about this. None of the navy vessels will be allowed to go.’

Tom banged his fist on the notepad he was carrying and looked around. The carrier’s deck four months ago had been an untidy sea of civilian refugees. Now it was civilian-free. Two of the ship’s complement of F-35C jet fighters were on the deck being prepped for launch, the yellow-jacketed catapult officer making last-minute assessments on the wind speed and checks on the electromagnetic catapult.

The Ford was keeping two jets in the air around the clock, circling the clustered ships like sheepdogs herding a skittish flock.

‘Jesus. The Ford is the one ship we need.’ Tom looked around at the enormous deck. God knows how many civilians they could bring back aboard her. She was vast up top, and vast below. Not just people, but perhaps supplies: food, medicines, machinery. They could pack thousands of tons of payload aboard her and bring it all back to help out here.

‘The president’s not going to budge an inch, sir.’

Tom already knew that.

Four months ago, Trent had put him in charge of coordinating the rescue attempt, a task that was no more complicated than his last job collating Dow Jones share trends and compiling weekly briefing documents. Except it had been made difficult by the roadblocks Trent kept putting up. He had been dragging his heels on the resources Tom was going to be allowed to play around with. From the whole mixed-bag fleet of navy and merchant ships, he was down to six cargo vessels and a cruise ship. And absolutely no army personnel whatsoever. None.

Dougie had been clear about that point during their face-to-face a couple of days ago. He had about six hundred pairs of boots ready to hit the ground at a moment’s notice. He wasn’t going to let Tom take a single one of them away on a mercy mission.

‘You want to go find survivors? You’re not going to need any firepower, amigo. Trust me.’

‘Dougie, we’ll need medics! We’ll need organization, military organization. And you know what? If enough people have heard our shout-out broadcast and made their way to those rendezvous locations, we’re going to need troops to keep order!’

Douglas Trent leaned forward and rested his thick forearms on the desk. ‘Tom, I’m gonna be real nice about this, because you and me, we go back. We’re a couple more shitty exchanges away from the Cubans kicking us off this island. I’m going to need my boys. Every last one of ’em. Now, if you want to hold back on this mercy mission until we’ve got things sorted here, then—’

‘Jesus, Doug, we need to go

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