REVENGE: Shelter Book 6 (The Shelter)

by Ira Tabankin

  “Yes, sir.”

  After his son leaves the rabbi’s home office he looks up at the ceiling, somehow, you must have helped them. I don’t believe anyone would have thought of using the Bible as a battle map without your assistance. Are you returning to talk to us again? His thoughts are interrupted by the windows in his house shattering and every picture on his walls falling down.

  @@@@@

  Jay’s group flies to Huntsville, Alabama where they’re met by the Mayor, the Commanding General of the Redstone Arsenal, Major General James Borne and the CEO of the Huntsville banking consortium, Richard Marx, who manages the precious metals currency exchange rates.

  Lacy and Jay walk down the steps to a smiling welcoming committee. The Mayor steps forward to introduce Jay to everyone. The sky begins darkening, Jay looks up,

  “It looks like a large thunder storm is coming, let’s get off the tarmac before it opens up and drenches us.”

  Inside the fixed base operations building, Jay gets an update on everything going on in the Huntsville area.

  “I like the progress you’ve made. General, how’s the new missile development coming?”

  “I’m hoping you have time to visit the base so we can show you.”

  “I’m ready whenever you are. Honestly, I can’t wait to see the progress. Before we go, I’d like a few minutes with Mr. Marx.”

  “Mr. President, of course.”

  When they’re alone, Jay looks at Richard,

  “May I call you Richard? My inner circle is pretty informal.”

  “Sir, of course.”

  “When we’re alone, you can call me Jay.”

  “I think that’s going to be hard for me.”

  “That’s up to you, Richard, I’d like you to consider being the Confederacy’s Secretary of the Treasury.”

  “Mr. President, I mean, Jay? Really? Why me?”

  “Because you led the group and process to develop the Huntsville currency program that saved our currency. While the North’s currency is in the toilet, ours is gaining value. I, we, need someone like you to manage the country’s finances.”

  “Mr., Jay, I’m honored. Does it mean I have to move to the capital?”

  “Sooner or later. We are building a new capital, when it’s finished, I’d like all of the Cabinet to be located at the capital, for now you can stay here, unless you’d like to move to the farm which is already quickly changing.”

  “I’m honored, I really am. How long do I have to decide?”

  “About as long as we have together.”

  “Jay, I’d like to talk to my wife and family.”

  “I understand that, I had them brought to the conference room next door.”

  “Can I ask what the position pays?”

  “That’s a very good question, it’s one of the first decisions you’re going to have to make, so far none of us has drawn a salary.”

  “You haven’t gotten paid?”

  “Nope, haven’t needed it, as Secretary of the Treasury, you will be responsible to figure out what the government employees, including the cabinet should be paid.”

  “Oh my God, I want to accept, please give me fifteen minutes with my family.”

  “Door on the right.”

  “I can’t believe this.”

  “Good work is rewarded.”

  Jay reviews his emails and Fred’s urgent messages when Richard knocks on the door,

  “Come.”

  “I accept! We’ll be ready to move within thirty days.”

  “Excellent, let’s announce your appointment.” Jay sticks his head of the door yelling, “Stu, please join us.”

  Jay tells Stu to make the announcement before the town hall meeting. The Mayor and General are happy for Richard.

  After all of the congratulations, the group enters five armored MRAPS, they drive the short distance to Redstone Arsenal. When the group enters the base, the street is lined with workers and military personal waving Confederate flags; they’re cheering Jay and Lacy. The base band is playing ‘Dixie.’

  “Wow, what a welcome. General, thank you.”

  “That’s just the beginning. Let me escort you to the test range, we have a few new toys to show you.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  It takes only ten minutes to arrive at the test range, Jay and Lacy sit in the covered seats that were erected for them.

  “What am I going to see first?”

  “We have set up a building across the street, it’s a normal office fitted with computers, printers, everything you’d expect to find in a normal office. We’re going to launch a missile which will fly over the building, it will fire an invisible EMP warhead which will turn off and destroy all of the building’s electronic office equipment.”

  “Will we be affected over here?”

  “No, it’s a guided energy warhead which is able to target only the buildings we want.”

  “I can’t wait to see this!”

  A moment later they hear the missile as it flies over the building and their heads. There’s no explosion, all they see is the missile coming and going.

  “What happens to the missile when it’s finished its flight?”

  “It’s programed to self-destruct so no one can figure out how we did what we did, most will think the missile was a dud. Let’s go across the street and look at the building.”

  Entering it, they notice all of the lights are out, “The generator stopped working, notice all of the laptops are off, try booting one up.”

  “Dead.”

  “I’ll have a generator truck connected so you can try all of the other equipment.”

  “Nothing works, everything is burned out. I like it, how long will it take to begin production?”

  “We have 300 hundred built and in storage.”

  “I like it; what else do you have to show me.”

  “We have a new anti-tank missile which cuts through all of the latest armor, a new anti-ship missile with a range of 150 miles, it flies at Mach 3. Nothing we or the North have can stop it.”

  “You’ve earned your pay today.”

  “Thank you sir.”

  “Please join us this evening at the town hall meeting. Please bring your wife and children. I’ll have Stu hold seats for you in the front row, after the meeting, why don’t you and your family join Lacy and me for dinner?”

  “It’ll be my honor. We thank you.”

  @@@@@

  While Jay’s party is reviewing the new missiles. A group of minorities receives a large manila envelope stuffed with Confederate one hundred bills. An African American smiles handing each of the leaders a similar envelope.

  “Do we understand each other?”

  “Yes, we know our part. We’ll carry it off.”

  “Good. When you complete your task, each will receive a second envelope with the other half of the agreed upon amount.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll blow the son of a bitch to pieces, there won’t be enough of him left to find, you’ll have to scrape the floor to find his DNA.”

  “Just as long as we can prove you killed him.”

  “We know. If I were you, I wouldn’t be around the building when the bomb does off.”

  “I plan to be back in D.C. when the bomb explodes.”

  “How will we get paid?”

  “A friend will meet you the morning after at the Hampton Inn across from the airport. They’ll be in a black Tahoe SUV.”

  “We’ll be there. If your boy ain’t there with the money, there’ll be bombs blowing up all over D.C.”

  “He’ll be there, your bomb better work, if it doesn’t we’ll track you down and kill you.”

  “It’ll work.”

  They part company. Three of the gang’s people steal a media van which they pack with fertilizer and diesel fuel. They pack hundreds of thousands of BBs and ball bearings in the van. They drew straws to see who was going to drive the van. The person who drew the short straw agrees to drive the van to the Von Br
aun Center. He uses a forged press pass to park the van in front of the building near other broadcast vans. The driver checks the cellular phone in the van connected to the trigger, he walks through the center wearing a Fox News shirt. He exits the rear of the building. He hides in a small storage building while he waits for the Confederate President to take the stage. He watches the proceedings on his phone. He only has to wait an hour, when he hears the applause coming from the packed auditorium. Checking his phone to the live feed of the town hall meeting, he watches Jay and Lacy walk towards the podium.

  Jay and Lacy smile at the crowd from behind the podium. Jay’s happy with the warm welcome they’re receiving. He doesn’t see any protesters which pleases him. Looking out at the crowd, Jay smiles and waves to the cheers of the audience. He grabs Lacy’s hand, raising both of their hands above their heads. The crowd cheers louder. Lacy blows kisses to the crowd with her left hand.

  At the same time, the Jericho F4s make their next to last deafening flights around Washington, D.C. Huge cracks snake up the walls of the buildings and while tearing into their foundations. Groaning sounds are heard around the city from destabilizing concrete in hundreds of buildings. Elevators stop working due to stresses on their cables and steel structure. Streets crack, large pot holes open up, some break cars’ wheels, blocking the streets. Sidewalks crack, telephone poles crack and many come down, bringing down power and telephone lines, Street lights collapse. The bridges which connect D.C. to Maryland and Virginia shake and crack. Passerby’s see large sections of the bridges fall into the red Potomac River. The D.C. police inspect and close the bridges, causing the largest traffic jams in the city’s history. Vehicles have no way to exit or enter the city.

  Jay smiles, he nods to the General and his new Secretary of the Treasury, both are sitting in the front row. “Ladies and gentlemen thank you for coming this evening to spend some time with Lacy and me. I’m sure most of you have seen the Q & A from last night and have heard my remarks, so I won’t bore you with repeating what I’m sure you already know, I thought we’d start off tonight’s session in reverse order. I always wanted to have dessert first, so let’s start with the Q & A. The convention staff has microphones, all I ask is you keep your language civil and only one person speak at a time, I’m an old man who can only concentrate on one question at a time.”

  The room laughs,

  “Would everyone who has a question, please stand?”

  The driver hiding in the shed smiles hearing Jay ask people to stand, thinking, great, with almost everyone standing, they’ll be an easy target for bomb, many will be cut in half. Cut our welfare, we’ll cut you and your redneck loyalists in half, we’ll make mincemeat of them. Opening his phone, he speed dials the phone connected to the bomb’s trigger.

  An instant later, the van disappears in a blinding flash of bright white/yellow light, the blast destroys the Von Braun Center, hundreds of thousands of BBs and ball bearings cut through the building, flying at hundreds of miles an hour, they strike bodies, they slice limbs off, they cut people in half, the speeding metal balls and cubes decapitate people, blood flows like a river. Screams are cut short from thousands of dying mouths. The blast, moving at the speed of sound, rips into the building, tearing it apart.

  The building’s roof collapses on top of the bodies and the few survivors. A dense gray cloud is all that’s left of the Von Braun Center. Moments after the explosion, sirens sound through the city. Most of Jay’s security group are killed in the blast. Jay felt the heat from the blast before everything turns black. Flames from the building’s gas lines and car’s split fuel tanks light up the dark sky. The burning fuel flows down the center’s drive way slowing rescuers. The shed the terrorist was hiding in is ripped apart. His bomb worked too well, it killed him too.

  The Northern President sits in happy surprise watching the bright white and yellow flash blow apart the Von Braun Center. Picking up the direct line to his military he says,

  “Attack the Confederacy now, NOW, while they’re in shock. Now, before that bastard Tolson is found.

  The Jericho modified F4s fly out to sea, where they regroup, they return for their seventh and last circle around the city, the pitch coming from their sound generators hits perfect notes as calculated by the nerds whose formulas projected the walls of the capital will crack, break and come down on their seventh series of circular passes around the city. Their calculations projected the foundations and walls of the capital’s buildings, bridges and monuments will all have been weakened enough from the six previous passes that the seventh will bring them down, just as Joshua circled the walls of Jericho seven times to bring their walls down. As the planes begin their seventh set of circular passes over the city, the notes from their sound generators, combined with their six previous passes, which have already weakened and cracked the government buildings, is enough to complete spreading the cracks through the bricks, cement and plaster. The buildings’ walls begin to crumble, repaired windows shatter covering people on the streets with broken glass. Thousands suffer cuts and impalement from the shower of falling shattered glass. Hundreds of government buildings scream as they begin imploding. The buildings collapse, building after building implodes. Large dust clouds rush down the streets of the North’s capital choking anyone unlucky enough to be caught on the streets.

  The President watches videos of the buildings coming apart in the White House, he stands to look out the Oval Office windows in a state of shock, he hears the White House walls crack, beams break and the sounds of the White House beginning to implode. He’s frozen in fear, not understanding what he’s seeing and hearing, he doesn’t move from where he’s standing in front of the Rose Garden windows. He watches the Capital Building and the Washington Monument shatter and collapse. Standing still, his mind is unable to come to grips with what he’s seeing, the roof of the Oval Office falls in, covering him with debris. His last conscious thought is, the son of a bitch got even, even from his grave he got even. How the hell did he do that? The roof completes its final collapse, crushing the life out of the President and his staff. Hundreds of thousands join the President as their homes, apartments and offices collapse.

  A dense debris cloud covers Washington D.C., almost every government building and monument in the city shattered, none are left standing. Brick, concrete and steel buildings are broken shells, their foundations cracked, from the sound generated by the South’s Jericho flights. The sound waves caused thousands of buildings to implode. Every bridge across the Potomac River falls into the river cutting the capital off from the rest of the country. The dense gray cloud spread into Maryland and Northern Virginia. Millions of people are trapped under the noxious cloud which turned everything and everyone it touched gray.

  The Jericho flight flew out of Washington towards the Atlantic before they turned to return to their base, the pilots are surprised the sound generators worked as advertised. The pilots look over their shoulders surprised at the level of destruction they leave in their wake; a city completely destroyed without using WMD’s.

  Eight hundred miles away, smoke, flames and cries of the few survivors are all that’s left of what used to be the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. There’s nothing left of the stolen van, just a huge crater where the van was parked. The broadcast vans parked around it are torn apart, some are burning, lying on their sides.

  Sirens drown out the crying and moaning of the few survivors in both cities. People watching on television or on line are frozen in place. None can believe what they’re seeing.

  Tony screams at the sight of the bomb exploding, he picks up the red phone, yelling, “Kill them, kill them all! Make them pay for what they just did.”

  A Fox News reporter sadly looks into the broadcast camera, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we don’t have a status on either President yet. We can report the extent of the damage is complete. Washington doesn’t have a single building standing, and in the south, the Von Braun Center building has been leveled, it’ll be a
miracle if anyone inside either location survived. It appears both President’s got their revenge on the other.

  End of Shelter book 6 “Revenge.”

  Other books by the author available on Amazon Kindle

  37 Miles (Revised Edition)

  37 Miles, Book 2, Patty’s Journey

  My Story

  A History Lesson (Short story)

  2015 Second American Civil War, Book 1

  2015 Second American Civil War, Book 2

  2015 Second American Civil War, Book 3

  2015 Second American Civil War, Book 4

  2015 Second American Civil War, Book 5

  By the Light of the Moon, Book 1