The Peacekeepers. Books 7 - 9 (The Peacekeepers Boxset Book 3)

by Ricky Sides

  “Captain,” said the strike force leader. “The men are wondering why it is no one else here contracted the disease from the vaccine when thousands contracted it in the rest of Cuba?”

  Ramon stared at the men for a moment as he thought of the best way to answer that question. However, because it was his nature to be honest with the men, he settled on the truth and said, “Ruth del Valle came to me and said that God would guide me if I truly had faith, and then she used her skill to help me find my faith when I needed it most.” Pausing he looked to his men again, and then he pointed at the funeral pyre as he added, “She served God and the Cuban people, though it cost Ruth her family name. This is why I called her Mother of Cuba.”

  “God was with you both, Captain,” said one of the men.

  “Yes, but Ruth gave me the faith I needed to truly believe and heed the will. Alone, I could not have delivered the vaccine only to those who it would not harm. It was Ruth who was truly blessed by God. I was but an instrument of their will. If you speak of what has happened here in the future, I hope you credit a woman who deserves it and not me. Any of you would have done the same. You could have done it just as easily as I did if Ruth had bolstered your faith as she did my own. As far as I am concerned, Ruth is a Saint. But if she were here, she would remind me that all glory belongs to God,” Ramon finished thoughtfully. He bowed his head in thoughtful repose for a moment. A sharp popping sound from the fire goaded him from his reverie, and the Cuban captain led his men about their duties.

  When they were gone, another ghostly form appeared near the spot where Ramon had just stood. Anna held out her hand as if reaching toward his retreating back, in a gesture of intense longing. She brought her fingers to her lips and blew Ramon a kiss, and then she disappeared.

  Ramon stopped and turned to stare behind him. “Is something wrong, Captain?” the strike team leader asked.

  “No, everything is fine,” said Ramon, who for just a moment had felt closer to Anna than he had felt in years.

  ***

  Pol and Maggie strolled along the flight deck of the Damroyal as it hovered over the sea in the Gulf of Mexico. “When this is over, I’d like you to marry me,” Pol said.

  “I know, dear. You’ve asked me three times already,” Maggie responded.

  “And you promised to give me an answer soon.”

  “I also told you I wanted to talk with Lisa first.”

  “Her opinion is that important to you?” Pol asked.

  “She’s family. Of course, her opinion is important. You do know I love you, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but I’d like us to take the relationship further than just dates on the deck or in the recreation center.”

  “So would I,” Maggie countered. Then she smiled and said, “That’s why I talked to her about us today.”

  Pol stopped and looked at Maggie in surprise. “How did that go?”

  “She laughed and said it was about time. It was obvious to her that you have been in love with me for years, and she was so happy when we started dating. I asked her why she had never mentioned it to me, and she said that she thought I knew she only wanted what was best for me and would make me happy.”

  “Then we can marry after this emergency passes?” Pol asked hopefully.

  “Not so fast. There’s something you need to know about me. It could change your mind.”

  “Then I will listen attentively, my dear,” Pol promised.

  “I loved Pete with all my heart and I’ll not tolerate a bad word spoken of him.”

  “I would punch the lout in the face who spoke poorly of Pete,” Pol stated fiercely. He noted Maggie’s knowing smile and said, “You doubt me because you believe I would never resort to physical violence, but in this case you are wrong. I can and would resort to such to protect those I love, and I loved Pete. He was the first to befriend me when I joined the peacekeepers. We were kindred spirits, Pete and I. We shared a deep loneliness because of the way we lived. He recognized that in me and went out of his way to befriend me.”

  “He loved you like a brother,” Maggie said and a tear rolled down her left cheek.

  Pol gently wiped the tear from her face. “You need never worry about my treating his memory poorly, my dear. That’s not who I am.”

  “No, no it isn’t. Then there is one other thing,” Maggie stated. “Lisa is my daughter. I’ll make no distinction between her and a blood relative, nor will you.”

  “Of course I wouldn’t,” Pol said in complete agreement. “Did I not help in some small ways with her upbringing?”

  “You did more than that. You saw to it that girl has an excellent understanding of math, computers, electronics of all sorts, and of course basic engineering principles.”

  “She was a good student, and I wanted her to learn that not all men are animals.”

  “If she ever needs me, I’ll drop everything and go to her.”

  “I’d arrange transport for us,” Pol said with a warm smile.

  “Then, my answer is yes, I’ll marry you, but only if we can get married tonight. I don’t want to wait for this emergency to pass, and tomorrow there will be too much for you to do.”

  “Are you sure? That hardly seems fair to you. Maggie, I’ll be covered up with work for the next several days. I have to check and then recheck every system aboard the ship to ensure that nothing goes wrong, and that’s not something I can trust to anyone else.”

  “I understand how these things work, dear. I was married to Pete. During a crisis we seldom had much time together, so we made the most of what time we had.”

  Pol took Maggie’s hands in his and kissed her gently. An hour later, under the bright light of the moon and with all their friends and family who were aboard the Damroyal in attendance, they were married on the flight deck.

  ***

  The sea beneath the Damroyal was choppy. The day that had dawned with such glorious sunshine had turned to one of heavy storm clouds. Jim winced as he saw a wing of twenty fighters approaching from the north. He could see the affect that the choppy seas were having on the little aircraft, which were bouncing up and down at least six feet as their drive field slipped from wave top to trough on the surface of the gulf.

  The flight control officer instructed the fighters to land on the foredeck. Once they had landed, they were to await instructions from the crew working the flight deck. One by one, the ground team instructed the fighter pilots to take their birds into the air and hover a foot above the deck while they maneuvered the planes into precise patterns that would limit drag underwater.

  Pol, his assistants, and the engineers from the fourteen patrol ships then went about the task of verifying that all of the canopies, doors, and hatches on the aircraft were properly secured and sealed, and then they verified that all were seamlessly sealed to the deck.

  An hour after the last of the peacekeeper aircraft had landed, the last sweep had been made to ensure that no one was left on deck or in one of the aircraft on it, and then the external doors were all sealed.

  “Admiral, we are ready to begin on your command,” Pol notified Jim.

  “Helm, take us down to ten feet beneath the surface and hold for pressure testing,” Jim ordered.

  “Aye, sir,” the helmsman confirmed the order and then he gently eased the gigantic peacekeeper vessel into the sea. Soon he reported. “We are at ten feet and proceeding at a speed of forty knots, Admiral.”

  “Excellent. Slow to ten knots and deploy the buoys.” Jim said. He was referring to the buoys that would carry the air lines to the surface so that pumps could pump fresh air into the Damroyal.

  “Aye, sir, decreasing speed to ten knots and deploying life support buoys,” reported the helmsman. At strategic locations along the flight deck, six life support buoys deployed and rose to the surface.

  “Communications, send the watch message I gave you earlier,” Jim ordered. That message instructed all crewmembers to be on the alert for even the slightest sign of a leak.

&
nbsp; “Done, Admiral,” said the communications officer.

  “Sir, we have a problem. Our forward motion is pulling our buoys under the water, even at ten knots.”

  “All stop, but don’t shut down the drive.”

  “Yes, Admiral, but I can’t shut down the drive when we’re underwater. The computers won’t permit that since the latest software change.”

  “Good,” Jim responded only slightly embarrassed. He had been so busy of late that he hadn’t had the time to study all of the improvements that Pol and Patricia had been making to the ship.

  “That’s better, sir. All buoy lights are in the green.”

  “Now try to get underway. We’ve got to know if we can make any forward progress with the buoys deployed.”

  “It’s no good sir. They go under almost the moment we begin to move,” reported the helmsman.

  “We won’t be any worse off than the World War II era diesel subs,” Tim observed. He added, “And we didn’t sink when we halted our forward motion. How is energy consumption, Pol?”

  “Right along the lines of the most common simulations, so on that end we are in great shape,” Pol reported happily. “We can thank Patricia for the great simulation software she designed.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Pol suggested they try going to thirty feet. By the end of the second hour of their submergence, the ship was at one hundred feet with no apparent signs that anything was wrong.

  “Congratulations, everyone. It looks as if we did it.”

  “We will need to observe all critical systems around the clock for the next twenty-four hours. The air exchange umbilical attached to their buoys, the cooling system for the battery, and the navigational equipment all may be susceptible to problems at this depth,” Pol pointed out.

  “Organize the engineers. There are enough of you men aboard so that no one should have to stand long watches alone,” Jim instructed.

  “Yes, Admiral.”

  “Drone operators, you who are scheduled to test a drone may begin your test. I want your video feed saved for future study.”

  “Aye, sir,” three voices stated in unison.

  Jim walked over to stand behind the drone operators with Tim and Pol. The council members watched as the drones activated, turned on their cameras, detached themselves from the flight deck, and then began to glide along the length of the flight deck. They filmed all of the parked aircraft, and Pol was pleased to see that everything appeared to be in good order.

  “How are the drones responding to the controls?” asked Pol.

  “Slower, sir. Everything seems to work beneath the surface as it does in the air, but there is a noticeable difference in the timing it takes to execute a maneuver,” reported the operator Pol was standing behind.

  “What the hell?!” shouted the drone operator in front of Tim. Then he said, “Sorry, sirs, something grabbed my drone, but it let go and moved off. I think it was a shark.”

  “It was. I caught a glimpse of it as it swam away,” Tim stated.

  “The shark probably thought the drone was a sea turtle,” Pol speculated. “He may come at you again from below.”

  “I see it!” the drone pilot exclaimed, and then he automatically fired his laser in defense of the drone. The blue beam of energy lanced out and struck the shark in the back, right behind its head.

  “Nice shot,” Tim complimented the drone pilot. He watched as the shark stopped swimming and hung motionless in the water. “Fire a test shot. We need to determine the range of the laser in the water.”

  The man fired three protracted test shots. “It’s hard to gauge distances down here, sir, but I believe that is about thirty feet.”

  “I agree, and that’s actually better than I anticipated,” Tim stated.

  “I’ve got a wide angle view of the Damroyal, sir,” the drone pilot in front of Jim informed the Admiral.

  Jim saw the starboard side of the Damroyal cruising past the drone at a high rate of speed. “Excellent. I don’t see any air bubbles. That’s good to know. Maneuver your drone around for a view of the port side.”

  “Aye, Admiral.” The drone pilot accelerated toward the Damroyal, passing over the ship until it reached the port side. It continued on its journey, and executed a slow turn to starboard. That maneuver brought it back around in time to see the port side of the ship.

  “Well done,” Jim said. “Thank you. Resume your planned testing.”

  “Aye, Admiral,” the drone operator said.

  ***

  That night, there was a ceremony in the hangar bay of the Damroyal in which Ralph received the Peacekeeper Medal of Valor for his courageous actions during the defense of his shipmates after they were forced to ditch in the Everglades. The bay reverberated to the thunderous applause of the assembled peacekeepers as the youngest strike team leader in the history of their organization received his medal. None applauded louder or with more exuberance than his own shipmates did.

  While so many of the peacekeepers were gathered together in one spot, Jim took the time to thank them all for their hard work of the last few weeks and then he told them to rest while they could, because when this was over, the survivors would need them more than ever. He then revealed what Bill had learned during his survey, which there was at least one organized paramilitary group in America posing as peacekeepers and kidnapping people. He warned them that the day would come when they had to deal with that problem.

  ***

  Across America, the cities of man fell to the ravages of the plague one by one. Some few cities were fortunate in that large numbers of their populations were spared, either because they had gotten the vaccine in time to develop immunity or because they were just plain lucky. By the end of the second week of the peacekeepers self-imposed exile, fully two thirds of the population had succumbed to the disease. By the end of the third week, the population was down to under ten million Americans.

  A new force was coming into play. They were a band of men who were determined to acquire peacekeeper technology and use that to establish their own group whose sole interest was in becoming air pirates. They took advantage of the time of no peacekeeper presence to try to locate peacekeeper bases that they could raid. By the third week, they had found one in Washington State. It took them two days, but they managed to break into the peacekeeper base. They found little in the way of materials that would be of use, but they did take several computers. On one of those computers, they found the schematics for a peacekeeper laser. It was one of the smaller lasers, such as the ones employed on the drones, but it was a start.

  A man named William Banister led these pirates. Sensing danger the night before the attack, the captain had moved north along the coast to intercept the convoy of ships supposedly loaded with flying autos that was rumored to be heading their way. He received word by radio messages of the attack when the peacekeepers sprang it. He had landed near Jacksonville, determined to pay the peacekeepers back for what they had done to the fleet. His men went through a section of the city that was largely devoid of residents, and he was considering returning to his ship when he spotted a peacekeeper APC hovering in the night sky. The pirates had three shoulder-fired rockets with them. Banister ordered those weapons launched at the ship.

  The triple explosions that detonated within milliseconds of each other proved to be too much for even the tough armor of the APC. A hole was blown in its side and it immediately lost all power and plummeted two hundred feet to the surface. His men raced inside, seizing the weapons and supplies. The entire crew had died from the trauma of the crash. The pirates pulled their bodies out of the ship and stripped them of anything they thought was of value. Then, because he knew how much it would bother other peacekeepers not to be able to recover their bodies, Banister ordered his men to dump them in a sinkhole they had encountered a quarter mile from the site.

  Then the pirates had stolen a couple of land vehicles and made their way north, seeking peacekeepers. In Atlanta, Georgia, they managed to steal one of t
he converted troop transports that the city utilized for mass transportation. That was when the idea occurred to him to use the peacekeeper’s reputation against them. That was when his plan to create an organization similar to the peacekeepers, but dedicated to their elimination was truly born.

  The End

  Epilogue

  The air convoy stopped for the night in Washington DC. They had selected that site as the launch point for their transatlantic flight because they knew it was deserted. One hundred sixty-seven cars made that trip. Many were ridiculously overloaded with possessions and people and as a result, they had fallen behind. It took two hours for all of the vehicles to arrive at the rendezvous point. They spent the night there before heading out for Europe the next morning. They were determined to get their families to a safer place. Many didn’t realize that they’d already been exposed to the plague.

  Not all of the refugees were heading for the same location. Some were heading for France, and others wanted to make it to England. A few wanted to go to Italy, and some wanted to go to Spain. They split up when they were three quarters of the way across the Atlantic. By then, several of the most heavily loaded vehicles had run out of power and fallen into the sea.

  Thanks to the warning of the peacekeepers, the Royal Navy managed to intercept almost all of the refugees attempting to land in England. Some refused to stop and were shot out of the sky. Three of the cars managed to make it to England. That was more than enough to start the plague.

  In France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland they landed, carrying with them to all those nations the gift of the plague. Three weeks later, most of Western Europe was burning.

  Refugees from Western Europe fled east and south. Never before in the history of humankind had a single plague afflicted so many.