Day 8: Progress Report

 I can't seem to control these things; I've written part three in this series.  Once I've posted this and its links, I'm off to bed.  [Edit: Ronnie Khalil helped me with some bits.  He knows which ones.]

Progress Report

HEADER

Progress Report Number 8

D&R Field Operative K. Limon/Cherry Creek

embed Arapahoe District joint operation base Carson

Blip Station EF:19:C2:46 Al Medina

Cipher Page AA:47:16

FORMAL

Progress Report. History. Target group pka Desert Eagles aka Harpija, nomadic group, adolescent opportunists. Developed source within group. Established range and attack pattern. Developed lure and pincer strategy in coordination with the Niwot Valley Restoration Community "Al Medina."

New This Report. According to Source, Target moving toward Niwot Valley. Accordingly, overlook guard withdrawn. Target followed predicted route, met by community irregular troops and Ft. Carson regulars in mufti. Target sustained estimated ninety five percent losses. Community irregulars, twenty percent losses. Ft. Carson regulars sustained no losses. Source remains at large.

INFORMAL – DETACH

Deliver to: P Cornish/A-Block/19

Dear Paul,

I don't know what I am doing here. The Army guys called the death of ten settlers “nominal.” Wiping out a gang of adolescent boys was a success. I'm just a meteorologist. I am a terrible diplomat. I'm a rotten anthropologist. I'm trying to wrap my head around it all. Who the hell appointed me D&R Field Operative?

After everything settled down, they rescued a woman from the Scenic Overlook above Boulder. (I still have trouble calling it Al Medina. Fine, I'll use this message to practice.) She was tied up with monofilament. I sat in on the interview. She had been raped maybe twenty times. She can't remember the total number. What she went through seems to have affected me more than it did her.

What the hell are these Homesteaders doing out there in the Far Reaches? Just because you've got a lifetime supply of powdered milk doesn't mean you can flourish or even survive out on 76 or Upper 25. I know the Al Tariq crowd get on some people's nerves but it is basically safe here, especially since we've been giving them provisional Devel & Rec support. (Go Team.)

Don't get me wrong. I know you can't find anywhere that's perfectly safe; a rationalist approach to large scale risk is an occupational hazard. And I've always been willing to talk about it. Back in the Twenties I was a real pill at cocktail parties. Having some of my milder worst-case scenarios play out only confirms this tendency in me.

And now in addition to doing whatever it is that I'm doing for D&R here, I've been checking the moisture traps. I've been bringing local data recorders online wherever we can. So the picture is a bit clearer. It's probable that the early 40's were a temporary retrenchment. It's entirely possible we'll see another surge in temperatures. We can't be certain what our mitigation efforts will do. It could be very hot again in ten years. Maybe worse.

I'm learning to live with other kinds of risk, too. Dropping and retrieving those data recorders makes me sick to my stomach, even with my gun and a D&R driver with his gun and that very precious radio. And I do it, then come back in to Al Medina and forget I ever left (until the next time).

But to live Outside the Wire, like the Far Reachers do, is just suicidal. I don't get it, Paul.

And I can't get that woman out of my head.

She spent fully half of her debriefing interviewing us.

I write this at my tiny desk in my tiny room overlooking the creek bed. Every once in a while there is a thin stream of water which gives Al Medina its name. I wonder if the name is ironic. (I wonder if Al Tariq permits irony?)

It is very very strange, being the only woman around here over the age of fifteen who is neither pregnant nor minding children. I am mindful of this. I stay covered. Everyone is very respectful. But when I am in the cafeteria I take care that I never go back for seconds.

Now I guess I'll have company in my singleness. Even if she could find an Al Tariq husband, even if she would accept one, the medic said it's not likely she'll be having any more children.

Any more children. It's not part of my D&R purview to ask what happened to the children she had before. And it hardly seemed tactful. But I can't help wondering.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with this woman. Plenty of other things demand my attention.

Hsa32 strains are growing well. The sHsp17.7 carrots are fairly thriving. I don't know why I'm telling you that. Oh, I do know: If you see Norman Marks in O-Block, you can tell him for me. Let me know if he gloats. He's entitled.

It's a quiet night tonight, here in Al Medina.

The Harpija (known in Al Medina as Al Wahaash) seem to have been totally wiped out. We're not certain who escaped into the scrub but I can't imagine them living too long. We did have a tipster, part of the gang I believe. No idea what happened to him, either.

I hope you're well. Enjoy the luxuries of A-Block while I wither away in the wilds.

(I'm fine, really, I am.)

Kate

END

(C) 2011 Michael Bernstein