Haze Gray 93

Taylor stood and stretched, not for the first time. The meeting had gone on for literally an entire day and that was after the day had started.

Everyone had been busy including the crew and the Yard workers. They had list of information the staff needed and as they came back from their 'liberty' or back on shift they turned in information.

The Bay area was thrilled. You could see it from the news reports, which were all Kanmusu all the time, including the antics the crews got up to and some sly innuendo about Crewmen leaving bars with civilians on the late news shows.

How had the crewmen all gotten debit cards?

Lisa chuckled "Bank of Hispaniola. Our disposable cash account took a pounding. Might have to sell some of that gold." She was surrounded by a sea of reports and crew who were reading them to her. They were written in Hey.

Taylor arched a brow as Chang Chang put a finger on her neck "And you are going to burn your thinker out. I thought the computers cured your headaches."

Lisa snorted "I did too. This is a cracker load of information though. We are going to have to go through the local PRT including Watchdog, like we did East North East. The police departments and federal agencies too. The Elite and the Bratva have been industriously subverting their people for years. Not many, one percent or so. Less even. But there are leaks at least."

Taylor nodded "So normal. OK we didn't get a trillion dollars, just half. And that's including the value of these bonds and stocks. Plus, we own a mortgage company now. A predatory mortgage company.

"OK, Maria and the bank of Hispaniola can straighten that out. The JAG can fight the lawsuits and we can concentrate on raids for tomorrow. After we get all these girls the sailors brought back through the hospital and interviewed.

"INS has a section up and running here now.

"I understand what we are up to. Looks like time for a soak and dinner to me. Repair baths or Dock?"

Noelle said "Dock, need to be seen. Then we can come back here and sleep in the baths, they are connected to the dock so you and Amy can finish the build on Alina and her girls. Millions of tons, must be a super carrier group. I'll get working on a training schedule."

"Dogs too." Rachel supplied. The sailors and dogs hadn't just brought back stray girls.

Vicky snorted "And cats." The blimp cats had been busy as well.

Taylor nodded and chuckled "So Alameda is a naval aircraft factory and engine plant now. Or another one. Hispaniola being the main one. You are going to have to catch up Mr Adams."

'Hey.'

Danny nodded "Yep, workers are the long pole in the tent. We'll get there, not like there aren't thousands of retired people we can hire, and unemployed to be apprentices, around here. The Unions are up and running. The Section managers are coming in today. Give us a month."

Taylor sighed "I didn't want to be here that long."

Danny smiled "You don't have to be, we do have airplanes and communications."

Haze Gray

Dick looked at the late news and frowned. All of these Sailors, Marines, and Soldiers running around. And no incidents, or none the news people picked up on. And one of the more liberal networks surely would have. That was the most disciplined force in the world or those people were at work.

So how was this going to impact the firm's clients. More than that, how did he get the firm in on whatever it was?

The Kanmusu came with their own lawyers, lawyers with reputations. Legendary already. None of them had standing in California though. Hmm. Now, how to get in touch with them? This might take an actual visit to Mare. He might even be able to bill it to the bigger clients. Cisco would be interested in contracts with the Kanmusu, Facebook too for their energy production if nothing else. Server farms took a lot of power and cooling. Uber not so much as those funky old buses were suddenly everywhere. Them carrying that LNG Hybrid labeling and costing a quarter to ride was already seeing them all completely full. And if the numbering scheme on them was to be believed there were over a hundred of them.

Hmm, the Kanmusu would probably need some legal support over that. BART would not be happy.

Come to think of it those women were already wearing things from the Ships Store. Yes, the lawsuits would be flying thick and fast soon. Licenses to operate as well.

As a company the Kanmusu yards and stores were interesting. Supposedly based on a wartime frugality model but people raved about the quality of everything they made. Apparently, they expected to sell one of everything they made to everyone and that was it. It was also as efficient as it was possible to be. The thing, whatever it was, was designed to last a lifetime. With minimal maintenance. He didn't understand the design philosophy at all.

Or why bullet bras made him horny as a two pecker billy goat. Nothing natural about the things. Victory rolls either. It was crazy.

The girls around the office had started wearing that stuff and doing their hair like that. It was driving him crazy. Even the junior partners. Lipstick in shades of red he couldn't even see but they competed over. He chuckled. Those companies with other colors must be broke by now. Someone wearing anything other than red did draw attention though. Mostly not good, but they did draw it.

Haze Gray

Agnes Court laughed and laughed. The Bratva, a low-grade thorn in everyone's side had stepped on a trip wire. And now were going to reap the whirlwind. Maybe it was a bouncing betty.

She reviewed the data again. Seawolf's depredations had touched all of the in laws organizations. Just the low hanging fruit, still it was getting the girl intelligence and the depredations were becoming widespread. Even the semi legitimate operations were being touched. Or hit over the head and their wallets stolen. Then them left for the ABB. Fucking idiots. What did they think a girl would do over trafficked girls? Or Lung when he got more secure.

And if this report on TMZ was true he couldn't be any more secure. Alexandria playing with a six-year-old Asian girl at the beach in Lungs zone on Hispaniola. Hmm, was that girl perhaps half Hispanic? Was that why the Triumvirate had never taken Lung out? Were Uncle Legend and Uncle Eidolon going to show up?

No, she would never have let her daughter grow up in a town with Nazis. Maybe?

Was the intelligence that Alexandria and Hero had been a couple wrong?

Well, that could wait. This other report not so much. Obama was as crafty as they came. He must be a thinker, or since he had to get an MRI Michelle Obama must be one. The power behind the throne.

Gardening at the White House, sure. Or was that a setup for the farms the Kanmusu were running, they used the same minimal input, open pollinated seeds, and no pesticides or petrochemical derived fertilizer techniques after all.

Meanwhile she was on her way here. With her daughters.

She sighed. Well, this was about to get difficult.

Haze Gray

Michelle shook her head on the flight deck. The girls were thrilled out of their pea picking minds. Like they didn't hang out on the flight deck of Airforce one. This thing was pretty amazing though. A lot smoother than she had thought it would be. Though it felt a lot more powerful than the 747 for some reason.

It landing on the Potomac touching down right at Haines point had brought Washington to a screeching halt. The noise from the propellers would have done that no matter what but still, you just didn't see that. No one had seen that since the forties. Whereupon the TV Cameras had lit its taxiway all the way to this dock. They had a leak apparently. As it was mostly the Whitehouse press corps, they might have just followed her though. Nothing was scheduled for today, so they were probably a bit bored and fishing for a story.

The Crew letting them all pass through the airplane had been funny. In one side, walk to the tail, back to the front, out the other side of the ramp. Like it wasn't any other airplane. The press acted like they had never been inside one before, an airplane, not this beast.

The luggage had gotten loaded, the passengers strapped in and now a five and half hour flight. But the girls could nap in the crew rest area when they got tired. She looked at her Chief of staff "Well Kristen?"

Kristen handed her a three-inch three ring binder. Michelle blinked "Overnight?"

Maggie Painter leaned closer "The Kanmusu have been busy ma'am."

Michelle looked through the binder quickly and then looked up and arched a brow "You don't smoke do you?"

Maggie smiled "No, that's my colleague."

Michelle drummed her fingers on the binder. "So, this is that level of importance?"

Maggie calmly replied "That's for you to judge ma'am. We just provide the information."

"Of course, that's what the illuminati are famous for. Why give it to me?" She chuckled at the look she got. "OK, yes we do talk."

Maggie laughed "Well, if I ever meet one of the illuminati I will ask."

Michele looked at her closely "Wait a minute, you're one of the Navy's intel people."

"Actually, it's a joint office now, separate from the other services, we get all the raw and try to beat it into something that makes sense. Between our estimates and the separate services, the chiefs hopefully get a coherent, accurate, estimate of the situation.

"As you can imagine the Kanmusu are rather high on our list."

Michelle nodded "So working for the people who advise the president privately is a side job?"

"It's gotten easier. The military is pretty apolitical, aside from the infighting over money." Maggie shrugged.

Kristen, who was pretty tense asked "So you aren't the boogey man?"

"Not sure the organization ever was. It does have that reputation." Maggie offered.

"Maybe if it had a name and a line of accountability?" Kristen snarked.

Maggie shrugged "We serve at the pleasure of the President."

Michelle nodded "So the interest in the Kanmusu is all about what they are doing for the country."

Maggie offered "Or what they could do to it. It comforts some people to know we are watching."

"Hatch." Michelle supplied.

"Inouye. Dingel and Young. Its more about longevity than party or house." Maggie supplied.

'The folks around long enough to figure out your organization exist." Kristen thought a moment "And smart enough to leave it alone."

"Taylor respects Admiral Painter." Michelle said, arching a brow.

Maggie smiled "And tolerates Jack. He's a fan of her class. I like to think Dad is imminently respectable."

Michelle nodded "I read his file. He is. And apparently one of our best tacticians. So, he is going to offer advice to the Kanmusu on the developing situation?"

Maggie nodded "Probably, really though things got a little out of hand in California and people are a bit nervous."

Kristen snorted "The whole California coast was Navy, then we BRACed most of it. Now we gave a lot of it to the Kanmusu and depend on them for help with the rest of it. Them and the DWU which is sort of them. Plus, this company of Taylor Hebert's which is all them as far as I can tell.

"Not just that either, they are cleaning up superfund sites, landfills, cleaning the oceans, and sequestering carbon so hard my freaky tree hugger girlfriends want to have their babies. And just to top it off started a fashion trend and reversed the throwaway society trend we had going.

"Oh, by the way, Taylor Hebert is gay. So, the community is over the moon.

"And she is completely colorblind."

Maggie shrugged "Probably Bi. She does like to look at boys. It's just the ones her age are a bit boy. Amy Dallon too."

Michelle let the two debate it while she paged through the binder.

Later she looked up to see Malia and Sasha driving and talking to air traffic control on the radio. With two pilots hovering over them. She shook her head. Flying might have been a bit inaccurate as the aircraft was on the auto pilot. The girls were having a blast though. The Kanmusu crewman, a Navy commander, looked at her and shrugged. The pilot was an Army warrant officer two and the copilot a Navy Lieutenant. She smiled, apparently all the children were enjoying themselves.

Kristen and Maggie were looking over another three-ring binder, apparently past the storming phase "Hey, no poaching, I need Kristen." The two chuckled.

Haze Gray

Taylor woke up, untangled herself from Amy, and sat up. She grunted at her grinning father, who was sitting in his floating drydock already. She looked around. "Holy crap. CV, two cruisers, four destroyers, a tender and how many PTs? Oh, six cruisers, those are like our Atlanta's, right? How big is this carrier? Wait more destroyers? Six as well? Another tender, no Super Haven. What is that?" She pointed.

Danny chuckled "They do it big in California. That is a hundred-thousand-ton CV, looks like that Ford class they laid down starting in two thousand five. Conventional, you should see her turbines. GE F series at least, cogen so steam turbines as well. Ten thousand tons of bunkerage, mostly for emergencies I guess because she has caps on fuel lines you can walk in. Rail guns for catapults. Four of them.

"Two Alaska class and two Des Moines, two Atlantas, all being all they can be like you all. Eight destroyers, all Gearings. Oh sorry, two Benham typed. Torpedoes everywhere. With super dash, they all got super dash by the way. Twelve PTs. Mix of Nasty and eighty-foot Elcos for form factor built like our pups. A hospital ship, a tender, and that is a Vulcan class repair ship as far as we can figure out.

He pointed down "Two Barbels and an Ohio like Dinah."

"Of course, all of them are souped up to the max and have all of your mods installed from jump.

"Pretty nice Carrier strike group. The Russians will eat their Tokarevs, they have always had carrier envy.

Taylor sighed "Their Grachs. Makarovs maybe. GSh 18 maybe. They don't issue Tokarevs anymore. Alina was so short, how they hell does she turn into that?" Danny laughed and laughed.

Taylor got breakfast and looked around "Not trying to be prejudiced but this is a lot of Chinese people?"

Danny nodded "About a million foreign students in the US last I knew. China had a significant portion of that. They are sort of isolating themselves, the Chinese are. They have basically cut off outside contact. These are probably those students. At least the ones from the colleges and universities here. There are like thirty odd in the Bay area."

Taylor nodded "So since there are Chinese Navy people here, they came here? Makes some sense I guess."

"I'll talk to them Taylor."

"Thanks Meili."

Meili got a barge full of breakfast and nodded "Summer semester will be closing and without word from China they have nowhere to go. We couldn't even get the missions or consuls to talk to us. I bet they have the same problem. We can fold them in with us, us as a group on Johnston and do some vetting and investigating. The girls and I will take care of it."

Taylor nodded going over a plan "Melie, your operation, with those three boats we can bring out maybe nine hundred thousand people at a shot. But with China shut off like it is how are we going to do that?"

Meili shrugged "They still supply weapons to Pakistan and Bangladesh. We checked. We will be invoicing like we are going to there. We will need some of the gold to grease palms. Not like the gold dealers haven't been lying and aren't desperate to have actual gold. That will make them use their connections, they have lots of them in the army, to do what we want. We can counterfeit some Panda's. Not enough to make them straight, legal, and make up their shortage but enough to make them beg.

"Estimates are they are short like fifty tons from what they have sold."

Taylor blinked "Uh, we could make all that up easy?"

Meili sighed "I have hope they will get caught Taylor. They are after all perpetuating a criminal fraud for billions of Yuan."

Lisa sat up "You know, with enough gold and some rumors we could make that more likely rather than less. Start a run on people wanting their actual physical gold to hold in their greedy little hands. Wasn't there something about adulterated bars too? Yeah. OK, give me a minute. Yikes, what a set of laws. Holy crap, they are short more than fifty tons. Wow. OK this is a complicated fraud for land it looks like. A bunch of retired officers of the Army."

Taylor sighed "I do not want to end up owning China!" Lisa and Meili waved her off. She huffed. Amy laughed where she and the other Havens were circulating through the rafted Russian girls.

Lacy appeared in a boat rowed by Kurt "What the hell are you feeding these girls Taylor? Lookit the size of this one."

"Is anybody working at home?" Emily paddled by with Dwayne "So no. What the actual faff?"

Haze Gray

Taylor pinched the bridge of her nose "How did taking down some trafficker's turn into wrecking China ad Russia's economy?

"Tell me again how we are going to use this Oligarch to get all the trafficked girls?"

Lisa shrugged "Him and Lung. Lung is already volunteering his knowledge of the traffickers. Pushkin will when Lung encourages him. All you have to do is send Lung a letter. Kim already has it written. He'll invite Pushkin down then get the information from him."

Taylor scowled "And the Russians will come after Lung."

Lisa shrugged "They are already going to come after Hispaniola. Woah! No red eyes. Christ Taylor. We talked about this, they will come, we will handle it. We might as well get something for our trouble. I'm thinking Siberia up to the Gulf of Ob."

"What did I say about not wanting Russia?"

"Geeze, the red eyes again. OK sure. Well just take everything from under it."

"Lisa!"

"Man. Come on boss, these girls need like a million bucks apiece at least, and a place." She waved at the trafficked girls who even if they weren't shipping were still asleep taking on things from the dock water.

Taylor paused "Uh, OK, don't get carried away though." Danny facepalmed, Emily cackled.

Lisa frowned "Maybe Alina and her girls will want it?"

Dinah spoke up "Ninety eight percent chance Alina is the Czarina even if she doesn't want it. At least once the full story breaks. It's a pretty Russian story." Taylor groaned.

Leslie paddled over "Whirlygig shipped! Cleveland! Pops has got her. Well, him and Tyrone. Pops says she won't get on a plane until you send her orders Taylor. They are working with her to get her ship suppressed. Apparently impressed the crap out of the Navy detachment there. Apparently, she can put a jillion rounds a minute down range and doesn't miss. Six inch but still. Weight of broadside, she has everyone but you and the BBs because she has twelve guns and superheavies."