Report: Operation HOI POLLOI - Part Three
??/??/???? A hospital bed. Lt. Fields awakens, Special Agent Gaultier in the bed next to his. No sign of Special Agent Copeland. A surgeon enters, consulting a chart on a clipboard. He tells Lt. Fields they are in Modesto, California. He asks Lt. Fields benign questions about his injuries, about the blast and ensuing fire that consumed the fortified cabin of the Bear Flag Republic's leader, Ronald Pringle. Fields asks after the condition of his cohort. They assure him all his fine, him and Gaultier sustained only superficial burns and injuries, Copeland was injured by shrapnel and has required surgery, which she is undergoing presently. It’s strange, it should hurt a lot more than it does, or he should at least feel that warm haze of morphine, but no. He feels fine. Trying to make conversation, and noting the doctor’s nametag says “Kipling,” and offhandedly mentions there being “no discharge in the war.” The Doctor is baffled by this, and Lt. Fields has to explain the joke. That’s ...