Chapter 16- Conflicting Orders

 Chapter 16

Conflicting Orders

Villa Cyranno, Venezuela

Peter Dalton felt the tension rising but tried to stay above it.  While he was at West Point they had taught him about the fragile aura of command, that often in the field the men’s ability to function in the field depended on your confidence, your ability to project confidence.

Peter was stood up now, waiting for the helicopter bird to get on site.  It was an old fashioned Kiowa, small and ugly.  The crowd under it started to break up and Dalton was grateful for that.  The villagers were an unnecessary complication.

Dalton looked back over at Dietz.  Dietz was staring at the strange burned corpse that had been brought to them.  Another body was still burning in the church.

“Newman, go and rig up some flame-throwers,” said Dalton.

“What?” replied Newman.

“Go and rig up a couple of flamethrowers.  Ostrow will have some,”

“Yes, yes sir,” said Newman and rushed out.

“If we’ve got to burn bodies, better to have the right equipment,” explained Dalton.

Dietz nodded but Chung and McPherson looked at him with questioning eyes.

Sergeant Harrison and agent Wharton arrived at last too.  Things were only going to get more complicated.

“What’s that helicopter doing landing here?” asked Wharton.

“Medivac.  We’ve got a wounded man,” said Dietz.

“What happened to him?” asked Wharton.

“A villager assaulted him, he’s hurt pretty bad,” replied Dietz.

“He’s a critical casualty.  We’ve got to get him clear,” added Dalton.

“Do you know why he was attacked?” asked Wharton.

“No, some of the villagers are infected with something,” said Dietz, now helping to carry Wharton towards the helicopter.  Barrow wasn’t moving and his face was an ashen color.  Dalton didn’t like the Captain’s chances.

“Infected?” said Wharton, the word harsh and jagged.

“Yes,” Dalton said back, keeping it simple.

“So an infected persona attacked one of your men?” the tension in the room rose a notch.

“We’ve got this under control.  The bodies are being burned to reduce risk of further infection,”

“Let alone them attacking us anymore,” chipped in Storm, unhelpfully.

“You’ve had a man attacked and critically wounded by an infected person and you’re sending them off site? What about contagion?” asked Wharton.  This was the killer question.

Dalton turned to look at the agent.  Wharton was taller by a few inches and had seemed to get taller as the temperature had risen inside the church.

“I’ve got to clear a critical casualty.  I don’t intend to let my man die here,” he said back, slowly and what he hoped would be calmly.

Wharton left it for a beat and then shot back.  “And you’ve risked a possible further infection.  What if the medics catch whatever it was that the attacker had?”

“They’ve been properly warned and they’ll no doubt use all proper caution,” replied Dalton.

“This isn’t a normal infection,” added Chung.  Dalton felt the twist, Chung had looked up to him but was now against him.

“We don’t know what it is Lieutenant.  Put that damned fire out,” he said sternly.

“We should have isolated him here, we need to know what’s going on,” said Wharton.

“That’s enough questions now.  This is a military operation and I’m in charge of it,”

“It may be a military operation but I don’t take orders from you,” replied Wharton.

“That’s enough, this isn’t helping,” said Dietz fiercely.

“Captain Dietz, the Major’s decision making is erratic here,” said Wharton imploringly.

“That’s enough from you,” barked Dietz.

Wharton looked from Dietz to Dalton and then back again.  Wharton turned away.

Chung stood motionless, watching the scene unfold.

“You were given an order Lieutenant.  Execute it,” said Dietz.  Chung nodded and got the fire extinguisher out.

Dalton felt his chest growing tighter again and the room began to swim a little.  Peter Dalton breathed as slowly and methodically as he could and walked out the door.  They were loading Barrow onto the chopper.  Sergeant Harrison came and stood next to him.

“You ok sir?” he asked.

“I’m fine,”

“We’ve got a major situation here.  If there is a contagion, we’re not properly equipped to deal with it.  If it’s airborne…” began Harrison.
“Then the entire team is probably already infected.  Yes I know,” finished Dalton.

“Respirators?”

“They wouldn’t stop a flu germ, let alone something more insidious,” said Dalton.  “No we need more answers.  And we need a doctor or two on site,”

“Excuse me?” said a young man with dark hair.

“Not now,” said Dalton and turned away, back to the church.

“Excuse me, sir?” asked the young man again but Harrison brushed him aside.

Dalton returned to the church.  He took out his radio.

“Dalton here, I need to speak to Briar,”

“Ops here,” replied the voice on the radio.

“We’ve secured the village for now.  There was a couple of possible secondary infections but we’ve dealt with them.  We critically need a doctor on site to help us examine this infection.”

“I’m not sure I want to risk sending anyone else into the hot zone at this time.  Are you sure it’s necessary?”

“If you want to know what’s happening down here, yes it is quite necessary,” replied Dalton, feeling the pain in his chest again.

“Ok, I’ll get a doctor to the site.  But your personnel includes at least two bright young Lieutenants with a background in biology.  They should be able to give you a prelim on what you’re dealing with,”

“Or you could just tell me, sir,” said Dalton curtly.

“I don’t know much more than you do, Major,” replied the General.

“What’s the…what’s the infection risk?  To my team?” asked Dalton.

“High.  But you’d need to come into sudden and direct contact with someone else who was infected.  I don’t believe it’s airborne,”

“That’s reassuring.  If it was my entire team would already be dead wouldn’t they?” replied Dalton bitterly.

“Major, you need to focus on the task in hand,”

“Yes, yes I do.”

“I see you’re sending out a critical casualty,” asked the voice.

“Yes, Barrow, the army Captain.  I don’t think he’s got much chance but I wanted to give him a fair shot,”

“I’ll give orders for him to be put in to exclusion and then treated,” replied the voice.

“Fine,” said Dalton, feeling weak.  He wanted to sit down.

“Major, Pete.  I need you to dig in and get this situation under control.  If you cant hack it…”

“I can manage it just fine.  Dalton out,” snapped Dalton, cutting off the radio.

Satcom, somewhere in Virginia

General Petersen sat back into his chair and breathed out a long slow sigh.

“You know we cant allow a wounded man out of the zone unless we’re one hundred percent sure he’s clean,” said Colonel Sickles.

Petersen looked up at him, a grey eyebrow raised.

“Cant allow?” he said slowly.

“This situation is highly critical.  We’ve got to make sure it’s pinned down as tight as a tick sir,” replied the colonel.

“It is.  We’ve got a critical casualty to examine.  We’ll do it clean and safe.”

“If it was me, I’d give the order to shoot down the helicopter,” replied Sickles.

Petersen sat up suddenly.

“You’re fucking kidding me?”

“Don’t tell me, sir, that you haven’t considered just bombing Villa Cyranno off the face of the Earth?” shot back Sickles.

“It’s a last god-damned resort.  We’ve got US air force personnel in there,”

“Not to mention a couple of hundred civilians.  But what’s that compared to a pandemic,” said Sickles coolly.

“I think you underestimate our ability to manage this situation Colonel,” Said General Petersen.

“Yes sir,” Said the colonel.

Over on the big board, there was a map of Venezuela.  In the middle of nowhere was a small black dot with glowing golden writing above it.  It simply read “Infected Zone 1”.