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by Richard Stephenson

  “Oh God,” said Dr. Stone in a trembling voice.

  “It’s okay, just put your hands on the dashboard. Elizabeth, place your palms on the roof above you and don’t move. Let me handle this.”

  The two police officers stopped ten yards from the SUV. One of them motioned for Max to roll down his window. Max kept one hand on the steering wheel and with the other, did as he was instructed.

  “Sir, I’m gonna have to see your badge,” the officer demanded. “If you truly are a cop, you know the drill, and everything will be fine. Now, slowly exit your vehicle. The passengers need to stay where they are.”

  “I understand,” replied Max. Max put both hands out the window and slowly opened the door with his left hand. He stepped out onto the pavement and took two steps away from the vehicle. Since his weapon was holstered on his right hip, he took his left hand and brought it behind his back to retrieve his wallet from his back right pocket. He took out his badge and held it up in the air.

  “Toss it to me,” said the officer. Max tossed it at the officer’s feet. He slowly bent down and picked it up. He studied the badge and the credentials.

  “Name?”

  “Maxwell Thomas Harris.”

  “You’re a long way from Arkansas.”

  “You mean Texas.”

  “Okay, look right at me. Don’t turn around and look at your vehicle, what town are you from?”

  “Santa Fe.”

  “Good. Badge number?”

  “Badge number is RAS91172”

  “OK, Chief Harris. My apologies to you and your passengers for that ordeal. I’m sure you understand that seeing a police vehicle from Texas raised some suspicions. Didn’t know if it was a stolen vehicle or not.”

  “It’s not a problem. Would’ve done the same thing myself. Can my friends step out now?”

  “Yes, yes, I’m sorry. Please.”

  Max leaned down and looked into the window, motioning for them to come out.

  “Ladies, I’m Eduardo Sanchez, I was telling your friend here…”

  Elizabeth interrupted, “We heard everything. Don’t worry about us, we understand. I’m Elizabeth and this is Dr. Stone.”

  “Hello.” Dr. Stone was still shaking.

  “Doctor, I’m pleased to meet you. I’m sure that wasn’t the sort of welcome you expected. I hope it won’t ruin your opinion of our little town. We’re just trying to protect our families and homes from harm.”

  “Things are so bad you have to close off the town?”

  “Yes, ma’am, I’m afraid they are. I know this might seem a little forward of me given what just happened, but we’ve got a lot of hurt people who could use some help. Our doctors got their hands full.”

  “Of course, but I’d be more comfortable if Elizabeth could come with me.”

  “Not a problem. Gary! Take these ladies down to Dr. Henslee at the hospital.” An older gentleman nodded and escorted Elizabeth and Dr. Stone to his car.

  “What happened?”

  “Simply put, the Unified National Guard is what happened.”

  Max’s eyes got big. “Really?”

  “Chief, are you a veteran?”

  “No, sir. Been a cop for twenty-one years.”

  “Well, I’m a veteran, served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was Infantry, stationed in Fort Hood on 9/11. I can tell you that the men who came into our town should be ashamed to call themselves soldiers. No sense of honor or decency. The way they were acting, you’d have thought we were fighting The Empire of Iran right here in America.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Max.

  “Well, I served my country and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Doesn’t seem like they swore the same oath I did.”

  Max shook his head. “I thought we were getting out of Texas, away from disaster and headed towards civilized society.”

  “Well, I can assure you we’re civilized people, Chief.”

  “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. Poor choice of words.”

  “I know what you meant. Didn’t mean to snap at you. My nerves are on edge.”

  “Mine, too. We ever get the time, I can tell you some stories. What were you saying?”

  “Yeah, anyway, they came rolling into town yesterday morning. We were glad to help; everyone wants to do their patriotic duty,” Officer Sanchez began to walk back to the barricade and Max followed. “They said they needed supplies, and we didn’t object. The manager at Wal-Mart welcomed them in and was prepared to give them whatever they needed. He asked the company commander to come up with a list so he could keep track of his inventory and submit it for reimbursement. Well, the good captain said that wouldn’t be necessary since the government wasn’t going to reimburse them for anything. He got nervous and called me over to the store. Captain told me the same thing. Said it was an emergency and he was going to take what he needed, didn’t have time for paperwork.”

  “How polite,” said Max.

  “It gets worse. They had probably six empty five-ton trucks. They filled up three of ‘em with food and water. Manager came unglued, said he was gonna get fired for sure. Captain didn’t give a damn. I was hoping they would hurry up and leave. No such luck. They had an empty fuel tanker and parked it in front of our biggest gas station. Tapped right into the underground tank and filled the damn thing up. Stealing from Wal-Mart is one thing, but the gas station they raided is privately owned. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still a crime either way, but Wal-Mart is an international chain with plenty of backing. The gas station owner is local. Stood right there and watched his business being taken right out from under him. No way he’ll ever be able to make up the loss.”

  “He didn’t give up without a fight, did he?” asked Max.

  Officer Sanchez nodded with a distraught look on his face. “I get there and the owner is demanding some sort of signed paperwork that he can submit to the military to get his money back.”

  “Same story?”

  “Exactly the same. ‘State of emergency’ and all that bullshit.”

  Max looked confused. “What am I missing? I know things are going to shit, but what’s the emergency?”

  “Well, I suppose coming from Texas you don’t know.”

  “Know what?”

  “Iranians detonated a nuke over the east coast. The Pulse wiped out all the electronics. Rumor is the power is out all over the eastern United States”

  Max stopped dead in his tracks. His home state of Texas was truly going to be a wasteland. Recovery would never come. “Son of a bitch! Pulse? You mean an electromagnetic pulse? I didn’t know detonating a nuke high up in the sky would cause something like that.”

  “That’s exactly what it did. Before they got uncivilized, the military folks told us all about it. They call it ‘The Pulse.’

  “I thought Texas was in bad shape. We’re going to lose this country very quickly. Well, at least the National Guard was taking the supplies to people who need them.”

  “That’s what I thought, too.”

  “Oh come on! You can’t be serious!”

  “Wish I was joking, I promise you.”

  “What the hell were they doing with them?”

  “They didn’t even try to lie about it. Smart thing would have been to feed us a bunch of bullshit about taking the supplies to help victims of The Pulse. Nope. They’re taking supplies to Howard Beck’s house in Colorado.”

  Max was confused. “Howard Beck, the billionaire computer guy? Thought he was some sort of hermit.”

  “Thought the same thing myself.”

  “Okay, we keep getting off topic. Still don’t know why you have your town barricaded.”

  “Yeah, right. So they practically emptied the tanks at the gas station. Owner kept demanding documentation so he doesn’t lose his business trying to pay for the gas they took. He tried to pull the driver out of the tanker to stop him from leaving. Some soldiers got out of their Humvee and beat the living shit out o
f him. I couldn’t do anything but watch. I tried to stop it, but one of the soldiers drew down on me. Said if I touched my sidearm he’d kill me.”

  “Holy shit,” Max declared.

  “I drove him to the hospital only to find more bullshit. They had one of their empty five-ton trucks backed up to the lobby door loading it with medical supplies. Just about cleaned out the pharmacy. The hospital administrator was pleading with me to stop them. Said they weren’t leaving enough medicine behind to treat the patients in the hospital.”

  “That’s insane! They were putting the lives of sick people at risk? What’d you do?”

  “I put my foot down. I called for every officer on duty to report to the hospital. Once they got there, I demanded to speak to the captain. They kept loading up our medicine and recited the ‘we have orders’ line. We outnumbered them two to one, so we drew down on them and put ‘em in handcuffs. Held up a radio so they could call their captain over. Didn’t take him long to get there.”

  “Wow!”

  “I didn’t care, throw me in jail. I wasn’t gonna let those grunts give a bunch of sick people a slow death. Captain got there, and we have their three soldiers in cuffs right in front of us. Nice little hostage situation. Finally got their full attention so I could do some talking.”

  “I bet they were all ears.”

  “Damn right they were. Captain said we were all gonna be tried as traitors and executed. I told ‘em they were gonna unload the medicine and leave town. Well, that didn’t sit well with the captain. He started screaming. I started screaming. Standoff lasted about five minutes until about a hundred of our good citizens showed up armed and turned the tables on the National Guard.”

  “How many men did the Guard have?”

  “Maybe fifty. We put ‘em back on I-25 headed north and told them not to come back.”

  “That explains the roadblock.”

  “We’re lucky our town only has two exits on I-25, one at the southern edge of town the other at the northern edge. Wish we woulda searched their convoy before they left town. About ten minutes after they’d left, we found out they had kidnapped three doctors and a nurse right out of the hospital. No one in the hospital really noticed. They told the doctors they had wounded soldiers outside, and they were going to check on them. They never came back inside.”

  “Kidnapped? Are you positive?”

  “Yes. An x-ray tech was in the parking lot and saw them get in a Humvee. She said they didn’t seem to be in distress or going against their will. Grunts probably still had them convinced everything was on the up and up.”

  “Any possibility they went willingly? A chance to see the inside of Beck Estates? Sounds like something anyone would wanna do.”

  “I thought of that. The nurse and two of the doctors have spouses and children here in town. None of them contacted their families to tell them they were leaving.”

  “Outrageous.”

  “We’ve turned away anyone that exits from the interstate. Most see the barricade and turn around on their own. You were the first one to stop. I saw your vehicle was from Texas and didn’t want to risk it.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Nothing we can do, really. We don’t have a large police force and we need everyone here to keep the town safe. They took damn near all of our gas. Three other gas stations in town and they’re damn near empty. They were expecting tankers before The Pulse that definitely aren’t showing up now.”

  Max didn’t reply but had an idea. “How do I get to the hospital? I need to talk to my friends.”

  “It’s down this road a few miles on the right.”

  “Thanks. Will you be here?’

  “Yes, sir, I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I’ll be back soon.” Max got back in his SUV. One of the men got down off the roof of his car and pulled forward, opening up a hole in the barricade. Max gave him a polite wave and drove down the road a few miles to the hospital. It wasn’t really much of a hospital; it was a one-story building that looked pretty old. Once he was in the parking lot, he understood why they needed Dr. Stone so badly. Three doctors and a nurse was probably half of their staff. He walked in the front lobby and found Elizabeth sitting in the waiting area.

  “Hey there, handsome man,” she said warmly.

  “Hey yourself,” Max winked at her, “where’s Diana?”

  “Hard at work. You hear about what happened here?”

  “Yeah, I thought the National Guard was supposed to be protecting us, not robbing and kidnapping people.”

  The little toddler walked over to Elizabeth and handed her a magazine. Elizabeth beamed. “Thank you so much, little man!” He giggled and handed Max a magazine.

  “Maxwell, what do you say?”

  “To a little boy who doesn’t talk?”

  “Don’t make me smack you!”

  “Great example you are, showing him that hitting is okay.”

  “Say thank you!”

  “Thank you, little boy. Go and play.” The little one giggled and started piling magazines from the table into the chair next to Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth waited until the little boy wasn’t paying attention and kicked Max’s foot. “You’re terrible!” She loved flirting with him and gave him her cutest grin. “What’s the plan, boss?”

  “I can’t just sit on my hands and do nothing while these people need our help.”

  “You want to stay here and run for chief of police?”

  “Cute. I think the position is filled. If you think this little man will stay with Diana, I’d like to take you with me to Colorado.”

  “Mountain climbing or skiing? I’d be happy with either one.”

  “Not what I had in mind. I’d like to visit Beck Estates and ask the Guard why they think it’s okay to steal anything they want and kidnap innocent people.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  At an altitude of ten thousand feet, Howard Beck’s escape pod lost all power and began its decent back to the earth below. The electromagnetic pulse caused by the nuclear detonation high in the atmosphere had destroyed every electronic circuit from the eastern coast of the United States to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains down to the northern half of the Gulf States. In an instant, every aircraft in the sky fell back to earth; Howard’s escape pod was no exception.

  Howard had absolutely no idea how to fly the craft any better than he could drive a car. He knew that if Hal malfunctioned or went offline, the craft would no longer have a pilot. Howard designed several fail safes in the event that Hal ceased to function. Howard designed the craft to fly on automatic pilot in the unlikely event Hal was unable to fly the escape pod. While it was cruising on auto, Howard could make repairs to Hal and put him back in the pilot’s seat. If the craft was severely damaged from a lightning strike or an errant flock of birds, the seat that Howard was strapped into would eject, and he would parachute safely to the ground. The final failsafe was the one that Howard was currently waiting on. If the canopy above him was damaged and he could not safely eject, a pair of ten-foot wings would unfold and turn the craft into a glider. Then, when the glider was a thousand feet from the ground, large parachutes would deploy from the roof, slowing the craft and allowing it to land safely. All of this was done by hydraulics and set off by a gyroscope. Howard had no idea that he had just been struck by an EMP and would later discover that the final failsafe saved his life, due to the simple fact that it did not involve electronics to operate. The gyroscope measured the orientation and momentum of the craft. Once it detected that the craft was behaving erratically, the final failsafe would kick in and do its job. What Howard didn’t anticipate was the fact that in order for the gyroscope to launch the final failsafe, the craft had to be in a free fall for a thousand feet. He had designed the craft years ago and in the extreme stress of his current predicament, did not recall this crucial information.

  As the craft began to plummet vertically, Howard’s arms began to hover in the weightlessness. He immediate
ly gripped the armrests of his chair and looked out the cockpit window. All he could see was blackness. Howard fought the urge to scream and closed his eyes.

  “Please, Hal, please save me. Please save me, I don’t want to die. Please, please, please, please. Do something, Hal, please do something. Eject me! Hurry up! Eject me! Why aren’t you ejecting me? WHY ISN’T THIS WORKING?”

  Howard replaced his terror with rage. Rage is a much more comfortable emotion than terror. Rage demands control; terror whimpers for it. In the span of less than a second, his brilliant mind reviewed the failsafe systems he had designed, and Howard realized that all of the electrical systems must have gone offline at precisely the same instant. He wasn’t struck by lightning and the craft didn’t malfunction. The odds of all the systems malfunctioning at the same time were astronomical. What did Hal say just before this happened? He had disturbing news that he didn’t think I could handle. The disturbing news and his craft going dark could not be a coincidence; the two had to be related. Howard then realized with certainty that a nuclear device had been detonated high in the atmosphere, and the resulting electromagnetic pulse had disabled his craft.

  Howard relaxed when he realized it was only a matter of time before the craft would deploy her wings and become a glider. Once the craft fell to the thousand-foot mark, the hydraulics pushed out the wings and locked them into place. Slowly, the craft leveled out for a more gradual and controlled descent. Howard’s mind raced, simultaneously processing a dozen trains of thought at the same time. He calculated that they were in the air for less than three minutes and still climbing to cruising altitude when they were struck, putting the point of impact roughly ten miles from Beck Castle. The craft would then spend another few minutes slowly gliding back to the ground, adding another mile or so to the distance. Once on the ground, Howard figured he would be ten to twelve miles from Beck Castle. He was no spring chicken and never exercised, so he would be lucky to make three miles an hour on foot. Thus, it was going to take him close to four hours to make the long trek back to the Castle. Another of the many thoughts racing through his head was the status of Beck Castle. Howard knew the massive underground facility was shielded from an EMP. What concerned him was whether or not Hal would come to rescue him. Hal knew the monumental importance of keeping the facility safe at all costs. The Artificial Intelligence was capable of rational, independent thought. If Hal made the decision to leave Howard to his own devices to keep the Castle undetected and safe, then Howard would be on his own. If the EMP was the first phase in a full-scale invasion and the enemy was at their shores, then nothing would be launched from the Castle for fear of detection. If Hal launched a drone into a sky absent of aircraft, the Castle would become an inviting target. Howard decided that the best course of action was to operate under this assumption.