Out of the Fire

Part 5 - Sanctuary Two

The pace of events during the last couple of months, the travel and living out of luggage had left Rodge feeling old and fatigued. To recoup, he booked some well-deserved R and R, deciding to stay in San Francisco, while Mike continued on to New York.

Safely back in New York and with the corporate administration again under some semblance of his control, Mike convened his committee of experts. Their priority now, progressing the inventory of durable and expendable stores, as agreed upon during the initial planning sessions.

The committee assembled as usual in the Axell Headquarters secure boardroom, where Mike laid out the task ahead. He explained the changed circumstances and how that affected the two sanctuaries' requirements for durable and perishable stores. Mike avoided the inevitable questions, citing operational security issues, while reinforcing the need for discretion with the planning, acquisition, and stock-piling of stores.

As in the original planning meeting, that now seemed so long ago, they grouped the agenda into broad categories such as food, medicine, medical, farming, accommodation, power, communications, and defence. They separated each of the categories into manageable tasks and started with the food. The committee had previously determined that the colonists would need at least a year's supply of basic food to tide them through until the farms could produce enough food to sustain the colonies, and this premise hadn't changed. Using that as a starting point, they reviewed their calculations for efficient diets and then the amount of food to meet those diets for two thousand people for a year. The type and quantity of food required was still totally unrealistic for the situation so a rethink was required.

One of the panel, the Commander of Axell Force Security, General Charles Stuart suggested using military rations; they were compact, already packaged, were designed to be stored for extended periods and had all the nutrients needed. Of course the couple of committee members who had completed military service in their youth, and had actually experienced living on military rations, objected loudly, disrupting any chance of rational discussion. Mike cut through the arguments and applied his casting vote by announcing his decision that the military ration solution was to be adopted.

The committee of experts worked their way through the full agenda, sometimes contentiously, but mostly logically and rationally. At the end of the week, Mike had a comprehensive shopping list that he could find no fault with. The next stage was to task teams with actioning the procurement of the items on the list without arousing the suspicions of the authorities. Their greatest challenge would be the military shopping list, anyone procuring large quantities of weapons, ammunition and rations would certainly invite Homeland Security or NSA intervention. But first, it had been a couple of weeks since he had heard from Rodge, even though on vacation, that was unusual.

"Hi Rodge, haven't heard from you, is everything ok, call me back when you get the chance, cheers?"

"That is unusual," Mike thought to himself, "Rodge always has his phone on." Mike was considering who to call to check up on his friend, just as his own phone rang.

"Mike, sorry about that, I was at the Doctor's and couldn't answer."

"The Doctor, shit, is everything ok?"

"I suppose so, she hasn't got the pathology back yet, I have just been feeling a bit off-colour since the Sanctuary visit, so I thought I'd better check it out," replied Rodge "don't worry, I'll let you know when I get results, I just have to take it easy for a while the doctor said,"

"Is there anything I can do then?" asked Mike.

"Yes, buy a TV station or streaming service and put something decent on them, have you ever had to watch the crap they have on these days? I've resorted to watching re-runs of forty year old cop shows."