by Jeff DeMarco
Erica glared at him; anger and sadness overshadowed the knowledge of what needed to be done. She didn’t resist, however, when he pulled them both close, touched his forehead to theirs.
“I love you,” he whispered. “When it’s done, you’ll know.” Guilt weighed heavily, like an unbridled yoke, crushing down on his shoulders. He watched as they ran into the night.
PART 2
CHAPTER 27
A sudden wind whipped over the crowd, the thump of helicopter blades. It landed some 100 meters away, in a clearing. A team dressed in all black were the first out, their weapons raised. A woman walked out, dressed in a blue pants suit. Despite walking on grass in heels, she had a regal air about her, a domineering swagger. General Nichols recognized her at once, walked towards her and rendered a salute. They stood there for a time as he leaned in, whispering in her ear. Her face shifted with each bit of information.
Colonel Jaeger felt Dustin’s hand touch his shoulder; A worried look as he searched the crowd for Ari and Erica.
“They’re safe,” Dustin whispered.
She walked over to Petersen and slapped him across the face. She sensed the look in his eyes, the feeling of betrayal, yet her demeanor remained cold. “Arrest him!”
“I’d say we’re fucked,” Jaeger whispered to Dustin.
Alpha 1 and another agent moved on him, cuffed his hands behind his back.
Petersen shouted “She’s the one that-“
Alpha 1’s hand covered his mouth. “Interrogation, Madame?”
She nodded.
“We can handle that, Madame President,” Nichols said.
She cocked her head slightly.
“You haven’t heard?” he said. “President was confirmed dead.”
Her eyebrows arched in an enigmatic surprise. “That won’t be necessary, General Nichols. My team is fully capable of-“
“It’s no trouble, Madame.” He smiled. “I’m sure you’d all like to rest from your-”
“I said!” Her voice shifted from domineering to stately, as she paused for composure. “We’ll handle it.”
Nichols’ brow furrowed. “Understood, Madame President… We’ll have a room set up at once.”
“You’re going to have me killed.” General Petersen’s hands were bound in handcuffs to the table. “Aren’t you?”
Vivian’s face was demure as she sat across from him silently.
His eyes wide, begging as he watched her.
She glanced over at Alpha 1, a silent centurion. He pulled an object from his cargo pocket and flipped a switch; a similar black metal disc as Nichols had wielded, but smaller, thinner. “Don’t want anyone listening in.” Her smile was subtle, sly. “Do we?”
His head cocked and brow furrowed.
“Seems you decided to switch sides somewhere along the way…”
“Did I?” he squinted at her. “I don’t recall genocide being part of the deal.”
“YOU SWORE AN OATH, DAMNIT!” She slammed her fist down. “Destroy the wicked! Our mantra, our word!”
“My oath was to God! You must think you’ve done some miraculous thing in killing billions, as if you could judge everyone as wicked… Look in the mirror.”
She closed her eyes and took a long sigh… “Who else knows?”
His eyes shifted slightly. “Not a soul.”
She glanced up at Alpha 1. He pulled a Ka-bar knife from its scabbard, then slit the top of Petersen’s fatigues down the back; ran the razor tip gently up Petersen’s exposed back.
His muscles tightened at the scrape.
“Are you sure?” She asked with a hint of condescension.
Alpha 1 grazed the knife down Petersen’s temple, to the corner of his eye.
Petersen flinched, as Alpha 1 grabbed him by the hair and pressed the knife below his eye. His teeth gritted as he stared at the blade, nearly touching his eye. “There’s a girl, no two… and a boy.”
“Who,” she snapped, as Alpha 1 pressed the knife in ever closer. “I need names.”
His pulse quickened. “Erica…” He could feel the blade barely trace the membrane of his eye. “I don’t know the other’s name.”
“And where are they?” she insisted.
“The girl,” His words disclosed his panicked state. “She’s close.”
“And you let her live!?”
“I’m one of you…” His voice strained of fearful exhaustion. “Please!”
She stood and walked slowly around the table. “Tell me, General,” She bent down, caressed his cheek with her fingers, while looking in his eye. “What have you done since the plague?”
“Plague?” He glared up at Alpha 1 and considered his eye already lost. “You mean the virus that you manufactured… The virus you destroyed humanity with?”
Alpha 1 looked at Vivian, waiting for confirmation.
Her eyes closed, she held her hands up, as though baptized in the Spirit. “I am the hand of God, the light of the world” she whispered. “He that follows me shall not walk in darkness.” Her eyes opened and she nodded.
Petersen’s teeth clenched as the knife pressed in and up, a warm viscous fluid, the vitreous humor of his eye, spilt down onto his cheek.
“From the ashes,” She walked behind him, her gaze into infinite nothing. “We will grow…”
Petersen laughed, confident his life would end shortly. “You’re insane!”
Alpha 1 pressed his knife to Petersen’s throat, then looked back at Vivian.
Petersen laughed. “You’d have an Atheist lead your army?”
“I expect that he’ll see the light, eventually.” She waved her hand, prompting Alpha 1 to remove the knife. “Keep working on him… and clean him up.”
As the door closed, Alpha 1 sat across from Petersen. “It was your brother, you know…” He pulled a bandana from his back pocket, soaked it in an antibiotic solution from his first aid pouch and handed it across the table. “She may have ordered Crimson Sky, but he executed it.”
“Why are you doing this?” Petersen leaned his head down and pressed the bandana into his eye socket, feeling the deflated tissue where his eye had been. “We’re supposed to be on the same side.”
“Ha,” Alpha 1 kicked his feet out, rested the back of his head in his hands. “You bible chuckers are outside your goddamn mind!”
Petersen looked up. “You’re not…”
“I’m part of The Order, alright.” He smiled a pearly white grin. “Not for the same reasons as you, I suspect.”
Petersen sat, silent.
“For what it’s worth,” Alpha 1 stood and pulled an Israeli dressing from his medical kid. “It’s not personal… Not with you anyway.” He placed the gauze on Petersen’s eye. “It could be, if you want… depends where you stand.”
Petersen held the bandage in place while he wrapped the ends around like an eyepatch. “Who then?”
“That ought to do it,” he mumbled, tying off the ends. “Tell you a little story… one about a young Airforce Special Operations officer; let’s call him ‘George.’ Had a daughter once; a beautiful girl, beautiful wife… Had a great life. He was a believer, too. Maybe not in God, per se, but he believed in what he was doing in the world. Believed that America was the good guys, but you and I both know that’s a lie…”
Petersen cocked his head in confusion.
“Now one day, a young Major made his way through George’s neighborhood, let’s call him ‘Clark,’ had a thing for little girls and he found a way, damned if I know how, to get George’s little girl alone, make it so there was no evidence, gave himself a solid alibi, no way he’d ever be charged.” Alpha 1 glared at Petersen, his wild eyes now buried in the past. “And that little girl, 14 years old; her daddy couldn’t save her.” Alpha 1 shook his head from the past. “He was weak, you know? Instead of doing what he ought to have done, he waited and watched. He found out everything there was to know about Clark, who he talked to, how he thought. Then it clicked… The Order. George had it all worked out
, Clark’s patterns, his habits, then just as he’s ready to strike, Clark is gone. Reassigned to an undisclosed location. He talked to his superior in The Order, Director Flynn, offered his services… Years passed, he hadn’t seen or heard from ol’ Clark. Meanwhile, George was busy working for Flynn.”
“But that little girl got herself involved in all sort of self-destructive things… drugs and boys mostly. Then one day when she was 17, she up and ran away. That day, George came home, found mom with a bottle of tequila and a pistol dropped beside her… hell of a mess to clean up.”
Alpha 1’s breathing grew shallow, his voice now a whisper. “George went and tracked his little girl down. Found her too… pregnant and living in a homeless shelter under a fake name, fake identification. George came back the next day, just to see her and she was gone. Up and vanished. He searched and searched, but the trail was cold. He even found a death certificate for her made up name.”
Petersen’s eye widened. “It was you!”
Alpha 1 let out an annoyed sigh. “No shit? But you know what I should have done from the start? Killed your goddamn brother in broad daylight, cold blood. I’d be locked in a cell, but my girls… they’d still be alive. I was real messed up for a long time over that, my mind, my heart. It was my time of chaos… and I wanted the world to feel what I felt. Minus the whole religious part, The Order was a good fit; my means to make that happen, and kill your brother in the process.”
“Clark did that to your daughter?”
“They don’t give you guys an aptitude test before you make General, do they?” Alpha 1 shook his head. “Here’s the thing… I found Clark, but I found my granddaughter, too. Same time, same place. Like it was meant to be.”
A puzzled look crept over Petersen’s face. “Why didn’t you kill him, then?”
“You don’t have kids, do you?” He stared at Petersen’s blank face. “I had principles once. Your brother deserves to die and my grandbaby deserves to live… But if I had, they’d have killed me, probably her too.”
“You’ll let him live then?”
“Hell no.” Alpha 1 recoiled. “I’ll torture the shit outa him if I get the chance, and purely for my own enjoyment. Killing him, killing the president… that needs to happen.”
Petersen squinted in confusion. “Why are you telling me this?”
“You’re gonna help me.”
“Kill my brother?” Petersen whispered to himself. “I can’t do that.”
Alpha 1 eyed him conspicuously. “You mean to tell me you wouldn’t help kill a pedophile and mass murderer?”
Petersen stared back at him, silently.
Alpha 1 shrugged. “I can torture you, use you as bait for your brother, then kill you. Or you can help me, maybe even do some good. Hell, you might even live through it all… up to you. Makes no difference to me.”
Petersen pondered his predicament, the gravity of murdering his only brother. “On second thought, Clark was always kind of an asshole. I am curious though… What happened to your daughter?”
“His eyes turn grey again. “In the facility… They killed my daughter after she gave birth. And my granddaughter… consider me her guardian angel. She’s in California now, safe.”
“She’s… one of them?”
“Now you’re catching on…” Alpha 1 smiled. “Let’s get to work.”
“Should’a left when you had the chance,” Jaeger whispered. He sat alongside Dustin and Commander Blanco on the concrete, disarmed and huddled together with their teams.
“Something I should know?” Blanco whispered.
“Best you don’t know.” Jaeger looked around at the Special Forces team surrounding them. “Won’t spill the beans that way.”
“Plausible deniability…” Blanco rolled his eye. “I need to know what we’re up against.”
“Imagine a world…” Jaeger looked at Dustin, then back at Blanco, at a loss for words. “You’ve been to Afghanistan, Iraq? Done key leader engagements with tribal leaders?”
Blanco nodded.
“They promise, ‘No, we’re on your side, we’re not harboring Al Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS,’ whoever; they take your handouts, money, supplies,” Jaeger whispered with an ire. “Then turn around and stab you in the back; pound your outpost with mortars and RPG’s. Bunch of goddamn liars and thieves.”
Blanco cocked his head, though confused; yet his eyes narrowed.
“Same sort of snake, here. Group of people at the highest ranks of our military, our government, determined to take over, remaking things the way they see fit. Limitless money, power, technology… Christian, my ass.”
Blanco’s eyes shifted. “I’d say we’re fucked.”
“Here’s the thing,” Jaeger whispered. “The ones like General Petersen… They’re on our side.”
Blanco looked at him cockeyed. “Whose side?”
“It’s the ones at the top of the Order,” Jaeger said. “The ones that released the virus, the ones that created the children.”
“What are they?”
“I don’t know exactly,” Dustin turned towards him. “Telekinesis, telepathy… at the end of the day though, they’re just kids.”
“Strange,” Blanco feigned thought. “Just before the attack, I got a phone call from-“
“Colonel Jaeger, Commander Blanco!” General Nichols walked towards them. “On your feet!”
They hopped up and stood at attention.
“Follow me,” he muttered, as Military Police walked them inside the Airborne Corps building, down to the command section. He opened the door to his office and sat. He stared at them for a long while as they stood at attention in front of his desk. “Do you know what you’ve just done?”
“I’m sorry, Sir,” Jaeger said. “I-“
“You’ve engaged in armed combat on my fort…” He pulled out a can of tobacco from his desk drawer. “Assaulted my men, killed a federal agent…”
“We just-”
“You just broke about a dozen laws is what you did.” He stared Jaeger down.
Jaeger glared back. “We don’t leave Soldiers behind, Sir.”
Nichols let out a grunt. “… and here I am deciding whether I can trust the both of you, whether to look the other way or to have you hanged.”
“I saw the girl,” Blanco said. “She was beaten… A child, Sir. Innoce-“
“Not innocent, and not a child,” Nichols yelled. “That thing would have us grovel at her feet. It would make us its slaves.”
“You can’t be serious, Sir?”
“Enough!” Nichols slammed his hand on the desk. “Jaeger, I want your honest impression of General Petersen.”
He gritted his teeth. “Tremendous leader, Sir. He led us to safety the night of the attack, saved Fort Sill, countless lives.”
“And his involvement in this ‘Order of the Double-Edged Sword’?” He stuffed a wad of tobacco into his lip.
“We’ve spoken of it since the attack. When he was recruited, understood it to be like a fraternity of sorts, like the Non-Commissioned Officers have their Freemasons. Figured it’d be religious fellowship, career advancement, preferential assignments. His involvement in the organization is a violation.” He took a long breath. “I just don’t think it should be a damning one.”
“Hmm,” Nichols spit a stream of filth into an empty bottle. “Blanco?”
“My SEAL team could’ve put your team down in seconds if I’d given the order. He sacrificed himself for you, for us. Tells me a lot about the man.”
Nichols let out a long exhale. “I met our now President Kreusen a long time ago, when I was working at the Pentagon. Started asking me all sorts of religious questions… Told her I was an atheist and that was that.”
Jaeger eyed him curiously. “What kind of questions?”
“Hell, I don’t remember exactly.” Nichols’ brow furrowed. “Something about ‘the flood’ and whether God’s wrath was justified.”
Jaeger’s eyes widened. “She’s one of them,” he whispe
red.
“One hell of an accusation to throw at the President of the United States…” Nichols glare at him. “Where’s the proof?”
“I have none,” Jaeger said. “Just, Petersen tried recruiting me once. Asked me the same damn thing.”
“Here’s the deal, gents… You fall under my command now. We will not let these religious zealots win; we will not let the creatures win. Humanity, our nation, our founding principles will survive.”
Blanco stared at him, an upset look in his eyes.
Nichols pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbed the frustration under his eyelids. “Jaeger, you’re in charge of Fort Sill. Blanco – Naval station Norfolk. This will play out, one way or the other. I need you here, if only to legitimize what’s about to happen, provide backup if need be.”
“What’s about to happen, Sir?” Blanco asked.
“I don’t know.” Nichols shook his head. “Can’t abide what they’ve done. If it is her[DDL18], whatever happens, you two, the other command teams, will be witness. Jaeger, you’ve got a little more vested in the good General. I’m keeping your staff in confinement for the time being. Blanco, I’ll settle
for the time being. Blanco, I’ll settle for your 2nd in command. Added leverage should you decide to pull any crap like that again.”
“And General Petersen, Sir?”
“Out of my hands, Colonel.” Nichols stroked his chin with the tips of his fingers. “I’ll see what I can do.”
CHAPTER 28
Bob popped the tailgate open. “What’s the haul look like today?” he said in his thick Texan accent.
“Not bad.” Collin hopped up into the pickup bed and began handing bags of canned goods down. “Few electrical components, repair parts…”
“Fuel?” Bob asked, stacking the canned goods inside his civilian liaison tent.
“They’re having to go further and further outside the wire,” Collin said. “Tankers should be back this afternoon.”
Bob nodded. “What’s that?” He pointed to a black duffel bag in the bed.
“Nothin’” Collin’s eyes strayed from Bob. “It’s just a… special request.”
