The Flood Read Online Free PDF Page A

electrical plant, with fuel-oil storage facilities, and a desalination plant. They’re both in this big structure here.”
    Wesley squinted. “Why would they put an electrical plant and a desalination plant together?”
    “Beats the hell out of me. I think desalination requires a lot of power. Or maybe so if the fuel oil blows up, the desalinated water will put it out. Who knows.” She turned to face Wesley, ignoring everyone else in the room, who were watching and listening raptly. Wesley was afraid it was because she had the natural and absolutely compelling air of command that he totally lacked.
    “The important thing,” she said, “is that if those oil tanks are full, they could be of major use to this vessel. We’ve got plenty of nuke power, but everything that runs on fossil fuels is constantly down to fumes. We could run all kinds of stuff on the stores of oil they’re likely to have.”
    Wesley nodded.
    “And that desalination plant, from its size, could probably produce something on the order of a half-million cubic meters per day of potable water. That’s a hell of a lot more than the desal plant on this vessel – and could be a major resource to a world rebuilding and coming back from the brink.”
    She turned to scan faces in the room, then turned back to the map and pointed. “Electrical and desal plant.” She moved her finger inland. “Pharmaceuticals.” It was obvious they’d have to go right by the former to get to the latter, at least coming from the docks on the waterfront.
    Finally she turned to stare at Wesley. “I want you to check these out on your infil. Get inside and tell me if those fuel tanks are full, and whether that desal plant looks to be intact and functional. That’s my price for approving your mission.”
    Before Wesley could respond, she turned and headed toward the door. As she did, she pointed over the tops of heads and said, “Oh, yeah – Dr. Park is urgently needed in CIC. On me – now .” Park rose awkwardly and followed her out.
    Wesley looked back to the room.
    This kept getting harder.
    He tried to master himself and his voice, mustering firmness of tone and speaking over the titters. “Okay, listen up – and listen carefully. What we’re going in there for is a DNA sequencer, which is desperately needed to bring forward the date when Dr. Park can complete his vaccine. So that it might be completed before England’s green and pleasant land goes the way of all the world’s less pleasant lands.”
    “Aye,” said Melvin, the Scot. “And Scotland can just go spit, then, eh?”
    Wesley ground his jaw. This was actually starting to piss him off. He said, “If we don’t get this done, Scotland will end up like the entire rest of the world – dead .” His voice grew deeper and more resonant now. “The honor has been given to us of going out and getting this thing – and playing a critical role in the salvation of the world. In curing the plague. It’s our turn to step up and do our bit. Just us. And with everything on the line now.”
    Wesley had no idea he had such bombast in him. But, reaching down, he’d found it somewhere. And the group seemed to get it.
    The air in the room had changed.

Zombie Armor
    JKF - NSF Ops Room
    Someone in the briefing raised a hand. “Are we all going?”
    “No. Team assignments will be made after the briefing.” In truth, Wesley hadn’t yet decided who to take. He also didn’t want to tell them that Abrams had strictly limited the number of NSF personnel he could take off the ship. The last thing the shore team needed was to feel like an undermanned force of sacrificial lambs.
    Wesley nodded down and to his side. “Sergeant Lovell is going to brief on the insertion plan.”
    Lovell stood up, nodded once at Wesley, and dove in – utterly relaxed. Like he’d given this briefing a hundred times, and to even bigger screw-ups than NSF.
    “Ship’s launch is out with the Somalia mission. So this team is going to take