Minus America Box Set | Books 1-5

by Isherwood, E. E.

  “You can’t win, Tabby. There are a hundred guards in this complex, and ten times that many workers. Charity and I are not going to be your prisoners, either. That’s not how we think.”

  She threatened to take her rifle off her shoulder, as if he had a way to slip out of the elevator car. Instead of being surprised, he smiled with pity.

  “If you wield your rifle, the guards will shoot you dead. If you lay your weapons down, you can live to fight another day. Isn’t it the American way?”

  Tabby was disappointed. “You’re really with them? I thought you were one of the good guys. My parents voted for you.” A fist clenched in her stomach, remembering her parents were gone, and men like Tanager were responsible. However, the dirtbag was right about her chances. She’d easily be able to kill the man, but that would be the end of her and her friends.

  “We’ll lay down our guns,” she said quietly.

  “Tabby?” Peter asked with surprise.

  She turned to him. “I have a responsibility to keep you and Audrey alive. Those guards are going to shoot us the second we take these rifles off our shoulders.

  Dwight was a true wild card. He’d taken a knee in front of Charity, as if she were going to knight him. Of course, he was begging to know the truth about his bird, but he seemed oblivious to the two guards and the tangle of decisions Tabby had to work through. He’d provide no help to her.

  Audrey whispered. “We’ll do whatever you think is best. I don’t want to die for that jerk.” She motioned toward Tanager, who continued to stand in the elevator with a smile on his jerky face.

  “Dang it,” she breathed out. “We’ll lay them down.” Much quieter, and only for Audrey and Peter, she added, “I’m going to get us out of here. I promise.”

  It was a bold pledge, given they were already inside the enemy headquarters and prison complex, but she’d seen more than a few miracles of late.

  To Tanager, “Fine. We surrender.” She and the kids carefully set their weapons inside the elevator, at Tanager’s insistence.

  “Back up and join your friends,” Charity said to Dwight with disgust.

  Dwight looked at the woman with surprise before noticing her by the elevator. He was the definition of distraught. Tabby was a little guilty for guiding the man around the forest at her direction and then overselling their chances of linking up with Ted and the president. She’d led him to his capture.

  “Sorry, Dwight,” she said to him. “I guess our luck had to eventually run out.”

  “That it did,” Tanager said, finally leaving the elevator car. As soon as he stepped out, the doors closed, carrying their weapons to another floor.

  The two guards pointed sleek, black rifles at them.

  Tanager motioned to the guards. “Call your unit commander. I want ten men down here immediately.”

  “Sir,” the man replied.

  Tanager turned to Tabby. “Now, let’s see where you were coming from. Based on where you were when my door opened, I’d say you came from that direction.” He pointed about fifty feet down the hallway, to the room where Ted and Kyla were still working.

  “We came from outside.” She gestured in the opposite direction.

  The president flashed a politician’s golden smile. “You’re a terrible liar.”

  Charity approached Tanager, then hooked her arm in his. “Shall we go see David? He wanted to see the weapon fire. I think he already has this girl’s friends captured in there. I can see him from here.” She pointed down the hallway. Tabby saw the man’s golden outfit and immediately knew it was true.

  “Fine,” Tabby said, doing her best to sound confident, “but I wasn’t lying when I said we came from outside. We rode our dirt bikes directly onto your runway this morning. We came from those doors.” She pointed away from Ted and Kyla. The flow of men and woman had dropped to a trickle after David made his speech about his weapon, but the door to the outside remained open with the odd person going in or out.

  Freedom was so close.

  But Tanager motioned for her to go the other way.

  One more time toward trouble.

  CHAPTER 29

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  “You two are clever, for sure,” David said nonchalantly. “The uniforms have gotten you through our lines for the last several days. I have an affinity for looking at surveillance and I recognize you from recent footage. I watched you and my friends from Central America run inside NORAD, but I lost touch once the nukes hit. Where’s Emily Williams, by the way? Did she survive the blast? You always travel with her, don’t you? I’m disappointed she’s not here.”

  Ted shrugged, unwilling to further acknowledge the question.

  “No matter. This room is where I watch the weapon send its power up into the heavens. There normally isn’t supposed to be anyone in here but me and my entourage. When you opened the door, an alarm went off. From there, it was easy to spot you on camera and then come in here and capture you. This attack, or whatever you thought you were doing, is a total loss.”

  He decided there was no point in trying to get Kyla up the ladder. Whatever Meechum had planned, he was going to give her the distraction. He waved to his niece. “Stand by me, okay?”

  The technician came back in the room carrying a replacement keyboard. Ted didn’t have much time before they were back in the system.

  “Really?” Kyla answered, as if questioning his reasoning. It was difficult to express his tactics when he couldn’t say the words.

  “Yeah, you’ve got them locked out of their weapon. We’ve done what we came here to do. Let’s play it cool and do as he asks.”

  “Sure,” she said lamely.

  He wanted to hug her and let her know he had a plan, but it would give away his intentions. He needed David to get cocky and overconfident, like every Bond villain he’d ever seen.

  The two technicians worked together to plug in the keyboard and get started on the computer. One of them turned to David. “Sir, the convergence shrouds up top are retracted. We’re having trouble re-connecting with them.”

  David chuckled. “It doesn’t matter.” He looked directly at Kyla. “You may have closed them up there, but the weapon will still fire. Those metal deflector plates are used to harness the flow of dark energy as it comes up through the hole. Without them, all it means is the people of Europe will die a long, agonizing death, rather than the instant disappearing act you Americans benefited from.”

  “That’s terrible!” Kyla snapped.

  David shrugged with a shit-snacking grin on his face. “I tried to be humane…but I guess you could fix it yourself.”

  Kyla tried to move back to the panel, but Ted had to hold her arm.

  “I have to fix it,” she panted.

  “He could be lying,” he replied, trying to sound reasonable. Every ounce of him wanted to pick up the bastard and toss him over the edge of the pit, Return of the Jedi-style, but the man was obviously trying to goad them. It suggested David wasn’t totally in control, after all.

  Kyla struggled for a few seconds, then seemed to wilt. “I thought I was saving them.”

  “I know. You did what you could. If they want to stop the suffering, they could simply pause the attack.” He turned to David, hoping to evoke some sympathy from the guy. “You could close the doors. Surely you can do that, right? You’re the boss.”

  David looked like he couldn’t care less. “The doors aren’t strong enough to stop the flow of an energy which goes through the planet’s core. Don’t you get it? The lid is to keep the rain out, not stop the weapon. You’d need something a lot bigger to accomplish that.”

  “So, you’ll help?” Kyla pleaded.

  David turned more serious. “Even if I was so inclined to save some suffering, I couldn’t fix it on this go-round. We’re at the end of the countdown and it can’t be delayed. It can only be restarted. Stopping and restarting would set my timetable back longer than I find acceptable.” He motioned to the two techs still
working at the terminal. “If they happen to fix it in the time left, so be it. If not, them’s the breaks.”

  Tabby appeared in the doorway, sending his heartbeat soaring. It was exactly the distraction he needed.

  Time to bring Meechum down.

  He sucked in air, ready to call out for the Marine, but he saw an attractive redhead coming in the door behind Tabby. The woman wore a white outfit that could best be described as yoga pants contoured all the way up to her neckline. But behind her, and behind the teens and the guy with the missing bird, there were two more men with rifles.

  He did not yell for his backup.

  Ted let out his breath, sensing the moment get away from him.

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  Tabby walked into the room first, as directed by Charity and Tanager. They were worried she wasn’t alone, and they were right. What she didn’t expect, however, was that Ted and Kyla had been captured by David himself. Her surprised look must have registered with the man in the golden suit.

  “Tabby? I have to say I’ve never been as surprised in my whole life!”

  She glared at him. “Give me a gun and I’ll make you even more surprised than this.”

  He laughed, totally deflecting her verbal attack. “Ah, I see your journey to NORAD didn’t take away your feistiness. I’m cursing my techs for not letting me see all the cameras inside NORAD. Tell me, how did you survive the nuclear attack? Ted here said he met people I sent to the inflection point, but I would have never guessed you were one of them. The bunker must have been stronger than I gave it credit for.”

  She crossed her arms, self-aware of her outfit. “I’m not telling you shit.”

  He clapped. “Delightful. Truly.”

  Tabby did have one card to play. “You should know your team isn’t as solid as you think. There are men and women who are fighting your plans. Helping our side. One of them was Victor, the man you thought would be my husband. He fought you.”

  “Ah yes, I remember it well. Before you were sent away. Do you know he killed four of my men and injured four others? I do wish he would have remained alive. I would have made his death a lot more painful than a few simple bullets.”

  Nothing seemed to affect him.

  “You are a small man with small plans,” she pouted.

  His cavalier attitude only got worse. “Small? This is the most significant action ever taken by one man in human history. Alexander the Great conquered most of his known world. Hitler mobilized millions to take over Europe. Mao eliminated millions of his own people to make way for a new China. The great men of history always make the hard decisions for the betterment of their nation. I, however, am making the hard decisions for those who no longer have viable nations. We are an army of refugees, political dissidents, and exiled nationals. I, and I alone, have mobilized these lost souls, eliminated millions who got in our way, and have made room for not only a new nation, but a new world.”

  David motioned for her to step closer.

  “And you’ve seen the source of all of this.” He gestured around the room.

  “The weapon?” she said, curious despite her anger.

  “That, and the technology behind what you see of my new army. The weapon, the aircraft, the drones, the tanks, the drilling equipment. All of it. You’ve seen its source.”

  She stared at him, blank-faced.

  “The room with my trophies. You remember?”

  Tabby did. “You had little models of stuff, if I recall. A cure for cancer you keep to yourself. Everything in there was small, like you.”

  The thrust did not land a blow. David kept talking calmly. “One of those objects was more valuable than the others. It was a piece of technology unearthed by one of the Chinese interests in Afghanistan who supplied rare earth minerals to my company. I was lucky to get it, I admit. I owned the foreman of the mine over there. Once in my possession, we reverse-engineered the tech to give you everything you see today.”

  Ted interrupted. “Was it alien? Do you realize what this means?”

  “It means I’m going to conquer every broken nation out there. I’m going to remake the whole planet in my image. With my people. My ideals. My rules. It’s going to be—”

  “The end of our species,” Ted replied matter-of-factly.

  That got David’s attention.

  Ted continued. “What if you were meant to find it? A weapon of immense power handed to one man with a god-complex and unleashed on a world unable to defend against it. Idiot guy wipes out all the militaries of the world and the alien force sits by until it’s all over. Then they kill idiot guy and his dupes.” He pointedly looked at Charity, then seemed to notice Tanager.

  “You? President Tanager? How are you involved in this?”

  “He’s a traitor,” Tabby informed him. “He’s in on it.”

  Ted’s shoulders slumped.

  David seemed to take it as a positive. “That’s a nice scenario, but a far-fetched one. The relic was not placed there for someone to find. I dug it up. Whatever benefits it presented, I made happen.”

  Ted tried to hit him with logic. “The Chinese might have put it there for you to find. They’re capable of anything. Maybe they’re watching those same cameras you fancy? Are they observing us right now?” He looked around the room dramatically. “Maybe they’re watching you do their dirty work, then they’ll come and take you out. Serves you right.”

  Finally, David seemed to take him seriously. “You think this was all set up by the Chinese? But I designed all the weapons. My people created the inflection device, my beloved cube of energy.”

  Dwight shouted, “The cube!”

  Everyone turned to him.

  Tabby was surprised it had taken as long as it did before Dwight spoke up. He’d moved around the room, undoubtedly searching for his bird. Or looking for bird food. Or whatever bird-related mischief his addled brain could cook up.

  However, when she turned to him, the look in his eyes scared her.

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  Talk, talk, talk. It was all those people did. He’d tried to listen, while searching for Poppy, but he couldn’t make out the details of the back and forth. What he did understand, however, was mention of the white cube. It was responsible for making him better, and he desperately wanted to feel whole again.

  “Please!” He threw himself at Charity’s feet. “Put me back in the white light.”

  He sensed the tension ripple through those standing around him. The men with guns put their fingers on the triggers. Tabby and the two kids huddled together, as if something was about to happen. He hoped it would.

  David spoke after a few seconds. “This better not be a diversion. I’m a reasonable man, but I swear I’ll kill every one of you if this is a trick.”

  “Not a trick,” he cried out, scratching at the woman’s booties.

  In the distance, he heard Poppy mocking him.

  “No, I’m not embarrassing myself!” he snapped back to her.

  The room became painfully quiet. David spoke first. “I knew it would be bad when I put this traitor in the cube, but I never, in my wildest dreams, could have imagined how badly I’ve managed to break him.” He clapped to himself.

  Dwight heard it all, though he continued to focus on the shoes. Charity hadn’t displayed much compassion for him, but he hoped she would be more willing to help him than David.

  “Get up, you fool,” the redheaded goddess said to him.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, happy to comply. He’d do anything to get what he wanted, suddenly realizing having a functioning brain felt a lot like a drug addiction. He really wanted to be able to think straight again.

  David laughed, in his grating, uncaring way. “I would sooner throw you down the pit than let you use my energy supply for your own purposes.” He pointed to the hole.

  At that instant, a body fell from above.

  “Holy shit!” David yelled.

  It surprised Dwight, t
oo.

  A woman in black hung upside down, a rope tied to her ankle. She waved her arms wildly and tried to swing around to face those inside the room. When she did, Dwight saw her face, though he didn’t recognize her.

  “Is that Meechum?” Tabby asked with amazement.

  Before anyone else could answer, Dwight’s eardrums exploded.

  CHAPTER 30

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  “Get down!” Uncle Ted ordered an instant after the gunshot tore through the room. Someone had snuck through the door behind Tabby and her friends and fired into the back of the closest guard. As Kyla watched, men in Army camouflage came flooding through the door.

  “Avery!” she said with relief.

  “Stay down,” her uncle ordered. Since they’d been disarmed, there wasn’t much they could do but stay out of the way.

  A complex dance took place on the wide floor of the room. Men with rifles shot at other men with rifles, creating a web of bullets flying in all directions. Kyla kept her head down, but she had to watch it unfold, ready to help.

  Everyone scattered except Dwight. The man remained on his knees, seemingly confused about what was happening.

  “Unk, I have an idea for how to stop this.” She pointed to the weapon.

  “Not now,” he said forcefully.

  The room had nothing on the floor anyone could use for cover. She recognized the superior position of Avery’s men almost immediately. They’d come in through the door to surprise David’s guards, but two of the others stayed at the doorway, safely plugging away at the four men with guns.

  She tried to catch the eyes of one of the soldiers. If they mistook her or her uncle as bad guys, they might get shot for having the same black uniforms.

  “Avery!” she screamed.

  One of David’s men lined up a shot on her, but he was cut down by a commando.

  David had run toward the two techs at the command console. He used their cowering bodies as his shield.