Out of the Fire

Part 5 - Sanctuary Two

"Ha, and no. Well hang in there and keep in touch, I've got supply and logistics to organise so I'd better get on with it."

"Thanks for calling, Mary is dropping in later so I'm ok and I hope to be up and at it in a couple of days, I'll see you then."

Mike next called General Stuart and organised a lunchtime meeting for the next day. Intercepting Charles Stuart in the foyer of the Axell Tower, he directed him by private elevator to a discrete interview room on the second level, the same level as the restaurant and coffee shop. A dining table was laid out for them, complete with a bottle of wine in an ice bucket, and gold embossed menus. The General accepted Mike's suggestions and waited while he phoned their selections through. While they waited for their meals to arrive, Mike explained his dilemma regarding military supplies and asked the General for his thoughts.

"Well," he began "the rations will be the easiest to procure, Axell Security already has accounts with the two MRE producers. One of them, a company called Ameriqual also produce a civilianised version of MREs for outdoors campers, hikers, hunters and the like. The product is exactly the same as the military MRE but packaged for the civilian and prepper market. I'm sure Axell could negotiate a resale agreement with them and purchase as many as you need, all legal."

"Ok, that was easier than I'd envisioned," explained Mike "I'll get someone onto that as a mater of urgency."

He paused as their meals were delivered by a couple of immaculately uniformed staff, one of whom poured their wine and asked if there was anything else. Mike thanked him, waved them both away and continued on once the door was closed.

"The next thing is weapons and ammunition."

"Yes, well that is more of a problem," agreed the general. "If we order more than we need for operations, questions get asked and the Defence Department sends down inspectors. We already had one warning after the Yemen operation, we lost a fair bit of equipment getting out of there."

"That is a problem," agreed Mike "I was thinking we need a couple of tanks, maybe a half dozen LAV 25s and a shitload of Humvees, the solar supplemented ones if possible, and enough ammunition for all the weapons systems for a small war."

"What are you expecting?" asked the General.

"I am not sure, but I prefer to be able to defend ourselves if there are other survivors after the pulsar event, we can't guarantee they will be friendly."

"Well, if we pool all of Axell Security's assets, we could have a lot of what you are chasing, we would have to upgrade to the new version of Hummers though and we don't have any tanks. We could justify trading up our Bushmasters to LAV 25s, that shouldn't raise any eyebrows, ammunition is usually not a problem, especially after an operation and isn't really monitored by the department."

"No tanks, do we have any artillery?" asked Mike.

"We have two batteries of M119 105mm Howitzers, that is six guns, they are very mobile and fire a number of munitions, I like them," replied the General.

"Ok, can you organise this discretely, and have a back story organised if you get unwanted attention from the Feds?" asked Mike, then continued "Also, gradually cut back on your defence contracts over the next couple of years, citing re-organisation and training purposes, just do enough to keep our licence active. And can you relocate your headquarters and stores to San Francisco during that time, I'm sure the next focus of defence is the west coast?"

"On it," complied the general.

"Oh, and find us a large secure warehouse complex, preferably co-located with your new base, maybe on the waterfront if possible."