by Robert Boren
“This is horrible,” Nathan said.
“Here comes that other boat,” Emily said. “Shit, that’s a US Navy ship!”
Just as the words left her lips, several missiles were fired, all of them hitting the EU ship, blowing the top half of it to pieces, silencing the machine gun fire. A cheer rang out from the multitude, sounding like a huge roar.
“We’d better get out of here,” Emily said.
“Take off that outfit,” Nathan said, pulling off his black shirt.
“I can’t, I don’t have anything on underneath.”
“Look, there’s more of them,” shouted an old man holding an M-16, leading a group of citizens onto the box factory lot. Those were the last words Emily and Nathan heard.
***
Daan looked out his tenth-floor apartment window, at a quiet night in Brussels. He had more work to do. The UN refused to continue pumping men and materiel to the United States without additional funding, and the EU leadership refused to do anything. His cellphone rang. It was the UN Secretary General. He let it go to voicemail, then walked to his bar and poured himself some whiskey. Leverage. He needed leverage. His phone rang again. Dammit. He looked. Saladin. His heart pounded.
“Hello,” he said as he sat on his couch.
“Still in Brussels?” Saladin asked.
“Yeah, but I’ll be coming back soon.”
“Have you seen the news, or talked to any of the team?” Saladin asked.
“Oh, shit, what happened now?”
“We had a really bad day on several fronts,” Saladin said.
“Can’t be much worse than what’s happened here,” Daan said. He drank down his whiskey and went to get another, leaning against his bar. “Let’s have it.”
“We sent a team to take out the CHP headquarters in Sacramento. They were defeated.”
“Dammit. By whom?”
“Ivan’s people in their blasted motor homes and off-roaders, and about sixty CHP officers. Somebody armed them with military weapons. They knew we were coming. Like I suspected, they broke your RFID chips.”
“That remains to be seen. They had to expect we’d try to hit the CHP before they could get rolling. All the leadership was there, and it’s a state-wide organization.”
Saladin chuckled. “So why did you okay that operation, then?”
“Hey, it was your idea, remember?”
Saladin was silent for a moment, his breath quickening on the mouthpiece.
“Sorry,” Daan said. “Don’t get pissed. We both thought it was a good idea.”
“Fine,” Saladin said, an icy tone to his voice. “There’s more.”
“All right, let’s hear it,” Daan said.
“This one should be all over the news, especially there, so I’ll tell you the gist, and you can see the details yourself.”
“Go ahead,” he said.
“The EU ship bringing UN Peacekeepers to Portland was destroyed by a US Navy Aegis Cruiser. All our assets were killed, including the Peacekeepers, the sailors on the vessel, and many of our domestic operatives. Oh, and most of our people in the city leadership were rounded up and shot as well.”
Daan felt faint, gripping the bar. He moved to a stool and sat, leaning his head in his hands.
“You still there?” Saladin asked.
“Yeah.” He poured another drink. “That means we can write off that state.”
“I agree,” Saladin said. “There was also action in Bend and several other of the inland cities. We lost in each location.”
“How?”
“Ivan’s social media operation,” he said.
“Ben Dover,” Daan said. “We need to kill him. Make it a priority.”
“He’s in the middle of territory we no longer control. We’ve lost the top third of the state.”
“Dammit, we also lost LA and Orange Counties. What do we still control?”
“We don’t control any of California,” he said.
“You mean we should leave the state? Is there anywhere that the locals don’t control?”
“They don’t have control of the area from Merced south to about I-15. We still operate there, but it would be an exaggeration to say we controlled it.”
“Crap, there’s nothing there,” Daan said.
“Yes, there is. Much of their best agriculture is there, also their oil fields.”
“Yeah, whatever,” he said.
“The agriculture is more important than you think,” Saladin said. “Remember that the lines of trade aren’t in place now.”
“Except for that little body of water called the Pacific Ocean,” Daan said.
“The EU Navy is still strong off the coast.”
“And yet we allowed a US Navy ship to cruise right in and destroy one of our boats,” Daan said. “The parts of Southern California other than LA and Orange Counties are still in contention, are they not?”
“We are still active and powerful enough in those areas to keep working, but we must get that southern route opened back up. I-8 and the others. Everything depends on it.”
“On that we agree,” Daan said. “Is your caravan still proceeding south?”
“Yes, but I have them well spaced out, so they’ll attract as little attention as possible. We’re still hitting at Ivan’s people down there. They think they have a safe place, but we attacked them there a few days ago. If we can force them to get on the move again, we’ll start to pick them off.”
“Those forces that caused us so many problems up north are still around,” Daan said. “What if they come south too?”
“We should try to slip people north to take it back over. I could bring a lot of people in through Nevada.”
“Won’t that hurt your campaign against General Hogan?”
“Temporarily,” Saladin said, “but I no longer consider that as important as I did before.”
“Why not?”
“Like I was saying, they cracked your RFID chips. That makes Frank Johnson a less important target than before.”
“I still want him,” Daan said. “I’ll roast him alive, but I’m not ready to accept that he’s broken the RFID encryption. If he’s done that, we’d lose all our assets in Washington DC. You know that, right? If those people are safe, we can assume that the RFID encryption is still protecting us.”
“Is it possible that they only broke part of the system?” Saladin asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Is it possible they can track location but not have access to the data payload?” Saladin asked.
“Oh. Possible but unlikely. The encryption of the device is just as rigorous as the encryption of the data payload.”
“You don’t sound convinced by your own statement,” Saladin said.
“It’s been a long day, and it’s not over yet. Now I know why the UN Secretary General just tried to call me.”
“He tried to call you? Just now? I didn’t hear any beeps.”
“No, before you called,” Daan said. “I didn’t want to talk to him. Now I don’t have a choice.”
“What happened back there?”
“The UN leadership dug in their heels on increased funding to stay in the fight, and the EU leadership refused to cough up more money.”
Saladin laughed. “So, work it harder. You know how that goes.”
“After what just happened, my job is even harder than before.”
“Mine too, my friend, but we have to roll with the punches,” Saladin said.
“All right,” Daan said. “Anything else?”
“Fortunately, no,” Saladin said. “Talk to you soon.” He ended the call. Daan grabbed the bottle of whiskey and his glass, and headed for the couch. He hit the Secretary General’s contact.
***
Seth and Kaitlyn sat at a table against the wall in the Dodge City Saloon. Most of their friends were up at the bar, having a drink and chatting.
“Go ahead,” Kaitlyn said.
“What?”
“Y
ou brought the laptop for a reason. Plug it in and get it warmed up. Then you can monitor your new program while we’re here.”
“Okay,” he said. “You can go hang with Megan and the others while I check, and I’ll be along.”
“I’m with the person I want to be with right now,” she said, putting her hand on his arm. “Trust me. I’m interested in what your program is showing too, so fire it up. I’ll go get you a beer if you want.”
“Sure, that’d be great, as long as I just have one.”
“Nobody’s drinking a lot,” Kaitlyn said as she slid out of her seat. “Be right back.”
Seth put his laptop on the table and set it up, plugging it into a wall outlet next to him. After it was running, he took out his phone and activated the personal hot spot. The laptop connected, and Seth navigated to his server, hitting the report download button. Excel started, and his report populated after a couple minutes. Kaitlyn came back, holding two beers. He took his and had a sip.
“Not bad,” he said.
“Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised,” Kaitlyn said, sitting back down. “Is it still working?”
“Yep,” he said. “I downloaded a report into Excel. You could probably help with this part.”
“Let’s see,” she said, watching as he turned the laptop to face her. She studied it for a few minutes. “I see what you’re doing here. I couldn’t have done any better, honestly. Maybe I could automate more of it.”
“You see any quadrants where we’ve had RFID chips disappear?”
She studied it again for a moment, eyes squinting, until she found the right column and understood what it was saying. “Yes, I do see something funny.”
“Shit, really?” Seth asked, getting up and looking over her shoulder.
“Is that what this means?” she asked, moving the cursor over a column.
“I set it up so at least four had to disappear without them being someplace else.”
“What if they just left?”
“It’s looking at a hundred square miles,” Seth said. “Unless they were right on the border of that, they couldn’t move out of range fast enough. He took a closer look. “This one is okay. The text would show up red if the rules applied. These folks were close to the border.”
“Can you move it to make sure?”
“Yeah, but I’ll have to run the report again.”
“Do it,” she said. “I’m interested.”
He nodded. “I’ll show you how, in case we need it run and I’m not around.” He walked her through the procedure, and they ran the report, covering the area nearest to where the missing hits were.
“That’s them, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Looks like it.”
“We don’t have a problem, then?”
“Not yet,” Seth said.
“Why don’t you look at a larger area?”
“It’s harder to analyze.”
“You see, that’s where I can help,” she said. “Let me mess with the reporting for a while. Can you set this to run for, say, a thousand square miles?”
“Sure, but it’ll take a while to run.”
“Dammit, I was due at the cinema in ten minutes,” she said. Seth laughed, and she shot him a smirk. “Let me help you, okay?”
“Okay,” Seth said. “You know how to set the scope. Adjust the settings and run it again.”
“We won’t have history for all of it, though, will we?”
“Nope, but we’ll run it that way and gather the history,” Seth said. “Mind if I watch you? I could use better knowledge of Excel.”
“Be my guest,” she said. He pulled up a chair next to her and watched as she worked.
{3}
Southern Routes
J ules finished backing the battle wagon under the massive cover structure at their base. The other rigs were doing the same, and off-roaders rushed into the big quarry’s equipment lot like a swarm of hornets.
Shelly looked over at him, eyes sleepy. “We don’t have a bunch of stuff to do, I hope? I’m so tired.”
“Me too,” Jules said as he shut down the engine. “I go do hook up. Get into bed, I’ll join soon.”
“Okay, honey,” she said, getting out of the passenger seat and walking to the back of the rig.
Jules went out to hook up the power and water. Tex was doing the same on his rig in the next space.
“Hey, partner, you been listening to the news?”
“No, Tex, what I miss?” He opened his utility compartment.
“Portland. The EU Navy ship steamed up there, ready to unload sixty thousand UN Peacekeepers. There was a huge battle, with a couple hundred thousand patriots flooding the dock area.”
“Oh, really?” Jules asked. He pulled out his power cable and plugged it into the mast, then flipped on the breaker. “Sounds like somebody was on social media.”
“Probably,” Tex said, pausing to connect his water. “It gets better. A US Navy ship was following it, and just as the EU ship was starting to use its weapons on the citizens, it got hit with three missiles. Blew up the ship and killed all the UN Peacekeepers.”
“Gee, that too bad,” Jules said, shooting Tex a wicked grin. “Bet Daan isn’t happy right now.”
“Of course, the news media is portraying this whole thing as a frigging tragedy, but bottom line is that the enemy has lost Oregon.”
“That battle only, not war,” Jules said.
Tex chuckled. “The citizens went on a rampage. They rounded up all of the crooked political hacks who put martial law in and shot them.”
Jules froze. “Shot them? Maybe we do win there, then.”
“The radio announcer was expressing hope that the EU or the UN will come in and install order.”
“Yeah, we know what kind of order they talk, no?”
“Exactly,” Tex said. “If this event didn’t cause so much loss of life, they wouldn’t have covered it, partner.”
“They cover CHP hit?”
Tex laughed. “Nope. Thanks for making my point.”
Both men cracked up. Ted walked over with Sparky.
“You guys talking about the Portland thing?” Ted asked.
“Yes, Tex just fill me in,” Jules said.
“The worm has turned there,” Sparky said. “Hopefully Seattle will be next.”
“Bigger nut to crack,” Jules said.
Robbie came over. “You guys talking about what happened up north?”
“Yes,” Jules said. “You hear?”
“I had the radio on, caught the gist,” Robbie said. “No need to go back over it, unless you have some inside info.”
“Nope,” Jules said.
“Something’s on your mind, partner,” Tex said.
“We got back a little before you guys did,” Robbie said. “I’ve been back on that new high-res app. I think we’re gonna get a flow of enemy fighters coming in from Nevada.”
“Where do you see?” Jules asked.
“There’s a well spread-out group coming from the Salt Lake City area, along I-80,” Robbie said. “They weren’t there before we left.”
“Wonder if they want to take Oregon back?” Sparky asked.
“No way,” Ted said. “If they were going to Oregon, they’d be going up I-84.”
“There aren’t enough people in Oregon for them to make that kind of move,” Robbie said. “Not after we’ve whacked them so bad in the northern half of California.”
“He smart,” Jules said. “They lost top third of California, along with LA and Orange counties in south. They do two things. Send big forces south to open I-8, and try to take back Sacramento and Bay Area. They must do fast, too, or they have no chance.”
“What about the battle with General Hogan?” Sparky asked.
“General Hogan forces retreat from Utah,” Jules said. “Head for Kansas. Ivan told me. Maybe Saladin thinks Hogan is on run.”
Tex took off his cowboy hat and scratched his head. “Something doesn’t add up here. You think the
enemy leadership is starting to lose it?”
“Maybe the enemy leadership figured out what my dad has done, and now killing him isn’t the priority it once was,” Robbie said. “The cat’s already out of the bag.”
“That possible,” Jules said. “Still must defeat General Hogan forces to win war.”
“They already know they’re in trouble,” Ted said. “This could be a Hail-Mary for California. How many troops are on the way, kid?”
“A lot,” Robbie said. “They’ve spaced them out, like I said, but I’m seeing about two hundred thousand.”
“Crap,” Sparky said. “We need to get ready for this.”
“Robbie, keep tracking,” Jules said. “How far closest group?”
“None had passed the Utah border as of a few minutes ago,” he said.
“That’s good and bad,” Ted said.
“What mean?” Jules asked.
“It could mean that there are more than two hundred thousand on the way,” he said. “Some might not have left the huge base in Salt Lake City yet.”
“Assuming no stop-overs to rest, that’s nine hours,” Tex said, looking at his phone.
“It’s actually ten hours,” Robbie said. “Remember the time-zone change.”
“Oh, yeah,” Tex said. “They aren’t gonna drive straight through, though.”
“Don’t be so sure, they probably have more than one driver per vehicle,” Ted said.
“I go call Ivan,” Jules said. “Talk later. Robbie, keep up good work.”
“Hey, partner, where are those Islamists that are headed south?” Tex asked.
Robbie turned back to him as he was walking away. “Settled in for the night. The group who’s made it the furthest is in Warner Springs.”
“Crap, they’re going to link up with the big group in Julian, and go on a rampage,” Tex said.
“Keep eye on that too,” Jules said. “We won’t be able to help as soon as I thought.”
Jules left the others, climbing the steps into his rig.
