Kaley looked at Malcolm like she was going to attack him. “Why did you do that?” she screamed and clinched her small fists. “I had things under control.”
“Kaley, I don’t want to lose you,” Malcolm said sincerely. “You were turning into the beast inside you again. I can’t allow that to happen. Anyway we need to go and help General Stone,” Malcolm replied coolly. “You were in such a murderous state that you didn’t hear his call for help.”
The fire in her eyes swiftly began to become more intense as she realized that Simon Stone was in trouble. She needed to help him. “Which way,” she screamed insanely.
“This way,” Malcolm replied and took off running. He was having a hard time keeping up with Kaley.
***
Meanwhile, Captain Michael Kane peeked over the top of the hill where half of his six man team was deployed. The other half were on the hill on the other side of the road. From his vantage point, he couldn’t see into the bus, but noticed that the warlord’s men inside were trying to be very quiet and not move around too much. He knew that they would not stay that way for long. They were getting ready to fight.
The captain knew the men in the bus thought of themselves as offensive freedom fighters and were never required to be defensive combatants. He also knew that the tactics that they would be using for the jihadists to escape the ambush would be the same ones that his men had learned at boot camp. Many terrorists used tried and tested American strategies to fight. He believed they would go onto the offensive any second and he wanted to encourage them to come out and play.
“Go,” Captain Kane said into his earpiece. All his people knew their part of the plan.
Sergeant Pepper shot up from his position on the hill and yelled out in Urdu, the official language of Pakistan. Most of the TACP team spoke several languages.
“Surrender or die.” He shouted and immediately took off running away from the position.
The jihadists reacted just as planned. Several shots were sent in that direction, but he was long gone. Almost immediately a grenade also flew out the window at Sergeant Pepper’s vacated position.
“Here they come,” the TACP captain informed his men. “Shoot to kill. They attacked us first.”
None of his men bothered to respond. They knew what they had to do. The goal was to kill all the jihadists.
The four exits of the bus blew out just as the grenade exploded harmless on the vacated portion of the hill. The jihadists began pouring out of the two windows and the front and back doors. The standard TACP strategy when that happened was to allow the first attacker out of the bus from each exit and then shoot the second one. The second one clogged the exit while two snipers took out the men who had been first. Eight jihadists died in the first several seconds of the attempted breakout. They went to meet their seventy-two virgins.
More grenades flew out of the openings, but the TACP team members were already on the move. The ordnance landed on empty ground. The TACP commander had anticipated the retaliation.
The attempted breakout stopped immediately. It became eerily quiet. The TACP captain waited for the next move. He was rewarded when the jihadist leader suddenly started the bus and tried to drive it backwards — out of the gauntlet. One of the TACP snipers noticed and quickly shot him as he sat in the driver’s seat. Blood splashed all over the inside of the bus. Now there were only twenty-one jihadist fighters left on the bus and there was no one left to lead them. The narcissistic rage of the men inside the vehicle soon boiled over when one of the jihadists yelled attack.
With blood curdling screams they threw themselves out of the exits like characters in a Walking Dead movie. Some literally dove out the exits like they were impervious to bullets. When they hit the ground, they pressed the triggers of their machine guns and shot their bullets wildly without picking a target. The roar of gun fire was incredibly deafening, but the strategy had no effect on the seasoned military TACP team.
The massacre now began in earnest. Four machine guns and two snipers threw down a hail of bullets from the hill tops. The jihadists didn’t know which way to turn. Before they made up their minds, they were cut down. Four jihadists realized that the ground under the bus would give them some cover and quickly dove to safety, but it didn’t last long.
Captain Kane expertly underhanded a grenade of his own down the hill and it rolled under the bus. The explosion blew the big school bus on its side. The men who were seeking shelter underneath were cut to pieces.
The shooting stopped as quickly as it had started. All the jihadists were dead. “We need to confirm all the deaths,” the captain said into his earpiece.
The six TACP men rose as one from their positons and began walking down the hills with their guns at the ready to dispatch anyone still alive.
***
At the same time, Kaley and Malcolm were sprinting towards General Stone.
“Which direction?” Malcolm screamed.
After a few seconds, he grabbed Kaley’s hand and pulled her to the right. The spirit had given him the direction where they would find the general.
“He’s been shot by Dr. Raja,” Malcolm informed her as they closed in on General Stone.
“He’ll be fine,” Kaley said knowingly as she used her precognitive ability see what will happen in the immediate future. “A bullet just grazed his leg, but he can’t run or even walk. We just have to patch him up.”
“Okay, where’s Lisa?” Malcolm yelled out.
“I hope she is alright,” Kaley said uncharacteristically as she added a degree of empathy sneak into her voice.
Within a few seconds Malcolm said. “She’s by the Iman.” “But he has the Switch and is about to activate it. Dr. Raja has her trapped and has a gun pointed right at her.”
“Let me go and save her,” Kaley shouted.
“Okay, you go after the Switch and I’ll go help Simon,” Malcolm said after some thought. He had to trust her and he knew it.
“Roger dodger,” she replied. “Don’t worry. I’ll hold it together Malcolm. Which direction should I go to find the Switch and Dr. Raja?”
“Straight that way,” Malcolm shouted after a few seconds. He pointed in the direction.
Kaley increased her speed and hustled off in a straight line. “Wish me luck,” she said over her shoulder.
“You don’t need any luck, Kaley,” Malcolm yelled as she sped away. “You have real skills — use them,” he added as he spied General Stone sitting on a rock a few feet away and headed over there.
***
As Kaley charged towards the direction that Malcolm had given her, she hoped that her friend, and sometimes companion, Lisa was okay. In her head she asked the question. The precognitive answer she got was disturbing. It showed Lisa being shot by the idiot Dr. Raja. Kaley realized she had to get there in time to change the outcome.
She abruptly perceived the group of three people in the distance. The backs of the two men were turned away from her and as a result, they didn’t see her flying across the country to intercept them. Lisa was standing perpendicular to the men and only a few feet away.
Kaley put several plans together in her mind, but none of them would ensure that Lisa would survive. Dr. Raja was busy consulting a book that he had taken from his back pocket. But when he was finished with the book, he raised the pistol he had in his other hand. He was going to shoot. Lisa stood calmly and seemed to be concentrating on something.
As Kaley drew near, she could see that the Iman was also concentrating while he held the Switch above his head. Suddenly she heard a voice, it came through her earpiece.
“I’m trying to stop the Switch from being activated. You take the other guy with the gun. I pinged both of them. They can’t see me,” Lisa said slowly in her ear.
I think the doctor can see you, he just pointed his gun directly at you,” Kaley responded.
“Hurry then,” Kaley got as a worried reply.
She was only a few feet away from him when Dr. Raja realized
that someone else was going to try to stop him. He turned his gun to address the immediate new threat.
But Kaley was going too fast and was too concerned about Lisa to stop. She knew she was already losing control. She hit the scientist in the middle of his chest with both feet.
It felt so satisfying. She wanted to do more. He flew a few feet and went down in a heap. She swiftly started for Lisa, but she was stopped when Lisa spoke into her earpiece. The message was clear. “I got this guy, you get the other one.”
Kaley turned back to Dr. Raja, but the time she had wasted was enough for the scientist to regain his feet. But he lost the gun when Kaley hit him. He was also in some pain because she had broken two ribs when she hit him. He started running away at top speed. He knew that he had lost the Switch. The two women who attacked him had powers beyond his ability to stop them. He decided that he still had his diary in his back pocket and could build another Switch. He was already thinking about where he could find a meteorite when Kaley hit him from behind and sent him sprawling on the ground.
Her first kick was to the front of his face. It broke his nose and damaged his right eye. The rage had completely taken over again. She wanted to kill him even though the general wanted him to be taken as a prisoner.
But Dr. Raja had hurt the general and had threatened Lisa. Kaley could not accept anything less than the ultimate punishment for him.
She kicked him between the legs and the scientist rolled up into a fetal position.
He tried to protect himself, but it only made Kaley madder. She placed a well-aimed kick to his tailbone. The wiry frame of the doctor went stiff and straight. He was paralyzed from the pain and was fully exposed.
“You tried to hurt my friends,” she screamed dementedly. Her long blond hair had come loose from its customary ponytail. It now covered her face as she leaned over him. When she pulled her hair to the side, the scientist saw the red fire of insanity in her eyes.
“Please don’t kill me,” he begged.
“And why shouldn’t I kill you,” she screamed back.
“We could become partners,” the scientist offered. “We will both become rich.”
“Yeah, and I would have to watch my back every second. You’re nothing but a camel driving dirt bag.”
“Please, I’ll give you the book in my pocket. It will teach you how to deploy the weapon. Just leave me here,” the scientist begged with his hands up in the surrender position.
Kaley was too far gone into her hell world. Logic and reason was a thing in her past. She began to build strength for the final blows to kill the scientist when all of a sudden, a white streak of light shot out of the ground where Lisa and the Imam were fighting for control of the Switch.
“Oh, no,” she managed to croak. Lisa must have lost, she thought. I need to get to her.
“Quickly, give me the book,” she ordered as she turned back to Dr. Raja.
While it was extremely painful to move his arms, the scientist reached into his back pocket, only his hand wrapped around a knife he carried there and not the book.
He suddenly slashed at Kaley, but she wasn’t there. She was behind him and knocked the knife from his hand with a karate chop. She leaned down and took the book from his pocket. She then went to retrieve the knife.
When she returned, she then held the knife out in front of him as she considered what to do next.
“Don’t worry,” she said evilly. “This will hardly hurt. And you’ll die soon.” She scraped the knife across his thigh and slashed open his femoral artery.
“What? You can’t leave me here,” Dr. Raja said with a terrified scream.
“I can and I will,” Kaley replied “While you’re dying, think about the hundreds of thousands of people you killed testing the Switch.
“Allah, forgive me,” the scientist croaked and clasped his hands together. “I only wanted to serve you.”
“You’re a dismal failure, but enjoy the rest of your life asshole,” Kaley spewed out as she turned and started running towards where Lisa was last seen.
***
When Kaley reached the correct location, she spied Lisa sitting on the ground looking very pale and nearly unconscious. The Imam laid about five feet away and wasn’t moving. The Switch had rolled a few feet further.
“Where are you hurt?” Kaley asked. The fire in her eyes quickly diminished when she saw that Lisa was alive.
“I’m not hurt,” the woman replied in a very tired voice. “I’m just very tired.”
“What happened?” Kaley asked. “I saw a magnetic beam come from the Switch.”
“I couldn’t stop it,” Lisa cried out.
“Where did it go?”
“I was able to change the direction. I sent the beam out to sea,” Lisa explained. “But I couldn’t stop the Imam from activating the device.”
“And the Imam, what happened to him?” Kaley asked and pointed to the body a few feet away.
“He’s dead,” Lisa weakly replied.
“Tell me what happened?”
“When I lost Simon,” she started. “I decided to sneak up close to them. I knew I had to be nearby to gain control of the device. I just didn’t know how close I needed to be to mentally wrestle the Switch away from the Imam.”
“How did you turn invisible?”
“As I approached, I pinged both men many times and realized I had to be very close, so I pinged each of them saying that they couldn’t see me. To them I was invisible.”
“But they did see you!” Kaley exclaimed in a harsh voice.
“They saw me only when I had to concentrate my telepathic power on the Switch. The drain on my power was too great when I tried to do both.”
“So you sacrificed yourself to stop the Switch. I get that, but didn’t you know that you had become vulnerable?”
“I wanted to save lives, to make a difference, Kaley. That’s all.”
“Okay, I believe that,” Kaley said with a nod of her head. “How did you dispose of the Imam?”
“Actually, I didn’t,” Lisa replied. “As soon as he hit the button to activate the machine, he just fell to the ground. I think that he may have had a massive heart attack from the strain of aiming the device.”
“But you managed to send the beam out into the ocean, right?” Kaley asked.
“I did,” Lisa explained. “I sent it out as far as I could and still stay in the vortex.”
“I hope it won’t cause any damage.” Kaley said optimistically.
“Is Lisa alright?” Kaley heard from the distance. When she looked up, she saw Malcolm and Simon heading towards them. Malcolm was supporting the old general.
“Nothing that a few hours of rest won’t cure,” she replied through her earpiece.
“We saw the Switch go off and got worried,” the general said. “We came to investigate.”
“We have the Switch and we also have Dr. Raja’s book of secrets,” Kaley said as she held up the book.
“Is anyone hurt?”
“We’re all fine,” Kaley responded. “Well except for you.”
“It’s just a flesh wound,” he responded and waved his hand. “Did you manage to send the magnetic beam somewhere else?” the general inquired as he gingerly sat down next to Lisa.
“I sent it out to sea, just as we discussed” Lisa said in a stronger voice.
“Well, I don’t think it will do too much damage out there,” the general replied cheerfully.
“We’ll know in a few hours,” Lisa answered.
“What about Dr. Raja?” the old man now asked.
“Well, he is either dead or about to die,” Kaley said and pointed out into the countryside. “I’m afraid that I may have taken some revenge on him.”
“That’s a most interesting statement,” the old man remarked. “I don’t want to hear anything more.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Kaley announced. “And no, I didn’t lose my cool.” She didn’t want him thinking that, even though it was true.
“Let me see that book you took from Dr. Raja,” the old leader asked with his hand out.
Kaley handed the book to the general and then went over to Malcolm.
“Thank you for believing in me,” she whispered in his ear. He said nothing, but grabbed her in a bear hug.
Suddenly General Stone spoke. “Oh my God! I don’t believe it,” he exclaimed.
“What?” Malcolm asked.
“This book is written in English. I can read it,” the general shouted.
“Of course,” Lisa the professor replied. “He was educated in the United States. He came there on a student visa with a full scholarship. Didn’t you know that?”
“It slipped my mind,” the general replied and waved his hand. “But, I now know who the mole is at Area 51.” He said with excitement in his voice.
“How do you know?” Malcolm asked.
“They both went to Princeton. They were roommates back then,” the general replied and held up a picture he found in the front of the book.
“Do you have a name?” Kaley asked.
“I have better evidence,” the general responded. “I have a picture.”
“Let’s see,” Kaley quickly asked.
She grabbed the photo and stared at it for a minute. A look of shock was on her face. “It’s Wes Robertson,” she declared.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Lisa had done the right thing by sending the magnetic beam out to sea. It was the best place to send it especially because Pakistan had forty earthquake fault lines. If the beam had hit on any one of them, it could have caused a chain reaction that would have destroyed almost all the cities in Pakistan. However, the magnetic beam was still able to cause severe damage even though it landed way out in the sea.
The beam splashed down about forty miles from shore in the Arabian Sea. It hit right on another major fault line. The power of the beam smashed into the earth and immediately a fissure several miles long appeared. It produced an earthquake that registered 7.0 on the Richter magnitude scale and was felt three hundred miles inland.
The Oracle Philon Page 19