Agent Barker was fed up with this latest assignment. Five years in the CIA working in the Directorate of Operations and this was what they had him doing. He was wasting his time checking out some no name cult operating on an island in the Caribbean. They were supposed to be collecting foreign intelligence and occasionally conducting covert action, not this waste of time. All the research he had done showed the cult didn’t even target Americans just refugees. Looking at the satellite photos again he grimaced, the island was only big enough for a couple of buildings. Who knows where all the refugees were going, probably cartel poppy farms. Not his problem though, the cartels were DEA’s headache.
A week after Agent barker turned in his report on the no name cult he was called into the director’s office. As Agent Barker verbally went over his report the director kept tapping the edge of his copy against his desk top with an unhappy look on his face. The director got more and more upset as Agent Barker presented his evidence that it was a simple cult and probably supplying the cartels with workers. The director finally got so angry he pulled out the satellite photos of the cargo ships unloading at the island dock and tossed it in front of Agent Barker. “How often is cargo unloaded” the director asked. “Once a week” was Agent Barker’s response. And how often is cargo loaded onto the ships there” the director asked voice rising. Agent Barker finally realized where he had screwed up. Tons of supplies and people were going to that small island but nothing was leaving it.
* * * * *
Planting was proceeding as expected. The biggest problem the supervisors had was convincing the workers to plant the trees and bushes randomly. For some reason they kept wanting to plant them in rows. In the end it probably didn’t matter but Daniel wanted the final result to look natural. He had already started preparing the second and third habitat camp locations. One was on what might one day be a central prairie. He could already visualize the buffalo that would roam it while the other was near the equator and should be suitable for a jungle type habitat. Both had suitable top soil created and seeded with bacteria. I still needed to setup the buildings and homes in the camps for the workers but this time there would be some changes from what was done at the first camp. The mobile homes used did not seem to be holding up well and the workers had also complained about lack of leisure activity. I decided modeling the mobile camp after a senior citizen mobile home park in Florida was a bad idea. Instead I decided to use a logging camp design from the with cabins and additional entertainment facilities. The camp would still be considered mobile, I would just use Hawk to portal the cabins to their next location when it was time to move.
With the additional two camps we now needed more workers and a lot more seeds, trees and shrubs. Using refugees as employees seem to be working out pretty well so far. None had asked to leave yet. I knew that wouldn’t last but we decided to enjoy it while it did. Grandma suggested I talk to Doctor Wagner about getting more refugee workers which I thought was a good idea. Sammy decided to come with me for the discussion. We headed over to the small clinic to look for him since that is where he seems to spend most of the day at. When we found him I could see he was still using crutches to get around. It didn’t seem to slow him down any since he was vaccinating a young boy while telling a nurse how to wrap a leg injury on another person all this while eating a sandwich he held in one hand.
After telling him we planned to bring in a thousand more workers he paused what he was doing for a second then told us we needed to talk. At that point I could tell Sammy was worried, she must have thought we were about to lose our doctor. We agreed to meet in the conference room in an hour and Sammy and I left him to his patients. I tried to calm Sammy down by telling her it was obvious that Doctor Wagner was enjoying himself here. He probably just wanted to talk to us about things he needed for the clinics. Sammy was still worried about him leaving so decided to go ask Grandma to join the meeting. Thinking about the doctor eating a sandwich while he worked I decided to arrange some food for the meeting. Wanting something a little different I remembered a potato bar that I once saw on a food show. Getting Hawk to find and duplicate it along with a coffee and tea service I decided it was ready just before the others showed up. Grandma and Sammy were puzzled when they first saw the potato bar with all the toppings but after a minute Sammy’s face lit up and she turned to me with a grin. I knew how much she liked baked potatoes and now she could try them with all kinds of fancy toppings.
When Doctor Wagner came in Sammy was already in the middle of loading her potato up with chili, cheese and onions. He immediately got one himself and piled it twice as high with the same toppings. Grandma stuck with a more traditional sour cream and chives while I went for the sweet potato with brown sugar and pecans on it. A little sweet for me but I expected Sammy would take it over and finish off my desert type potato before I even got half way through it. With us all dished up and sitting at the table Dr. Wagner immediately started talking about the additional staff he needed for that many more workers. We had no problem hiring more medical staff but finding them was an issue. After some more discussion Dr. Wagner promised to contact people he knew to find any willing to work on a long term remote job. We decided to wait till they agreed to that much before springing the whole “another world” job requirement on them.
Getting a thousand more habitat workers was another matter. Dr. Wagner was telling us that our getting 500 out of that first refugee camp before anyone said anything had more do with how badly the camp was run then to it actually being allowed by management at a normal camp. To get the thousand new employees we would need to approach recruitment a different way. Dr. Wagner didn’t have any suggestions for how to do it but did mention that a couple of camps in Mexico were being shut down with the non-Mexicans being sent back to their original countries. The same countries they had been so desperate to leave and come to Mexico. The other bit of information he had was those camps in Mexico were not recognized by the UN for political reasons so were not monitored by them.
Thinking about it we all agreed that a lot of those people should be anxious for an alternative to them going back to their home countries. All we had to do was get the invite to them and for any that accept transportation to Demeter. Dr. Wagner was sure a bribe to the right people would get us both of those. One thing the doctor did say that surprised us a bit was that the camps in Mexico were heavily tilted toward women and children. The reason seemed a bit odd in that men had an easier time slipping across the US border for work. Their families are left behind to wait for money to be sent back to pay for a coyote to get them across and join up with their husband or father. What’s sad is many didn’t hear back from them and ended up waiting for years. Sammy and Grandma were happy hearing about the large percentage of women and kids. Sammy immediately started to plan more school space and Grandma decided to help the new single moms by setting up cooperative child care.
Anna Melendez as assistant director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) had a lot to lose if this exportation of refugees went public. The gringo did promise the jobs really existed and the workers would be free to leave at any time but that was all. With so little information about it she was having second thoughts. She never should have agreed to arrange the hiring even if the money he offered was so good. At 100 dollars a worker just for getting them to sign up for the job and shipped to the port the money was substantial. Using her status in the USCRI and with the news of the camp being shut down soon she had managed to convince over 1100 of the refugees to take the offer. Most were families with kids but for them even if it turned out to be indentured labor it would still better then what they would face if sent back to their countries. Some might change their mind before boarding the busses but even so she was looking at over 100k in cash. It was almost two year’s income for her from her civil servant job. That was assuming she didn’t lose her job if her boss found out about this.
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The assistant director kept pacing back and forth in front of the camp waiting for the busses to arrive. The bus company had promised they would be here first thing in the morning but it was already 10am and her boss was due here for an inspection sometime this afternoon. Finally she could see a line of busses coming up the dirt road to the camp. Waving to the guards she had them open the gate and let the busses through. Most of the refugees didn’t have anything so with a little crowding they should all fit on the 20 buses.
As the first bus stopped in front of her she had the camp crew start getting the people to board. There was a lot of chaos getting them all on the busses. Looking at her watch she could see they were already running late and the Director would be here shortly. One or two busses she could probably explain but not 20 of them. As each bus filled she quickly them out of the camp and heading toward the port. As the last bus was finished loading she saw the Director’s car approaching to camp. She hurriedly had the driver take off while she headed to the camp office to meet with him.
The meeting with the Director went well in the beginning as they discussed the procedure for the camp shut down. As she finally relaxed thinking she had got away with the refugee exporting the director finally asked about the bus he saw loading as he approached. Thinking fast she decided on a partial truth.
‘Sir, I contacted several local supporters about the camp closing and they offered to help get some of them jobs and a place to stay.”
An alarmed look appeared on the Directors face as he heard this. “You didn’t tell anyone we were shutting down did you?” he asked.
“No Sir” she responded “The rumor mill has been talking about it even before I was officially told”
“Oh” said the Director “Not our fault then, we don’t control the rumor mill around here then. What about those supporters? Are they trustworthy? We can’t have any rumors of sending a bus load of refugees to slave camps or brothels getting out now”.
“No Sir” she said thinking it was a good thing he didn’t see all 20 buses being loaded. “I checked and it a reputable company doing some kind of reforestation effort”.
“Another group of eco-charities” he said nodding his head “I guess that’s fine. If any good press comes out from them we could send out a press release taking credit for supplying the workers”
“Yes sir I said as we went back to planning the shutdown.
As the 20 buses approached the dock the Captain was out on deck watching this new group disembark. This group was larger and looked different then the first group. The first group was more serious and looked like they were heading off to do something. This new group looked like they were running away from something bad. None of them looked happy and almost no one had any baggage. There were also a lot of women and children in the group. Looking at the condition of them the Captain decided that this one time he would open the cabins and let the families get some privacy and rest on the voyage. Looking again at the hungry children the captain decided that he would also open the ship’s food stores and give them proper hot meals instead of sandwiches. With a little luck maybe he could get the client to cover the additional cost.
When the ship reached Demeter an announcement was made on the ship’s PA to start disembarking. Some of the refugees didn’t seem to want to leave. The cabins and food was the best they had had in years. There were even individual showers in the cabins that some had taken advantage of. Even for those who didn’t most had used the bathrooms to rinse out their clothes. The water shortage at the camp had made doing laundry almost impossible With the passengers so reluctant to leave the Captain finally had the crew go cabin to cabin to get them off the ship.
Daniel and Sammy decided to try something a little different this time. As the large group started funneling in to the transit building Daniel directed them to the back of the room and through what looked like an open wall to the beach. Most of the groups passing through the portal didn’t realize it and thought they had just exited the back of the building. After a minute or two they noticed that the transit building was not behind them just an image of the inside of it floating in the air. Some reached out to touch what they thought was an image while a few tried to get back through the portal. The crowd that kept coming through from the other side blocked them.
The voices of the crowd started to get louder as people got in each other’s way. Daniel kept shouted for them all to step down the beach so the rest could get through. He also tried to calm them down a bit by mentioning that after everyone came through there would be a quick tour and assignment of rooms. If anyone didn’t want to work their contracts the ship would be happy to take them back to Mexico and then on to wherever the refugees would be ending up at. This finally quieted most of the crowd and let the rest come through.
Once everyone was almost through Daniel started to separate the people into smaller groups of 50. He ignored their excited and sometimes angry questions just telling them to ask the guides during the tour. As each group was assigned a guide from the current employees on the island he sent them out to tour the island. A few refused to go anywhere but not enough to block the rest from joining a group. When the last few came through the portal Sammy followed them and walked up to Daniel. With a quick but sweet kiss on the lips Sammy told him that about 90 people had refused to step through once they realized it wasn’t just a back exit from the building. Daniel suggested they just leave the ones on both sides where they where for now but leave the portal open. Some might change their mind and step through otherwise after the tour finished anyone deciding to leave could join up together and head back for the ship. Sammy shook her head in agreement and hand in hand they walked to the apartment buildings setup to serve as temporary housing. Most of these new workers will eventually be living in mobile homes at the camps but for now the apartments would be used.
The staff had tables setup outside the two apartment buildings they would be using for the new employees. Sammy talked with the staff to make sure they knew to give the larger apartments to the families with kids. Grandma showed up then to talk about the situation of the new employees.
“You know most of them don’t even have a change of clothes.”
Daniel asked “Can’t they pick that up from the store like the previous group”
“We had an issue with the previous group and it might be worse this time. Most were too timid and uncertain to take advantage of the store access. We might have to hold them by the hand to convince them to get the stuff they need”
Sammy suggested “Why don’t we get the guides doing the tours take small groups over to the store and encourage them to get some clothes and food today.”
Grandma jumped in and said “And a few toys for the kids would be good too.”
Daniel looking at the sun to estimate how much time they had. With the different day lengths trying to use a watch to tell time on Tawny was a work in futility. At some point he would need to get custom time pieces made that matched the day cycle.
Looking at Sammy he said “We can do that but only after we get the ones leaving starting back to Demeter and on the ship heading back. The Captain is the nervous sort and I don’t want to chance him leaving early.”
A couple of the groups showed up then and the staff got busy dealing with them. One of the guides commented to Sammy and Daniel that a couple of people had run off shortly after the group left the portal area. Daniel was not surprised given the shock it must have been to them but now he needed to find them and see if they needed to be returned to Earth or not. Giving Sammy a kiss Daniel left to track down the missing people.
With Hawk’s help tracking down the people who had run away was easy. Approaching them to try to talk with them proved difficult. When they saw him approached they either ran away or just started trembling in terror. I guess sending them through the portal without explanation first was too much I thought. Finally I gave up and had Hawk transfer them to an empty cabin on the ship. I decided to let the Captain deal with it. He was getting paid a lot of money now, more than twice the normal charter fee to get him to make the trip now. For that he deserved a bit of headache. With the returnees back on the ship I let the Captain know he could leave. Assistant director Melendez of USCRI was expecting them and a couple of busses would shuttle them back to the camp. Where they ended up when the camp shuts down next week I didn’t know but I hope things worked out for them. With that taken care of I headed back to see if Sammy and Grandma had finished up for the day. Tomorrow was going to be busy and none of us were getting much sleep this week.
