The Peacekeepers. Books 1 - 3.

by Ricky Sides

  “You’re doing right well Pete,” Robert said leaning back in his bed having finished the soup. “She said she learned that from Jim,” Robert said smiling weakly. “So what you taught her saved us both.”

  “But the man whom Lina had killed was the brother of a powerful convict turned slaver. He sent a team after Lina and Robert. For a week, they evaded that team, staying just ahead of them as they struggled to cross some rough territory in the dead of winter on foot. They ate what little food they could scavenge which was scarce little. Finally, they came to a small town and Robert took her to a hospital, only to find it abandoned. He found some supplies and treated the stab wound in her leg as best he could. But before they could leave, the slavers came into the hospital after them. They had tracked them down with a scent dog.”

  “They managed to escape by crawling out a first floor window and diving into a river that ran past the hospital,” Pete said.

  For the first time, Robert interrupted, saying, “If I said river, I was wrong. It was a fair sized creek though, and icy cold.”

  Nodding at the correction Pete resumed his narrative saying, “They floated downstream, but in the distance they could hear men shouting, so they stayed in the cold water as long as they dared before coming ashore. They climbed the steep incline and found a small cave, which they used for shelter. It was growing dark outside by this time. The men following them probably stayed in the town that night while Robert and Lina tried their best to stay warm inside the cave. In the pitch blackness of full dark Robert ventured outside to gather some leaves to cover Lina and himself in an effort to keep them warm,” Pete said pausing when he noted that Robert wanted to interject a comment.

  “It was the coldest night I ever spent. Poor Lina kept me alive by agreeing to share her body heat. Can you imagine that? That girl was willing to suffer my touch to keep me alive. I was amazed,” Robert said and he sounded genuinely surprised.

  “You’re something else, Robert, do you know that?” Maggie asked, and then she said, “No I don’t suppose you do.”

  Grinning at Robert, Pete continued, “Just before sunrise the next morning the pair climbed up the hillside and about twenty minutes later they located a dirt road. A few minutes afterward, they came to an abandoned cabin. Inside the cabin, they found a couple of cans of food, which they ate cold. They found some clothing hanging in the closet and both managed to change, but in the distance they could hear a dog baying and they knew they had to leave.”

  “Traveling along the dirt road, they soon came to an old car that someone had parked there. It may have belonged to the slavers because it started easily enough when Robert noticed the keys were in the ignition. He decided to try it despite the odds that it had been abandoned for so long that the battery would almost certainly be dead.” Pete said.

  “Now that was probably one of the happiest moments of my life,” Robert said, smiling in pleasure that the memory brought him. “Lina was so happy that we had transportation and we could finally get warm,” Robert said and then he stopped talking and seemed lost in the pleasant memory.

  Pete continued, “They drove the car back down the road heading east. Soon they heard shouting and someone shot at them. Robert was driving and he thought they’d made it past the firing without injury, but then Lina slumped against him.”

  “That’s when she took the shoulder wound,” Robert said angrily.

  “They drove the back roads trying to find the way to a major highway but twice the slavers cut them off and chased them until Robert was able to lose them. He managed to get Lina alert enough to hold pressure on the wound until he could get to a place where they could conceal the car and he could try to bandage the gunshot wound,” Pete explained.

  “The exit wound was the worst,” Robert noted.

  “That’s generally the case,” Maggie observed.

  “He tried to restart the car once the wound was bandaged, but the car refused to start so they would have to walk again. But Lina was in no condition to walk. Robert decided that since he had hidden the car so well, they could risk staying there until dark. He got Lina in the back seat and covered her with an old coat that they found in the car. While Lina rested there, he checked the trunk hoping to find something to feed Lina but he found nothing except bottled water. He got her to sip the water off and on throughout the day. When darkness fell, he got her on her feet. Two hours later, they came across another abandoned car. This one wouldn’t crank but it had a sweatshirt tossed in the back seat. Lina pulled off her blood soaked shirt and put on the sweatshirt. Robert took that bloody shirt with him when they left and threw it out into a stream that they encountered later.”

  “To keep the dogs from finding the shirt and picking up our trail,” Robert explained.

  “Later that night they made it out to a main road and a short time later they came to a truck stop. It took some doing, but soon Robert filled the tank of one of the abandoned trucks and he got it started,” Pete said.

  “No engine ever sounded sweeter to my ears,” Robert stated with feeling.

  “But as they were leaving the truck stop, the slavers caught up with them,” Pete elaborated.

  “They always find us,” Robert said with resignation.

  “They tried to run for it anyway, but the men in the car tried to force them off the road. Robert here showed them that when a car tries to bully a big rig, the car is at a disadvantage,” Pete said smiling. “He ran them off the road instead.”

  For the first time Robert laughed and he explained, “A car trying to force a trucker in his rig off the road is like a man taking his fists to a gunfight. No real competition.”

  “There was no food at the truck stop?” asked Lacey.

  “Long ago gone from the looks of the place Ma’am,” Robert replied.

  “After that, they drove for several hours and Robert decided to stop at a city that seemed to be inhabited. He found a hospital in that city, and he was attempting to get Lina inside when the slavers caught up with them again. They had managed to keep from totaling their car when Robert forced them off the road. One of them jumped out and swung a baseball bat at Lina. They were trying to take her alive, probably under orders from their boss. The attacker broke her arm when Lina tried to block the strike. Robert gutted him with the knife Lina had taken from the other slaver, and then he acted as if he was reaching for a gun behind his back. The two in the car took off,” Pete explained.

  Robert nodded and said, “He was the second man I’d killed. But I’m not sorry. He hurt Lina bad.”

  “By now Robert thinks the town is not safe so they get back in the truck and head back out on the road. The truck broke down the next morning and they had to walk ten miles to another truck stop. There he found another truck but still no food. That truck got them to Athens, but he is worried that the slavers will come here seeking them,” Pete finished the narration and Jim looked toward Robert who had fallen asleep.

  Maggie motioned for them all to leave the room and they did so quietly. They walked a distance down the hall and Jim consulted with Pete saying, “There may be some merit to their fears that the slavers will come here for them but I doubt it. None-the-less, would you please increase the guard and assign men to stand guard outside their doors. No one that the guards don’t know gets in without one of us.”

  “I already doubled the guards but I’ll get more men to guard the doors,” Pete said. “If nothing else, just knowing that they are guarded may help them rest easier.”

  Jim was about to say something else when the alarm sounded that indicated the breaching of their perimeter.

  Chapter 7

  Pete ran to the communications room and spoke to the man on duty who informed him that the guards had sounded the alarm. They had found a breach in one of the fences that surrounded the base. Someone had cut the wire. There were definitely intruders on the base grounds. Pete ordered the standard response and in addition, he wanted five men summoned for special duty inside the infirmary.


  Walking back to join Jim and the two women Pete grabbed a pair of sergeants who were trotting past on their way to guard the entrance to the bunker. “I want you two men to wait inside the hallway in the infirmary section. The intruders are probably here to attempt to kill or kidnap two of the patients in the infirmary. Five men will join you shortly. No one and I mean no one that you do not know is to get past you. Hold them at gunpoint if you have to, but no one enters the patient’s rooms. Understood?” Pete asked.

  “Yes, sir!” both sergeants responded and then ran back to the infirmary.

  “Let’s go, Pete. I need to get to the ship,” Jim explained.

  “You go ahead without me. I have to make certain the base defenses respond properly. This is the first live test of the system we’ve ever experienced. There are bound to be foul-ups,” Pete explained.

  “Maggie and Lacey you wait here in the command bunker. Lina will probably wake up with the alarm sounding and so will Robert. If you’d let them know the precautions we’re taking that might ease their minds,” Jim suggested.

  “Yes of course. The last thing either of them need right now is an anxiety attack,” Maggie responded.

  “You be careful out there, Jim,” Lacey said and she hurriedly kissed him as he turned to go.

  “That goes for you too, Pete,” Maggie said as she kissed her husband.

  Both men left the command bunker at the same time. Jim ran toward the Peacekeeper, but Pete stayed to see that the large detachment of peacekeepers arriving to guard the bunker understood what they might be facing. He warned them not to let anyone past them to enter the bunker without ensuring that they knew them.

  Jim ran inside the ship and a guard closed the door behind him. Tim was at the helm and he had the ship rising before Jim even reached his chair. “What are we looking for?” Tim asked.

  “There are at least one or more intruders inside the base perimeter. They are probably the men responsible for Lina and Robert’s condition. Lina killed a powerful man’s brother when he stabbed her and that man apparently sent a team after them. It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in later. For now take us to two hundred feet and let’s see if we can spot the intruders,” Jim said.

  “Executing search pattern Alpha,” Tim responded.

  On the ground below, Jim saw the women and children hurrying into their homes as the men and women without dependant children to attend to emerged to guard the area immediately around the living quarters. Other groups of men went to assume stations near the storage facilities. No important structure was unguarded.

  The late afternoon sun was beginning to fade as the ship began its leisurely flight over the base. “Captain, I see the break in the fence,” Tim reported. There is a vehicle parked behind some foliage not far from the break.”

  “Disable that vehicle but do not destroy it,” Jim ordered Bill who’d automatically taken Pete’s weapons position in his absence.

  “Aye, Captain,” Bill responded. He requested that the ship shift position just a bit to give him an unobstructed view of the vehicle. A moment later, the forward laser lanced out and struck the engine compartment boring a hole through the hood and into the engine beneath. Bill released the firing button a fraction of a second before discharging the red pulse. That pulse would have caused an explosion, which might have destroyed the vehicle.

  “Good shot,” complimented Tim. Bill smiled his appreciation.

  “Resume the search if you please,” Jim requested.

  Tim brought the ship back over the fence and resumed his search pattern. On the ground below, they could see several ground teams doing searches of their own. Bill spotted the problem first and asked Tim to stop and hover in position. “There on the ground by the little line of plant growth. Isn’t that a man in denim?” asked Bill. It was hard for him to be certain because the man had placed some weeds on top of his body.

  Jim stood up and approached the windshield of the ship in order to get a better view. He also saw that one of the patrols was drawing into firing alignment with the concealed man below. To the right of that man, much better concealed, was another man. Jim detected him easily now that he knew the concealment techniques that the intruders were utilizing. Signaling Patricia to switch on the external speaker he warned, “You two men concealed below us surrender at once. Lay down your weapons and stand up.”

  The patrol of peacekeepers that had been approaching the danger zone immediately recognized the danger and began to circle around the area to approach from another direction. The two concealed men rolled over onto their backs and stared up at the ship hovering silently near them. One of the men fired at the ship in an attempt to drive them away. “Shall I return fire, sir?” asked Bill.

  “I need him alive, Bill, but I can’t let him continue to be a threat to the ground personnel. Take out his left leg,” ordered Jim. “That should take the fight out of him.”

  A moment later, the man on the ground firing at the ship saw a flash as the laser fired for a millisecond. He thought that the laser had missed, but then he felt the pain begin. He dropped his weapon and began to scream in fear and pain. The man beside him stared in horror at what had happened to the wounded man. He dropped his rifle as he jumped up to try to escape. He was almost to the fence when one of the peacekeepers on the ground ran him down and tackled him. A moment later two more burly peacekeepers arrived and they took charge of the struggling man. Three other peacekeepers arrived at the scene where the other man had lost his left leg. In the distance, Jim could see another squad approaching. A moment later, this squad was close enough for him to recognize Pete and he watched as Pete stopped this squad and pointed to the break in the fence issuing orders. Using the external speaker which was still activated Jim said, “Pete, there is a vehicle outside the fence hidden off the road in some foliage. It might be a good idea to check that out as well.”

  Pete gave Jim a thumb up signal and issued further orders to the men on the ground. The squad rushed to the break in the fence and soon surrounded the still smoking vehicle. They signaled the all clear and proceeded to search the automobile.

  “Land to let me out please, and then continue the search just in case there are others, but I have reason to believe that there were only two intruders,” Jim said.

  “Take some of the security men with you,” Bill warned and then grinning he said, “You know what Pete will say if you exit alone.”

  Groaning, Jim asked, “You too, Bill?”

  “He’s right, Captain,” Lieutenant Wilcox said from behind Jim.

  As he turned toward the security officer Jim saw two of Lieutenant Wilcox’s strike force members standing ready to accompany him. Grinning Jim said, “Thank you for your attention to duty gentlemen. I hope that one of you has a morphine ampoule.”

  “I do, sir,” said one of the men behind Lieutenant Wilcox.

  “We’re down,” Tim announced and then he turned to Jim and said, “You be careful out there.”

  “Thank you and you be careful if you locate more of the intruders. Don’t take any unnecessary risks. If they resist, just kill them. We have two prisoners to interrogate,” Jim said with a serious tone of voice and then he exited the ship.

  When he arrived beside the prisoner with the amputated leg, Jim found Pete there interrogating the man who was still in so much pain that he was incoherent. Turning to the man who’d said he had the morphine he extended his hand to receive the ampoule. “This will help him to deal with the pain,” he said to Pete who nodded and Jim administered the pain-relieving drug.

  “Now let’s try this again. Who sent you after Lina and Robert?” Pete asked

  “If I tell you will you let me go?” asked the wounded man.

  Shaking his head Pete said, “No son, there’s no way that you are going to get out of this mess alive. But there are easy ways and hard ways to die. You get to choose which death you get. That’s more than you ever gave any of your victims I’d wager.”

  “What could you
do to me that would be worse than this?” asked the man gesturing at his amputated leg.

  “I could get in the ship and shoot your fingers off one by one. Then I could take your hands, your toes, the foot, and ankle, eventually getting to a vital organ. Or I could just tie you up near a big old ant bed I know of near here,” Pete explained.

  “Are you that hard mister?” The man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties asked.

  “Only when I have to be, son, I don’t like torture. It seems to me that a man who stoops to it destroys a bit of himself along with the man he is torturing. But to save my people’s lives? Yes, son, I’d do it in a minute with absolutely no regrets and I’d sleep well after the fact, because I’d know that what I was man enough to do saved some of my people,” Pete said.

  The young man swallowed hard and then he made his decision. The intruder felt a peace come over him that he hadn’t experienced since he was a small boy. “I believe you mister, so I’ll tell you what you want to know, but one thing first. A request,” he said with a pleading expression in his eyes.

  “I’m listening,” Pete said softly.

  “When it comes time for you to do it, just don’t tell me and don’t make me see it coming,” the man requested.

  “Sure son. I can promise you that much,” Pete promised easily.