Tye nodded. He got it.
“So, Quinn killed your wife?”
“He did,” Mal said.
“Are you sure? He wasn’t just trying to get a rise out of you?”
“No, my own subconscious confirmed it,” Mal said.
He had always thought it was incredibly convenient that a bullet would make it through on that side.
The cars. The Illinois National Guard had set them up down the bridge so people could make the run without being shot in the back. They made a snake like run down the bridge. That kid literally couldn’t have hit her. The window on the car was pristine.
“Well, what do we do?” Tye asked
“We go back to Mount Vernon and get ready,” Mal said.
“Ready for what?”
“War,” Mal said, “war’s coming. We have to be ready for what’s coming or they will do exactly what they want us to do.”
Malcolm pulled up his radio and tuned to a frequency that wasn’t covered by most Intelligence agencies.
Who thought that a CB signal would be the last thing people checked these days.
“Did you take care of that thing we talked about?” Mal said to the person on the other end of the radio.
“I did,” Jace responded, “Ya know, you could give a girl a heads up that the package was so regal.”
Regal was a call-sign for members of the administrative branch back in the day.
“Two former spec-ops using a call sign I was waiting to hear,” Martha said.
“What’s up Martha? Is everything okay?” Mal asked.
“I wanted to let you guys know they didn’t take anything else,” Martha said.
“Martha, are you going all, ‘Humans aren’t worth my protection’ Shit from a Sci-fi movie now?” Jace asked.
“It is kind of the opposite of that,” Mal said.
“Jace, I am going to let that go,” Martha said before the click of something leaving the communications line.
Mal chuckled. She was becoming more and more human every second it seemed.
“Mal, could you possibly imagine what Fox News would have run on her?”
“I don’t know, they may run stories about how we should trust them if it was a conservative AI.” Mal joked.
Why we should trust our robot masters to look over us with care at 10 with Tucker Carlson.
He never cared for any partisan news source, that goes for the liberal ones too but, unintentional bias is different than intentional bias. Fox News used to make Mal carry around headphones everywhere he went, there was a president that ordered it to be the primary news source in government buildings. Mal could see through the particularly concerning lack of factual basis for a lot of their stories. Mal remembered when he was younger and some O’Reilly schmuck got onto the then Democratic president for…
Dijon Mustard. Fucking Dijon Spicy mustard. Who doesn’t like brown spicy mustard? That shit is amazing.
That provoked a memory in Malcolm’s mind of David’s first year with the teams.
Ten years ago
“So, why do we always play chess dad?” David asked as he sat across from Mal at a chess board.
It was a fixture in the house, Mal was always teaching David chess because it was a great way to understand the world. Not for combat but planning for life even.
“What were the steps to get where you are today? Wearing a trident on your chest? Doing what you have always wanted to do?”
“I had to train, go to school, work hard in BUDs, Jump school, Kill-house, Medical training and pass my boards?”
“Exactly, now before we start tell me a basic starting move and how you plan it?”
“I think about my opponent and create a strategy, then I would formulate a plan.”
Mal moved his white pawn with his left hand.
“Exactly,” he said, “it teaches you to plan.”
“In combat?”
“In everything, maybe it’s because my dad did it for me but, I want you to learn how to live, not just fight.”
Mal moved his pawn forward, into the center of the board two paces. The game began to fly by until David was broken back into a corner.
“Dad, I don’t know how you do it, you are so smart.”
“It’s all practice,” Mal said as he pushed his rook forward, “That’s checkmate.”
David searched the board for anyway out of the trap his father had set at his end of the board. Drawing his son in, thinking he had won when he placed his dad into check, the rook then trapping his Queen. Then attacking his King, two turns later? Checkmate.They stood up to walk towards the door that attaches to the garage, David grabbed a cooler and threw it into the back of his Jeep.
“How did you get me over here on Team 3?” David finally asked.
“Your Mom was worried sick,” Mal said, “I was a bit too so I talked to Admiral Jacobs and suggested that you go to a team here on the west coast. To make you and me more comfortable.”
David stopped before hopping in the Jeep as Malcolm sat in the passenger seat.
“I don’t need your protection, Dad.”
“I know, when you are a parent you will understand, that you will do whatever is necessary to help your child. You will cross whatever border, fight whatever monster, kill whatever is in your way to help them. Just wanted to be here to do that, it’s going to be hard your first few years. Going to be days where you can’t get out of bed or don’t want to. Having a support system around you is the best way for you to be successful.”
“Just don’t run to save me from trouble Dad,” David said, “It’s already hard enough. Being the son of not just another frogman but being your son.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The son of a legend: Navy Cross, Two Silver Stars, Bronze Star and three Purple hearts even though everything is still attached. You have saved almost every guy at the BBQ today from something or the other. When I told one of the instructors in BUDs who my dad was, the look in their eyes was closer to a victim in a horror movie than a hardened warrior. After that they were harder on me than the others, they expected more because,” He said motioning to Malcolm in the passenger seat, “I was the son of Malcolm Daniels, The Wolf. A legend in living flesh. You know one of the teams guys told me that they have a nickname for you among the United Asian Federation troops that roughly translates to ‘The Bringer of Death’. ISIL has a ten million dollar bounty on your head.”
Mal raised his hand as he pressed the garage door.
“Look, my career is closer to being over than anything, I just want you to be somewhere that you feel comfortable and you have people around you that can lift you up when you can’t lift yourself.” Mal said.
David drove out of the Sierra Mesa home that Malcolm and his wife, Lisa owned. With the salaries of a Navy SEAL and a nurse at Navy Medical Center Balboa, there’s no way that they could afford a house closer to Coronado. The drive was only twenty minutes for Malcolm and about twelve for Lisa though so they were getting by really well. Malcolm loved San Diego with everything in his heart though, this place was everything he ever wanted. When he wanted to be in the cold, he could drive to Big Bear Mountain. When he wanted to surf, he could just walk out of his office onto Coronado beach.
The Mexican food is great too.
“You think we are going to have to operate in Australia if UAF move in, again?” David asked.
“I don’t know,” Mal said, “I do know that as a member of SEAL Team Three that won’t be your problem. It will be mine.”
SEAL team three mostly operates in Africa these days while Malcolm’s Team seven is a worldwide operations unit, it was made in 1987 after SEAL team six became DEVGRU. The administration decided that having just one go to team for the Joint Special Operations command to count on wasn’t good enough, that they needed more. They needed one on each coast. Seven had fought everything from Mexican Cartels who helped terrorists to the United Asian Federation.
“You know with t
he UAF having China, United Korea, the Phillipines and others, I worry they may make the move on Japan more than anything, if they do that? That’s World War Three eventually.” Mal said.
“How would you fight off an attack on the Japanese homeland?”
Mal shrugged, knowing there wasn’t one true answer for every situation.
“Every insurgency we fight has one fundamental truth,” Mal said, “Since the US won’t condone an all-out fight, we have to use our assets on the ground to make it too hard, too painful, too bloody or even too expensive for them to stay and I don’t expect that to change. The days of wars being fought out in the open are over, they are fought between factions that are backed by two different super-powers now. Proxy wars are the only way to get business done right now but, if they move on Japan: a country that we help to defend and is our most trustworthy ally in the region, I think we may have a chance at changing that protocol.”
“Not with the way Congress is working right now,” David said, “The partisanship is a problem.”
“I don’t think that’s going to change,” Mal said, “I had this solid snake looking mother fucker I worked with out here years ago. When we were in Afghanistan, him and this other Chief, Gallagher: they were the most annoying people in the history of any deployment, enemies included. Acting like they were members of a new crusade against an Islamic boogey-man but the reality is, they were just being dicks to some people born in a desert constantly torn by war.”
“That’s the other thing, people keep saying you make friends everywhere you go. As a person who literally murders people for a living how does that work?”
“You need to realize that most people in combat zones are just trying to live, they just want to be respected. If you respect them, they will respect you back most of the time and that respect leads to becoming an ally usually.”
“Follow the golden rule?”
“Kind of, it’s hard to explain why it’s important without context so let me use some for something that isn’t classified anymore: When we got Bin Laden, it wasn’t because of just our intelligence assets. Kurdish troops who someone made friends with visited Pakistan, they met someone else and then saw someone that looked like UBL. The next morning someone had an email in their classified server of them holding a newspaper and the UBL looking man in the background. They passed it on to the CIA and just thanked them for thinking of them, trusting them with that information instead of just using it themselves.”
“Did they shit themselves?”
“They didn’t think it was him, it was a tall bearded man in the middle east,” Mal said, “There’s like ten of them in every village.”
They both chuckled at the hilarity of the comment.
“Where do you think they will send me first?”
“If I had to guess,” Mal said as they pulled up to the gate at Coronado Naval Special Warfare base, “I would say probably Libya.”
“Why Libya?”
“Years ago before the UAF was founded and connected, the Chinese government started programs to upgrade their trade routes which seemed pretty benign at the time. They partnered with countries and those countries in return allowed Chinese goods and services to be easily passed through customs. Hell, the US had a partnership like this with them as part of our trade deal with…you know who?”
“Orange guy?”
“He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, after the prosecution I have just decided to let the guy rot but besides the point, pro-chinese groups popped up in a lot of these countries. With high level weapons, money, connections and influence, started turning countries.That’s how the UAF was founded and spread. Libya had one of those deals but the influence that China has…doesn’t really matter to many African dictatorships. I hate to side with a murderous thug like Ducame but we can’t allow them to get a foothold in Africa. If they get a foothold in Northern Africa like they want, they will spread their spec-ops teams there and shoot them across into the Middle-east. The resources there are mostly untouched and then the world’s largest standing fighting force will have even more power, they could hold a gun to the head of the UN and they would have to curtail to all of their desires which I do believe is eventual domination.”
“Well, that’s dark,” David said, “but probably correct. Let’s just try to enjoy ourselves okay?”
Mal nodded as he got out of the car. Board shorts, a t-shirt, baseball cap and Sandals was Malcolm’s off-duty uniform most of the time. He wasn’t going to be dressed up for a barbecue even if it was technically at work.
“Senior,” Petty Officer Dominguez said while reaching out his hand.
Ricardo Dominguez was a new member of Seven, he was a medical specialist who had been to 18-Delta, the twelve month medic training course. Being about 26, he was pretty fresh faced for such a high echelon unit. Malcolm stared at his hand and grabbed it.
“Ricardo, we aren’t at work, you don’t need to call me Senior,” Malcolm said, “My name is Malcolm, Mal or for him…Dad.”
Dominguez nodded and walked towards the BBQ.
Present Day
“That was one of the last good days of my whole family, it’s a good memory.”
Tye had a complicated smile spread across his face.
“What are we going to do now?” Tye asked.
“Wait,” Mal said, “they can’t get their armor through the wall. As long as the wall is up, they won’t be able to get their forces through.”
“Are we just going to glaze over the fact that this guy just broke through reinforced zip-ties?” The driver said.
Mal chuckled.
“Oh, that is just adorable…” Mal said.
“There is an amassing force about twelve miles south of the wall, near Amico bridge, Mal.”
“How many?”
“A lot.”
“How many is a lot to you Tye?” Mal asked.
“Over a thousand.”
The silence was deafening.
“We are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned…What does Command say?”
“Reinforcements won’t be here for a week,” Tye said, “Armor won’t be able to be here before then.”
That’s great news, Mal thought sarcastically.
Mal went to his radio and pulled it out of his waistband, fidgeting with the radio dial.
“What are you doing?” Tye asked.
“Just calling a legend,” Mal said.
“Calling yourself?”
“No, like something I am not 100 percent sure is real.”
“Well, share.”
“I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up,” Mal said.
Mal turned around and spoke softly into the radio, so quietly that the driver and Tye were straining to hear the words but could only catch a few words.
“What’s the Black Knight?” Tye asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Mal said.
“I feel like there’s a lot going on that you aren’t telling me, Mal.”
There was a lot going on he wasn’t being told but it wasn’t because he didn’t trust him.
We need to focus on real solutions and not rely on a fairy tale.
Unknown Location
“Sire, we have received a call for aid from an old ally in America,” Said the uniformed officer.
“And? It’s blocked off the UN is waiting for them to resolve their dispute.”
“Sire, you told me that if the descendant of Prince Eric of Wales, the Black Knight, ever called for Aid. We were to inform you immediately.”
The red and gray haired man turned in his chair, as if this changed their whole scenario.
“I want SAS and SBS teams to drop on that location, as soon as humanly possible. I want the Royal Navy to have a Destroyer close enough for close fire support, immediately. I want the RAF prepared with options for bombardment on my enemy.”
“He’s an enemy?”
“No, but if he has an enemy, I have an enemy.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The
quiet
War, war never Changes. It’s tools change, sure but it’s inherit cruelty? Never changes.
“What’s the plan here?” Asked Tye as Jace and him sat around the Mt. Vernon command and control center.
Mal was in a weird spot here, however they planned on getting through the wall it would be very difficult for him to know where the entrance would be. Assuming that they think Dianna is local, they will have to come through here. That doesn’t give them many options or much when it comes to stopping them from entering.
“We should treat everything a mile out as part of our border,” Mal said.
“Yeah we absolutely, can’t do that,” Tye said, “That’s a violation of the code of the treaty Mal.”
“I think everything the Sons have done is a violation of the treaty, Tye,” Jace said, “the biggest challenge we are going to have is getting more than just the standard every quarter mile post above the wall.”
Mal smirked.
“I already got that and it’s on it’s way,” Mal said, “theres an old 3D printer that made the wall that was put at the National guard station in Evansville. I would bet we have a day or two, we can get those set up before we have to fight the battle of Helmsdeep here.”
Mal stared back at a set of empty faces in response to the Lord of the Rings reference he just made.
“The Battle of Helms deep was fought in a valley where they could only be hit from one side,” Dianna said as she walked behind Mal, “unfortunately, I don’t think Gandalf is coming to save us, Malcolm.”
Mal smirked back at her. Another person looking to Mal for protection, another person for him to fail.
“Madame President, you need to get back to the bunker, you could be seen up here or worse they could shell this building.”
She raised her hand and every single person in the room stopped talking, Malcolm included.
“I won’t hide from evil anymore Malcolm, you can’t ask me or tell me to. If we’re going to fight, we have to have a way to win.”
Now that’s leadership, I have never seen a person who can just walk in a room and everyone inherently listens.
Monsters Page 23
