Read Carlie Simmons (Book 5): One Final Mission for Free Online Page A

graphs which showed the fishing productivity rate from the
boats out in the bay and the yield of produce he expected from the two-hundred-acre
garden. His eyes kept racing over the same figures he’d already seared into his
brain as if they might spike in prominence if he blinked his eyes any harder.
    He removed the last sheet of paper, which
showed the lakes, rivers, and nearby harbors along with plans for using
explosives in the water to harvest massive quantities of fish and sea life.
Duncan had held off on following through on this strategy as many had advised
against the devastating long-term effects on the food chain resulting from the
destruction of the aquatic ecosystems. Killing our grandkids to feed
ourselves, but what choice is there? While his munitions specialists had
told him they had enough explosives on hand, he had been informed by the fishing
crews, whose experience he valued, that they should be able to procure enough
salmon, sturgeon, and cod for the coming winter. Except his meetings with them
always left him pondering their definition of the word ‘should’ and he needed
more certainty than his begrizzled skippers could provide.
    Duncan had never had to worry about
feeding a colony of people before — not off the land or remnant canned
goods pilfered from fallen cities. In the past, you simply called in for
resupply and let the logistics staff deliver the food pallets which kept the
troops well-fed. Now he was faced with recreating a subsistence and
neo-agricultural lifestyle that had taken humans millennia to perfect.
    He heard a knock on his office door and
shoved the papers back into the folder. “Yes, come in.”
    A young redheaded woman in her thirties
walked in and closed the door behind her. “Sergeant Major,” she said, standing
before him. “There’s another group of refugees that have arrived from the south — around
fourteen people including several children.”
    “Really — that’s astounding. This is
the third group this week,” Duncan said, tapping his fingers frantically on the
manila folder. “In from where?”
    “They indicated they had been holed up in
a logging camp in northern California since the pandemic began. Their leader
said the summer wildfires there drove them out. They’d heard about Lewis on the
remaining ham radio networks and made their way here over the past month.”
    “Have they all been cleared by medical?”
    “Yes, they’re in a waiting room in D-Wing.
Pretty shook up — they started out with twenty-one people and got whittled
down to where they are now.”
    Duncan winced and leaned back in his chair,
folding his arms. “That’s a helluva trek on foot to make. I’ll need to talk
with them later and see what they can tell us about the regions to the south.
The kids are OK, though?”
    She nodded with a troubled smile. “There’s
one more thing — they said they heard on the airwaves a while back about
there being a cure for the virus here — that that’s why they came to Lewis
and that there were other small groups around the West planning on doing the
same.”
    Duncan put his fingers up to his forehead,
rubbing his temples. “I’m glad those folks are alive and their ordeal on the
road is over.” He looked out at the windows, wishing he was on the plane headed
west. “It was just a matter of time before word got out about Pavel’s
breakthrough despite my attempt at classified briefings with other base
commanders around the U.S.”
    “Should I keep the group in the waiting
room for now or show them to some temporary quarters?”
    “Take them to their quarters and let them
rest. I’ll visit with them later this evening.” Duncan locked the folder back
in his drawer and walked past the woman. “Right now, I need to have a sit-down
with our explosives experts and then figure out just how forgiving Mother
Nature really is.”

 
    Chapter 9
    Osaka, Japan, Two days after
the Pandemic Began
    Shiro walked up to Nora, who was