Minus America | Book 5 | Hostile Shores

by Isherwood, E. E.

  Kyla yelled to her uncle. “See you soon!”

  Uncle Ted had taken a rifle from one of the downed guards. He looked at Kyla, then at the door. “We’ll hold them off while you do your thing. Get out of here!”

  She climbed, suddenly unsure if leaving him was the right thing to do.

  Antipode Station, Amsterdam Island

  Priscilla was unsteady on her legs as she ran across the craggy landscape. She thought it was a result of all the adrenaline saturating her system, but she soon realized her leg was bleeding.

  “Crap,” she said, continuing to run.

  She decided to halt at a small boulder, though she realized parts of the plane nearby offered even more cover. She trotted a few more yards and crouched behind a ten-foot section of fuselage skin. There was activity in the area.

  A small caravan of black trucks had arrived on the edge of the crash site, leading her to briefly imagine they were there to help her. However, as she watched from afar, men in black uniforms piled out of the vehicles and spread out in a search pattern. Knowing better than to give herself away, she waited until the men found a survivor. The lone gunshot told her all she needed to know.

  The air snapped with a ‘zrrp’ sound as a bullet whizzed close by.

  “Bastards!” she cursed.

  The metal would hide her from being seen, but she had no illusions it would keep her safe. The black-uniformed men arriving to the scene of the disaster weren’t there to assist the wounded, they were going to track her down and execute her, as they’d done for the first survivor.

  She guessed there was about fifty yards to go from her position to the rear section of the plane. Looking into the remains, the Stryker was still in there, but it had corkscrewed inside the closed tube, smashing the Humvees in the process. Suddenly, she remembered where the men had been strapped to their jump seats.

  “Oh my god,” she said to herself.

  A bullet slammed into the metal next to her. She was losing time.

  She sprinted from the relative safety of the piece of wreckage, noting out the side of her eye how there were bodies still fastened to three of the seats. There was no reason to stop and check for survivors there, however. The bodies were blackened.

  Her stomach wanted to throw itself up, but she used that feeling to push it all back down, deep. She steeled herself for what she knew was going to be a horrific sight inside the rear of the plane.

  Priscilla aimed in the direction of the men and fired three shots from her M9, hoping to keep some heads down. She dodged and changed speeds as bullets came back at her, as they taught her in survival school, but speed was her only true friend while crossing the rocks.

  An eternity later, she hopped onto the bent metal of the end of the fuselage. As expected, it looked like a bloody drain gutter from hell itself. However, she turned it all off, instead choosing to pull out her radio and continue her mission.

  “Oakdale. I’m here.”

  The radio didn’t reply for ten or fifteen seconds. When the general came on, she knew he was injured by the hoarseness of his voice. “Good. We don’t have much time. I can hear the enemy approaching. Do you have the ability to access the crate positioned between my truck and the Humvees?”

  She looked to the spot. “Sir, your vehicle smashed the Humvees. I don’t see a crate in front of you, but there is an open container behind your position. It’s the one that had the tarp around it.” The smooth metal casing stuck out of one end of a wooden box. She was trained to recognize and protect herself from flight mishaps involving nuclear weapons, but she’d never taken one into a training mission, to say nothing of actual battle. Even so, she knew what it was.

  “Is it intact?” Oakdale pressed.

  Ignoring everything, including the men shooting at her from the edge of the crash site, she walked up the canted flight deck, around the smashed trucks and the upside-down Stryker, and found the container. To the best of her knowledge, the casing of the device seemed intact.

  “I think it survived the abuse, sir.”

  “Good.” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry you had to come along on this mission, Major, but you have a chance to end this war. This is clearly an important enemy facility, like the eggheads thought. I don’t have time to tell you all the theories they told me in my briefing, but it may play a major role in the superweapon’s effectiveness. Take this place out, and we stop it from erasing Europe. It’s that simple.”

  She liked to think of herself as being as pretty as she was intelligent, but it didn’t take any of her looks to know the general was asking her to lay down her life for the cause. And she immediately rose to the challenge. “Whatever you need, sir. I’m here to do a job.”

  He chuckled. “I’d shake your hand if my back wasn’t broken. We’ve already cleared it hot. All you have to do is use the keypad to activate the countdown. If the enemy was here, we were authorized to parachute it over this place to light it up. Now, I guess we’ll hit them from the ground.”

  Priscilla found the keypad immediately. The broken wooden crate was more for show than holding anything together.

  He told her the code.

  She entered it.

  The timer said she had ten minutes.

  “It’s done,” she deadpanned.

  After repeating herself, she looked at the radio to make sure it was on.

  A minute later, when Oakdale still hadn’t replied, she keyed the mic.

  “Thanks for the invitation, General. I always wanted to die by myself on a remote island. Even picked up a leg wound. Can’t wait to blast this place on vacation-rating-dot-com.”

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  Tabby hugged the floor while the bullets blasted back and forth across the room. For a few seconds, she shared a humorous moment with Charity as they crouched next to each other, but the other woman soon scooted on her stomach toward David.

  She watched as Kyla helped the woman in black who’d fallen out of the tube, but then the pair climbed up and out of the room. Tabby intended to follow them, and escape the carnage, but the shooting soon stopped, as if shut off at the spigot.

  “They’ve retreated down the hallway,” a woman said with authority from near the door. She turned to see Emily Williams walk in. The president acknowledged Tabby and the kids but strode directly over to Ted.

  Ted rose to meet her, and they hugged for a moment. “Ted, I can’t believe you survived that flight. We heard you say you were coming here, but we couldn’t get the helicopters in the air in time to catch you.”

  “If you knew where to look for us, we were flying around this town all of last night. We landed less than an hour ago.”

  Emily nodded seriously. “We’ve been infiltrating the town since it got dark last night. We saw someone go down this hole but had no idea it was you. We brought in the helicopters to strafe the runway while we snuck in here.”

  “Ma’am,” Tabby interrupted. “Sorry, but you should know President Tanager is right there.” She pointed to the guy, though he was crouched behind David and Charity, who were in turn crouched behind the two unarmed technicians. The bodies of two guards were close by.

  “That’s great,” Emily gushed. “Thank you, Tabby. It’s good to see you again.” She waited for Ted to pick up his rifle, then they both walked toward the enemy leadership.

  “Wait!” Tabby cried.

  Emily stopped.

  “He’s with them. I thought he was a prisoner, but he’s actually helping them.”

  The woman’s face hardened. When she looked over to Tanager, the man seemed to shrink, even as he rose to meet her.

  Tanager went immediately to smiling. “I can explain. I’m not really with these people, but I had to pretend.”

  “Really?” Emily asked, not sounding convinced at all.

  Tanager took a step to the side of David and Charity. He was near the twisted ladder and the pit. Gunfire roared on the surface, suggesting a terrible fight was taking place by the airfiel
d. Tabby wondered if he was going to try to climb up and escape. It seemed like something an asshole like him would do.

  He kept talking. “I told Miss Tabby the truth. When the attack happened, I was thrown into the presidential survival ball and dropped into the bunker under the White House. I came out later and was found by David’s people. They had me leave my clothes behind.”

  “And this,” Ted added, holding up a large coin.

  Tanager’s eyes lit up. “Right. And the challenge coin. Everything to make you think I was, in fact, dead like everyone else.” His voice changed in tone, to sound more serious. “But what David and his people didn’t know is that I was only following them to stay alive. My intention was to keep myself deep in their planning until the time was right to spring back to being President Tanager!”

  Tabby seethed. “So, what was all that noise you told us in the other room about wanting your face on Mt. Rushmore next to David’s? A statue on every corner, you said.”

  “I heard him say it!” Dwight confessed.

  A flash of anger fluttered across Tanager’s eyes, but he smiled it off. “I had to keep up appearances in front of Charity. She came in right away, remember? I couldn’t tell you my real plan was to…shut this down.” He pointed to the console for the superweapon.

  Now David harrumphed. “We’re captured for two seconds and you’ve told about ten lies. I’m not sure why we ever kept you around. I should have left you to die in that super bunker under the White House.”

  Tanager seemed torn about who to address.

  “We’ll have to straighten this out later,” Emily replied matter-of-factly. “If you really are on our side, tell us how to stop this machine.”

  Tanager glanced at David, who remained almost uninterested in the discussion. “You can’t shut it off from here, but you can escape this bunker. If you climb up the ladder, I’m sure I can get you back to your plane. We could all get out of here.”

  Tabby didn’t trust the man. He was suggesting they go up into a continuous rattle of bullets. Staying wasn’t an option, either, however, as the men in the hallway were no doubt bringing in reinforcements. There was another way out, though she didn’t know if it was still operational. “We could use the white cube to get out of here. That’s how I made it to NORAD from here. It only takes a moment to travel.”

  Tanager appeared to think about it for a few seconds, then nodded vigorously. “Yes, it would work. The power might be low because it’s all going into this device, but David showed me how to work it. I think I can get us all to safety.”

  Charity stepped forward. “I can help, too. You’ll need someone to operate the machine on this side. I’d be happy to do it in exchange for leniency.”

  Tanager and the woman passed glances to each other, as if sizing up opponents of a duel to the death. However, they backed down a few seconds later, keeping their smiles on.

  She still didn’t trust Tanager, and she would never trust Charity, but if they were willing to help them escape, Tabby was willing to let them.

  As Tanager seemed to warm up to the idea of helping her and her friends, Tabby noticed David sidle up to the man and say something.

  Tanager turned, as if horrified at what had been said.

  Without warning, David shoved the older man against the railing, lifted him with a grunt, and sent the President of the United States on a ten-mile trip to the bottom of the pit.

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  Ted was stunned by David’s brazen action against Tanager. For a split-second, he thought David was going to grab Charity and shove her over the side, too, but he seemed to realize Ted and the others had closed in, weapons in hand.

  Dwight leaned far over the railing, as if trying to see where the body went.

  David sneered at him. “I would die before I helped you people escape this bunker. You may have me trapped in here for now, but there are a thousand of me, and ten of you. I can wait you out.”

  He was surprised by the count. Besides him and Emily, Tabby and her three friends had survived the shootout. There were only four of the commandos left. Three of them were dead next to the door. Avery nodded grimly as he stood alert peeking out the doorway.

  Ted had to know about their force size. “Colonel, what about Jacob’s men? Did you see them out there? What about some drug lords? See them, either?”

  Avery looked back. “Jacob’s men took care of the ground-based drones. Didn’t you notice they weren’t out there patrolling? It turns out that was the job of one of the men before he was put in the cube and exiled. He was able to make a mess of their systems all around Lamar. The others are protecting the first guy.”

  “And no drug lords? No Banana Republic soldiers?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing like that out there.”

  “What do we do, now?” Tabby asked, bringing him back to the people inside the room.

  “My weapon will launch in less than five minutes. Nothing can stop it. If you let me and Charity go, I promise to let you get to the surface. Of course, I can’t assure you much more than that, but at least I’ll give you a head start to your own funeral.” David laughed like a mortician excited about a host of new arrivals.

  Ted pulled Emily aside. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  Tabby stepped close, too. “I can take you to the cube thingy. If we can threaten him down there, maybe he’ll let us travel through the white light to get us out of his base.”

  He considered, but only for a short time. “Do we know anything about how it works? He might send us a mile into the sky, or a mile into solid rock. How would we know?”

  Emily whispered, “We could take Charity as collateral. We’d let her go when we got to NORAD.”

  He called Avery over. “Colonel, can your birds come to the top of the silo and pick us up?”

  The question got Dwight’s attention, but he didn’t join the conversation.

  Avery didn’t smile. “I’ve been on the radio with my two pilots. They’ve been tearing them a new one on the airfield, but they’ve expended most of their ammo. Alpha can provide overwatch as we load Bravo, then switch. But if we’re going to do this, I’ll have to order them in right away.”

  He’d wasted minutes already. Tabby’s idea seemed safer in the short term but depending on David or his people to set up the transportation seemed like a deal-breaker. Avery’s idea would be incredibly dangerous at first, but once they were in the air and away from Lamar, it offered what he viewed as a better long-term prognosis. He looked up the silo. “We’ll go this—”

  A shadow closed over the opening of the ten-mile gun barrel. A silver and gray disc slid across the exit, blocking what little sunlight he saw up there.

  “Way,” he finished glumly.

  CHAPTER 31

  Reboot Legion Headquarters, Lamar, CO

  Kyla and Meechum climbed the final rungs of the ladder and exited the silo, leaving Uncle Ted and the others below. It tugged at her heart to temporarily abandon them, but she had a plan that might save millions. She pointed where she wanted to go, then ran with the Marine toward the line of military tanks parked between the airfield and the town. The second she had cover, she pulled the tablet out of her waistband, pulled the battery out of her pocket, and got to typing.

  “Weren’t you supposed to destroy your evil tablet?” Meechum asked with skepticism.

  Kyla looked up from her task, humored by the question. “It’s a long story. Actually, I kind of think it was your fault it didn’t get destroyed.”

  “What the hell, Kyla?” she exploded.

  “I’m teasing! I’ll explain this whole thing when I’m done with my mission.” She immediately went back to the tablet, typing to open a new channel to her target.

  “What’s our plan?” Meechum asked, constantly vigilant for enemy activity.

  The airfield was under attack by the two small helicopters flown by Avery’s men. He’d said as much while they were down below. What she didn’t expect was t
he amount of damage done to the airfield. Columns of smoke rose from tanker trucks split open and on fire across the tarmac. It was the perfect cover for taking out her intended target.

  “Here goes everything,” Kyla said, typing the last commands.

  It took her half a minute to get confirmation from the system.

  “It’s coming!” she gushed.

  “Is it a missile?” Meechum asked, looking up.

  “No, something much better.”

  “A gravity bomb? Those are bigger, yeah. I’d like to see that.”

  “Nope.” Kyla smirked, feeling proud of what she was doing.

  One of the helicopters buzzed fifty feet over her head. Its machine guns rattled away, tearing into the huge parking area of aircraft nearby. She feared the choppers would want to take shots at the juicy rows of tanks around her, but the gunners seemed to prefer softer targets.

  “There it is!” Kyla whooped, pointing to the middle of the runway between the parked aircraft on one side and the burning tankers on the other. The ugly six-prop airplane rolled down the runway at what she was showing as ten miles-per-hour. “I couldn’t get the one we flew in on, but I grabbed the first one in the line.”

  “You can grab any of those things right in their own den?” Meechum was wowed. “Girl, that’s next-level shit right there.”

  “Here comes the tricky part,” she said solemnly, temporarily ignoring the greatest compliment she’d ever been given.

  The controls on the tablet weren’t as granular as she’d like. It would have been ideal to have more of a video game interface, where she could make it speed up or slow down, as well as go left or right. She needed to get it into a difficult position.

  “Slower…” She hit a waypoint where she thought it would approximate the area on the ground nearby. When the plane approached, she hit one more waypoint, let it adjust into a final shallow turn, and then killed the engines.

  “Easy. Easy. There!” The plane rolled over the closed hatches for the metal deflector panels surrounding the weapon. She tried to be fancy and get the nose of the plane to roll along the side of the hole, then turn left, a bit like avoiding a pothole while driving. However, the clunky interface made her finesse impossible. Instead, the SACA’s front landing gear fell into the pit, then the momentum of the plane tore it off as the big aircraft kept rolling forward. When it finally came to a stop, the front was dipped down, but the dish on the belly was almost directly above the silo opening.