Godschild Covenant: Return of Nibiru

by Marshall Masters

  “I see your point,” General Hennicker agreed. “There's really no sense is risking the lives of two such important men."

  Vigo could see the anger raging in LeBlanc's eyes and decided to step in before another confrontation flared. “May I address that point?” he announced. All eyes turned towards him. “Director Lebedev, you and General Hennicker are right, but then this is not a cut-and-dried situation. As the man who will be responsible for this effort, unofficially speaking, I can assure you that neither LeBlanc nor Jarman will ever come directly into the line of fire. It's not necessary. However, what is necessary is that they be allowed to be there, because if something goes wrong and this mission fails, I doubt that either of them will be cooperative with any future plans."

  “Vigo,” Hennicker replied. “Your logic is sound, but frankly we need a better reason than that."

  “Then I'll give it to you,” Vigo shot back. “If that were your kid in the silo and you had no aspirations for a military or government career, what would you want to do?"

  Hennicker growled. “Yeah, I see your point. If it were me, I would want to be the first one in the silo with my trusty old K-bar knife looking for payback."

  Pavel leaned forward in his chair and pounded a fingertip into the table. “For the record, I do not see that the risks are justified. Jarman and LeBlanc are simply too valuable to mankind for a risk such as this."

  “And what if it were Yelena's son Dimitri in that silo? Would you sit like a coward in your expensive dacha outside Obninsk waiting for a phone call, like a good little bureaucrat?"

  Pavel swiveled about in his chair to face him. His first impulse was to reprimand him for taking foolish risks, but deep in his soul, he knew that he would demand the same were he in LeBlanc's shoes. He closed his eyes as a wave of regret wrinkled his brow. He sighed heavily, “Whatever you do, Jeffrey, please promise me you won't be a crazy hero and throw caution to the wind and tip our hand to De Bono. If he catches even a scent of what is happening here before the rescue attempt, he'll bury us all."

  * * *

  Prelude to the Assault

  EVEN THOUGH HE had burned an image of the route into his mind; Jeffrey LeBlanc checked the map one more time with his penlight and then leaned forward between the front seats of the army staff sedan. His young Washington operative, Jimmy Georgetti, dressed as a young Army National Guard lieutenant, was driving. To his right sat his Chinese girlfriend Li Ming, dressed in the fashion of the local hookers. “Jimmy, take a left here."

  Georgetti turned south off Highway 190, which cuts through the southern half of Fort Hood, onto Base Road, leading towards the silo field. Since the UNE had completely deactivated all of the remaining ICBMs at Fort Hood, armed guards no longer protected the silo field, which is one reason why UNE Governor Merl Johnston, had chosen it to hold Anthony's son captive. It offered a place of great security under complete UNE control.

  As they drove south towards the silo field, they entered a valley surrounded by hills to the East and West. The silo they wanted was furthest to the south, and located almost due north of the hangar at the western end of the Fort Hood military airport.

  Finding it was an easy matter. It was the only silo entrance area lit by banks of halogen lamps around its perimeter. As they approached the lights, LeBlanc said softly, “OK, Jimmy, we're getting close now.” Slow down and switch to parking lights only.” He pointed off to one side of the road. “Let's look for a culvert where a dry creek bed runs across the road. That's where we need to stop."

  LeBlanc carefully studied the GPS locator readout on his lighted wristwatch. They were almost upon it. “Here it is, Jeffrey,” Li Ming called out. Jimmy brought the staff car to a slow stop and left the engine idling.

  “That's good Jimmy. Now I know we've been over this a hundred times..."

  “I know,” Li Ming interrupted. Her role was the most critical role and during the drive into the silo field, she had focused on building up her concentration. She knew what she had to do and was prime to do it. “First I throw the square whiskey bottle on the silo wall. Then we leave. Now leave us free to think."

  Jimmy took a more reserved approach. “We've all got it down, Jeffrey. He put on his communicator headset. “We'll wait here for your signal to tell us that you're in place and ready. Then we'll do our thing and pick you up at this same spot on the way out."

  LeBlanc patted Jimmy on the shoulder. “Good man.” He turned to Li Ming. “As they say in show biz, break a leg."

  The young Chinese college girl's head shot back; “You're crazy! I'm supposed to break the square whiskey bottle, not a leg!"

  Shaking his head in disbelief as he opened his door, Jeffrey reached over with the other hand and grabbed his backpack. “Jimmy, do me a favor. Explain it to her while I get into position.” Gently closing the door, he donned his night vision goggles and lurked off into the night.

  It took LeBlanc roughly twenty minutes to position himself on the reverse side of a small rise some 250 yards east of the silo entrance. It offered a clear, unobstructed view of the entire silo entry area, as well as the mobile homes used by Captain Darkazani's Syrian peacekeepers and Euro Mercs. After positioning the pencil thin, camouflage-colored nanobot controller and beam communicator antennas he slid quietly back down the rise and checked the feeds to his webpad. He then keyed in the secure channel access to his IBM Biomass desktop with Andrea, now safely tucked away at an agreed place on-post. The link came up immediately and all lights were green. “So far, so good,” he called to Jimmy. “I'm set. There are the usual two guards on top of the bunker, one by the gate and another one in the guardhouse at the entrance.” They all looked bored, but things would liven up soon enough LeBlanc reasoned.

  “Thanks, Jeffrey; we're rolling,” Jimmy replied. He removed his headset and tucked it in the glove compartment. Then, he leaned over and gave Li Ming a soft kiss on the cheek so as not to smear her garish red lipstick. “I love you, baby."

  Li Ming's eyes softened. “I love you too. Let's go break some legs now. Yes?"

  Jimmy chuckled as he put the car into gear. “That's my baby.” He turned the radio on full blast to an old rock and roll favorites station and gunned the engine. He switched on the headlights and sped down the road in the direction of the silo lights as fast as he could.

  The last thing Darkazani's sleepy guards expected at midnight was an army staff car screaming from out of nowhere with a drunk lieutenant and an argumentative Chinese whore. Jimmy brought the car to a skidding halt just in front of the gate just as the Syrian guard aimed the red laser beam of his assault rife between Jimmy's eyes.

  With the radio still blasting, the duo drew the attention of all four guards. The most senior peacekeeper in the guardhouse came out, stepped next to Jimmy's window, and screamed, “Turn that accursed music off now!"

  Jimmy obliged him and said, “Tell your lone ranger over there to point his shooter elsewhere. I didn't come out here for any trouble. I came out here to do some drinking and get laid. Besides, these silos have been abandoned, so who the hell are you?"

  The senior peacekeeper shone his flashlight into each of their faces and said with a slight accent, “This is a secure UNE control zone. I'm sorry sir but you must return to the main post right now. This area is restricted."

  By now, the Syrian could smell the whiskey that reeked from Jimmy's breath and knew that man would be troublesome. “Restricted, my ass, Tonto! I came here to get laid, so get your miserable peacekeeper ass out of my way!"

  “Get out of the car,” the peacekeeper ordered.

  “Screw you, Tonto!"

  That was the code phrase Li Ming had been waiting for. She threw open her door and jumped out with two whiskey bottles in her hand. One was round and the other square. The square bottle held an inert golden suspension fluid containing millions upon millions of nanobots that had arrived via diplomatic courier from Russia the day before. There had been only enough time to create one bottle and nothing more. This was
Li Ming's moment of glory or infamy, depending on what she did next.

  With the two peacekeepers on Jimmy's side of the staff car, Li Ming ran towards the gate and turned. She held up the whiskey bottles. “You stupid dog fart; you pay me for lovey-lovey, not for getting killed by crazy peacekeeper! You drinkee too much!"

  LeBlanc watched the whole performance on his webpad from the reserves side of the rise. “Li Ming, you deserve an Oscar for this one,” he mumbled happily to himself.

  He then watched Jimmy jump out of his car and then stagger and fall over the hood screaming, “That's my whiskey, you stupid whore bitch!"

  “I whore, but I'm no bitch!” Li Ming shot back. She then grabbed the square bottle by the neck and turned to face the bunker entrance. Before anyone could say a word, she arched back her arm and threw the square whiskey bottle with the nanobots forward in a high arc over the chain link fence, towards the bunker entrance. The bottle landed with a crash at the base of the bunker's vault door much to LeBlanc's delight. A perfect hit, better than he could have hoped.

  While Jimmy moaned and complained about the cost of the whiskey, Li Ming walked back to the car with a proud ladylike gait holding only the round whiskey bottle now. She opened her door and loudly announced, “You take me back now or I break other bottle.” With that, she sat down in the car, closed the door and hoisted the round whiskey bottle through the open window. “I getting tired,” she announced. “We go now!"

  The Syrian peacekeepers watched the whole situation with humorless faces. It was oblivious that their patience with the whole affair was nearing the breaking point. Jimmy stepped around the guard, jumped back into the staff car and closed the door. He put the car into reverse and turned to Li Ming. “If you drop that other bottle, you bitch, you're walking back!” With that, he gunned the car into reverse and backed onto the road. Throwing it into drive, he switched the radio back on, flipped a majestic middle-finger salute at the peacekeepers and floored the engine.

  Out of sight of the silo entrance, he squeezed Li Ming's leg with a wink, took the communicator headset out of the glove box and slid it on. “We're waiting for you."

  “On my way,” LeBlanc replied as he finished burying the remote controller transmitter and webpad. Making a one last check to see that the antennas and lead wires were well concealed, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed back to the pickup site. By now, Andrea was most likely ordering the nanobots to form into microbots and marching them through the cracks and crevices around the door. To the human eye, the door looked like a seamless fit, but to a minuscule microbot, it would look more like the Grand Canyon.

  Li Ming and Jimmy were nervously looking out the windows for signs of LeBlanc or any oncoming headlights—hopefully not from alerted Syrian peacekeepers searching for them. Jeffrey ran up alongside the car in a crouch and slid into the back seat. “Drive!” He ordered softly as all eyes scanned the road before and behind them for signs of alerted peacekeepers.

  As they approached Highway 190 he said, “Turn right onto the highway.” A bit further down the highway, Jeffrey leaned between the seats and pointed to an intersection. “Turn left, there on Clear Creek.” Jimmy turned off the highway and after crossing over some railroad tracks, LeBlanc instructed him to pull off to the right side of road behind a parked 4x4 pickup. Jimmy could see one man in the truck. While all the lights were off, the tailpipe showed the motor to be running.

  “Leave the engine running, but turn off the lights, Jimmy. OK you two, get out and follow me,” Jeffrey ordered.

  The two did as they ordered, and as they got out of the car, the driver of the 4x4 also got out. In the dim light, Jimmy could see that the other man was tall and with a good, strong body. The crew cut haircut and stiff back definitely made him look like a military type. “How did it go,” the driver of the 4x4 asked.

  “Perfect,” LeBlanc replied. “Absolutely perfect.” He then motioned for Jimmy and Li Ming to join him at the back of the truck as the 4x4 driver walked back to their idling staff car.

  “Look kids,” Jeffrey began in a soft tone. “You've done a great job tonight, and I'm really grateful, but now you've got to disappear for a while. This truck has a one hundred gallon auxiliary tank up there behind the cab. It's full, as is the main tank. If you take it easy on the pedal, it should be enough get you to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho where I've got a nice house on the lake. He pointed to the boxes stacked behind the auxiliary fuel tank. There is also food, clothing, jackets, tools, etc. All the stuff you'll need. You'll also find a .45 and a few boxes of shells under the front seat.

  He picked up a small aluminum briefcase from the back of the truck. Money and ration stamps enough to last you both a year are in here as well as maps to my house and the keys. Now, my suggestion is that you two lovebirds stop off in Nevada somewhere, get hitched and spend the rest of the year in Idaho making a baby.

  He handed the briefcase to Li Ming. She took it gratefully and kissed him on the cheek. “You've always been good to us Jeffrey. If we have a son I'll name him for you.” LeBlanc smiled, as young Jimmy sported a beaming ear-stretching grin.

  LeBlanc watched them drive off, finally walked back to the idling staff car and got in. “Well General, what did you think? Did we pull it off?"

  General Hennicker patted the small webpad in his pocket. “I sat here watching their performance with great interest,” he confided. “The nice thing about a couple of street-wise kids like them is that they're genuinely believable. Slick. Real slick. Pass the word along. We're ready for phase 2."

  “Am I good, or am I good?” LeBlanc bragged.

  “Don't get cocky, hot shot. It's not over till it's over, and there is still plenty more that can go wrong, so stay focused."

  * * * *

  GETTING EVERYONE OUT of the Los Gatos Center and to the Livermore Air Base had been easier than Anthony had expected. After a late dinner in the mess tent, they all slipped one-by-one through the kitchen and the covered loading dock behind it into a waiting military ambulance.

  They remained in the ambulance, parked at the end of the flight line, for over an hour before a young airman tapped on the window and announced that the Flying Circus was on its final approach.

  As usual, Captain Jerome Richard greased the landing with ease and they watched as the old Hercules transport taxied to their end of the flight line.

  Coming to a full stop, the all-composite six-bladed propellers of the Flying Circus spun down as Richard and his co-pilot, Al, shut down the airplane's four powerful Allison turboprop engines, and a fuel truck drove up from behind. The moment the ground crew began the refueling; Vigo opened the forward door and waved them to join him.

  Charlie Gibbs had already been waiting all afternoon with their gear, which was now loaded on small utility tractor ATV. He quickly drove alongside the Flying Circus and began offloading the gear into Vigo's arms as the rest left the ambulance to join them.

  Once inside the cargo hold they saw that most of its 51-foot cargo bed was occupied by two shiny new jet black Cadillac Lectra 12-passenger electric drive SUVs with the newest GE AWD independent wheel motors facing the rear ramp. Squeezed between the Cadillacs and cockpit bulkhead were five commandos, and one of them held a young chimpanzee on his lap. The chimp was keenly interested in their arrival and kept pointing at them. Anthony immediately noticed that none of the commandoes had any identifying name badges or insignia. This was definitely a dark op.

  After the last of the group boarded the aircraft, a middle-aged sergeant introduced himself. “I'm the loadmaster. Master Sergeant Bill Jenkins is my name. I'll get your things stowed, and we'll be taking off just as soon as they finish the refuel, which shouldn't be more than a few minutes."

  Anthony expected to see the commandoes, but remembered that the last loadmaster had been a somewhat nervous young fellow. “I don't believe we've met,” he said.

  “Yeah, I was laid up when you last flew with us, but the Captain has filled me in on everything. While
I never met you, a friend of the Captain is a friend of mine if you know what I mean."

  Anthony smiled and shook his hand. “Glad to have you as a friend Billy.” The older silver-haired man smiled back with a wink and then went about his business.

  With everyone inside the aircraft, Vigo closed the door and started the introductions. “We're going to pull back pretty soon and there'll be more racket in here than you can imagine once they fire up the engines so let me make the introductions real quick like. First, I'll introduce my assault team, and then Anthony will introduce all of you.

  Sitting on the far side with the chimp in his lap is Sergeant Nir Haftzadi. The chimp is called Violetta. She is a bionic/cybernetic enhanced chimpanzee animal we like to use for special ops these days. That bright-eyed kid with the jutting jaw and large ears next to them is Sergeant Alexei Gladkov. Next to him is Sergeant Major Michael Levy; he's a first-rate sniper. Trust me; you don't want to piss him off. The big, burly, bald-headed guy next to him with the shit-eating grin is Sergeant Major Shalom Mordechai. And standing next to me, is the team commander, Captain Shai Shalom Cohen."

  Ann-Marie Bournelle stepped towards Vigo. “Are these guys from where I think they are?"

  Vigo smiled. “Yup. They're a mobile crack assault team run by the IDF. They're coming along because we promised them they could have Captain Darkazani and any of the other Syrians they want.” The Israeli commandos all waved at them with big toothy grins.

  “Thanks to them,” Vigo continued, “We're already one step ahead. At the outset of this operation, we thought we'd have to deal with a particularly nasty fellow by the name of Colonel Yasin, who used to run the silo operation. You might be interested to know that Shai and his boys clipped him in Mexico, and Levy over there put a .17 cal depleted uranium caseless right through Yasin's eye faster than you can blink.” Levy casually shrugged as though it was nothing out of the ordinary. “Once we're airborne, Shai will join us in the back of one of those caddies and we'll brief you on what will take place once we begin the assault on the silo. Anthony, it's your turn."