“Before we leave,” Matt said, “we’re going to need some help.” He picked up a softball-sized rock and went to a nearby boulder. He hit the boulder three times, hard, waited a few seconds, and hit it again three times. As he was about to hit the boulder the third time, Slatel came up out of the ground.
“Marble-head,” Steve said.
“Yeah, I was about to scare you again, but it’s no fun anymore,” Slatel said. “Why are we so far away from the action?”
“Torron is in the dome about five miles from here.” Matt pointed at the dome in the distance. “We need you to scout the area while we make our way to the dome. We have to figure out how to lower the shields protecting her army. We’ll set up camp near the dome and work from there.”
“I’ll check it out and report back what I learn. I’ll get you later, Steve.” He sank into the ground.
“Before we go, we need to look at the map,” Jeremy said.
Jesse pulled the leather case from her knapsack. She pulled the ancient map from the folder and spread it out on the hood of the ATV.
Jeremy pulled the scroll out. It read as follows:
Danger is extreme. Move forward carefully. The dome has a weakness in its core. Beware of Hagred and Margot. They’re waiting for you to defeat Torron. Torron is a brutal queen, but Hagred would be worse. Both must be dealt with. Don’t be distracted by well-meaning generals. Remember, you are the Alliance. It’s the Alliance’s responsibility to protect Earth from Torron. Only you can defeat her. Be energized, be encouraged, be unwavering, be the powerful Alliance you have created. Once you capture the Bracelet of Witstal and the Wand of Wongate, you will possess all the tools to push Torron, Hagred, and the evil army back behind the Gates of Horgon. You will first place the four Symbols and then the Bracelet of Witstal on the Gates of Horgon, locking all the evil behind the gates. You now stand on a razor’s edge—to the left, massive failure—to the right, glorious and final success. Go and succeed.
“What does it mean, the weakness is ‘in its core’?” Caroline asked.
“Not sure yet,” Jeremy answered.
“Here we go again.” Steve threw his arms up and hit a nearby boulder with his fist, splitting it in two. “I thought we were after Torron. Now we’re after Hargett’s older brother, Hagred. Now we have two enemies. It keeps getting worse.”
“I saw two people who looked like Hagred and Margot at the practice range when I was practicing with the new weapon,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t get a good look at them because of the uniforms they were wearing. I thought it was my imagination playing tricks on me.”
“So they’re here,” Matt said. “I wonder if Hargett is here somewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“We have to stay focused on Torron,” Jesse said. “We’ll deal with Hagred and Margot after we deal with the queen.”
“We need to get moving,” Jack said.
“Show me on the map where you want to set up camp,” Steve said.
“Where this square is,” Matt said, “like the map shows. It’s in between two guard posts and close to the entrance.”
“Okay then,” Steve said as he unhitched the trailer. “Walking takes too much time.” He picked up the trailer and flew into the night sky. In a minute, he was back for the ATV. Within half an hour, he had carried the entire party and all supplies to the site.
~~~
It was 10:00 a.m., Tuesday.
“Are we ready?” Torron asked as she entered her control room.
“Yes, Your Highness,” Jensen answered. “We’ve connected to the World Wide Web and are ready to stream live to the whole world.” The MIT graduate had worked tirelessly to get everything in place. He smiled as the queen put her hand on his shoulder. “If you stand right over here, I’ll start the streaming when you’re ready.” He led her to a spot where she should stand and pointed at a camera. “The camera is there. You’ll be able to see yourself on the screen to the right.”
The queen stood still for a moment, then nodded to Jensen, and the video started.
The Internet had been taken over by Torron. Her shield appeared on every screen for an entire minute to get everyone’s attention.
~~~
A sergeant burst into General Wisecoff’s office. “General, you need to come to the command center now!”
~~~
Jack had just set up the satellite uplink and had gotten the Internet working when Torron’s shield showed up on the screen. “Hey, look at this.”
~~~
Torron presented a shocking image to the world. She looked evil and menacing, her favorite persona. Her black eyes stared out from skin resembling withered leather: gray, wrinkled, and dried. Her stringy white hair hung down to her waist. She wore a black formal dress with a high collar, both decorated with diamonds and lace. The crown consisted of two golden cobra snakes facing each other in front with a giant diamond in a gold setting standing between them. She looked terrifying and inviting at the same time.
“I am Torron, queen of the Underworld,” she began in a deep and haunting voice. “I’m speaking to you to warn you of the coming devastation you will face if you don’t surrender. I will be the ruler and queen over the whole Earth. There is no escaping the inevitable. I’m here by the authority of Lord Zolog, king over all of the universe. Earth is the key to completing a total takeover of the entire universe. I’ve come with an overwhelming army and unbeatable weapons. I have two thousand three hundred aircraft, thirteen command ships, thirty-five sea craft, over five hundred twenty-five thousand soldiers ready to attack, and more on the way. You cannot win a war against me. I do not wish to destroy your cities and kill your people. Surrender and there will be no need for war.
“You may be asking, ‘If we surrender, what will life be under Queen Torron?’ You will all be answering only to me. I will rule. I will be the law, the judge, the jury, and the executioner. If you follow my commands, you will live a good life. If you rebel in any way, you will be put to death. I find this system to work quite well. Once a world has been taken over, it only takes a few months for every creature to realize how to get along and be prosperous. Those who cooperate and support me rise to the top. Those who cooperate live a good life, and those who don’t cooperate are taken out of the system. It’s really quite simple.
“Tomorrow, Wednesday, at ten a.m., the initial attack will take place. The intention is to secure strategic assets, such as power plants, water sources, food supplies, transportation centers, communication centers, and all military facilities on the West Coast of the United States. By Thursday morning, all residents of the metropolitan areas around Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego will be required to report to their local high school for registration. Every person, young or old, must register. You will receive one of these.” Torron held up a small green button. “It will be implanted under your skin, behind your right ear. We will monitor your every move and conversation. You will obey my rules or the device will end your life.
“If any of my soldiers or military equipment is attacked—any—I will consider the cease-fire to be canceled and full all-out war will begin. Your military has already faced some of my army. Surely, they recognized the futility of war.
“Tomorrow, you will start a new life. I guarantee everyone will share in the bounties of this world equally. There will be no poverty, no hunger, and no sickness. You’ve a great future to look forward to.
“Do not attack my army. You do and you will die.”
The queen’s shield appeared on the screen, and the transmission ended.
~~~
“Caroline, you have to tell the general not to attack,” Jesse said.
“I don’t think he has a choice,” Jack said. “He has to defend the United States. That’s his job.” He sat down on a small boulder and leaned back against the pale blue dome wall.
“Why not attack?” Caroline asked, surprised at Jessie’s suggestion. “He can’t let the aliens take over the Wes
t Coast without a fight. He has to defend the country.”
“We’ve seen their power,” Steve said. “It’ll be a slaughter if he fires on Torron’s army.”
“Let her think she’s been successful,” Matt pleaded. “Let her believe she’s won. That’ll give us time to figure out where her weakness is and how to defeat her.”
“We only need a little more time,” Jeremy added.
Chapter 24
Rocket-Propelled Grenades
“We need to get inside the dome,” Matt said. “The only way to figure out how to lower the shields is to get inside and work from there.”
“Okay, how do we do that?” Steve asked. “As far as we know, there’s only one way into the dome, like the one in Oakland. There are no gangs going into this dome. We can’t simply walk in.”
Hands flat on the dome, Haven leaned her forehead against it, her eyes closed.
Caroline got her attention and signed to her. “What are you doing?”
“I can feel a low-pitched vibration in the dome,” Haven signed back. “It’s in the surface.”
The surface looked smooth, but to the touch, it was like fine sandpaper.
Caroline put her hands and head on the surface. “I don’t feel a vibration.”
All of the others did the same, with no confirmation.
“I can feel it,” Haven signed. “It’s there. I know it.”
Slatel came up out of the ground a few feet away, right up against the dome. “I may have found something. As I told you before, it’s not a dome, but a sphere. The one in Oakland was smooth all over with a pipe leading out from the bottom. At the bottom of this sphere, there’s a large metal pipe extending another mile into the earth. I’ve created a tunnel from here to there so you can see it yourself. The tunnel is about four miles long and is quite steep, so be careful. It’s a long way. We should go now.”
~~~
This tunnel is just wide enough to walk down, Jesse thought as they went deeper into the small tunnel. Caroline, Jack, and the boys have to duck down a little to get through. It smells like dirt.
At first the path was quite steep, but now it started to level out, and the dome was no longer on their right side, but overhead. It took almost an hour and a half to reach the bottom. Slatel was right. A three-foot diameter pole exited the dome at the bottom and went straight into the ground below.
Caroline placed her right hand on the pole. “I can feel a vibration.” She looked at Haven. “Is it the same vibration you felt?”
Haven placed her forehead on the pole, then nodded yes.
Slatel had cleared a fifteen-foot diameter cavern around the pole, with the dome ceiling about ten feet up. Not all the dirt had been removed from the bottom surface of the dome.
Steve rose up off the floor to the ceiling and scraped a little more dirt off the dome. There were two rows of bolts around the pole. He continued to expose the ceiling, eventually exposing a hatch in the bottom of the dome. It was bolted closed with a single row of bolts.
“Maybe this is how we get in,” Steve said with a smile. “Torron would never suspect us coming in from down here.”
Jeremy looked at his watch. “I’m sure glad to have my watch back. It’s one thirty in the afternoon. We need to keep moving.”
Steve continued to hover below the hatch. With laser beams from his eyes, he melted off the sixteen bolts and lowered the hatch to the ground. “Let me look around up there first,” he said as he rose up through the hole. He was gone for a few minutes and then returned. “The coast is clear. There doesn’t seem to be any guards.” He helped everyone up into the dome.
~~~
Gary had a modest home in Rancho Cucamonga. When it was built forty years ago, he put in a basement, uncommon for Southern California. He lived there by himself, and the place looked like he did. Unwashed dishes were stacked in the sink, and his bed was never made.
As the three men entered the house, Gary picked up a few dishes and a pizza box from the living room and moved them to the kitchen. “You saw the two domes when we came out of the mountains. One is in Ontario, and the other is at LAX. The freeways have ground to a stop with people trying to get out of the city. Half of them are running out of gas. We can join them and find ourselves twenty miles east sometime next week or we can make a stand, right here, right now.”
“This isn’t like hunting deer,” Sammy said.
“Yeah, these aliens shoot back,” Johnny said. “And besides, you heard the woman on the Internet. She’s declaring a cease-fire. You don’t want to start a war just because you can.”
Gary opened a secret door in the wall of his den. It led down to the bunker under his home. “Come down here. You’ll see that the army isn’t the only defense the United States has.”
The bunker had three major rooms. First was a living area with a kitchenette, three sets of bunk beds, a bathroom, and an entertainment area. The entertainment area was more of a computer/monitoring room. The second was a well-organized small-arms room. It had rifles, handguns, automatic weapons, and ammunition. The third was a well-organized large-weapons room, stocked with several bazookas, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and other weapons that couldn’t be identified. Crates of ammunition were stacked against the far wall.
“We have everything we need to defend ourselves,” Gary said as he showed Sammy and Johnny around. “You’ll remember these weapons. It’s only been fifteen years since we were in Afghanistan together.”
It only took about an hour to load up the Humvee that had been parked in Gary’s backyard.
“I can’t believe you got an exact replica of the Humvee we were in,” Sammy said. “It’s a military vehicle. How did you pull it off?”
“Sammy, you question the Humvee?” Gary said. “I would have thought the weapons would be your biggest concern.” He slid in behind the wheel and started the engine.
“I guess with money and connections, you can buy just about anything,” Johnny said as the three headed against the traffic toward Ontario.
~~~
“All of your forces are in place as planned, Your Highness,” General Haflyf reported. “There are two thousand three hundred Oar-7s, thirteen Krak-4s, and thirty-five Revilos in place. Also, the five hundred twenty-four thousand troops are in place, forty thousand per dome. Most are Humongers, but all of your creatures are represented. This includes the Locals. We’re ready for war. We move on your command.”
“You’ve done well, General.” The queen sat back on her throne, pleased with the report. “And you, Smalik, what have you to report? Have you found Hagred?”
“No, Your Highness,” Smalik said. “We haven’t found either Hagred or Margot. We’ve checked all of the surveillance recordings from every dome. Nine days ago, they were in the Miramar dome for several hours. We have no idea where they are right now. However, while looking for Hagred, we saw this.” He pointed to the Mega-Crystal.
A video came up showing Steve practicing with one of Torron’s weapons on the practice range, followed by a video of Jesse on the range.
“That’s all we have, but needless to say, the Alliance was in the Oakland dome four days ago.”
To the surprise of Smalik, Torron sat back on her throne and smiled. “We don’t have to worry about the Alliance. They’re all dead.” Then her mood changed, and she stood up and screeched. “Even though the Alliance is no longer a threat, I want the top general and top security officers from Miramar and Oakland replaced immediately. Bring them here at once.” She got in Smalik’s face. “I want Hagred and Margot here tonight. No excuses.” She stormed off.
~~~
“We can’t let the aliens take the West Coast without a fight,” President Davidson said in a video feed from the Oval Office. With him were the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the secretary of defense, the secretary of Homeland Security, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, and the assistant to the president for national security affairs.
“I agree,
Mr. President,” General Wisecoff said. “We have to defend ourselves. We got a message from the Alpha-6 team. They recommend we allow the aliens to start their takeover to give them time to bring down the protective shields. If the shields remain in place, we’ll have little chance for success.”
“I argue, if we allow them to start taking the West Coast, it will be nearly impossible to stop them,” said General Thomas, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Once the West Coast is gone, the country is gone.”
“If we give up on the West Coast,” argued the vice president, “the entire country will be demoralized. It will be difficult to come back.”
“What are the odds that Alpha-6 can bring down the shields?” the president asked.
“They’re confident,” General Wisecoff answered.
“I’m asking you, General.” The president pressed him for an answer. “What is your opinion?”
“They’re teenagers, sir,” the general answered. “I don’t know how to judge their capability to bring down the shields. We need to assume they can’t and work from there.”
“Okay, assume the worst,” the president said as he sat back in his chair. “What’s your plan?”
“In consultation with the entire National Security Council, we’ve decided to take a defensive posture,” General Thomas said. “The more we attack, the more damage we’ll receive. The evacuation of the cities started the day they began to arrive, ten days ago. Most of the cities have been evacuated. We believe their aircraft and domes have the shields, but their ground forces will be vulnerable. In the beginning, we’ll focus on the ground forces and try to distract their aircraft. Before the ten a.m. deadline, we’ll have a delegation attempt to negotiate with the aliens. They’ll approach the dome at Riffe Lake at nine a.m. Alpha-6 team has confirmed the queen is in that dome.”
After listening to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the president looked into the monitor at General Wisecoff. “God be with you and your men. We must not fail. You’re facing the first wave of total world domination by an alien force. Hopefully, there will be a peaceful conclusion or at the least, a delay in the fighting to give Alpha-6 more time.”
Winds of War Page 15