Minus America | Book 5 | Hostile Shores

by Isherwood, E. E.

  “That’s how you fly a plane from the ground,” she bragged.

  Meechum scratched her head. “I don’t get it. Why’d you park a plane over the top of the silo? Won’t the weapon just shoot it apart?”

  “I have a theory about that.” Kyla waved the woman to follow her back toward the ladder. She wasn’t going to leave her uncle and the others down there. As they made it to the plane and the tunnel underneath, she held the tablet for a second, wondering if there was any way to ensure the plane couldn’t be moved.

  “I can’t go down there with this tablet. They might be able to use it to force the plane off the opening again.”

  Meechum smiled. “I could shoot the tires. Then they’d need the world’s largest tow-truck to move it.”

  “It won’t be necessary. Right now, the countdown is nearing the end. Without this tablet, they probably won’t be able to move it before the clock strikes zero, you know?”

  Meechum looked confused.

  In answer, she tossed the tablet over the side of the hole.

  The Marine laughed. “Can I still shoot the tires?”

  She thought about it for a few seconds.

  “Knock yourself out. Better to be safe than sorry, right?”

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  “That was you?” Ted said to his niece as she came down the ladder. “We saw a landing gear fly down the hole. And a tablet, I think.”

  “Yep,” she spoke with flowing pride. “And it was because of something he said.” She pointed to David, who stood looking up the tube.

  “What could I have said to make you park a Solar One aircraft on top of my weapon?”

  “You said the only way we could stop you was if something large was placed over the top. At first, I thought the answer was finding any big plane, or maybe dump a bunch of tanks into the pit. But then I remembered you also said the SACA planes sent the beam where you wanted it. I figured it had something to do with those dishes on the bottom. If they deflect or absorb your weapon’s dark energy, it’s going to do it right there at the exit door. I’m right, aren’t I?”

  Kyla’s smile was a mile-wide canyon of teeth. She knew she was correct.

  Everyone turned to David to see if the answer was right.

  The golden man took a step away from the railing of the pit. Instead of answering right away, he grabbed Charity’s hand and walked toward Avery’s men at the door.

  Ted gave chase. “Was she right?”

  David turned around when he wasn’t let outside the room. He brushed back his long white locks. “Guys, I’ll help you with the cube now.”

  Ted chuckled. “She was right! Why the rush to leave, though? Don’t want to see one of your expensive planes blow up?”

  David hurriedly shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, and just let what’s about to happen wipe you off the earth, but I don’t want to go with you. If you don’t move the aircraft from up there, we’re all dead.”

  Kyla replied with a little less bravado. “Sorry, the control tablet is probably a mile below us and falling.”

  “I figured,” David replied. “That disc up there is going to reflect seventy or eighty percent of the dark energy right back into the hole. It’ll beam it into every hallway of the bunker for a full minute. That’s how long it was going to sweep all of Europe.”

  Ted still wasn’t worried. “You could easily turn it off.” He pointed to the control console.

  “I can’t,” David deadpanned. “Please. We have to hurry.”

  Ted closed the distance to the door, uncertain if he should trust what had been said.

  David spun around. “I’ll take you down to where it is, but we only have a couple of minutes. If we run into my people, I’ll make sure they don’t bother us. Trust me when I say I’d sacrifice them all to allow myself to escape. It’s an occupational hazard of working with me.”

  Kyla spoke up. “And you’ll let us all go to somewhere safe? To NORAD?”

  “Of course I will. I’ll be with you. That way you know you won’t end up inside a glacier.”

  He and Emily shared a look. He had no faith in the man, and he was certain she didn’t trust him either, but she gave him a gentle nod, leaving it up to him. Ted also got Avery’s attention. “You good with going for an exit?”

  The colonel flashed the okay sign. “I’ll call my birds and tell them to get the hell out of here.”

  “Good idea,” he replied.

  “What did he say about birds?” Dwight mumbled.

  After a momentary glance at the weird man, he turned back to Kyla. “I’ll walk with David and the woman. You and Meechum stay right behind us. Avery and his men will be in front and the back. If we run into trouble, David will help us out.”

  “I understand,” Kyla replied.

  As a final gesture, he got up in David’s face. “If you try anything I don’t like, or try to betray us, don’t think for a second I won’t take you out. You get us out of here alive, and you get to live another day. It’s that simple.”

  David offered no snark or attitude for a change. He nodded over and over.

  “Let’s move!” Ted barked.

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  Kyla’s heart rate had been tracking toward insane ever since the plane covered the silo opening. Now it beat so fast she had to breathe hard to keep up with it. A death ray was minutes away from flooding the bunker and she and all her friends depended on a diabolical man responsible for three-hundred million deaths to get them to safety.

  Up ahead, David spoke to the guards who’d been watching Avery’s men from afar.

  “Step aside, please. Charity and I are fine. We don’t need your services anymore.”

  There had to be fifteen guards standing in an adjacent hallway, as if ready to pounce. However, they stayed away from David as if he had a bubble around him.

  “Are you sure, sir?” one of them asked.

  “I am. All of you can go, except for you.” David pointed to the unlucky guard who’d asked the question. He was middle-aged, a bit on the heavy side, and looked uncomfortable being called out. Sweat beads gathered at his temples, causing him to wipe both sides of his face as the other guards hustled down the corridor.

  Only when they were out of sight did David dismiss him. Despite his larger size, he sprinted after his friends like a gazelle freed from human captivity.

  “I told you,” David remarked, “they will do absolutely anything I say.”

  Uncle Ted motioned for him to keep moving.

  David spoke breezily. “It’s right up ahead.”

  They strode down the metal corridor for thirty seconds, tops. A pair of doors was inset in the wall on the right side, giving a clue where they were going. David walked them up to the guard standing next to the doorway.

  “Free America,” the man said to his boss.

  David repeated the slogan, but then he stepped close and whispered in his ear.

  Kyla’s stomach knotted up, knowing David could betray them at any second.

  “David?” Uncle Ted said tersely.

  The enemy leader held up his finger, giving the “just a moment” signal. He soon pulled away from the guard and turned to face her and the others. “I promised I would get you to the room with my cube inside. Before we go in, there is…one thing I need to do.”

  The guard raised his pistol and aimed it into their group. Before anyone could move, he fired once.

  “Oh my—” Kyla fell to the floor. On the way down, she thought about how to shoot back.

  Meechum reacted by taking a knee, instantly aiming her rifle.

  Bursts of gunfire from Avery’s men returned to the guard, turning him into a ragdoll. He fell backward into the wall and crumpled on the floor.

  When the smoke cleared and Kyla made it back to her feet, David continued to stand there with a smarmy grin plastered on his face. He glanced at Kyla and winked.

  Ted shoved him back. “What the hell was th
at?”

  Despite the intense moment, the man in gold appeared cool and in-charge. He laughed a little at what he’d done. “I told you these men will do anything I ask. I needed someone killed.”

  Kyla leaned around Tabby to see who’d been shot. She was shocked to see the pretty woman with the red hair lying with her arms and legs spread out. The pure white of her outfit was stained with a huge blotch of blood right over her heart. The woman’s mouth was open in a silent scream.

  “Why?” Ted asked with shock in his voice.

  “She was dead as soon as she sided with Tanager. She was willing to betray me to save her life. I also couldn’t risk her volunteering to use the cube. Her looks might have opened doors that would otherwise have remained shut. She might have killed us all under the guise of helping you people. So sad, really.” He stepped closer to the body. “Good-bye, dear wife.”

  “Sheesh,” Kyla exhaled.

  “Keep moving,” Uncle Ted said as he pushed the man along.

  When they went through the doors, they entered an auditorium with a wooden floor and a stage toward the front. There were no chairs in the middle, though there was a small wooden platform where a basketball half-court might have been. Farther inside, a vehicle-sized glass cube sat on the main stage as if it were a prop in a school play.

  David walked up the steps to reach it, but a voice came over the speaker system.

  “This is David. In sixty seconds, we will launch the second prong of our attack. First, we took out the New World. America, with all its evils. Now we’re going to strike at the Old World. The heartless imperialists who destroyed three continents. Only when we’re done will we be able to live forever as one of the legion of chosen.”

  The speaker turned off, leaving the big room in silence.

  David laughed to himself. “That’s irony right there.”

  Uncle Ted pushed him up the steps. “Just get this thing running.”

  David bent over to pick up a tablet, but he checked with the commandos, as if unwilling to be shot for it. “May I?”

  “Hurry,” Lambert insisted.

  “You all need to get in there,” David pointed to the cube.

  “You first,” Uncle Ted said sensibly.

  David hurried his way toward the entrance.

  “I’ll go,” Kyla volunteered, cutting ahead of him. “To make sure he doesn’t somehow leave us all behind.”

  Meechum followed her in, as she expected. David came in next, scowling at them both. Dwight trailed behind, as if picking up golden crumbs. The rest shoved their way in after him. Before everyone was inside, a hum started, as if energy was being fed into the metallic structure around the glass walls of the cube. Her hair felt light, as if the electromagnetic forces were lifting it.

  “Hurry up!” David shouted.

  “Is Poppy in there?” Dwight asked, moving around the box.

  “Sure she is, idiot,” David said under his breath. Louder, he added, “I’m ready to hit it. We’re going to NORAD, as you requested. The door has to be closed, though.”

  Without warning, someone shoved her against the back wall. Several people screamed with surprise. A couple of the men cussed. When she straightened back up, David was on the floor. More importantly, Dwight was standing outside the sealed cube. Whatever he was yelling, none of them could hear it.

  The glass was soundproof.

  “He took the tablet!” David moaned.

  Kyla moved to the right side, using her smaller size to shove her way toward the front wall. It gave her a better look at Dwight, who was fiddling with the control tablet. He’d obviously taken it from David, but to what end?

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  “I have to fix myself!” Dwight called out to the people he’d been walking with. He thought it was a little funny how they were all crammed into the glass box, like too many clowns in a car. However, he tried to remind himself he stole the control tablet for a very serious purpose. As soon as he sent them into the light like they wanted, he was going to heal himself in there.

  He looked down at the tablet. A huge green button was labeled with the word ‘EXECUTE’ in block letters. It seemed appropriate for turning on the box, so he made as if he was going to hit it.

  Poppy squawked at him. He looked up in surprise, finding her perched on top of the cube. He blinked several times, waiting for her to disappear, but she remained even after his attempts.

  The people inside the cube were yelling and pointing at him, but he ignored them.

  “No, Poppy, you can’t be right. Execute only means it will send them to the other dark place. The bunker with the buildings and hallways filled with dripping water. I don’t want to go back there. I want to fix my melon.” He tapped his temple.

  Now the people inside were frantic. They all seemed to be searching for his attention. By the looks of it, they were pointing behind him.

  Dwight turned around.

  “Who are you guys?” he asked, dumbfounded.

  It looked as if a small army was storming the bunker outside. Dozens of men ran by the door. Shots were being fired somewhere close out there. About six soldiers stood a little inside the entrance, with one man dressed in a tailored suit standing even closer. Dwight could vaguely recall being back in NORAD and hearing people who were worried about some Central American drug lords. The man looked like a drug lord for sure, with his mustache and greasy hair, but they couldn’t be the same people.

  The suited guy strode forward, confidently carrying an AK-47. “My name is Rando. I have a beef with two men in your cage, amigo. David and Mr. Sock-draw-yay. Thank you for capturing them.”

  Dwight looked over his shoulder, confused. Both David and Ted were pointing and yelling, though he had no idea what they wanted from him.

  The floor vibrated for about ten seconds, like a plane hitting slight turbulence. The army men seemed alarmed, but the drug lord kept coming his way.

  “What do you have in your hands?” Rando asked in a blasé fashion.

  Dwight recognized the tone. Police would often pretend to be disinterested in his bedding and booze collection until they got up close. Then they’d jump on him to confiscate his possessions and rip his bed to shreds. He instinctively stepped back.

  Rando halted.

  Behind the men, a reddish hue appeared in the hallway, as if someone had turned on an emergency light. One of the soldiers wavered in his position, checking out the door rather than keeping his gun trained on Dwight.

  Rando pointed his rifle. “I’ll only ask one more time. What are you holding? Is it the key for that fancy prison?”

  “It isn’t a prison,” Dwight said distantly. Was the man trying to take the tablet? Was he going to stop him from fixing his brain? Why couldn’t he wait until he was done with it?

  Now the lights in the hallway were multicolored, as if a kaleidoscope was being spun out there, revealing a host of colors. Some of the color bled inside the room, casting him in a rainbow of light.

  His stomach gurgled. That was also an old friend from his time on the street. Always hungry. Always thirsty. Endlessly searching for the next score of food. With a right-thinking brain, he’d be smart, successful, and could pay for his own food. He desperately wanted to clear the cube so he could get inside…

  He turned all the way around to face the box. “I’m sorry I stole this!” he shouted to David. Then, he pressed the button.

  Someone shoved him from behind and he fell face-forward toward the floor. However, he strangely became lighter on the way down. The amped up colors in the auditorium swirled for a second, then they became overwhelming, as if he was inside a disco ball.

  Poppy clawed at his back, he was certain, to keep him from striking the floor.

  His last thought in that embrace of light energy was clear and coherent, or so he imagined.

  “Thanks, Poppy. You’re a lifesaver.”

  Antipode Station, Amsterdam Island

  Priscilla had little to do but watch
the timer count down. The radio was quiet. The gun battle had ended. Her people were dead. She figured there would be little drama at the end, but the sense of ticking doom made her once again pull out her phone.

  “I guess I don’t have to worry about OPSEC now.” She glanced at the ticking nuclear bomb.

  Looking at her phone, she typed a new message to Kinkaid. “Mission a success. Sorry I won’t be on the boat, but you’ll live. I love you.” She hit send, willing it to get off her plate. She didn’t want to break down in sobs, reminiscing about the good times and lamenting what would never be. That wasn’t how she wanted to go out.

  Priscilla called up the message she’d been holding for her ex-husband. “Teddy, I guess you’re dead. I never heard back from you. I can finally tell you I’m sorry as hell at how things went down between us. I can admit I was wrong…”

  A zap of electricity coursed through her body. At first, she believed it was a result of a breakthrough of epic proportions in admitting weakness to her old husband, but soon it was clear the surging power was arcing and cracking in all the metal of the plane. Was the whole island full of charge?

  She typed faster.

  “I’m almost out of time. I think you would be proud of this one. I’m sitting next to a nuke which is going to blow up David’s base in the Indian Ocean. When you read about it in the papers, you’ll know it was me. I tried to do right by Ted MacInnis. I hope you found peace. P.”

  She hit send, then stole a glance at the countdown clock.

  “Coming up on sixty seconds,” she said aloud. As soon as she’d uttered the words, three uniformed men hopped into the broken fuselage.

  They saw her sitting next to the metal casing. They might not have grasped what it was right away, but as they approached her, they saw the timer.

  “You have to stop it!” one of the men cried out, pointing his rifle at her.