Not on my Watch

Chapter 1

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. Dr. Seuss, from The Lorax.

                 December 2011, Pine Valley Air Base, southern Utah

          Captain Vin Frost wearily peeled back his plastic gloves, rolled them together, and placed them in the special sealed container for used gloves, so as not to contaminate anything with the chemicals he'd been experimenting with.   He brushed a hand over his face, and sighed.   There was always so much work to be done.   He'd been at this now for the last 5 hours, and there was still a very long day ahead.  He sighed again, and stretched his arms over his head of dark hair. His brown eyes were filled with worry.  He had the kind of good looks most men only dreamed of, yet he never seemed to be aware of it.  To all outward appearances, he was calm and collected, but lately, he had too many things on his mind to be content.

          Earlier, he'd hung up the phone from a call from his C.O. at Hill Air Force Base.  Washington had contacted Hill again, wanting Pine Valley to do some more questionable experiments.  The phone call had been disturbing, at the very least.  Colonel Fitzwater was a good guy.  Vin didn't think he'd knowingly be involved in anything that was illegal or immoral.  Still, Vin wondered why the colonel didn't question some of the orders he was given.  Yes, we're sworn to protect the country, but that doesn't mean we have to be like sheep, and follow someone blindly, without thinking things through on our own.  I can understand experimenting with how to use chemicals during warfare, as biological weapons against the enemy; but there's no good excuse, when you're not in a war, of releasing chemicals into the air.   There shouldn't be a reason to use them against innocent people, ever, only soldiers, and there shouldn't be a reason to release them anywhere near your own people.

          The conversation had gotten a little heated, though respectful, of course.  Fitzwater'd said, "Washington wants you to combine barium and strontium, then fly over empty fields and release the chemicals into the air to see how long it takes them to disperse."

          "Why?" he'd asked.

          "Does it matter why?  That's what our orders are."

          "Yes, of course it matters why.  Those are dangerous chemicals.  Randomly releasing them into the air is going to make a lot of people very, very ill.  This is radiation from spent nuclear power rods."

          "There have been tests done.  If you do it at a far enough distance, no one should be harmed."

          "We're going to be releasing these into the air.   There's always fallback.  The wind blows. They'll spread, they'll go into the ground, and anyone outside will have this stuff falling on them. With all due respect, Sir, you don't have an engineering degree.  I do.  I know the studies, I know the history, and I know the side effects and problems these chemicals cause.  If we're going to use chemicals in biological warfare, the studies need to be done in an area where there's no living thing for hundreds of miles.   Yes, we have the experimental range here, and we can possibly do some tests like this on the far side of the valley; but anywhere near where people are living is going to be very tricky.  Personally, I'm leery of even doing it in the remote areas.  There may not be any danger short-term, but we don't know what the far-reaching effects could be. There's not a lot known about what radiation can do.  We just don't know enough.  Look, can we at least hold off on the tests until more research has been done?"

          "I'll ask.   That's all I can do.  I'll get back to you soon, ok?"

          "Right.  That's better than nothing."