Blue Plague (Book 7): Hope

by Thomas A. Watson

  Feeling a hundred years old, Bruce slowly turned around with his mouth hanging open. “What is it with girls practicing on each other?”

  Angela turned to Stephanie who just shrugged. “We’re not boys,” Angela said, looking back at Bruce.

  “You got that shit right,” he huffed. “If Mike ever asked me to practice hickeys with him, I’d pop his ass.”

  “Yes, that’s how boys would react,” Angela said with a shrug.

  “So, what are you wanting to do today?” Stephanie said, moving back over beside him.

  “I need to think,” he said, staring off into space.

  “Can you give us a hint? Maybe we can help,” Stephanie said.

  “I need to reevaluate my battle plans. I didn’t take into account the blues trying to hide.”

  They looked at each other as Bruce jumped back, slapping his leg. “I hate these damn things,” he growled, yanking a phone out of his pocket.

  “What, Jake? And how do I take this damn phone off vibrate? I’m tired of beating my leg thinking a caterpillar is in my pants,” Bruce snapped then listened.

  They saw his expression change and leaned closer trying to hear. “Are you sure, son?” Bruce said. “Where are you? I’m on my way,” Bruce said hanging up his phone and Stephanie grabbed it, tapping the screen.

  “Come on,” Bruce said, grabbing them by the hands and running out of the shop.

  “What?” Angela said, trying to keep up.

  “Good and bad news,” Bruce said, running across the yard to the building the boys had set up in. A guard saw them running and held the door open for them.

  “I hate news like that,” Stephanie said as they ran inside and she handed Bruce’s phone back. “It won’t vibrate.”

  “Hey, thanks,” he said, putting it in his pocket. “I gave up looking. This isn’t a phone, it’s a small laptop.”

  “Yes, Angela and I picked it out for you,” she said, following Bruce over to the wall of monitors where Jake was standing. “It is the biggest and does the most stuff.”

  “Dad, that group in Pennsylvania has grown and set up air defenses,” Jake said. Bruce stood beside Jake and rocked back on his heels.

  “Shit, that’s impressive,” he said, looking at the screen. “They built their wall on top of the ridge that surrounds the valley.”

  “It’s built of shipping containers,” Matt said, walking up.

  “How much area do they have inside?” Bruce asked.

  “Four square miles,” Matt said, handing over a stack of papers. “Any large gangs within a hundred miles of them are gone. Some areas are destroyed and others are just empty.”

  “How far out does their air defense stretch out?”

  “Two hundred miles,” Jake said. “And Dad, they have brought in more choppers and have UAVs. They haven’t sent one here, but they are using them to watch around them.”

  “What tipped you off?” Bruce asked as he looked down at the stack of papers Matt had given him.

  “They shot down one of my drones,” Jake said, narrowing his eyes.

  “They aren’t stupid,” Bruce said, reading the pages. “Think they know you have satellites?”

  “Yes, but not how many,” Matt said. “When any military satellite is overhead they move inside, but when our civilian birds are over them they just stay outside.”

  “Okay, that’s a mistake,” Bruce said, pausing over a page. “New estimates on numbers?”

  “I’ll do it,” Stephanie said moving to a computer and Jake stopped her.

  “Let the cyber ninjas first, they need to learn,” Jake said and Stephanie smiled at him.

  “Get that ASAP,” Bruce said, finally moving to another page still reading. “So, your good news?”

  “We are getting reports from Groom Lake that they want to join us,” Matt said and handed over another stack of papers. Bruce never looked up and continued reading the first stack and Stephanie grabbed them.

  “Any contact?” he asked.

  “No, sir. This is all from private communications inside the base,” Matt said.

  “Any idea why now?”

  “Yeah, they are almost out of food,” Jake laughed.

  Finally, Bruce looked up at them. “Want to give me a timeline on when they will make a move?”

  “Ah, Groom Lake or Pennsylvania?” Matt asked.

  “Area 51,” Bruce said grinning.

  “Dad, they don’t have aliens at Groom Lake, we have the inventory and list of projects they have worked on,” Jake sighed.

  “They wouldn’t put that on a computer you could just hack,” Bruce said, dropping his smile.

  Closing her eyes with a sigh, Angela groaned. “Bruce, I’m not in the mood to argue about little green men crashing in the fifties. If they had, a moronic, deaf, blind man could’ve reverse engineered what they had by now.”

  “They would hide that, too,” he grinned.

  “Jake, find me some Tylenol,” Angela said, rubbing her temples. “Stephanie, unload on him with big words.”

  Taking a breath, “The elucidations you denote to are highly improbable. Interstellar travel in relative standings is impossible unless done with contained self-sustaining biospheres as it would take generations to travel between stars-,” Stephanie stopped as Bruce threw a hand up.

  “Unless the civilization is millions or billions of years older than us,” Bruce grinned.

  With a blank face, Stephanie stared at him. “Then their spaceship wouldn’t have crashed, getting hit by lightning,” she droned out.

  “That’s right, we shot them down,” Bruce said proudly.

  “Bruce, that’s like a caveman taking out an M1 Abrams with a spear,” Stephanie sighed and saw Jake coming back with a bottle. Taking it, Stephanie shook out two tabs, tossed them in her mouth, and handed the bottle to Angela.

  Stepping back, Bruce looked down, pinching his bottom lip. “Well, a caveman might-,” he started.

  “Bruce!” Angela snapped. “We aren’t doing this today. A caveman could only lie down and let the tank run over his ass. Forget about little green men. You want to think of weird shit? Think of the blue fuckers.”

  Dropping his hand, Bruce looked at Jake. “When Area 51 contacts you, you let them know they can come, then you and I are going to that base to check it out. If we find a spaceship, it’s mine,” Bruce said then crossed his arms over his chest with a grin.

  “Babe,” Stephanie said, grabbing a bottle of water from a kid who was walking past. “You couldn’t even turn the vibrate function on your phone off, so what good would a spaceship do you?”

  Bruce leaned over to Jake and Matt. “Find your best cyber ninjas and we will let them work on it after we find it,” he whispered.

  “Sure, Dad,” Jake said with no emotion.

  “What about Pennsylvania?” Angela asked, taking the bottle of water from Stephanie.

  “Unless I nuke their ass, we have to go dig them out,” Bruce said shaking his head. “Whoever is running their ground game knows his shit.”

  “How many nukes are we talking about?” Angela said and from across the room they heard Danny.

  “I get to push the button!”

  Stephanie moved at Bruce and Angela caught her arm. “He can’t have your babies, so don’t start,” she said. “I found a photo album that proves Debbie gave birth to Danny.”

  “I find that hard to believe. There has to be a thousand photo albums in the house with several boxes full of them in one of the containers,” Bruce said.

  “It’s Danny’s baby album,” Angela sighed.

  “Yeah, I know, I took the pictures,” Bruce said with a shiver. “Don’t know why she wanted them.”

  “It shows Danny being born?” Stephanie said in a small voice.

  “Yep, not what I really want to see ever again,” Bruce said.

  “We aren’t doing that,” Stephanie said with a nod. “If Angela wants to, okay, but you don’t take pictures until the babies are in my arms.”
>
  “Gladly,” Bruce said, leaving no doubt.

  “No, I don’t want pictures,” Angela said. “So, how many nukes would it take?”

  “Just guessing and I’ll have to confirm, but we are talking three or four warheads. They have several outposts and contrary to popular belief, a nuke doesn’t scour the area clear for hundreds of miles,” Bruce said.

  “I really don’t want to expose the blues to radiation. Who knows what it will unlock?” Stephanie said.

  “I’m telling both of you now, if we see a blue with wings to go with the horns, we are moving to the moon. If we die getting there, so be it,” Bruce said, planting his feet apart and putting his hands on his hips.

  “I guess, in this spaceship the government is hiding,” Angela snorted.

  “Angela,” Jake said, raising his finger, “just a word of advice. The last time Mom and Dad argued about this was the last Dutch Oven mom had until you two came into this family. When we heard Momma scream for help, we ran in and Dad held us under the covers with her. Let Dad have his fantasies.”

  “Keep on, son, I know where you sleep,” Bruce said, turning to the monitors. “Little Foot, go get Mack. I need to know if air is an option. Red, double check the ninjas and I’m going to the command bunker.”

  “Don’t you want Gene and Mike at least?” Stephanie asked.

  “They are already there,” Bruce said, heading for the door. “I may not know how to make the phone stop shaking, but I can tap the screen to send prepared messages.”

  When Bruce walked out, Jake turned to them. “If I was you, I would make sure the little ones sleep in the bed with you.”

  “He wouldn’t,” Stephanie gasped. “We’re pregnant.”

  Thinking for a minute, Jake nodded. “You’re right, he would wait till after you delivered.”

  “Thank you, Jake,” Angela smiled then stepped over, poking him in the chest hard with her finger and the smile turning into a scowl. “You let that go with Mary. She did what she had to do to get your ass. If boys weren’t so stupid, we wouldn’t have to work so hard to ambush you and get what we want.”

  Swallowing nervously, Jake looked down at Angela’s tiny form with her belly poking his waist. “Yeah, I was going to say all’s fair in love and war,” he grinned nervously.

  “That’s what love is with a boy; war. Until we get you and then, we have to keep fighting to hang on to you,” she snapped, poking his chest again. She turned to Matt and he held up his hands.

  “I already told Danny I understood,” he said quickly.

  The scowl fell off and a smile filled Angela’s face. “That’s good,” she said and spun around. “I’m bringing Mack here.”

  “Like we would tell her no,” Matt mumbled to Jake.

  “Move,” they heard and turned to see Stephanie take a young woman’s chair. “Sorry, but your chair is the most comfortable,” Stephanie said and started typing on the computer.

  “I’m telling Danny, I don’t want kids anymore,” Matt whispered.

  “I promised Mary one,” Jake sighed.

  “Peace be with you, brother,” Matt said and headed to his workstation.

  Chapter 20

  It was the last day of March as Jake sat in the command bunker going over reports his cyber ninjas had turned in. “Matt,” he said. “How do you think we should bring in Groom Lake?”

  Sitting beside Jake, Matt gave a slight shrug. “I’m still leaning toward sending transports out and just flying their asses here. We can load up the research that is important and bring it back.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I think is the best,” Jake said. “Piss on Gene’s idea of taking a convoy.”

  “That is a long hump in vehicles,” Matt said, looking up from his own stack of reports. “This group in Pennsylvania is starting to piss me off.”

  Jake laughed and looked over at Matt. “Well, Mack did blow up two of their air defense sites.”

  “You know, I still don’t think that was a good idea to announce on TV that was payback for shooting down that drone,” Matt said, looking back down at his reports.

  “Fuck those bitches,” Jake huffed.

  “Jake, two days after Mack blew up their air defenses, you buzzed them with a drone,” Matt snickered. “Then, to go on TV saying they owed you a blow job for shooting down your drone was a bit much.”

  Looking off with a grin, Jake nodded. “Dad thought it was hilarious.”

  “Oh, I did too, but I would rather they just pack up and leave. They have over eighteen thousand people there and half are fighters. Not to mention they have armor and choppers and most of their fighters are former military.”

  “That gang near Savannah is bigger,” Matt said then started typing on his laptop.

  Putting the report he was reading down, Jake picked up the next one. “True, but they are just bullies,” he said.

  “Is your dad okay?” Matt asked in a low voice.

  Jake nodded with a sigh. “Yeah, he’s good to go.” On the twenty-seventh, the family had a picnic in front of his mom’s statue and in truth, Jake knew they needed the break. The only work done was those in the kitchen and guard duty, but even those were broken down to the bare minimum. As the sun set that day, Bruce stood alone in front of the statue. Jake had come out of the center to get his Dad and had seen tears running down his face.

  “I was just worried, he didn’t seem like himself yesterday,” Matt said, grabbing another report and typing the important areas in his own report.

  “Well, he was himself in the gym this morning,” Jake snickered.

  Looking over at Jake, Matt cleared his throat, “You, ah, don’t think he’s going to be mad about us contacting Groom Lake, do you?”

  Shaking his head, Jake looked at the report he was holding again. “No, out of the thousand people, there’s only a hundred that are fighters. We need those scientists and the stuff they are working on.”

  “Hey, you don’t have to convince me,” Matt grinned and went back to typing. “I can’t wait to see that hydrogen powered turbo engine.”

  “So, do you want to bring it up in the meeting?” Jake asked, typing.

  “Nope, but I’ll back you.”

  They sat typing away for several minutes and heard someone coming down the stairs and looked up to see Bruce walking in with Ted and Carl behind him. “You have that much to report?” Bruce asked, heading to the end of the table.

  “Yes, sir,” Jake said and went back to typing.

  Bruce pulled out his laptop and several notebooks as Ted and Carl sat down. When Bruce dropped into his chair, he looked at the door and saw everyone else in the command group file in. “Stephanie, you don’t cry when you give PJ a spanking,” Angela snapped, walking in.

  “Did you see how hard he was crying?” Stephanie said, wiping her eyes.

  “Stephanie, PJ and Cade knew they did wrong,” Angela sighed and dropped into her chair. “At least we caught them before they used the electric razor on Max.”

  “What?” Bruce asked, leaning over the table.

  “Your,” Angela stressed very hard, “sons used the electric razor on each other. Then, they used the razor to trim the carpet in the bedroom. Luckily, we caught them before they shaved Max.”

  Leaning back in his chair, Bruce smiled, “So how much hair did they cut off?”

  “Oh, they both have crew cuts now,” Angela said as Stephanie sat down. “I have no problem with that, but shaving the carpet is just being destructive.”

  “Why couldn’t you just spank both of them?” Stephanie huffed.

  Leaning over the table, Angela narrowed her eyes at Bruce. “You need to talk to the other wife. She’s not listening to me.”

  “Nope,” Bruce said, shaking his head.

  “Dad,” Jake said, standing up with a smirk. “Groom Lake is ready to join.”

  Everyone at the table turned to Jake in shock. “They just radioed and asked?” Bruce asked.

  “Well, not exactly. We sent them an emai
l,” Jake said, looking down at his laptop.

  “You took a big chance,” Ted said, letting out a soft whistle.

  “Not really,” Matt shrugged. “We owned their computers and if they’d said no, we would’ve just crashed them.”

  Leaning back in his chair and shaking his head, Carl asked. “Do they know that?”

  “Oh, I’m sure they do now,” Matt said. “But the condition of them joining, they had to shoot the three Homeland agents there, along with a crazy ass major.”

  Sitting back down in his chair, Jake tapped his computer and the huge monitor on the wall showed four bullet-riddled bodies. “This photo was sent an hour after the email,” he said.

  “What the hell did they shoot them with?” Gene asked.

  “Don’t know but as you can see, more than one person shot each one,” Jake said.

  “So ah, when are they ready?” Bruce asked with a grin.

  Hearing the grin in his Dad’s voice, Jake took a deep breath, still looking at his computer. “They don’t have a spaceship there, Dad.”

  Slapping the table, “They are lying,” he snapped.

  “Daddy Mike, pass me your Ibuprofen,” Jake said and Mike laughed, pulling his bottle out and sliding it down the table.

  As Jake opened the bottle, Matt looked down the table at Bruce. “We did ask,” he said sheepishly. “They said we were more than welcome to look around if we didn’t believe them.”

  Mike laughed as Bruce just started mumbling. “How do you two want to get them?” Mike asked as Jake slid the bottle back down the table.

  “Transport planes. Taking a convoy that far is just too risky. As you know they are in the middle of the desert, so they don’t have many blues around,” Matt said, watching Bruce mumble with a very pissed off expression.

  “We aren’t just going to land our planes there,” Gene said. “How about a transport loaded with troops lands first, just to make sure they are playing nice.”

  “They could still blow up the plane,” Ted said. “Why not drop the troops away from the base?”

  “Because you can’t get near the damn place without them knowing it, Ted, I’ve seen some of their security and it’s good,” Gene told him.