by Robert Boren
“Good idea,” she said, standing on her tip toes to kiss him. “I’ll see you in a few minutes. Just mention pancakes to my dad and he’ll be up in a flash.”
Charlie chuckled. “I’ll go get Kurt, Jackson, and the Sheriff moving.”
“Where’s the General and his guys?” Terry asked.
“They bedded down in the lounge and those bedrooms down there,” Charlie said. “Wonder if Saladin survived the night?”
“Good question,” Terry said. “See you in a few minutes.”
***
General Hogan woke up to his iPhone alarm, in one of the bedrooms down the hall from the lounge. He got dressed and came out. His son and the other privates were out there, watching the TV and chatting.
“Anybody check on our guest yet?” the General asked.
“Nope,” Private Jennings said.
“We closed that trap door last night, pop,” Private Brown said. “The smell was bad, and that raspy breathing was getting to me.”
“Well, time to go check on him. Give me a hand with the door.”
“It takes a good tug,” Private Peterson said. All of them got on it and pulled up, the seal breaking. The smell wafted up to them.
“Phew,” Private Brown said. “It smells like death down there.”
The sound of raspy breathing floated up. General Hogan gave the privates a serious look, and then started down the steps. They followed him down, and one of them pulled the chain on the light, giving the dungeon an ominous glow. The raspy breathing got faster inside the cell.
“Still alive, I see,” General Hogan said to Saladin. His eyes opened wide, and he stared at them like the fish stares at the fisherman.
“I can’t believe he’s still kicking,” Private Jennings said.
“Can you hear me?” General Hogan asked.
Saladin nodded, expressionless.
“Can you talk?”
“Water,” he croaked.
“Reach down, there’s a bottle on the floor by the bed,” General Hogan said. “We left the cap off.”
He fumbled around, his hand touching it. He grasped the bottle and struggled to raise it to his lips, pouring, some of the liquid running down his cheeks to the cot.
“Kansas?” he croaked.
“Yes,” General Hogan said.
“How did you find us?”
“Chips,” General Hogan said.
“We fixed that,” he said, his eyes pleading, not understanding.
“Our apps adjust quickly and automatically. You were only invisible for a few minutes.”
He got a scared expression on his face, realizing what that meant.
“It’s over,” General Hogan said. “We got the operatives in Washington, and found the routes from Canada. Also destroyed that nuclear device you had at Capitol Reef.”
He got the hint of a smile on his face.
“Oh, there are others,” General Hogan said. “Where?”
His expression didn’t change.
“Okay, no matter,” General Hogan said. “I’ll let an old friend convince you to talk. He’s got a score to settle with you, so it won’t be pleasant.”
He continued to give them the blank smile.
“One other thing,” General Hogan said. “Our apps get distributed around the world at noon. Everybody will have them, and everybody will be able to see your forces. Citizens, police, armed forces, state militias. Everybody.”
He closed his eyes and tried to roll towards the wall. He got part way and moaned in pain as the burns on his side moved against the rough cloth on the cot.
“C’mon, boys, let’s get upstairs,” General Hogan said. “If anything happens after the release of the apps, I want about five grenades thrown into that cell.”
“Yes sir,” Private Peterson said. The men climbed the stairs, turning out the light, and closing the trap door.
***
At nine, everybody gathered in the clubhouse. Charlie was at the front of the room with General Hogan.
“Everybody done eating?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah,” Kurt said. Others murmured in agreement.
“Those pancakes were a nice surprise,” Jake said, smiling.
“Yes, they were,” General Hogan said.
“Okay, first an update,” Charlie said. “I just heard from Hilda a few minutes ago. Jeb got through his first surgery just fine, and he’s awake now. He has another surgery to go through. That will probably happen tomorrow. Earl is doing well too. He’ll be released from the hospital later today.”
“Great news,” Dobie said.
“Are Rosie, Gabe, and Hilda going to stick around until Jeb’s better?” Terry asked
“We think so,” Charlie said. “I’m worried about them being out of our protection when the apps get released, but there’s not a lot we can do about that now.”
“How about Earl?” Jackson asked. “When’s he coming home?”
“He’ll probably ride home with the others, depending on how things go,” Charlie said. “In some ways I’m glad he’s there. If things get rough there, he’ll be able to help.”
“Yeah, maybe the hospital ought to release him to the roof with a couple of rifles,” Jackson said.
A few people in the crowd chuckled.
“Well, let’s just say that things could be a lot worse there,” Charlie said.
“How’s our guest doing?” Dobie asked.
“Believe it or not, he’s still alive,” General Hogan said. “He’s looking a little too smug. Something is going to happen. I’m thinking that Malcolm and George ought to spend a little quality time with him in his last hours.”
“He’s not going to tell us anything, if that’s what you’re thinking,” George said.
“Probably right,” General Hogan said. “But worth a shot. I doubt he’ll do anything to stop any direct operations of his team, but he might rat on some of the people holding his leash.”
“More on that later. Let’s talk about our immediate issue,” Charlie said. “The apps are going into wide release in under three hours. We know the enemy knows where we are, and they’re going to get desperate. They might lash out at us here.”
“We should get set up so we can beat a hasty retreat to the bunker, right?” Kurt asked.
“I would suggest that,” General Hogan said. “I’d also suggest setting up defenses for a possible ground assault, like somebody mentioned yesterday. Set up that .50 cal and the mortars, or at least have them ready for very quick deployment. I’d keep that set up for the next couple of weeks.”
“I’m okay with that,” George said. “What’s the roof of the barn like?”
“You afraid of heights?” Frank asked.
“Nah,” George said.
“Well, then it’s probably good for setting up that big gun of yours, and there’s an inside ladder that goes all the way up.”
“I saw it when we were in there looking over the tow truck,” George said.
“You know this place isn’t great for making a stand, though, right?” the Sheriff said. “Not enough structure to hide behind.”
“Yes, that’s true, Sheriff,” General Hogan said. “We’ll have to monitor the area around us, using the apps and the satellite imagery. If a good sized group is on the way, we’ll want to high-tail it.”
“The TV still work in here?” Malcolm asked.
“Yeah,” Kurt said. “I checked it out this morning. We ought to have it on for zero hour.”
“I got one set up down in the lounge too, remember,” Jake said. “Not as big as this one, but big enough.”
“Okay, then let’s round things up and bring them downstairs,” Charlie said. “Enough to live down there for a day or two. Bring down things that you don’t want to lose, in case your rigs get destroyed. For sure bring all of your guns and all of your ammo.”
“I’ll need a hand getting the M107 up those stairs to the roof of the barn, I suspect,” George said.
“I’ll help,” Terry said.<
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“Okay, everybody, let’s look sharp!” General Hogan said.
Chapter 13 – Mississippi River Mayhem
Jackson picked up the remote for the TV and clicked it. It came to life, and he switched over to a news channel.
Some were still carrying armfuls of possessions down into the bunker. Jake came in, his tool belt on his waist, holding two spools of wire, walking backwards into the clubhouse, feeding the wires. Then he dropped one of them and kept going with the other. When he got to the TV, he pulled the rest of the wire off the spool and fed it through the hole he’d made into the bunker earlier. When he was done, he took the other spool over to the table where the PC was, and hooked it up to the PC speakers.
“Jake, what the hell are you doing?” Kurt asked, chuckling.
“I forgot about those listening devices that we have. I put them around the place to pick up sounds, like trucks or choppers.”
“Oh, I remember those things,” Terry said. “Isn’t that what got tripped by the deer back at Gabe’s park?”
“Yep,” he said. “We can listen to the output both here and in the bunker. I’ll hook it up down there now.” He headed for the kitchen trap door.
“Those any good?” Jasmine asked.
“Well, it can’t hurt, I guess,” General Hogan said.
“They’re kind of like a cheap hearing aid,” Frank said. “You hear a lot of background noise along with what you need to hear. Still, they might pick up the sound of vehicles. Might give us some early warning.”
“Hey, guys, almost zero hour,” Jackson said, turning up the TV.
“You’ll see an announcement,” General Hogan said. “I told the army to set it up. Should get wider distribution, right off the bat.”
“We aren’t going to swamp the servers, are we?” Kurt asked.
“Nah, I replicated it on about a thousand servers,” Frank said. “After a day or so, I’m going to put out an update. The version that’s out there doesn’t include the name capability, and I haven’t put out the detail view for the PCs yet, either. All in good time.”
“There it is!” Jerry said. Everybody focused on the Breaking News logo.
The anchor came on.
“The U.S. Army has just informed us that a new set of applications for smart phones and tablets have been made available. These applications can read chips that are implanted in enemy soldiers. The first applications will warn you if an enemy is nearby and give you their position. The second app is long range, and will show enemy chips as icons set on a GPS map. These applications are available for free. We suggest that everyone download these applications.”
Frank was at the PC, looking at different locations at a fast clip.
Jane came over to see what he was doing. “What’s up, honey?” she asked
“I’m monitoring downloads,” he said. “Look, it’s taking off.”
Jerry rushed over. “Wow,” he said, looking over Frank’s shoulder now. “Look at it rise!”
“Yep, there she goes,” Frank grinned, pumping both fists high with a thumbs-up.
***
Terry and George were in the barn, getting ready to carry the M107 up the long ladder to the roof. George got an extra belt out of his coach and looped it, putting it around his neck, over one shoulder, the other end hooked on the handle under the gun’s receiver. It wasn’t comfortable, but it freed both of his hands for the ladder. He started up, with Terry following him to steady the gun and take a little weight off. It was a long climb, but they made it. George turned the latch on the trap door, and pushed it up, going up another step in order to push it back far enough for it to fall open against the roof. He hoisted himself up and set the gun down. Terry joined him.
“Wow, excellent visibility,” George said, looking around. There was a light breeze, cooling the heat that was radiating off the hot roofing material.
“Might want to bring sand bags up here,” Terry said.
“Won’t do much good,” George said. “This is almost too tall. I don’t think anybody’s going to hit me from the ground unless they’re really far away.”
Terry looked around. “The only place they might be able to would be over there, where the spring is.”
George squinted as he looked where Terry was pointing.
“Nah, not tall enough,” George said. “Of course, the height that’s protecting me also makes me useless for enemy fighters who are close.”
“Yeah, was thinking that,” Terry said. “We need to have some hunting rifles up here for the close stuff. Somebody laying down on the edge of the roof could be a little more successful close up.”
“It would have to be somebody who isn’t afraid of heights,” George said, chuckling.
“That would be Jackson and me, probably,” Terry said. “And Earl when he gets back into shape.”
“I wouldn’t put too many people up here, because you can’t move around very well.”
George sat down Indian style and looked around some more. Terry sat next to him.
“You know, this park isn’t as difficult to protect as everybody thinks,” George said. “Sure, it’s flat all around, but you can also see things coming a long ways off.”
“I know,” Terry said. “I feel more secure here than I did at Gabe’s place. That was a death trap.”
“Heard about it. Big structure on three sides. It’s easy to use that against people inside. That’s basically what we did at Capitol Reef, and at that first ambush. If either of those places would have been like this, we’d never have gotten close enough.”
“Yeah,” Terry said.
“You ever been in the military?”
“Nah, became a Deputy Sheriff right after Jr. College,” Terry said.
“Really?” George said. “You don’t seem like the type.”
Terry laughed. “I wasn’t. I won’t be going back to that job.”
“You got into it because of your uncle, I suspect,” George said.
“Of course,” he said. “I’ll have to scramble for a new career when this war is over. There’s going to be a kid on the way soon, I reckon.”
“That what you want?” George asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “I wish we could stay here and run this park.”
“Maybe you can,” George said.
“We’ll have to high-tail it out of here after we tell the authorities about the dungeon,” Terry said. “We do have title to the place, though, as a group.”
“Well, you probably only need to worry if the war’s still on. Afterwards, I doubt if you’ll be on anybody’s target list,” George said. “Those apps are the beginning of the end. It won’t take long to finish this thing, once the armed forces purge their ranks.”
“I hope you’re right,” Terry said. “But even if this place was fixed up nice, it’s not on the interstate. It’ll be hard to keep full.”
George laughed. “Think about this,” he said. “You have a built-in tourist attraction under that barn. I’d make sure that it doesn’t get dismantled. You’ll have people flocking to this place, paying to take a look. Get yourself a liquor license and turn that clubhouse into a bar and grill. You’ll have this place turning a profit in no time, at least during the good season.”
Terry thought about it. “Interesting idea.”
“It’s not just the serial killer angle, either,” George said. “You had the leader of the Islamist Army down there. He’s probably going to die down there, and I’m sure you can get those pictures from General Hogan.”
Terry sat quietly for a moment, thinking, looking out at the horizon. Then he turned back towards George. “There is one other thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Those serial killers,” he said. “They’re coming back, aren’t they?”
“Unless they get killed or captured beforehand, I’d count on it,” George said.
“That’s probably enough reason to get the hell out of here,” he said. “I know Trish is scared to death of them.”
George chuckled, then looked him in the eye. “Those guys aren’t going to survive. Trust me.”
***
Howard woke up when the morning sun hit his face. Bailey was still next to him, snoring. He heard something, and felt panic rising in his gut.
“Hey, Howard, somebody’s coming,” Kerry said from the front bunk.
“Yeah, I hear them,” he whispered. “Keep quiet, Kerry.”
“What’s going on?” Bailey asked, sounding groggy.
“Company,” he said. “Keep your head down.”
“Should we wake up Scotty?” Kerry asked.
“He’s probably already awake,” Howard said, as he got up into the driver’s seat, gun in hand. He looked in the rear view mirror and saw a pickup truck coming up the road, slowing. There was an old man driving, and a young woman in the passenger seat. The man was looking the class C rig over. He parked behind the rig and got out, carrying a shot gun with him.
“Stay in the car, Kelsey,” he said gruffly, as he walked up to the driver’s side window. Howard rolled it down.
“This here is private property,” said the old man.
“Oh, it is?” Howard asked. “I’m sorry. We got tired last night, and needed a place to bed down. We’ll be leaving in a few minutes.”
“Where are you guys coming from?” he asked.
“West,” Howard said. “Why?”
“The news said to be on the lookout for a white Class C motor home,” the man said, his fingers tightening on his shotgun.
“We heard,” Howard said. “That ain’t us.”
“Well, maybe not, but I think I’ll just call the Sheriff.”
“You don’t want to do that,” Howard said, his hand on the door handle.
The man looked at him nervously and backed up a few feet, bringing the shotgun up. Howard opened the door and fired three shots at the man, hitting him in the upper torso. He fell dead.
“Grandpa!” screamed the girl in the truck. She got out and ran away. Howard heard the coach door open and saw Scott running after the girl. He caught her about sixty yards out, pulling her to the ground.
