by Liscom, Sean
decided to just sit tight for a day or two and see if the
dipshits at the truck stop would move on. If they didn't decide to leave on their own, I was going to start persuading them with my long gun.”
“I watched these fuckers all through the day on the 8th that was a Friday in case you forgot. After the sun went down and they were in the bag drunk, I walked back to my truck and started getting ready for bed. Now, this is where things began to go south for both of us,” he paused and asked Dana to close the door. She did and went to stand behind her husband. “I heard two vehicles down on the highway and they made the turn onto the same dirt road that I was parked on. They stopped about a hundred yards off the road and I could see people moving around the rigs. Looked like two Jeeps in the waning light. They hadn't seen me and they hadn't seen the tracks that I left.”
“It was Jill and her team, wasn't it?” I asked.
“It was, but I didn't know it at this point. I spent the better part of the night and all day Saturday watching them through my scope. I was far enough away that I couldn't really make out faces or details but
I knew that they were looking for something and by the way they were eyeing the truck stop, they were probably going to make a hit on it. I was a little surprised when they found this young black couple hiding in the brush.....”
“That was Marcus and Contessa Thompson,” I said quietly.
“Whoever it was, they looked like they had been through hell. Anyway, it got a lot more interesting
when these dudes on horses showed up. Neither group was aware of the other for about an hour, when they did figure it out, they stalked each other for another hour. Pretty soon it was like one big family reunion. I couldn't figure out why they didn't high tail it after they found the two people in the brush though. It dawned on me that there must be someone or something that they wanted at the truck stop. As interesting as all of this was, I needed to get back to my truck and I needed to get some rest.”
“Some noise coming from the Jeeps woke me up later that evening and I could see people loading packs and whatnot. At first I thought they were leaving but they were just dropping off gear that they didn't need and loading up on magazines and ammo. It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that they were going to hit the assholes and it was going to happen soon. Once they left the Jeeps, I grabbed my brother’s prize possession out of my truck, his .408 Cheytac rifle. It had better glass than my .308 and I wanted a front row seat when this thing went down.”
“I found myself a good vantage point and just waited. They hit 'em at midnight and it was a classic strategy. The guys on horses hit fast and hard from one angle and Jill and her team hit them even harder from the other side. It happened so damn fast that those shitheads had no clue what happened. Remember, I still didn't know Jill was down there at this point. It was after the sun started coming up and she had wiped all the face paint off before I figured it out,” he paused for
a second and Dana put her hands on his shoulders.
“Jason, I've led a life in which I've had to pull the trigger on all kinds of bad people. Men, women and even a couple of kids who were trying to kill my men. It was war and it had to be done. Kill them or they killed my friends. It was really that simple. I didn't like it nor did I go looking for it but it always found me. When I had Jill and Mark in those crosshairs, it was kill them before they killed my brother..... Out of all the shots that I've ever taken, that's the one I wish I hadn't.....” his voice trailed off.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was sitting across from the man that tried to kill my wife and he fully admitted it. I was sitting across from the man that had caused us a lot of sleepless nights on the ranch. The man had earned the full fury of my rage but I just couldn't muster it right now. I don't know if it was finally learning the identity of the man that took the shot or if it was because I understood his position. If that had been my brother, would I have done the same
thing? So many emotions were coursing through me that I didn't know what to say or how to act.
“Holy shit.....” I uttered again.
“There's more, Jason.” Dana said from behind him.
“More?” I asked.
“Might as well clear the slate, Jason. There's a whole lot more that I gotta say,” Paul said leaning forward and putting his elbows on the table. He took a deep breath before he started. “Your father, Jack
Sterling, killed my father. In return, I put a bomb on Jacks plane before he left for Costa Rica,” he said flatly.
“Whoa, hold on now. You did what? How did you know Jacks last name was Sterling? He went by Kenshaw..... What the actual fuck is going on here!” my voice was on the rise.
“My father’s name was Gary Wesson. He was your father’s partner at the agency for a lot of years. I'd known Jack for most of my life. Once the two of them got out of the government service, your father went on to be a consultant, as did mine. Turns out that they were working for the same company. Jack handled all of the cyber and IT stuff while my father handled the more personal side of things. They didn't even know that they worked for the same company until Jack took over the operations stuff,” he said as I sat in stunned silence.
“The short version of the long story is that Gary figured out Jack had embezzled money, a LOT of money, and he threatened to expose him. I worked as a security shift supervisor at the Ark in Los Angeles, same place that Jack and Gary worked. The day after my father threatened your father, I found him dead in his office. There was a sterling silver letter opener sticking out of his chest. It went right through his heart.”
“First thing I did was to review the camera recordings to try and figure out who might have done it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Jack go into his office and come out 38 minutes later. Jack then went to a meeting with the board. Unfortunately for
me, that was also the day that they had released Jack from his contract. He walked out of the Ark and disappeared into the streets of Los Angeles.”
“I was furious,” he continued. “Gary must have had a reason to not trust Jack because he left me a thumb drive in the safe in his quarters. He was worried that Jack might try and kill him so he left all of the evidence against Jack on the drive. All I had to do was turn it over to the board and they would have taken care of Jack.”
“You didn't turn it over, did you?” I asked.
“No, I didn't. I used the information that was on it to track him down. He slipped up and used one of the accounts to rent his airplane. I traced the plane and caught up with him on the morning of July 6th 2015 in Reno. I slipped in, planted the bomb and slipped out. It was on a remote timer so I had to hang out until he
took off again. Once he was rolling down the tarmac, I triggered the timer. I knew where he had filed flight plans for so I timed it to blow while he was still over the water.”
“I need you to back up, just a little. I know of the Ark, but I still don’t really know what it is. Is it some top secret government operation?” I asked. It wasn’t really a lie, it was more of a test to see if he would tell me the truth.
“It was a privately run laboratory. They dealt with a lot of really nasty biological agents so it had to be underground. There wasn’t much that could get in or out without us wanting it too,” he replied.
“Bio-weapons?”
“No. They were searching for cures to some of the really nasty bugs out there. Cures against bio-weapons was just a part of what they were doing.”
“I see,” I said. He was trying to play it off but I could see his growing discomfort. “It would seem the only legacy our fathers left us was one of violence. No wonder there is so much bad blood between us.”
“It gets worse, Jason. Much worse.”
“Really? How the hell can it get much worse than this?” I asked.
“On the morning of July 4th, 2016 I received a package from a courier. There was no return address, no postage, nothing. Just my name. Inside this package was anoth
er thumb drive. It had a recording Jack had made while he was in Reno the year before. The
recording was for me, he addressed me by name several times. It was almost an hour long and he told me what the Ark was really built for. He told me that the EMP was going to happen that very night. He also told me about a fail-safe he had built into the computer systems of the Ark.”
“He really did know.....” I said more to myself than anyone else.
“Yeah he knew. This fail-safe would seal the doors of the Ark and make it impossible for the inhabitants to reopen them. There was no way to stop it once the EMP happened. It was built in coding that he put in place. He warned me to get my family out before that happened. We were living in the Ark but still had a
house less than ten miles away. I couldn't take the thumb drive to my superiors, they would know that I'd withheld information in the investigation of my father’s murder. The other problem I had was that I didn't trust what Jack had told me.”
“When I got off shift at four that afternoon, I told everyone that I was taking my family to see the fireworks. If nothing happened, I was in the clear, if it went tits up, I'd still be in the clear. Needless to say, Jacks message wasn't a bunch of bullshit. After the EMP hit, I ran back to the Ark and sure enough, the door had sealed and there was no way to contact anybody on the inside. I went straight to the local sporting goods store and drove my truck through the
front door. I loaded up everything that my family would need. I picked them up and took them up to the mountains. Once I'd stashed them there, I took off to find my brother.”
“So, he sealed everyone inside the Ark?”
“At first I thought that he did. When I finally got back from Elko and gathered up my family, I went back to the Ark to try and get back in one more time. That's when I discovered that my boss and his security patrol had also been locked out. Any guess as to who my boss was?” he asked.
“Ray Judge?”
“The one and only asshole extraordinaire!”
“He told us that you two have been trying like hell to kill each other.”
“We have been. About six months ago, he fell in
with this Adolpha bitch in Las Vegas. Before that, we were doing alright on our own, not great but we were getting by. Adolpha offered him his own private army and he jumped at the chance. I'd thought that there might have been a little mental instability in him before that but he took it to new heights after he became the supreme leader of her ground forces. He had no problem transitioning into the role either. He takes what he wants from whoever he wants and if you don't bend to his will, he kills you.”
“I know. He's got a boat load of heavy armor and a lot of manpower parked at my ranch right now. We surrendered to him yesterday.”
“That was probably the move that kept you alive. Here's the rub. Jason, I need your help but I have one more thing to tell you.....”
CHAPTER 17
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017
Southern Nevada.
“You're the one that arranged the roadside bomb that nearly killed me, us?” I asked, pointing my thumb at Melissa. “Why in the hell would you do something like that?”
“It was a matter of economics, Jason. I'm sorry,” Paul said, looking down at his hands.
“That's fucked up!” Melissa blurted out. “Now you want our help? Your economic problem cost my friend his life!” she nearly shouted.
“I needed the gold so I could make some payoffs. At the time I needed the gold more than I needed your help.”
“What kind of payoffs? What is it you're planning on doing?” I asked. I was trying to steer the conversation away from the ambush before Melissa got even more heated.
“I was going to use the gold to pay off some of Adolpha’s guards. Now, we are just going to have to sneak in and hope for the best.”
“You're going after her?”
“Not just her. On the 29th of this month, there is going to be a meeting between her and the five cartel leaders. It's going to be held in Vegas, in her hotel. We're going after all of the players, not just one,” he said.
“Sounds like a good way to get yourself killed,” I pointed out.
“Probably, but if we can take them out, it's a price I'm willing to pay.”
“Let's say, for the sake of argument, you manage to pull it off. You kill all six people in that room. What do you think is going to happen?”
“It'll give the slaves a chance to revolt, a chance to escape. More than that though, without the fuel coming in, it will break Ray’s hold over the rest of the state. He can't fight a war if he's out of gas,” he stated. I brought my hands to my face and rubbed my eyes. Leaning back in the uncomfortable chair, I let out a long sigh.
“How am I supposed to help you?” I finally asked.
“To be honest, there's not much you can do now that your ranch and Elko have fallen. We were hoping that you could bring some fighters and heavy weapons to the party. We've stolen a lot of stuff but nothing like what you have.”
“Acquired.....” I said.
“What?”
“You didn't steal it, you acquired it. If it's lying around rusting and nobody is using it, you acquired it,” I corrected him. “I already know I'm going to regret this, but, count us in on your fight.”
“No offense, Jason. While I appreciate the offer, two more guns on the line isn't going to make much of a difference.”
“I'll get you some help but I can't do it sitting here
in these damned handcuffs and I can't do it here, wherever here is,” I said. He looked up at Dana and she nodded her head.
“I'm gonna cut you two loose, under one condition,” he began. “Those people out there, my people, they want your head on a platter because you killed seven of my fighters and captured the eighth. The men and women you killed in our botched attempt to capture you, they had families. Those families are the ones demanding you pay the price for their losses.....”
“Are you kidding me?” Melissa started again.
“Melissa, let him finish!” I ordered. She sat back in her chair and scowled like a scolded child.
“Anyway, if I just walk you out of here and send you on your way, I'll have a full-blown revolt on my hands. As a leader yourself, I hope you understand my predicament.”
“Oh, I understand.”
“A compromise then?”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked.
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017
The Ranch.
Jill, Mayor Calvert, Sheriff Watson and Harold Anders had spent the remainder of the night at the dining room table. When the sun started to come up,
she went to make coffee only to find that all of it had been taken from the cabinet. “Assholes,” she grumbled
and returned to the table.
“No coffee?” Jim asked.
“Nope. They took it,” she replied.
“Assholes,” Jim muttered.
“Okay, we've talked about an open insurrection, that's a no-go. We've talked about a breakout, again, no-go. What else do we have?” Harold asked getting the meeting back on track. His question was met with silence from the group. “Really?” he asked aloud. Jill pushed herself away from the table again and stood up. She began to pace by the window.
“I wish Major Jackson was here, he'd know what to do,” Darren said wistfully.
“He's not here, Darren! He's not going to be leading some magical assault on the ranch or Elko to free us! We're on our own!” Jill snapped as she paused her pacing. Sheriff Watson seemed to shrink a little at the rebuke.
“Then what, Jill? What are we supposed to do?” Jim asked. She started to say something but movement outside the window caught her attention. Two of the guards had come together and were having a conversation. She stepped closer to the window which was open slightly. “Jill!” Jim said again. She waived her hand at him so that he would shut up.
“..... Amargosa fueling station?” the taller of the two guards asked.
>
“Yeah, Ray and his driver were the only ones to escape,” the other said.
“What about the prisoners?”
“Marlon didn't say but he thinks they were killed in the ambush,” Jill felt the blood in her veins turn to ice.
“Let me guess, we ain't getting paid now.” the tall one grumbled.
“That's the word. Marlon said that Adolpha refused to hand over the gold. No bodies, breathing or not, no gold. He said Ray sent a team to retrieve the bodies but they hadn't come back yet,” tall guard just shook his head.
“I should have gone with Jon and his family. He found himself a farm, he's eating good, he's sleeping in his own bed every night and he doesn't have to put up with Ray’s bullshit.”
“He's a pig farmer, Don! You ever been on a pig farm? I have and them hogs stink!”
“You smelled us lately?” the one named Don said and laughed a little.
“Yeah but once we get these people all straightened out, we can use the showers here. They have hot water too!”
“Whatever, man. I'm just getting tired of this bullshit. I'm tired of Ray and his empty promises.”
“It ain't so bad. We could be like these losers.”
“They had it pretty good till we came along and fucked it up for 'em, Lance,” Don said. There was a few moments of silence between the two. Lance seemed to
be considering what Don said.
“He really lost the two people that we came here for?” Don broke the silence.
“Yep, he couldn't even get their bodies before he hauled ass out of there.”
“Stupid shit,” Don grumbled. “C'mon, let’s get these people up and moving,” he said as he moved for the front door. When they entered into the barracks, Jill was still standing silently by the widow. Her skin was a pasty white.
“EVERYBODY UP AND OUTSIDE!” Lance yelled. The three men at the table began to move and they could hear people coming down the stairs. Jill didn't move. “Come on sweetie, you too!” he ordered. She looked up at him with a blank stare and suddenly her hands went to her mouth and she ran for the kitchen sink. She made it about halfway when she went to her knees and vomited on the floor.
