Code-5 (Adventures of a Baby Boomer Book 1)
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They exited the building the same way they had come in. As instructed, Julie activated the destruct switch and pitched the canister back into the empty exercise room. They made it to their car and within minutes, were heading back to the Microtel. Dr. Goodman was peppering his son with questions but only begun to understand the magnitude of what was going on when Tom explained that Dr. Merrill and SAM were the reason they were there.
“They told me that you and Julie were being held prisoner and would torture and kill both of you if I didn’t show them how to use the Computerized Behavioral Modification software,” Don blurted out.
“Well we are not being held prisoners and SAM has plans for us to get the heck out of Dodge as soon as we can,” Tom explained.
Once at the motel they quickly change into their traveling clothes and headed back out into the night.
“Where are we going,” Don asked?
“There’s a private airstrip about 60 miles from here where a plane is waiting that we can use to fly to Kuwait,” Tom said as he tried to fill in more details of what they were doing.
“As soon as they figure out that you are missing, I think things are going to get a little dicey,” Tom added “so we need to get to that airstrip as soon as possible.”
Everything seemed to be proceeding without a hitch when SAM broke in, “Our drone has spotted a road block about two miles ahead and there are no alternate roads that will bypass this blockade.”
The geography of the area they were in would be difficult for a four wheel drive vehicle to negotiate and was no match for their Mini Cooper but they had no choice.
“We’ve got to try to find some way to get around them before it gets light,” SAM was saying.
Tom pulled over to the shoulder of the highway and headed off cross-country. Their progress was slow but Tom was able to negotiate another five miles when their luck ran out. In the dark Tom didn’t see the irrigation ditch as the Mini Cooper dropped nose first into the trench.
“SAM is telling me we have another six miles to go to get to the airstrip; we’re going to have to walk it,” Tom said as they bailed out of the car.
They followed the irrigation ditch which made for easier walking and gave them cover as they could stay low and out of view from prying eyes. This worked OK for a couple of hours but the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon when they heard a metallic clanking sound and it was very close. Tom motioned for everyone to stop as he raised up to take a look over the side of the ditch. To his surprise he was looking directly into the eyes of a young girl who appeared to be herding a bunch of sheep. She yelled out and immediately turned and ran in the opposite direction.
“Shoot her,” SAM said in a calm voice.
Tom thought for a few seconds then said, “I can’t do it,” and dropped back into the ditch.
“This is not good,” Tom said as he urged his group to double time it down the ditch. It was exhausting trying to run while bent over to keep your head below the rim of the ditch. They held this pace up for another thirty minutes when they heard the distinct sound of a truck, in fact it sounded like a lot of trucks. When Tom peeked over the side the ditch he could see what looked like dozens of military personnel pouring out of the trucks and heading directly toward him. They would over run his position in minutes.
“SAM we’ve got a problem,” Tom whispered.
“We had to pull the drone off your surveillance and I just now received the feed from a satellite over your area,” SAM replied. “You’ve got to hold them off for a little while; I have an idea.”
“What do you mean, hold them off, there must be two hundred guys dressed in black pajamas coming this way,” Tom yelled.
“What’s going on?” Don interjected as he listened to the one-sided conversation his son was having.
“You guys have got to keep going,” Tom said. “I’m going to stay here for a little while, SAM has some sort of plan in progress and that’s about all I know. Do whatever she says and don’t stop no matter what you hear.”
Julie was about to protest when Tom heard SAM give her instruction in a most urgent manner. Their eyes met for a quick moment then she and Don started running in a crouched position down the ditch.
Tom dropped down on one knee and swung the backpack around so he could remove the large clip of ammunition for his Colt. He removed the handgun from his shoulder holster and reinserted the special trigger device and wound the spring tight.
Tom was totally confused when he said, “You want me to shoot at these guys, like that’s going to do any good.”
“You have about eight or nine seconds of automatic fire with the 50 round clip, I wants you to use four second bursts on my command,” SAM said in her usual calm manor.
Tom moved to the edge of the irrigation ditch and raised the pistol so the barrel was a few inches above the bank. Just as he was raising up see what was happening, SAM said, “Now”.
Tom instinctively pulled the trigger and counted, one-thousand one, one-thousand two, one-thousand three and one-thousand four, as the Colt rattled off about twenty rounds of .45 caliber ammunition.
The on rushing fighters instinctively dropped to the ground. Other members returned fire but it was wild and ineffective because they didn’t know exactly where Tom was; all they knew was that someone had a machine gun. Tom could hear men shouting in Arabic but had no idea what they were saying but he had seen the ISIS flag.
He was just about to say, “What’s happening,” when SAM said “Now”.
Once again Tom aimed at the mass of black pajamas and pulled the trigger for four long seconds.
Julie and Don heard the gun fire and both their hearts sank at the thought of Tom being overrun by hundreds of armed terrorists.
This time SAM’s response was quick, “I want you to lie flat in the ditch and as close to the bank as you can get, cover your head and don’t move.”
Tom reacted immediately to her instructions and was lying flat on his stomach wondering what was about to happen when he thought he heard the sound of a jet engine followed by a huge single boom. What he didn’t know was that an F-22 Raptor had taken off from Kuwait and had flown at super-sonic speeds directly over his location and deployed an anti-personnel cluster bomb. This is a special bomb that when released, drops to a specific altitude, breaks open and scatters hundreds of smaller grenade like explosives over an area that would cover two football fields. When these grenades are twenty feet above the ground they explode in unison spreading a killing field of shrapnel, annihilating anyone within a fifty foot radius of each grenade.
Tom felt the shrapnel hitting the far side of the ditch and was choking from the dust when he heard SAM’s voice, “It’s over, you are clear to catch up with Julie and your dad.”
Without hesitation Tom took off at full speed toward his final destination.
The last two hundred yards were across an open field where he saw three people standing by a Cessna 182. It was Jhameel the baker, his dad and Julie. A couple of months earlier Jhameel had started taking flying lessons in this Cessna and had it reserved for this particular day. Some of the security personnel at this airstrip that were watching the plane sensed that something was wrong and were running toward it as well. Tom climbed in the pilot’s seat while Don and Julie scrambled in behind him. Julie handed everyone in the plane a set of earplugs then looked at Jhameel and said, “I’m sorry” as she switched on the last canister and pitched it out the window.
Everyone within a 100 yards was overcome with extreme vertigo as Tom pushed the throttle up and turned onto the runway. For the next couple of hours Tom and Julie were peppered with questions from his dad. “How in the world did you find me? They told me you were being held hostage and if I didn’t do exactly as they demanded they would kill you… The questions went on and on until Tom finally said “Stop… we’ve got all the time in the world to tell you about our incredible adventure but for now let’s just relax and let our nerves settle down; b
y the way I think I have a cure for your acid reflux problem,” he added.
“How did you know I have an acid reflux problem?” his father questioned.
“It’s a long story and I’m so glad we are on the backside of it now,” Tom said almost laughing.
SAM instructed Tom to maintain an altitude of 200 feet above the ground as she guided him directly to a military base in Kuwait. For safety reasons SAM was telling Tom to fly low so they could avoid any radar detection. She also had secured a heavily armed drone which was flying thirty thousand feet above them providing top cover all the way to Kuwait.
It was time for everyone to come home safely.
The End
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Code-5 by Thomas Shaw
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Adventures of a Baby Boomer by Thomas Shaw
These are actual events that happened in my life told in a Short Story format
Growing up in Oklahoma
How I learned to fly
Memories from my DNA
Learning to talk to my subconscious mind
Chappaquiddick... the real story
Atocha… the back story
Taste of Fear
My First Combat Mission
My Secret Mission
Diving in Grand Cayman
My encounter with Illegal Mexicans
My chance meeting with the CIA
My Adventure with Hewlett-Packard
My Motorcycle trip through Mexico
The Trial with two Juries; my Backstory
My first Patent
Are we really made out of Star-Stuff?