***
The team sat in the medical bay that doubled as the command and control center of the emergency shelter. David watched a portable monitor that showed a video feed of Ben and the Ex-Secretary of Defense handcuffed and locked in the sleeping quarters. Matthew stood in front of the team ready to speak.
Matthew said, “The following briefing is classified top secret code word clearance Beta Seven. Your positions in Arc Light at this crucial time provide you this, need to know clearance. Jason, after this briefing you will be trained on top secret protection protocols which carry severe penalties if you provide this information to anyone outside this briefing. The Arc Light Mission is the highest priority classified mission of all the United States agencies in the history of the country. It is bigger than the Manhattan project of WWII. The importance of this briefing is to convey the money and resources spent on this program were astronomical for a reason. Arc Light’s Echo mission was the most important of all the program's missions. The Echo mission had four redundant teams using the P.A.C.E. model of recruiting a Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency teams. These critical Echo mission teams are code named Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta teams. Each team had a strength of two hundred specialized members. With the contagion hitting everyone on the planet, the Echo mission Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta teams are missing, assumed dead or undead.”
Matthew paused and looked to see if anyone had questions. He saw the look of surprise on Jason at the level of importance placed upon the classified Arc Light program. Maybe this reveal would help Jason understand why the soldiers that surrounded him were at the top of their profession.
Matthew continued, “The Eden base that we lost was designed to help the two hundred critical “Alpha Team” members assigned to carry out the Echo mission with the goal of ensuring in an extinction level event that humanity would survive. The Arc Light Echo mission depends on at least one of these four teams being alive and the base surviving. We now know none of the four teams made it to the Eden base which is now destroyed.”
David asked, “If we are not part of the Echo mission teams, what new information did you find out about our mission?”
Matthew nodded his head and said, “before the disaster, I was the fourth and last backup ‘Overall Director’ of the total Arc Light worldwide command. For security reasons, each contingency director in this program was only given need to know classified information about their specific duties without knowing the larger mission. What I do know is we are assigned to the three overall Arc Light program missions of researching a cure to an extinction level contagion, investigating Arc Light energy sources, and protecting critical classified assets in case of an extinction level event. The Echo mission was just revealed to me after I obtained access to a command computer retrieved from the Eden base. These are the only four Arc Light missions I have a need to know at this point.”
David asked, “Is there a backup base?”
Matthew said, “If one exists, that information was not released to me. At one time I met one the critical Alpha Team members and he would not even go near any discussion of his mission. One of the powerful safety systems of the Arc Light program is its need to know classification of top secret information in case of a security breach. The only way to find if another base exists is to find and ask a surviving team member assigned to Arc Light’s Echo mission. Our secondary mission is to plan a mission to secure key classified resources. I have a few classified map coordinates given to me from notes left from the logs of the last Arc Light commander before he died. It doesn’t matter our numbers, we are the only ones on the planet that possess this classified information. As long as we are alive we can take advantage of these secrets to look for any scrap of assets that might give a few survivors a chance. This is all I know at this point. We will meet tomorrow morning at 0700 to start our mission planning and locate an automated prison transport UAV to transport Ben to Alaska.”
***
Jason sat in his quarters writing in his notebook processing everything that had happened to him.
A knock at the door was followed by Ashley sticking her head in as she asked, “Can I come in?”
Jason smiled and said, “Yes come in.”
Ashley was wearing a tight black spandex workout shirt with a low cut running shorts. She had her rifle and a sling bag with her that she put on the floor as she sat on the chair next to Jason.
Jason tried not to stare but saw her legs had been freshly shaven and she was wearing makeup with her hair let down. Jason thought, have I ever seen her wear makeup? She looks beautiful.
Ashley smiled and said, “In the plane when I was grieving, I want to thank you for holding me. I could feel the nurturing and caring.”
Jason said, “I was praying for you. I was sending the deepest divine love to you that I could, seeing you in so much grief. I remember I kept saying to myself ‘Peace to the fallen and transformation for the living in honor of their sacrifice.’ I could feel your pain.”
Ashley nodded her head and said, “Yes. Peace to the fallen and transformation for the living in honor of all that have sacrificed.”
Ashley turned her head slightly away from him and just stared at the floor in contemplation of the words.
Jason worked up his nerve. He smiled and said, “You know with that smile I see on your face occasionally, have you ever thought of using a more gentle military call sign?”
Ashley smiled and said, “A gentle military call sign? Oh, I have to hear how this is even possible. What is your suggestion?”
Jason with a grin said, “Maybe I call you sugar cookie?”
Ashley’s smile widened and she started laughing deeply. Her eyes lit up looking at Jason. She didn’t expect that kind of playful teasing was still alive in him and with all the destruction they had seen.
Ashley stopped laughing long enough to reply, “Hold on. Excuse me but did you just compare me, a badass wholesale exporter of cans of whoop ass to sugar cookie which is a high-fat bakery good?”
Jason said, “The simple beauty of your smile reminds me of a normal life before all this pain unfolded around us.” Jason immediately realized he was too open but the words were all true. Almost dying brought out a courage to makes his feelings known before his luck ran out and he was killed by the undead hunting them in the world.
Ashley felt happy having the gentle feelings of being a woman awakened in her again. Ashley said, “When I passed the selection course and decided to serve in an elite Special Forces unit, I knew none of the men were going to cut me any slack at all. Any form of gentleness in me had to be suppressed. I’ve constantly been surrounded by men in uniform that tried to subtly flirt with me. They didn’t understand how hard it was for women to build up the mindset and skills from years of intense daily practice to kill better than they could. I wanted to be seen as a fellow warrior that killed just like them. To be treated as an equal, not a piece of ass or an emotional therapist acting like their surrogate girlfriend or mother to provide them an emotional source of female caring they all missed deployed away from home for so long.”
Jason realized Ashley was opening up her feelings to him because she trusted him enough.
Ashley said, “I thought of you first like a soldier I was training to survive but I realized you would never truly be a soldier at heart, there was too much of a purity that would not be broken by the death around you. In my mind, you are not a fellow soldier or co-worker off limits anymore.”
Ashley looked at Jason and saw a purity in him that she yearned to connect to deeper to comfort her gentle side that was drowning from so many years killing in combat. She didn’t want to admit that men were more emotionally equipped to kill in brutal battlefields but they were better equipped with their ability to shut off their emotions. She was able to suppress her feelings but she constantly knew those feelings were there wanting to come out. Feelings of wanting the pain of killing human beings to stop and a desire to instead nurture and care for o
thers. She wanted to care for Jason and in return, she wanted to feel his sense of purity fill the empty hole in her heart.
Ashley asked, “Do you remember when you imagined me naked with my ass maybe a pound overweight?”
Jason’s heart was beating wildly as he watched Ashley stand in front of him. She took a step closer to him and looked into his eyes no longer able to hide her feelings. Ashley took off her clothes and stood completely naked in front of him.
Jason looked at her tone nude body and soft white skin but then looked up and saw her face show the incredible gentleness inside of her also naked for Jason to see.
Ashley looked at Jason with yearning and vulnerability in her eyes. She turned to show him her naked buttock that was firm and perfect and said, “Come over here as see if you can feel any fat on my body.”
***
David had been called by Ashley to come to Ben’s holding cell.
Ben sat in a bolted down chair with his hands and feet locked up. He looked up at David thinking for a moment about his next words.
Ben said, “Linda is alive.”
David froze and replayed those words in his mind. He knew from experience that this could be a lie to manipulate him.
Ben said, “Linda is in a safe but sterile facility controlled by me. I sent a team to get Linda and you to safety when the infection spread throughout the United States thinking you would join the Arc Light program but when my team got to your home, you were infected they thought and on the brink of death. They took Linda who didn’t want to go but they knew if they left her in the city she would die.”
David wanted to beat Ben unconsciousness for kidnapping Linda and leaving him for dead but he knew Linda’s life was in the balance.
David said, “Show me proof of life.”
Ben said, “I want a secure quantum computer where I control a sterile NSA video feed satellite uplink.”
***
Ben’s hands were handcuffed but in front of him to be able to work the computer. David looked at the video feed of Linda on the quantum computer they had given Ben who was careful to set up the video feed to give them no clue to trace the location of where she was at. Linda was eating in what looked like a small kitchen. David had no clue where she could be from looking at the room. He looked at the timestamp on the video uplink he demanded from Ben to prove it was a real time video feed.
David thanked God she was alive. A burden of loss was lifted from his heart for a second before he focused every part of his consciousness on what he was going to make Ben do next.
David said, “Release her.”
Ben said, “Release me.”
David shook his head and said, “No.”
Ben hit the power button on the quantum computer turning the feed to Linda off.
“What do you mean no?” David questioned.
Ben yelled, “You stripped me bare and hog tied me...you’ve been following a weak strategy that will kill us all!”
“You held my wife a prisoner,” screamed David. “You held her even after I pulled you out of California. You are a goddamn sick criminal!”
“You don’t have what it takes to save America. You are just a feeble low life weak fool,” bellowed Ben.
“You don’t deserve to live!” David snarled back at Ben.
Both of the men stared at each other in rage and then David pulled his fixed blade knife from its sheath as the monster living in his psyche took over control of his consciousness with one single focus, revenge.
Forces of Destiny Page 13
