No Regrets

by Jan Stryvant

  "No! It is a trap. The lions are devious. There are many towns up in these mountains, and we will find one and feed on it. My attacks shall be of my choosing, not theirs!"

  #

  Sean looked around as the last of the vehicles was loaded up and either drove or flew off, leaving just his helicopter idling there, waiting for them to mount up and go.

  "Let's go! I'll set off the bomb when we're out of range!"

  "Let me do it, Son," the First spoke up.

  Sean blinked and looked at the First. "I can handle it, Dad. Really, it's okay."

  The First snorted. "I finally get a chance to play with one of the biggest toys out there, and you're gonna steal it from me?" the First said with a grin. "Come on, for an old warrior like me, this is gonna be like Christmas. You've already nuked several things with those silver toys of yours; let your Father have some fun."

  "Uh-oh, he invoked the 'Father clause', better give in before he hits you with the guilt trip, Sean!" Keairra said, laughing.

  "There's a 'father clause'?"

  "There is now," the First said, still grinning. "Besides, I'm not going to let Tisha tell you the codes."

  Shaking his head but smiling, Sean pulled out the detonator. It didn't look that different from a cell phone.

  "You know how this works, right, Dad?" Sean said.

  The First nodded.

  Sean handed it to him. "Well, if you want to press the button, I'm fine with that. Let's board and get the hell out of here."

  "You go; the wives and I are fine right here."

  Sean looked back at the First. "Are you sure about that? This is still in the flash-fry zone, Dad."

  The First nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. We'll be fine. Have someone pick us up around Washoe. We'll be there soon enough."

  Sean just nodded and, grabbing his wives, got into the helicopter and flew off.

  "He's up to something, isn't he?" Roxy asked.

  "He's always up to something!" Estrella laughed. "He's the First, it's his job!"

  #

  They'd been watching the fight for a very long time, so when it finally came to a finish, an audible sigh went through the room.

  Then suddenly the opening credits for 'Harvey' appeared on the screen!

  "Dammit! I thought we warded the Whitehouse against pookas!" Vincent swore, looking at Carl.

  "That's coming from the TR-1 that's providing the stream, Sir," one of the military aides said. "It's not from here."

  "Okay, you're off the hook, Carl."

  "Someone tell them to get us a different feed. I want to see what's happening down there, and Jacob? You're ordered to watch that movie," the president said.

  "Yessir."

  As soon as Jacob agreed, the movie cleared, and they watched as Sean's forces retreated. Thirty minutes later all but one of the helicopters had left, and they could see Sean and the First talking a moment. Then Sean climbed into the helicopter with his wives and flew off as the First stood there with his pride. At that moment, it almost looked like the First was looking up at the camera and directly at them.

  Tisha turned to the president. "It's time, Sir. We need the code for the bomb coded 'Tango, Tango, Sierra, five, five one, zero, two'."

  The president turned to a colonel, who was standing behind him with a briefcase in his hand.

  "Colonel?"

  Walking up to the table, the colonel entered a combination, opened the case, pulled out a single sheet of paper, and handed it to the president. He then closed the briefcase and went back to where he was standing.

  The president looked at the piece of paper, then at the display on the wall. It had pulled out enough he could see the demons streaming into Reno, and if he looked close enough, maybe he could see something that he didn't want to.

  "Six, zero, five, three, seven, seven, nine, six, Zulu."

  "Thank you sir," Tisha said and closed her eyes for a moment.

  "How soon until they trigger it?" the president asked. The camera feed was still focused on the First, who was apparently fiddling with something in his hand. He then paused a moment, his wives formed up around him, and he raised his arm.

  The screen suddenly went white.

  "Wait, how did he get…" one of the generals muttered.

  "Damn, so that's why we can't tap their phones," Tom from the NSA muttered.

  "Did he just set off the bomb with him and the others within range?" Jill said in shocked surprise.

  The camera quickly recovered from the flash of the explosion, and standing there on the ground with his hand still raised was the First and his wives, as things smoldered and burned around them. When the shockwave came, they were all untouched as everything around them was knocked down by the blast. A few short moments after that, they turned into lions and loped off through the wreckage and the fires in the direction the others had gone.

  "Holy Shit…"

  "Did they just…"

  "Now aren't you glad they're friends of ours?" Carl said in a soft voice.

  Aftermath

  Sean looked around the conference room; he'd never seen it so packed before. Everyone, and he could see that it was in fact everyone, was there. About the only ones not there were the First and his wives, who'd all but locked themselves into the suite Roxy had gotten them when they'd first arrived, and not come out at all since they'd gone in there last night.

  Sean had heard about the First's little display from Tisha last night in lion la-la land; it had definitely made a point to the powers that be.

  "Okay, as you've all heard, the gateways are closed, and they'll never be opening up again. So sorry, Chad, you don't get to invade and get the bragging rights for being the first person to conquer another world."

  Chad sighed dramatically. "It's a great disappointment, but I guess I'll just have to take one for the team, then."

  "Also, as I'm sure you all know, Markey killed King Sladd yesterday. Has anybody seen him since then?"

  Everybody looked at one another.

  "Maitland?"

  "No, I haven't seen him. I'd say to ask your Uncle Philo."

  "Well, I wanted to thank him. I'm not sure we could have done it without him. Now, Hogan, what do you have in the way of intelligence for us?"

  Hogan stood up. "I've been going over all the videos that've been recorded, along with several other specialists back east. Not long after King Sladd was killed, one group that we believe was being led by a prince broke off and headed west up into the mountains. When the bomb went off, some of his troops at the tail end were set on fire, but it was less than five percent.

  "Around that time, several smaller groups broke off and also left the city, but when the bomb went off, those groups sustained anywhere from seventy to thirty percent casualties.

  "Going back in time farther than that, between the collapse of the gateway and the djevel army arriving at Reno, at least ten thousand djevels, in small groups, broke off and went their separate ways. But it may have been more. There were almost a million up there when the gateway closed."

  "Do we have an estimate on how many djevels are left?" Bill Channing asked.

  "In this area? Somewhere in the neighborhood of a half million."

  "Damn. That many?"

  "And that doesn't include the group of twenty thousand General Kennedy," Hogan said motioning towards Jack, "is fighting with his army, or the previous groups that broke off and ran away from earlier battles."

  That statement led to a small commotion around the table.

  Sean rapped on the table lightly with his knuckles, getting their attention back.

  "Look, we knew we weren't going to get them all when we leveled Reno, but we did get most of them. There were what, over a million of them in Reno before the bomb went off?" Sean looked at Hogan, who nodded.

  "We need to organize our army and send part of it in to survey Reno to be sure we didn't leave any pockets of djevels alive in there."

  "When do you want to do that?" Chad asked.

&
nbsp; "I was thinking tomorrow. However, we also need to figure out how we're going to deal with all these smaller groups that got away."

  "Dad told me it took over a hundred years to clean them all up last time they had a big invasion," Estrella said.

  Sean nodded. "Yeah, I remember him saying that."

  "So no one should think our job is over. We're not even close to being done. We got rid of the immediate threat, so now we have to deal with the clean up. And," she said, looking around the table, "if it takes a hundred, years, it takes a hundred years."

  "Exactly," Sean agreed.

  Everyone around the table nodded in agreement, and Sean could see they got the message. The big battle was won, but the war still wasn't over.

  "What about that big group that went up into the mountains?" Claudia asked.

  "Well, I'm open to ideas. I don't like the thought of them being up there. They'll be a lot harder to track."

  "Set the mountains on fire," Chad said.

  "What?" Sean said, and everyone looked at Chad.

  "It's fire season. I say we light 'em up. That should force them out of the mountains; we know how much they hate fire, and how easily they burn. If we're lucky, we might even get them to hate trees and come back out onto the high desert, where there's a lot fewer people."

  "And they're a lot easier to track," Clyde agreed.

  "We can't just burn down the mountains!" Major Vanderberg said.

  "Sure we can," Chad said with a big smile. "I just suggested it, which means we can do it. Look, trees grow back, and we can always get up there and help replant it when all is said and done. But do we really want them getting a foothold up there?"

  "But the damage! Think of the towns that'll be destroyed!"

  Sean held up his hand. "It's a valid suggestion, and Chad's right; we can replant a forest, and we can rebuild homes. Besides, if they don't know about Lake Tahoe, Incline Village, Sacramento, and the towns east of it up into the mountains, they sure will soon enough. A big fire might be the only way to stop them. So it's on the table.

  "Anything else, Hogan?"

  "Yes, our satellites and reconnaissance aircraft have confirmed that the gateway in South America is closed, and there haven't been any signs of the wandering gateway in Germany, so it looks like that one is gone too. We don't have any estimates on the numbers in South America, but it's definitely in the many tens of thousands in Germany, possibly as high as a hundred thousand."

  "Damn, that sucks," Gloria said with a sigh.

  "Not our problem," Sean told them. "The First has put one of his sons on the job over there. Anything else, Hogan?"

  "No, that's it."

  Sean turned to the head of the horse families. "Clyde, how are your scouts doing?"

  "I've got almost a hundred leads on djevels moving north and east of here. I've got my scouts checking trails, but I've told them not to get close. I don't want to lose anybody."

  "That's wise," Sean agreed. "Any chance we could get a few up into the mountains?"

  "Talk to Roger and Chad there, I think the cougar clan would have a lot more success up there than we would, and a lot of it is in Chad's territory."

  Sean nodded. "We'll need to set up an office to track all the data they give us and get it on a big map so we can figure out where they're headed."

  "I'm already doing that, Sean. So far, it hasn't been hard to predict where they're going. I've been passing that information on to Hogan so he can track 'em and update the bombers."

  "Great, let's move that map, or a copy of it, in here to replace the old one." Sean motioned to the map of the Reno area they'd been using to track the attacks on the city.

  "I'll get one of my staff right on that," Hogan said with a nod.

  "Deidre, what's our financial situation look like?" Sean asked, turning to her.

  "You can stop by my office and we can go over the fine details, Master Sean," Deidre said with a wink. "But the only money we've got coming in right now is from the leases on the machines to the government. Our sales through our retail source…"

  Sean knew she was talking about Sawyer; she wouldn't mention him in public.

  "…are way down due to the amount of gear we were sending to the military, and the lions who recently came through. Also, that traitor sold off all the collars and tags that were sent to his troops, which had a negative effect on the market. Further, with the closing of the casino in Reno as well as our other businesses there, we've lost a great deal of income."

  Sean sighed. "Guess we need to get a building in Carson City or something, set up a new casino, and see about a few of those other businesses again. What with all the military and civilians who have flooded the area, they're going to need entertainment as well as all those other associated services."

  "Opening a new casino is going to take time," Claudia grumbled. "We don't own any buildings here, and the gaming commission is going to hold us back."

  Sean smiled. "I have it on good authority that the current military governor here is willing to waive that requirement because the troops and the locals need to be entertained. Seeing as how the entire place is under martial law."

  Claudia looked at Sean and then burst out laughing. "Good point!"

  "Why not open one in Vegas?" Chad asked.

  Sean shook his head. "Most of our acts and workers are refugees from what used to go on in Vegas; they really don't want to go back there."

  Sean turned to Jack Kennedy, who had been a colonel when he left, but was now his newest, if still unofficial, general. "How are things going to the east, Jack?"

  "Right now I'm afraid if I hit 'em too hard, they'll fragment on me, and I'll have small groups of djevels running all over the place. I'm trying to draw them in and contain them, but my local scouts have told me that discipline in the djevel army has just gone to shit since the king was killed. They're already getting hit with regular desertions. Trying to pick those off is becoming a full-time job.

  "Any idea when we're getting Adam and the lion cohorts back? Those guys were pretty regular at kicking ass, and I have to say, they do help with morale."

  "A few more days, I can't say exactly when. But I'll have to talk to the First about them as well, to make sure we don't lose any of 'em. So how does Salt Lake look? Are they ready for them?"

  Jack laughed and shook his head. "They built a wall already. Around the whole damn city, too."

  "What?" Roxy asked, looking surprised. "When did that happen?"

  "In the last week. Seems their governor and mayor asked everyone to help, and dammed if they didn't do just that. They declared a week-long holiday, I think they called it 'Wall Week' or something like that, and turned it into a kind of party."

  "Damn, if we'd had something like that in Reno, it might still be standing. Mormons, gotta love 'em."

  "I don't think it was just that," Jack said with a shrug. "The media all over the mid-west hasn't been pulling any punches, and a number of reporters from Salt Lake City have been following the army marching towards them, along with our progress in trying to stop 'em. I think I've been interviewed a dozen times in the last three days. Don't forget, the bombers being used against them are coming out of Hill Air Force Base. So they're seeing reminders of the fight every day."

  "Hogan," Sean asked, looking over at him, "do you know of any other cities or towns building defenses?"

  Hogan shook his head, but was taking notes. "I'll look into it, Sean."

  "You know," Roxy said, looking thoughtful, "maybe we need to get Steve to start harping on the president to see if we can get more places to start building defenses. Especially out here in the west."

  "Walled cities? In America?" Claudia said with a shake of her head. "I'm not sure people are going to like that."

  "We've got somewhere around a million djevels running around; I think they're going to like getting eaten by them even less."

  "Steve has already broached a similar idea with the president and the Pentagon," Sean told them.


  "He has?" Roxy asked, looking surprised.

  "He's got people going around and infecting any wounded veterans they think can be healed. The Pentagon is backing it, and even providing flights to all the VA hospitals. He suggested they be put into local reserve units to help defend their hometowns and cities, seeing as djevels can't affect them like they do humans. Both the president and the Pentagon liked the idea."

  "You think that'll be enough?"

  Sean shrugged. "It's a start. Still, I'll have him float the wall idea by them, but honestly? I don't know how well that'll work. Chad? What are your thoughts on the idea?"

  Chad sighed and shook his head. "I don't think a physical wall is the answer, unless you have a city that already has the terrain in place to support it. Plus the scope of such a job is daunting. We already saw all the problems we had trying to do that with Reno. Most places just aren't going to get the level of buy-in from the population—just like we didn't—and remember, they could hear the bombings and the fighting for months and yet still ignored it.

  "I think what we're going to end up doing will be to restructure all of our military units here into cohorts that can be easily moved to any place in the region. We may even have to set up a series of forts throughout the region and base a couple of cohorts in each one. That'll let us deal with each of these smaller groups as they're discovered."

  "What about the larger groups?" Jack asked. "Like the one I'm dealing with, or that prince to the west of us?"

  "I think we need to break them up," Chad replied.

  "But then they'll be everywhere."

  "I know, but we have to look at the realities here. Small groups of djevels are easy to deal with. If they're small enough, a squad can easily take care of them due to our superior weapons and their susceptibility to iron and steel. Also, if they're small, they're going to avoid population centers—you know, cities, large towns, all that.

  "But a large army? A large army is going to sweep up small towns and larger towns, and we're just not going to be able to defend them all, because we'll have to field a large army to go after them, and large armies are notorious for being slow and unwieldy.