Bunker: Boxed Set (Books 4 and 5)

by Jay J. Falconer

  If he was correct about the high number of cards needed, it also meant the soldiers on guard duty had their hands full. Operators would arrive at all hours and in different modes of transportation. Some might even be walking, if their rides broke down.

  “Or crashed,” he mumbled, looking at the bandage around his left arm. Then he remembered the scars on his neck.

  A new idea came unbidden to his mind—one that might increase his chance of success. He couldn’t do much about his missing all-black attire, or the fact that he was arriving alone. However, if he could distract the guards long enough to get close, he might be able to provide the codename and be scanned.

  Bunker took out his knife and drew it across the palm of his hand. The blade opened a gash about a half-inch long. He held the wound over the bandage, letting the blood drip onto the cloth and down his arm. A quick smear of the blood hastened the process, then he painted his neck and shirt collar red, making it appear he’d been injured in a car wreck. His forehead and cheeks were next, taking only seconds to help conceal his face from any cameras that might be active at the checkpoint.

  The final item needed was a limp—something that would be noticeable from a distance. The guards would be curious and let him approach for inspection, where the blood prep would take over to complete the backstory.

  The problem with a fake limp is remembering it when you’re under duress. Consistency is critical; otherwise, you’ll find yourself under arrest, or worse.

  The best way to sell a limp is to actually give yourself one. Pain is an effective reminder.

  A pebble with jagged edges caught his eye in the dirt. It was the perfect size and shape. He put it into his pocket, planning to stuff it into his sock and walk on it as he advanced on the checkpoint.

  CHAPTER 28

  Allison took a deep breath and let it out, hoping to rid her body of its anxiety as she continued her trek down the hallway in Tuttle’s place. For a moment, she thought about turning around to avoid the encounter, but Misty needed her to deliver a message to the man Allison knew was in the master bedroom.

  She found Sheriff Apollo sitting on the foot of the bed, his head tilted back at an angle and facing a wall covered in newspapers. He looked lost in the visuals before him, his eyes pinched and scanning the articles.

  “Excuse me, Sheriff. Do you have a minute? Misty would like to talk to you.”

  Apollo nodded, never looking her way. “Sure, just send her in.”

  “Not here, Gus. She won’t leave Martha’s bedroom.”

  He brought his eyes around and let out a gentle smile. “Okay. I’ll head over as soon as I finish up here.”

  His sudden gaze brought a tidal wave of pressure to her heart. It felt like a bulldozer had just smashed into her chest, making her want to run for the exit. Yet somehow, she found the courage to hold her position, even though she wasn’t prepared for any of the newfound feelings.

  He scooted over on the bed in a single lift and shift of his rear end, obviously making room for her to sit down.

  Allison gulped, standing there like a mute statue. She needed to move or say something, but her body wasn’t reacting to commands. All she could do was blink at him like a zombie. It was embarrassing.

  “Please. Sit. I have something I want to show you,” Apollo said in a gentle tone. He tapped the bed next to him, then nodded as if he’d just issued a direct order to one of his deputies.

  Her feet finally responded. She sat down, with her breath growing shorter by the second, keeping several inches of space between them. “Is something wrong?”

  “No, it’s not that,” he said, pointing at the newspapers hanging on the wall. “Tell me, what do you see?”

  She peered at the newsprint, seeing headlines highlighted in yellow. Other articles had sections outlined in black ink. Next to them were handwritten phrases in the margins. Most of the notes were messy and unreadable.

  Allison shrugged, wanting to answer intelligently, but her thoughts flickered in disarray. “I see a bunch of crazy.”

  “I thought that at first, too. Then I got to thinking. Why would a high-strung recluse like Tuttle mark up the maps the way he did? It was almost as if he knew exactly what we were going to need and left them for us.”

  She peered at the newspapers again, this time pushing aside the emotional thoughts bubbling inside. The Sheriff needed her to understand the point of this exercise and she wanted to oblige. “He must have known something was coming.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought after I sat down and took a long, hard look at this little project of his.”

  She took a look around the room, hoping her intellect would rise to the top. It was time to contribute to the conversation. Otherwise, she’d continue to come across as a blithering idiot. Or more accurately, a middle-aged woman caught in an emotional snare, all because of a single unexpected kiss.

  The newspapers were everywhere, covering most of the walls in front of her and behind. Some were on the adjacent walls, near the door and around the window. “He must have been at this a while.”

  “Trying to put the pieces together.”

  She pointed at the folded papers, stacked up on the floor. “Looks like he wasn’t done yet, either.”

  Apollo stood and walked to the left. He pointed at a headline that read, Uranium One Purchases 20% of US Reserves.

  “Okay, so?”

  “Wait, just read them all and let it soak in like I did.”

  She nodded as his finger moved from headline to headline, her eyes taking them in one at a time:

  Russia / China Purchase More US Debt

  China on Massive Gold Buying Spree

  The Holy Grail of High-Pressure Physics

  New Super Fuel on the Horizon

  Miracle Material Disappears from Lab

  Discovery of Miracle Element Debunked

  Secret Russian Land Grab Inside USA

  China Buying US Stocks by the Truckload

  Canadian Firm Sells Out for Billions

  Cash Flows into Foundations after Approval

  Uranium Production Falls to Record Lows

  Defense Cuts Leaves USA Vulnerable

  Border Crossings Surge

  Record Debt Cripples States

  Law Enforcement Cutbacks Planned

  Jade Helm 15 Rollout Commences

  Washington Ignores Cyberthreat Study

  Power Grid Upgrades Stall in Senate

  Apollo continued with the headlines for another minute or so before resuming his seat on the bed. “What do you think?”

  “I know you’re trying to make a point, I’m just not sure what I looking at here.”

  His tone turned serious and deliberate. “It’s the greatest conspiracy of all time, Allison. This is all about our government’s systematic sale of assets, technology, and territory to foreign countries, just to save its own ass.”

  She looked at the articles again, her mind in stutter mode. “You got all that from this?”

  He nodded. “It took me a while to connect the dots, but it’s all here. Tuttle must have figured it out. That’s why he went off the grid and built the underground bunkers.”

  “So he wasn’t crazy?”

  “Crazy like a fox. But nobody would listen to him, including me. That’s why he spent his wife’s inheritance to stock up on everything. He knew this was coming.”

  Her throat ran dry in an instant. It took a full minute to find her voice again. “If what you say is true, we need to tell somebody.”

  “Who would we tell? They’re all in on it.”

  She couldn’t believe what she just heard. “No, that can’t be. It just can’t.”

  “You need to open your mind,” he said, aiming his hand at the papers around the room. “The proof is all right here. You just gotta be willing to see it.”

  She didn’t respond. There were no words.

  He continued, pointing to headlines as he spoke, “Here, let me walk you through it . . . It all starts with our
country being buried up to its eyeballs in debt, with more piling on every minute of every day. We’re talking about an imminent, massive bankruptcy, the likes of which the world has never seen.”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen the numbers before. Everybody has.”

  “Then you also know there’s no chance in hell that we’ll ever pay any of it back.”

  She smirked. “Not with the way our government spends.”

  “Yet our enemies are lining up to buy our toxic debt at record levels, even though they know we can barely afford the interest as it is.”

  “Which gets a lot worse if interest rates rise.”

  “Exactly. Investors don’t pour trillions into something they know will fail, not unless there’s another way to profit.”

  “I see your point.”

  “This all centers around Cowie’s new super element,” Apollo said, looking sure of himself. “Something that will change the energy industry forever, but then it suddenly disappears from a lab. Unfortunately, nobody cares or pays much attention because the scientific community comes out and claims that it never existed in the first place.”

  “I remember something about that on the news.”

  “It’s all just a little too convenient, wouldn’t you say? First, we have Metallic Hydrogen being discovered. Something that will get us off fossil fuels forever and make trillions in profits for whoever controls it. Then it just disappears and nobody seems to care because some scientist says it never existed in the first place.”

  “Okay, I get that. Oil companies made it go away. Not the first time, right?”

  “Actually, I don’t think Big Oil was involved this time. It looks like Washington sold the discovery to the Russians for a huge payday. Or a ransom, if you believe what Misty said about the stolen formula.”

  She nodded, the theory coming together as he explained it. “A ransom payment is a sellout, depending on how you look at it.”

  “True, and it’s not the first time our leaders have done it, either. Remember in January 2016 when the State Department paid Iran four hundred million dollars in return for those hostages?”

  “Yeah, vaguely.”

  “That’s how it starts. Once they know you can be manipulated like that, our adversaries will never stop. They’ll hold a gun to your head for all kinds of reasons, like foreclosing on all your debt.”

  “Those bastards.”

  “But there’s more. In recent years, foreign investment in our country has exploded, with trillions of dollars pouring in to buy stocks, land, and businesses all across our country. And it doesn’t stop there. A huge chunk of our uranium deposits were sold to Russia, without anyone blinking an eye. Think about that for a minute. Uranium, the stuff nuclear bombs are made from, sold to our biggest enemy. And you wanna know why?”

  She flared her eyes but didn’t respond.

  “Because politicians on all sides were paid off in the hundreds of millions to look the other way. And I’m talking Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. All that money funneled through backdoor projects and charitable donations, then paid out as needed to keep the swamp creatures happy. It’s unbelievable, Allison. It’s all here, on these walls, in black and white.”

  “Unreal,” she said, unable to utter anything more intelligent.

  “Now here’s where it all starts to come together. First, US production of uranium falls unexpectedly, which I assume is to make room for Russian dominance in the marketplace. And again, nobody gives a crap. Then we see border crossings surge to get their troops and operatives in place while nobody is looking. Defense spending is slashed to the bone, leaving us weak and vulnerable. Debt spirals out of control across all fifty states, leading to local law enforcement cutbacks,” he said, pausing. “There’s a pattern forming here.”

  “Like chess pieces being positioned.”

  “For the kill. But what really sticks out is Jade Helm 15—an unprecedented military readiness exercise that’s conducted inside our own borders.”

  “To move equipment into place,” she added.

  “Yep. Right under our noses,” Apollo said. “And the media never bats an eye.”

  “God, how could we have been so stupid?”

  “Because we’ve all been brainwashed by the news media and the Deep State who control them. We’re supposed to believe everything they tell us, like good little slaves who are too stupid to think for themselves.”

  “You’re right. Nobody pays attention anymore. We’re all too busy trying to keep food on the table.”

  “Or trying not to kill each other.”

  She nodded. “It seems like every other day, another riot breaks out and the news goes nuts over it.”

  “That’s all by design.”

  “To keep us divided.”

  “And distracted. If we’re too busy fighting with each other, we don’t have time to notice how we’re being sold down the river.”

  “Unbelievable.”

  “But it gets worse. Despite all the research studies and the dire warnings, our leaders decide to leave our computer networks wide open to cyberattack and never upgrade our power grid. Does that make any sense to you?”

  “No. Why would they do that?”

  “Because the decision makers were paid to look the other way. They knew the attack was coming and agreed to let it happen.”

  “My God.”

  “Let’s face it, when there’s no way out, those in power will sell their souls to the devil if that means saving themselves. Especially if that devil is holding all the cards.”

  “You’re talking about blackmail, right?”

  “You’re damn right I am. Russia and China must have gotten together and threatened to foreclose on all our debt,” Apollo answered. “That’s why there’s been no resistance. Our enemies held a financial gun to our head. We either surrender to their demands, or they destroy us by flatlining our economy. We’re talking about massive bank failures, starvation, and social anarchy. That’s why we turned over technology, leaving ourselves ripe for takeover. This has all been planned from the start. Step by step.”

  She shook her head, not wanting to believe what he was saying.

  He threw up his hands. “They just let them march right in and take over. It was easy once all the equipment was positioned a few years ago as part of that huge military exercise.”

  Her heart ached, for her country and her son. “Okay, let’s assume what you say is true. It would mean Tuttle knew they’d invade Clearwater County, specifically.”

  “There’s no doubt. Just look around.”

  “That’s why he created those maps—” she said.

  Apollo continued her thought before she could finish. “—to show where the roadblocks would be and to mark possible escape routes. He knew this was coming.”

  “But how exactly?”

  He shook his head, looking tired. “I haven’t figured that part out yet, but the clues must be here somewhere. All I know for sure is that this was meant to be kept quiet until it was too late.”

  “How do you figure that?”

  “It’s why we haven’t seen any Russian jets or helicopters. They’d be too noticeable in our skies. A secret ground invasion could be kept quiet, especially in the backcountry, as long as communications and transportation are taken out first.”

  “By the EMP.”

  “Once the Russians got everything into place, it would be too late for anyone to do anything about it.”

  “So . . . what you’re saying is that the EMP and cyberattack were done to cover it all up.”

  “Bingo. Nobody would ever expect that our own government was in on it from the start. Not after the EMP and computer hacks took everything down. It’s the perfect excuse, Allison. Think about it. Our guilty leaders can claim the attacks caught them off guard. They can use them as the reason why the Russians were able to waltz right in. They can say they tried to stop it, but weren’t able to. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the EMP and cyberattacks were done by u
s, not Russia, to make sure it all went as planned. Who else would know exactly what to do and where?”

  “To save their own asses.”

  “And get rich in the process.”

  “Do you think the President is in on it?”

  “I don’t think so. The Deep State doesn’t need the President to pull off any of this. We all know that presidents come and go. So does his staff. They only exist to give the citizens the illusion that this is a democracy, and that we have some say in what happens. But it’s all a lie, Allison. The Deep State runs the show. Always has. Always will. They are always there, decade after decade, lurking in the background with their fingers into everything. They have the real power. Not the elected officials.”

  “It’s always about the money and power,” she said.

  “It’s just like with the UFO conspiracy,” Apollo said, pointing across the room. “There’s an article over there that talks about how Bill Clinton and his CIA director tried to dig into the truth about Roswell and Area 51. But they were stonewalled by those who are really in power. Nothing was ever revealed to the President of the United States, if you can believe that nonsense, because the Deep State knows he’ll be gone in a few years. All they have to do is stall long enough and it goes away on its own, without having to answer a single question.”

  “You’re right. He’s just a figurehead to keep us in line.”

  “Tuttle highlighted another article that proves Marilyn Monroe didn’t commit suicide, either. She was murdered by the Deep State because she was getting ready to go public and tell all. Remember, she was sleeping with both of the Kennedy brothers in the White House, and we all know what happened to them. Men in power like to brag when they’re in those types of situations with a sexy woman. Imagine the secrets she learned.”

  “Okay, I get all that, but why invade now? Why this week?”

  He shrugged. “Something must have triggered it.”