Blue Plague: Hope: Book Seven

by Watson, Thomas A

  “You’re crazy as hell for taking off with fifty troops,” Gene huffed, stopping beside him. “They are waiting on us in the command bunker.”

  “All right,” Bruce said and followed Gene to one of the towers and took the stairs to the ground. As the protection detail held the doors open on the Suburban, they jumped in.

  “Jaw still sore?” Gene chuckled.

  “No, but my leg is,” he snapped, looking hard at the side of Ted’s face. Not taking his eyes off the road, Ted shook his head.

  “Hey, that was your fault,” he said and turned, following the two Strykers in front of him.

  “Bitch,” Bruce said, rubbing his leg.

  Gene laughed, looking out the window as they sped down the new road back to the command area. “The girls still going?” he asked, trying not to snicker.

  “Yes,” Bruce snapped. “There are two unlisted government areas in the northeast.”

  “I told you there wasn’t a UFO at Groom Lake,” Gene chuckled.

  “Oh, like they would tell a colonel,” Bruce snapped. “I’ll find that damn thing, you watch.”

  Ted looked over at Carl, “We are getting Angela and Stephanie something nice for coming, just to deal with his ass and that fucking UFO.”

  “I’ll ask Monica what we should get,” Carl said nodding.

  Taking the turn to the house on two wheels, Ted grinned as Bruce bitched and grabbed the seat to keep from sliding into Gene. Slamming on the brakes in front of the house, Ted looked over his shoulder. “You have arrived at your destination,” he smiled.

  “And everyone insists they are here to protect me,” Bruce said to Gene as he got out.

  Gene chuckled, following Bruce in the house. “I kind of like this. You’re getting a taste of what you put me through.”

  “Suck me sideways, dick tickler,” Bruce said, heading down the stairs.

  Walking in the command bunker, everyone stopped talking and looked at Bruce as he headed to the end of the table. “Sorry, I was watching the troops get ready,” he said, sitting down.

  “Hey, I tried to get us here fast, but you started crying that I was going too fast,” Ted chuckled.

  Bruce looked at Angela and Stephanie, “I want new guards,” he said with a straight face.

  “Sorry, babe,” Stephanie said. “Those two are to stay so far up your ass, they should be able to clean your back teeth.”

  Everyone snickered as Bruce just curled his lip at her. “So, what is this about? I went over my plan of attack yesterday,” he said.

  “I called this meeting with Gene,” Jake said, looking at his computer. “As you figured, Davenport isn’t leaving, he’s dispersing his troops more.”

  “About what I figured,” Bruce nodded. “See them on satellite?”

  “Nope, heard the order,” Jake said, tapping his keyboard and they heard a man with an annoying voice yelling. Tapping his keyboard again, Jake looked up. “That was Davenport.”

  “I thought they didn’t have anything you could hack?” Bruce asked in amazement. “Son, if you say you hacked his brain, we are having a talk about your little cyber ninjas.”

  “No, I bugged Taltson and Fulton,” Jake laughed. “Fulton is his adjutant officer. Some brigadier general named Gorski is second in command.”

  Gene leaned over the table, “Is his first name Lowell?”

  “Um,” Jake said, looking through a stack of paper and Matt scrolled down his computer screen.

  “Yeah,” Matt said, turning the computer to Jake and pointing at the screen.

  “Okay first, how did you bug them? I’m sure they scanned the stuff we held,” Gene said.

  “Of course they did,” Jake scoffed. “But I didn’t turn it on till they were underway back home, then I turned it off when they got home.”

  “Just what the hell did you bug?” Gene asked in wonder.

  “Their pistols, rifles, radios, holsters and backpacks.”

  “Shit, glad you are on my side,” Gene mumbled then looked down at Bruce. “Gorski knows his shit, Bruce. I fought with him in the sandbox and the stan.”

  “What type of man is he?” Bruce asked.

  “About as egotistical as they come because he knows he’s good,” Gene answered with a slow nod.

  Bruce patted his chest pockets and Angela leaned over the table, holding out his reading glasses. “You left them at the studio.”

  “Thank you,” he smiled, taking them. Putting them on, he grabbed a pen. “So would you consider him a problem?”

  “Yes, Bruce, he knows his shit. Not just troops tactics, but he was in SOCOM for three years directing teams,” Gene said. “If you’re asking if I’m scared of him, the answer is hell, no.”

  Making some notes, Bruce nodded. “What else, Jake?”

  “They don’t have much in the way of ammo. In a conference yesterday, it was reported they had fifty million rounds of 5.56 and about that in 7.62, but only half a million rounds of fifty caliber. They have Bradleys and Strykers, but not much ammo for the Bradleys and only forty TOW missiles. Now what I don’t like, they have over a hundred each of Javelins and Stingers.”

  Grinning, Bruce continued writing. “How about fuel?”

  “Oh, they are sucking big time,” Jake said. “It cost them a lot just coming to see us. Wherever they were getting the JP8 fuel from got contaminated with water, so they are looking for another source. They have figured out the diesel and gasoline fuel has gone bad.”

  “Aw, poor babies,” Bruce chuckled as he continued to write.

  “Well, they saw the report Stephanie did on our fuel refinery and this Davenport screamed for an hour at the last meeting. Seems he’s done that pretty regular, since she did it two weeks ago,” Matt said.

  “Is that why you asked for that report?” Stephanie asked, looking at Bruce.

  “Hey, I’m just finding this out. How could I have known?” Bruce chuckled as he wrote.

  Angela narrowed her eyes at Bruce. “Jake or Matt, have they mentioned my report on our resupply convoys to units in the field?”

  “Yep, want to hear Davenport screaming about that?” Jake asked, looking down at her.

  Bruce’s body shook as he silently laughed. “Babe, what are you doing?” Angela asked.

  “Nothing,” Bruce said quickly as he continued to laugh silently.

  “Bruce,” Nancy said, putting her elbows on the table. “Can I just ask, all those special reports you asked Angela and Stephanie to do, were they a psych job?”

  “Nancy,” Bruce gasped in mock shock, looking up at her. “Would I do such a thing?”

  “Yes, you would,” Nancy said with a sigh. “We gave out a lot of information to the gangs out there, not only to those dicks in Pennsylvania.”

  “No, we didn’t,” Bruce said still smiling. He looked down at his notebook and continued writing. “We just put out some of our capabilities and showed, not only those out there but our troops, that we have massive backup to call on in this war. Yes, they know we have fuel production, but not how much. They know we have massive air assets, but not how much or all types. They also know we get resupplied at will and our wounded get flown back to hospitals.”

  Angela leaned over to Stephanie. “Man, he’s sexy when he’s being a pain in the ass to someone else,” she whispered.

  “Let’s jump him when the meeting’s over,” Stephanie whispered back and several close to them snickered.

  Looking over the table and smiling at the two, Nancy glanced at Bruce. “So, you’re staying to your plan?”

  “Yeah, I’m not changing for those assholes,” Bruce said, still writing. “Jake, anything else?”

  “Pass this to Dad,” he said, handing a stack of papers to Matt. “You can go over it, but Dad? They are experimenting with radioactive material, trying to figure out what’s in the magic bullets.”

  “Yes!” Bruce shouted, dropping his pen and raising his arms in triumph. Spinning his chair around, Bruce stood up, dancing to a tune only he could he
ar.

  “I wondered why he went with us for that report,” Angela said.

  “If Jake wouldn’t have bugged them, we wouldn’t know that,” Stephanie said, shaking her head.

  Matt stood up and slid a folder over. “Yes, we would. They have an area away from everyone with people working in lead suits,” he said and they opened the folder to see 8x10 photos of what Matt described.

  “We need a babysitter for a few hours,” Stephanie said, turning to Angela.

  Nodding, Angela turned to Bruce as he continued his dance. “Bruce, that was very good, now sit down so we can finish the meeting.”

  Sitting down, Bruce looked down the table at Sandy. “Sandy, have you found anything in New Jersey that they were talking about?” he asked with a grin.

  “Today, I did,” she said and the smile fell off Bruce’s face. “One of the drones that flew in was on thermal and I noticed different blues were warmer than we’ve ever recorded.”

  “Okay,” he said slowly, hoping Sandy was pulling the dictionary out in her brain.

  “Those near the reactor it seemed, could alter their metabolism at will,” she said slowly. “I’ve observed in- blues running for hours and not raising their body temperature over a hundred, but these blues were running full speed at twenty-eight degrees with a body temperature of one hundred and eight. After they caught the deer they were chasing, their temperature dropped to the normal eighty-three degrees in minutes.”

  Bruce just stared at her in shock. “I understood every word you said.”

  “Me too,” Mike mumbled with wide eyes.

  Putting an arm around Sandy, Gene looked down the table at them. “She’s been practicing that for me,” he grinned. “I’m learning her language, but she’s stooped to mine.”

  “I’m sorry for wanting to punch you, Gene,” Bruce said, slightly bowing his head.

  “Hey, I’m happy we understood that, but what does it mean?” Paul asked.

  “You’re ruining the moment, Paul,” Mike snapped and threw his ink pen at him.

  “I’m sorry, but I need more observations before I can make a hypothesis,” Sandy said.

  “You see one with wings, you call me because we are packing up,” Bruce said and picked up the stack of papers from Jake. “Son, remember, placing bugs inside Hope is illegal without approval from three on the command group,” he said, reading the papers.

  “Why would I do that?” Jake shrugged.

  “Don’t know, and you need to remind your cyber ninjas. I won’t have a secret police force here.”

  Looking at Matt, Jake gave a confused shrug, and Matt shook his head. “Um, okay, Dad,” Jake finally said.

  “Is that it?” Angela asked, looking around the table and Gene stood up.

  “No,” he said and Angela sighed.

  Gene started passing out small velvet boxes to each person. Bruce looked up as a box slid down the table to him. Catching it, Bruce just looked at Gene. “I’m a major general?” Stephanie asked beside him, looking in her box as Bruce leaned over. Inside, was the two star pin of a major general.

  “So am I,” Angela said.

  “In my briefing, I said all command group had to be colonel or higher,” Gene said, sliding the last box down. “The original members are major generals. Nancy, Paul, Marcus, Carroll, Angela, and Stephanie. I’m a brigadier general, along with Mack and Steve because they are over the aircraft, but I told Steve, Mack is senior. Joe and Harry are also because they are over the machinists. The kids, except David and Mindy are colonels along with Willie, Bill, Conner, Ted, and Carl. David, I put as a lt. colonel and Mindy a major. I’ll let you decide Buffy’s rank, since she hasn’t led troops yet.”

  Bruce looked at Mike, “What the hell are we?” he asked, flipping his box open. “Oh, you’re so getting punched,” he said and Stephanie grabbed the box.

  Inside, were two gold pin emblems that said ‘BOSS’. She looked over at Mike as he turned his around. He had two ‘BOSS’ pins but they were silver. “Hate to say it, babe, but I like it,” Stephanie said nodding.

  “It is appropriate,” Angela grinned.

  “Do I have to wear it?” Bruce sighed.

  “You most certainly do,” Stephanie said, getting up and pulling one of the pins out. Letting out a giggle, Angela jumped up and took the other pin. They each put one on the collar of his camouflage shirt.

  When they were done, Bruce put theirs on as everyone else did. “Gene, how far out did you place rank?” Bruce asked sitting down.

  “I asked Marcus and Carroll to go over the troops and we went down to squad leaders, making them sergeants. Platoons have a second lieutenant with companies under a first lieutenant. I didn’t put out any higher than that, and they only picked like twenty of my troops to be ranked. Most of your original Omega and Gamma are the leadership.”

  “Hey, if they said they earned it, then I’m fine with it,” Bruce said, picking up his pen. He looked around the table, “Anything else?”

  “Yes,” Paul said, looking at his laptop.

  “Oh, come on,” Stephanie huffed.

  Paul just looked at her, then turned to Bruce. “The runways and barracks for seven thousand are ready in the east base as of this morning. Counting the group you brought from Groom Lake, there are six thousand people there with housing in place for another thousand. I’m stopping construction there after the next housing unit of eight thousand is done and it should be this week. That means the east outpost can take twelve thousand right now. I’ll need those crews to the north base building.”

  “Okay, why should I know this?” Bruce asked, getting worried he had missed something.

  “You’re going out to fight, but also to bring in people,” Paul sighed. “I wanted you to know what numbers you could send to the east base before shuttling people north.”

  Stephanie reached over, patting his arm. “We’ll be out with you this time and take care of it, baby,” she said smiling.

  “Never knew that was one of my jobs,” Bruce said with apprehension.

  “It won’t be, babe,” Angela said. “It just hasn’t been addressed, but we’ll take care of it like we always do. We pulled from the salvaging group, who normally take care of that, to refill the Praetorian guard because we pulled those to bring our fighting force up to seven regiments.”

  Bruce just stared at her, blank face blinking slowly. Stephanie reached over patting his arm again. “We took care of it, baby,” she smiled.

  Slowly, Bruce nodded and glanced at Mike who just shrugged his shoulders. “Well, if that’s all,” Bruce said, getting up and closing his notebook. “Pull out time is 0900 tomorrow and one regiment will be in the field until this is over, except for our day of remembrance.”

  “Time to devote our full attention to this war,” Mike said, holding out his hand to Bruce.

  Grabbing Mike’s hand, Bruce grinned. “I’m getting certified to fly the Warthog today.”

  “What?” Mike gasped. “You didn’t go to flight school.”

  “No, he taught himself, and Mack has done the flight training when Bruce has had time,” Angela said, grabbing Bruce’s arm. “Right now, we need to talk to you,” she said, yanking him.

  Stephanie grabbed his notebook and looked at Ted and Carl. “Pick up the babies from school and we’ll meet you at the movies in Hope for the 1700 show,” she said and followed Angela as she pulled Bruce out of the command bunker.

  “Sometimes, I really feel sorry for him,” Ted chuckled.

  Chapter 23

  Sitting in the back of his RG, Jake looked at the map he had pinned to a corkboard. Climbing down from the cupola, Mary sat beside Jake as he studied the map of northern Alabama. “What’s wrong, Jake?” Mary asked.

  “Trying to keep track of my companies and running my own sucks ass,” he said, grabbing the microphone. “Delta One, don’t move any further west and stay online for the push into Birmingham. Your company is to take overwatch positions along I-22,” he called out.


  “This is Delta One. Copy, Commander,” a female voice answered.

  Leaning back, Jake sighed. “Man, this is too many people to keep track of,” he said.

  “Jake, just give them the area to cover, like your dad,” Mary said.

  “Baby, I did and they moved sixteen miles further west than they were supposed to,” Jake said, pointing at the map. He looked at the screens connected to drone feeds, shaking his head.

  They had pulled out four days ago, dropping one regiment at the new base south of Demopolis, Alabama. Then, with the regiment and one air wing his Dad was running, they’d formed a line of advance and moved up the state. Jake was over five companies, or one battalion, as was Matt. Of those five companies in each battalion, the battalion commander always ran one.

  After reading the battle plan, Mike saw Matt and Mary were assigned to his command and knew they wouldn’t see Danny and Jake much, since they were in Bruce’s command. He transferred them to Bruce’s command, and felt better with his kids there.

  David and Mindy stayed under Bruce’s command and were currently over one of the companies because David refused to run a battalion. Sitting and looking at the map, Jake was starting to agree with David.

  The regiment out now was Omega first regiment and Jake knew from reading the outline, Willie would be running one of the regiments soon. As of now, only Mike and Gene would run regiments in the field at war in overall command.

  This first outing with his Dad would be to test attack methods, to clear the land of blues. For the last two days, they had formed a line moving up to Tuscaloosa and moving through the town then, turning toward Birmingham with the mobile airfield following.

  Unlike Mobile, the blues hadn’t run and hid. They were coming out in force and they had already lost two troops.

  “We are almost to our rally point,” Mary said.

  “I know, and thanks for running the company as I try to keep up where the rest of my companies are,” Jake said. “I don’t have enough monitors.”

  She smiled as they felt the RG turn, “I’m going to set the company up in a standard box,” she said and he nodded.