wrath of the Sea Queen (47 page)

"
Colonel, we've got an aircraft approaching from the east.  It appears to be another helicopter,
origin
unknown.  No response to our
request for ID
, Sir,
"
the pilot announced as he steered the helicopter into a position where the colonel could
get a better view f
rom his
place
at the open, side door. 

"
Keep trying to raise them and move to intercept further out, away from the p
i
er,
"
Colonel Franks replied.

He watched until he could get a good look at the a
ir
craft.  There were no
identify
ing marks on
the
solid black
craft
and
it
did not appear to be military
class
or carrying external weapons.  The unidentified craft disregarded the repeated attempts to communicate and refused to acknowledge instructions to vacate the area. 
Although
they made no hostile gestures, the colonel could not permit them to remain. 

A
s the colonel was about to give orders for their escorted departure, the side door of the hovering
‘copter
opened
,
and a large white sheet billowed out. 
Spotlights from the dock below were immediately aimed at it.  Highlighted o
n
the banner
,
the image of a large, red drop of blood and the words
God gives Life
in bright, red lettering
were highly visible
.  The crowd of
protestor
s on the street below w
as
stirred to fren
etic action
at the sight.  They cheered and hollered, raising their handmade signs high into the air so that the news cameras would be sure to get a good shot of them. 
A few even produced handguns and fired them into the air. 
However, these were quickly confiscated by the colonel's men on the ground.

"
Just a bunch of media whores looking for their fifteen minutes,
"
Colonel Franks said with disgust.

"
Should we have them escorted out of the area, Sir?
"

"
No. 
R
adio the base and have them tracked.  Arrest them when they land.  No sense giving them more of the attention they crav
e
.  Surely they will leave in a few minutes.  If they don't, maybe we'll consider firing a warning shot and see how they like that kind of attention.
"
 
Colonel Franks
laughed gruffly and asked the pilot to keep an eye on the newcomers' aircraft.

The people
i
n the other helicopter pulled their banner into the aircraft a few minutes later.  Colonel Franks harrumphed, thinking they might have held out a little longer before turning tail and running.  The unmarked helicopter began to move higher and a little closer, a
llowing
t
he
colonel
to
begin to
make out the vague shape of something else in the doorway.  It looked like a very large
caliber
weapon or perhaps a large hose, but he could not see well enough into the
interior
shadows of the other c
raft
to be
certain
.

As he hurried
ly
tr
ied
to decide the best course of action, a
s
pray of red liquid issued from it,
rain
ing
down on Colonel Franks and his crew.  The wiper blades quickly cleared the front window.  Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the colonel and his men who
were
seated near the open door.

"
Damn it!  That's what I get for trying to be nice.  Lieutenant, put a warning flare across their nose and then we'll
personally
escort them to their punishment
.  Let
’
s force them down to the MPs.  I don't care what sort of media attention this gets.  They are going to
feel
the full consequences of interfering with military operations.  Move it!
"
  Colonel Franks wip
ed the red colored liquid
off his face with the
back of his sleeve as he fumed.

On the ground below, a
black, armored military van pulled up near the dock, which was surrounded by police and members of the l
ocal
guard unit. 
The driver recognized several of the men from his own unit
among them
. 
He
purpose
here
, however,
involved
a separate assignment
to retrieve four special passengers from the arriving ship and deliver them safely to a hotel in Hilo.  A shuttle bus was parked on the other side of the dock to collect the remaining passengers and deliver them to an arena
.  There,
the
ir medical needs
w
ould
be assessed
and
they could
give their statements to the NTSB investigators
.  After all the appropriate data was gathered
,
passengers would
then
be given
aid in the continuation of their journey.

The driver of the van, Private Nathan Burks,
positioned
the vehicle so that the passenger's side was closest to the ramp
of people d
isembarking
from the ship
.  Once
in position
, he
turned off
the engine to await the ship's arrival.  Private Burks
wore
green and tan military fatigues, the
same as the others in
his unit, with a black beret
cocked
si
deways on his head.  The only difference between his uniform and theirs was his weapon
placement
.  Though it would
normally
be
strapped to his hip,
he
currently belted
it
to his left thigh for better access from
a
seated position.

This was the young private's first
solo
assignment in a potential riot situation, and he was a little bit nervous.  He knew exactly what he was supposed to do.  Every
detail
had been
specifically outlined.  First
,
he would acquire the four passengers and exit the scene.  He would
then
drive nonstop to the hotel
along a
predetermined route.  The trip was approximately fifty miles along a circuitous, lesser traveled, national park highway to help avoid any trouble along the main interstate.  In total,
the trip
should take a
pproximately an hour and ten minutes,
depending on the weather and road conditions.  Nathan would check in by radio every fifteen minutes with Colonel Franks and provide a final report once he
escorted
the four safely
to
their hotel rooms. 

Afterward, Private Burks would return to the dock where his team
had established a
temporary command post.  Supposedly, they w
ere being
joined by another guard unit from the mainland that would be arriving on the ship. 
Nathan would be
permanently
assigned
to
this team
when he
transferred
to the States
next month
.  He
appreciated
the opportunity to meet some of them now. 
Once this crisis
with the rescue
was over, both teams would
relocate
to the arena.  From there, they would
return to duties associated with repairing storm damaged levees and clearing some of the larger debris in
areas hit most severely by the recent
round of
storms
.
  They would also be preparing the arena as
a
shelter for the storm yet to come.

Private Burks wondered idly about the people he was going to be chauffeuring.  He only heard bits and pieces of the news story. 
The
doctor
had
made
some
breakthrough in
treating
blood diseases
, which
sounded pretty good to him.  Why would anyone want to hurt her when she was trying to help people?  But,
Nathan
admit
ted to himself
that he didn't really know all the details.  Maybe she stole somebody's research or was doing illegal testing.  Who knew these days? 

The other three
passengers
were members of the doctor's family.  Her husband was a lo
ng time cop and veteran himself;
navy, if Nathan remembered correctly.  Her niece ran a successful marketing company out of her home and did a lot of community volunteer work with veterans and children.  The niece's husband
had
worked in the computer industr
y for years before giving up his
corporate
job
six months ago to
reduce
his workload to
technical consulting.  He and his wife apparently
went
through some rough, medical
issues
and decided to make a few lifestyle changes so they could spend more time together.  That was everything the private read in their files.  All in all, they sounded like decent people.