Minus America (Book 3): Rebel Cause

by Isherwood, E. E.

  “Where is it?” Kyla asked, not seeing anything briefcase-like in the room.

  “Safe at NORAD, with David, of course. He’s already working on controlling the arsenal while in the central defense facility, but having access to the briefcase will allow him to move around our new country with it. Once he has control over all the missiles, we can defend ourselves from any and all threats out there. It’s one of the important steps in the invasion timetable.”

  Ted stalled for time. “Why do you need nukes when you have the most powerful weapon in human history?”

  “Unlike your people, we conserve our resources. Not every problem is a nail, and not every solution is a hammer. Sometimes, you need nukes. Other times, you need…our superweapon.” He smiled broadly.

  “You just want to be the hero again,” Ted said dryly, taking another small step toward the man with the gun. A second shape moved in the shadows behind one of the server towers. It had to be Meechum sneaking along the wall. Kyla began to understand what they were doing. Unarmed, while in the face of a gun, she didn’t think they had much of a chance.

  “I’ll do it,” she rattled off with immediacy. “Just don’t hurt anyone.”

  Uncle Ted spun around. “No, Kyla, you can’t!”

  The scene served as a distraction for Ramirez. ER didn’t see Meechum right away when she came out from behind the six-foot server rack.

  But, eventually, he did.

  Minot Air Force Base, ND

  Everything happened in what seemed like a single second. Meechum charged from behind the bank of computer towers, Kyla got ER’s attention by saying she was going to help him, and he was caught in the middle. He had to protect his two friends, so he lunged for the traitor as he turned his pistol toward the Marine.

  He’d heard the wheelie gun fire once before, back in Air Force Two, so he was prepared for the loud bang. Still, being close to the deadly weapon made his insides go to jelly.

  Meechum fell to the thin layer of carpet like a sack of flour. Ramirez was in the process of aiming and taking his second shot as Ted plowed into him from the side. The other man was fifty pounds heavier, so the impact hurt him as much as it did ER.

  The gunshot went wide of its target, given that ER’s arm was the first thing he hit. Ted hoped to get him to drop the piece, but he held on even as they careened onto the floor in front of Meechum.

  Ted glanced back to Kyla to see her stepping closer. “No! Get Emily to deactivate it!”

  His niece hesitated, though he didn’t see what she did next. Ramirez pulled him into a headlock. The gun dangled precariously in the man’s bandaged hand, but he refused to drop it. However, he couldn’t get it pointed at Ted’s body without loosening his grip around him.

  Ted struggled to maintain his position without getting squeezed any harder. He kept his right shoulder high against the other guy’s body, so the lock wasn’t total. When he sensed the slightest release, he shoved some more of his shoulder into the weak point.

  The next couple of seconds, or minutes, were a blurry haze as he fought to stay conscious. Meechum was nearby the whole time, but she didn’t move as best he could tell. The two other women were at the computer terminal; he could barely see Emily’s brown hair from where he was. Despite wearing all black, she’d left the summer scrunchy in.

  “They aren’t going to do it, you know,” ER taunted. “We’ve had teams working on this for three days. She’s not going to get in.”

  Ted had talked to Rebecca many times about Kyla’s decision to go into programming. At first, it seemed like a great career path to a steady income and a nice job, but when she started working for the Navy, he had his doubts about her judgement. He figured there were more bucks to be made in the private sector. However, when she landed the job working on nuclear containment on the biggest and most expensive ship in the fleet, he conceded she must have a pretty good head on her shoulder. Now, he was certain of it.

  “While you’re busy killing me, she’s going to shock the hell out of you, asshole.” Ted wasn’t ready to give up, and he was keeping his head barely above water, but the big guy didn’t seem close to giving in. However, as he continued to struggle, the other man breathed heavily. He saw his chance coming up.

  Ramirez tried to aim the gun toward Kyla, but a desk was in the way. Ted certainly wasn’t going to let him move to get a better line of sight. The bigger man squeezed his arm around Ted’s neck and grunted, obviously anxious to kill him so he could get to the terminal.

  Ted squirmed as he fought against the pressure, though his vision blurred from lack of blood. It wasn’t anything like he pictured as a heroic saving of the women, or the nation, but real-life combat was never like the movies.

  Just have to keep him here.

  “Dammit, why won’t you die?” Ramirez asked. “I should have shot you back on the runway.”

  A shiny object hit Ramirez on the head with a sickening clunk. The pistol went off at the same time, and the man’s grip on Ted immediately loosened. ER rolled to one side, sweeping him underneath for a second before he fell out of the other man’s clutches. He tried to tumble away to get free, until he realized Ramirez’s gun-arm was free, too.

  The pistol was pointed at his face.

  NORAD Black Site Sierra 7, CO

  Tabby was sure Mom and Dad would disapprove of her actions of the last fifteen minutes. The decontamination procedure was an embarrassing exercise all the way through. She’d been instructed by a hidden voice that she needed to strip away all her clothes in order to enter the hazardous materials shower. She was willing to strip down to her underwear, but that was as far as she’d go.

  Minutes later, after standing alone in the freezing metal room, Charity’s voice came over the speaker and reminded her she was the first in line. The other two could easily be tossed back out the front door, come what may.

  After that, beaten again, she ran through the shower as instructed. The automatic drier actually felt pretty good, and it was a relief to be clean, but when she came through another door and found her replacement clothes sitting on a chair, she almost didn’t put them on. It was the same skimpy jumpsuit as Charity had been wearing, only hers was shiny blue rather than white.

  Tabby looked around the chamber for alternatives, but there was absolutely nothing besides the metal seat. “I have to wear this?” she asked the voice controlling her journey.

  “David wishes you to adhere to the same dress code as the rest of his Reboot Legion. Your original clothing has been disposed of. You will not be offered an alternative. Blue is a great honor.”

  “Hardly,” she said, unsure if she would be more embarrassed inside the unitard or standing in the nude outside it. In the end, she swallowed her pride and put it on. When she fidgeted and stretched it all it would go, she looked at herself in the shiny metal of the door.

  I look ridiculous.

  She hurriedly unspooled her three braids. It broke her heart to do it, since Mom had been the one to arrange them, save for one repair job done by Audrey, and it was the last thing she owned of her. However, she was certain her mother would approve of why she’d done it. Tabby arranged her long hair, so it fell over her chest, giving her a tiny bit of extra cover. She kept her front zipper sealed all the way up to her neck.

  When she came through the last door, a man in a golden jumpsuit stood waiting for her. “I’m David. Welcome.”

  “Why am I here?” she replied, unimpressed.

  He got closer, noting Tabby’s twitchy step in the opposite direction. “I saw you on television, of course.”

  Tabby had been curious if anyone had gotten her message while she’d been inside the St. Louis television station. It seemed like a long shot at the time, since she learned everyone in the viewing area was dead, but if this guy saw it…

  “So, you saw me asking for help. Obviously, my message went to the wrong person. You killed them all, didn’t you?”

  He stood there looking sad, which was transparently fake. “
I hate killing, Tabitha Breeze from Bonne Terre, Missouri, but the world is a cruel place. When I saw you on television, I was struck by how the necessary evil of the reboot had left at least one piece of the old America I couldn’t bear to extinguish. I found your passion to find your parents riveting. I, of course, knew you’d never reach them, but that’s what made it so tragic, and beautiful. It was an impossible task, just as it was for David to slay his Goliath.”

  “You’re quoting the Bible? After all you’ve done?” Mom and Dad had made her go to church, which she accepted more as a time to hang out with them than a spiritual exercise. However, she would never in a billion lifetimes believe this man knew a single lesson from the Good Book if he was truly the one responsible for killing everyone.

  “All I’ve done?” he chuckled. “I’ve saved you from a terrible fate. I would think you’d see that. You called out to me and now I’ve rescued you.”

  Her tummy balled up, not wanting to believe the horrible man.

  He went on before she could reply. “I caught up with your broadcast hours after you left St. Louis. I was crushed when you disappeared from our intelligence assets, but I knew it was you when we had trouble in Chicago. I—”

  “Your drones killed our friend!” she blurted out.

  David acted like he didn’t hear her. “I sent my fleet of airborne units to sweep the area, but you escaped again, on bikes no less.” He clapped his hands in excitement. “But I knew where you would go. All I had to do was keep tabs on the cleared highways until an unregistered vehicle showed up. You went right to that nice warehouse and made it easy, though I almost didn’t catch the drones before they did their automated thing and rebooted you.” He laughed, like threatening the three of them with the giant tank had been a harmless prank.

  “You should have killed me, like you did my two dogs. I don’t know why you chose to bring me here, but I’ll never cooperate.”

  He laughed grimly. “We both know that isn’t true, after your meeting with Charity. You’ll do exactly as I say, when I say it, or things will get ugly for members of your party. And, besides, if you’re talking about the two dogs in that same warehouse, I can tell you with authority they aren’t dead.”

  A breath caught in her throat. “Say what?”

  CHAPTER 27

  Minot Air Force Base, ND

  It took Ted nearly thirty seconds to catch his breath. He remained on the floor, next to the still body of Ramirez, while the two girls talked in hushed tones over by the terminal. He heard Kyla say she cracked in, and a short time later, Emily reported success in taking the nuclear briefcase offline. He was content that his role as human punching bag made it all possible.

  Meechum crawled up next to him. “Major? You gonna make it?”

  Her uniform top had blood splattered all over her left shoulder, and he realized she’d been shot. She saw how his eyes were drawn to the wound and waved him off. “I’m fine. It went right through. I was still able to use my good arm to crack the skull of this asshole.” She pointed to ER’s bloody head, where a large divot had been created above his ear.

  “I bet,” he replied, further impressed by her instincts.

  Kyla appeared at his side. “We did it, Uncle Ted! We’re safe.” Then, exactly as he had done with Meechum, she looked at him as if he was broken. “Ohmygod! Are you okay?”

  He sat up with her help, feeling better as the oxygen got to his brain. His muscles were sore from holding off Ramirez’s arms, but the big man never got the solid hold necessary to choke him out. “What the heck happened?” he asked.

  Emily appeared on his other side, crouched next to him. “You and Lance Corporal Meechum held him off long enough for us to finish this. You kept him occupied, and she used a spare hard drive to bash in his head.” She gestured to the body next to him.

  Ted regained his sense of leadership. “We have to get out of here. The alarm—”

  At some point in his dance with Ramirez, he’d fired his revolver. That action had been heard by others and it triggered an alarm inside the building. However, it was silent out in the hallway, as best he could tell. The only ringing came from his ear drums.

  “I turned it off,” Kyla bragged. “With this.” She held up a tablet. “I hacked into the password database and got us the credentials of some guy who had the most access. But we do have to leave before they notice I took control for a few seconds.”

  Ted’s vision blurred when he got up on his feet, but he held onto the corner of a computer terminal while it cleared. He ordered his body to recover so he’d be able to lead them back to the motorcycles. His promise to his sister was in jeopardy if he couldn’t get Kyla away from danger as fast as possible.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said, picking up the Ruger. With it in his hands, he tipped his head toward Emily. “Mind if I use your gun again?”

  “Be my guest.” She smiled.

  On a hunch, he checked ER’s pockets for extra ammo. He found one extra speed loader for the revolver, supporting his reasoning that not only would Ramirez sneak in the pistol, he’d also make sure he had more than the five rounds it came with.

  Emily opened the door while he picked pockets, and soon they were back in the hallway. He and the others followed her, but they were immediately accosted by a seemingly-terrified young woman.

  “Do you know what’s going on? They said there’s a shooter in the building. What do we do?”

  Ted almost chuckled. The IT people in the complex apparently hadn’t even considered they were going into a warzone. They also didn’t realize how easy it was to sneak in under their noses and score a military victory for the American people. He couldn’t express any of his private thoughts, so he kept his voice robotic. “We were told to go to the main entrance and be prepared for evacuation. Why don’t you tell everyone you see to do the same? We’ll be safe once we’re outside.”

  “Yeah,” the girl in the black and red jumpsuit replied. “That’s what we need to do. Thanks!”

  “No problem.”

  They walked up the steps to the main floor before Emily spoke up. “Won’t it cause a mass panic for the doors?”

  He looked behind him before getting all the way up. As expected, technicians ran out of the rooms all along the hallway. They ran in every direction, which further highlighted how ill-prepared they were, but most of them headed for him on the stairs.

  “Keep going!” he huffed.

  The main floor was comparatively quiet, but the screams and cursing from the people below caught the attention of those walking the main floor. Ted kept his eyes firmly on the front door, where the bikes were right outside.

  “Meechum, get our weapons,” he advised quietly. The older woman was no longer at the gun-check table. It looked like any weapons she’d collected had been tossed in a big green plastic container and left for whoever happened by.

  Emily and Meechum went through the first set of doors and went right for the table. He was going to follow, but Kyla stopped him. She had the tablet in her arms, swiping and tapping at keys. “Uncle Ted, they haven’t locked me out of the main NORAD system yet. Those teams downstairs have been trying everything to break into the missile control systems. In doing so, they’ve weakened all the firewalls and counter-intrusion code for the rest of the defense network. They may not even realize how exposed they’ve made themselves. I can see it right here.” She pointed to the screen.

  “It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to go.”

  “Wait!” she replied, not moving. “If I can get in there, I might be able to steal control of the entire nuclear arsenal from them. I could certainly lock them out. This coding is about a decade out of date. It’s stuff I cleaned up a lot when I modified the nuclear containment programs on the carrier. They have all sorts of entry points I can use.”

  He turned to the hallway on the main floor. The people from down below had made their way up and had their eyes on the front doors. They wouldn’t be able to stand there much longer.

&
nbsp; “What are you saying?” he pressed.

  She looked at him with a serious expression. “I need to go back down to the mainframe terminal. I only need a couple of minutes to get this done.”

  The people got closer. The confusion might give them an easy excuse for returning inside but going back to the scene of the crime was never a good idea. If anyone in authority found ER’s body, they might already be looking for them.

  I made a promise.

  “We can’t, Kyla. I’m sorry. We did what we came to do; let’s go while we’re ahead.” He pushed open the inner door. Emily handed over all three of his pistols as he pushed through the outer doors.

  “But—” Kyla replied, before trailing off.

  Two robots had arrived outside, stopping not far from the bikes. They stood at attention as if guarding the computer building. As if watching for him, or the President of the United States.

  Emily faced the robots as she stood with Meechum at the edge of the parking lot.

  “We’re screwed,” he deadpanned.

  NORAD Black Site Sierra 7, CO

  “I saw the dogs disappear. They’re gone.” Tabby shifted uncomfortably in the blue outfit. She kept her arms crossed over her chest as a defense mechanism. This David guy was older than her, maybe in his 30s or 40s, and not the worst looking man in the world. However, his eyes were emotionless—what Mom once said were dead eyes. A trait she warned about when dating boys Tabby didn’t know. Seeing it in the flesh made her instinctively want to avoid him.

  David brightened. “So, you do want to talk to me?” He motioned for her to walk alongside him. He positioned himself to go into a larger room next door.

  “I just want to know why I’m here. Where are my friends? Why—”

  He shushed her. “We’ll get to all that in a minute. I’ll explain why you’re here, I promise. But first, I want to show you my toys.”

  Tabby almost guffawed at how ridiculous the man sounded. She had no more interest in seeing his toys than she had in having her wisdom teeth pulled a second time. However, always mindful of the leverage he held over her, she walked next to him, keeping as much distance as possible.