by Franks, JK
He smiled and shook his head. “Yes and no. I’m going up with Skybox and Garret’s team to try and find the Simpsons. I’ll be fine.”
“But?” Angel asked with a frown.
“But nothing, you are in charge…that’s all.”
“Does Gia know you’re going?”
“Well…hmmm, not exactly, but she isn’t here.”
“Scott Montgomery, you just can’t stay out of trouble, can you? Got a woman that loves you and a ship to fix, but you want to go off and play soldier.”
Scott reached across the table and took her slim hand, her brown skin and his tan not that far apart in color. “Angel, you are my second in command. You know this mission is important. It’s the right thing to do. Look, this boat is yours to run. That takes a lot off of me. I’ll admit the stress of it all is more than I am comfortable with, but good people like you keep stepping forward to help. That is allowing me to look at the bigger picture more. Now, what was it you really wanted to discuss?”
She nodded, but it was obvious that she was moving on reluctantly. “Scott, I have my crew inventorying all our supplies, and I know Jack is out making trades for more, but I’m concerned. Essentially, we just are working with less than a week’s buffer of supplies right now.”
“You mean food?”
“I mean everything: food, fresh water, cooking oil, salt…all of it. That mess with the Messengers and the hurricane didn’t just deplete our stocks, it crippled the farms around here. Barely any of the crops made it. Roosevelt has helped me…pointing us to wild greens and food sources we would have never considered, but that’s not enough to build up any surplus.”
Scott understood all too well. “I need to see that inventory and your estimates, assuming everyone is on reduced rations. Jack is going to check up near Yokena, you know, those big farms, no one has heard from them in a while.”
“Dang…so, how long do we need to plan on for this trip?” she asked. “A week, a month? Will there be supplies at wherever we land?”
Scott rubbed his temples, “We should be able to get anywhere in two weeks at sea. Beyond that, it’s just a guess, but we are going to need to land where we can find food. One month’s supply is my recommendation. More would be better, but anything more than that seems unreasonable to expect.”
“So, one month’s food for just us—the regular people here on the AG?”
He shook his head, “No…well, maybe. Some of these people probably won’t leave, and we can’t make ‘em. Also, Jack is offering safe passage to anyone who trades with us, but they will need to bring their own food stocks.”
“You better figure some of the Navy guys will want to go as well.”
He looked at her in surprise, “How’s that?”
“You gotta know, many are starting to look at the AG as home. They have nothing to go back to, and it’s common knowledge the Navy is on its last legs.”
“Hmm.” He looked at the empty pantry shelves behind her. “We have no idea if we can even get this thing moving again…maybe this is all just wasted effort.”
Angel started to challenge his comment, then decided to take a new approach. “When is Gia going to be back?”
Scott couldn’t quite pin down the vibe Angel was giving but let it pass. “She told me end of the week. Assuming the Navy can get her back from whatever hush-hush place she is this time.” Her work over at the lab on the Bataan was now interspersed with more frequent trips to other labs trying to nail down a viable treatment for the virus.
“When she comes back, Angel, I’d like your help if you could…just a little surprise for her.”
She nodded. Scott had something to live for; she knew he would do anything to keep that spark alive.
“So, this is it?” Tahir said stepping out of the Jeep.
“Yep.” Scott walked up to the top of the old dam and pointed to the equipment on top. “Do you want to see the transmission equipment, spillway control or what?”
Tahir was looking fearfully at the drop to the Black River below, “Um…no my friend. Let’s look at the generators first. Nothing matters if we can’t get those working.”
Bartos already had the access door open. It was a very concealed entrance on the back of the dam. Scott would’ve never have known it was there if an old worker hadn’t pointed it out one day. That day, as he thought back now. He had been on his bike and gotten a flat crossing the road atop the dam.
The three men walked into the dark interior, the damp smell reminding Scott of the supplies he had stored here right after ‘The Day’. This was his bugout location, it hadn’t ever really been used for that, but he kept thinking about all the possibilities here. The town still used it to store supplies and extra fuel as no one had ever discovered the space inside the old decommissioned hydroelectric dam.
Scott and Bartos had told Tahir what they knew about the place, and even though not an engineer, Tahir had been intrigued as well. “So, what all have you tried?”
Bartos spoke, “Scott and me hooked up a generator to the spillway motor. We got it to move about a foot before the circuit blew. Strange you need an outside source of electricity to make a hydroelectric dam work, but, apparently, you do. From there I just mainly cussed at the damn thing. Scott put his little nerdy monkey-brain to work on it. Truth is, he had about as little success as me.”
Scott nodded, “Yeah, we never were able to get enough water flow to see if any of the generators would even turn. Without maintenance, I assume rust in the turbine shaft and bearings would be pretty likely.”
Tahir was using a small flashlight to inspect the three huge generators. “Good thinking, Scott. The intake impeller or the turbine shaft would be the likely trouble areas, but it appears these were all removed.” He peered in closer, “Wait, no…not the impeller, but the main shaft is missing.”
Scott couldn’t believe he had missed that. As often as he’d been here, he mostly focused on getting the spillway gates to work. “So, the main shaft is gone? That is what turned inside the windings to make electricity – so we are screwed.”
Bartos called from a darkened corner of the large room. He was shining the light up at some metal racks. “Hey, brainiacs, would those shafts look anything like these?”
“Perfect!” Tahir exclaimed. “They would have removed those regularly for maintenance as yes, corrosion would be a problem. When they mothballed the place, they just left them out.”
Scott was chastened on missing the obvious but asked what, to him, was the obviously harder question, “Ok, so we get the turbine shafts reinstalled. How do we get the floodgate open?”
Tahir laughed, “Easy, BikerBoi,” using his old gamer name.
“How the fuck is that going to be easy? I spent months on the problem and came up with nothing.”
“Simple, Scott. You were trying to fix what was already there instead of just solving the problem. You don’t really need that spill-gate to raise and lower, you simply need a supply of water flowing down to the turbine.”
Scott thought about what his friend was saying. “Oh, my God!” How head-slapping obvious the answer was had stunned him. “We could blow the gate off.”
Tahir nodded, “Of course, or perhaps cut a hole in it or even just bypass it temporarily with a large pipe from the water side of the dam. If we keep the gate intact, once we are generating power, we could then shut it back down if we needed.”
Scott marveled again at his friend’s unique intelligence that had examined the problem for mere minutes before solving it. Honestly, he didn’t even think Tahir saw it as a problem; the solution was just so glaringly obvious to his sharp mind.
Bartos radioed for Scoots and some of the other mechanical types to come out and help. Installing the massive turbine shafts was going to take most of the day. Clearly, not work that Scott and Tahir would be much help with, so after Bartos ran them off the second time, the two wandered up past the dam and out around the lake.
Chapter Ten
Bob
by jerked the headphones from his head. “What in the hell?” His look of bewilderment was suddenly matched by DeVonte sitting on the opposite side of the room.
“Who…I mean is that really, is that her?”
Bobby flipped a switch to record the broadcast. Looking at the young man on duty with him, he muttered, “I don’t know.”
He used a smaller radio to scan other channels. “It has a powerful signal and it’s on a whole range of frequencies. Who else but the government could do that? Do me a favor, run get Tahir, he may know more.”
As DeVonte left, Bobby picked up the headphones and listened in on the speech. It certainly sounded like the same woman.
“… Let me say that once more. The days of simply surviving are over, it is time to put this country back together. This has been a dark time for the US and for the entire world. If this message is reaching you, then you are in better shape than most. We’ve all lost, we’ve all suffered. Casualty reports have been unprecedented. Now it is time to put the grieving behind us and get back to work.
“Some of you will ask if we are even in a position to do that. Do we have the people and resources any longer? The answer is: absolutely! We are a country of doers, we are a people with a rock-solid resolve. Your government took steps—at the beginning of this crisis. Unprecedented steps to make sure our country’s future would be protected. It is now time we tap into that plan and begin to take back what is ours.
“Now…let me be clear on this. There are enemies out there who will try and prevent this. People who fear a strong America. These are the threats we’ve always faced, but now they operate in the open. How do you find them? They are the ones that hoard supplies instead of contributing to the rebuilding effort. They are the ones who steal and believe they are out of reach of our justice system. They hold on to their illegal weapons instead of turning them into the authorities like they were ordered. They are the ones who conspire and plan against your government. They prefer chaos and brutality over order and justice.”
Tahir came in with DeVonte. They both plugged in headphones, and Tahir booted up his MacBook which had a cable going to the one digital receiver. Bobby wasn’t sure what he was doing, but the guy had a way of figuring answers to questions that no one else would even think to ask.
The president continued, “You may have heard a lot of things. Most are lies and exaggerations, but a few of those terrible, terrible things are true. For one, terrorists have taken over a few small, insignificant US military bases. We are dealing with them swiftly with deadly consequences. Just because they may wear the uniforms of our military doesn’t make them our friends. Secondly, the health crisis I predicted years ago is now a fact. A pandemic is sweeping the nation. We urged people to come to the treatment centers in our aid camps, but those are mostly closing now. If you remained outside, you are on your own.
“Lastly, and it is with a heavy, heavy heart I do this, we are reissuing a full travel ban in advance of this pandemic. We simply cannot be having those people who refused to come in when we asked them to now carry the disease to uninfected areas. Our country is at stake. We have closed off both our southern and northern borders. The Coastal Patrols are ensuring our shorelines are safe. Each of you must do your part as well. Radio an alert if you see people in violation of any of the above. People hoarding, people with weapons, people traveling and potentially spreading the virus. We must work together to contain further damage.
“I have authorized Homeland Security to expand the role of its security force due to the collapse of local and state governments and law enforcement. The NSF will take an active role in protecting our citizens. You are required to treat the NSF as my legal authority and obey their requests. Violators of any laws will be dealt with swiftly, particularly those I have specifically mentioned today.”
The broadcast went on for several more minutes with more of the same. “Jesus, that woman is insane to think anyone would listen to that crap,” Bobby stated matter-of-factly.
Tahir was holding a single headphone to one ear but nodded. “A few will, she is using just enough truth to sound believable. Many will also view this as their last hope.” He adjusted the settings on the signal analyzer software. “She is all over the radio spectrum. I guess she really wanted to be heard.”
The broadcast finished, but Tahir kept running one of his search programs. “Location was most likely near the East Coast but not going to get any more specific.” He slipped both headphones on. His face distorted into a mask of concentration. “That is unexpected,” he said as he pulled up yet another program.
“What?” Bobby said loud enough for the man to hear over the headphones.
Tahir ignored him. DeVonte leaned over and saw the frequency he was monitoring. He adjusted his shortwave to match. “It's on the AM freeqs,” Tahir explained. He gave him the specifics, so he could tune his as well.
Bobby and DeVonte listened in to the monotonous female voice droning on with a repetitious list of numbers. “That’s just one of the Numbers Stations broadcasts. The world could end, and those damn things would keep going. All of the radio operators had heard them countless times. You didn’t even need a fancy HAM radio for it, just an ordinary AM one would often do, if you knew where to spin the dial. Bobby had gotten interested in them early on just after getting his amateur radio license. Common theory was it was coded intelligence communications and had been going on for decades. Broadcasts had been plentiful during the Cold War but had decreased somewhat since then. Since there was no way of knowing specifically what was being said, he’d lost interest pretty quickly. It was a novelty to him, certainly nothing worthy of the numerous conspiracy theories. That being said…Why is Tahir taking notes as he listens to them?
Chapter Eleven
Tahir slowly shook his head, “No, Scott…it was no accident.”
During his time in the bunker in DC, Tahir had access to the best surveillance and intelligence systems that ever existed. Scott had been pressing him for more details about who put the Catalyst plans together and what had happened with the former president. “Look, friend, I just want to know how our secretary of ‘who really gives a shit’ woke up one morning as the new president,” he fired at Tahir.
“Well, a lot of top government were already dead or missing after the CME. Speaker of the House was killed in a car accident, secretary of state was overseas when it happened and was never heard from again. Many things had to happen for that to go on, Scott. Very powerful people involved. First thing was the vice president’s plane went down over upstate New York. The footage I was able to access clearly indicated a surface to air missile impact. Over the next few days, several others in the line of succession died or disappeared. The last five, the ones between our former president and the secretary of transportation, were all together at the presidential retreat. You know, the one in Maryland.”
“Umm, yeah, Camp David.”
“That’s it. Did I ever tell you about some of the crazy shit that went on at that place?”
His friend was beginning to drift. “Focus, Tahir. What happened to the president?”
“Oh yeah, yeah…crazy shit, man. They supposedly were there to discuss a plan for government continuity…ironic, isn’t it? No official reports ever entered the system. Someone scrubbed all the normal channels. What I pieced together came mostly from the few working street cams and a couple of secret service body cam feeds that I was able to find in the storage cache waiting to download. So, there are a dozen or so people in the main lodge including the president, the attorney general, chief of staff, treasury secretary and the secretary of defense. The last five of the top successors to the nation’s highest office.”
“Pretty dumb, yeah, but I guess they felt safe,” Scott added.
“It appears that the chief of staff ordered everyone out of the room. I only had video, no audio, but I can do a bit of lip reading. Anyway, everyone filed out except the four of them and the two-man protection detail assigned to the presid
ent. From the video, it appeared that the secretary of commerce, you know, the weasel looking, former Wall Street banker. Anyways, he took something from his briefcase, and they all leaned in to look at it. Then a flash, and the video went white. Overhead drone footage showed the entire building was destroyed. Scott, that building was bomb-proof. Steel walls clad in wood to make it look rustic, and the whole thing was gone. Blown apart from the inside.”
“Wait, so you are saying the treasury secretary was a suicide bomber? That’s crazy, man,” Scott shook his head.
“I know…I know, my friend. I can show you the vids. The expression on his face at the end. He knew what was about to happen.”
“Holy fuck…what kind of leverage must these people have to get someone like that to kill himself and the president?”
“Scary shit, man…”
“So, someone else is pulling the strings, right?”
Tahir nodded.
“Yeah, that is basically what our friend, Sentinel, has said, and it lines up with what Commander Garret thinks as well.” “So, who are these people?” Scott questioned.
“Scott, I’ve been digging around to find that out most of my adult life. They are always very careful, layer upon layer of obfuscation. I will tell you the little bit I have pieced together, some of it is conjecture, but I feel relatively certain.”
Tahir absentmindedly started rearranging the nuts and bolts scattered on the table where they were sitting. “There is a nameless group that has been around since basically the founding of the country. It appears to have been as few as four people and as many as nine but always very small in number. They most likely come from old money―money is never the focus, nor is it an obstacle. They sit on the boards of countless corporations in healthcare, biotech, defense and technology, but their base is always in finance. My analysis suggests they own or influence thousands of smaller companies in an even more diverse portfolio.”
