by Ricky Sides
One of the peacekeepers stepped forward and tapped Johnny’s bulletproof vest. “Is this your normal duty uniform?” he asked and then he smoothly pulled the crime lord’s pistol from the holster on his hip.
“That’s Johnny Carver, Captain,” said a female voice. “We have a positive match from a recent photo and his voice print is a match.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Winters,” said Captain Wilcox.
“Take him out into the street, men,” Jack ordered. Johnny made a grab for his pistol that Jack was holding loosely in his left hand. He never saw the right cross punch that connected with the left side of his head.
Jack stood over the prostrate crime lord and said, “Damn, that felt good. Do it again. Give me an excuse to hit you again. I’ve known Bob Giles for nearly ten years. He was one of the best captains in our fleet. His wife just had a baby, you low life piece of shit!”
Johnny glared angrily at the peacekeeper standing above him asking, “Who the hell is Bob Giles?”
“He was the captain of the Nevada. He died protecting his crew when you ordered the attack,” Jack said angrily. Looking at his men, he said, “Get him on his knees out in the street.”
Once they had the crime lord in position, Jack read a brief prepared statement on behalf of the peacekeeper council that explained the crime lord’s crimes and listed the names of the dead peacekeepers that his men had murdered. He finished by saying, “Johnny Carver, you have been sentenced to death for the heinous crimes you have committed. You will be taken aboard my ship. Once we reach an altitude of one thousand feet, you will be escorted to the bay door and thrown out. We’ll do it over the desert where your body will nourish the soil. At least in death you’ll finally contribute in a positive manner to the world.”
“No! You can’t do this to me! I know my rights!” Jonny shouted as he struggled with the two brawny peacekeepers who were holding him in position.
***
Jim watched the video feed being provided by Rufus, the escort fighter pilot of the Arizona. He saw the outer bay door of the Arizona open and a man was thrown out the rear of the ship. He tried to take one of the peacekeepers with him, but the man was securely tethered to the ship, so the crime lord wasn’t able to get him to within two feet of the edge. Johnny’s arms and legs flailed and beat at the air as he fell. Jim could dimly hear his screams of panic as he plummeted one thousand feet to the desert below. Johnny Carver, one time crime lord of Las Vegas, was now nothing more than a stain on a small patch of the Nevada dessert.
The Arizona turned and fired its main laser at the body, sustaining the shot until the red pulses raced down and exploded the remains.
“Send the video feed of the battle with his men, the charges against him being read, and the execution to all of our normal contacts,” Jim ordered.
“Yes, Admiral, but there don’t seem to be many of those who still respond to our contacts,” explained the communications officer.
“I know, but do it anyway. Then I want you to get Captain Wilcox on the radio for me. I want to congratulate him on the successful completion of the mission.”
Moments later, Jim was talking to Jack about the mission he praised him on its success and Jack thanked him. Then Captain Wilcox inquired about Evan’s unit. “Have they been found yet, sir?”
“No, not yet, and it looks as if they won’t find them before dark.”
“Does anyone know what went wrong? I understand that they were tracked all the way to the ground.”
“They were,” Jim confirmed. “I’ve put a call in to Patricia. She’s working the problem. I think she’ll have a general idea where they are in an hour or two.”
“They should be able to reach the Miami base with their hat units,” Jack stated carefully. He didn’t want Jim to get the impression he was suggesting that they were dead.
“I know, and believe me that knowledge has me more than a little concerned.”
“Are you heading to Florida to join in the search?”
“No, I can’t. We have six more vaccine stops to make before we finish our deliveries. Too many lives are at stake for me to abandon this project. Besides, Captain Murphy’s Alabama is in Georgia and he volunteered to go down and try to track them.”
“Braden’s a good man. He’ll find them if the Miami base team doesn’t.”
“I’m sure he will. I wish I could go myself, but as you said, Braden is a good man. He’ll locate them.”
***
Evan awoke to someone shaking his shoulder. “Keep your voice down,” Ralph whispered. “Someone or something is out there in the woods behind us. We’re hearing movement across a wide area.”
“Wake the rest of the men,” Evan instructed.
Ralph nodded his head in understanding and then he slipped quietly away to wake up the rest of his strike team.
Evan turned to Lisa. Right away, he knew he had a problem. If he shook her to wake her, she just might wake up screaming hysterically. That would alert the enemy that something was up in the camp, and perhaps more importantly, it would distract his men at a critical moment. He pondered the problem for two seconds, and then the first shot in the battle was fired.
Evan spun his head and saw Ralph go down hard. He saw one of the guards aim his rifle at the woods and fire three rounds, but then that guard was hit. By now, Evan was on one knee aiming his rifle at the dense foliage to their rear, but he saw no muzzle flashes to give away an enemy position.
“Damn, that hurt!” he heard Ralph complain.
“Are you okay?” Evan asked quietly.
“Hell no! Someone shot me!”
“Did it penetrate your soft armor?” asked Evan.
“I feel something sticky so it must have went through,” he responded. But then Ralph said, “Wait, no, it only partially penetrated. I can feel the back end of the bullet sticking out.”
“Stay down. We’ll patch you up once we’ve dealt with this threat.”
“To hell with that. This is my first action,” Ralph stated, and then he said, “There I got it. Hey, where are you going?” Ralph whispered.”
“We’ve got another man down. You get to the others. I’ll go get him,” Evan responded.
“I’ll help you,” Lisa said. She had awakened when the gunfire erupted in the night.
“You can help me best by covering me from here,” Evan countered. “Watch for muzzle flashes or movement in the brush. But stay down,” he whispered urgently, and then he low crawled to their downed man.
Evan had just reached the downed peacekeeper when gunfire once more shattered the silence of the night. Some sandy soil beside him erupted in a geyser-like plume. Particles of the soil stung his right cheek. He risked a glance behind him and saw that his team was returning fire in a steady and controlled manner. Even as he watched, they ceased firing to wait for further signs of the enemy.
Turning back to the downed man, he saw that it was John Harrelson. He shook him and said, “John, are you okay?” The man groaned but did not otherwise answer. By the light of the fire, Evan saw that he had a scalp wound that was bleeding badly.
He tried dragging John back to the relative safety of the shelter, which would only serve to shelter the peacekeepers from the view of the enemy, but that proved impossible.
Turning to his men, he whispered loudly, “Cover me!” Then, just as they had practiced in their drills a hundred times, Evan jumped to his feet, Bent over and grabbed John, and then he threw him over his shoulder. Staggering under the load, he quickly made his way toward the shelter. He saw a muzzle flash in the foliage, but then his men fired at the spot where it had originated. They quickly stopped firing. All were well aware that they would be in a bad way if they ran out of ammo.
In the silence that followed, they heard a man’s voice yell, “I’m hit Jake! The little bastards shot me!”
They could hear men moving about in the foliage. Evan decided to try talking to them. He shouted, “You men are attacking peacekeepers. “I suggest you get
out of this area before our ship arrives.”
“Aint no ship coming for you, boy. We saw smoke from your signal fire and found you. I sent several men to make fake fires along the Glades to the north. They’ll be checking those out too.”
“What do you people want?” Evan shouted the question.
“Give us your weapons, and we’ll leave. Oh, but we want the woman too. She’s real pretty.”
“I think you better leave while you still can. We’re not giving up our weapons or the woman. All you’re going to find here is death.”
Ralph moved up beside Evan and whispered, “I’m going to crawl through the depression to the right of camp. That will take me to within ten feet of the woods. One of the men will be watching with my binoculars. They’ll magnify the light enough for him to see my hand signal. That’ll be his cue to jump up and fire three quick rounds. I’ll use the diversion to crawl to the woods.”
“Are you sure, Ralph? This isn’t a game.”
“I’m the one who was shot, remember. I know this isn’t a game.”
“All right, you’re the strike team commander. You’ve been trained for this. But be careful.”
Ralph nodded and crawled back to his men. A moment later, Evan saw him low crawl into the depression. Within moments, Ralph disappeared in the shadows.
“How’s John?” Evan asked Harvey.
“He’ll live, but when he wakes up he’s gonna have a headache to end all headaches.”
“You stay with him. I’m going to break to the left when Ralph makes his move. One of us will get into the woods. Once we do we’ll force the enemy to retreat.”
“I’ll stay with him, sir.”
Evan looked meaningfully at Lisa, who had her back to him as she studied the foliage through a small gap in their shelter. She was looking for any sign of movement. He turned back to Harvey, and then nodded the side of his head toward her.
Comprehension dawned in Harvey’s eyes. He smiled and nodded. Evan smiled in return, and then he low crawled to the far left side of the shelter, content that Harvey would watch after Lisa while he was gone.
Lisa looked around to say something to Evan and discovered that he had moved away. Her eyes sought him out in the darkness. When she spotted him, she saw him place a finger to his lips. Then she heard rifle fire from a few feet to her right and snapped her face in that direction in time to see Frankie dropping back down behind their crude shelter. She heard several rounds of return fire, and once, she thought she heard what sounded like an angry bee buzz past her head. The return fire died, almost as quickly as it had begun.
Lisa turned her head to check on Evan, but he was gone. She snapped her head around, frantically looking for him.
“He went into the woods on the left,” Harvey whispered. “Ralph took the right. They are taking the fight to the enemy.”
Lisa said nothing, but she had a cold knot in the pit of her stomach and feared she would never see her husband again.
Chapter 19
Ramon sat down and sighed as he thought about the food packages he had found left outside the houses today. Four households had succumbed to the disease. He had spent an hour alerting the neighbors and suggesting that they consider leaving their homes and taking up residence in one of the many empty homes in the community for the duration of the emergency. Most were more than willing to heed his advice. A few were reluctant, but when he explained that rats and insects would be drawn to the corpses, and those rats carried fleas, which could spread the disease, they suddenly reconsidered and opted to move as well.
The captain had conducted those conversations from at least twenty feet away from the doors of the people he was warning. He advised them to draw a circle at least a foot in diameter on the front door of the home they chose so that he would know to leave food.
When he had delivered the food packages today, Ramon had included fliers that the Havana had printed for him. The fliers advised that they now had sufficient vaccine for the Cuban population, but then warned in the sternest of terms about the risk involved in taking the vaccine. The fliers informed the occupants of the city to mark a Y for yes on their doors if they wanted the vaccine, along with a number designation for the number of doses they needed to cover the household.
The captain had plenty of misgivings about giving the people of the city the vaccine because it was possible that they would be safe as long as they remained in their homes, isolated from each other. His greatest fear was that there would be many deaths attributable to the vaccine, whereas there would be no more deaths if he just didn’t reveal the availability of the medication. It was a grave responsibility.
He stared up at the stars and prayed for strength in the days to come when he must face the consequences of his decisions and he prayed for guidance. As he prayed, he heard a tapping sound coming from the broken asphalt of the rundown city street. Looking up, he spotted a familiar figure. By the light of the stars, he could see that she walked as if it pained her.
“Stop, Grandmother, and come no closer,” he warned when she was still a good twenty feet away.
“Do not fear me Captain Ramon Marino. I would do you no harm.”
“My concern is not for myself, but rather for you. I have been near too many people for you to bear my company.”
“Were it only my decision to make, I would do as you wish and leave you in peace. Yet, I do not come of my own accord. I was sent here to you this night to prevent you from taking the medication.”
“You were? Ramon asked. “Who has sent you to me, Grandmother?”
“A woman we both know.”
Ramon had believed that some of the men of the community had pressured the old woman into risking her life, and that had angered him. But when he heard her answer to his question his anger died as quickly as it had kindled. He relaxed and smiled at the aged woman. “Near the stack of food is a camp stool that I have not touched since my crew unloaded it from the ship. You are welcome to get it and sit. Then we can talk and you will be comfortable.”
“For that comfort, I thank you. My legs are not as strong as they were in my youth,” the old woman said.
She hobbled over to the stool and soon had it set up about a dozen feet from Ramon, who built his small campfire a bit higher for the benefit of the elderly lady.
“You are kind to consider my comfort, and your fire feels good to my bones.”
“Your coffee and stew brought me comfort one morning. I too am grateful.”
“She was worried about you. She said you’d eaten nothing but crackers the night before and asked me to rise from my bed to feed you and give you something warm to ward off the cold that had settled in your body from the chill night air.”
Ramon looked at the old woman sharply. “Who was watching me?” he asked. “Warn her that it is not safe.”
The old woman cocked her head quizzically as if she considered what Ramon had said to be most strange. She said, “Captain, I assure you that she is safe for she no longer possesses a mortal body.”
Ramon stared at the woman in confusion, causing her to laugh at the puzzled expression on his face. Ramon’s frown of irritation caught the woman’s eye. She stopped laughing and said, “I’m sorry. It was rude of me to laugh at you.
“If I am confused, it is because you are making no sense,” Ramon protested.
“You are quite right. I began in the middle and thus I have confounded your mind. I will begin again.”
Ramon patiently nodded his understanding. In truth, he was lonely. He had spent three nights alone in the city, and the separation from other people was beginning to grate on his nerves. He was glad for the company, even if it was that of a raving old woman.
“To start at the beginning, I will first start on the day we met. Tell me, Captain, did you note that my word carries some weight with the people of this community?”
“In truth, I did note that it does. I assumed you were an influential member of the community.”
“No I have n
ever been important, but that changed the day the plague returned to Cabo de San Antonio. For now, it is enough that you remember the way the men heeded my words.”
Ramon nodded and assured the woman that he would not soon forget how she had inspired the people of the community to stay in their homes.
“Yet there was a time when they did not heed my advice, and that, my friend, is where I must take you in this conversation.” She paused and looked at the fire. A cool breeze blew in from the sea and ruffled her clothing so that she pulled her old shawl more tightly against her upper body. The same breeze played with the flames of the fire, fanning them to greater height and shooting sparks into the night air.
Seeing that the old woman was cold, Ramon got up and added a bit more wood to the fire.
“Thank you,” the old woman said simply. “I suppose I should tell you my name, for though you call me grandmother, I have never born a child or lain with a man.”
“I meant no insult to you.”
“Of course you didn’t. When you called me grandmother, I considered it a polite term of respect. Though I have never lain with a man, I devoted my life to one. Though I was an only child, I had many sisters. Can you now guess my history, Captain?” asked the old woman curiously.
“I think I can,” he admitted. “You were a nun in the Roman Catholic church?” he asked.
“Very good, Captain. You are as clever as she has said. Yes, I was a nun for many years despite the religious persecution of the government. When the world fell apart and was nearly broken asunder, I alone of my sisters at the convent survived. I was heartbroken and for a time I lost my way and wanted to die. Does that surprise you?” She paused and looked at Ramon intensely for a moment, but then she shook her head and said, “No, it doesn’t. Perhaps because you shared a similar experience, but that was long after the quakes that shook the world, wasn’t it Ramon?”
“You were going to tell me your name?” Ramon asked to change the subject.