"There is definitely a bug problem in the Lincoln Tunnel." Colleen reported as Aileen came over to where she was standing by the main monitor. "Agent X has all three tunnels closed down to be on the safe side, which has unfortunately created a traffic problem and more than a bit of a problem for me."
"What sort of problem?" Aileen asked.
"One of my oncologists happened to be visiting the Jersey Shore with a group of her sorority sisters. Now she's stuck there and she has a surgery scheduled for two tomorrow." Colleen said as she looked at the map showing the problems. With the Lincoln Tunnel shut down both ways and damaged transit lines, the ways to the city from New Jersey were seriously backed up. "Luckily, she has a partner that can step in if necessary, but unfortunately another of her sorority sisters is a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai, and they have a critical patient just brought in there with a brain tumor in need of very urgent surgery, that apparently Dr. Vasquez is the only one willing to try touching. So I'm trying to work out a way to get her there. I was going to just see about contacting one of our med flights for help, but apparently there is something going on that they are saying is rowdy teenagers shooting off fireworks, but I am a little suspicious about. From the way that Susan, my oncologist, was describing what she was seeing when she called to beg for help, these fireworks are much, much brighter than normal, which makes me think that either these are something besides standard commercial fireworks and thus probably dangerous in the inexperienced hands the might be in, or these aren't fireworks but something else entirely and possibly dangerous as well. Susan sent me a video. Any idea what this could be?"
"Not human." Aileen said after looking at the video. "I'm guessing that someone's setting out signals for some sort of landing." Not good. Definitely not good. Hopefully it was just some sort of smuggling ship, or people trying to sneak onto the planet without going through official channels but…. "I'll have X send someone as soon as he has the bug issue under control. But that's probably going to be awhile." The MIB had air transport, she knew, but at the moment, they didn't have anyone with the experience with them. Or did they? Maybe one of the retired agents?
Before she could say anything, one of the Alcidean cabbies came hurrying over with one of the worms following behind. "I finally got hold of my nephew!" The cabbie said. "He's going to pick up the doctors and get them to the station right above that main line break."
"And Billy says that the line where that break is is closed down entirely by order of the transit service." The worm said. "But they can get a train running and they'll have a straight shot to Penn Station."
"Where Murray's going to meet them and get them to both hospitals. We should be able to have Dr. Vasquez at Mount Sinai within an hour." The cabbie concluded. "Will that be fast enough?"
"An hour. We will make an hour work. Thank you!" Colleen said as she dialed a number on her phone. "Yes, Doctor Hamilton, I have something worked out. Doctor Vasquez should be there within the hour. The patient should be able to hold out that long, right? I was informed that the situation was critical when my oncologist called me." Colleen nodded as she listened and then rolled her eyes. "Well, then tell him that he happens to be in a hospital, not at Camp Lejeune. A lot of people are going above and beyond to get Doctor Vasquez there to help, and she's going to be there if any of us have anything to say about it. I would go ahead and see about getting pre op started to save a little time. Yes, I'll call you if anything changes as far as transit."
"I swear family members sometimes." Colleen said with a shake of her head. "I know they're under stress, but…. Apparently this particular patient has a partner of some sort who happens to be a former marine, somehow missed entirely that the city has gone crazy and who is amusing himself barking orders like he is still in the marine corps as if that will produce the needed doctor faster. Like the doctor isn't trying to get there as fast as she can? Poor Susan was practically crying when she called begging me to figure out something. Hopefully this will work, though. So, is there anything I can help with? I'll need to get some people together to bring up more supplies in a couple of hours, and the next load of laundry should be another thirty minutes or so before it needs to be moved. But at the moment I'm free unless any other doctors call with transit problems."
"You seem to have a handle on transit. Do you have any ideas for how to get a US Marshal from Chicago to New York?" Aileen knew the procedure back home for requesting assistance from another law enforcement agency but she wasn't entirely sure of the best approach here. She couldn't just call up Kay's brother and inform him of the situation over the phone. From what Kay had told her, Sam didn't have a clue that his brother was still alive or that the MIB existed. She needed to get him there somehow to explain things in person. She had a feeling he would need to see the situation and his brother with his own eyes to accept it.
"I wouldn't recommend what the head of the board of directors did to get his meeting with the US Marshals, getting multiple indictments and then hiding from the person trying to serve him for said indictments in the hospital laundry room for several weeks. Although I can't stay enough about the professionalism of the marshals from the New York office who ended up having to drag him out and down to court. They didn't even disrupt the washing cycle when they pulled him out from behind one of the washing machines to be carted to court. I'm guessing that there isn't some sort of procedure here for requesting assistance from other law enforcement agencies?"
"For other human law enforcement agencies, no. As far as human law enforcement goes, the MIB isn't supposed to exist." Aileen told her. Faking a request for Sam's presence was the way she supposed she would need to go, but…..
"Marshal Phil Conley." Colleen suddenly said. "If you need to send a request in for a marshal from Chicago, you could use his name as the requesting party. He broke his leg in about five places last week at our hospital. Thankfully, not while serving more indictments on the head of the board of directors or any other members of the board, but stepping off a curb wrong while going to visit a friend. He's going to be out for at least eight weeks. He's an actual marshal, though, so any requests with his name on them probably wouldn't seem suspicious and he isn't in the office for them to double check things. Even if they noticed that he's currently out with an injury, it was recent enough that they would probably just assume that there was some mixup with them getting the request and would come anyway if it was worded right."
"That could work." Using the name of an actual marshal would definitely make the request seem legitimate. And if she worded the request for Sam's assistance the right way and sent it in at the right time, hopefully she could get him there without raising suspicions. What else could she do but try? They needed more help, and given the circumstances with alien fugitives on the loose, and what Kay had told her about his brother's skill at bringing fugitives in, he seemed to be just who he needed for said help. Now if she could just manage to get him there.