Dead Drop Series (Book 1): Dead Drop (Rise of the Elites)

by K. S. Black

  CHAPTER 56

  June 8 – on the road to Tucson

  “What were your plans before all of this happened?” Michele asked.

  Jake thought for a moment. When he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off and looked off in the distance when she spoke. “I wanted to be a physician assistant—you know—a P.A. I got my B.S. in biology last December. Being a medic, I have my healthcare experience. I was going to start the program in the fall. It’s not going to happen now.”

  “Who knows what’s going to happen. You could—”

  “C’mon, Jake. You can’t seriously believe that things could ever go back to the way they were. Like we’re all going to pick up where we left off? For shit’s sake, we’re trying not to get eaten every day. I’d say things are changed for good, at least in our lifetime.”

  “I didn’t mean that things are going to go back the way they were. We’ll adapt. That’s what people do. You might be able to find someone to teach you what you don’t know. The medical skills you already have are still going to be useful.”

  “Yeah, I guess. But . . .” Michele sighed as she scraped the fish bones from their breakfast plates. “We need to get moving.”

  “There’s a little town about ten miles south.” Jake traced his finger along the map. “We’ll look for fuel there. I need to find a ladder tall enough to reach the transformers from the top of the LAV and a couple of large funnels. We already have a hose.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  * * *

  When they reached the hole-in-the-wall town, Jake drove slowly surveying the streets for what they had to offer. He spotted three semi-trucks parked inside a chain link fence. “Hang on!”

  “No!” Michele braced herself for the impact and checked the strap on the troop seat.

  Jake rammed the gate and drove over it without much effort, but the livestock protested loudly from inside their trailer.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “No, I’m a marine, darlin’.”

  She muttered something he couldn’t make out. He scrambled out of the LAV and beckoned her to follow. She exited through the back.

  “It looks pretty deserted here, but we need them to stay quiet.” Jake pointed to the trailer with the barrel of his rifle.

  “What do you want me to do? Sing to them?”

  “I don’t think that’ll work.”

  “I was kidding. Sometimes I wonder about you, jughead.” Michele grabbed some food pellets from the back of the LAV and tossed a few handfuls to each group of animals. This quieted them down after their initial frenzy.

  “That’s jarhead, darlin’. Keep an eye out while I get the fuel.”

  “You sure like to give out orders.”

  “Would you please keep an eye out while I see if those trucks have any fuel?” He could feel her angry eyes zeroing in on the back of his head as he walked past her. He positioned his M-4 across his chest and smiled.

  He broke the lock off the fuel cap and siphoned fuel from one of the trucks into a five-gallon jerrycan. He got lucky on the first try and filled the LAV’s tank leaving the semi with the dregs. He wasn’t so lucky with the other two. “We better start looking for a ladder and a couple of funnels. I want to try out my idea about the transformers to make sure it works.”

  * * *

  Jake parked the LAV next to the first transformer equipped power pole he came across and secured the ladder to the top of the vehicle. After attaching a large funnel to one end of the hose and tucking a large flathead screwdriver and a hammer into his belt, he ascended the ladder.

  “Here.” Jake let the hose fall on the LAV. “Climb up and stick it in the tank. It’s right there.” He pointed to the cap.

  Michele placed the hose inside the tank and waited.

  He suspended the siphon to the transformer with the bungee cords and made a hole in the bottom of the metal cylinder using the hammer and screwdriver. Then he wriggled the screwdriver around to enlarge the hole.

  “Can you do that quieter?”

  “I’m being as quiet as I can.” Jake moved the funnel in place before the oil began to leak out. He climbed a few rungs higher to reach the top of the transformer to make another hole. “It’s working!”

  “It’s not rocket science, but it seems like a lot of effort for mostly nothing.”

  He climbed down the ladder and rubbed his greasy hands on the front of his jeans before jumping down from the LAV. “You don’t get it, darlin’. These poles are everywhere. We’ll never run out of fuel.” He grinned from ear to ear.

  “I hope so, jughead, because it’s going to take over thirty of those transformers to fill up the tank. If you’re done here, let’s hit the road. The sooner we get to Tucson, the better.” She pointed over her shoulder at the LAV with her thumb.

  CHAPTER 57

  June 8—WFN Headquarters

  “Sir, Captain McGrath is here to see you.”

  A civilian secretary that he had never seen before sat at the desk outside General Kiefer’s office.

  “Enter.” Kiefer spoke loudly enough to be heard through the closed door.

  He snapped to attention in front of the general.

  Kiefer looked up and nodded before turning his attention back to the pile of papers in front of him. “Speak.”

  “Sir, we have a problem. The two CSDC Units we sent into Tucson met with some resistance. They’ve been destroyed along with their escorts.”

  Without moving his head, the general’s eyes moved upward. “You assured me that your two CSDC Units could handle this problem.” His voice remained calm but his hands curled into fists on top of his desk.

  McGrath tightened his stance. “Yes sir, I did.”

  Kiefer remained silent for nearly a minute as he maintained his rigid attention.

  “Do we know what happened?”

  “The CSDC Unit and the escort driving in from the west encountered a large roadblock on the interstate after they entered the Tucson area. They were engaged by four technicals. We lost contact shortly afterwards.” He placed a folder on Kiefer’s desk. “We got these from their drone.”

  Kiefer opened the folder and flipped through the report and the accompanying digital images. The first image showed four technicals blocking the Tatrapan and the MRAP from exiting the highway. The next set of photos zoomed in on the twelve other technicals and a small army of men gathered on some of the nearby streets.

  “The second CSDC Unit and their escort came in from the east. They pursued one of the combatant vehicles and were ambushed but fought off two waves of attacks before they were taken out. Both CSDC vehicles employed auto-destruct. We are one hundred percent confident that all the data and equipment were destroyed.”

  “These people with the technicals—are they the data miners?”

  McGrath handed him a piece a paper with several calculations on it. “We estimate a ninety percent probability that someone within this group is. I've ordered two more CSDC units to position themselves south of Tucson so we can triangulate their exact location before moving in. They'll be there within forty-eight hours.”

  Kiefer opened a drawer on his right and pulled out a green folder. He thumbed through the paper inside and stopped. With his finger, he followed the information downward. He closed the folder and returned it to the drawer. He removed a large plaque from the wall to get to the built-in safe behind it. He put his right eye up to a small lens and dialed in a set of numbers. The safe clicked open. He scrutinized several folders and pulled one of them out and flipped through the pages until he got to one with a red plastic wafer adhered to it. He peeled it off.

  “Take this.” He handed McGrath the red wafer along with a computer tablet. “These are the activation codes to deploy the ACWR unit. I want your CSDC units to work with them. Major Conley is the ACWR unit commander and your point of contact. You’re the operation commander. Don’t let me down this time.”

  ***

  McGrath made his way back to his office
before examining the red plastic wafer. He knew by the color they were search-and-destroy orders.

  Two hours later, he sat in a small conference room at the Special Units Battalion. A major with shoulders almost as wide as the door entered the room and took a seat next to him.

  “What can I do you for, Captain?”

  Conley slid down in the chair across from him and propped his large boots on the table.

  His eyes moved to the badge on his breast pocket. He reigned in a smile as the major jumped out of his chair and knocked it over.

  “Major Conley, Advanced Cybernetic Warfare and Reconnaissance Unit reporting as ordered.”

  Without saying a word, McGrath pulled the tablet from a black case. After snapping the red plastic wafer in half, he slid out two plastic cards, each about the size of a credit card. Both were embedded with a computer chip. He slid the card into a slot on the bottom of the tablet and placed his hand on the screen. He passed the tablet and the unused card to Conley. Then he took the small bottle of hand sanitizer out of his pants pocket. “Please insert the card in the slot at the bottom of the tablet and place your hand on the screen until it turns black.”

  Conley’s hand barely fit on the screen. After his identity was confirmed, the tablet started to smoke as it burned itself up from the inside and destroyed the plastic card.

  CHAPTER 58

  June 8—Tucson

  “This is so gross. There’s blood everywhere. How did it get everywhere? How much blood is inside a human body anyways?” Hayley grimaced, her face covered with a protective shield as she scrubbed the dried blood off the inside of the driver’s side door of the Humvee. “Are you getting hot inside your biohazard suit? I’m sweating everywhere.”

  “Take a breath, sweetheart. You’re getting a little worked up. I know this is awful.” Julie gave Hayley a sympathetic smile. “If I remember correctly, there are ten pints of blood in the average human body. And yeah, it’s getting warm, but it could be worse.” She stood on the passenger side where a small pool of blood had collected on the seat. She used a sponge to soak it up and squeezed the blood out into a bucket.

  “Ugh, I think most of it’s in here.”

  “It’s not as much as you think, but it did get everywhere. I’m grateful the guy wasn’t infected.

  They spent the next couple of hours cleaning the interior. It was spotless when they were done. Cooper had already cleaned the exterior, and he and Julie had moved the soldier to the workbench in the garage.

  * * *

  “I put down some plastic sheeting in the back of the Humvee. You can put the body on that before you take it wherever you take the bodies.”

  “Come take a quick look at this. It’s amazing.” Cooper waved her over.

  Julie moved closer to the workbench and craned her neck out not wanting to get too close to the gore.

  “This guy’s eyes were replaced with these.” He used a pencil to point to a set of miniature cameras. “My best guess is that he had binocular vision. I bet he could see about a hundred times further than we can see with ours. And there’s some kind of zoom feature with infrared imaging. You know what that means?”

  “He could see in the dark.”

  “Yep. Amazing stuff. Come a little closer.” Cooper lifted the soldier’s head and rotated it, so Julie could see the back of his head. Attached to the base of his skull was a half inch by half inch metallic, square contact pad with rounded edges and tiny fibers coming out of it.

  He set the soldier’s head back down on the bench and grabbed one of the two helmets he brought back with him and turned it so she could see the interior, “I believe this pad is supposed to make contact with the one inside the helmet.” He pointed inside the helmet. “I’m not sure what the purpose of any of these other contacts is.” He pointed to the six rows of other contacts throughout the helmet. All of them had the same kind of fibers coming out of them. “Maybe they have something to do with the cameras or maybe they charged the electronics. And it looks like the helmet connects to the suit right here.” He pointed to the socket and what looked like an energy source.

  Julie put her hand on the bench and let out a long breath. “My head is spinning. Since when have we been able to do anything close to this? I mean, this looks like something out of Star Wars or something. It can’t be real.”

  “You don’t look so good. Are you okay?” He pulled over a camp chair and pushed it open for her. “Sit.”

  Julie sat down and Cooper reached over to a hook on the wall and took down the soldier’s suit. He opened the pack on the back and showed her the DARPA logo with TALOS-3 on it.

  “I’ve heard of DARPA. They develop top secret technologies for the military, but I can’t remember what it stands for.

  “Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.”

  “That sounds right. But what is TALOS-3?”

  “TALOS stands for Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, and TALOS-3 must be the latest version.”

  “What was he? A borg? Like Star Trek?”

  “Not quite, but it’s almost as unbelievable. I asked him if he was a cyborg, and he said cyborgs weren’t human anymore and that he was human but enhanced. I’m not sure if that means DARPA has created cyborgs.”

  “Do you think that’s a possibility—real borgs?” Julie chewed the inside of her cheek.

  “After everything that’s happened, it’s a possibility.”

  “I think I’m going to make myself a drink to relax.” She pushed herself up out of the chair. “My head may explode if I don’t calm down. Oh, and one more thing—you’re not going to like this, though.”

  “You do know it’s never good to start a sentence with that.”

  “Well you aren’t going to like it, and I want you to prepare yourself so you don’t bite my head off.”

  Cooper sighed. “Spit it out.”

  She took a deep breath before she began. “After we finished cleaning the Humvee, I thought I heard a truck in the distance, and sure enough, when I went over to check, Mark and Ray were gone and so was the semi. I did a little more nosing around, and it looks like they emptied out one of the storage houses near them.”

  Cooper picked up a screwdriver and threw it across the garage sticking it in the wall. “Damn it! I knew I couldn’t trust them.”

  Julie backed up a few steps. “I think you’re overreacting. I’ve known both of them for several years, and they were good cops. I’m sure they could tell that you didn’t like them, so maybe they wanted to put some distance between you and them. Plus, you do have enough supplies stashed around her to last you for a long time. So they took some, we can find more later.”

  “Just because they were cops doesn’t make them good men. Trust me, I know.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you right now. Just because something bad happened to you that doesn’t mean all cops are bad.” She reached out her hand as if she was going to touch his arm but put it in her pocket instead. “I hear a glass of wine calling my name.”

  Cooper turned back to the dead soldier on the workbench. Julie retreated to the inside of the house. He examined the metal pad on the back of the man’s head trying to figure out how it was attached. There were no screws, so he tried to pry it off with a pair of pliers. It took some work but it finally started to give. With a final tug, the metal came loose. The micro-fine wires that seemed to be holding it in place retracted underneath the man’s scalp where his hair had been permanently removed.

  He tossed the contact pad into the helmet for safe keeping and heard a click from inside the helmet. The pad and the contact point in the helmet must have been magnetic. When he looked, both pieces had joined together perfectly. He put the helmet and the backpack that held the battery pack under the work bench and prepared the body for disposal.

  * * *

  Cooper made sure the fire was going to burn hot before he left. If there was a tracking device implanted inside the body somewhere, he wanted to destroy it.

  When
he got back to his neighborhood he stopped at all the storage houses to see if Mark and Ray had taken anything else. Just as Julie had said, one of the houses was cleared out and the wires to the cameras and motion detectors had been cut. He checked the house where they had been staying and found the key under a fake rock that blended into the landscaping.

  The key didn’t fit. They had replaced the lock. Cooper checked the wires to both the cameras and motion detectors. At first glance, they looked fine, but he gave them a tug and could see they had been cut.

  He would have to come back and fix the wires and switch out the lock first thing in the morning. Walking back to the house, he decided not to tell Julie. He didn’t think she was a part of this, but he couldn’t be sure. She was their friend and a cop like them.

  Cooper spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how to make the TALOS-3 work. He checked his computer for any information that might help. Julie and Hayley had gone to bed hours before.

  It was past midnight when his head fell back against his chair. Shannon and his parents called out to him from inside a trench filled with charred bodies. He climbed in and tossed the bodies out, one by one, but couldn’t find them.

  CHAPTER 59

  June 10—Bisbee

  The late afternoon sun beat down on Kevin as he spread compost on a fallow section of field. Tired, dirty, and dripping with sweat, he tried not to think about the ever-increasing pain in his leg. Everyone, including Suzanne, seemed to be ignoring him. The only two people who acknowledged his existence were the armed women walking the perimeter of the fields.

  The negative thoughts that he had tried to push to the back of his mind kept bumping against the reality of his situation. He had accepted the fact that he made a mistake coming here. “I’m going to tell Pete that I need to get back to Tucson.”

  A voice came out of nowhere. Kevin turned to see Moon coming up behind him with a jug of water and a large cup. “It’s probably not a good idea to talk to yourself around here, especially if you’re making plans to leave.”