GWOT IV - Surgeon General

At some point when I was lucid, in the site infirmary while we were waiting for the IV antibiotics to root out the deep seated infections in my hand, I asked an orderly about what the medical care was costing, now that this was a Resistance hospital.

She looked horrified. She did not answer.

I asked the surgeon in command, the same surgeon who had been employed by the Client to run the infirmary, and now apparently was a commissioned officer in the California Republic.

She took a long breath and sat down next my bed. I wasn't going anywhere even if I could reach the bed rails and take out the IV tubes. Physical therapy had made that clear.

"You're not ready for a lot of things yet. You had a really, really bad time. But this I think you're ready for.

"When Janine came to us and informed us - informed us! - that the Client was now working for the California Republic, that this entire building was needed for immediate use as a military hospital, and that we would be conducting a raid on the Federal Building in six hours and I was to prepare to receive mass casualties, I was more than a little shocked.

"But we were ready. A lot of the reason we were ready was you -- your insistence that we be ready for anything, even if anything ended up being receiving two truckloads of medical supplies and equipment four hours before having to put all of it into use immediately.

"I was given a choice. I could be just another doctor, and Janine would have to find someone to run the place, or I could be put in charge of the hospital and I would have to accept a commission in the California Republic.

"It was yes or no, and right then. So I accepted. That's when I got these on my collar, and the new fashion look. Then I started getting E-mails.

"Here's one of them."

She passed over her phone, on the Client network.

###

From: Surgeon General, California Republic

To: All California Republic Medical Providers

Re: Medical State Of Emergency

As the duly appointed Surgeon General of the California Republic, I declare as follows:

-- A state of war and of insurrection exists in the state of California.
-- A continuous Mass Casualty Incident exists in the state of California.
-- A general Public Health Emergency exists in the state of California.

Therefore, I order:

-- All laws with respect to scope of medical practice are hereby declared to be 'preferred' but not 'obligatory' until ordered otherwise by this office. As applicable, pre-War standards of "austere care" and "disaster care" shall be continued in full force and effect. No prosecution for unlicensed care shall be sustained without actual harm done to one or more person(s) in violation of medical practice; the mere fact or absence of licensure is insufficient.

-- Any designated hospital, clinic or infirmary shall be under the control of a licensed medical professional, preferably a doctor, and shall be so registered with the County Health Officer. Designated facilities shall 'indent' or make requisitions for medical supplies and equipment reasonably needed to provide medical care. As feasible, the County Health Officer and County Hospital shall fill these requests, in medical priority of care consistent with the principles of triage.

-- All medical professionals who take oath to the State of California are hereby ordered and directed to care for the ill and injured to the best of their capability. This is a lawful order under the authority of the Republic of California and also under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. While it is understood that the primary focus of military medical establishments must be the military mission, this is an obligation to provide medical care generally or to properly and swiftly transfer non military patients to the civilian medical system.

-- All noncombatant medical professionals are strongly encouraged to care for the ill and injured to the best of their capability. California Republic forces are ordered and directed to assist them insofar as their primary missions permit, provide them supplies whenever possible, and in all cases leave them free to do their work, except if actually engaged in espionage or violent crime.

-- All enemy medical professionals under California control, for example as prisoners of war, are hereby ordered and directed to care for the ill and injured to the best of their capability, as is their duty under the Geneva Conventions and at their personal peril under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

-- No person shall be denied medical care under any conditions whatsoever. If it appears for any reason that necessary medical care cannot be provided, it is the obligation of the medical professional making this observation to immediately and swiftly report this fact to the Public Health Officer of their county, who will either take swift and immediate action to provide that care, or individually and personally inform my office in each and every case.

-- This order shall be treated as a general 'writ of habeus corpus' for the purpose of taking a person in need of life or limb saving medical care to a County Hospital without delay. Exceptions for persons in California Republic custody must be processed through my office.

-- Discrimination in the provision of health care on any basis, including military, prisoner or detainee status, is a violation of this Order. It is of particular importance to the Republic that all current and former soldiers, sailors, prisoners and detainees receive health care, including enemy prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, criminals under California control, and persons rescued from Homeland or other unlawful confinement, as well as the California Republic's own forces.

-- In every county under California control, a Public Health Officer and County Hospital have been designated. The County Hospital shall, except in unusual circumstances, be the tertiary or final provider of care for all persons needing medical care within that county.

-- Each County Hospital shall report to me weekly on its care and logistics needs, including particularly medications. Each County Hospital shall have first right to draw on local, statewide and humanitarian relief stocks of medications.

-- Under the present emergency, and until the California legislature can be reconvened, no fee may be levied or charge may be made prior to the provision of health care, and past nonpayment may not be used as an excuse for failure to provide care, then or in the future. Reasonable charges may be incurred and tracked, and reconciliation of medical debt and payment in kind are encouraged. Strictly elective medical procedures which do not involve loss of function, such as cosmetic surgery, are exempted.

-- The California Republic stands as responsible payer of last resort for any health care provided on behalf of the Republic, for example for a State employee or soldier or sailor, or on behalf of any individual that would otherwise be considered 'bad debt' or uncollectable. This explicitly includes medical care for minors, prisoners of war, criminals and unlawful combatants. These costs should be tracked for future credit against taxes.

-- Medical professionals who become aware of famine, epidemic, sanitation, chemical or radiological contamination, or other public health emergency shall report same to the applicable County Public Health Officer(s) and also this office. The County Public Health Officer shall take the lead in responding to any such event on behalf of the State of California, and is fully empowered to take traditional actions such as impoundment, condemnation and/or distribution of food; quarantine, curfew, imposition of martial law, closure of an area or business or water source; or direct other reasonably related measures.

-- The object of this order is the direct saving of as many human lives as possible without regard to political, economic or military considerations. Any situation in which California Republic forces contemplate the conflict of military necessity with this order must be escalated at once to the Commanding General, California Republic, who asserts entire authority over this subject with respect to blockade, deliberate famine, denial of medical care or food to areas under California control, etc.

Promulgated this date under the authority of the Provisional Emergency Governor

###

I read it again. Twice. There were a lot of nuances.

"So whatever this is costing, the California Republic will pay for," I said at last, weakly, as I said everything.

"You're a cheap date. A bed, one fortieth of a nurse, some IV antibiotics, and a touch of surgery here and there. Sorry about that last, but I'm awfully glad I got practice on that other guy before I had to work on you."

That 'other guy' had lost all fingernails and all toenails, and yet had crawled several miles from where he was dumped to the outskirts of Site.

"Rest up. We need you."

Long after she left, the thought echoed in my empty head.

We need you.

Need me.

For what?

GWOT II - Door To Door, Redux

We are having a meeting of the Ammunition Technical Working Group, and sharing our latest hard won intelligence.

"Homeland is going door to door," Betty started without preamble.

That was going to be interesting. We'd gone door to door in the first days of the FIrecracker, but we'd been doing something very specific. Rescuing employees, removing their personal effects, and doing a little looting.

The military had gone door to door as well, but like us had been working from a list. They'd been reminding veterans and retirees of their obligations under the law to report for extremely hazardous duty, whether Four-Eff or Fifty.

Neither of our organizations had gone from address to address. In addition to being time intensive and very expensive in fuel, it promised to be hideously dangerous if you weren't driving something armored. And sometimes even then.

That promised to be fun, for values of fun that involved other people in deep shit far away.

"So, what's their protocol?" I asked.

"Knock and talk, with an MRAP idling in the background. Census questions. Who lives here, what are their ages, what do they do? Then a packet of forms to fill out and turn in at the Neighborhood Reconstruction Office. And would you terribly mind putting your thumb on this little reader?"

"People hunting."

"Got it in one."

"Any word on what happens when they find one?"

"If it's just one, zip tie and drag away. If it's more than one..." and Betty made a thumbs down gesture. "Sidewalked."

"How are people taking it?"

"Very, very scared. If you don't answer the door, sometimes that's enough, and sometimes they come back and break it down. They've set several houses on fire when no one was home; San Jose Fire is pissed about it, because they don't warn in advance so they can protect exposures."

The unspoken question was, when would they come to Site and do approximately the same thing?

We'd already sent in our lists. So they had all the names already, within a calculated range of error that I hoped would save a number of lives within.

Math, kids. Not just for science and engineering.

"What do the local police think?"

"As little as possible. Homeland pulled an audit on the Sheriff's Department last week. Shot a sergeant for not having destructive device permits for some stuff in the explosives shed."

Now that was interesting, and fertile ground for driving a wedge in between. I said as much.

"The problem is logistics and numbers. Call it about five thousand police in the South Bay," about half the pre-War number, "and about ten thousand Homeland organized into three brigades and a detainee processing section. One at Moffett Field, one in downtown, one in Cupertino at the former headquarters of a high technology firm. Detainee processing at the airport."

Said high technology firm had given Homeland some static about compromising its technology ecosystem. Homeland had literally moved into their HQ and took over.

We'd never run on i-products anyway. But some of our employees still had them, and it was a problem we were working on. They were no longer allowed on the Client wifi network, "due to a lack of security updates," but we had to assume they still had the same voice and track that the other major ecosystem of phones did.

Airports are a great place to process detainees. I still found it bitterly morbid that the parking garage of San Jose airport, pre War, had an art exhibit of creepy 'hands' reaching out as if trapped within. Now it was real, and literal.

"Is Homeland doing any confiscations?" Sharon asked. That's right, she was a pre-War gun nut.

"They don't need to. You can't buy ammo anywhere for any price, unless you have black market connections. If you fight Homeland, they bloop your house and you're done."

Bloop (v.): to use a short range grenade launcher to destroy. After the sound the launcher makes when fired. Also see "bloop gun."

Good thing we had stockpiled as soon as we did, as much as we did. Even if Saratoga Gun Exchange vowed to have my literal head on a silver platter, in no metaphorical sense, for stiffing them with greenbacks two days before the currency changeover.

"The ration system is starting to settle down. But that little ration card has an RFID chip in it, and readers literally all over the place. And carried by Homeland patrols. As the cellular network is still spotty, they can't make people download the Homeland app, but they can and do scan that card."

"Any luck on spoofing or cloning it?"

"Some. We, I mean I hear, that it can be reliably cloned. Spoofing is a lot harder. Even a Homeland goon will notice when you hand him a card with wires attached to it."

"What if you lose your card? Or get mugged for it?"

"They might make you a new one. They might intern you. It seems to be about fifty-fifty."

"Are they making cops get cards?"

"So far, no. Same scheme as for the other enclaves, your enclave vouches for you, you get the ration and your bluebacks through them."

"Hold on..." interrupted Arturo. "You said the MRAPs were _idling_ in the background. Not turning off their engines to save on fuel."

"Correct."

His eyes and mine met. Fuel shortage my ass. Combat troops prefer to leave the engine running so they don't have to bet their lives on a starter working. Bean counters prefer to have engines shut down to save gas; and usually win if fuel is expensive or hard to get. In peacetime, of course, air conditioning or heating for troop comfort trumps both concerns, but this wasn't peacetime.

"Let's ask Facilities to ask for diesel again. We might get it this time."

We weren't high on Homeland's radar, which was both good and bad. Not much in terms of priority, but also mostly left us alone.

"Also, let's work up some numbers. How many MRAPs? Where garaged? How maintained? Spare parts?"

Betty smiled. and recited from memory.

"Over sixty, San Jose Airport, maintained on airside under gates not in use, spare parts occasionally flown in, Homeland teams raiding auto parts stores for specific part numbers. Mostly filters."

###

The MRAP was burning. I looked more carefully. Nope, photoshopped.

"Homeland reports anti-American partisans damaged a Homeland vehicle on patrol today. In retaliation, conspirators and associates of the partisans were interned..."

Mid shot of detainees being pushed onto buses. One briefly resisted and was shot.

"Capture," I said calmly.

"Got it," Wyatt confirmed.

We blew up the video stills, from our little bubble of safety in the Room.

The fire was very fake. The actual damage to the MRAP was a leaking heavy stain from under the left front wheel.

"Someone knows their brakes," I muttered.

The detainee operation was a new one, not one of the standard clips. And, interesting escalation, poor censorship or simply not caring anymore, boldly showing a straight up murder too.

"Are they getting arrogant or desperate?" Wyatt murmured out loud.

"Arrogant," I asserted.

###

The skylight had been left open. But he still had to lower a rope and climb down, with the rope tied off enough to be able to climb back up.

The first thing he did was to check the alarm panel. It glowed a reassuring "READY TO ARM" meaning that it was not in fact armed.

Police didn't respond to alarms with sirens any more. They snuck up quietly, borrowed the keys from the manager, searched, and shot first.

He went to the back, to the shelves with little labeled boxes.

He checked carefully with a flash of his penlight, and took all the boxes under that SKU.

He then replaced them with the boxes he'd brought with him, in the backpack.

He tied off the rope to the backpack and waved, and the backpack now filled with the stolen parts went back up.

It was always tense until the rope end came back down. He did NOT want to be in the store come the morning.

But tomorrow night, he'd be doing it again, at the next store in the chain.

Swapping out parts.

###

"Shit, shit, shit!" the driver cursed as the OIL HOT light lit on the dashboard and the coolant temperature also spiked.

They slowed to a stop. Radio traffic was exchanged.

Soon the officer demanded that the driver get out and open the reverse-hinged hood, to check the systems himself.

As they debated with each other, heads under the hood and hatch-mounted machine gunner on overwatch, a crowd started to gather.

Short bursts warned them away, and they retreated muttering.

The convoy was just as delayed as if it had been ambushed.

And just to keep them honest, every once in a while, there were ambuscades too.

###

On a crowded street, two men brushed against each other.

One was mugged of the $2000 in bluebacks he had been carrying in a jacket pocket.

But he now had three new cards in RFID protective sleeves in a back pocket instead.

People need to eat.

And other people need to hustle.